Tech News

20 Crazy Rides From the Dawn of the Bicycle

So we may say that, for a few brief decades before motorcycles and cars took over, the bicycle was the most advanced personal land vehicle around. And those decades were not just glorious but soulful and funny at the same time. So please welcome another historical collection of crazy bike images within our Bike Month…

Which Countries Drink the Most If You Ignore Abstainers

Earlier this week the World Health Organisation ranked the globe’s biggest drinking nations—but it didn’t quite tell the entire story. This is what the data looks like if you ignore abstainers. Those pesky non-drinkers skew the average slightly, you see. While most of Belarus—the highest consuming nation according to the WHO—drinks, then, it doesn’t mean…

Hilarious retro game lets you play as Glorious Leader! Kim Jong-un

Behold the trailer for Glorious Leader!—a game that lets you play as Kim Jong-un battling against the forces of capitalism evil on foot or your trusty unicorn. You can be the Supreme Leader of North Korea himself and a friend can play with you as Dennis Rodman. According to its developers, it will be available…

You Can Text 911 In an Emergency Starting Today

You can’t always call 911 when you need to, so starting today, you can send a text 911 in an emergency. Announced by the FCC in 2012, the service goes live today for AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Using it is very straightforward. If you have an emergency, you simply text 911 with your emergency…

Never Forget a Photoshop Shortcut Again With This Interactive App

To use Photoshop like a pro, you need to know your keyboard shortcuts—but with so many to remember, you can easily feel more rookie than ever. This interactive app should help you out, by telling you in a jiffy which keys will help you get to work. Application Shortcut Mapper was created by Waldo Bronchart,…

Google’ rather ambitious plans to build a 950,000-square foot HQ in the King’s Cross district of London have been delayed: it now won’t arrive until at least 2017.

Sexologists, trainers, and pornstars create sexercises to boost stamina

Lube brand KY created a Sexercise program with sexologists, personal trainers and porn professionals to help you perform better in bed. They think sex needs training too and it’s true. You realize that when you try to have sex standing up and seconds later your legs start shaking and you feel you’re about to pass…

If You Love Sitting on Stairs, This Is the Sofa For You

Everyone seems to sit on the stairs at parties—so why not embrace the fact with your furniture? That’s exactly what Canadian designer Geof Ramsay has done with his Steps bench. Ramsay’s clearly been to many a house party, where he’s noticed people gravitate towards the stairs to take a seat. He explained to Dezeen: “For…

20 Day Stranger Shares Your Life With A Random Human Being

Fancy sharing your day-to-day life with someone you don’t know, in return for a glimpse into their own world? Then 20 Day Stranger—an app which tracks your location and what you’re doing, then anonymously shares it with one other person—could be for you. Put together by the MIT Media Lab’s Playful Systems group, it’s an…

So Long, Open Web: Mozilla Accepts Closed Source DRM and We All Lose

It’s official: the last holdout for the open web has fallen. Flanked on all sides by Google, Microsoft, Opera, and (it appears) Safari’s support and promotion of the EME DRM-in-HTML standard, Mozilla is giving in to pressure from Hollywood, Netflix, et al, and will be implementing its own third-party version of DRM. It will be…

Comcast Reckons All Its Users Will Be Data Capped in 5 Years Time

A Comcast executive has said that the company expects to implement usage-based billing—that’s data caps to you and me—for all of its customers within the next five years. The news came out of a call with investors yesterday. In fact, Comcast already applies data caps in some areas—including parts of Alabama, Georgia, Central Kentucky, Maine…

The BMW i8 commercials are as beautiful as the car itself

These BMW i8 ads could be just another car commercialshot in an abandoned road in the middle of the desert, but when you hire an auteur film director like Gus Van Sant—Good Will Hunting, Elephant—those cliches transform into art. A trio of ads—featuring actors Michael Pitt (Boardwalk Empire), Sam Hazeldine (Resurrection) and Mickey Sumner (Frances…

HTC One Mini 2: Like a Small M8, But Not a Small M8

As if you were ever in any doubt of its existence, HTC’s officially lifted the covers off the HTC One Mini 2, its leading pint-sized phone for 2014. But, as its name suggests, it’s not quite as feature-rich as this year’s One M8 flagship, with the company instead presenting it as a direct successor to…

Look at the NSA Implanting Backdoors into Intercepted Electronics

We’ve known for months that the NSA has penchant for intercepting packages containing commercial electronic equipment to implant backdoors in them. Now, there are images which show what that process looks like. A new trove of documents, released alongside Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide, show what the NSA does when it gets its…

Can A $1 Cat Food Can Beat A $140 Backpacking Stove?

Can an old can of Fancy Feast cook food faster than an expensive, complicated backpacking stove? Let’s find out. Fancy Feast Alcohol Stove Pros: The Fancy Feast alcohol stove can be made for $1.49 — including the price of a paper hole punch. Ounce-for-ounce and dollar-for-dollar, it’s the lightest and cheapest backpacking stove that you…

Google is making a push to show Glass as a great tool for travel with the addition of TripIt, Foursquare, and Open Table apps for the $1,500 face computer (that’s in addition to Field Trip, Word Lens, Google Now, Search and Maps). Looks like they’re actually trying to sell it.

Bike racing is even cooler with anime effects

After watching the opening title for Sky Italia’s MotoGP 2014 races coverage, I really wish there was a button on my remote to add anime effects to every program out there. It’s so cool. The animation was created by Alessandro Durando, Daniele Gavatorta, Lorenzo Levrero, Eleonora Bertolucci, Fabio Ramiro Rossin, and Dylan Spears, from media…

What a Savages Concert Looks Like Through a Welder’s Mask (NSFW)

Between the light display, the gyrating performers, the overwhelming wall of sound, and that 1/8th of shrooms you just gobbled, sitting through a full concert without freaking out can be hard these days. But with director Giorgio Testi’s wickedly tight cropping, your eyes and mind stay focused right where they should be—on the master class…

Two skyscrapers joined by a bridge that is a swimming pool

Being a huge fan of pools I can’t believe I missed this 50-meter-long swimmable bridge between two condo towers in Singapore. Living at the 574-apartment, 38-story-tall Sky Habitat would be my idea of hell, but I’d love to have a friend there to enjoy that roof and swim through that bridge. The mixed-use building is…

What the human body looks like at 100 years old

Photographer Anastasia Pottinger has a powerful photo series called Centenarians that reveals what the human body looks like at 100 years old. It’s a remarkable achievement to live so long and the marks of age are well worn on the oldest people on the planet. The photos are taken of nude 100 year olds in…