Tech News

OLYMPUS SP-100 Is a 50X Superzoom Camera With a Red Dot Sight Like a Gun

If point-and-shoot cameras have a future it’s all about zoom, and Olympus just innovated the super long super zooms with a badly needed addition we didn’t even know they needed: A red dot zoom like a sniper rifle. That sounds horrible and murderous, but it’s really just good for killing photos. Here’s the problem: Really…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: To Hear Your Banjo Play

Pete Seeger—folk icon, hippie messiah, political and environmental activist, all around national treasure—died late last night at the age of 94. In honor of his innumerable contributions to American culture, here he is in 1946, narrating lan Lomax’s documentary on the evolution of folk music. Seeger started as a fixture on American radios throughout the…

Watching music videos without the music is pretty damn funny

This is genius. Mario Wienerroither replaces the music from popular music videos with imagined sound effects and noises of what’s actually happening in the music video. If you see someone jumping around, you’ll hear jumping around and not the song. The result? An awkwardly funny mashup of artists dancing by themselves to no tunes, making…

Hike 2600 miles through the United States in six minutes

From Mexico and all the way up to Canada with something called the United States of America in between. One man, Tyler Fox, decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail and make his way completely through the US. That would be a 2,600 mile hike through California, Oregon and Washington. Here’s what he saw. It…

Real life returning batarang boomerang would make Batman jealous

It’s pretty hard to make Batman jealous. The dude has enough money for an entire world, gadgets to play with everyday, a secret cave to hang out in, dashing good looks and beautiful companions to take out to dinner. But here’s one thing you can have that’s better than Batman’s: a fully returning Batarang in…

Insects as Role Models

Insectoid activity is a common source of raw material and inspiration for electronic music, notably in the form of cicada whirring. For Dave Keifer, who goes by Cagey House, it’s a particularly feral, anxious kind of pest motion that provides a role model. His “January Insects” sounds like a nature film in time-lapse, fast-forward mode,…

Every place I love in San Francisco in one gorgeous timelapse

San Francisco is fantastic. I’m admittedly biased because I live here, but behind all the headlines of late—skyrocketing housing prices, burgeoning class war, tech bubble 2.0—it’s still chock full of weird, wonderful, and just plain beautiful stuff. Marc Donahue from PermaGrin Films turned his sights on the city for “I Left My Heart,” an impressive…

It’s been a long day, so here’s a cute baby otter to heal your ailments

This ridiculously cute little thing was spotted near the Monterey Bay Aquarium last week, just hanging out on its mama’s belly, holding hands, swimming around, snoozing, lovin’ life. We should all be so lucky. Incredibly, these pics are not the most adorable thing I’ve seen this week; that honor goes to the baby wombat and…

In sum, the ceiling seems limitless when it comes to oils potentialities. The industry has been spending some $300 million a year on research, and this is due for an increase. The result: More discoveries, more miracles. — February 15, 1960 The Republican Courier in Ohio

The scary plastic surgery transformation of a beautiful Korean reporter

Except in extreme cases, I don’t think plastic surgery is a good idea for any human being. But when someone is attractive to begin with—like this South Korean reporter—I just can’t comprehend the reasons. Look at the before and after shots. Before After She’s not an isolated case. There are more examples of this kind…

To Make Glass Stronger, Etch It With Microscopic Cracks

To anyone who has ever dropped a wine glass or broken a window, you might have a thing or two to learn from mollusks. A new technique inspired by natural materials such as mollusk shells or tooth enamel can make glass 200 times stronger. Weirdly enough, it works by weakening the glass with microscopic cracks.…

This Amazing Krang Belt Buckle Is For Serious TMNT Cosplayers Only

An oversized belt buckle seems like an obnoxious accessory, even if you raise cattle for a living. But when that belt buckle is custom sculpted to look exactly like Krang from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, suddenly dropping $190 for a functional fashion accessory seems like a steal. https://gizmodo.com/krang-apron-perfect-for-ninja-turtle-soup-prep-5994891 Hand sculpted and painted by Etsy…

North America’s Arctic Blanket compared to the rest of the continent

“Arctic air has surged into the U.S. pushing into the Southeastern states and dropping high temperatures there into the 20s with colder wind chills,” says NASA. This NOAA GOES-East satellite image shows what was happening this morning at 9:45. It’s an Arctic Blanket, says NASA: This NOAA GOES-East satellite image was captured at 1445 UTC/9:45…

This Wacky Telescope Lets You Listen To What You’re Looking At

Unless you’re a synesthete, the five senses are pretty straightforward—but designers keep on coming up with cool ways to mix-up the experience for those of us who don’t have the natural ability. Which is what makes the Wassiliscope so neat: This thing transforms color frequencies into corresponding sound frequencies, allowing the user to hear what…

Great news, everyone! It’s so cold in Wisconsin right now that large portions of Lake Superior have completely iced over. This means that visitors to the National Lakeshore can walk right out and explore the otherwise inaccessible Mainland Sea Caves at Apostle Island. Image: Mary Dougherty–Nikon D700–The Cookery Maven

All hail the mutant lavender crab!

A Japanese seafood wholesaler found this lavender king crab in a shipment of regular king crabs. According to the company’s president Kenetsu Mikami, this is the first time he has seen a crab of this color in 25 years. “It could be a good omen,” he says. True. Or it can be a sign that…

Gridded “Superlens” Brings Wireless Power Transmission A Step Closer

Above is a close-up of what developers call a “superlens,” a device that can focus low-energy magnetic waves over a distance. The result? Wireless power generation over nearly one foot of air between transmitter and receiver. That might not seem like a great feat, but its Duke University creators say the superlens for the first…

Graphite Razor Blades Turn Utility Knives Into Carpenter’s Pencils

When you’re working with wood, they say you should always measure twice and cut once. But there’s no mention of ensuring the pencil line you draw to make that single cut is as straight as possible. A company called Prazi believes you can actually create a straighter, truer line with a utility knife instead of…

The rumors are true: Google’s bringing Chrome apps to iOS and Android. Well, it’s providing the tools developers need in order to do so. The toolkit is only in a beta form at the moment, but it holds the promise turning Chrome apps into cross-platform suckers for your phone. If it turns out to be…

The Subtle Art of Breaking Building Laws

Building permits are wonderful things: They protect us from slum conditions and scammers, and they make money for our local governments. But permits can also pose a major financial hurdle for independent home builders—and rules are meant to be broken, man. There’s a rich, if somewhat under-the-radar, tradition of architectural loopholes out there, and it…