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Since Boeing’s operational 787 Dreamliners were grounded, engineers have been trying hard to solve the problem. Now, the Seattle Times is reporting that Dreamliner test flights could start as early as this week. Boeing seeks to gain additional information about the battery system during the test flights—and apparently also has a possible fix it wants…
A leaked Justice Department white paper reveals a draft legal framework which describes in detail the targeting of American citizens by drones without due process or proof of specific intent to harm. That’s terrifying. The document, obtained by NBC News, explains that targets believed to be “senior operational leader[s] of al-Qa’ida” or an “associated force”…
The open source, Android-powered games console Ouya will, according to the company’s CEO Julie Uhrman, be available from Target, Best Buy, and Gamestop for $100 as of June. The console will also be sold by Amazon and through Ouya’s website. Sale of the console through major retailers will commence in June, three months after the…
I don’t like riding roller coasters because I’m a big weenie when it comes to mechanical excitement. But I have no problem believing that I would ride these ridiculously thrilling (and totally fake) roller coasters from the Centrifuge Brain Project. The first roller coasters in the video start off harmless enough that you could believe…
Floating through dream-like landscapes, this surreal short is not the time-lapse video it first appears. In fact it’s not a video at all. Vimeo contributor Mustardcuffins overlaid, then peeled off hundreds of still images to create the serene visual effects of Turner. As more and more stills are removed, the scenes appear to fade with…
This is wonderful. Jason Bruges Studio created an interactive installation that can react to touch and reveal digital animals inside a children’s hospital. It’s really clever, there are 70 LED panels with 72,000 LEDs in total hidden behind the wallpaper of the rainforest. When started, the wall makes it seem as if animals are traveling…
It’s tough to imagine computers and robots and electrical wiring being racist but a Harvard study has found “significant discrimination” in advertising results depending on the perceived race of the name you search for. Names typically associated with black people produced more ads related to crime. Searches for white names would be harmless. That would…
While James Dyson is the obvious face of the company he founded in 1993, he isn’t the only one tinkering away at high-powered blades or really sucky vacuums in Malmesbury, England. With over 700 some engineers under one roof, Dyson tasked Marcus Hartley with creating the new hybrid faucetAirblade Tap about two and a half…
Kerry Skarbakka is a photographer who loves to capture himself falling to the ground. It could be falling off from a ladder, falling off from a building, falling in the shower, falling while lifting weights and/or anything horrible and awful and terrible that you would never ever want to fall off of. How does he…
It’s a work of art. The magnificently choreographed dance of manufacturing lenses seems like an ancient tradition as old as making swords or soap or something (which I guess isn’t surprising because it is glass that they’re making). We’ve seen Nikon produce the glass inside its lenses but this video shows the entire lens making…
So it turns out there are actually people out there who are more afraid of how they look carrying an umbrella than getting wet in the rain. Which led to the creation of this horribly sexist fake newspaper known as the Manbrella. I’m not entirely sure why women couldn’t use it too. Made from a…
And now for something different, Carbon for Twitter is a new client on Android. What does it do? It lets you read and post tweets in a better, simpler interface than the default Twitter app. Why do we like it? Carbon is a much nicer looking Twitter client. Carbon also has some good gesture controls.…
OK, please, give this a chance before you close the tab—a hand dryer can be cool. The Dyson Airblade, that little wonderbox you stick your mitts inside to get a super-fast bathroom dry, just got a super upgrade. The Airblade Tap will change the lives of anyone who goes to the bathroom, integrating the powerful…
Reuters reports that the US Department of Energy was hacked last month and a trove of employee information was lost to the cyber intruders. The hack was revealed in a letter obtained by Reuters, which was sent to employees on Friday. The DOE claims no confidential information was lost in the attack. As Reuters points…
Taking a page from the ninja playbook, researchers at the CSIRO Autonomous Systems Laboratory in Brisbane, Australia have developed a robot that’s able to listen for noises and use the distraction to mask the sound of its own movements as it creeps up on a target. Using a sensitive on-board microphone, the unnamed bot can…
Here’s something that sounds incredibly scary but in reality is probably just slightly scary and overblown: Bloomberg says Facebook is working on a new app that will follow you around via smartphone, reporting your moves to friends. Creepy? Convenient? Both? Neither? From the “two people with knowledge of the matter” who spoke to Bloomberg, the…
Maybe you’re not the most accurate when it comes to snapping photos. Maybe you’re always just a little too late, or a little too early. Congratulation on being a human like the rest of us. Window’s Research new camera application—BLINK—can give you a hand with that (the picture-taking) on Windows Phone 8. How? The shotgun…
Adorable USB drives: we love ’em. Pop an homage to the storage system on a necklace, and we like it even more. It’s $48 and it has a 32-inch chain. Just don’t try to jam it into your laptop because it’s not a real USB drive. Consider it a free Valentine’s Day gift for your…
Twitter is supposedly planning to make logins more secure by adding a two-factor authentication system. Apparently it would work similar to the 2FA system you use on Gmail. To get into your account, you’d type in both your password and a short numerical code that’s sent to your phone. It seems like a logical thing…
A Scottish toy company called H. Grossman has decided that kids are tired of the inanimate plastic dinosaurs most of us grew up with. Apparently today’s young’ns need interaction, and a grander sense of scale. So the company plans to release a $14,000+ dinosaur toy called the Megasaur for priveleged children around the world. From…
