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We now live in a time where kids think of calculators as just another app. But before they were even standalone electronic devices, mathematicians and engineers had to suffice with a confusing mechanical device called the slide rule. But don’t worry, this watch is much easier to use. In the right hands a Slide Rule…
We all know that gut-wrenching feeling of reloading a program after a crash, only to learn that hours of precious work have vanished into the ether. But if MIT computer scientists have anything to say about it, a glorious new era of crash-tolerant file systems may soon be upon us. The file system is the…
When you’re truly enjoying yourself at a music festival, it’s all but guaranteed that at some point you’ll get separated from your friends. So to make it easier to find them again, Pepsi made an app-connected blimp that helps guide lost and lonely revelers back to their pals. Created by UK ad agency AMV BBDO,…
If you don’t have access to a decent supply of vibranium adamantium alloy, here’s another way to make yourself a 10-inch replica of Captain America’s iconic shield. Just don’t expect it to be able to deflect bullets, stop the Hulk, or even survive being attacked with a plastic disposable spoon. But what do you expect…
Where did the names for the days of the week come from? It came from the planets! Saturday is Saturn Day. Sunday is Sun Day. Monday is Moon Day. Tuesday is Mars Day. Wednesday is Woden’s Day (Mercury was his messenger). Thursday is Thor’s Day (Jupiter Day). Friday is Venus Day. Watch as Arika Okrent…
The internet’s a big place and growing all the time—it’s no surprise that many of us rely on a read-it-later tool to stockpile articles and posts we just don’t have time to get to immediately. That’s fine, to a point, but these reading lists can quickly spiral out of control to daunting lengths. Get everything…
Did you know that Donald Trump used to have his own university? Well, “university” is a stretch: The unaccredited program offered courses and seminars on how to do real estate deals in true Trump fashion. But some of Trump’s former “students” are pretty unhappy about the education they received. In fact, some allege it was…
The Smithsonian’s National Zoo has been part of an international effort to breed highly endangered giant pandas in captivity ever since Richard Nixon visited China in 1972. But in 43 years, they’ve had only two solid successes–cubs Tai Shan and Bao Bao. They hope the new twins born this weekend will make it four. The…
Potholes are more than just a driving annoyance, they can actually damage a vehicle. So in addition to providing traffic warnings, Google now wants to use a car’s GPS navigation system to detect potholes on a road and use that info to plot a more comfortable route to a destination. Hitting a particularly nasty pothole…
Yeesh! The East Street train bridge in the small town of Westwood, Massachusetts is becoming notorious for ripping off the roofs of trucks that are too tall to pass through it. The destruction is actually pretty impressive to see, I mean, a big ass truck basically gets flipped sideways while everything gets torn apart like…
Over the past five years, 3D printers have gotten cheaper, hardware has gotten smaller, and tinkerer communities have boomed. All of that has spurred a renaissance of prosthetic design, bolstered by an open source ethos and crowdfunded budgets. Robotic prosthetics, as you might expect, are still expensive, complicated, and time-consuming to build. But a growing…
Starved Rock State Park, located about 100 miles from Chicago, is the “#1 attraction in Illinois,” according to its website. The history section on that same site delves into the tragic legend behind the park’s unusual name, but doesn’t mention a more recent event that brought it far more notoriety: a 1960 triple slaying. Can’t…
Astronauts on the International Space Station are resupplied with the safe arrival of JAXA’s HTV-5 “White Stork” cargo tug. The spacecraft delivered a metal-levitating furnace, a high-energy radiation observatory, whiskey, extra food, and experimental materials to the space station on Monday morning. HTV-5 launched on August 19, 2015. Image credit: JAXA This is the fifth…
Rapper Wiz Khalifa was arrested at LAX this week. What was he arrested for? If we’re to believe almost every headline, Wiz’s crime was joyriding a hoverboard at the airport. Are we finally living in the future Back To The Future II promised us? It may seem that way. It’s 2015, just like in the…
The Moto X Style is Motorola’s newest flagship phone, but this year, the company did things a little differently, by launching a second smartphone that’s nearly as interesting as the first: the Moto X Play. However, it was unclear whether the Play would be coming to the US at all. Looks like Verizon may have…
Samsung’s latest Note 5 is out and about. It’s a nifty little device, except it has one Achilles’ heel: Inserting the stylus backwards can break the damn thing. It seems ludicrous. The pen slides in just as easily backwards, clicker first, as forwards, point first. Now, 99 times out of 100, this will never happen.…
Back to the Future is basically the perfect movie. But it totally could have been just a bad 80’s movie if a few things went differently. Like if Eric Stoltz never got replaced with Michael J. Fox, if the movie had used a refrigerator as the time machine instead of the DeLorean or if the…
Real-life crashes are terrifying, but simulated crashes are not only important for safety research, they’re also really, really fun to watch. So NASA’s Langley Research Center posted this montage of crash tests that’s as good a way as any to start a Tuesday morning. Originally built way back in 1965 to test the lunar landing…
The New Horizons spacecraft photographed the day side of the dwarf planet Pluto during its flyby this July. Here’s a full rotation from the iconic heart to the squibbly backside that will taunt us with mysteries until the next time we visit the far reaches of the solar system. The New Horizons spacecraft flew past…
A while back, I reviewed the Olympus OM-D EM-10 and came away damn near head over heels with the small, charming camera. The new Mark II version enhances nearly every aspect of the camera, but it’s still the little friend we know and love. If you’ve never heard of an OM-D EM-10, here’s what you…
