Tech News

How Your Ears Do Math Better Than Mathematicians

When you listen to music, when its waves of sound collide with your ear, you don’t hear a wall of sound. A great deal of information might travel in a sound wave and, if that sound wave were actually a giant wave of water rushing onto a beach, you might expect to feel it as…

At Least No One Can Hear What You’re Doing In These Musical Rhythmic Potties

In an attempt to make the often overused and undermaintained portable toilets not the worst part of a music festival in Argentina, the organizers decided to make a bank of stalls one of the musical acts. So they wired up the johns with lights and sounds that were all synced to each other, and whenever…

This Single Molecule Drives Cancer Cells to Suicide

A team of researchers has identified a single molecule, called TIC10, that kick-starts the body’s tumor-destroying systems—causing a chain reaction that can kill cancer dead. In a series of experiments in mice the researchers, from Pennsylvania State University, found that TIC10 activities the gene for a protein called TRAIL—that’s short for tumour-necrosis-factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand—which causes…

How Prepared Are You For Snowmaggedon?

With up to two feet of snow expected to dump itself on the east coast today, how prepared are you for snowmaggedon? Meteorologists predict massive drifts, white outs, and power cuts over the next two days. Are you fully loaded with supplies? And what kit do you have to keep yourselves safe in the snow?…

The CEO of UK carrier Vodafone says 4G is for “technofreaks” and that nobody needs “this fast internet.” Good marketing!

Is Your Town on the FAA’s New Drone List?

The Federal Aviation Administration has finally released a new drone authorization list. This list, released in response to EFF’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, includes law enforcement agencies and universities across the country, and-for the first time-an Indian tribal agency. In all, the list includes more than 20 new entities over the FAA’s original…

This Dragon Turned Out To Be a Pterosaur

This Latin inscription on this his curious beast identifies it as a “dragon as it was recovered in the hands of the engineer Cornelius Meyer”. The picture comes from a 1696 book that Meyer wrote describing his construction projects, and an etching on the cover claims to show the dragon as it looked alive in…

How to Make Dry Ice at Home

Dry ice is amazing stuff, especially in the kitchen—think ice cream or booze—but getting hold of it can be tricky. No problem! Here’s how to make your own. All you’ll need is a fire extinguisher, a pillow case, and a little bit of practice. What are you waiting for? [YouTube]

This Woman Was Fined For Decorating Her Electronic Security Bracelet

When Rebecca Gallanagh was fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet after being arrested, she thought it was boring—so she decorated it using fake diamonds. Sadly, that didn’t play very well with the authorities. In fact, she was fined $220 by Secro, the security company who fitted the bracelet, for “compromising the integrity” of the device.…

A new, smaller Roku puck has landed at the FCC—but sadly all the interesting internal details are witheld.

Did Bing Maps Capture the Top Secret U.S. Drone Base in Saudi Arabia?

This past week, reports have come out about a top secret US drone base inside Saudi Arabia. The base was built two years ago, had been used for dozens of drone attacks in Yemen and was originally hidden by the news until it was revealed this week. Now, Bing Maps may have found it, reports…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Bermuda

All hail the hypno-box! This psychedelic short film by Calvin Frederick of CalArts surprisingly uses zero CGI or other special effects. He instead relies on a Canon 5D mounted in a motion-control rig, a programmable LED board, and mirroring to create this kaleidoscopic mania.

The Future Is Going to Be Hilariously Hovering

This animation, called The Future by Alex Goddard, is pretty much perfect. Everything is going to hover. In fact, I won’t believe we’re in the future until more things start hovering. My favorite part of the clever animation was when hoverboards are still only ‘coming soon’. [Alex Goddard Vimeo]

That Awful Privacy-Killing CISPA Bill Is Coming Back to Haunt Us

We thought we killed all those awful, horrible destroy the Internet-type bills in SOPA, PIPA and CISPA. We might’ve been wrong. Like a zombie looking for human blood or a sore loser demanding a rematch, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger and Rep. Mike Rogers plan to re-introduce CISPA to the House later this year. The problem with…

Is Listening to MP3s and Vinyls Better Than Listening to Live Music?

Here’s something that should have an obvious answer for most people (some crusty folks like me who avoid large crowds and loud sounds would beg to differ), is listening to MP3s and vinyls better than listening to live music? LIVE MUSIC DUH! If you don’t listen to live music, you don’t love music. If you…

A Facebook Bug Pretty Much Took Down the Entire Internet

If you thought the Internet freaked out for a little bit and every site you went to was down, you’re not alone. Major websites were down: CNN, Huffington Post, ESPN, Gawker, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, etc. were all broken. Why? Because of a glitch with Facebook. Developers at Gawker said that the glitch started with…

Which One Has More Usable Space: the 128GB Surface Pro or the 128GB MacBook Air?

Everyone’s been making fun of the Surface Pro for being so stingy on hard drive space. The 128GB version of the Surface Pro only has 90GB of free space (originally reported to be 83GB but since boosted). Where the hell did the other 38 gigs go? Well, you could ask the same question to the…

You can find older tweets on Twitter search now. Before, search only showed week-old tweets. Now, Tweets will never die.

Scientists Say This Rat Was Your Great-Great-Great-Great-(…)-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandmother

This rat with way too many sharp teeth is your great x 4 x 10^6-grandmother. That’s what scientists have discovered after six years of research—the Protungulatum donnae is the common ancestor to all mammals, from humans to horses to lions. All except Nicholas Cage, who descends from velociraptors. The team, lead by Maureen A. O’Leary…

MoviePass: A Film Buff’s All You Can Eat Buffet

The price of admission to a movie is just ridiculous, isn’t it? A girl can hardly afford to get a tub of popcorn with her flick anymore. But movie pass eases the pain of the price with a monthly subscription plan. What does it do? Lets you see as many movies as you want in…