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If you’re interested in melting metal, and you totally should be because it’s basically the most fun way to recycle soda cans, The Art of Weapons details how to make an electric foundry for metal casting. Using charcoal to heat up a foundry can get a bit dirty so it makes much more sense to…
Slime molds and fungi might not rank high on anyone’s list of favorite organisms, but there is a compelling beauty in their growth patterns. And now Transcend Rules has taken “slimeography” to a whole new level, setting those patterns to the Game of Thrones theme music. It might just be the solace fans crave after…
You might remember 3nder, the oddly-named dating app for finding your very own three-person sexy time party. Well it seems that Tinder, a dating app with a similar name, is threatening to sue the company behind the app. According to 3nder—which can be pronounced, alternately, “three-ender” or “Thrinder,” though the company says “we embrace all…
A rash of major breaches in recent years proves that your credit card information is hardly safe. But a recent heist in Japan shows that hackers are getting scary good at turning that data into cold hard cash. In this case, coordinated ATM withdrawals with cloned credit cards netted criminals $12.7 million in just two…
Something strange is happening to the oceans. As coral reefs wither and fisheries collapse, octopuses are multiplying like mad. As soon as they perceive weakness, they will amass an army and invade the land, too. Okay, that last statement is probably pure paranoia. But it is a bit unsettling that cephalopods—squids, octopuses, cuttlefish—are booming, and…
According to futurists of the 1950s, people of the 21st century were all supposed to be zipping around in solar-powered cars, watching wall-sized TVs, and enjoying vacations on the moon. We were even supposed to all have our own yachts. Well, half a yacht at least. The July 20, 1958 edition of Arthur Radebaugh’s Sunday…
We all know there’s a racial disparity in US criminal prosecutions—but imagine if a computer algorithm was being used to insert even more bias into the criminal justice system. According to a damning new report from ProPublica, that’s exactly what’s happening in many states around the country. In a common practice known as “risk assessment,”…
If you’re looking to ditch your favorite read-it-later service, all you need is the Google Inbox app, Google’s newest email client. Here’s exactly how to save pages from the web to Inbox so you can catch up on reading later. Articles you want to read later can be added from Android or iOS provided you…
Do you love music and also saving money? Then you should cancel whatever streaming music service you’re signed up for and team up with five friends to get the new $15 Spotify Family plan. Seriously, you’re throwing away money if you don’t. Spotify Family is not new, but that $15 price tag is. The deal…
We’ve seen Beatles pancakes. We’ve seen Rick and Morty pancakes. We’ve even seen How To Basic parody the phenomenon of pancake art. As internet trends go, this one is on the wane, but we’d be remiss not to point of how incredible these Game of Thrones characters look as breakfast food. Somehow the people of…
Google’s artificial intelligence has already taken on the form of a human nerd, but now it’s time for its next act. Can AI be an artist? Douglas Eck, a researcher working on Google Brain, recently revealed that the team will soon launch a new project called Magenta. Though it took some inspiration from DeepDream, another…
It’s all to easy for your digital life to become a sprawling, unmanageable mess as you keep tasks, notes, photos and files across multiple accounts—a problem that Taco is designed to tackle head on. It pipes in information from a huge range of online portals (from Evernote to Gmail) and lets you track them all…
This little device could one day replace your heart rate monitor. The researchers behind it claim that it’s the first flexible wearable device able to measure both electrical heart signals and biochemical markers while you work out. Developed by a team from the University of California San Diego, the device is able to record an…
This footage, captured above the appropriately named Shark Bay in Western Australia, shows what happens when 70 sharks come across a whale. It involves rather a lot of blood. The once-clear waters of the bay fill with plumes of blood as the tiger sharks chow down without mercy on the humpback whale. I can’t work…
Fancy a flight at 5,710 mph? That’s exactly what the Hypersonic International Flight Research and Experimentation project has achieved with a test flight in Australia, demonstrating that scramjet technology can push the speed of a rocket up to Mach 7.5. During the tests, HIFiRE—a joint program between the US Department of Defense and Australian Defence…
In 2009, malware called “Skimer” surfaced and security firms took notice. Skimer is essentially malware that gives hackers full access to an ATM without needing to install any physical hardware, like a card skimmer. According to a new investigation by Kaspersky Lab, the malware is not only seems in use, but it’s also become more…
Filmmakers have come under fire before for inaccurate depictions of dinosaurs and for using outdated science. A University of Toronto Mississauga paleontologist has another possible discrepancy to add to that list: some dinosaurs may have had lips. Robert Reisz, who presented his findings at the Canadian Society of Vertebrate Paleontology on Friday, argues that while…
Fitbits are marketed as devices that can help track things such as your heart rate to better improve your lifestyle, but a new study commissioned by plaintiffs in a lawsuit shows that maybe they’re not as accurate as some would lead you to believe. The results of a study conducted by researchers at California State…
You’re probably used to getting turn-by-turn directions to your next destination with Google Maps, but there’s also a pretty-well-hidden Driving Mode just for… well, driving. It alerts you to traffic problems, directs you to nearby gas pumps and stores, and is useful for those times when you already know your route or don’t even have…
How long does it take to transport a 15-story long space shuttle fuel tank through Los Angeles? According to the trip one took yesterday, around 19 hours. The mission: To move ET-94, “the last flight-qualified external tank in existence,” to the California Science Center from Marina del Rey, where it had arrived by barge from…
