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As the world’s cities expand at faster and faster speeds, so does its use of cement. One oft-quoted statistic shows that China alone used as much cement in the last three years as the US used in the last 100. Just one problem: Cement is responsible for pushing a hell of a lot of carbon…
Dr. Oz is full of shit. He peddles garbage advice on his garbage TV show. And that’s not just my opinion. It’s science! Science which tells us that Dr. Oz gives advice that’s baseless or wrong about half the time. But now his peers in the medical community are speaking out. Astoundingly, Dr. Oz is…
Good virtual reality is coming, but it isn’t here yet. That’s worrying. What if someone buys a cheap smartphone adapter, has a bad experience, and writes off VR as a fad? But Google, the company providing the cheapest solution of all—Cardboard—may have an answer. An answer that involves not strapping them to your head. Starting…
Lego has just released some official photos of its upcoming Tatooine Mini-build playset. And like the Lego SHIELD Helicarrier, the miniature 178-piece set includes microfigure versions of Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2-D2, and a pair of Jawas—just look at how adorably tiny they are. The $40 set also comes with a hilariously out-of-scale minifig version of…
I’ve wanted a fitness tracker for years. Something discreet with crazy good battery life that not only quantifies my movement but also packages the data in a way I can understand. The UP3 promised that and more last fall, and now it’s finally ready to ship this week—but it’s bringing along two new friends. The…
It’s one of the most addictive things humans can do. Everyone does it. And it feels so good when you get to do it. We’re talking about cracking your joints. Researchers have alway been curious as to where the sound of joints cracking comes from and put a hand under MRI to find out (and…
Today in Anaheim, California, Star Wars Celebration 2015 kicks off in one of the best years to ever be a Star Wars fan. Not only does Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters in December bringing with it new characters and the original cast, but ThinkGeek has just revealed a huge collection of Star Wars-themed…
Bug-eating evangelists like to talk about how crickets are caloric magic, claiming the insects can transform table scraps into a crunchy, healthy protein. A new study debunks at least one aspect of what’s being touted everywhere as the food of the future. Turns out crickets are not the resource-efficient calorie-making machines we believe them to…
We love to marvel at the advanced robotics projects funded by the US Department of Defense because they’re so impressively—if clumsily—getting around and doing stuff like real humans. Motherboard’s latest documentary is an important reminder that today’s nerdy research will create the weapons of tomorrow. DARPA funded robots like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas and Big Dog…
A new Twilight Zone exhibit opened this week at the Bundy Museum of History and Art in Binghamton, New York. And we all have just six months to check it out. The items on display come from the personal collection of Mike Pipher, a collector who has amassed the world’s largest collection of Twilight Zone…
British rock n’ roll band Muse have a hotly anticipated new record coming out soon. It’s called Drones. Topical! We’ll optimistically reserve judgement on the music. The band’s plan to fly actual drones around over the fans at concerts, however… um. Los Angeles’ Alt 98.7 has hot details about the new record, which isn’t just…
There is honor in having a worn down book with creases on its spine and dogeared corners and highlighter marks on its pages and a cover that barely resembles anything anymore. But sometimes, a book gets a little too roughed up and is on the brink of falling apart and needs fixing. You can fix…
Happy Thursday. I’ve got a collection of apps to feast your eyeballs on, little bits of software that makes shipping, photo curation, and GIF selfies (which I guess is a thing) way easier. You can also download some free apps to make boring messaging more creative or some simple utility apps that measure the performance…
The Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, NY just opened a new installation, “Autopsy for a Nation: The Death of Abraham Lincoln,” marking the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. The exhibit’s key items include handwritten notes by the physicians who conducted the President’s autopsy. Lincoln was shot April 14, 1865 by John Wilkes Booth while watching…
To continue to compete with the likes of Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud, Dropbox really needs an online office suite to call its own—so it’s borrowed Microsoft’s. You can now edit any .docx, .xlsx or .pptx file from right inside the Dropbox web interface, with no extra software required, and here’s how to go about…
Despite a laugh track, there are apparently still enough fans of the sitcom Seinfeld to justify a series of figures based on some of the show’s more popular and memorable characters. So Funko has recently announced a new range of its Vinyl Idolz figures that will include Seinfeld characters like Kramer, the Soup Nazi, Newman,…
Yoshida Brewery in northern Japan is a 144 year old family brewery that makes sake the old fashioned way. That is, they make sake in a way that preserves a 2000 year old tradition. Erik Shirai made a beautiful short of the people at Yoshida and the process of making sake in his film The…
If you don’t mind waiting hours to fill a massive flash drive with files then by all means go and drop a few hundred bucks on a 256 GB drive. But if you value your time, you’ll want to seriously consider a compact SSD flash drive instead. They boast sustained transfer speeds topping out at…
Tinder teams up with Instagram, handwriting makes a comeback, and Sony may release its next flagship smartphone sooner than you’d think. BitStream has all the news and rumors you missed in the last 24 hours. Tinder has always been more about looks and less about personality, like going to a speed dating event but you’re…
This looks like a fairly normal piece of stainless steel mesh—but it’s coated with a special substance which allows it to block oil while allowing water through. Developed by researchers at Ohio State, the coating is apparently inspired by lotus leaves, which do the opposite—repelling water but not oil. The team attempted to replicate the…
