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E3 is the game industry’s biggest event, showcasing the new games and consoles. It also showcases the creepy sexism that permeates this multi-billion dollar business, according to Kotaku editor Tina Amini’s own experiences—from a security guard who groped a female journalist to a male journalists who slipped his business card in a PR woman’s dress.…
Why waste closet space storing seasonal outfits you’re not going to wear until it gets cold or warm again when you can repurpose them as the most comfortable place to sit? The upper half of this soft storage chair from Mimish is your standard beanbag that will conform and smoosh to however you awkwardly want…
Facebook has been doing a lot of work on its comment system between threaded replies and emoticon support. Now (finally?) you can throw images in there too. Brace yourself; the image macros are coming. https://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-rolling-out-threaded-comments-to-pages-and-5992320 Facebook hasn’t said anything about the new feature, but it’s starting to roll out to people in the form of…
Drone photography is in the news this week, with protesters in Istanbul using unmanned cameras to document the events from above. Interestingly, the very first instance of remote aerial photography was devised to document an urban crisis, too: the 1906 earthquake that partially leveled San Francisco. George R. Lawrence was an eccentric, brilliant aviator and…
FBI Director Robert Mueller has admitted to the U.S. Senate that government spy drones are operating over the United States. But it’s only “in a very, very minimal way, and seldom,” which is obviously untrue. Are spy toilets next? https://gizmodo.com/confirmed-the-fbi-is-spying-on-the-us-with-drones-514322947
Rust. It’s the product of metal oxidation, which we interpret as everything from a ruined car to a highly sought antique patina. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you’ll capture the beauty (or horror) of rust. The Challenge Photograph rust. The Technique Now I’m biased, but I think rust will make a remarkable subject this…
According to actor Matthew MacFayden, Dame Judi Dench embroiders swear words during movie shoots. Really bad ones. Then she gives them as presents. https://groupthink.kinja.com/tonight-in-things-i-did-not-know-before-513650758
As you get older, you just want to simplify your life, have less clutter and maybe have a few jack of all trade go-to items for the outdoors. Take for, instance, this new jacket from Helly Hansen called the H2 Flow that allegedly keeps you cool and warm when you need it. And it’s super…
Steve Jobs gave one of his most illuminating interviews in 1994, when he was promoting the NeXT computer platform he would later sell to Apple and use as the basis for the new Macs that brought the company back to life. In this never-before-seen clip, Jobs humbly notes that his own contributions will be forgotten,…
Upgrade’s adhoc Cyborg-themed linkfest – Ray Kurzweil gets a music video. – New Elysium trailer puts the one per cent in orbit. – 3D printing brain implants. – A thought-powered helicopter. – Houseplants as sun-seeking cyborgs. – Azimov predicts self-driving cars for 2014. – Tiny batteries for tiny robots. – India’s robot army. – Biocomputers…
There’s Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, Silicon Alley in New York, Silicon Hills in Austin and lately tech boosters in New Orleans have been trying to get the name Silicon Bayou to stick. Everybody wants their region to be the next destination for science and technology-oriented companies…
Dmitry Itskov dreams of immortality. It’s a dream that the Russian multimillionaire is hoping to engineer into reality in a relatively short 32 years with his creation of the “2045 Initiative” – a project devoted to the kind of “life extension technologies” that currently populate science fiction. Mr Itskov’s second attempt at promoting those technologies…
The 90-year-old western singer Slim Whitman has died in Florida. For six decades, the singer performed and recorded his peculiar style of echo-laden yodels and ballads. He appeared with Andy Kaufman and his otherworldly music was featured in two iconic alien-invasion movies: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Mars Attacks! Here’s Slim on the…
Get skeeved out by the NSA taking a peek at all your data? Well it gets even better: the FBI has confirmed it’s spying on the United States with drones. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-prism-511875267 FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee the following, in regards to the Bureau’s drone use: Our footprint is very small. We…
Monstrous diabetic slop peddler Paula Deen is being sued for $1.2 million over her alleged mistreatment of workers at her Georgia restaurant. In a videotaped deposition leaked to the National Enquirer, Deen reportedly admits using the N-word and calling black workers “slaves.” https://jezebel.com/the-ten-weirdest-allegations-from-paula-deens-home-cook-5890871
Last week we brought you inside the Common Press, a letterpress studio where printing methods of yore are reinvigorated in the name of art. As much as the Press is engaged in making new things, the technological history being preserved there is vast. The machines preserved there span more than 150 years of printing history,…
It’s amazing the way a nice piece of tech can radically change the world over just a few years. Just decades ago, everything changed when we started putting computers in homes, and it changed again when we started putting them in pockets. But regardless of how revolutionary these innovations are, they’re gone incredibly fast. It’s…
Another Republican in the U.S. Senate has joined two other GOP senators in supporting gay marriage. In an opinion piece posted to her Senate website, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says that conservatives should support marriage equality because conservatives want government to stay out of private lives. http://gawker.com/republican-senator-lisa-murkowski-endorses-marriage-equ-514284048 This thinking is consistent with what I hear from…
The EU is notoriously sensitive about how its crops are grown—but this weekend, it will begin allowing companies to apply labels and barcodes directly onto produce using lasers. The new legislation—which has taken three years to pass—was spearheaded by a Spanish company called Laser Food (natch), which has developed proprietary tech to print the marks…
When you’re traveling and away from a reliable power source, conserving your laptop’s battery is of the utmost importance. And knowing which of your USB accessories draws the most juice thanks to this simple $31 power meter—whether it’s a wireless adapter, an external drive, or even your phone—will help you max out whatever battery life…
