Tech News

Frosty Gifts for Powder-Shredding Snow Lovers

As winter rests its icy keister upon our heads things get cold, dark, and downright depressing. The only—literally the only—thing I look forward to come wintertime is playing in the snow. Here’re some items to help you maximize your frozen fun. Hey there! You might notice our gift guides look a little different this year.…

How To Rescue Wet Gadgets

So you did it. Or maybe you did it again. Dropped your favorite gadget in a sink or a toilet. Or you spilled an entire 40oz on it. Oops. That doesn’t mean you can’t save it though. Here are a few tips that might just bring it back to life. Step 1: Cut the power…

Futurist Ray Kurzweil Goes to Google To Work on Machine Learning

Google has always been making a push to usher in the future, and now they’re taking it a step further with their latest new hire. Starting Monday, renown futurist Ray Kurzweil will be putting in some work for the search giant. Probably best known for his theory of the technological singularity, Kurzweil also has experience…

Watch These Scientists Use Chemistry Explosions To Drop the Base

No matter what you’re into, I think it’s pretty safe to say controlled chemistry experiements that involve explosions are cool. As it turns out, they’re not only cool to watch, but can be pretty cool to listen to as well. At least, when you line them up the right way. That’s exactly what the brains…

You’re Going to Be So Disgusted with Humans After Watching This Video

Human beings, I love ya, but man are we disgusting. This video by Aaron Rogers lists and animates all the scientific grossness of being a human and it gets pretty gnarly. Like how many hot tubs our saliva can fill and what our eye boogers are made from and all the other nasty stuff that…

What Happens When You Tie a Knot in the Middle of a Zipline

Our crazy awesome friend DevinSuperTramp and his gang of crazier and even more awesome friends came up with ways to make a zipline ever more fun: tying a knot in the middle of the line, running two people at once to catapult a person and trying as many insane tricks with skis as possible. The…

The Stoner Channel: The POTUS Fries Fish, James Cameron’s New Old Film, but There’s No Time to Explain!

Congress Begins Talking About Legal Pot Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee (it oversees the Department of Justice and gives Sen. Chuck Grassley something to do besides tweet), sent a very interesting note to R. Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, yesterday. Last month, voters…

PBS Explains What Trolling Is

If you’ve traveled around the circuit track of the Internet a couple of times, you’ve heard about trolls trolling. What does that mean? For the Internet unfamiliar, it’s basically a bunch of not so lovely online folks who post stuff to get people angry. The latest video from PBS Off Book explains trolling, cyber bulling…

Have You Noticed A Change In Your Commercials’ Obnoxious Volume?

Finally, after being in the works for about a year, the FCC has enacted a ban on unbearably loud television ads. You know, ads like this, or even this. While the FCC actually adopted the law, called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, about a year ago, cable and satellite providers have had the time…

D’Angelo: Brown Sugar

D’Angelo went a bit nuts, got arrested, got a little fat, and disappeared for a decade. Now he’s back, and he’s touring and recording. And if the next album is anything near the R&B goodness he gave us with Brown Sugar and Voodoo, we’ll be more than pleased. [Spotify, iTunes, Amazon]

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Gandalf Street Magic

You think David Blaine is bad? It could be worse. You could be stuck with the Middle Earth street magic stylings of Gandalf. Where’s your ring of invisibility when you need it? Full video below: The rest of this week’s top comedy videos, including the Charlie Brown School of Dance, a Sugarboy, and Cat Power…

Smartphone-Controlled Toilet Includes Built-in Speakers So You Can Listen to Music, Costs Nearly $5,000

“Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste” says the Japanese toilet to Homer Simpson as a rainbow springs from the bowl. Japan is full of toilets from the ingenious to the insane and the country has built up a reputation as the origin of some of the world’s most multi-functional commodes. The newest toilet…

This Retroreflective Scarf Has Secret, Hidden Stripes

Fashion is all about how things look, sure, but it doesn’t have to be about how they look all the time. This Retroreflective Scarf designed by Diana Eng is definitely striped, even if it doesn’t always appear that way. The scarf is actually covered with individual strips of tiny retroreflective lenses which fling light back…

Recycle Your God-Awful Christmas Sweaters with This Pedal-Powered Un-Knitting Machine

Until now, we’ve had precious few options for disposing of the knitted atrocity Grandma made—regift it, stuff it in the bottom of a drawer to languish, or donate it to charity. But with the ingenious Imogen Hedges un-knitting machine, you’ll be able to devolve that sweater in no time. Best of all, you’ve now got…

If You Want Me To Sing In Public You’ll Have To Do Better Than a Free Coke

Coca-Cola has long been associated with the holidays: from polar bears with questionable diets, to the myth that the company created our modern image of the man in red. But this year the company’s Christmas marketing efforts completely miss the mark. Instead of turning caffeine addicts into spies for a free bottle of sugar water,…

Most Beautiful Items of the Week: December 7-14, 2012

Take a little pause and remember how many beautiful things there are to feast your eyes upon. From a modular organizer shaped like a boat to banded furniture where you can stash your stuff, these are some of the most beautiful things we found this week. 21 Awesome and Rare Gifts You’ll Never Find at…

Ray Kurzweil is going to work for Google focusing on machine learning and language processing.

The 12 Most Passive Aggressive Secret Santa Presents You Can Give This Year

It’s bad enough that you have to deal with the mouth-breathers at your office five days a week. Now you’ve got to spend your hard-earned money on a Secret Santa present for them as well? Thank you, no. Express your displeasure with these fantastically snarky gift ideas. CDs Bonus points if they’re AOL installation CDs.…

What Did You Think of The Hobbit at 48 FPS?

So The Hobbit is out today, and if you’re a megafan, maybe you saw it at midnight, or maybe you’re seeing it tonight. Or maybe you took off today to see it nine times in a row and are about to collapse in a pool of human waste. If you saw it, or if you’re…

Adult Mad Libs, Turnplay, and More

If you’re a wordsmith, you’ll dig this batch of the week’s best iPad apps. We’ve got an adult spin on a popular kids game, another title that challenges you to make popcorn style stories, and more. Adult Mad Libs: Mad Libs was fun when you were a kid, and it’s still fun as an adult.…