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Boiling water is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to get rid of dangerous parasites and bacteria, and thanks to MIT, the next time you go camping you might be able to leave the stove and matches at home. All you’ll need is a sponge, some unpopped bubble wrap, and some sunlight. Like…
A magnitude 6.2 earthquake hit Norcia in central Italy early this morning, followed by some 40 more aftershocks over the course of three hours. The quakes affected towns throughout the Umbria, Lazio, and Marche regions. Italian wire service ANSA is currently reporting 73 dead. Amatrice was among the most damaged towns. Its mayor, Sergio Pirozzi,…
Did you know the words “male” and “female” aren’t actually related to each other? As in, there’s no “male” in “female.” The word male is derived from the Latin word masculus, while the word female comes from the French word femelle. It sounded close enough so we just made them both pronounced like male. Damn,…
You can find Jelly Belly jelly beans at almost any store, but that involves actually getting up and going somewhere to satisfy your sweet tooth. Why go through all that hassle when for just over $10,300 you can buy your own personal Jelly Belly vending machine and set it up right next to your desk…
Having a hard time keeping yourself from overspending? Good news, woman who can’t control her shopping impulses: this $5,000 handbag can help. Dubbed the iBag2, this ugly-as-fuck handbag is (seriously! not a joke!) designed to prevent women from spending their money. The iBag2 has a built-in Arduino and a 10,000 mAh power bank. There’s a…
Ladies and gents, the world’s largest aircraft that also looks like a butt has crashed. The buttplane took its maiden voyage last week, and everything was fine at first. But then the asscraft ate shit. Technically, this monstrosity is called the “Airlander 10,” and it’s as long as a football field. The bulbous beast was…
In early August, Instagram introduced “Stories,” a new feature the company asserted would let users “share all the moments of your day, not just the ones you want to keep on your profile.” What the platform neglected to mention, however, was that a near-identical feature exists elsewhere—on Snapchat. Following the announcement, most people, including us,…
If you’re looking for an easy way to stream video to your TV from a phone, a Roku should be at the top of your list. Both the Streaming Stick and Roku 4 are among the best available streaming devices, and they’re super easy to use. Here are a bunch of hidden tricks you can…
Rubber bands can become colder than room temperature through sheer mechanical force. Stretching one heats it up (duh) but letting it contract cools it below its starting temperature. Let that weirdness sink in for a moment. Most people would leave that odd bit of science at “Woah…” and that would be that. But the folks…
Ever see the super strong, super light super material known as carbon fiber get squished like this? Once the hydraulic press hits it, the threads start coming undone, and it slowly disintegrates as the pressure becomes stronger and stronger. What’s pretty neat, though, is how the carbon fiber rod still stands up steady throughout and…
It wasn’t my fault that I crashed my drone. It was the drone’s fault! This probably wouldn’t be the case every time, but according to a new study released by the RMIT University School of Engineering and published in Aerospace, it’s more likely that technical errors with the drone itself will cause a crash, compared…
Why would they give it lips?? Apparently, in order to make a robot as expressive as possible, researchers decided to give BERT2, a robot assistant a pouty pair of lips and wide eyes with… are those eyebrows? Researchers from the University College London and the University of Bristol, who dared to use BERT2 here to…
The stereotype of late 1960s authors and musicians is that certain drugs can help to expand the mind and make the user more creative. As someone who has never taken psychedelics, I can’t know this for sure, but a recent study seems to be the first step in displaying scientific evidence in support of that…
I love New York City. I live here, so I’m biased. You might hate New York, and think it sucks, and think it’s dirty, and think people who live in New York talk about New York way too damn much. That’s fine. You’re actually more right than you know. But even you should be able…
I mean, if we’re going to eventually get flying cars (we won’t ever get flying cars, you fools), we can technically fly them in any goddamn direction we want, right?Which means, why the hell not flip the car upside down and fly around New York with the road as your roof and the sky as…
McDonald’s food is already pretty unappealing, but as a lifetime of internet consumption has taught me, the moral bottom is limitless. Here are the most repulsive secondary preparations for food ostensibly cooked by a 53-year-old clown. 1. Juicer Running burgers, fries, and soda through a juicer is bad. The dry matter coming out of one…
His blue face and blank stare suggest a look of despair or simply disbelief. Yet, the snub-nosed monkey above and 37 other similar species just got their genomes sequenced. This one monkey, though. He seems sad as hell about it. His family seems chill, though. [Nature]
Tesla has just created the fastest car you can buy—and it’s all thanks to the company’s new 100 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery. The Model S P100D with Ludicrous Mode is a slightly upgraded version of the Model S P90D (with a 90 kWh battery) that was released in March. But this new version can go 0-to-60…
Even if you didn’t see Suicide Squad and somehow escaped the reviews of it and, like, also didn’t hear the horror stories about Jared Leto’s Joker, you’d already know that it would never have topped Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight anyway. Not only is Ledger’s Joker an iconic performance, his character was also…
Pinterest, the site beloved by wedding planners and doomsday preppers alike, has acquired the original read later service, Instapaper. This sort of makes sense, I guess, considering that both Instapaper and Pinterest are essentially bookmarking services. Instapaper just tends to be about text, and Pinterest is all about the image. This is Instapaper’s third owner.…
