Tech News

Which TV star used to say “I’m just so beautiful” to the mirror?

This American filmmaker and actress created a famous HBO show that narrates the inconsequential problems of a group of twenty-something friends living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. https://jezebel.com/lena-dunham-used-to-look-in-the-mirror-and-say-im-jus-1226434042

What Burning Man Has in Common With a South Pacific Islander Cult

This week is Burning Man, when your quiet downstairs neighbor with the amber-lensed glasses takes off for the Nevada desert wearing less clothing than Miley Cyrus at the VMAs (but surrounded by the same ratio of plushies). Each year Burning Man has a theme beyond the overarching Will-Trade-Glowsticks-for-Molly, and this year the focus is on…

Apple’s In-Store iPhone Trade-In Program Is Coming Today

Starting today, Apple will be offering an in-store trade-in program for iPhones. The program complements Apple’s existing online effort, which gets you an Apple Store gift card in exchange for your old phone. Apple has reportedly confirmed the program, but there aren’t details about how it’ll work just yet. According to CNBC, the new program…

These Mechanical Flipbooks Are Like GIFs You Can Put On Your Wall

The animated GIF is a medium born of the digital age. But this artist’s mechanized flipbook project is a combination of frame-by-frame animation and kinetic sculpture—an infinite loop for a simpler time. Brooklyn based artist Juan Fontanive’s creations are part film, part sculpture. Each frame is hand-painted and housed inside a mechanism built from found…

Football player stays in the game despite dangerous knock-out tackle

Yesterday night, Vanderbilt receiver Jordan Matthews was hit so hard in the game against Ole Miss that he started to vomit, which may indicate serious damage. Medical practice and common sense says players should get out of the game and get thoroughly examined, but he kept playing because “[his] team needed [him].” https://deadspin.com/jordan-matthews-hit-his-head-vomited-and-stayed-in-th-1226545337

The NSA’s Finally Going to Start Telling Us How Many People They Spy On

President Obama’s order to the intelligence community is starting to produce results. On Friday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced on Tumblr that the intelligence community will begin issuing annual transparency reports… on Tumblr of course. Clapper’s description of the report actually sounds pretty comprehensive. Perhaps most relevant to the concerns stirred up by…

Girlfriend Body Pillow Update: 326% More Expensive, Joined by Dudes

We’re not due for our biennial Deluxe Comfort Girlfriend Body Pillow update for another 14 months, but rapidly evolving events in the girlfriend body pillow world have forced our hand. Things are different now. Here is what we know. A Pricier Pillow The original Deluxe Comfort Girlfriend Body Pillow, despite continuing to defy all decency…

Father tells kidnapped son drama in a website about his abducting mom

There are always two sides to a divorce story, but sometimes the evidence is so damning that it’s impossible not to root for one of the parents. That’s the case of game developer Kris Morness, who created a detailed site showing how his son was abducted to Japan by his ex-wife, Chie Kawabata. https://kotaku.com/game-developer-says-his-son-has-been-kidnapped-1205765948

NASA Loaned Norman Rockwell a Spacesuit for This Picture

NASA’s always had a knack for making the wonders of science look like incredible art; gazing at their various high-def visions of the universe is awe-inspiring to the highest degree. In addition to its incredible command of the cosmos, the agency has also spent the past fifty years commissioning terrestrial creative talents to find inspiration…

The 1960s Phone Button Layouts That Never Were

Certain aspects of the technologies that we use here in the 21st century have been around for so long that we take them for granted. One great example is the way that the buttons on a push-button phone are positioned. In the early-’60s switch from rotary to push-button phones, there was nothing obvious about how…

Mercedes Vehicles Have Night Vision That Can Recognize Animals Now

Mercedes’ vehicles have had night vision capabilities, and automatic object recognition, for years now. And while they can accurately recognize street signs, and other lifeless hazards, its only now that the company’s fleet—starting with the 2014 Mercedes S-Class—will be able to recognize living, breathing obstacles like cows, moose, and deer. https://gizmodo.com/mercedes-new-cars-will-autonomously-recognize-street-si-5978397 The feature actually took…

What Happens When You Stuff iPhone 5 Guts in an iPhone 5S Body?

If you haven’t seen a million iPhone 5S housing pics of varying believability by now, you’re either doing something very wrong, or very right. But looking at an alleged 5S case by itself doesn’t tell us much about the improvements over the regular 5, so Jonathan at TLD endeavored to see how many of the…

17 of the Coolest Film Posters Designed By Minimalist Legend Saul Bass

Remaking movie posters into ultra-minimal cinematic tributes has been one of the Internet’s favorite past-times of late, but the staid results—while occasionally clever—lack heart. Passion. Excitement. Like that of mid-century graphic design legend Saul Bass, who was the king of the film poster and title sequence. He managed to inject basic forms with a distinct…

McDonald’s Turns Its Tables Into NFC Smartphone Racetracks

The Happy Meal is as synonymous with McDonald’s as the Big Mac, but now the international fast food chain is experimenting with what it’s calling the Happy Table. It’s another attempt to lure kids in that uses simple NFC stickers to turn its dining tables into virtual interactive race tracks. The kids need access to…

Blackberry’s BBM App Page Mistakenly Went Live, Here’s What It Said

BlackBerry’s web people made a bit of a faux pas last night, accidentally making a page advertising its cross-platform BBM apps live before time. They pulled it, but it lives on in the form of incriminating screen captures. The half-broken page with its missing images does at least confirm we’ll see BBM arrive for Android…

Nokia took the wraps off its Here Auto connected car platform today. Consisting of in-car software, cloud services and a mobile app, the system lets users instantaneously share planned routes between computer, smartphone and dashboard nav system. Next step is to start courting car manufacturers, but Here Auto will be demoed at Germany’s International Motor…

These Disgusting Red Worms Have Been Found in Tap Water

Never drink water again. Or never drink water for as long as humanly possible. Or fine, drink water but make sure you watch out for these disgusting little red worms that have somehow dug their way through inside a water filtering system in Oklahoma. Those red worms—ranging from half an inch to an inch long—were…

A Time Lapse of the Yosemite Fire Shows Nature Destroying Nature

Reminder: Fire is scary. Another reminder: It can also be very beautiful when it’s burning near one of the most beautiful places on this entire planet. Yosemite National Park just posted its time-lapse video that shows different perspective of the ginormous 2013 Rim Fire and reveals how it is burning up the wilderness. Yosemite describes…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Sleep Walk

“Vindication!” crowed the hobo as he slowly rose towards the swirling black void in the heavens above, “Absolution is mine!”

Every Photobooth Needs an Awesome Slow Motion Option Like This

You know what’s always a hit? Photo booths at weddings. You know what’s always fun? Slow motion. You know what would be amazing? A slow-motion photo booth at a wedding. It can document all the cheery drunkenness and celebratory antics and encouraged public displays of affection and confetti and suits and ties and dresses and…