Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
The U.S. government wants everyone to be able to code, but it’s not really clear whether that should be the case or not. Here’s what the experts think. http://gizmodo.com/can-the-hour-of-code-get-the-world-programming-1479430389/all As with all things policy-based, the answer isn’t clear. While, now more than ever, there’s much benefit in understanding the basics of how the digital world…
If you sometimes find it hard to read social situations and establish if it’s an appropriate time to be taking photographs of yourself with your phone, here’s a simple flowchart to make the decision making process a little easier. [Doghouse Diaries]
The Olympus SH-1 seems at first like any other compact point and shoot camera with a long zoom. But it includes a signature feature usually found in the company’s interchangable-lens bodies: 5-axis on-sensor image stabilization. The $400 SH-1 has a 16 megapixel, 1/2.3 inch sensor and a equivalent 25-600mm f/3.0-6.3 lens. That means super long…
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released it’s latest report. The basic findings of any IPCC report are perfectly summed up in this 2013 cartoon. Read on for more. https://gizmodo.com/famine-and-water-riots-are-coming-warns-new-intergover-1555054047
From the mouth of comedian Jim Gaffigan, everything about raising with four kids in a two-bedroom NYC apartment is hilarious. You could call his brand of humor dad humor—but it’s the good kind. Gaffigan’s description of family life is something everyone can relate to. He opens his 2012 comedy special Mr. Universe by talking about…
Steve Wozniak just sent this fun stunt caught on video a few years ago: Watch him deliver a Mac to Emma, a girl who freaks out when she realizes her idol is at the door carrying her new computer. As Emma’s father says in the video: “This is like having your lightbulbs delivered by Thomas…
This is the PL-01 concept tank, a three-crew 35-ton tank that can turn itself invisible to infrared missiles thanks to a mesh of thermal tiles that change their temperature to match the environment. Oh, and it looks straight out of the world of Tron. https://jalopnik.com/is-polands-stealthy-pl-01-the-tank-of-the-future-1554395391
This is the PL-01 concept tank, a three-crew 35-ton tank that can turn itself invisible to infrared missiles thanks to a mesh of thermal tiles that change their temperature to match the environment. Oh, and it looks straight out of the movie Tron. https://jalopnik.com/is-polands-stealthy-pl-01-the-tank-of-the-future-1554395391
Sue me if I don’t find this song inspiring. I’m a grown woman. I can do whatever I want. Seriously, if you need motivation in the morning, just pop this bad boy on repeat. It’s a bonus video on Beyonce’s self-released secret album that came out in December. Weirdly, it was only released as a…
Boomerangs feel more like magic than science when they return after a good throw. A boomerang works by aerodynamics, but does it still work in zero gravity? Astronaut Takao Doi threw a boomerang on the International Space Station to test it out. The throws work perfectly, reliably returning the boomerang to Doi time after time.…
Apple opened its first brick-and-mortar store back in 2001, and they’ve spread to pretty much everywhere since, as you can see in this animated map from Business Insider. Is there anywhere you can go where there isn’t an Apple Store nearby? Love ’em or hate ’em, you can’t really escape the warm Apple-shaped glow of…
Take a swirling dust devil, pick up some tumbleweeds, add fire, and the result looks like an elemental monster straight out of a video game. But it isn’t a computer-generated effect; it’s 100% real science. Thomas Rogers was working on a controlled burn at Arsenal Rocky Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Colorado when a dust devil…
Admit it: there’s someone you dislike who you follow on Instagram not in spite of your disdain, but because of it. Who is it? Spill. This is a safe space. Maybe it’s the rich kids of Instagram. We could understand that. Maybe it’s some random dumb girl you went to college with who lives an…
You’ve probably heard that you’ll find the cheapest airfare on a Tuesday. But according to a new study from travel startup Hopper, that’s a myth. So when can you find the best fares? Hopper monitored ticket prices from the month of January to find that the answer to that for both domestic and international travel…
It’s time for weekly space-links of astronomy and planetary science stories that we didn’t cover on Space this week. New mineral Kuratite confirmed in a 1979 meteorite The fluid dynamics of a supernova type II core collapse is gorgeous. Anniversary of the first test flight for the Avro Arrow, Canada’s big hope and crushing disappointment…
Having found a gold lining to the West’s otherwise devastating drought, prospectors are flocking to the record-low rivers of the Sierra Nevada foothills. A mini gold rush has kicked off in previously inaccessible riverbeds, not far from the site of California’s original gold rush. https://gizmodo.com/how-bad-is-californias-drought-this-bad-1531567081 “The word is definitely out,” one prospector told the Associated…
It may seem like the stuff from spy and superhero movies but scientists have created “the first room-temperature light detector that can sense the full infrared spectrum” which, according to researchers at the University of Michigan, can be made so thin that it can be easily stacked on night vision contact lenses. Back in 2011…
Japanese artist Ei Wada, who was born in 1987, belongs to a generation that spent middle school feverishly poring over cassettes to make mix tapes—until, of course, they were quickly outmoded by CDs, and then MP3s. Now, Ei makes art using the outmoded technologies he grew up with. At the Media Arts Festival, the young…
Part topography, part bathymetry, part meteorology, the Hong Kong Maritime Museum has one intense carpet. Two hundred square meters of the museum are dedicated to this maritime map of the Hong Kong harbour. Hong Kong Harbour is of major importance for shipping logistics, as well as the location of the museum. The carpet design ties…
New advances in 3D printing are making it not only possible but also viable to manufacture cheap, print-on-demand, disposable drones designed simply to soar off over the horizon and never come back. Some British engineers did just that, and this is only the beginning. The team hails from the Advanced Manufacturing Research Center (AMRC) at…