Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
It looks straight out of science fiction, but this terrifying contraption is actually one very modern string instrument. The “Piezoelectric Violin,” brainchild of architects at Miami’s MONAD Studio, has got only two strings, and it’s 3D printed, but according to the designers, it still plays and sounds like its ancestral instrument. The violin is slated…
Since we’re all pretty much obsessed with the zombie apocalypse at this point, I guess it was only a matter of time before people started zombie-pranking each other. We’ve seen this attempted before, but the couple behind Prank vs Prank has just pulled off what’s got to be one of the most well-organized zombie attacks…
Amazon’s much anticipated same-day drone delivery service Prime Air reached another milestone this week: The Federal Aviation Administration has just given Amazon clearance to begin flight-testing the drones in the United States. Again. For real this time. This is the second time in as many months that the online retail giant has received a drone…
An early warning system for earthquakes can’t come soon enough for the US, which is lagging behind other seismically active countries like Mexico and Japan. But for an early warning system to be effective it needs lots of sensors, which can be expensive to install and maintain. A new study says we might not need…
We called bull on few things this week, like blaming almonds for California’s drought, or the gross injustice of not being able to watch Murphy Brown online, and how what Apple is really selling us is the Future, not a watch or a laptop. Also some robots riding horses. Enjoy. Republican Senators Just Voted To…
This morning, I made a 30-minute appointment at the Apple store for a “fitting” of the Apple Watch Edition—a gadget which starts at $10,000. I could never afford one, much less the $15,000 watch I actually tried. Apple didn’t seem to mind. From the beginning, I found myself surprisingly uneasy about walking into a store…
It’s nearly the weekend. What a week! Today alone we looked at illegal cremation, crazy knife laws, how to watchGame of Thrones, a vape that won’t smoke your wallet, Russia banning all your meme fun, sword-fighting robots and much more. But enough about us. How’s you? Image via I hope you have mad weekend plans.…
Forensic photography is such an important part of solving crimes and getting a behind-the-scenes peek at what goes on throughout the process is so fascinating. Like most photography, forensic photographers utilize light to capture what they need to see. They match different crimes to different light wavelengths to pull out the relevant details. I learned…
The last time we played around with Motorola’s Moto Maker it was for the original Moto X. You could change the color of the back, the front, the metal accents, and even add a custom engraving to the back. Well, Moto is back at it but this time with the Moto 360 smartwatch. Let’s check…
Game of Thrones is one of the best shows on TV but sometimes the plot twists, sudden deaths and cruel storylines can make it hurt to watch. You never know when you’re gonna fall in love with a character and then see their head get chopped off or smashed in. This hilarious animation of Game…
Japan’s Namiki Laboratory is known for its robotic arms and high-speed vision systems that can move and react faster than a human being can. That’s the neat part. The scary part is that for some reason the researchers there have decided that teaching their creations to effectively fight with swords was a good idea. Have…
Why isn’t War Machine a member of the movies’ Avengers? I mean, when you think about it, he’s basically Tony Stark, in terms of battle capability. Hell, he evenshows up to their parties. So why isn’t he? Tell you what, while I ponder this, you stare lovingly into the eyes of mini-Don Cheadle here, the…
Companies like Google are racing ahead on driverless cars development, and technovisionary Elon Musk claims one day manual drivingwill be illegal. But after watching the concept video for a Bosch driverless car above, I’m curious if what we want isn’t a car that’s part driverless and part old-fashioned. The Bosch vision for a “highly automated”…
Ramen burgers are just nutty mad scientist creations cooked up to force people to form lines. It’s shock value packaged in a sandwich and it doesn’t even make sense. But this. This spaghetti bun and meatball sandwich makes perfect sense. Spaghetti and meatballs are perfect together. A meatball parm is a perfect sandwich. Let’s add…
Knives! Either pointy and scary or practical and useful, depending on who you ask. And that’s reflected in our bizarre hodgepodge of unclearly written knife laws. Let’s make them easy to understand. Above: Alan Ladd plays a heavily fictionalized Jim Bowie in The Iron Mistress. But Aren’t Knives Weapons? A knife is a tool. As…
Man, this is such a cool shot of the awesome tilt-rotor aircraft, the V-22 Osprey. The crazy flying machine is on a US Navy ship at night and the way it’s illuminated and glowing in the dark makes me think it’s about to dive into some sort of dark underworld mission inspired from The Grid…
New Orleans visitors interested in macabre history are required to pass by the LaLaurie Mansion, located at 1140 Royal Street. Its genteel exterior masks its horrifying history, revealed 181 years ago today when a fateful fire broke out and the secrets within its walls were unleashed. As the History Channel reports, the source of the…
Not gonna lie, I rejoice in demonizing Photoshop for its role in spreading visual lies and viral fakeage. But pinning the blame solely on Photoshop is misplaced: Manipulating photos didn’t start with the digital era; the first faked photo dates back to the mid-1800s. New Statesman chronicles the history of fake or tampered images, which…
Who cares about playing with a regulation or Fifa-approved ball when you can now play soccer with a tiny version of the Death Star? It can’t destroy planets (a minor trade-off) but this Star Wars Celebration-exclusive collectible could be yours if you’re heading to the festivities in Anaheim, California, next week. Just remember that it’s…
When anti-Chinese censorship services got hit with a crippling distributed-denial-of-service attack last month, researchers quickly pegged China as the culprit. Now, Citizen Lab has pinpointed the Chinese tool that made this attack happen. They’re calling it the Great Cannon. Separate from but located within China’s Great Firewall, this “Great Cannon” injects malicious codeas a way…
