Monthly Archives: July 2011

New SOF dirt bike emerges

In the last year or so it seems that Special Operations Forces are finally parting ways with the conventional military by getting away from cumbersome armored systems and moving back towards gear and equipment that emphasis light weight and maneuverabi… Continue reading

Posted in Basic Load, Door Kickers, The 'Stan, Trooper Tech | Comments Off

Apple Sells Apps Faster Than McDonald’s Sells Hamburgers [Infographic]

Apple recently announced that they’d sold just over 15 billion apps in just three years, which got ZDNet’s Eric Lai doing some number crunching, and it turns out that the App Store has just passed a big milestone: Apple’s now selling apps faster … Continue reading

Posted in app store, Apple, burgers, infographic, mcdonald's, News | Comments Off

Great Balls of Wire

The wire ball can hide up to 5 feet of cable, cutting down on all that extraneous cordage that most of us have behind/around our desks and media centers. Hat tip to the designer Søren Refsgaard! Continue reading

Posted in Gadgets, gift guide: generic, great gift, made me look, wishlist | Comments Off

How the deficit got so big

The US continues to rack up more and more debt, with a deficit in the trillions. But how did we get here? Teresa Tritch for The New York Times examines:
In 2001, President George W. Bush inherited a surplus, with projections by the Congressional Budget… Continue reading

Posted in Bush, deficit, government, Obama, Statistical Visualization | Comments Off

New codec pack brings RAW support to Explorer, Live Photo Gallery

Microsoft has released a codec pack providing native RAW support to both Windows Explorer and Windows Live Photo Gallery. With the pack installed, Explorer will show thumbnails for the RAW files produced by most popular digital c… Continue reading

Posted in Microsoft, News | Comments Off

Obsolete Military Designs for Magnifying Sound

A few years ago we posted about these beautiful parabolic structures made of concrete, as a way to magnify sound in the days of World War I. The British used them to listen for incoming enemy fighters in an era that antedated radar.

(more…) Continue reading

Posted in Object Culture | Comments Off

How Algorithms Shape Our World, Fascinating TED Talk by Kevin Slavin

[Video Link] Via Laughing Squid, this TED talk by game developer Kevin Slavin:
Kevin Slavin argues that we’re living in a world designed for — and increasingly controlled by — algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these … Continue reading

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Human-Powered Drill Strikes Water in Tanzania, Offers Hope for Cheaper Wells (Video)

image via YouTube video screengrab

When it comes to drilling new wells for water, the cost can be prohibitive as heavy machinery needs to be brought in to do the digging. However, a team of students from Brigham Young University came up with a human-… Continue reading

Posted in africa, concepts & prototypes, Design & Architecture, drinking water, water, water crisis | Comments Off

Plutonium Is Hot Suspect in Pioneer Spacecraft Mystery

By Duncan Geere, Wired UK
A 30-year mystery as to why the Pioneer spacecraft have slowly been drifting off course is close to being explained — the latest analysis pins the blame on heat.

The Pioneer 10 and 11 spa… Continue reading

Posted in physics, Pioneer spacecraft, planetary science, plutonium, radioactive decay, Space, Wired UK | Comments Off

wrap magazine

I have a soft spot for illustrators. I’m not sure why, but they’re always the artists I seem to develop design-crushes on most easily. Thankfully Polly and Chris at Wrap decided to publish a magazine dedicated to illustration that will now feed my… Continue reading

Posted in graphic design + illustration | Comments Off