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Artist David Hockney once stirred up controversy by asserting that many of the great Dutch masters—folks like Vermeer and Ingres—had relied on optical drawing aids to create their masterpieces. Now everyone can channel their inner Dutch master with the LUCY drawing tool. It’s designed by Les Cookson, an artist and inventor who has been building,…
Every year, a huge amount of foods are brought into the country for Americans to eat. But before we dine, an inspection unit checks the items. Here are the foods most likely to not make the cut—and why they get tossed. The USDA put out a new report from the results of almost two decades…
Arizona’s been in the spotlight a lot this election year, with the Department of Justice announcing today it’s investigating the too-long voting lines during the state’s primary. Then there’s the accusations of straight-up election fraud: Apparently people are tampering with vote-by-mail ballots using microwaves. Last month, a state bill was proposed to stiffen the penalties…
You know those basketball or soccer dribbling drills where you snake through a line of cones, dribbling in and out one way on a cone and then slithering through the opposite side of the next cone? That’s what pilot Hannes Arch is doing in this airplane at a wind farm in Tauern Wind Park in…
Could a relationship between an astromech droid and an anthropomorphised articulated desk lamp ever really work? Debatable. But it’s worth a shot, because if it did, their offspring would be this fantastic R2-D2 Architectural Desk Lamp that ThinkGeek is now selling for $60. Featuring R2-D2’s dome head for the lamp’s shade, and other astromech detailing…
Though the catastrophic natural gas leak outside of Los Angeles has been contained, the repercussions are still far from over, according to a new report. For weeks leaders of the region’s utility companies have been warning customers about potential disruptions to their energy service. Today, they’re telling Los Angeles to brace for blackouts this summer.…
In 1820, a sperm whale attacked and sank the Essex, a whaling ship from Massachusetts. The incident inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick, and marine biologists have been wondering ever since if the whales actually engage in ramming behavior. A fascinating new study suggests this may be the case. Sperm whales have the most…
This painting below looks almost exactly like the work of the famous Dutch painter Rembrandt, and as far as science and mathematics is concerned, it is a Rembrandt. But instead of oils and brushes, researchers from Microsoft and other organizations used data points and 3D printing. To create this new Rembrandt, the team meticulously scrutinized…
In my head, we screwed it all up. Our reality is an alternate timeline because our hoverboards don’t actually hover. There are people out there living in the real timeline where Back to the Future-style hoverboards actually do exist and do hover and are probably made in a factory that pumps ‘em out like in…
Rumors are swirling that Alphabet, the parent company formerly known as Google, wants to build its own techno-utopian town. But the size and feasibility of a town “built from the internet up” remains in question. Sidewalk Labs, a company under the Alphabet umbrella, is rumored to be spearheading the project. Sidewalk CEO Dan Doctoroff hinted…
After years of stomach-churning anticipation, it’s all over—the VR headsets of the future are here. The Rift gives you an engaging experience with a handful of excellent games. Meanwhile, the Vive gives you unprecedented control of your virtual surroundings. But as extraordinary as both devices are, they’re absolute bunk compared to the best VR headset…
Obstacle detection and avoidance is one area in which drones fail utterly, which is too bad because human pilots just aren’t that good at flying them. The obvious solution? Teach a drone to think like fencer. Ross Allen and Marco Pavone, researchers at Stanford University’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, have been trying to perfect…
As our inevitable descent into digital anarchy looms large, there is some comfort to be taken in the fact that powerful, well-funded entities like the Department of Defense are there to provide protection and security. Psych! According to a report released on Monday by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Pentagon doesn’t have…
It’s pretty simple. The cornea and the lens needs to focus light right onto the retina in the back of the eye in order for us to see clearly. If our corneas and lenses are screwed up, it’ll pinpoint the light in front of or behind the retina causing us to only be able to…
If we want to know what sorts of creatures will survive the next mass extinction, the best place to look is the fossil record. After examining the bones of Lystrosaurus, a vertebrate that famously thrived during the worst apocalypse in the history of life on Earth, a team of paleontologists think they know how it…
The garage door opener is one of those forgotten devices in your home that’s only ever noticed when it breaks. But Ryobi wants it to be the focal point of your garage workshop with modular upgrades that vastly expand its limited functionality. As far as garage door openers go, Ryobi has ensured that it has…
Using genetic techniques and a chemical cocktail, scientists managed to sustain a pig’s heart inside a baboon for 945 days, establishing a new benchmark for cross-species transplantation. If extended to humans, the technique could be used to ease the ongoing organ shortage. Cross-species transplantation, or xenotransplantation, is proving to be a tough challenge. The primary…
Why is a pineapple called a pineapple in English but is named anana in pretty much every other European language? Well, it’s because English speakers saw the spiky fruit and thought of a pine cone and apple while other countries use the Tupi Guaraini (language used by natives in South America) word for pineapple, nana,…
The lifespan of software is a curious thing. Unless a program is deemed irreplaceable by an industry (like Photoshop), most die out or are succeeded by a better—or cheaper—option a few years later. Even games, outside of retro collectors’ items or unicorn hits (Diablo II), lose steam. After the downfall of Napster, Kazaa, Limewire and…
Usually a music video conveys something about an artist’s worldview. In this case, we can infer that the members of Tame Impala are successful businesspeople with limited control over their emotions. Or at least that might be editor Ben Aston is trying to convey with his video for “Nangs.” He notes that the stock footage…
