Month: December 2014
Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop transportation system would supposedly hurtle travelers and goods at speeds in excess of 700 miles an hour. Sadly, his initial plan was shot down by critics who felt he would never get through the necessary political red tape required for his ideal route between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Now an independent […]
A team of UCLA researchers thinks it may be possible to restore lost memories in humans one day, providing a breakthrough in the continued search for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The prevailing theory is that long-term memories are stored at the synapse, the connection between neurons in the brain. It’s hypothesized that Alzheimer’s destroys the […]
When a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict the officer who was videotaped choking Eric Garner, many outlets (including ANIMAL) saw it as a potential sign that body cameras on police wouldn’t make a difference in the occurrences of police brutality. Now the full contents of a police body cam study in Rialto, California have […]
Since Facebook paid $2 billion for virtual reality headset manufacturer Oculus Rift, it should come as no surprise that the ability to use VR in a web browser has become top tech priority. Now it looks like it’s going to be a reality. Google and Mozilla are both set to release versions of Chrome and Firefox that will support […]
That stream of drunken tweets you and your friends send at night may be good for something aside from eye-rolls and inside jokes. According to siblings Enrique and Vanessa Frías-Martínez, two Spanish computer science researchers, geolocalized tweets could be used to urban planning and land use. In a study published in Engineering Applications of Artificial […]
Many homeowners own a leaf blower, a propane torch, and cornstarch, but few would think to turn those items into a badass flamethrower like Ivan Owen did. The Washington state-based artist and inventor created “The Conflagulator” with the aforementioned household items and a set of 3D printed parts, then used it to blast a bunch […]
In an example of the ways that hackers actually perform a service by pointing out security flaws, Jan Krissler says he cloned a German politician’s thumbprint using nothing but a close-up photo that was taken by a “standard photo camera” and various angles from press photos. Krissler is a member of the Chaos Computer Club, […]
Listicles: The most important editorial medium that internet media has ever adopted. Although these “top [insert number]” and “best of” rankings occur throughout the year, they’re essentially mandatory at the end of one. So, here’s to colors and 2014. 1. Red 2. Orange 3. Yellow 4. Green 5. Blue 6. Purple 7. Violet […]
The rise of homelessness in New York continued it’s seemingly unstoppable expansion this year, setting a new record of 58,913 people in shelters. The number of homeless people has been rising consistently over the last decade with a 73% increase during the Bloomberg administration. Mayor Bill De Blasio has promised a major overhaul of the system […]
KLOPS is a prolific graffiti artist in New York City who not only writes his name, but also draws characters. He makes legal art, too: Every week, be on the lookout for an original KLOPS comic with the artist’s take on current events. […]
