Tech News

A One-String Pen-Sized Guitar That Almost Plays Like the Real Thing

They’re not as awkward to transport as a piano or a cello, but guitars are far from being the easiest instrument to travel with. And if air guitar never really satisfies your desire to play while away from your instrument, this pen-sized single-string playable guitar might be a better traveling companion. Currently trying to raise…

Inside the US Nuclear Silos Where Floppy Disk Are Still High-Tech

It’s not very often you get to see inside a US Air Force nuclear silo—but CBS recently got to take a peek for us. In this video, Lesley Stahl finds that they’re not quite as high-tech as you might like to think. This segment, which you can watch below, appeared on 60 Minutes, and it…

What Google’s Really Working On

Forget Gmail, Maps, Drive, Chrome, Android, Plus or any other Google product you use every day. Really, it’s just working on taking total control of the way you use the internet. Sadly, that may or may not be a joke. [XKCD]

The C-130H Hercules never fails to impress when it drops its heavy equipment payloads. Somehow it seems so easy and simple, despite the fact it requires skill, judgement and a raft of calculations to get right. This majestic shot was taken on April 18, 2014, over South Korea, during exercise Max Thunder–a bilateral air exercise…

You Can Make This Raspberry Pi Cellphone Yourself for $160

There’s something deeply satisfying about building your own gadgets. So when it comes to your next phone, forget Project Ara: how about building your own using a Raspberry Pi? We’ve already seen a Pi-powered tablet, but a phone is truly the next level of crazed determination. Put together using $158 of components, this phone may…

Where Do Insects Go in Winter?

As cold-blooded creatures, insects are particularly susceptible to winter’s freezing temperatures. To survive, this class of animals has developed a wide variety of adaptations, including long migrations, creating their own anti-freeze and even purposely freezing portions of their bodies. Migration Perhaps the best-known migratory insect is the Monarch Butterfly. Each fall, between August and October,…

The Team in Charge of OpenSSL: Two Guys Named Steve

Earlier this month, we found out that OpenSLL was screwed in the worst possible way: we all got Heartbleed. But fortunately there’s an expert team working to solve the problems: err, two guys named Steve. Buzzfeed has an excellent feature about Steve Marquess and Stephen Henson, the two men who have been primarily responsible for…

A Gorgeous Wooden Kitchen Scale That Masquerades as a Cutting Board

Successful baking requires strict adherence to a recipe and precise measurements, which is made easier with a scale at your disposal. But if the last thing you want is another ugly appliance cluttering up your kitchen counters, feast your eyes on the lovely GKILO scale (pronounced kilo) which when not in use looks like another…

Palaeontology in the Gobi Desert

Did you have fun as a first-person palaeontologist uncovering dino-eggs in the Gobi Desert? Here’s another video leading up to that moment, once again from the Google-Glass First-Person Perspective https://amnh.kinja.com/google-glass-in-the-gobi-uncovering-something-big-1567746698

What Is the Single Weirdest Subreddit You’ve Ever Found?

Given enough time, a stomach of steel, and a can-do attitude, a few minutes on Reddit can quickly devolve into hours lost amongst its many bizarre, horrifying, and inexorably fascinating channels. For the web is dark and full of terrors, friends, and each one of those terrors has its own subreddit. Do you perhaps have…

Stargazing near the Grand Canyon

Arizona is one of the places that has made a vocal stand in support of making their skies more friendly to letting the night shine freely. Recognized as a place of exceptional nighttime beauty, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is the newest Dark Sky Park. The Big Dipper rising over Parashant at sunset. Photography credit: Nicholas…

Guy films himself having an LSD trip in the middle of the desert

According to the YouTube description, this guy went by himself to the Thar Desert, India, to have an LSD trip that lasted for 24 hours. It’s beautiful there, but having LSD on your own—let alone in the desert—is a huge risk. “It was the most beautiful and yet frightening experience,” he said. Watching his reactions…

Why Squinting Helps You See Better

Whether or not you knew what you were doing, there’s undoubtedly been a time when you found yourself squinting to get a better look at something you otherwise couldn’t see. Minute Physics’ newest video breaks down this wildly useful little phenomenon. Basically, there’s two different factors at play when scrunching up. First, your eye slightly…

How to Survive Getting Struck by Lightning

Getting struck by lightning might seem like one of those impossible things more or less relegated to the world of idioms, but the truth of the matter is that it’s a lot more likely than we’d want to believe. So just in case, The Art of Manliness has created this handy little infographic on how…

The Price of Electricity In The U.S. Is About to Skyrocket

Here’s the sad, dark truth about our aging electrical grid: The way we generate power is not sustainable and needs to change. Here’s the other sad, dark truth: As the U.S. becomes more reliant on renewable energy like solar and wind, our electricity bills are going to go up. Way up. In fact, you might…

A 1956 Plane Crash in the Grand Canyon Made Flying Safer for Americans

In 1956 two planes collided over the Arizona desert, killing all 128 people on board and scattering the debris deep inside the Grand Canyon. This week, the National Park Service designated the crash site a National Historic Landmark—even though they don’t actually want you to go visit it. At the time, the tragedy was the…

New York on the Floors of Athens

A small corner of Athens, pays homage to the city that never sleeps. In our latest example of science-inspired design, the carpets of this marketing firm are a satellite image map of New York City, bringing the harbour city to Greece. In 2008, ValueCom hired Stage Design Office to create “an expressive atmosphere” for their…

Code Dicks Parody Site Is Your Equal Opportunity Answer to Code Babes

It was only a matter of time. Just a few days after the internet got good and outraged over the wildly absurd, porn-based learn-to-code site Code Babes, we present to you its satirical, equal opportunity cousin. Say hello to Code Dicks. While an otherwise dead-ringer for the widely scorned original, Code Dicks doesn’t actually offer…

New Vulnerability Found in Every Single Version of Internet Explorer

According to a confirmation by Microsoft late last night, a new zero day vulnerability has been found to affect every version of Internet Explorer. In other words—over a quarter of the entire browser market. Attacks taking advantage of the vulnerability are largely targeting IE versions 9, 10, and 11 in something called a “use after…

The Life-Saving Science Behind Sunscreen

Every summer we slather layers of sunscreen with the highest SPF we can find, and bravely venture outside hoping our slimy cloak will shield us from the sun’s death rays. So how does this work? TodayIFoundOut.com’s resident medical expert, Scott, and a buddy of his recently started The Medicine Journal, where you can learn all…