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If you didn’t grow up in the American Midwest, you’ve probably never truly experienced the fury of a tornado-spewing summer thunderstorm. Storm chaser and wedding photographer Mike Olbinski edited 60,000 frames worth of timelapse sequences into this six-minute montage called Vorticity that will leave you with a new respect for Mother Nature. If the Independence…
The revelation last month that a fatal car cash involved Tesla’s “Autopilot” feature has sparked a debate over liability when it comes to assisted driving: Who’s legally at fault in a crash if a car is being somewhat controlled by a computer? Tesla offered a statement following the May 7 fatal crash: The vehicle was…
A little more than one month after the Tor Project’s public face Jacob Applebaum stepped down following accusations from multiple women that he sexually assaulted them, the nonprofit has completely replaced its board. It seems like Executive Director Shari Steele is looking to clean house after Appelbaum’s alleged sexual assault was claimed to have gone…
Today, Christie’s auctioned off the well-worn leather jacket of Albert Einstein. You may know him as the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician who figured out the essence of the universe almost a full century before science could prove him right. But he also had great fashion sense. The jacket, a rather tasteful Indiana Jones affair, went for…
Just because you’re stuck raising a kid until they turn 18 doesn’t mean you have to live with a dead phone. 4moms’ new Moxi stroller has a killer feature for parents who are balancing raising a kid while posting endless baby photos to Instagram—generators built into the rear wheels that feed power to a USB…
Just days after shutting down tests of a groundbreaking new cancer therapy in the wake of three patient deaths, the US Food and Drug Administration has said the trials can resume. So what changed? Late last week, it was reported that three leukemia patients had died in a Juno Therapeutics Phase II clinical trial that’s…
Jeff Shell, an executive with NBCUniversal, was detained in Moscow last night when he tried to enter Russia. After hours of confusion, he was ultimately told that he couldn’t enter the country. Was the Kremlin still angry about Evan Almighty? Probably not. The New York Times mentions that Mr. Shell is also the chairman of…
For the first time, a federal judge has thrown out evidence obtained by the warrantless use of a Stringray to track a cellphone. This is a huge win for privacy. “Stringrays” are used by various law-enforcement agencies to track cellphones, collect communications, drain batteries, and much more. They’re mysterious devices that the public knows very…
As the automation era unfolds around is, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that no jobs are safe—not even those belonging to dogs. Introducing Swagbot, the world’s first herding robot. Developed by the Australian Centre for Field Robotics at the University of Sydney, SwagBot proved successful in its first field test. The robot, described as a “motion…
After 81 years of remaining relatively silent on just what’s in that brown bottle you’re about to down, America’s largest breweries are about to stick nutritional labels on their beers. What took them so long? The Beer Institute—yes, that’s the real name—covers brewers like Anheuser-Busch, Coors, Heineken, and more, which collectively make over 80 percent…
Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini is the first robo-dog small enough to be your family’s first artificial pet—but it’s still about the size of a German Shepherd. What if you want a robo-dog that’s small enough to carry in a shoulder bag as a yappy fashion accessory? Say hello to PneuHound, which could very well be the…
The future looks bright, except when it doesn’t. Here are 10 exceptionally regrettable developments we can expect in the coming decades. Listed in no particular order. 1. Virtually anyone will be able to create their own pandemic Earlier this year, Oxford’s Global Priorities Project compiled a list of catastrophes that could kill off 10 percent…
It’s no secret that my favorite comic strip of all time is Closer Than We Think by Arthur Radebaugh. The strip is largely forgotten today, but it featured the very best of flying cars and jetpacks from the Golden Age of futurism. The pulpy time capsule ran in over 200 newspapers from 1958 until 1963,…
Jet lag is objectively terrible. It grants no immunity and bends to no form of treatment, unless “consuming an entire bottle of liquor and popping a few Ambien” is considered treatment. (It’s not.) But according to conventional wisdom, some kinds of jet lag are worse than others—traveling east, for example, is harder on the sleep…
In the wake of its tremendous popularity, everyone’s wondering about is how Pokémon Go intends to make money. In addition to in-app purchases, Niantic chief John Hanke has said that the game intends to create “sponsored locations,” as they did with their earlier game Ingress. And a few enterprising Redditors apparently figured out who the…
As part of his research into building a functional Lego version of Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ BB-8, Jason Allemann of JK Brickworks created this brilliant remote control monowheel that’s able to steer itself by shifting a counterweight inside from side to side causing the vehicle to lean into corners. It’s not quite perfect yet,…
As far as complicated clocks go, it’s going to be hard to top Felix Vorreiter’s FLUX 1440, which displays the time using a simple pulley system, and over 3,900 feet of white string covered in what looks like random marks. However, as layers of the string align inside the clock’s various pulleys, so do those…
When we first heard Apple was getting into the TV making business, it was an interesting idea. When we heard its first show was all about apps, it was less so. Now, we have the name: Planet of the Apps. Apple says that its looking for app developers who’ve made software for iOS, macOS, tvOS,…
Have you used Vine recently? No? You’re not alone. Once, Vine was the hottest thing around. Now, at least nine business leaders have left and the service that brought us “on fleek” (for which we will always be grateful) is struggling to keep people interested. The technology circle of life continues. The employee departures have…
It’s unclear whether Michael Baker is the very best Pokemaster, like no one ever was, but he might be the most dedicated. The 21-year-old was stabbed at 1 a.m. while looking for Pokemon, but refused medical attention because he wanted to keep playing. Baker was in Oregon’s Forest Grove when he came across someone he…
