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The allure of Pop Rocks is undeniable. Sure, the whole “fireworks in your mouth” thing is a gimmick, but it’s an awesome one. You know what else is an awesome gimmick? Everybody’s favorite Red Hot Nickel Ball. The results aren’t especially explosive, but those rocks still pop. Except instead of saliva, they’re popping in a…
I remember my very first trip to New York City at eight years old in vivid—though brief—detail. A flash of Columbus Circle horns blaring, buildings towering. A pack of baseball cards from a surly street vendor. A seagull on the Circle Line, shitting on my leg. “This city is scary,” I thought. “I want to…
David Bowie’s newest album, The Next Day, is getting an expanded three-disc re-release on November 5. That was a surprise in and of itself, but it’s coming with a little extra: a rollicking ten-minute remix of the song “Love Is Lost,” by James Murphy. The track is officially called the “Hello Steve Reich Mix by…
There is beauty in so many things, whether they’re famous works of art reimagined as desserts or a massive installation by the artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Those and more are the most beautiful items we found this week. This Mesmerizing Ai Weiwei Installation Is Made From 3,144 Bicycles Last night in Toronto, Chinese artist…
Wood-fired pizza is absolutely a slice above the 30-minutes-or-less variety that gets delivered to your door, and it’s pretty common for restaurants that employ the process to make the massive, rustic ovens the visual centerpiece of the room, so folks dining-in can see their pies emerge. Vienna-based creative collective Madame Mohr took a different aesthetic…
As growth in China proper plods along, Chinese corporations are eager to expand into foreign investments—the latest of which is centrally located in downtown Brooklyn.Greenland Holdings Group, a Shanghai-based developer, will buy the majority share in the long-beleaguered Atlantic Yards Housing Development, a $4 billion housing scheme tacked onto the deal that built the Barclays…
Despite the government being shut down, this week brought us a bevy of new gizmos to play with. I’ll leave it up to you to determine whether that’s some kind of evidence that the mere existence of government hinders the rollout of electronic devices — for now, we talk about gadgets! Kindle Paperwhite: We loved…
Congratulations! We may not have a government, but instead of running around and looting and pillaging like a bunch of animals, you’re here calmly reading about mobile applications—just like god intended. And to reward you, we’ve got some good ones for iPhones, Androids, and Windows Phones alike, so go get ’em, tiger. And hey, when…
Kyle Allums has been a fighter for most of his life. Fighting to excel at the sport he loved and fighting to find acceptance for who he is. Growing up transgendered led him into a suicidal depression, but basketball was his salvation. This is his incredible story.
When you think of iconic graphic design, you might think of magazine ads or highway signs or even design-centric companies like American Airlines. You almost certainly don’t think of burglar alarms. But maybe you should. Victoria McDonald does. This former editor of Art World magazine became fascinated by the design of burglar alarms a few…
Sunny summer days have all but disappeared to make way for the crisper autumn afternoons here in the northern hemisphere; give it another six or seven months, however, and we’ll all spending lovely lazy afternoons in bikinis and boardshorts, not a care in the world—except the fact that our damn towels aren’t drying fast enough.…
Despite being one of the greatest musicians of all time, David Byrne is a really awful futurist. The legendary frontman for the Talking Heads wrote today in the Guardian that the internet, “will suck the creative content out of the whole world until nothing is left.” But this isn’t the first time that Byrne has…
The government shutdown is killing dozens of beloved science programs? Whatever. Now it’s causing a massive outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella? Who cares? Wait, what’s that? It’s standing between you and the delicious beer you would be drinking? ALARM! PROTEST! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week, and it’s…
You know what they say about people who live in glass houses—but what about plastic bubbles? For the next ten days, a American artist named Alex Schweder is occupying this teensy inflatable home—that attaches to a van via scissor lift—at the site of Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House in the name of art. For over…
I recently invested in an AM/FM clock radio, and I will never look back. Why? Because radio in the morning is the best way to wake up. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use your smartphone alarm clock. That’s just a fine solution. But it was killing me. Every time I heard that harp sing sweetly…
Our weekly round-up of time capsule news includes a McDonald’s capsule from 1970 that hasn’t aged well, a Vietnam War-era capsule in Virginia Beach that “smells like rotten eggs,” and more church time capsules than you can shake a hymnal at. McDonald’s in Phoenix Opens A Soggy Mess of Early ’80s Nostalgia Thirty years ago…
Over at Mercury News, new photos of an actual, physical model of Apple’s soon-to-be corporate headquarters make the mothership-like campus seem more real than ever (and just as beautiful). Up until now, we’ve only had renderings to go off, and while great, it was hard to get a real sense of what we’d be dealing…
Qualcomm is developing a new line of Zeroth processors designed to help devices think and sense just like human brains and bodies. This isn’t just an attempt at mimicking the behavior of human intelligence, but rather, an attempt at replicating the underlying biology that drives behavior. Oh, and Qualcomm wants to stuff all that complex…
Starting October 25th, new AT&T customers have an option between shared data plans and…shared data plans. Existing users will be able to keep whatever plan they currently have; AT&T won’t shunt you off. But anybody who’s switching over now is going to have pick a share plan. No ifs ands or buts. [Engadget]
Norway’s got a major corpse problem that isn’t going away anytime soon. Literally—they won’t rot. What’s the culprit behind this profusion of bodies that refuse to take their place in the circle of life? The same thing that’s also working to keep your sandwich fresh: plastic wrap. For three decades following World War II, Norway’s…
