Tech News

Half of the US is in Drought

I don’t like it when the drought map turns into an optimist/pessimist test. Is the United States half in drought, or half fine? Either way, the numbers are ugly. California is still in 100% drought, joined in that unhappy condition by Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas. Vegetation anomaly in California compared to normal, where…

Some Guy Created a Holodeck with an Oculus Rift and 3 Kinects

With no shortage of ingenuity, 3D video expert Oliver Kreylos managed to transplant his entire body into a virtual reality environment using three Microsoft Kinects and an Oculus Rift. It’s a little fuzzy, but it’s easy to recognize what he’s really done. He’s created a Holodeck—or something close to it. It makes perfect sense. Video…

John Berkey’s space art makes me nostalgic for a future that never was

John Berkey is one of the classic painters of the golden era of science fiction. He did some of the original Star Wars posters, but this is for me his best work: Gigantic deep space exploration ships, beautiful white galactic liners, and huge space posts orbiting Earth and other planets—all of them mixing elegant biological…

Apple Just Put Its App Design Bible On iBooks For Free

Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines, a set of tips and rules for designers that was previously only available through the developer portal, is free on iBooks as of today. It’s a little glimpse into how Apple hopes app developers will follow its lead when it comes to design. The “book,” which is more of a…

Beautiful Landscapes Far, Far Away

The annual National Geographic Traveler photography contest is accepting entries until June 30th. The outdoor spaces category is of particular interest to me, with peeks at landscapes far away. These are a few of my favourites: Basalt in Iceland A stream cuts through dark black rocks in Iceland. Iceland is rich in basaltic rocks, rich…

The Algorithms at the Heart of the New September 11 Memorial Museum

The National September 11 Memorial Museum opens to the public tomorrow here in New York City after more than a decade of complications, and amidst not always civil disagreements over what the museum should be in the first place—what its narrative intentions might be and whether or not it could ever be possible to achieve…

A Wall-Mounted Computer Chess Game Is Playable Art

Staring at the Mona Lisa provides a few minutes of enjoyment and contemplation, but were the famous portrait on the wall of your living room, you’d soon find yourself wishing she did more than just sit there and smirk. Maybe that’s what inspired the Artful Dodger to build this portrait chess set that lets you…

Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming

Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at…

Seed-Filled Caps Turn Plastic Bottles Into Tiny Gardens

If you’re looking for a more profitable way to recycle your empty plastic water bottles, forget about taking them to the curb every week. As long as your home gets a few drops of sunshine every day, you can turn them into tiny productive gardens with these Petomato bottle caps. Using them is not quite…

This Is the World’s Oldest Sperm

You’re looking at the world’s oldest sperm. At 17 million years old, it’s not quite as lively as it once was—but it still took scientists some serious investigation to identify it. The samples in which it resides were discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site by a team including University of New South Wales…

Dear Massimo: 12 Designers Who Penned Letters To Their Hero

Earlier this week, we posted a call from the son of Massimo Vignelli: The graphic design legend has fallen ill and requested letters from those he might have inspired or influenced during his long career. Designers all over the world have been mailing letters, and posting them online as well, tagging them #dearmassimo. It’s a…

A Microsoft update for Windows 8.1 mentions that it “adds support to the Surface Pro 3 camera.” That’s either a typo, or a big hint that a new tablet is on the way…

Why Your Armpits Smell So Bad

Why do armpits smell so bad? Well, those millions of bacteria have to live somewhere. Sweat and Odor There are two universally-accepted types of sweat glands. Eccrine Glands The most abundant of the sweat glands, eccrine are found on most of the body andsecrete a sweat that is: “A sterile, dilute electrolyte solution that contains…

Beware of Skimmers on Postal Service Stamp Kiosks

Crooks will co to many lengths to steal your details—from USB sticks to cameras on subways—but now they’re even cropping up on Postal Service stamp kiosks, too. Krebs on Security reports that the United States Postal Inspection Service is investigating a series of skimming incidents on automated stamp vending machines across the U.S., with consumers…

These Mice Are Lit Up With Quantum Dots

Do not adjust your monitor: these mice are supposed to glow. The eery colors emanating from their bodies is a result of quantum dots injected into the bloodstream—in an attempt to establish how nanoparticles accumulate in mammalian bodies. While nanoparticles crop up everywhere these days—in everything from food to socks—it’s not 100 percent clear that…

This has to be one of the most revolting things I’ve ever seen

It’s sad that this praying mantis was killed—but what comes out of its body is as disgusting as it’s long. Horsehair worms ride in live invertebrates, feeding and growing up to 39 inches as they mature. Some release chemicals to make hosts seek water and drown, others can survive their host’s predation, so do not…

Six Months Later, Expedition 39 Safely Returns to Earth

Expedition 39 successfully ended last night with the safe return to Earth of Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin and Rick Mastracchio. Now Expedition 40 begins with the trio of astronauts still on the International Space Station. Soyuz TMA-11M coming in for a soft-enough landing. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls Expedition 39 consisted of Commander Koichi Wakata of…

George R. R. Martin Explains Why He Writes Game of Thrones in DOS

Sometimes, you need the tool that’s best suited to the job in hand. And for George R. R. Martin, that means using an archaic word processor—WordStar 4.0, running on DOS, no less—to write Game of Thrones. He explained why to Conan last night. First, it means that he has a computer dedicated to writing—obviously he…

FCC Reaffirms It’s Considering Treating Cable Companies as Utilities

The FCC is changing direction more regularly than a yoyo right now: first it plans to create a fast-lane internet, then it doesn’t. Now, its senior lawyer has reaffirmed that it’s considering treating broadband providers like utilities companies. In a chat session on Twitter, Gigi Sohn—the FCC’s senior counsel for external affairs—explained that the regulator…

Anyone in the U.S. Can Buy Google Glass Now

Google has formally announced that it’s opening sales of Glass to everyone in the U.S.. If they’re in stock and you have $1,500 to spare, you can buy a pair. The move follows a one-off day in April which saw Google open its sales up to everyone in the country, and then an unofficial report…