Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Nearly 100 years ago, there was no drug to help with erectile dysfunction, but Bernard Scheinkman came up with an alternative. It’s not clear whether this nightmarish penile splint was ever manufactured — but you have to love the baroque logic of combining a cock ring, an open condom, and a shelf. Or maybe this…
Welcome to Thursday and another roundup of apps. Oddly, iOS really upped its app game this week with lots of must have apps and additions. Android came in with a few but not nearly as many. But Windows Phone might have been the biggest winner with new software from Microsoft. Let’s take a look, shall…
A few weeks ago hacker Samy Kamkar showed the world how to easily crack a Master combination lock—the same kind used on thousands of school lockers—in eight tries or fewer. But who has the time for that? Thankfully, Samy has followed up with this wonderful 3D-printed contraption that does all the hard work for you,…
You’ll want to read the rest of this post with your eyes shut if you have even the remotest fear of heights: This is the world’s longest skywalk, which recently opened in China. The skywalk allows crazy people to walk 87 feet off a cliff for spectacular vomit-inducing views. Don’t worry, it’s only about a…
Like a celestial Rorschach test, I can see so many things when I stare at this wonderful photo captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s like static on a TV. Or like a crowded future city lit by buildings stacked on buildings. But what it really is is even cooler: it’s the first time pictures…
Gov. Jeb Bush hates the Affordable Care Act so much, he’d rather use the health apps on the Apple Watch instead. “I think we should repeal Obamacare,” Bush said to a clapping crowd at Arizona’s Four Peaks Brewery. Then he pointed to his Apple Watch. “On this device in five years will be applications that…
Every social network has a different personality, and Reddit has long been the leering uncle who occasionally gives you a pat on the back when you need it most and tells you where to buy weed. But Uncle Reddit is having a crisis of conscience. The site just introduced a new anti-harassment policy, following on…
Cities are doing a lot of hemming and hawing when it comes to the rideshare apps that are devouring their taxi businesses. In one of the more progressive moves, the Southern California city of Long Beach is revamping its taxi fleet with a big design and tech upgrade so they can tackle these startups head…
No, that’s not a sponge. It’s a piece of metal that’s light enough to float. Researchers at New York University, who invented the substance, say it’s also strong enough to build boats with. This metal is called a syntactic foam. It’s a magnesium alloy riddled with hollow silicon carbide spheres, a bit like metallic Swiss…
To achieve its claimed ability to remove pathogens, water going into CamelBak’s new UV purifier must first be cleaned by a filter from a rival manufacturer. And that rival product is cheaper. That’s according to CamelBak’s own lab testing. And its not the only water treatment technology that’s incapable of performing as claimed. This failure…
In 1965, 16-year-old Sylvia Likens died after being tortured by her adult guardian — with the help of the woman’s family and other neighborhood children. The prosecutor called it “the most terrible crime ever committed in the state of Indiana.” Now, nearly 50 years later, Sylvia’s sister has mysteriously vanished. Los Angeles’ ABC 7 reports…
Life demanded it so the mad genius that is Colin Furze delivered a jet-powered go kart that can go as fast as cars on a highway. The jet-powered go kart is so ridiculous it basically spits out fire while you drive it. I mean, the metal pipes turns orange because it burns so hot. What…
Noted technophile and Moon colonization advocate Newt Gingrich has some news: He’s reviewing the Apple Watch for Mashable, which is a pretty sweet gig for an emerging gadget blogger. No word on when Ron Paul’s Oculus Rift review is going live. Contact the author at [email protected].
We know that Silicon Valley has a women problem, and it’s not just at Pied Piper. Even worse, perhaps, is what happens when these mostly-male tech companies are invited to talk about their success with other mostly-male tech companies at public events. It’s not at all unusual to see seven penises onstage without a vagina…
The internet is full of plans for building your own old-school arcade cabinet that can play all the classic games you grew up with. But with just a single image, Love Hultén makes a strong case for buying one of his beautiful Pixelkabinett 42 cabinets instead of trying to build one yourself. The bad news…
Oil tankers are the skyscraper-sized vessels that power the global economy, so it’s not often that we imagine a future without them. But a group of architects is doing just that—and proposing a way to reuse them as infrastructure. Right now, decommissioned oil tankers are scrapped, often in ship graveyards in developing countries where poor…
You’ve heard that we know more about space than we do the deep ocean. But did you know it’s so unexplored that scientists discover new species just 200-500 feet down, sometimes at a rate of 14 an hour? A (sort of) manmade enemy threatens those efforts though, and they can’t kill, study, and eat it…
It took Apple seven years to learn one hard lesson: The right security features can deter thieves from stealing your devices. Unfortunately, the lesson hasn’t transferred to Apple’s new wearable. The iPhone’s Activation Lock requires a passcode to erase, reactivate, or use a smartphone when the Find My iPhone feature is turned on. Great idea!…
Biohacking is one of those buzzy blanket terms used to describe a whole spectrum of ways that people modify or improve their bodies, from fairly tame experiments like drinking nasty butter coffee to more intense modifications like growing extra ears out of their arms. Implanting magnets and RFID chips underneath the skin to experiment with…
Conrad Milster is the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York’s chief engineer and has been working at the power plant for over 50 years. Conrad Milster is also such a wonderful character and this short doc on his life is such a joy to watch. You get to see the old technology and gear of…