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This ​Private Catamaran Now Ferries Googlers Around San Francisco

The Triumphant is a mighty fine looking ferry. Fine enough, in fact, to be chartered by Google to move its employees around San Francisco. Presumably a reaction to protests against all the shuttle bus services Google already runs in the area, the boat will ferries employees from San Francisco bay to Redwood City, California—about halfway…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Heart of Glass

Few people realize that Debbie Harry’s iconic disco anthem contains a hidden lesson: If you can’t find the perfect person to love, just clone yourself and boom—problem solved.

This video compilation of hilarious military fails is comedic gold

I’m sorry. People who serve in the army make incredible sacrifices for their countries and I am incredibly thankful for them. They do amazing things. They make our lives a lot better. But I can’t help but laugh at this wonderful compilation of fails in the military. They look like failed skits on sketch comedy…

I can’t believe these pictures are actually incredible paintings

Hyper-realistic paintings are always fun to look at because your eyes and brain totally want to believe they’re actual photographs even though you know they’re not. It’s like an internal conversation goes on in your head trying to talk your eyes out of what it sees. No, it can’t be just a painting. Are you…

Scrapbookers Rejoice! Casio’s Pomrie Prints Adorable Rubber Stamps

If you’ve ever been dragged into a craft store you’ll know that—for whatever reason—scrapbooking is a booming business. And Casio has decided it wants a piece of that glitter-covered pie with the introduction of a printer called the Pomrie that can actually churn out custom rubber stamps. Using bundled software crafters can choose designs and…

X-Ray Holographs Can See Moving Objects the Size of a Virus

When it comes to imaging microscopic objects, you have to make a decision: do you want high resolution images of stationary objects, or coarse images of moving ones? Fortunately, X-ray holography means that may not be the case much longer. The problems comes, you see, from the way images are created. Super-high resolution images—such as…

A Walking Tour with VegasTechFund of the Downtown Vegas Startup Scene

If you’ve been to downtown Las Vegas in the last few years, you’ve likely been to Fremont Street, specifically the caged section near several historic casinos that hosts a nightly laser light show. But, thanks to the Downtown Project, the neighborhood is now home to alarge and diverse concentration of startups, each slowly making their…

Is Every Snowflake Actually Unique?

You’ve been told that “no two snowflakes are alike” more times than you can count. But is that actually the case? And if so—why? Fortunately,Joe Hanson of It’s Okay to Be Smarthas done us the favor of breaking down the science of snowflakes, how they become so intricate, and why, even though some may appear…

Eyes On: Sony’s Ultra Short-Throw 4K Projector Sure Lights Up a Room

Earlier today Sony announced anew short-throw digital projector that lies within a sleek credenza-like rectangle, and shines glorious 4K video against the wall it’s up against. We got to feast our eyes on a demo at the Sony booth today. It’s lovely. The premise of Sony’s Life Space UX concept is that you have various…

This genius handsfree sink and dryer unit should be installed worldwide

Why oh why this handsfree all-in-one sink/dryer is not a standard fixture in every single public restroom in the world? First you soap, then you wash your hands, then you dry them, all in the same damn place. Isn’t this logical? Add automatic doors—or just doors that easily open outwards, without using your hands—and humans…

LG’s WebOS TV Hands-On: An Awesome Resurrection

Yesterday we got the official word that LG would be using WebOS as the brains for 78-percent of its upcoming smart TVs. There was a lot to like about WebOS back when it ran on smartphones, but we were a bit skeptical about how it would fair in a smart TV. After all, smart TV…

Make Stars Fall With These Five-Pointed Dominoes

Vegas is going wild this week in an all-out consumer electronics bacchanal, but sometimes it’s nice to tool around with an old-timey, offline distraction. Like these Japanese dominoes, which are are about as no-tech as toys come. The set contains 100 beech wood pieces in eight different colors, all wrapped up in a pretty gold…

Internet Commenter Syndrome: This Woman Can Write But Can’t Read

One fateful Thursday morning, a kindergarten teacher and reading specialist—known only as M.P. for the sake of anonymity—found that the same attendance sheet she’d been using for years suddenly appeared to be covered in hieroglyphs. Not only that, she quickly realized that everything she logically knew to be covered in writing was entirely incomprehensible to…

This is truly the future of gaming and the key to alternate realities

One day, in three or four decades, we will have holodecks like those in Star Trek. But, until then, it looks like the Oculus Rift will be the place in which we will be able to realize all our fantasies, from space sims to alternate lives.

Hands On Bang & Olufsen’s BeoSound Essence: A Light-Switch For Music

We can all be a little OCD about our music sometimes. We want to listen to just the right thing, and we’re happy to go search through our phones or computers to find it, then connect it to our stereo, and play it. Other times, we simply want to put some music on. Something we…

1981: A small, battery-powered self-protection device developed by scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is worn on the wrist and can be easily activated to drive off an attacker with an electric shock. [Getty Images]

This Interactive Chandelier Shines With Data From All Over the World

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently opened the doors of a brand new HQ in Washington DC. But it might be tough for visitors to tear themselves away from the foyer, which is home to the Global Data Chandelier—a pixelated fixture composed of 425 LED pendants arranged in the shape of a…

Scientists May Have Finally Found a Practical Test for String Theory

String theory a beautiful, elegant piece of science which claims to unify all the forces in the Universe by representing tiny point-like particles as one-dimensional vibrating strings. It’s as clever as it is wacky but is—conveniently—untestable. Until, perhaps, now. The problem is that string theory, sometimes referred to as the “theory of everything,” uses such…

Eileen Gunn’s strange thought experiments will unravel your mind

Plenty of science fiction and fantasy authors do “thought experiments” — but few of them disregard experimental safety protocols with quite as much gleeful abandon as Eileen Gunn. And now, at long last, Gunn is publishing a second book of demented tales. Gunn’s new book Questionable Practices comes out in March from Small Beer Press,…

Toshiba Crammed 5 Computers in Its Shape-Shifting Concept 5-in-1 PC

It’s a concept but it’s a super fun one. Toshiba’s shape-shifting concept 5-in-1 PC somehow manages to be a laptop, a tablet, a convertible tablet, a canvas, and a presentation TV-type device. A few of those five might be redundant (and/or useless), but it’s pretty freaking sweet to see one computer try to be everything…