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I hate being tailgated. Once, I surprised the hell out of myself when I initiated an exceptionally dangerous game of tit-for-tat with an offending tailgater that involved high speeds and some rather dangerous cutting-off maneuvers. After a few minutes, I snapped out of it and let the driver go. But the incident rattled me. That…
The carcass was remarkably well preserved, but something was clearly wrong. A rounded hole through the interior jugal. Deep incisions along the ribs. Dents in the left scapula. A broken mandible. This 45,000 year-old mammoth’s life ended violently at the hands of hunters. That wouldn’t be surprising—it’s well known that Pleistocene humans were expert mammoth…
Whether you want to get back into that game you loved in 2012 or you want to curiously tally how much you’ve spent on apps from Google or Apple the last few years, there are a couple of ways of listing all the apps you’ve installed through your account—even if they’re no one your phone…
The American government is officially putting a giant vote of confidence behind self-driving cars. And the cash to back it up. Today, US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is announcing a nearly $4 billion plan that’ll help manufacturers and tech companies develop safe, automated vehicles in the next ten years with real-world pilot projects. It’s all…
America’s lagged behind Europe and Asia for decades on developing high-speed rail. Now, one of the States’ two most promising HSR plans—building a Japanese bullet train in Texas—is facing more opposition than ever. State officials just sent a letter complaining about the project to the Japanese ambassador. We’ve reported on Texas Central, the private effort…
There are already machines out there equipped with good pressure sensors, but those sensors are rarely sensitive or durable enough to make the machines as useful as humans at performing fine motor tasks. A new kind of graphene “skin” could change that, making it possible to create touch-sensitive robotic hands or even whole robotic medical…
We know the chilling magic that is using magnets to control ferrofluid, it’s the closest thing we have to the black arts. But when you add the the chemicals inside a glow stick to the mix, it becomes something so visually awesome that you feel like you’re seeing things move and pop and react in…
There are many, many, awesome figures of Spider-Man out there. Which isn’t surprising, since the character makes a buttload of cash for Marvel. But this latest “Spectacular Spider-Man” version from Diamond Select might be one of the best comic-true renderings of Peter Parker that there’s ever been. It’s been a few years since the Marvel…
If you use a proxy to access another country’s version of Netflix, you may be screwed. Up until now, the streaming service hasn’t been good at stopping them—but that’s about to change. “In coming weeks, those using proxies and unblockers will only be able to access the service in the country where they currently are,”…
Sony’s smartphone relationship with the US is a tumultuous one, but it looks like the company is going to give the states another shot after all. Last year’s Sony Z5 will finally be arriving at a steep $600, but the more exciting of the two is the $500 Z5 Compact, a small 4.6-inch smartphone with…
It’s not quite the Evil Empire but seeing the Russian Navy storm a beach doesn’t exactly elicit warm and fuzzy feelings now, does it? This training exercise of the Navy was held at the Barents Sea by the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet and shows soldiers being deployed from helicopters, armored vehicles being released from landing…
Since a gas leak erupted outside LA on October 23rd, over 83,000 metric tons of methane have escaped to the atmosphere, prompting public officials to evacuate the neighboring community of Porter Ranch. But as a disturbing new analysis shows, a much broader swath of LA is now drowning in methane. The Home Energy Efficiency Team…
If you’re wondering who still uses pencils, it’s anyone who wants to correct their mistakes using this wonderful eraser that’s shaped like a dog scooting its butt across the floor. There is nothing not to love about this creation from Slam Design. You can find it online for about $10, and even if you’re not…
When you walk around Paris in real life, you can’t help but pretend you’re inside a movie. It’s the architecture, it’s the energy, it’s the people, it’s the city of light and you can’t help but romanticize your experiences there. This clever video of Paris, Apparences from Claire & Max, uses that dreamy quality of…
CEO Sundar Pichai took to Twitter this week to announce that Google I/O, the company’s annual developer conference, will be taking place in Mountain View on May 18-20. The only thing we know for certain is that we’ll get our first look at Android N, the mobile operating system’s next big update. Sure, part of…
When you’re heading out for a night run, or hiking through the woods after dark, a working headlamp is almost as important as the shoes on your feet. So Petzl is upgrading its hands-free headlamps with Bluetooth and smartphone connectivity to intelligently manage brightness and battery life. When connected to the free accompanying MyPetzl Light…
Each F/A-18 Super Hornet carries a sticker price of about 60 million dollars and requires a whole lot of work to put together. This fun time lapse video shows the entire building process of an F/A-18 and you can see where a lot of that money goes. To transform scraps of metal into a flying…
As the fifth anniversary of Egypt’s 2011 uprising approaches, Egyptian officials have arrested the administrators of 47 Facebook pages that are run by members of the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the 2011 marches, which ultimately culminated in the large-scale revolt that brought Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule to an end, were planned using Facebook. Now, Reuters…
It’s been a long, hard fight, but the World Health Organization has finally announced that West Africa is Ebola-free. The Organization has declared Liberia as Ebola-free, according to the BBC, with 42 days having passed without any new cases of the disease being confirmed. Sierra Leone and Guinea were both declared Ebola-free last year. The…
Android app developers don’t always play by the rules when it comes to icon size, which can leave the home screen looking like a bit of mess. But now Google is forcing icons to assume a unified size, pleasing design pedants everywhere. Google has guidelines about icon dimensions for Android, but developers often ignore them.…
