The Art of Disguising Cellphone Towers
What would you rather have: crappy cellphone service, or cellular towers scarring every visible surface? The two are at odds, but, thankfully, there are companies whose entire business is making those radio-wave spreaders disappear. And they’re great at it. We don’t want to see the angular metal giants that serve us bandwidth. The feeling is…
How Do You Boost Weak Water Pressure?
Low water pressure sucks. You hop in expecting a wonderful deluge, but you get a pathetic drizzle. It can be a day-breaker. But the good news is, you’re not helpless. Before we start, some background: SO WHAT IS WATER PRESSURE, EXACTLY? Well, as Jeff Cruickshank, a senior associate at environmental engineering firm Hazen and Sawyer…
The Proper Way to Talk with an Internet Helpbot
The self service world is a beautiful thing. Self-checkout lines. Vending machines. Amazon. Long gone are the days of being afraid to buy, say, a carton of whipped cream chargers, an oversized balloon and the newest Glee Soundtrack, because some dowdy employee’s gonna give you the stinkeye. Also gone: the days of dialing customer service…
One Man’s Nearly Impossible Quest to Make a Toaster From Scratch
In 2008, designer Thomas Thwaites decided to build a toaster from scratch-and not the “from scratch” that would land him in Home Depot for a couple of hours. He was interested in the seemingly magical process that turns what we pull out of the earth into the stuff that litters our houses. So Thwaites decided…
Unlocking the Mystery of Paris’ Most Secret Underground Society (combined)
Part I: Entrances On August 23, 2004, they discovered a cinema 60 feet beneath Paris. The sun was shining on the Trocadéro, the Eiffel Tower gleamed across the Seine, and deep belowground, police came across a sign. The officers were on a training mission, exploring the 4.3 miles of catacombs that twist beneath the 16…
How Big Weapons Hit Tiny Targets from Incredible Distances
So, let’s say our armed forces had to lend a hand in a conflict without deploying troops on the ground (*cough* *cough* Libya *cough*). How would they do that? Simple: GPS. Oh, and Lasers. And mechanized ordnance that is better at navigating than any meatbag with a map. In a tense conflict like Libya, where…
Engineering a Better Glass of Booze
When drinking stuff from the cellar, the temperature controlled fridge, or the top shelf, the size of the glass matters-and shape does too. You’ve likely picked up a bit of this, or at least rolled your eyes at it. Bordeaux is presented in a fat bulb with a narrow opening; bubbly arrives as a tall…
Why Capping a Blown Oil Well at the Bottom of the Ocean is so Insanely Difficult
Last year’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill dumped an estimated 2.6 million gallons of oil A DAY into the Gulf of Mexico – you’d think someone would have gotten on that faster. Oh, they did? Fire on the Horizon explains what took so damn long. Nature provides no shortage of elaborate, even bizarre mating rituals. The…
Giz Explains: Traffic
Americans talk about traffic like the English talk about the weather. It’s a constant upset, a never-ending obsession. We’ve heard the stats: The commuter loses 36 hours a year stuck on the road, over $800 dollars in the same amount of time, and, well, an immeasurable amount of sanity. There’s a lot of talk about…