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One less entry on a resume that’s a thousand jobs long isn’t going to hurt her career, but a few days ago Mattel confirmed to the New York Post that it had stopped production of its SeaWorld-themed Barbie products as a result of concerns raised by environmental groups. PETA—People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals—has…
Because days have passed and like, people breathed air, another Marvel movie is releasing. This one is a big one—Avengers!—but let’s be honest, all Marvel movies are pretty much the same at this point. Good superheroes, weird bad guys, crazy action, a little light fun and an after credits scene. It’s the same formula over…
You’ve probably never fired an M4 carbine. Until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But at a recent DARPA demo day, I loaded a magazine (also a first for me), snuggled up to the deadly assault rifle, and looked through one of the most technologically advanced smart scopes ever built. Then I pulled the…
What happens when you stick a pair of eyes onto a random object? It comes to life. And so for this week’s Shooting Challenge, we asked you to push anthropomorphism to the next level. Here are the results. Nom Nom Nom Not much to the setup actually. I saw this tree while hiking and thought…
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been moving our best video content over to YouTube where it will live in peaceful sanctity. We’ve got a whole mess of short documentaries, hands-on testing, and absurd nonsense like this. With so much more to come! Help us keep the flow of video alive by subscribing to our…
It’s been nearly 3 years, but at last, the second half of Broken Age, the game that kicked off the crowdfunded game development boom, is out this week. Did you back the kickstarter? Are you going to see what all the fuss is about? Come talk shop about all things gaming in the new edition…
We all have at least one question about the formidable bed bug: How do I avoid having this goddamned pest infest my home? Actually make that two: How do I avoid getting bed bugs and how do I get rid of them if I do? Brooke Borel, a science journalist and two-time victim of bedbug…
Smartwatches, tablets, and phones are great, but they’re not exactly futuristic technology. To find that, you have to look to the scientists and designers who are prototyping entirely new kinds of devices. Last week, dozens of groups from universities around the world gathered at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Computer-Human Interaction Conference in Seoul—also known…
Michelangelo’s David might be the penultimate example of Renaissance sculpting, but Arjan Oude Kotte’s MS Jutlandia is the penultimate example of Lego shipbuilding. At ten-feet long and five-feet tall it was built using somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000 pieces of Lego, and at that size it’s the perfect scale for its minifig crew. The real-life…
Even if you’re one of the very best at something, you can always learn more. That’s basically the mantra of Frank Shattuck, an amazingly dedicated tailor who spends countless hours and thousands of stitches hand making a suit just to get it perfect. Anything he makes shows the culmination of everything he’s learned. This is…
Ever since cars first hit the road drivers have been terrible at parking, so it makes sense that we’re finally leveraging all the advancements we’ve made in robotics to do that for us. But instead of an automaton hopping into the driver’s seat, these flat but strong robots are able to lift a vehicle by…
After weeks of leaks, LG’s new flagship is here. It’s nothing revolutionary—merely the most meticulously designed G-phone yet. But that could be a good thing. Where other Android handset makers—ahem, Samsung—keep pushing for pizazz, the G4 is about practicality. The basics The G4 has a 2560 x 1440 Quad HD, 5.5-inch display, just like the…
I’m really surprised that Dropbox didn’t already offer this feature, but the file-sharing service now allows comments on its shared files, just like Google Drive. This’ll make it a lot easier to add context or ask questions about files you’re sharing in a group. To start a comment conversation, you tag someone’s username or email…
Few of us have the financial resources to build a Batmobile that does everything the ones in the movies can do. Or even a full-scale replica that just drives, for that matter. But if you can scrape together a thousand bucks, you can easily get your hands on this 1:12-scale remote control Tumbler toy that…
Spending the day at Ikea is a fun treat in the best of times, a relationship-destroying nightmare in the worst. For one Airbus designer, though, following the yellow arrows around the bins of votive candles and wall hooks was a breakthrough moment. Lead image: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan The cockpit of any airplane is the result…
Instagrammers with weiner on the brain will have to look elsewhere: Instagram announced yesterday it’s adding emoji hashtags, but you can’t search for photos hashtagged with the eggplant, a vegetable considered more penile than produce these days. You might know it as aubergine, the nightshade species solanum melongena, or as delicious with parmesan, but sexters…
The Silk Road’s convicted kingpin won’t get a new trial, a judge ruled today. A motion for retrial filed by Ross Ulbricht’s defense team was rejected by Judge Katherine Forrest. Forrest rebuffed several arguments about why Ulbricht needed a retrial, even after two of the federal agents working to convict him were caught stealing bitcoin.…
The dull throbbing hum that accompanies you on your jet-setting adventures might be quieted in the near future. Scientists from MIT and North Carolina State University collaborated on a thin rubber membrane that can be installed throughout the body of a plane like acoustical tiles, essentially sound-proofing the interior. To keep the plane’s weight low,…
I recently took my first vacation in two years. It was fun! But I was excited to get home, raise my shades and relax in the finicky but sort of useful smart home I’d spent the past few months building. When I walked in the door, all of the automation was gone. The light on…
Military researchers at DARPA have been developing ammunition which can change its path in mid-air to ensure it always hits its target. Now, it can even correct itself mid-flight to hit a moving target. The Department’s Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) is a .50 caliber bullet that maneuvers itself as it travels through the air.…
