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Google Glass Owners Can Get an Updated Pair For Free

Those ahead of the curve enough to be in possession of Google Glass can now swap their existing pair of smart specs for an updated version of the hardware—free of charge. While the new version of Glass, unveiled October 28th, looks identical to the old one, Google says that it’s “a bit faster and more…

Obama: Dammit, I’m Not Allowed an iPhone For “Security Reasons”

Poor old Barack Obama. Not only is his pet project HealthCare.gov struggling to gain traction, he has other tech woes, too: he isn’t allowed an iPhone for “security reasons.” During a meeting with youths on Wednesday, Obama admitted that he’s not allowed to use an iPhone, reports Reuters, despite the fact he uses an iPad…

Do You Feel Smug or Embarrassed About Not Owning a TV?

Maybe, like most people, you own a TV. But there’s a chance that, like me, you don’t. If that’s the case, how do you feel when you have to tell someone that’s the case? Was a time when not owning a TV was just plain embarrassing. Then, later, when TV ownership was the norm and…

This Is the Official Color of 2014

Pantone, the self-declared official body in control of the entire visible spectrum, has announced the color of the year for 2014. You’re looking at it. Dubbed Radiant Orchid—you can use its technical name PANTONE 18-3224—it’s actually… kind of just… pinky purple? Still, a very nice shade of pinky purple. And, boy, you better get used…

Sound of Commerce

John Kannenberg is a sound artist with a particular interest in place. Much of his work is raw or lightly edited recordings of physical environments, notably art museums. He has, in the past, reversed the idea of sound art by making sound art of places that house art. He travels with his audio recording equipment…

What it’s like to fly a fighter jet—strapped to its wing

No music. No flashy moves. No missile launches. And yet this video is still incredible. It’s just flying sequence after flying sequence of Russian Air Force MiG-31s cruising through the sky. Filmed by GoPro cameras strapped to a MiG, this footage is probably the closest we’ll ever get to flying a fighter jet. Seeing the…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Wind

The residents of an unusually windy town devise ingenious methods of coping with the gusts—short of, you know, building shelter.

New video reveals fascinating details in alienesque hexagon on Saturn

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has captured the first high definition video of the mysterious Saturn hexagon. It shows some fascinating details and features never observed before. But now, more than even, it looks like some kind of living alien organism looked through a microscope—except it’s not, because this monster is wider than two Earths. According to…

NASA explains how it knows so much about alien planets

How do you understand something you can barely see, never visited and is light years away from us? By being really, really smart at connecting dots. In this video, NASA explains its process in figuring out what alien planets are like with the limited information it has. It’s like being able to create a clear…

Crazy guy rides a bicycle backwards down a steep mountain

Because riding a bicycle down a steep mountain road after it just rained isn’t crazy enough, Eskil Ronningsbakken wanted to up the crazy by doing the whole ride backwards. So yes, he was balancing himself, steering, braking, making sharp turns, veering away from cars and zooming down the mountain while facing the completely opposite direction…

Pouring creamer into coffee in slow motion looks intergalactic

The beautiful Milky Way is above us and around us but is also actually in our coffee cups too. What? Just watch Modernist Cuisine pour creamer into coffee in super slow motion, it’s like watching another galaxy form or something. Life should have a slow motion mode so we can appreciate the little things. SPLOID…

Our Favorite Android, Convertible Laptop, Tablets, and So Much More

November gave us a cornucopia of new gadgets, a grand feast of electronics that satisfied us like five pounds of mashed potatoes. From this, we picked out the very best. Like Thanksgiving leftovers, except it’s only the good stuff. Nexus 5 This one was close: believe it or not, the scrappy little Moto X gives…

Honda Made the World’s First Smartphone Case With an Emergency Airbag

As long as you’re cool with a little extra bulk on your device, it looks like Honda has created a smartphone case like the one Jeff Bezoz was dreaming of. It virtually guarantees your device will survive any fall—and possibly even a head-on collision with a truck. Overkill? Not when you have to wait two…

Listen to Isaac Asimov in 1988, explaining why scientists rule

In 1988, legendary science fiction author and scientist Isaac Asimov did a fascinating interview on PBS show Open Mind, where he wound up delivering the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a science sermon. Plus, his muttonchops are epic. During the last few minutes of the interview, when Asimov is discussing how scientists reacted to…

It’s time to get skeptical about “the selfish gene”

The truth makes for a bad meme. That seems to be the lesson we can take from the continued popularity of Richard Dawkins’ idea that the “selfish gene” controls evolution. Image by Sergey Nivens via Shutterstock Current evidence suggests evolution is guided by environment as much as genes, but most people still think genes are…

Watch Baxter Solve a Rubik’s Cube: Working Bots Need Hobbies Too

Most of the videos you can find of Rubik’s Cube-manipulating robots are purpose-built to solve the puzzle in record time. But Baxter, designed as an affordable and easy-to-teach replacement for assembly line workers, isn’t designed for any specific task. And that’s what makes watching him solve a cube even more impressive. Aided by some custom…

SpaceX celebrated a flawless launch of its Falcon 9 spacecraft from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Wednesday. It delivered an SES-8 satellite into orbit without a glitch bringing the Falcon 9 one flight away from being qualified to fly missions for the Air Force. [SpaceX via BoingBoing]

Concept illustration for the Ford Pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Visitors could ride the Magic Skyway, an attraction which took people from the time of the dinosaurs to a futuristic “highway in the sky” — in the latest Ford cars, of course. Illustration: Scanned from the book Designing Disney by John…

Tiny Kentucky Town Agrees to Pay Only Police Officer In Bitcoin

The city of Vicco, Kentucky, has has just a few hundred people. It onlyrecently got its own police officer. And, now, that officer, Police Chief Tony Vaughn, will be the first in the country to be paid in Bitcoin. Because I guess good old fashioned U.S. dollars aren’t even good enough for government employees anymore.…

This Beach Volleyball Court Is Surrounded by 2,000 Pounds of Plutonium

The chances of you ever visiting Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are already pretty low. But the likelihood you’d manage to find your way into its specially designed, ultra-safe, and hyper-secure nuclear research facility are slim to none. Which is too bad—because it’s the only chance you’d ever have of knowing the joys of playing beach…