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Upper Manhattan-dwelling New Yorkers have been complaining for years that supertalls are going to ruin the views from their beloved Central Park. Here’s a very good solution: lower the elevation of the park. The annual eVolo Skyscraper Competition consistently delivers some of the wackiest concepts for tall buildings we’ve ever seen. I particularly love the…
Last week the internet watched in amazement as Leo Weston solved three Rubik’s cubes while juggling them. Now he’s back to show us how he faked the entire thing, and its just as impressive. The footage was captured by juggling solved cubes and then digitally removing them—so that element at least wasn’t faked. Leo and…
On March 25, 1921, the USS Conestoga departed San Francisco’s Golden Gate en route to Hawaii with 56 officers and sailors aboard. It was never heard from again. Now, after 95 years, the ship has been found at the bottom of the Pacific, finally ending this enduring maritime mystery. NOAA and the US Navy announced…
What you’re seeing is the engine of a 2017 Nissan GT-R—that is, the 3.8-liter V6 24-valve twin-turbocharged engine—being hand assembled. It’s like the world’s hardest 3D puzzle that gets bigger as you’re going through it with more complicated pieces to mess up the process. The final product is a machine of beauty, 565 horsepower with…
Behold syn3.0, a synthetic bacterial genome that’s smaller than anything found in nature. Biologists hope it will further our understanding of the fundamentals of life and inspire the creation of new synthetic life. Dubbed JCVI-syn3.0 (or just syn3.0 for short), the new genome was designed and built by researchers from Synthetic Genomics and the J.…
The biggest promise of self-driving cars is that traffic will finally be democratized. All vehicles will flow smoothly through the city using optimized routes, getting everyone where they need to go safely and efficiently. But there’s a very good possibly that’s not how it will work at all. In a piece called “When All Is…
A new report from The Information says Google is working on its own personal assistant hub, similar to Amazon’s Echo. Only recently, through a series of updates and new hardware, has the Echo grown into a gadget worthy of its original transformative promise, and Google’s apparently taken notice. Although details about the new product are…
This cute little styrofoam cup is meeting its gruesome end with a brave face. Seriously though, the way acetone eats through styrofoam cups is mind-boggling, both in how fast it works, and because the cup seems to just disappear as if it’s slipping through some weird chemical portal. How’s it doing that? The short answer…
Remember jumping in your seat the first time you saw Jurassic Park? That was just a movie, and you were probably sitting in a comfy theater chair. Imagine finding yourself coming face to face with what looks like a real dinosaur in a deserted parking garage. If you don’t have a heart attack, you’ll still…
Yesterday, Microsoft unleashed Tay, the teen-talking AI chatbot built to mimic and converse with users in real time. Because the world is a terrible place full of shitty people, many of those users took advantage of Tay’s machine learning capabilities and coaxed it into say racist, sexist, and generally awful things. While things started off…
The trade-off of an affordable 3D printer is that they’re usually small and can only produce small objects. To make something big, you have to break it down into smaller parts first. But Autodesk has come up with a better approach: a 3D printer with multiple heads that all work together to churn out massive…
Earlier today, four ships from Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research returned to their home port after a “scientific” expedition to the Antarctic region. The fleet claims to have captured 333 minke whales—including pregnant females—in blatant disregard of an international ruling. The 115-day expedition was the first Antarctic harvest since the International Court of Justice’s ruling…
A year ago, Nintendo announced its long-overdue plans to bring its games to smartphones. Now, Sony’s doing the same thing. You’ll soon be able to play original Sony games on your iOS or Android device, the company announced today. Sony is setting up a new business division called ForwardWorks, which will focus on mobile services,…
Snapchat made its name with disappearing photos and videos, but there’s plenty more to the app than that. Behind its deceptively simple appearance are a few useful tricks you might not yet be aware of. We’re here to fix that and make sure your Snapchat game is the absolute best it can be. Here are…
This fish didn’t get the memo. While its fellow aquatic friends swim through the water, this creature’s evolved skeletal features that allow it to walk like a salamander, clambering over slick rocks as waterfalls crash down on top of it. This cave-dwelling fish—Cryptotora thamicola is its proper name—lives in the waters of Thailand. But the…
Fifty years have passed since the Cheyenne Mountain Complex went fully operational. Now, the US Air Force has given us a chance to look inside the legendary military installation made famous by the Terminator series [update: and by Stargate SG-1!]. Located in Colorado Springs at the Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, the Mountain Complex has…
Lindsay Diaz and Alan Cutter were the proud owners of two halves of a duplex in Rowlett, Texas. Sadly it had been damaged by tornadoes over Christmas, but it was ready to be repaired, so things were looking up. Then a demolition company tore it down by accident. According to WFAA, the Billy L. Nabors…
The urban aural landscape has a huge impact on our lives—from the roar of traffic and clatter of jackhammer, to the groove of music and lullaby of birdsong. These maps roll that information together to let you explore how cities around the world sound. Created by researchers Daniele Quercia, Luca Maria Aiello, Rossano Schifanella, and…
The citizens of New Zealand have voted to keep its existing flag. The country has been involved in a ten-month long process to redesign it, but preliminary results from its national referendum show that the majority of voters chose to keep the existing design. According to the BBC, a total of 2,119,953 votes were cast…
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. That may be just what YouTube is doing according to a new report from VentureBeat, which suggests the video company is building a Periscope competitor that will be called Connect. According to the report, the new standalone app would allow you to stream video straight from your phone,…
