In 1959, People Played Card Games Against Mecha-Foes
"If you are one of the hundred best players in the world, these hands will not puzzle you." So reads the instruction…
The Nascent Days of CG Animation
Computer-generated animations have come a long way in a relatively short time span. Starting as a series of…
NASA In the 1970s: 10,000-Person Space Colony By the Year 2000!
Ah, sweet, sweet naivety. In this reto-tastic NASA video about space colonization, the narrator waxes optimistically…
eDating in the 1960s Was No Joke
Before OK Cupid, before Match.com and before eHarmony, there was TACT. TACT was a matchmaking computer based on a…
No, These Baby Helmets Are Not Protecting the World's First Tiny Astronauts
In Focus picks up its multi-part World War 2 photo series with the Invasion of Poland and the Winter War. Tucked in the…
The Virtual Boy Arcade Cabinet that Never Existed
The Nintendo Virtual Boy was over before it ever really got a chance to show what it couldn't do. But that doesn't…
"Now You Can Dial" Teaches You How To Call Your Sepia-Colored Friends
It's so easy to take for granted how present-day technology has found an accepted place in our lives. That place was…
AT&T Thought Future Cooking Would Look Like This Circa 1993
More dispatches from At&T's eerily prescient vision of the future, all the way from the 90s. Here, the simple problem…
Hollywood User Interface Fakery at Its Finest
Most of the time the computer interfaces we see in Hollywood flicks are all sorts of ridiculous. They mix glam with…
Group Uses Gadgets, Chemistry and a Mouse to Educate India About Religious Charlatans
Why hasn't this kind of critical thinking migrated out of India to the rest of the world? Methinks these educators…
Retro Ringworlds
Back in the day, when NASA pilots posed with Corvettes and we were just getting to the Moon for the first time, our…
Choose Your Own Adventure Series Reborn In Books and Apps
Slate's been reminiscing about the venerable Choose Your Own Adventure book series and it's quite the read!…
What the Heck Was a Comptometer?
This 1942 ad for a comptometer is just perfect because first of all, I had no idea what a comptometer was (a mechanical…
When Was the Last Time You Listened to a Cassette Tape While Driving?
According to automotive experts, the last car to be factory-equipped with a cassette deck was a 2010 Lexus. As that…
This Is the Saddest Book I Can Imagine
Why, Ms. Allison, why? If you want single people living alone to cook at home, at least promote gas, not a bloody…
Back in 1994, People Had No Idea What the Internet Was
1994! Doesn't seem that long ago, right? But for Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric, it's been a very long time. This…
Wikipedia Celebrates 10 Years Today: Here Are Wikipedia's First Entries
Wikipedia turned 10 years old today and to celebrate the wonderful crowdsourced, potluck of information, here's a look…
Were we so scared of the future that kids once dressed in foil?
This is an awesome picture taken in the early 1900s in America. All the boys are wearing foil for some odd reason. Was…
iPhone 4 Polaroid Skin: Shake Your Love
Technological advances are wonderful! But that doesn't mean we have to abandon up on retrofabulous design. And there's…
Cosmic Bathroom Reading
Want to fly a Saturn V rocket? Easy! Just pick up one of these bad boys and get learnin'. Having an actual Saturn V…