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Tech NewsThe Design Secrets of Luxury First Class Airplane Seats
If you think being packed on an airplane with strangers sucks, then you’re probably a pleb like us who flies economy. But first class? It’s an entirely different alcohol-lubricated world up there—a world where a single seating unit can cost half a million dollars. How does something to park your ass in even get so … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech NewsGoogle Street View Now Lets You Travel Back In Time
Up until now, anyone hoping to time travel in Google Street View was more or less left at the mercy of the odd, serendipitous glitch. But starting today, Google is rolling out a new Street View feature that lets you travel back in time virtually anywhere. Apparently, Google’s been quietly hoarding old Street View snapshots … Continued
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Tech NewsResearchers Invent a Camouflage Material That Changes Like a Chameleon
Mother Nature has already mastered the art of camouflage, so it only makes sense that we steal her ideas when it comes to the art of hiding. Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a remarkable new material “inspired” by chameleons, which can change shape and color under different lighting conditions. Making the material … Continued
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io9
Medieval Manuscripts Depict The Taxonomy Of Dragons
The British Library is commemorating St. George’s Day with an extraordinary gallery of dragon illustrations culled from its digitized medieval manuscript collection. The online bestiary reveals dragons in all their forms, ranging from the familiar Smaug variety to lizard-like animals with duck feet to winged leonine creatures. Dragons were near-ubiquitous in medieval manuscripts, serving as … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech NewsCommerce
HBO Is Bringing a Ton of Its Shows to Amazon Prime
Amazon just announced an agreement that makes Prime Instant Video the only place you can watch HBO originals online without an HBO subscription. Starting May 21st, Prime members will get exclusive, unlimited streaming access to pretty much every HBO original you’re interested in except Game of Thrones. Right out of the gate, Prime members will … Continued
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io9TelevisionJust How Many Major Characters Will Die In Walking Dead Season 5?
Lou Ferrigno’s going to play the Hulk one more time! Could Star Wars return to being a summer-movie franchise? Bill Paxton wants to join the Avatar sequels. And a familiar face could be joining The Amazing Spider-Man 3. There’s a report from someone who saw an hour of How To Train Your Dragon 2. Spoilers … Continued
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Tech NewsMeet the Woman Who Photographs the Oldest Living Things In The World
What’s the oldest living thing you’ve ever seen? A 2,200-year-old sequoia in California, perhaps? That’s a relatively teenage specimen to the artist Rachel Sussman, who has spent the last ten years looping the globe on a wild adventure to meet and document the world’s oldest “continuously living” organisms. Working closely with biologists and researchers, and … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Is the Simplest Explanation of Climate Change You’ll Ever See
Climate change is one of the most complex areas of scientific study out there, causing physicists, chemists and meteorologists alike to scratch their heads—so it’s understandable that the rest of us find it a little difficult to grasp. But this video is your best chance yet of understanding the topic. Imagine our atmosphere as a … Continued
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ScienceBiology
Lions and Cheetahs Are Dancers in Africa’s “Carnivorous Ballet”
The lion, as they say, is king of the jungle. More accurately, it might be called the king of the savannah. It was once thought that lions posed a serious risk to other, smaller carnivores, like cheetahs and African wild dogs, but new research suggests that things aren’t quite so clear-cut. Once upon a time, … Continued
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Tech NewsSocial Media
The Top Five Types of People We All Unfriend on Facebook
Ever wondered who’s most likely to get the chop on Facebook? Wonder no longer, because researchers from the University of Colorado Denver have been looking into the most common unfriendings on the social network. By conducting surveys, the computer scientists were able to work out who most commonly gets the elbow. Their results, presented at … Continued
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Tech News
Is the OnePlus One a Nexus 5 Killer?
Say hello to the oddly named OnePlus One: a high-spec new phone from a Shenzhen-based company (not to be confused with the HTC One) that runs a CyanogenMod version of Android straight out of the box. The hardware’s certainly impressive. It packs a Snapdragon 801 with a quad-core 2.5GHz CPU, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightWatch Where 26 Asteroids Recently Slammed Into Earth
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Detection Network, that’s usually used to monitor for covert nuclear weapons testing, serves and alternative use in its spare time: it detects asteroid impacts. This video visualizes the data it’s managed to collect since 2000. In total, it’s helped detect 26 asteroids entering Earth’s atmosphere between then and now which … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & Security
Developers: Heartbleed-Affected OpenSSL Code Is Beyond Repair
OpenSLL is screwed, and as a result we’ve got Heartbleed. But now a team of developers working to overhaul the code have deemed it beyond repair—and are instead creating an alternative, forked version. Ars Technica reports that Theo de Raadt and his team have been probing OpenSSL and found it in an absolute mess. In … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidI can’t take my eyes off this ultra-accurate laser cutter
It’s like watching a ballerina dance. It’s like seeing an invisible hold never let go. It’s a multi-axis laser cutter with such pinpoint accuracy that it never moves from the spot it’s set at. It’s impossible. If these are our future robot overlords, it makes complete sense. Take me now. SPLOID is a new blog … Continued
By Casey Chan -
Tech NewsWatch the First BASE Jump From the Tip of the World’s Tallest Building
Hold tight. This new video shows Vince Reffet and Fred Fugen break a new World Record: by climbing to the very top of Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest building—and then BASE jumping off it. The Burj Khalifa stands 2,722 ft tall above the Dubai cityscape it dominates, providing a tantalizing—and terrifying—challenge for BASE jumpers. Now, for … Continued
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Tech News
Sprint Will Make All Its Devices Unlockable From February 2015
The U.S. is unusual for all kinds of reasons, but one of the most perplexing is probably the way that phones acquired through carriers are locked to their specific network. Not for much longer, if Sprint is anything to go by. Tucked away in Sprint’s unlocking FAQs is a gem that we’ve been waiting for … Continued
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io9Space Girls Just Want To Have Fun, In Beach Babes From Beyond
You haven’t heard cheesy science-fiction dialogue delivered with total aplomb until you’ve watched this snippet of Beach Babes From Beyond, in which the eponymous Beach Babes steal their daddy’s Space T-Bird and fly to the forbidden planet… Earth. Dialogue gems from the above snippet include: “Boys are like from another planet.” “Can’t live with ’em, … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidMagic tree stands back upright after being chopped down to the ground
If reading The Giving Tree as a kid didn’t convince you that trees have feelings, just watch this unbelievable clip of a magical tree rising from the dead. Seriously! After getting chopped to pieces by a man with a chainsaw, the tree stands straight up as if it were never knocked down in the first … Continued
By Casey Chan