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Every few months we get to read the same misinformed story about “distracted walking”—how pedestrians are too busy looking at their phones to safely walk across the street. But sidewalk Facebook updates aren’t the real problem here. The latest story in the narrative that puts walkers at fault for getting killed by cars is an…
Windows 10 (like its predecessor, Windows 8.1) comes with a hidden battery report feature that you can only access from the command line. The report provides detailed readouts on the usage, status, and health of your laptop’s battery. It can be an invaluable tool in making sure your system’s running smoothly and spotting power problems…
As a carmaker Volvo has always been known for its innovative safety features, and thanks to a new app, that now includes eliminating the risk of cuts on your hand after having to break one of your vehicle’s windows because you locked your keys inside. Starting in 2017, Volvo will offer its customers a Bluetooth-dependent…
Ironing sucks, but it’s the kind of precise activity that usually stumps robots. But no longer, because a wonderful team of engineers has developed a robot that can smooth the creases right out of your most wrinkled pair of pants. The team has published a paper on the arXiv server that describes a new robotic…
With smartwatches and phones gaining activity tracking capabilities, dedicated fitness trackers have needed to find new gimmicks to stay relevant. Batteries that lasted a full year without charging was a great start, as is the Move IQ technology in Garmin’s new vívofit 3 that can recognize your different activities. Although the vívofit 3 appears to…
The largest and best-preserved Bronze Age wheel ever to be found in Britain has been unearthed by researchers from the University of Cambridge. The new discovery, made at Must Farm close to Peterborough in the UK, is the earliest of its kind to be found in the UK. And it’s exceptionally well preserved: Swell preserved,…
Chatting to businesses on Facebook Messenger may leave you wide open to targeted ads. That’s according to a leaked document that suggests voluntarily speaking to businesses via Facebook’s chat app will allow them to send ads your way. According to the document, obtained by TechCrunch, “businesses will be able to send ads as messages to…
Apple will have a little longer to argue against the court ruling that asks it to unlock an iPhone, according to Bloomberg. The company will now respond to the request on February 26th February rather than Tuesday 23rd, say sources familiar with the timings of the court procedures. Originally the company was given five days,…
What happens if you add metallic lithium to a glass of 7-Up? First, it bubbles like Alka-Seltzer. Then, it starts to heat up and boil. As it does so, the color changes: to green, yellowish-brown, and reddish brown, until it is pretty much black sludge. “By the time I went to the lab, it looked…
Mountain huts are normally utilitarian in the extreme—when you’re helicoptering up every pound of building materials, there’s not a lot of leeway for granite countertops. This Romanian hut isn’t what you’d call luxurious, but it creatively uses materials to make something better than a big Portaloo. The constraints on design firm Archaeus were strict: they…
The firefall is a natural phenomenon that occurs for a couple magical weeks in February. Horsetail Fall only flows in the winter and early spring, and when the sun sets at just the right angle, it illuminates the water, causing the lava-like red glow that I can’t tear my eyes away from. Contact the author…
There is a growing body of evidence that coffee may be good for your long-term health, reducing the risk of type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. According to one recent meta-study, it may also lower your risk of liver damage from boozing. The study was conducted by scientists from the University of Southampton. It’s not…
Earlier this year Delhi’s air pollution was so bad that the government temporarily banned half its cars from streets. The policymaker who came up with the idea says the ban should be 365 days a year—but not because it improved air quality all that much. The “odd/even” scheme allowed drivers to use their cars every…
Shine a light in a gecko’s ear, and you’ll see light coming out the other side. This quirk of biology may one day give us robots that can amplify and locate sounds without requiring any energy to do so. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich have solved a longstanding bio-physical question. The problem was,…
Organizers for California’s high-speed train just announced that when their bullet train opens, it’ll start service out of the Bay Area, not Southern California like originally planned. The announcement isn’t a surprise—but it could prove crucial to the success of the already delayed project, which is over two years behind schedule. The Los Angeles Times…
Four months and nearly 100,000 metric tons of methane later, the worst natural gas leak in US history has ended, according to officials at California’s Department of Conservation, who made the announcement at a press conference this afternoon. Late last week, drill crews were close to sealing the breach in a methane storage well outside…
Care for a walk around Lake Superior? We suggest you do it very, very carefully. Dawn LaPointe took this footage of ice stacking up over itself, shattering over and over like sheets of broken glass, on the shores of Lake Superior around Duluth, MN this weekend. Depending on just how the ice freezes over the…
After weeks of insisting Error 53 brickings were the result of bad repair jobs, Apple is now saying that it was a big goof and that the brickings were never supposed to happen. Come on Apple. To recap, some users were reporting an “Error 53″ would occur after having their phones repaired by a third…
The winners of the 59th annual World Press Photo contest were announced announced. Ranging from the Syrian refugee crisis and China’s Tianjin explosion to the wild orangutans of Borneo, these are the best that the year of photojournalism had to offer. They are all amazing. The images were selected out of 82,951 photos captured by…
Ugandans are voting in a presidential election today. They’re also dealing with a social media blackout orchestrated by the government. For President Yoweri Museveni, nothing says “democracy” like sweeping censorship of the electorate. Here’s hoping he fucking loses. This election is mired in rigging allegations. Museveni’s primary competitor, Kizza Besigye, has openly questioned whether the…
