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This gorgeous custom motorbike began its life as an utterly mundane Honda P25, a fuel-efficient 1960s scooter. But motorcycle artisan Chicara Nagata turned it into a sweeping sculpture with a social-commentary twist: the tiny bike carries four infrared security cameras in its frame, built at the behest of a Japanese security company. Take a closer…
A girl named Elastika lives in a world made of office supplies, but her escapades are a far cry from cubicle drudgery. With just some pushpins and rubber bands, filmmaker Guillaume Blanchet takes her—and us—around the world in screeching cars, sinking ships, and even rockets. Can you catch all the famous sights that pop up…
Haha, this is super silly but if you enjoyed the roller coaster ride that was Gravity and wished you were a superhero once before in your life, you should enjoy this fun mash-up video that creates a fake “deleted scene” that changes the entire movie. I think Superman needs to be spliced into more movies…
Here in 21st century America, train travel isn’t seen as very futuristic. But in the years after World War II, trains were right up there with airplanes as the coolest in luxurious transportation of tomorrow. And in 1947 Americans got a peek at what was promised to be their train-bound future. It was called the…
A new report from Smart Growth America suggests that the Southland isn’t as sprawling as old clichés might suggest. Among U.S. metro areas of at least a million people, the Los Angeles/Long Beach/Glendale statistical region ranks as the 7th-most compact and connected. It trails far behind New York and San Francisco, of course, but scores…
When it comes to group texts, nothing is more infuriating than being trapped in an endless barrage vibrations signaling nothing more than a “lol” or the occasional poop emoji. But until now, there was no convenient way to put an end to the madness without either A) blocking your friends or B) insulting them to…
You could read the books. You could borrow your friend’s HBO Go account to watch the show. You can spoil yourself by just existing on the Internet. Or you can catch up with the last season of Game of Thrones through this surprisingly good emoji recap. Yeah, emojis. It covers the big happenings of season…
The tires weigh 330 pounds, but they lift as easily as hula hoops in the hands of this Nordic god. In a puff of chalk, he hugs the rubber rings and scurries quickly through the sand. As he hoists the third and final tire onto the platform, he turns to the cheering crowd on Venice…
Based on the same technology that lets Citizen’s high-end watches with Eco-Drive stay perpetually charged by the sun, Q&Q (a company founded almost 40 years ago as part of Citizen) has finally made its once Japan-only SolarSmile watches available internationally. So for just $40—with free shipping—you can get a simple timepiece that never needs winding,…
Here is some guaranteed nostalgia for you. Follow the life of a Game Boy in this wonderful animation: watch it get assembled in a factory and packaged for an excited kid and see it get played by youthful thumbs and then eventually be tossed away by a teenager. It’s every toy’s story. Throughout its journey…
For photographers looking to get really creative with their gear, Lensbaby is well known for its various DSLR lenses that can create tilt-shift and other popular effects. But for the first time, the company is letting iPhone photographers get in on the fun too, with a tiny smartphone-friendly lens providing extreme focus effects. The LM-10…
There’s a kind of crazy headspace that’s easy to fall into after staring at the unceasing scroll of your social media biz on a couple of screens at a time. But this? This is a wholly terrifying total immersion in the form of an installation of sights, sounds, and mind-melting mental stimulation. It’s a lot…
“Shoe companies are full of people who wanted to design cars,” explains Jalopnik’s Jason Torchinsky in a post about this slick 1971 DeTomaso Pantera today. Nike’s own skunkworks design team had very different plans for this aging Pantera—check out their work below.
Watching tutorial videos for every new version of Photoshop has become a ritual of every photographer’s work life. Lynda.com, the ubiquitous tutorial publisher, decided to have some fun and post a video detailing the many advanced functions of Photoshop 1.7. Technically, this was posted for April fools, but it’s a fun video and thankfully doesn’t…
Yesterday, Festo unveiled a bird-inspired wind turbine, but today, the company has unveiled a new robotic creation that’s a little more recognizable. The world may not have a huge need for a bionic kangaroo—outside of Australian-themed amusement parks—but emulating the marsupial could result in robots with remarkably long endurance. Kangaroos are able to hop around…
Roughly 50,000 years ago, a series of horrible storms wracked northern New Zealand, burying stands of ancient Kauri trees in peat and mud—where they waited, for many, many millennia, to be rediscovered. As conference tables, apparently. The rediscovery of the trees was a paleontological breakthrough, and it’s now helping climate scientists study how the Earth…
Sorry, Coloradans. Despite the national press attention and evident demand, the measure to introduce drone hunting permits in the tiny town of Deer Trail has been rejected by voters. It wasn’t even close. All things told, 181 out of Deer Trail’s 348 resident cast a ballot on Tuesday, 73 percent of whom were against the…
When we reviewed the TomTom Runner GPS watch last year, we pointed out that if you wanted to monitor your heart rate, you’d need to buy an extra accessory. But for athletes looking to seriously train their bodies, metrics on how fast or far they ran, swam, or biked isn’t enough. So TomTom has updated…
Shadows. They’re ghoulish entities that come and goes with the whims of the sun. But shadow puppets are what happens when Man harnesses the sun, or artificial light, and creates life of his own. The Challenge Take a photo of a shadow puppet. It can be as simple as the shadow from a lamp and…
Being a superhero is the best job in the world. Not only do you save the world and get the girl and receive the world’s adulation, you’re also somehow rich enough (even though you’re above the idea of money) to have a sick secret headquarters that every kid dreams about. And though your hero headquarters…