Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
There was a time when passenger airplanes wore more sophisticated outfits than they do these days. If you look back in time, we find elegant typography, minimalistic paint jobs, low-key colors, simple lines and dynamic curves, streamlined lightning bolts, remarkable-yet-discreet logos. The following selection of photos takes you back to the golden age of airliner…
With the aid of a third-party utility you can get this set up pretty easily, and we’ll show you how.
The holidays are now over! Now that the chaos of the Christmas (and other) holidays are now over and done with, it’s take to take an inventory. So, what cool gadgets / tech / geek stuff did you receive this holiday season? Image credit: kirill_makarov / Shuttershock
In 1955, the Soviet Union tested a bomb designated RDS-37 at a missile testing site in northeast Kazakhstan. The bomb’s power had been scaled down for the test, but a relatively rare weather phenomenon gave it an unexpected, and destructive, increase in power. The Semipalatinsk test site would, under normal conditions, have been a safe…
Plenty of people opened up a gift to find a hoverboard this year. A hearty chunk of that group has already crashed them. Combining a combustible gimmick-toy with a day filled with alcoholic beverages and familial angst is a recipe for wiping out. Be safe out there. Top image: Christopher Furlong/Getty
The Óbuda Gas Works produced city gas from 1914 to 1984 in the 3rd district of Budapest, on the right bank of River Danube. When it opened, it was not just the most advanced gas producing plant in the world; it was also the most beautiful, with a group of buildings in the middle middle…
An international team of researchers has shown that specially treated drops of oily chemicals can take on bizarre shapes and structures during the freezing process. These insights could allow us to create artificial structures with very life-like properties. By using a relatively simple bottom-up approach, a joint research team from Cambridge University and Sofia University…
It’s no secret that thousands of Silicon Valley tech workers who would rather live in San Francisco are being bused in and out of the city every day. But after these policies have come under fire, it appears that a handful those tech companies are trying to encourage employees to live closer to work. With…
Before you decide to shoot that drone out of your backyard, there are a few important things you need to know. First of all, damaging any flying robot is a federal crime. It doesn’t matter if it’s crashing your pool party or watching you in your skivvies through the skylight in your master bath. “In…
In 1912 forensics was still in its infancy when a pretty girl was found dead in her parent’s parlour. Her boyfriend was the immediate suspect, but he had an alibi that couldn’t be broken. Here’s how make-up, and the people who analyze it, broke it. Marie Latelle’s murder, in her own parents’ house, shocked the…
2015 was by far the biggest year for professional video gaming, with 334 million people watching the championships for League of Legends, a multiplayer battle video game. Mix in bigger sponsors, more tech company money, better hardware, and virtual reality, and 2016 could be the year this phenomenon really takes off. E-sports are already huge,…
Cards Against Humanity is known for its original approach to viral marketing, which this year is a particular kind of evil choice: internet voters will decide if an original Picasso is preserved for history, or chopped into 150,000 tiny mementos. Eight Gifts of Hanukkah is a Cards Against Humanity promotion running during the month of…
Google Now is partly a portal to the main Google search engine, so you can ask the digital assistant anything that you would query Google for: the height of the Eiffel Tower, what six inches is in centimeters or even what’s on your agenda. But the app also integrates with specific features on your phone—here…
As you were tearing off the wrapping paper this morning, Beijing was waking up to the worst smog of the year, and a very different kind of white Christmas. PM2.5 levels hit over 620 micrograms per cubic meter early in the morning, according to the American embassy. That was enough to force the airport to…
Christmas is the most anticipated festive season for children in our culture, and it is easy to find out why: presents. Finding long-desired toys under the dressed-up Christmas tree is one of the best moments of the year, and this was the case dozens or even a hundred years ago, too. Here are some nostalgic…
The Tesla Model X comes with a handful of dubiously-useful special modes, but here’s one that exists just for fun. According to Elon Musk, the sound-and-light show will actually ship on production Model Xs as an Easter Egg. If nothing else, it serves as a good(scary!) demonstration of all the things a Model X can…
Cape Neddick’s Nubble Lighthouse in southeastern Maine is a famous American icon, and it’s easy to see why after taking a moment to soak in this brilliant shot by astrophotographer Adam Woodworth. Woodworth used a blend of exposures to capture extra details in Nubble’s dazzling holiday light display: one at ISO 800 for 20 seconds,…
Ralph Waldo Emerson once advised, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.” The world would have been in for a bit of a shock if they’d found themselves at the door of one J.E. Bennett of Fredonia, Texas in 1882. That’s the year he patented the mousetrap pictured…
Think you’re the biggest Star Wars fan in our neck of the galaxy? Here’s your chance to prove it once and for all, because only the most loyal of Star Wars devotees will be willing to spend just shy of $25,000 for a lightsaber fountain pen and a nifty floating display stand. What could possibly…
Okay, seriously NASA, release your staff for the holidays. They’re clearly bored, and when nerds with access to world-class planetary data get bored, bad stuff happens. Case in point? Christmas Pluto. Hasn’t Pluto suffered enough indignities? First, to have its planetary status revoked, then, to be memeified by the internet? (Have we already forgotten Wrecking…
