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Please don’t ever do this at home. Or do this anywhere, really. Mixing bullets with molten aluminum creates a helluva explosion—but it sprays the hot liquid metal everywhere, and that’s just a terrible idea. Plus, it’s guaranteed to end in fire and blood. Instead, watch the Backyard Scientist do it. In the video below, he…
You’re not going to be a master locksmith after you watch this video showing you three ways to break open a lock, but you might stop putting your faith in cheap padlocks. That’s because a few bent paperclips could jimmy the thing open. Even just jamming a screwdriver into the keyhole can make it unlock.…
Cities are so trendy right now that every big tech company wants to build its own. Zappos did it in Downtown Vegas. Amazon is kind of doing it in a Seattle. Alphabet is probably doing it somewhere soon. And now Y Combinator wants in on the fun, too, with a plan to build some kind…
Tomorrow Ikea will reportedly announce a recall of over 27 million Malm dressers. And shockingly, the Swedish furniture company is doing away with the piece of furniture altogether. Many versions of the Malm dresser were officially removed from the Ikea website today. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, three American children have died since 2014 from…
Fuck, you guys. It’s late in the day here on the East Coast, I just paid my credit card bill, and I have to go home and deal with the wasp nest I found in my living room this morning. But I’m not alone in my misery, and neither are you. Allow me to introduce…
Saying “I don’t own a TV” is a good way to let people know that you’re a pretentious asshole. But even though more and more people are eager to tell you they don’t “have TV,” don’t be fooled! You better believe that they are still “watching TV.” According to a new Nielsen report out today,…
The French always gotta be one upping America. We declare independence and throw tea in a harbor as a middle finger to the king. They revolt and decapitate their king. We invent fast food. They invent chocolate croissants. We release the best season of Game of Thrones yet (with some help from the limeys). They…
Opals are beautiful gemstones, supposed harbingers of bad luck, and perhaps the only thing to come out of Australia that won’t kill you. According to new research from a team of British researchers, however, they’re also adding some sweet bling to a meteorite recently found in Antarctica. Beyond looking cool, the opal-studded meteorite also offers…
Ankur Patar is an artist with a talent for recreating famous paintings. His forgeries wouldn’t fool a child, let alone an art expert, but they’re still absolutely remarkable pieces of art unto themselves because they’re painstakingly assembled in Photoshop using nothing but stock photos. Here’s a timelapse video of Patar rebuilding Rembrandt’s The Storm on…
Last year, researchers estimated that California had lost 63 trillion gallons of water over the course of 18 months of drought. Now, a huge reservoir of underground water—three times bigger than engineers thought—has been found under California. But it still won’t solve the state’s drought troubles. Researchers from Stanford University announced their find in a…
Here’s an interesting portrait of Howard Berger, a special makeup effects artist who’s worked on films like The Chronicles of Narnia and Inglorious Basterds, and the work he does to transform actors into, well, monsters. You get to see everything: adding clay to an actor’s lifecast to build the form, the molding process to create…
Lots of kids dream about drifting off to sleep in a racecar bed every night, but as you get older, privacy and relaxation are much higher priorities. It doesn’t mean you have to eventually switch to a boring four-poster, though—not when a Portugal-based company called Circu makes a bed that lets you sleep in a…
Australia has an earned reputation for being dangerous and inhospitable. It’s home to dickhead lizards that look like Jurassic Park dinosaurs, jellyfish that swallow regular fish whole, gangs of murderous sharks, herpes-infested carp, and snakes that are so sick of living there that they try to suffocate themselves in their own skin. Now even Australian…
For years, assistance dogs have been used to detect low blood sugar levels in their diabetic owners and warn of an impending hypoglycemia attack. Scientists have finally figured out how dogs are able to accomplish this feat—an insight that could lead to new medical sensors. Dogs don’t so much see the world as they do…
A California woman has won a $10,000 judgement from Microsoft after the company dropped its appeal in a case in which she alleged that her work computer became slow and unreliable after automatically upgrading itself to Windows 10. “I had never heard of Windows 10,” Teri Goldstein told the Seattle Times. “Nobody ever asked me…
Forget baseball. America’s favorite pastime in the 1920s was electrocuting people. I’m not even joking. One thing you learn from reading old science and tech magazines of the 1920s is that tech nerds were sadistic weirdoes. There are countless stories from the pages of magazines like Science and Invention and Practical Electrics where average people…
Inspired by marsupials like kangaroos, Unihabitat’s new Summer Mewgaroo Hoodie comes with an oversized pocket on the front and dangling pom-poms for entertaining a kitty. It’s sure to take you one dangerous step closer to becoming the crazy cat person you’re always mocking. The hoodie’s sleeveless design is engineered to be cool and comfortable for…
Getting that last bit of shampoo or detergent out of a bottle is a total pain in the ass. Researchers have now engineered a surface coating that allows thick and soapy products to slide right out—meaning you’ll never have to store your shampoo bottle upside down ever again. In a new paper, Ohio State University…
Picky shoppers only choosing the most perfectly-shaped and blemish-free produce at grocery stores has led to a tremendous amount of food waste. To illustrate how not-so-perfect fruits and vegetables are still perfectly edible, Hasbro has created a misshaped version of Mr. Potato Head to serve as a spokesperson. Working with ASDA, a grocery store chain…
For almost a decade, Dropbox has been one of the most reliable and popular file storage services on the planet. When you compare it to other options like Google Drive and iCloud, Dropbox manages to strike the right balance between being super intuitive and easy to use. It can also do a lot more than…
