Tech News

Here’s a fun little Google Maps easter egg: ask for directions from Snowdon to the Brecon Beacons in Wales, and it’ll estimate travel time by car, bus, foot, plane, bicycle, or… dragon! The journey takes 21 minutes by the country’s national emblem apparently, compared to 3 hours 20 minutes by car. [The Next Web]

The Five Dumbest Ways That People Defend NSA Spying

Over the past year, as the Snowden revelations have rolled out, the government and its apologists have developed a set of talking points about mass spying that the public has now heard over and over again. From the President, to Hilary Clinton to Rep. Mike Rogers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and many others, the arguments are…

The FDA Has a Flickr Gallery of Recalled Products That Could Kill You

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a dubious bottle of tablets from the back of a bathroom cabinet or suspicious-looking pudding from the local store, help may be at hand. The FDA runs a wonderfully useful Flickr gallery to which it posts pictures of recalled products that might just kill you. Discovered by Popular…

There’s no shortage of Steam Machines going on sale, but ASUS’s newly announced GR8 seems, well, great: it only takes up 2.5 liters of space, yet packs a Core i7 chip, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti, 4K output and Miracast support. That sounds like a portable console PC to us.

Google’s First Fashionable Glass Frames: Perhaps Not That Fashionable?

We’ve long known that Google wanted to make Glass fashionable, and now it’s teamed up with Diane Von Furstenberg to create a series of alternative frames for its face-mounted computer. You can decide for yourselves if they look good or not. The DVF collection comprises five new frames and eight new shades with which to…

The HTC One (E8): A Plastic Alternative to HTC’s Flagship Phone

HTC has announced a budget version of the One (M8), called the One (E8). It drops the premium metal build of the M8 in favour of a range of brightly coloured plastic casings—but otherwise its specs are surprisingly strong. There’s a 5-inch 1080p display up front, a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 backed by 2GB of…

Watch teenagers get hilariously confused about the internet in the 90s

“Kids these days”, every person who ever grew up said about the people younger than them who hadn’t grown up yet. Kids just don’t know how we had it. They don’t know what it’s like. They don’t know that the Internet was a confusing place that was mind numbingly slow and that it wasn’t everywhere.…

Plummeting to the ground from a hot air balloon looks so peaceful

Skydiving is generally a heart pumping exercise that makes your pores ooze adrenaline. I mean, when you’re falling to the ground tensing up is a natural reaction. But you shouldn’t. You should jump and plummet to the ground with grace. Like these guys and girls who made a hot air balloon jump look as relaxing…

Dog uses catapult contraption to play fetch with itself

I don’t know who is smarter. The dog owner (apparently, an engineer) who built this catapult to allow his dog to play fetch with itself or the dog who knows how to use the contraption so perfectly that it can keep itself entertained when its owner is busy. Either way, they’re both genius. Load the…

A Sober History of Shuttle Disasters is a Grim Reminder of the Dangers of Space

Space is beautiful, enchanting, awe-inspiring, and utterly unforgiving. We celebrate the victories, but don’t let a string of successes deceive you into thinking spaceflight is easy. A new documentary investigates the major malfunctions, technical and procedural, that led to NASA space shuttle explosions. Smoke plume of the Challenger explosion. Image credit: NASA Retro Report just…

Does a Storm’s Gender Impacts Willingness to Evacuate?

As if naming hurricanes weren’t already complicated enough, a new study suggests that the gender of a storm’s name may impact if people are willing to evacuate. Except, it’s probably not that simple. Read on for a paper-summary, then head over here for a critical analysis of the research‘s limitations. Tl;dr? Statistics are complicated to…

Bomber pilot saves the day in Boeing 737 emergency landing

This is US Air Force Captain Mark Gongol and his usual ride, a B-1B Lancer. But on December 30, 2013, Gongol wasn’t flying his four-engine supersonic strategic nuclear bomber. He was just one of the 151 passengers inside United Flight 1637 but, when the pilot had a cardiac problem, he knew he had to step…

NASA Satellite Spies on the Tiniest of Sea Critters

‘Tis the season for plankton blooms! It’s time to start scouring satellite images for the distinctive swaths of green and cyan blue that indicate plankton are reproducing in massive blooms that fill out the lower end of the food chain.

This image of a dice rolling in space over the Earth is not a photoshop

There’s a new American astronaut in space. His name is Reid Wiseman—a guy who was a naval aviator and a test pilot before joining NASA as an astronaut in 2011. He seems like a pretty cool guy too. He just arrived to the International Space Station and he’s already taking some pretty neat photos, like…

Dad Invents Kid’s Seat For Bike Shares—Promptly Gets Cease and Desist

There are many perks to bike shares, but there’s a distinct advantage for the entrepreneurially minded: you’re not allowed to make the bike better. Not by giving it an electric motor. Not by adding a seat to take your kid to school. Nope nope nope. Should bike shares really be keeping such a tight reign…

Tonight’s a Great Night to Watch Pirates of Silicon Valley

Another year, another Apple WWDC keynote without Steve Jobs. Though it’s been three years since the Apple cofounder’s death, few can help but wonder what Steve would’ve thought of the latest products. (Spoiler: He probably had a hand in designing them so he probably liked them.) But instead of letting your head get too lost…

Hands On with Three of the Coolest Tricks in iOS 8

The beta version of iOS 8 is finally here, and with it comes a whole slew of new features. Among the big ones are a health-tracking app, HomeKit, and the OS X-integrating Handoff, but the real beauty lies in the little things. Of course, there’s still plenty of beta-style kinks to work out, and we’ve…

Let Your Stoner Flag Fly with the High Kite

With more than 50 percent of the public in favor of decriminalization, it’s high time for America’s stoners to come out of the shadows. Get loud, be proud, maybe get off the couch today and show everybody your stoner pride with the High Kite. The High Kite from The World’s Best Ever, is exactly what…

Two of the Best iOS 8 Features Apple Didn’t Talk About

There’s plenty of great new stuff coming in iOS 8. You’ll be able to remote control your phone from your computer to send text messages. There’s soon to be an army of new keyboard options. It’s a brave new world. But Apple didn’t even mention some of the best new features on stage. There are…

Nana Splits, Buttercrust, and Sweet Cream: Butter Ya’Self (NSFW)

Damn it feels good to be a banana, especially when you’re Internet-famous rapper and fruit salad fortune heir, Nana Splits. But in the rap game, you gots to get yours before some kid smashes you up on white bread with some Nutella. So check out the mad sick beats in LA-based filmmaker Julian Petschek’s latest…