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Volcanic eruptions are something of a spectator sport today, with orbital satellites and high-speed connectivity bringing glorious images of the planet’s pyrotechnic power to the comfortable safety of our computer screens. But a fascinating new study suggests people have been chronicling Earth’s powerful outbursts since long before modern technology. Indeed, it’s possible that we’ve been…
There are as many ways for people to relax as there are for them to get stressed. Some like to spend countless hours assembling puzzles, while others prefer the meticulousness of maintaining a beautiful zen garden. But imagine how relaxed you’d be doing both of those hobbies at the same time. Available from the Japan…
It’s amazing what a change of perspective can do—and in this case, a simple camera perspective trick transforms a huge Tokyo airport into an tiny toys set fit for a playroom. Vimeo user darwinfish105 uploaded this footage to the video-sharing site recently after capturing large-scale activity at Japan’s Haneda International: taxiing jets, cruising cargo vehicles,…
If you thought Aubrey Graham’s career peaked at playing Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation, apparently a bunch of other stuff also happened after he left the show that now warrants an entire coloring book dedicated to his life and accomplishments. The $10, 32-page book features black and white illustrations of Drake from 15…
IKEA’s head of sustainability reckons that western consumers are at the limit in terms of stuff they can actually buy, a situation he’s referred to as “peak home furnishings.” Speaking at a conference organized by The Guardian, Steve Howard from IKEA explained: “If we look on a global basis, in the west we have probably…
Prepare to save a whole $1 every single year. WhatsApp has announced that it’s dropping its annual subscription fee. Right now, WhatsApp is free for a year. After that, you’re charged $1 each year for using the service. But Re/code reports from a conference in Munich, Germany, that it’s scrapping the fee. WhatsApp founder Jan…
If you thought the days of CPU—OS incompatibilities were behind you, think again. It’s quietly been announced that some future silicon will only allow you to run Windows 10 if you choose to opt for a Microsoft OS. In a blog post, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President for Windows and Devices Group explains: Going forward, as…
If you find yourself drowning in an ocean of unorganized bookmarks, then Chrome’s recently revamped bookmark manager has one or two tricks that may help. One is the option to search through your bookmarked pages right from the browser’s address bar at the top of the interface. Here’s how to set up and use the…
A New York judge has ruled that tagging someone in a Facebook post—and the subsequent notification that it generates— is enough to constitute a violation of a restraining order. The New York Law Journal describes a case in which Maria Gonzalez was not allowed to contact her sister-in-law Maribel Calderon under a protection order. That…
Airbus will provide helicopters to Uber in order to establish an on-demand flight service. The initiative, said to be a “pilot project,” will debut at the Sundance Film Festival later this week. The Wall Street Journal reports that the service, confirmed by the Airbus chief executive Tom Enders, will use H125 and H130 helicopters to…
Stories of Chinese government organizations hacking American corporations are not new. But in a segment aired on 60 Minutes tonight, business leaders, government officials and security experts paint a picture of a particularly sophisticated attack on the intellectual property of “thousands” of companies. John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for National Security, gave a surprisingly…
Tonight’s Democratic debate might be broadcast at the most inconvenient time of the week, but at least NBC’s made it easy for all three anxious viewers to watch. The debate is being streamed over-the-air on NBC’s network, and more conveniently, via YouTube. You don’t need any account or login to make it work—just hit play…
Colbert has always been a great proponent of space exploration and sciences, and it’s fantastic to see him geek out talking to Scott Kelly in orbit on The Late Show. They chat about all manner of things – how long he’s been in space, frequent flier miles, sleeping in space, space madness, and the mission…
We’re on location for today’s SpaceX launch of the Jason-3 ocean monitoring satellite. Afterwards, SpaceX will make their first barge landing attempt in the Pacific Ocean. Join us as we report live from Vandenberg Air Force Base! The thirty-second window opens at 1:42:18pm ET (10:42:18am PT local time) on Sunday, January 17, 2016. Watch the…
SpaceX is launching the planet’s newest oceanographic satellite tomorrow morning. Here’s the scoop on Jason-3, and how “sea level” is one of those little white lies you learned in school. SpaceX is launching Jason-3 on a Falcon 9 rocket this Sunday morning. The satellite will provide oceanographic data for everything from tide forecast to continue…
Just days after the Center for Disease Control recommended travel warnings to pregnant women headed to Latin America, the Hawaiian Department of Health has confirmed a Zika “virus infection in a baby recently born with microcephaly in a hospital on Oahu.” The release stressed that this case wasn’t acquired in the United States: the mother…
New Horizons might have swept past Pluto months ago, but we’re still learning some cool things from the images that are being beamed back. In the latest picture, NASA reported that they’ve spotted some layers in the dwarf planet’s atmosphere. The pictures show a little more complexity to Pluto, giving us some good ideas of…
Beauty fads come and go, and eyebrow shaping is no exception. But what if there were a mathematical rule we could cite as hands-down the perfect shape? That’s the idea behind the patent recently awarded to inventor Anastasia Soare of Beverly Hills, California, for a “brow mapping technique” that hews closely to the so-called “golden…
Holy crap. Declassified footage of a US bombing of ISIS cash depots has been released and you can see the airstrike that made millions of dollars fly away ina swarm after the explosion. The money spreads all over the place. CNN writes: “It was a good strike. And we estimate that it served to deprive…
It’s probably not aliens. Seriously guys, it’s very, very unlikely that it’s aliens. But the weird, flickering star known as KIC 8462852 still isn’t sitting right with astronomers. In fact, it just got a lot weirder. Ever since KIC 84628532 was spotted in the Kepler Space Telescope’s dataset, astronomers have puzzled over what the heck…
