Tricorder scammer arrested after defrauding investors of $800,000

Timeshifting: let’s make TV weird again

Bringing back the holiday special with a mashup of TV’s new golden age

This is the first trailer for ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’

Next month Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World will be hitting theaters, but it’s already time to start looking ahead to what next year holds. This first trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier gives us a look at Chris Evans in the title role, along with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Samuel L. Jackson as the venerable Nick Fury, and Robert Redford. We liked the footage we saw earlier this year at San Diego Comic-Con, with directors Joe and Anthony Russo mentioning 1970s spy thrillers as a particular stylistic point of reference. 

stoweboyd:

(via How Winglets Work - Graphic - NYTimes.com)

Airlines are adopting ‘winglets’ at the end of wings and tails, in an effort to increase flight — and ultimately fuel —efficiencies. Winglets can cut fuel use by as much as 5%.

Airlines have also experimented with other weight reduction practices, like lighter paper in in-flight magazines, and replacing flight manuals with tablets.

Next we’ll see ticketing passengers by weight, since 1/3 of the cost of a flight is fuel.

ultrazapping:

Overlapping various brush strokes ▰ From “Amazing Graphics” in AmigaWorld (Premiere) ☯85SEP

(Source: wwwtxt, via activator-inhibitor)

Microsoft erects a giant Surface tablet in the center of London

Microsoft has a fascination with big screens. The software giant has demonstrated Windows 8 on its 82-inch Perceptive Pixel PC and created giant displays with Kinect built in. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates even uses a giant 80-inch Windows 8 display occasionally. Today, however, Microsoft is going one step further. At one of London’s biggest tourist attractions, Trafalgar Square, the company has created a 383-inch Surface tablet.

Robot city: how machines are driving the future of PIttsburgh

After more than a century, steel production in Pittsburgh is all but over, leaving in its wake industries based on higher education, health care, academic research, and robots. Lots of robots. And when it comes to robots, the goal is more focused on building a framework for the future than an infrastructure from the past. And for that reason, the city has become a place where far-flung ambitions are supported and encouraged, even if the end goal is a long way off. Sometimes it’s as “far off” as the moon.

Shazam at sea: music lookup techniques can distinguish dolphin calls

Music lookup services like Shazam have been helping listeners get songs out of their heads and into their music players for years, but now researchers are realizing that there’s even more scientific value to be had from the principles behind these apps. Using the very algorithm employed by many music lookup services, researchers have found that it’s possible to distinguish between Dolphins’ “signature whistles” — the sounds that they use to effectively address other dolphins by name — in a simple and efficient way.

Acer C720 Chromebook review

The perfect Chromebook has long been a pipe dream. All Google needed to do was release a model with great battery life and speedy performance for a price that well undercuts a typical Windows laptop. But that’s apparently easier said than done. We’ve seen a variety of Chromebooks come and go over the years, but none have ever truly satisfied those three criteria. The beautiful Chromebook Pixel has a tremendous display, great build quality, and snappy performance, but its middling battery life and stratospheric price tag keep it firmly in the luxury camp. More recently, Google made a big fuss about the HP Chromebook 11, and while it has an attractive price and some novel features, its performance and battery life left quite a bit to be desired. 

The Verge Playlist: Better to burn out

You had it. You knew them before they got big. You saw them live, before they got soft. You were scene. You had a song for every occasion. You kept up. You would never be that person who only listened to music that was 20 years old. You missed a show. You missed every show. You got a cat. You had a kid. You traded newness for nostalgia. You accepted it. You turned up the car stereo, alone, remembering. 

Get real: Katy Perry lets go of the teenage dream with ‘Prism’

Like an incumbent elected official, Katy Perry has a lot of political capital to spend during her second term as popular music’s first lady. We’ve now had three years to absorb our new global pop ambassador: along with other leaders like Nicki Minaj and Britney Spears she forged an identity that was equal parts girlish innocence and record-industry sex kitten, cementing her place in the hearts of both preteens and post-grads. 

Modern China depicted as colorful, communist paradise by North Korean propaganda artists

China’s propaganda posters used to depict idyllic landscapes and rustic villages, but today’s scenery resembles something far different. To imagine what modern Chinese propaganda would look like, two British artists commissioned a North Korean group that once made propaganda for their own state, creating a series of paintings that are a mix between eerie dystopias and picturesque scenes pocked by an unsettling feeling. The works are part of a long-running and ongoing series called The Beautiful Future, and they recently finished a showing in Beijing.