Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Oregon State University student, had planned to set off a car bomb at a 2010 Christmas Tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Oregon before he was caught (in a setup). His friends had no idea. Now, with hindsight, they're writing letters to him. More »
There are two ways to look at the World's Smallest Brewery, which opened in Coney Island yesterday. On one hand, it's one more in an unending string of largely-unsustainable hipster businesses, since it produces just one gallon of beer at a time. On the other hand? Beer by the gallon! More »
Phone numbers are intangible, frivolous things. No one in their right mind would collect them, right? Wrong. Meet Dennis Mykytyn, the man who purchased 100 coveted phone numbers with 212 area codes for $30 a pop in 2007. Yes, this guy spent $3,000 on phone numbers. More »
If the idea of snuggling up close to John Stamos gives you uncomfortable flashbacks to a long-maned Jesse Katsopolis gyrating wildly in an Elvis jumpsuit, stop that. And accept that those should be the most comfortable flashbacks you can have. More »
When you picture spec ops commandos in Afghanistan, you probably imagine them slinking around silently, quietly rappelling, or crawling through mountain passes. Not roaring around on this supercharged dirt bike. I guess they're even more badass than we thought. More »
You're poring over the hundreds of photos you shot on a Saturday afternoon. They're all shit. You drink a mystery liquid from a miniature vessel resembling a Canon lens. Magically, those photos now look great. $18 (for 3). [Photojojo via Laughing Squid] More »
How do you make a maple seed cool? Turning it into a state-of-the-art single-wing helicopter drone that soldiers and police officers can carry into the field, and that they launch by hurling it like a boomerang, is a pretty good start. More »
So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn't possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn't worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case. More »
Lockheed Martin's Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle (MPCV) is still many years and years away from seeing the cold vacuum of space. Until then, it'll see the cold water of NASA's Langley testing pool, getting repeatedly dunked at 55 MPH. More »
Google's horrible new policy on using real names in Google+ effectively means that the service is now a danger to real people. You have to ask yourself why a company that pledged to not be evil would do this. More »
We knew galaxies collide with each other, but we rarely see beautiful pictures of them about to engage in a titanic clusterfuck. This is one of those: VV 340 North about hit VV 340 on the bracket. More »
Lookout towers are often more dramatic pieces of architecture than tall buildings because they only have a single floor - the top one. This means that they can be very skeletal and the design is all about a dramatic staircase. Here are some of our favorite examples, accidental architectural gems, like mini Eiffel Towers used for watching everything from forest fires to smugglers. More »
In this week's app roundup: pictures, turned panoramic; videos, made flickery; messages, killed by Facebook; cocktails, made and drank; NYC, re-affirmed as the best city; graffiti, virtualized; people, sculpted; penises, played with and much, much more. More »
Lately, anytime the gaping maw of AT&T opens, no matter what it's talking about—puppies! or unlimited data (boring) or financial data—it has to slip in at least a tiny reference to how badly the T-Mobile merger has to happen, or all of our phones are going to explode and the puppies will die and go extinct forever. More »
Associate Professor Richard Mildren and his colleagues from the Macquarie University Photonics Research Centre discovered that diamonds evaporate under exposure to light.
University of Southampton researchers have developed new nano-structured glass optical elements, which have applications in optical manipulation and will significantly reduce the cost of medical imaging.
Researchers at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) in College Park, Maryland, operated by the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and at Georgetown University have uncovered evidence for a long-sought-after quantum state of matter, a spin liquid.
New understanding of high-performing cathode compound could facilitate rapid evaluation of improved alternatives.
