Tech News

A Family of Singing Time-Travelers Drive the Highways of Tomorrow

Tired of sitting in traffic? Just take the completely automated, high-speed safety lane! At least that’s what the singing, time-traveling family of the 1950s did in this amazing film from General Motors. In 1956, over 2.2 million Americans visited the General Motor’s Motorama exhibit. It traveled from city to city showing off the latest and…

This Simple App Can Train Your Brain to Have 20/7.5 Vision

Everybody wishes they had super powers. The big problem with that shared ambition, however, is that super powers do not exist. Not unless you count super human vision. That does exist, and a new app promises to help you attain it. The app is called UltimEyes, and it was designed by neuroscientists who were thinking…

Did you know that butterflies have (the weirdest) penises?

Scientists have discovered two new species of butterflies in eastern USA—”an extremely rare discovery.” That’s cool, but I just wanted to tell you that butterflies have penises, which is one of the reasons that served biologists to identify them as new species. They look like deathly alien manta rays. The new Intricate Satyr (Hermeuptychia intricate…

Who Needs UAVs When You’ve Got Surveillance Munitions?

The US military has poured millions upon millions of dollars into squad-based tactical UAVs—the kind deployed by troops for close-range ASAP reconnaissance—over the past few years, developing the likes of the Puma AE and Black Hornet. But ST Kinetics has just unveiled a clever surveillance system that uses modified 40 mm rounds—and it could do…

How to make a paper plane to fly and loop forever

These guys say you can use a stove to make a paper plane to gently fly in circles for as long as you want. Their new trick, however, is much better: make it loop forever at super speed using a chair and a hair dryer. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-make-a-paper-airplane-fly-forever-1280788882 The guys who claim this is possible explain it:…

Nespresso VertuoLine: Like Keurig Coffee, But With Style

Say what you will about Keurig-style pod coffee machines, but they are a godsend for lazy people. And now Nespresso—purveyor of pod-based espresso—is selling a machine called the VertuoLine that makes you a full cup o’ joe. For the uninitiated, Nespresso makes fancy/expensive machines that you can pop a little aluminum cup the size of…

200-Year Old Douche Discovered Under NYC City Hall

This mystery artifact unearthed during a rehabilitation project at New York City Hall had archaeologists puzzled. Was it a spice grinder? Maybe a needle case? Nope. It’s a 19th-century feminine hygiene product: that’s right, a 200-year-old douche. Chrysalis Archaeology, an intrepid team of NYC archaeologists we spoke with last year, discovered the hygiene device in…

The first official Ubuntu hardware partners have been announced and companies you’ve never heard of! Expect the phones later this year, but don’t set your heart on US availability you crazy Linux junkie.

Stop Carrying Credit Cards With This Fob That Can Fake Them

George Costanza would love the Loop: it’s a tiny device that stores all of your credit card information, lets you pay at any terminal, and guarantees you’ll never live with the threat of your wallet exploding again. And you can buy it right now. If Loop sounds familiar, you might be thinking of Coin, the…

The FCC Is Going to Write All New Net Neutrality Rules

It’s official: The FCC isn’t going to appeal the net neutrality ruling. Instead, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is just going to be writing a whole new set of rules. Supposedly, the new regulations would still ensure that that Internet service providers wouldn’t be able to charge companies an additional fee to reach customers at faster…

I stumbled on this photo while writing last night’s post about the East Side Access Project in New York and just couldn’t resist: like some underground rail gun or a particle accelerator whirring to life, this is part of the Second Avenue Subway, the so-called “86th Street Cavern,” a subterranean wonder that will soon be…

Homeland Security Wants To Build a System To Track Every License Plate

Coming not even a month after the official implementation of the Real ID program (which some have likened to a National ID card), The Washington Post has discovered that the Department of Homeland Security is currently working on a National License Plate Recognition (NLPR) database. Although from the looks of it, this isn’t just a…

Elizabeth Veldon’s Winter Drones

Elizabeth Veldon, a Glasgow-based musician, has been posting a series of winter-themed drones with titles like “glengoyne surrenders to winter and all the valleys fill with snow” and “a winter song for faze (sleep, sleep/ snow had fallen)” and “the lower levels of angels, even, are bathed in grace (for lilly).” They sound true to…

This Ring Scans Text And Reads It Aloud For Visually Impaired People

No braille? No problem! This FingerReader by the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab is a high-tech way to help visually impaired people read; it actually scans printed text and narrates it aloud. This short vid shows how it works from a few different angles, but basically: as a fingertip follows along in…

These post-apocalypse images of Hong Kong are actually real photos

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze has sent me his latest photographic series, titled Wild Concrete. It shows a singular Hong Kong phenomenon: trees and plants that grow out of bare concrete walls all around the city. It’s shocking to see how stubborn nature is. In his own words: Usually wherever human beings are thriving, they always try to…

Science Reveals Everything You’ve Ever Wondered About Cursing on Twitter

It feels like people are always swearing on Twitter, huh? FastCo reports the work of a team of researchers from Wright State University in Ohio which analyzed 51 million tweets by 14 million english language users to figure out the dynamics of how exactly people use profanity on the social network. “Fuck” is by far…

Tank-Powered Sledding Is Now Officially the Best Winter Sport

It may never one day become an official Olympic sport, but it’s hard to argue that riding in a sled while being dragged around by a tiny electric tank doesn’t look far more exciting than skiing, snowboarding, and skating combined. Created by Yvon Martel, the MTT-136—which stands for My Track Technology—is basically just a tank…

What the hell is this “Russian extreme slalom” thing?

Leave it to the Russians to take snowboard slalom and turn it around to create what apparently is called “Russian extreme slalom,” a sport where your body has to be almost parallel to the snow in order to pass under ridiculously small gates. The action starts at 1:21. Is this a thing anywhere else? Because…

The Dancing Robot That Took Over San Francisco

This is the story of how Robot Dance Party came to be—how it was born, how it went through “robot puberty,” and how it became the unwitting sex symbol of Dolores Park. Six years ago at Burning Man, Chris Hirst had a transcendental experience. Through two small holes in a cardboard-covered milk crate, he peered…

Improved Gaskets Let You Store This Mower Upright Without Fuel Leaks

For homeowners making do with a cramped backyard shed instead of a spacious garage, Toro’s new SmartStow mower can be folded down and stored vertically so it takes up about 70 percent less space. And it’s made possible by a new Briggs & Stratton engine featuring leak proof Mow ‘n’ Stow technology. So thanks to…