Tech News

The weirdest rainbow I’ve ever seen looks like a nuclear bomb

This photo may look like the beginning of a nuclear bomb explosion or a magic portal opening in the sky, but it’s a rare rainbow pileus cloud captured by Peter Lowenstein. From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileusiridescent cloud, a group of water droplets that have a…

NYC’s New Bathroom Clubs Will Let You Pay to Poop in Private

A new startup is betting that you can’t find a suitable public restroom to relieve yourself—and that you’ll pay top dollar for a cushy seat when the urge strikes. Posh Stow and Go is billing itself as New York’s “first members-only day storage and bathroom facility,” with memberships that allow you to pay-as-you-poo. Posh Stow…

Simple, the Alternative to Big Banks, Was Just Acquired by a Big Bank

Everybody’s favorite start up bank is no longer a startup. Simple has been acquired by BBVA, a massive multinational banking group with $820 billion in assets, for $117 million in cash. So say goodbye to your dream of future-forward, independent banking folks. Say goodbye. As companies tend to do when they’re acquired, Simple says that…

The Incredible Flying Tanks of WWII

Given how devastatingly effective both newly-invented tank and airplane technologies proved during World War I, it was only a matter of time before enterprising military designers on both sides of the Atlantic thought to combine them into a flying Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup of armored mayhem. And they almost succeeded. Well, at least the Soviets…

The F-35 has a friendly R2-D2 on board connected to an evil HAL 9000

DefenseTech has a good summary of a recent 60 Minutes segment on the F-35, America’s most expensive combat airplane yet. The Pentagon talks about how it uses “Star Wars-level technology.” The pilots, however, aren’t so enthusiastic. RD-D2 vs HAL 9000 CBS News’ national security correspondent David Martin says that the airplane’s Autonomic Logistics Information System…

Oh Man, I Want This DIY Mission Control Desk So So Bad

Jeff Highsmith is probably the best dad in the world. But it’s OK other dads, you can take a shot at the king if you too build an incredibly awesome mission control desk. What are you waiting for? Built from scratch and chronicled on MAKE, this mission control desk has everything: buttons, sliders, dials, switches,…

The Plan to Make DC’s Central Library a Home for More Than Just Books

Libraries used to be places for doing bookish things. It’s not that simple anymore. Washington DC just announced the winning proposal for renovating its historic central library. The winner? An ambitious plan to turn the building into a place where ideas are born—and things actually made. In a city full of monuments and august government…

This Model Tuna Makes Gutting Fish a Much Less Messy Game

It turns out that “fish wholesaler” and “toy designer” are not mutually exclusive professions: Kazuyoshi Watanabe, a Tokyo fish wholesaler, created this wooden tuna to teach people how to properly gut the fish. The model comes with just about everything you need to get the job done—including a cutting board a long knife to do…

News anchor Brian Williams raps Rapper’s Delight in awesome supercut

It turns out that not only is Brian Williams a respected news anchor, he’s also an incredibly talented rapper. At least he is after the brilliant editors at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon painstakingly spliced together hours and hours of his news broadcasts. And nothing against The Sugarhill Gang, but performed with the soothing…

Sensors Show Figure Skaters Absorb 8x Their Own Body Weight After Jumps

The endless impossibly early mornings heading to the rink for practice aren’t the only things taking a toll on figure skaters. Researchers at Brigham Young University recently designed and built an unobtrusive skate sensor that can measure the impact when a figure skater lands a jump—and it turns out they’re absorbing forces up to eight…

Can Developers Turn This Old London Dock into a Chinese Super-Hub?

Nine miles from London’s city center, Royal Albert Dock lies derelict, as grey and gloomy as the worst of English weather. But developer Xu Weiping has a $1.6 billion plan to turn it into Europe’s central hub for Chinese companies. As the New York Times points out, Xu has a reputation for building “business parks…

The Xbox One Just Got Its One True Remote

The Xbox One loves to take control of your TV, but there’s something a little uncanny about surfing channels with a dual-stick controller. No more. The Xbox Media Remote is aiming to be your One True Clicker. The little guy will be able to control Blu-rays, or whatever other kind of streaming video you scare…

Inside the Ghostly Remains of Budapest’s Condemned Amusement Park

After several years of financial difficulties, the Amusement Park of Budapest, the largest amusement park in Hungary was closed on 30 September, 2013. Today I had a chance to take a walk among its remains. The first permanent funfair on this area was opened at the beginning of the 19th century, and a century later,…

A Breakdown of the Gear Used By the World Press Photo Winners

When it comes to photography, gear isn’t everything—but that doesn’t stop us being super interested in it anyway. So this splurge of data about the kit used by the World Press Photo winners makes for interesting reading. Put together by hastalosmegapixeles, this chart crunches through the data from the World Press Photo award-winners to see…

Fortune is reporting that Google apparently offered $10 billion to purchase WhatsApp. Clearly, if it did, it wasn’t enough.

Garmin’s Fenix 2 May Be the World’s Best Adventure and Training Watch

Garmin has had a lot of success with its GPS watches in recent years. There’s the Forerunner 910XT, which has been the king of triathlon watches for years now. There’s the recent Forerunner 620 (and the 220) which added advanced analysis of running dynamics to the equation. And then, of course, there’s the original Fenix,…

The Amazing Antonov A-40: A Flying Tank

When it comes to war, innovation is key and WWII saw more insane ideas and weapons of war developed than perhaps any before it. One of the more surreal was the Antonov A-40, colloquially known as the tank that could fly! Known in Russia as the, крылья танка (literally, “Winged Tank”), the Antonov A-40 was…

Office Web Apps is now Office Online. Bcause it’s a version of Office. Which is online. Office, online. Office Online!

Can You Actually Drink Too Much Water?

We’ve all heard horror stories of water intoxication, where it’s claimed people drink too much water and, ultimately, die. But is it really true? Short answer: yes. But watch this ASAP Science video to find out that, in reality, it is actually very unlikely that you’ll ever have to worry about it. [ASAP Science]

Bloomberg: HTC Has Three New Wearables in the Works

Bloomberg is reporting that HTC will unveil the first of three new pieces of wearable technology to carriers at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. Following rumors last year about a forthcoming smartwatch, “a person with direct knowledge of the plans” claims that HTC will show off a smartwatch prototype based on Qualcomm’s…