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If the Smithsonian is where the nation keeps some of its greatest treasures, then it’s time to toss a few Muppets and pack away those ruby slippers to make room for what is clearly the greatest gingerbread creation of all time. According to Reddit this gingerbread Darth Vader is from the same cookie phenom who…
As children, the first cities we build are often rendered in Lego. Artist Ben Hecht uses the material in a slightly different way—to recreate cities as giant Lego brick paintings inspired by satellite imagery taken from above. Creating the series, named Urbicus, is quite an involved process. First, Hecht snaps an aerial photo with his…
Here’s Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shaking hands with a robot during a recent visit to Tokyo. Yet again, I ask my fellow humans, do politicians know something we don’t? Why is Mr. Turnbull soft on robots? The photo seems normal enough. Until you realize that Turnbull may as well be shaking hands with a…
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation has released its nominees for its annual Luddite Awards. Recognizing “the worst of the year’s worst innovation killers,” this year’s crop includes everything from restrictions on car-sharing to bans on automatic license plate readers. But by referring to “AI alarmists” as neo-Luddites, the ITIF has gone too far. The…
A few months ago we told you about the insanely addictive HTML5 Drum Machine, which allows you to craft beats right in your browser. That was rad. The new HTML-909 Rhythm Composer has now arrived to consume your attention. Warning: It’s fun. Whereas the original HTML5 Drum Machine was modeled after the legendary Roland TR-808,…
Seeing the actual process of farming vegetables or fruit or any food item is always fascinating because we get to see how it’s actually done in real life as opposed to just seeing the end result of the produce section at the grocery store. Machines have also made the concept of farming so much different…
A helluva lot of sugar and a helluva lot of machinery. That’s what it takes to make candy canes and it’s very close to being a magical process, as taking something as large as what candy canes start at and shaping it down to the classic skinny hook is so very impressive. SPLOID is delicious…
Google’s started experimenting with saving pictures from your image searches in Chrome or Safari on mobile devices. The new feature lets you keep a cache of bookmarked images available on your smartphone or tablet, and while it hasn’t yet been officially announced, you can try it out now. To make sure the feature works for…
The paper planes you used to fold as a kid flew well, but they probably looked nothing like the slick aircraft used by air forces around the world. So the folks at Featuring-Featuring, a London-based design studio, created a book full of paper airplanes that are far more recognizable. You probably don’t need to be…
Any flab? Any extra skin? Anything that’s remotely loose on your body, it looks like it’s mere seconds from flying away and detaching from the rest of you when you try to withstand 457 mph of wind on your face. Here’s a video showing a test conducted in 1946 where a human subject was exposed…
Can you train a kid to hate sugar? Karl Duncker was a psychologist prowling around Britain in the 1930s. He was a master researcher on peer pressure who offered London children fictional “hemlock” to see if he could sway them to avoid sugar. Karl Duncker was one of the many great scientists who fled Germany…
In an ideal world every product would perfectly balance form and function. But in that ideal world this Lego-compatible ballpoint pen from ThinkGeek wouldn’t exist. Who cares if it’s the least ergonomic writing tool you can buy, you get to customize it with Lego! But not just Lego. According to ThinkGeek, this pen also happens…
What happens if you take 1680 titanium atoms and 180 platinum atoms, then add a Christmas-spirited team of scientists? A nanoscale catalyst to help split water into hydrogen, with more than a passing resemblance to a snowman, is what. This piece of festive art may look like a child’s drawing, but it was in fact…
Japan’s Sport Council has had a turbulent few years deciding on a design for its Olympics stadium, but it’s finally chosen one. This sympathetic structure will be the focal point of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Just last week, the country’s Sport Council released two new proposals for the stadium, which were designed to be smaller…
Apple has spoken out officially in objection to a proposed UK bill that seeks to change the investigatory powers of the British government. The bill, which has been mulled since the start of the year, was presented to the House of Commons in November. It seeks to give British authorities access to the internet use…
There’s little better than a bit of mystery at Christmas, and Google’s fun new interactive thriller has it in spades. Made by the creators of Wallace and Gromit, you can explore the interactive scene on your Android device (and a less exciting version on iOS or the web). Called Special Delivery, the video follows a…
A system is only as secure as the end user, as any grey-haired sysadmin will happily tell you. As a result, all the alphanumeric passwords in the world can’t protect a system if a user is tricked into running malware, something against which there’s very little defense—or so people think. Tom Scott has an interesting…
Thanks to conflicts with Google’s own voice recognition, Microsoft has yanked the always-on ‘Hey Cortana’ feature from the Cortana Android app. [WinBeta]
Looking for some way to justify that $70,000 Tesla Model S? Well, how about this: starting today, Model S owners in some countries will have free in-car access to Spotify Premium. At $10 saved per month, that’s only 583 years until you break even! The move to Spotify isn’t random: Tesla previously offered in-car streaming…
Right on schedule, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster made a beautiful soft landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station moments ago. It’s a huge moment in the history of spaceflight, marking the first time a rocket has ascended into orbit and landed back on Earth. The prospects for the reusable rocket system SpaceX has been chasing…
