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Gorilla Glass, Corning’s enormously sturdy scratch- and crack-resistant touchscreen glass, is pretty impressive, found on billions of devices worldwide. Now, the glass maker has announced a novel manufacturing technique to make 3D shapes out of Gorilla Glass. The ability to make 3D shaped glass (which is different from flexible glass) comes at an important time,…
A regular old skateboard isn’t fun enough for you? What about nine skateboards attached to each other to form a complete circle skateboard? It’s the goofiest way to move on wheels since your chance of falling off is infinitely more likely and well, just look at the damn thing. Skateboarder Mark Gonzales and the Krooked…
Are you bored by the conventional ho-hum design of a traditional wooden knife block? If you like everything on your kitchen counter to be a conversation piece, you can’t go wrong with this Spicy Magnum Knife Set, featuring six entwined knife holders that look like they’re all holding each other up. The $122 set comes…
Ever since the colossal machine tunneling under Seattle, nicknamed Bertha, was stopped in its tracks, there’s been a frenzied speculation about what mysterious “object” could possibly block such a powerful machine. The answer is, at least partially, asteel pipe. The pipe was the well casing for a 2002 groundwater study, preceding tunnel construction. While Bertha…
In 2013, digital music sales declined for the first time since Apple launched the iTunes Store 10 years ago. Are streaming music services like Rdio and Spotify to blame? Nielsen SoundScan just released its annual music sales numbers and while none of the news is good, the digital music sales numbers are particularly troubling to…
What a fantastic mind trip. This tree appears to be magically hovering over its tree trunk. What kind of sorcery allows this? Art. Daniel Siering and Mario Shu wrapped a tree in a plastic sheet and then painted the sheet to look like the tree’s background. The visual effect makes the background look perfectly seamless.…
Look, Sodastreams are great for their convenience and ubiquity, but there are some drawbacks. For starters, you can only use them to carbonate water. On top of that, the cost of the replacement CO2 cartridges (which you need to keep yourself “in bubbles”) is higher than it needs to be. We’ve explored other systems that…
There have been plenty of civil cases against architects over the years, for all manner of negligence. But, today, an extremely rare criminal case was decided: An architect was sentenced to a year in LA county jail after pleading no contest to the manslaughter of a firefighter who died while trying to contain a fire…
Look at these grey circles. They look bent, right? Like somebody put a ring in a vice and squeezed it? Actually, it’s just an incredible optical illusion courtesy of @SciencePorn. Both circles are perfectly round. Really. No really. If you squint hard at the image, you can see the rings come their true, circular selves.…
From Seattle’s well-known corporate behemoths—Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Nordstrom, Costco—to its less-obvious innovators, like Nirvana and Dale Chihuly, a new permanent exhibition funded by Jeff Bezos explores the idea that innovation is a key part of the city’s identity. The Bezos Center for Innovation at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry features 5,000 square feet…
Time capsuling is hard. Most capsules from the 20th century are lost, damaged, or simply forgotten. But with any luck, these eleven time capsules — all intended to be opened in the year 2014 — will find their way safely above ground sometime this year. From the computer parts buried by California high school students…
Up until now, you’ve been stuck scrolling through your Vine timelinewhile hunched over a tiny smartphone screen. Today, though, Twitter’s video service has officially unveiled a fully functional browser version along with a brand new, spiffy, full-screen TV Mode. Users have been able to register their future Vine URLs for a few months now, but…
If you have to ride your bike at night, there’s no such thing as wearing too much reflective material—after all, you want to make yourself as visible as possible to those with whom you share the road. But a flashing light can ensure a driver spots you well before the headlights of their car do,…
If you want to start off the new year with a new phone, Best Buy has great deals on a ton of handsets today (with a new contract). Highlights include the iPhone 5c and Galaxy S4for free, and the iPhone 5s for $125. If none of those tickle your fancy, there are a ton of…
On the side of a building in Madrid, the Spanish artistSpYrecently installed 150 CCTV cameras with, in the artist’s words, “the intention of not watching over anything.” It kind of makes us long for the days when CCTV was the most threatening symbol of the surveillance state. [SpY; StreetArtNews]
Here’s how to make your resignation as a city councilman as memorable as possible (non-shameful division): write your whole resignation letter in Klingon. Trekkie and former city councilman David Waddell did exactly that, telling his mayor “chaq DaHjaj QaQ jaj paj”, which apparently means ‘perhaps today is a good day to resign.’ Waddell, who was…
If you’re ranking fun things to put in a balloon, helium probably tops the list, followed probably by water and then plain old human huffin’ and puffin’. But a fascinating thing happens when dry rice is poured into a balloon and all the air is sucked out: welcome to your new favorite filler. Che-Wei Wang…
Given the option to travel back in time, most people generally would generally commit some combination of lottery fraud, evil dictator slaying, and othewise trying to avoid disrupting the spacetime continuum. For the sake of science, though, two physicists are hoping that, no matter what you do, you at least find some time to tweet—so…
Threaded fasteners haven’t changed drastically since they were invented ages ago. But now, General Motors has put RFID tags in the bolts used on engine assembly lines, turning simple hardware into tracking devices that make sure everything gets assembled properly. That bolt’s got a (2kb) brain! Inside the head of GM’s “data bolt” is an…
Anki Drive, the iOS racing game that uses robotic cars on a real-life track, is getting a huge app update today, which adds slews of new ways you can customize your car in the game. The developer says it’s incredible, but we’ll let you know for sure when we check it out next week at…
