Tech News

In Modern Wars, What Happens To Captured Weapons?

For the U.S. Army, it depends on the type of weapons, and what our needs are. In Iraq, my unit regularly captured caches (sometimes very large ones). Typically these were your standard “slavshit” weapons — busted up AK-47s and AKMs, old RPKs, a few RPG-7 launchers and the like. We’d search through them, take anything…

Nobody Knows Why Giant Piles of Worms Mysteriously Gathered in Texas

After floods hit Denison, Texas last week, park rangers were mystified to find stringy clumps dotting the rain-soaked streets in inexplicably organized lines. It was no pasta-based après-flood prank. It was just piles of living, squiggling worms. Eisenhower State Park Superintendent Ben Herman told ABC News that rangers aren’t sure what’s up with the worms.…

Why Haven’t You Cancelled Your Cable?

Today the FCC voted to “effectively allow cable companies to charge whatever they like for all broadcast TV” — which is a shitty move. Most things about cable companies, the most hated of industries in terms of customer satisfaction, are terrible. Have you cut your cord or are you still wired in? It’s become a…

Want to know more about the mysterious Magic Leap and its plan to make virtual objects appear in the real world? Watch this fireside chat with three of the company’s leaders, including Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson. [MIT Tech Review]

Why a Footbridge In London Is Inspiring So Much Outrage

It doesn’t take much to make some cities angry. But in London, a special kind of rage is flowing over a project that seems pretty unobjectionable: A footbridge over the River Thames. Why? The Garden Bridge is pitched as an “enchanted space,” a “beautifully engineered copper-nickel structure” that’s home to a 1,200-foot-long garden spearheaded by…

You Can Now Own The Astrolabe From The Game Of Thrones Opening Credits

Or, as you might know it, “that spinning bronze sun thing that flies over the map while you’re humming along to the theme tune”. Yes, one of the coolest parts of Game of Thrones’ opening will soon be an elaborate display piece you put on your shelf. Perfectly for Game of Thrones though, you’ll have…

1961 AT&T Film Shows Just How Awkward Videophone Shopping Could’ve Been

The ARPANET didn’t make its first host-to-host connection until 1969. But long before anyone was online, communications companies were trying to figure out how to make interactive home shopping a reality. This short 1961 film from Bell Systems (now AT&T) showcases the futuristic tech that they were imagining—including a way to shop for clothes by…

If We’re Going to Do Celebrity #DroughtShaming Let’s Do It Right

In April, snitchy Californians lodged 22,000 water-wasting complaints that resulted in 838 penalties issued. And guess what? The state reduced overall water use by 13.5 percent. It’s evidence that these kinds of reporting efforts might be working. What’s not really working? Posting photos of celebrity homes on Twitter. Ever since the #DroughtShaming hashtag started making…

A Tower PC for Your Less Than Legal Hobbies

Gardening can be a relaxing and rewarding hobby. But sometimes, depending on your choice of crops, you need to keep that hobby under wraps. And that’s where The Server Farm comes in. It looks like a vanilla desktop PC, but instead of electronics, inside you’ll find grow lights, reflection panels, and a compact watering system.…

How To Climb Big Cliffs Without Ropes And Not Die

Rock climbing can be divided into a crazy mess of sub-genres: top-roping, sport, trad, and about a thousand too bizarre to name. But they almost all rely on ropes to catch you if you fall. There is, however, another way: severing the nylon umbilical, and climbing rope-free above water instead. In climbing terms, ‘soloing’ (often…

Your Next Windows PC Might Fit Inside a Phone Charger

What if that phone charger you casually toss into your bag everyday was more than just a power adapter? What if was secretly a fully fledged Windows PC? Well, then you’d have the Quanta Compute Plug. The smart power-plug was just unveiled at Computex today—it’s not the first plug-based PC we’ve seen, but it might…

The Secret 1949 Radiation Experiment That Contaminated Washington

The physicists who invented the nuclear bomb worked out of Los Alamos in New Mexico, but the people who did the dirty work of making the bombs were in Hanford, Washington. Throughout the Cold War, Hanford churned out plutonium for our nuclear arsenal. It was also, conveniently, a place to experiment with radiation. Today, Hanford…

The Google Photos Moment

I’ve got 300+ GB of photos and videos sitting on a couple hard drives. I never look at them. I’ve never found the time to organize them. They just sit there. The new Google Photos claims it can fix that. It’s like Gmail for your photos, the company whispers. You know what? It’s the rare…

This Bike Parking Lot Is More Advanced Than Most Car Garages

Cyclists in the US are used to feeling envy at Dutch bike infrastructure. I mean, just look at this bridge. Sigh. Now, Delft is showing off its bike parking lot—and it’s as technologically advanced as you’d expect. A video uncovered today by Citylab’s Sarah Goodyear gives us an introduction to Delft’s newly-built Central Railway Station.…

Microsoft’s New Phone Costs About As Much As a Drink at a Fancy Bar

Cheap smartphones don’t have to suck, but Microsoft’s updated Nokia 105 is on a whole other level compared to some of the budget-friendly phones you might be considering. This feature phone is just $20. $20! Think of all the things you can buy for $20 that kind of suck. That can get you like…two tickets…

This Lego kid’s room is so perfect it doesn’t even look like Lego

What’s most impressive about César Soares’ adorable kid’s room diorama isn’t all the knick-knacks and tiny toys he’s managed to fill it with. It’s the fact that it’s completely made of Lego, but doesn’t actually look like it at all. You can see the occasional stud, but you’ll have to look hard for them. If…

Apple Recalls Beats’ Pill XL Speaker Because It’s a Big Old Fire Hazard

Beats’ Pill XL speakers are HOT HOT HOT! As in, they will literally catch on fire and you should remove them from your home or office environment immediately. Appleis recallingBeats’ largest Pill speaker model because overheating batteries may cause the oblong, overpriced speakers to be set ablaze. “Apple has determined that, in rare cases, the…

Does Water Really Swirl Differently in Australia? YouTube Stars Find Out

Smarter Every Day and Veritasium, two of the best science channels on YouTube, have teamed up to answer once and for all: Does water really flow the other way in the southern hemisphere? Destin Sandlin, host of Smarter Every Day (based in Huntsville, Alabama) and Derek Muller of Veritasium (who’s in Sydney) each filmed a…

50 Gorgeous Examples of Pinball Machine Art Across Seven Decades

PBall Gallery, a pinball museum in Budapest, Hungary, contains more than 130 once-banned (and dreaded!) electromechanical gaming machines. It’s an incredible collection, and a reminder that while most of us were glued to the game, these games are also little works of art. Pball is Europe’s largest interactive pinball exhibition, and anyone who’s into arcade…

Chimps Would Totally Cook If Only We Made Ape-Friendly Easy Bake Ovens

For a long time, the only two things that have really separated humans from apes is our ability to make fire and and our propensity towards consuming french fries. Turns out that chimpanzees likely possess both these qualities as well, thanks to a study that claims they have the “desire” to cook. A New York…