Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
Believe it or not, Disney has a team of researchers at its disposal that do more than just make that robot Lincoln seem more lifelike. The team’s latest research involves a custom algorithm it created that can turn any 3D model, even one that’s oddly-shaped and asymmetrical, into a perfectly-balanced spinning top by simply creating…
There’s a lot of slang associated with drinking. Three sheets to the wind. Hair of the dog. On the wagon. We all know them, we all use them, but most of us don’t know where they came from or what they really mean. Read on, and you’ll be the smartest person at the bar. It’s…
The organic food movement owes a lot to Jerome Rodale. As the publisher of Prevention and Organic Gardening and Farming magazines in the 1940s and 50s, Rodale was promoting “organic food” before most people had even heard the term. But today he’s probably best remembered for his death. He died of a heart attack on…
You’d think a guy driving a car with “Google Maps” written on the door would never get lost. But a Street View driver in Arkansas proved that user error knows no bounds, going the wrong way down a one-way street, busting an illegal U-turn, allegedly blowing a red light, and hitting another car. Hope you…
Readers of the Memphis Commercial Appeal found a strangely out-of-place paragraph in an article about business zoning regulations: A 350-plus word status update apparently intended for the Facebook page of the newspaper’s copy editor. At least she alerted us that it’d be long. Jim Romenesko’s blog has a snapshot of the article as it appeared…
The IXION windowless jet—which makes its interior transparent using display panels that cover most of the cabin—might look like an impossible sci-fi concept but the fact is that we are not very far from this. Check out the video. It’s so cool. The concept airplane interior—created by Technicon Design—uses external cameras to capture a 360-degree…
It doesn’t take long for a new Android phone or tablet to get cluttered up with rolls of pictures, redundant apps, unused widgets, cached files and the troublingly vague “Misc” data that seems to take up more and more internal storage with each passing week. Take a few minutes to blow the cobwebs out of…
It’s been a red-letter past few years for both teens and sexters alike. So it’s not surprising that, today, we find ourselves in the era of the sext-addled teen. But the Ontario Provincial Police think they might be able to stop teens at the source with a potent combination of app-based sarcasm and “keep calm…
At last, here’s the video of NASA’s LDSD test—the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator system that will take a new rover to Mars, one even larger than Curiosity. It’s impressive to see the entire system in action, working like clockwork even while the supersonic parachute display failed. Listen to the commentary by Ian Clark explaining everything in…
Gaming laptops are going mobile. Of course, the word “laptop” means that’s always been the idea behind these machines. But until recently, gaming on the go meant being strapped with a pretty hefty piece of computing. Such massive hardware, usually with a scorching hot chassis and shit battery life, makes you wonder if it’s even…
NASA just released the video footage of the prototype Low Density Supersonic Decelerator (aka, the “Flying Saucer”) first test flight over Hawaii, and it is incredible.
It’s not every day that the average person gets to blow something up at their job. Even rarer: Getting to blow up the neighborhood where you used to live. But as Next City reports today, that’s exactly what happened to the last remaining resident of an abandoned suburb that served as the testing ground for…
For as long as I can remember, I’ve dreamed about a pair of earbuds that could pump music into my brain without the fuss of wires or plugs. And in recent years, various companieshave tried (and failed) to make good ones. A funded Kickstarter projectpromises to finally succeed. They’re called OwnPhones. Billed as “the world’s…
In June, Antiques Roadshow visited Birmingham, Alabama, my home for the last three years. I don’t own a Tiffany lamp or a 19th century Chesterfield sofa. I do, though, have a flatscreen television that’s ancient by consumer electronics standards. So that’s what I brought to be appraised. Full disclosure: I’d arranged to have my 2008…
This Epson projector has fantastic reviews, 2,000 lumens, and the lowest price tag we’ve ever seen. Plus, scroll down the page to special offers, and Amazon will throw in a free $100 gift card with your purchase. [Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350 + $100 Amazon Gift Card, $1000] If you’re in the market for a…
Ivan Kuznetsov doesn’t care that the world’s highest construction site—atop the 2,073-foot (632-meter) Shanghai Tower, the second tallest building on Earth—is full of ice and it’s slippery as hell. His compatriots did it before him without ice, so he had to best them. Here are more of his adventures for you to scream. Of course…
You know that disappointing feeling when you bite into a banana and there’s nothing on the inside? Normally they can’t compete with the likes of a creme-filled Twinkie, or a caramel-packed tube of Rolos, but the DestapaBanana levels the playing field. It lets you inject bananas—still in their peel—with all kinds of fillings so you…
One time I drove five hours out of my way on a road trip to Monument Valley, only to be devastated when I arrived. Instead of the bright red buttes I’d envisioned against a clear blue sky, a gray haze had settled into the valley, rendering the landscape flat and lifeless. My photographs could have…
Can you guess who shared this pearl of marketing wisdom? “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” Was it Apple founder Steve Jobs? Advertising legend David Ogilvy? Good guesses, but no. It was White House chief of staff Andrew Card in September of 2002, explaining why the Bush administration…
Unless you’re trying to prove yourself on some ill-conceived reality survival show, it’s always a good idea to bring some way to easily start a fire when you head off into the wilderness. But if things go awry, this simple set of shoelaces can be used to start a fire in the event of an…
