Tech News

Some Predictions for the Next 150 Years

There’s nothing like staring at the onset of a new year and making predictions on what the next 150 years will look like. Silly predictions are the best! BBC cooked up some ideas and gave odds on what they think will happen in the next 150 years ranging from most likely to least likely and…

Animals on Drugs, Chuck Berry on Keith Richards, and Israel: Home to the World’s Best Weed

Evil Dead—the Red Band Trailer Hell hath no fury like what is unleashed upon these unsuspecting vacationers. April 12th can’t come soon enough. Animals That Do Drugs What, you thought humans were the only animals to self-medicate? Child please, Mother Nature has animals that self-medicate using other animals as the medicine. It’s the Circle of…

How to Cheat and Look Like You Can Solve the Rubik’s Cube

I can’t solve the Rubik’s Cube. All the spinning I do, all the rejiggering I try, all I end up with is a mess of colors with no idea how I got there. It’s okay though! I can now fake it like I know how. Matt Parker has figured out a way to cheat and…

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Sex Toy

Remember: It’s not the length of the comedy video that matters, it’s how hard it makes you laugh. Besides, you didn’t want to spend more than five seconds watching a sex toy fly around the room anyway, did you? The rest of this weeks comedy videos, including your brain as a gun, Fred Willard as…

Did Satellites Capture China’s Mysterious Giant War Plane?

The GeoEye 1 and IKONOS spacecraft have captured satellite images of the mysterious Xian Aircraft Corporation Y-20, China’s first long range jet transport. It shows the clearest image of the giant transport plane yet and reveals that China’s plane looks a lot like the U.S. Air Force’s C-17. That’s not an accident. The satellite images,…

Most Beautiful Items of the Week: December 31, 2012-January 4, 2013

You’re feeling the weight of holiday excess both figuratively and literally. Step one of your detox requires no effort at all—just peep the loveliest items we found this week. Whether it’s a mind-melting Möbius chair, to a beautiful felt shelving system, there is plenty of design goodness for you below. Wobbling Chess Set Makes It…

This Insane Helmet Cam Video Shows What It’s Like to Be a Firefighter

If you ever want to re-live your childhood dream of being a firefighter, watch the video up above. The helmet cam footage comes from Scott Ziegler, a firefighter in Michigan, and shows a year’s worth of fires from 2012. It’s freaking intense. Scott says: I put together a bunch of clips from some of the…

The USS Zumwalt Deck Looks Like a Part of an Imperial Star Destroyer

This image is so unreal that it feels like a sci-fi illustration more than a photo. It looks like part of a spaceship—perhaps some structure from an Imperial Star Destroyer—instead of the 1,000-ton deckhouse of the new destroyer USS Zumwalt. The fact is that the futuristic USS Zumwalt will actually look more like a spacecraft…

CBS Connect, Hundreds, and More

Perhaps Santa brought you a new iPad for Christmas, and you’re already tired of that first round of essential apps you loaded on it. Here’s a batch of new stuff to get you excited about your toy, from a classic game, to a children’s app, and more. CBS Connect: You have theories on your favorite…

Agenda, Antiques Roadshow, and More

Want to get a jump on the new year? We’re helping you with that in this round of the Android apps of the week. Get yourself in gear with a calendar app, a 5K training tool, and more. Agenda Calendar: So your New Year’s resolution is to get organized? That starts with your agenda. Combine…

SeatGeek, ParkSpot, and More

Perhaps you made some New Year’s resolutions this week. Of course this is the year you’re going to keep them, just like every other year. Regardless, we’re here to help, with two exercise apps, one to help you discover new music, and so much more. SeatGeek: Make sure you’re not in the nosebleeds before you…

A Cheap Lasko Space Heater Will Avenge Your Winter Chills

My poorly insulated Brooklyn bedroom is frigid in the winter. If it weren’t for my Lasko space heater I would at least have chronic bronchitis and at most die of exposure. Though it’s small (just 6 inches by 7 inches by 9 inches), it does the duty of a bigger unit. It’s also super simple…

Google Maps Has Never Been Accessible On Internet Explorer Mobile Now Blocked on Windows Phone (Updated)

Earlier today rumors started floating around that Google is somehow now blocking Windows Phone users from accessing Google Maps through Internet Explorer. Well, it turns out that that was totally false and untrue. As it turns out, the mobile browser version of Google Maps was built for Webkit-based browsers, and the mobile version of Internet…

Ten Crazy Things People Use to Make Booze

Sometimes you just don’t have the right resources to make a decent drink. But if you get enough sober, thirsty minds focused on the problem, humans can find some pretty creative ways to come up with alcohol. Did you really think something like a lack of grapes or a shortage of barley could keep mankind…

It’s Super Easy To Lock People Out of Their Facebook Accounts by Claiming They’re Dead (Updated)

In this new world of social media, plenty of your accounts are going to soldier on after you die. Get ready. But in the meantime, it’s easy—too easy—to convince Facebook just about anyone is dead, at which point the site will lock down the account as a memorial until the supposed corpse argues otherwise. The…

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar Is Outta There

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has resigned from Hulu. In a blog post announcing his departure, he explains that it wasn’t an easy decision. Indeed, Kilar has been at the helm of the online video-on-demand service since its early days as a venture in 2007. CTO Rich Tom will also be leaving the company. In the…

Google pulls its maps support for the Windows Phone IE browser. Ready? Fight. (Update: Just kidding!)

Amazingly Articulated Robot Hand: Skynet Meets Lego

This remarkably articulate robot hand was supposedly built by Lego enthusiast ‘Barman’ using two Mindstorms NXT control units, six motors, and some utterly brilliant engineering. But surely it’s from more nefarious minds than that. The build is almost too brilliant; it’s not impossible to believe a human designed and built this impressive creation, but what’s…

Dear IBM, Your Computer’s Psychotic—Just Letting You Know

Two years before Stanley Kubrick released 2001: A Space Odyssey, he was starting to worry that IBM would get a little mad when HAL 9000, the computer they helped design, came off, well, psychotic. To ease his troubled mind, Kubrick sent his production company’s vice president, Roger Caras, the following letter making sure IBM—whose logo…

Best Buy Lost $65K In One Day Trying to Price Match Walmart’s iPhone Discount

Best Buy dropped the price of the 16GB iPhone 5 to $150 last month, and Walmart bested that with a $127 iPhone. Now Best Buy says lost a whole $65,000 on this one product in just one day because it was forced go meet that lower price. In a recent WSJ article, Best Buy alleges…