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Generally speaking, architects are brilliant and creative people with a wide range of talents. That sort of versatility is part of what makes them good architects in the first place. But let’s be honest. Just because some people are good at a lot of things does not mean they’re good at everything. Take yachts, for…
The Basis B1 band was already one of the best activity trackers you could buy, with a few caveats. In the last few months, it’s taken significant steps towards becoming even better; in November the B1 improved how it keeps track of your exercise habits, and starting this month, it will be able to tell…
Martin Krzywinski is an artist. No, wait, he’s a mathematician. Actually, scratch that: he’s both, and he can make the number Pi look insanely beautiful. In this video, Numberphile takes a look at his work on visualizing the magical number Pi. Some of them are simple, some are complex; all are beautiful. Sit back and…
Virtual Reality has promised big since the 80s, but never quite delivered in the way many of us hoped it would. Now, though, a new form of augmented reality called Mixed Reality hopes to up the game. New Scientist reports that researchers from University College London have modified an Oculus Rift headset to combine real-time…
Because this. [Bruce Sterling via Boing Boing]
In case there was any doubt, the engineers at JPL did an amazing job: Just look at how the the Mars Curiosity Rover deals with the red planet’s bumpy terrainin this time-lapse GIF, taken from the Left Navcam pointed down at the wheels in motion.
DreamWorks has teamed up with hardware manufacturer Fuhu to produce an Android tablet specifically for kids, which will be regularly updated with exclusive content from the animation studio. The announcement, made in the New York Times, reveals that an 8-inch tablet will cost “under $300” and be available in spring, with a 12-inch version “also…
Watching 4K video is wonderful and all, but with streaming increasingly popular and data caps largely still in place, it also still seems impractical. Not for long, though, if rumors of YouTube’s latest schemes are to be believed. A report by GigaOM claims that YouTube will demonstrate a new 4K streaming technology at CES next…
So apparently there’s a world record for bungee jumping with the base of the bungee cord embedded into the flesh of your back. To set it, you’ve just got to top this guy’s record-setting 170 meter base jump and not have the hooks tear out.
How do you top a couple that recreates movie scenes with their adorable baby? By recreating famous scenes with a dog. Yeah, it’s beautiful inspired work that should make us all want to grab our pet best friend in a warm embrace like Gosling did to McAdams. Redditor user mmsspp is the awesome guy in…
One more time. Even if you wear earplugs, turn off the radio and stay away from noisy clubs, you know Daft Punk’s song ‘One More Time’. It’s one of those songs that seems to be inserted into the memory of every human who has existed since the year 2000. Here, EDM producer Sadowick Production reveals…
We’re not preparing to fight the aliens. This isn’t a scene from Independence Day 2. It’s just a throwback photo of 25—yes, twenty five—Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk black stealth fighter jets celebrating its 25th anniversary back in 2006. What a beautifully intimidating celebration of power it was. According to The Aviationist, the jets flew over Heritage…
In a special article for the Washington Post Dr. [Thomas E.] Phipps used a series of analytical formulas based largely on past history and population growth to show “by the present calculations, the number of presidential assassinations will by the year 2014 reach one on the average of every four years.” — UPI White House…
As Mexico City archaeologists sort through the surreal array of Aztec sacrificial skulls recently uncovered while excavating their city’s subway system, it’s worth remembering that parts of the London Underground were also tunneled, blasted, picked, and drilled through a labyrinth of plague pits and cemeteries. In her excellent and morbidly fascinating book Necropolis: London and…
Disquiet Junto Project 0105: Ice for 2014. Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. Tracks by participants…
It sounds brutal and horrible and cruel but it’s actually kind of adorable. In the video, you see a sailfish—perhaps one of the most fascinating creatures of the ocean—chase down fish bait attached to a boat and try to smack the bait silly with its spear-like bill. The sailfish doesn’t succeed but he goes a…
Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Deployment Unit—an emergency shelter developed during WWII—isn’t his most well-known work. In fact, for years, it’s been unclear if any DDUs still existed. But this week, The New York Timestells the story of a handful of shelters that have resurfaced, after being abandoned on an army base just 30 miles outside of…
Most men don’t pay enough attention to one of the most important parts of their wardrobe: their belt buckle. A plummeting pair of trousers can be far more than just embarrassing, so why trust a hole punched in a leather strap when Roland Iten has created a belt buckle that’s been engineered to hold strong…
Have you ever heard of “earthquake lights”? I’ve spent a good chunk of my life in shake-happy coastal California and this phenomenon is news to me—but, for centuries, people have reported seeing a wide variety of illuminations just slightly before and during major tremblers. The origin of these glows have consistently baffled scientists—and no doubt…
Even as the Northeast digs out after Nor’easter Nemo, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority isn’t worried about maintaining service along its northern New Haven Line. That’s thanks to a fleet of turbine-powered, slush-slinging, jet trains. Last year’s storm dropped anywhere from 11 to 40 inches of snow along the Northeast corridor, once again proving that…
