Barbed Wire's Dark, Deadly History
In the mid 1800s, not many (non-native) Americans had ever been west of the Mississippi. When Frederick Law Olmstead…
The No-Stilettos Rule: My Approach As A Woman Creating Scifi Book Covers
How do you create a book cover that really sells the story to its audience? How do you package a book with a badass…
The Creepy, Surreal Apocalypse of The Sims Online
A few months before the end of the world, everyone was saying their goodbyes.
How One Fed-Up Dude Fixed an Awful Highway Sign Himself
At some point in your life you've probably encountered a problem in the built world where the fix was obvious to you.…
The AI Revolution: How Far Away Are Our Robot Overlords?
Imagine taking a time machine back to 1750—a time when the world was in a permanent power outage, long-distance…
Why It's Impossible to Design a Perfect Spacesuit
The first factor that needs to be considered in the design of a space suit is "what will the suit be used for?"
Can You Shoot a Gun in Space?
Space is full of potential dangers—rogue comets, Martians, bags full of astronaut poop, you name it. But if it really…
Why Penn Station Sucks
New Yorkers are known to disagree about a lot of things. Who's got the best pizza? What's the fastest subway route?…
If You Threw Cookie Dough at the Sun, How Long Would It Take to Bake?
First, let's assume you are in orbit around the Earth's atmosphere, and you threw the cookie sunward at 25 mph. The…
Absolutely Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Airplane Controls
All of them? If you're talking about a commercial airliner, then there's hundreds and hundreds. There are big, fat…
What the Hell Is Champagne Sabering?
The first time you see someone sabre a bottle of Champagne a series of thoughts run through your mind:
Who Would Win in an All-Out Battle: Star Wars or Star Trek?
A classic debate! Good or Evil? Chocolate or Strawberry? Star Trek or Star Wars (excluding the Death Star)? But unlike…
The Origin of the Candy Cane
First, let's start by dispelling a somewhat popular myth that more or less goes like this:
How Defense Has Shaped Our Cities
So in your spare time you're looking at an aerial view of London on your favorite online mapping service (as one…
Before the Hashtag, There Was the Octothorpe
If you want to follow conversation threads relating to this show on social media—whether Twitter, Facebook, or…
Could Cinderella's Glass Slippers Physically Exist Without Shattering?
It is delightful to have my masters degree in Mechanical Engineering put to use in resolving age old engineering…
10 Bizarre Buildings and Their Fascinating Histories
Iconic buildings such as the Flatiron Building and the Empire State Building are revered for their historical and…
Could You Launch Someone Into the Sun With a Big Enough Cannon?
In the spirit of making problems go away, sometimes you want to just launch a particular person/problem into the sun.…
The Factories That Churn Out America's Most Iconic Trophies
There's a little trophy shop called Aardvark Laser Engraving down the street from our office in Oakland. It's small but…
The Port Authority Bus Terminal: Myth, Mystery, Mess
For many coming to New York City, the available entry is the Port Authority Bus Terminal (PABT). However, if a…