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In early February, Jay Flatland and Paul Rose’s Rubik’s Cube-solving machine set a new world record with an astonishing time of just 0.9 seconds. But just two days before that happened, a new contender, Adam Beer’s Sub1, managed to solve a cube in just 0.887 seconds. It took Beer’s machine just 20 moves to solve…
New York City is replacing busted old payphone booths with amazing free gigabit wifi hotspots in 10,000 locations around the city. We’ve already tested an early version of the new service and it’s fast. Now we finally know why. The blazing wireless internet—which we clocked at a ridiculous 400 Mbps—is enabled by components developed by…
The protested become the protesters. Uber is shutting down services in Paris today, to join other drivers from across the city in protest against regulations that could hurt non-taxi driving services. The Verge reports from Paris that Uber drivers are joining other non-taxi chauffeurs in the protest, which has now been ongoing for five days.…
In modern cities, there’s concrete at every turn. So it might surprise you to hear that, until now at least, we haven’t really understood how it works at the microscopic level—despite the fact that we trust it to build huge structures. First, a recipe. Concrete’s made up of water, gravel, sand, and cement powder. As…
A hacker has published the personal details of 20,000 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers online. The first wave of Department of Homeland Security data was published on Sunday, while the the FBI data appeared online just last night. In both cases the data is published to Cryptobin with…
When the new Apple TV was announced, the inclusion of Siri was a strong selling point—too bad it turned out to suck. Finally, though, Apple is making voice control on the set-top box rather more useful. The latest version of tvOS issued to developers includes something that will prove rather useful: voice dictation. As our…
French authorities are not impressed with Facebook: The nation’s data protection authority has told the social network that it has just three months to stop tracking the browsing of non-users. The French authorities have also demanded that the transfer of some personal data between European and US servers be brought to a halt, reports Reuters.…
Recently we’ve been looking into sustainable building materials, like skyscrapers made of wood. We’ve also been examining the slowly crumbling infrastructure, largely made of concrete. Perhaps it’s time to combine the two ideas—and look at recycling concrete. A team of scientists at Notre Dame are trying to figure out whether something can be done with…
Forget the traditional potter’s wheel. The unique textures of these clay sculptures capture the vibrations of actual sound waves, thanks to a novel form of 3D printed “sonic ceramics.” They are the product of an intriguing collaboration called “Solid Vibration” between two Dutch artists: Ricky van Broekhven, a spatial sound designer, and industrial designer Olivier…
We know our organs are supported by blood. We know that that blood is delivered to our various cells through a network of blood vessels. What we don’t know is how to create a fine three-dimensional network of vessels in the lab for bioengineered tissue. Researchers at Vanderbilt University found a clue in an unlikely…
Watch as bladesmith Walter Sorrells turned a railroad spike into a knife. Railroad spikes aren’t meant to be used as an edge tool but it’s cool to see Sorrells bludgeon the crude spike into a pretty awesome knife with a coil for a grip. The metal coil was created by elongating the spike and wrapping…
Who cares who won the Super Bowl—Los Angeles is getting a football team (again)! But luring the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles was perhaps the easy part of a much bigger challenge when it comes to the urban planning issues around the stadium itself. As Christopher Hawthorne writes in the Los Angeles Times, the…
I’m not saying the FBI’s heart isn’t in the right place. Making sure children know the difference between healthy political discourse and attempts to sway them into extremism is a laudable goal. But the agency’s execution in a new website is just embarrassing. The FBI just announced the launch of its “Don’t Be a Puppet”…
Today, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in United States v. Rocky Joe Houston, which challenged whether evidence from a camera pointed at Houston’s home for ten weeks without a warrant was admissible. It is. In late 2012, Houston’s local sheriffs informed the ATF that Houston was a convicted felon in possession…
The US military is looking for ways to insert microscopic devices into human brains to help folks communicate with machines, like prosthetic limbs, with their minds. And now, DARPA’s saying scientists have found a way to do just that—without ripping open patients’ skulls. In the DARPA-funded study, researchers at the University of Melbourne have developed…
We’ve covered Arthur Sacek’s brilliant Lego creations before, but none have been as wonderfully complicated as this machine that turns a single piece of paper into a folded airplane. The contraption even launches the plane at the end of the assembly line, sending it off on its maiden test flight. Sacek was hired by Elevation…
It’s often said that the only creature to survive a nuclear explosion will be the humble cockroach. Now this hardy insect has inspired the design of a tiny compressible robot, capable of squeezing into tight small spaces—like those created by the rubble following a building or tunnel collapse. Cockroaches have a host of talents, including…
Even though all cocktails should be simple, I’ll excuse a little flair for this awesome ice ball cocktail because it’s just too much fun. An ice cube sphere looks like it’s frozen with a drink inside until it’s hammered to break open the liquid goodness. It all works perfectly because the former ice sphere that…
An Uber driver in Southern California was pulled over last night and blew three times the legal limit. He was reportedly on his way to pick up his third (or fourth) fare for the night. The 46-year-old Uber driver Robert Wing was pulled over by Simi Valley police around 1:40am. Wing had allegedly been partying…
When you think of supertalls you probably think of pricey real estate—not leafy parks in the sky. A new 1000-foot tower going up in Manhattan provides a more interesting take: Hanging gardens that twirl down the exterior of the building like a giant green exclamation point marking the end of the High Line. The 65-story…
