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In continuing his really awesome hand made series, Andy George of How to Make Everything learns how clay pots and bottles are made from the very beginning (dirt!) to the beautiful end (ceramics). In between, you see him show us every step of the process like digging up the dirt, filtering out the crap in…
A New York Times article points out that many languages have creative names for the @ symbol. The Dutch refer to it as a monkey’s tail. For Italians, it’s a snail. But in boring old English, we just say “at.” Let’s get inventive. The Times piece discusses how many English Internet terms have become increasingly…
If you live in the US, most of the imported goods in your possession have traveled through the Port of Los Angeles, one of the largest ports in the world, and now, one of the biggest environmental success stories on the planet. A new study shows that due to major upgrades started a decade ago,…
The 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine just went to three scientists who found parasite-killing chemicals that are now important tools for fighting human diseases. But the chemicals in question weren’t created in a lab: one is produced naturally by a bacterium, the other by a plant used in a traditional Chinese herbal recipe…
Eustace Conway is a naturalist, author and appears on the History Channel’s “Mountain Men.” He was also the subject of the book “The Last American Man,” so his thoughts on manhood in modern day America may be relevant. What you’re reading is an excerpt from an interview that will be published in Wilderness, a new…
San Francisco recently reported that its 911 system has experienced an incredible increase in calls since 2011. Was it due to its growing population? Or over-reporting? Or maybe just over-parenting? Nah: It was butt dials. A few days ago at the Code for America Summit, a team of researchers at Google published the results of…
Here’s another classic math riddle for you to prune your brain on a little bit: if people were lined up from tallest to shortest (meaning a person can see everything in front of them) and all wearing black or white hats, can you figure out which color hat you were wearing even if you had…
Seats, headrests, the entire dashboard—these are just some of the surfaces Nissan is covering with screen displays in their new concept car. We’re already glued to phones and computers already, so why not fry our eyes in front of pixels as car passengers, as well? This concept car from Nissan is called “Teatro for Dayz,”…
Nothing soothes an aching soul like a little ennui with a dash of dark humor. That’s exactly what @sadtopographies, my new favorite Instagram account, does best. It’s literally just screenshots of the saddest places on Earth. While that’s a funny concept, what makes @sadtopographies especially hilarious is the fact that it’s screenshots of Google Maps,…
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. wasn’t just the top producer of the world’s corn, it was the corn market.As of today, it’s less than half.What happened? The change isn’t a product of the U.S. growing less corn to send out—with the exception of a dramatic dip around 2013, due to the drought—it’s that other places…
Disney movies almost always have happy endings but in order to get to the living happily ever after part, some pretty dark things usually have to happen. But they’re not as dark as the original stories the movies are based on. Those are basically horrific tales of torture that have been cleverly repurposed to entertain…
Most people cringe in horror at the mere mention of calculus, but one man loved it so much, he designed his Toronto dream house around it. And now the so-called “Integral House” — named after one of the key concepts in calculus — has hit the market. Asking price: a cool £11.4 million (about $17.2…
Want to have a warmer winter? Now’s the time to save on down jackets and learn about cold weather sleeping bags. PSE just released the lightest compound bow ever and new watches from Suunto bring effective satellite navigation to your wrist. This is What’s New Outside. New Gore-Tex Jackets: We made an attempt at explaining…
Marine biologists have long thought that blue whales indiscriminately scour the oceans as they feed on krill. A new study shows there’s a lot more to the grazing habits of these massive mammals than just blindly swimming through the water. Blue whales are probably the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth. Adults can…
Virtual reality headsets are the future we were promised, but it’s unclear if they’ll just end up being toys for rich people. However, with a little help from Google, Mattel is resurrecting the classic View-Master for VR. The best part? It’s only $30. Kids are going to love this. Borrowing from the design of the…
The verdict is in on the New York City science teacher who accidentally crashed his quadcopter into the standsof the US Open last month. The 26-year-old has been ordered to perform five days of community service. That’s honestly not so bad. Flying drones can be dangerous, and crashing drones into crowded stadiums can be very…
The photos taken by Farm Security Administration photographers in the 1930s are some of the most iconic images in American history. We’re all familiar with some of the snapshots of craggy-faced farmers, but unseen photos in government archives tell a more complex story of a struggling country. Yale just released a terrific database of 170,000…
Palms sweaty. Arms losing power. Joints seem to be disappearing. I feel nervous and sick and stressed out and I’m just watching this video. I can’t even imagine what I’d begin to feel like if I was actually the guys climbing the spires of the 1,094 foot tall Shimao International Plaza skyscraper in Japan. Actually…
As with iOS, the Photos app in OS X El Capitan now supports third-party extensions: That means other apps can plug directly into the Photos interface to give you quicker access to more effects and tools. Here’s how to get started with the new feature. First and foremost you need to install an app or…
The single cable supporting the barely two-year-old eastern span of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge could be facing very real corrosion dangers, the lead designer of the $6.4 billion project warns. In September 2013, San Francisco opened a beautiful, futuristic-looking new eastern span of its Bay Bridge, the city’s other major bridge besides the Golden Gate.…
