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Are drones not scary enough for you yet? How about this? A drone helicopter that spots you and identifies you as an intruder. It tells you to stop and put your hands behind your head. Instead, you keep coming. The drone then shoots you with barbed Taser darts that pump 80,000 volts into you. If…
Two cool new things you can spend your hard-earned dollars on showed up this week, and they’re both (potentially) very neon green. Roland Aira Roland teased this lineup of all-digital, retro-sounding production and performance machines for a long time, and when we got our hands on them we fell in love with the sounds they…
This magical, 17-story tower is set to rise in Montpellier, France, after Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto won a competition to design it this week. The complex’s name? L’Arbre Blanc, or “the White Tree.”
1995: Artist’s concept painting of a future expedition on Mars’ moon Phobos. The explorer on the left is using a personal spacecraft which is anchored to the soil, while the explorer on the right examines a boulder that might weigh 1,000 pounds on Earth, and just a pound on Phobos. [Illustration by Pat Rawlings for…
We’ve seen rugs that let you cruise through the cosmos in your slippers, but these lovely floor coverings take a more terrestrial approach. Each of the one-meter-square samples is hand-tufted to depict a small glimpse of the world as viewed from Google Earth. Portugal, 2013 It’s a beautiful concept in itself—the idea that we could…
The moon is full of craters both large and small, but typically they come in only one shape: round. So why are scientists spotting square craters on the moon?
Pornburger is a new site that will make you drool and crave for a delicious atomic burger that would make Godzilla happy. I just want each and everyone of these burgers, like a burger bukkake. I want to stuff my face with them, I want to date them, I want to bathe in them, I…
Well folks, the weekend’s nearly here. Time to kick back and spend some quality time decompressing with your Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone. Is that a smartphone in your pocket or are you just happy it’s the weekend? Android QuizUp The astoundingly popular trivia game came to Android this week, making the pool of potential…
Do you ever sit there and wish your desk were better suited for your many gadgets? Seriously, that standard flat piece of wood you’ve been sitting at for years was not designed for computers, much less tablets or phones. But the SlatePro is. This pure bamboo desk with hand-crafted steel legs intends to get your…
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then this set of Tangram puzzle sticky notes let you leave a longer message than you could ever fit on a single Post-it note. The collection of angular shapes can be arranged into almost any shape you can think of, although a drop or two of artistic talent…
It was a particularly weird week for time capsules. Everybody’s trying to figure out where those 19th century coins came from, a town in Australia is debating whether they should open a 1994 capsule with old photos of Keith Urban, and one Redditor is trying to bury some dogecoins. Seriously. Much capsule. Very time. Wow.…
Once upon a time, way back in the 1990s, vodka was pretty much the coolest thing you could order. It was the It drink at clubs and bars, and its magical (dearth of) flavor swept the nation. But, in the last decade, the craft movement has exploded. “Small batch,” “hand-made,” and “craft” are the new…
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Boeing’s long-suffering 787 Dreamliner has hit yet another snag: At least 42 newly-produced jets may have hairline fractures along the wings. Luckily, the planes haven’t been delivered to buyers yet, but it’s still bad news for Boeing. It seems the cracks may have resulted during the early stages…
Is Google Glass really “killing cities” or just the douchebags who wear them? Are mines bringing cities down—literally? Is the Bowery doomed? Is Berlin really over? We examine these questions and more, in this week’s edition of What’s Ruining Our Cities. Google Glass is ruining all cities It’s always fun to blame technology companies for…
When we found out that Seth MacFarlane—a man known more for fart jokes than a passion for science—was behind the reboot of Cosmos:A Personal Voyage (premiering this Sunday at 9 pm EDT on Fox), we were understandably a little concerned. Fortunately, we were also totally wrong. If the first episode is any indicator, with Neil…
It took Berliners years to agree upon a design for a memorial to the reunification of East and West—but now that the project is underway, an unexpected hurdle is slowing it down: Bats. Lots of them. The Monument to Freedom and Unity, which was designed by architects Milla & Partner and Berlin choreographer Sasha Waltz,…
We’ve all spent hours—maybe even days—of our lives cursing the slow crawl of the dreaded progress bar. But did you ever stop to think about how much worse it might be if the bar wasn’t there in the first place. Fortunately, thanks to one grad student’s genius idea back in the 80s, we’ll never have…
If you watch True Detective, these photos might strike a haunting chord, but rest assured, they are merely tree stands erected by hunters in the forests of Bavaria. Photographer Jörg Marx, based in Bavaria, brings us this collection of moody and mysterious landscapes. He treks through the woods on an ongoing basis, documenting the odd…
I knew that NASA wants to send a submarine to explore the oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa, but I never realized that Europa has more liquid water than Earth even while it’s roughly the size of our Moon. This graphic shows the shocking difference clearly, but there’s more. According to the Planet Habitability Laboratory from…
Like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, sofabeds put two wonderful things into one even awesomer package. People like sitting, and people like sleeping—it’s the perfect combo. So how could a sofabed possibly ever be improved? With an electric mechanism that automatically unfolds and retracts the mattress, with the cushions still attached. The Lampo Motion sofabed is…
