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AOL Reader: Simple, Fast, But Hardly Groundbreaking

With Google Reader ready to tap out, it seems like everyone is keen to throw their hat into the feed reader ring. The latest offering is from AOL and it’s simple, fast and lacking any unique features—though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A simple RSS reader, it seems designed to make the transition from…

Sony and Disney Trial Home Streaming While Movies Are in the Theater

In the ongoing battle against piracy, Disney and Sony have made a bold step: they’re both testing an on-demand service (in, um, South Korea) which allows people to rent movies and stream them in their own homes while they’re still playing in theaters. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony and Disney are the first…

Good news for parents who were stung by children’s in-app purchases: Apple isnow reaching out to affected customers, with disputed purchases under $30 qualifying for a $5 iTunes voucher in compensation and larger sums being fully refunded in cash.

All The World’s Plant Life, Visualized

This picture might look like an incomplete map of the world, but it is in fact the highest resolution view ever of all the world’s plant life, mapped out by NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite. Using its Visible and Infrared Imaging and Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), the satellite’s capable of measuring the amount of visible and near-infrared…

This Is What Happens When Galaxies Collide

This amazing image shows how messy space can be, as two galaxies collide and deform each other— creating new stars as gas and dust are pushed and pulled in all directions. Captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the picture shows the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936 and its elliptical companion NGC 2937—known collectively as Arp…

WSJ: Facebook Is Developing a Flipboard-Style News Reader

So long Google Reader, hello… Facebook? The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Zuckerberg and co are working on a service that “displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices”. Citing “people with knowledge of the matter”, the newspaper suggests that the service—known internally as a Reader—has…

“Oh, for a robot-drawn carriage!”

And so we close out the evening with this robot rickshaw concept image by Matt Gaser, via reddit. Happy week to all, and don’t forget to bring your robots in for the night.

Biking With Growlers Just Got Easier

There are always problems when you’re trying to balance a lot of stuff on a bike. It either all in bags on the handlebars, or in one of your arms or in a backpack. It messes with your center of gravity. But at least with these Growler Cages you can transport your growlers (as you…

A haunting, wordless retelling of the myth of Artemis and Actaeon

Pushing Daisies’ Anna Friel plays Diana to Eragon and Downton Abbey star Ed Speleers’ Actaeon in Metamorphosis, a short film inspired by Titian’s paintings about the mythology hunter who spies the naked, bathing goddess. Tell No One produced this film for the National Gallery as part of a celebration of Titian’s works. It plays like…

Steve Martin: Wally On The Run

It’s not always a good idea for famous people to make albums. Example: William Shatner. Alternate Example: Paris Hilton. But Steve Martin, who has always been sort of vaguely known for his banjo playing, has made roots music his priority in the last four or five years and is totally nailing it. His most recent…

This Is How Much Pot Is Seized At The U.S.-Mexico Border

The Center for Investigative Reporting is doing a really serious and extensive multi-part series on the drug trade and border patrol at the U.S.-Mexico border. There are budget analyses, infographics and policy reviews. This is legit reporting. But you know what, sometimes you get so wrapped up in your work that you don’t realize you’re…

Behold the tallest abandoned building in the world

The skyline of Yekaterinburg, Russia, is dominated by an odd landmark. Towering over the city is an unfinished construction project, the world’s tallest abandoned structure. In 1981, construction began on the TV Tower, which was to stretch 400 meters into the air, but by construction halted when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, leaving the…

Taking X-Rays Of Women In Corsets Was A Haunting Use Of New Technology

Any tech that allows humans a new type of insight is inevitably turned on ourselves. We want to know what else we can find out from peering in on our bodies or minds in a new way. Of course, x-ray machines were pretty much used from the start for that purpose, but it’s amazing to…

Math goes surreal in the trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem

Christoph Waltz searches for the mathematical meaning of life in the trailer for Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem. It’s filled with Gilliam’s trademark gorgeous, absurd visuals with a healthy dose of corporate dystopia. Update: Video removed from YouTube. This isn’t the official trailer for The Zero Theorem (as you can see from the watermark), but…

Flytecam Is A Streamlined GoPro Challenger

Whether you need another option or not, Flytecam is a 1080p POV video camera that’s looking to compete. It has specs that land it between GoPro’s lowest and middle tier offerings, but it’s supposed to be cheaper and doesn’t require waterproof or shock resistant cases. Flytecam has a rubberized body, is waterproof down to 3…

Superman gets red underwear in Man of Steel concept art

Zack Snyder boasted that he saw 1,500 incarnations of Superman’s costume before selecting one for Man of Steel. Concept artist Warren Manser has shared some of his Man of Steel concept art, including Superman in the red briefs. https://gizmodo.com/zack-snyder-reveals-why-they-changed-supermans-iconic-c-5963171 In an interview with Film Sketchr, Manser says that Snyder did indeed see a lot of…

The History of Early Computing Machines, from Ancient Times to 1981

From the abacus to the IBM personal computer, calculating devices have come a long way. Let’s take a look through the history of these machines and the remarkable progress that came with the 20th century. A picture above was taken at the Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, Ohio, 1951. The Chinese Abacus ‘Suan Pan’…

A Rifle-Turned-Slingshot That Shoots Knives Is Terrifying

This week Joerg busted out the deactivated M16A1 rifle (which he obviously has) and turned it into a slingshot. The launcher band mounts on the underside of the rifle barrel, and the weapon shoots two Cold Steel “Hide Out” neck knives aka really scary/sharp little suckers. The slingshot can shoot two knives at once or…

Crowdfund question block lamps, slime mold field guides, and much more

You can run around your house pretending to be Mario or Luigi with the question block lamps currently available through a Kickstarter campaign. Or pledge for social justice sci-fi, a slime mold field guide, or an unusual exploration of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements Adrienne Maree Brown…

A Glowing Light Painting of The Simpsons‘ Kang and Kodos

We’ve seen lots of amazing light paintings, but it’s rare to see someone attempt fan art with LEDs. Light painter Darren Pearson, also known as Darius Twin, draws The Simpsons’ alien invaders in glowing lines. Pearson has many, many more light paintings on his website, and includes a handful of videos showing how he draws…