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In Two Weeks, the Mississippi River Could Shut Down
Navigation has become treacherous as the worst U.S. drought in half a century brings water levels close to record lows. The Mississippi as seen from Ed Drager's tug boat is a river in retreat: a giant...
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What Space Data Looked Like in 1962
Fifty years ago, we recorded the learnings of our space explorers with paper scrolls. (NASA/JPL) Throughout most of human history, humans knew Venus as "the brightest star in the sky." Fifty years ago,...
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Furtherance: The Cold War Plan to Launch a Full-On Nuclear Assault If the...
The United States was going to launch an automatic and all-out nuclear attack on both the Soviet Union and China, in the event that the President was killed in an attack, a newly released document...
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Why Aren't News Sites Better Designed For Tragedies?
They're great at sharing news. They're much less great at sharing heartbreak. Buzzfeed has a thorough, helpful, heartbreaking article on its site right now. It's a straightforward news story about the...
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What Were the Last Words Spoken on the Moon?
Probably not, alas, "let's get this mother out of here" ... NASA/GSFC Visualization and Analysis Lab Forty years ago, December 14 at 5:54:37 p.m. EST, humans left the moon for the last time. But how...
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Augmented-Reality Racism
The tech world is brimming with optimism for our augmented-reality future. But what will happen when flawed, prejudiced people get their hands on these tools? John Mix Racism is ugly to confront, and,...
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No, Really, Regulate the Bullets
In the era of 3D-printed guns, ammunition may prove a better regulatory target than the weapons themselves. An early Defense Distributed project. Defense Distributed hopes to create a shareable digital...
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Who Are MOOCs Most Likely to Help?
It may turn out that electronic degree programs designed to make education democratic will actually only work for the elite. The precursor of MOOCs: Indian students learn by video in 2000. (Reuters) If...
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Why You Should Want to Pay for Software, Instagram Edition
If you want to stop social networking services from exploiting your likeness for advertising, you've got to start paying up. PLEASE BUY THESE MARIACHEESEY CHIPS, said my Instagram of them.Instagram is...
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'ISS Cribs': An Astronaut-Guided Tour of the Most Amazing House Ever Built
FunFact: The space station's pantry is stocked with marshmallow Fluff. You no doubt have seen images taken from the International Space Station. You likely have seen images taken of the International...
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December 17, 1903
On a brighter note, I wanted to use this anniversary as an occasion to celebrate one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken. It is this one, made 109 years ago today. It shows Orville Wright...
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Tumblr May Have Learned Too Much From the Obama Email Strategy
This email arrived in my inbox today. This smells user tested, like the Obama campaign's famous "Hey." subject line. Minimalist manipulation.Â
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After Complete #FAIL, the European Commission Finds Some Way Better Videos to...
Perhaps you remember this gem of a social-media effort from the European Commission, a sad, sorry attempt to make science seem more alluring to young women. (Ack! Sorry to even embed this. Please skip...
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The Birth of America's Favorite Media Technology
The Story of Television, a 1956 documentary from RCA, traces the evolution of the medium from its inception to the development of color television. The film features David Sarnoff, RCA's Chairman, and...
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The New Math of End Times
New Math is an attempt to quantify the world using words and basic math. #atlGallery .galleryNav { display:none;} #atlGallery .galleryHeader{ height:400px; border-width:0px; !important } #atlGallery...
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Who Are MOOCs Most Likely to Help?
It may turn out that electronic degree programs designed to make education democratic will actually only work for the elite. The precursor of MOOCs: Indian students learn by video in 2000. (Reuters) If...
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Finally, an Independent Study of the Health Effects of Airport Scanners
After a long debate, the safety question will be answered -- by Science. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Last year, ProPublica reported that airport "backscatter" machines -- the controversial imaging devices...
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GIFs of Asteroid Toutatis, as It Passed by Earth Last Week
Animated images of a rock in space, some 4.3 million miles away A computer-generated image of what Earth would have looked like from Toutatis when it flew by in 1996 (NASA) Last week an asteroid known...
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Stephen Hawking Calls for Alan Turing's Pardon
The popular physicist has joined with other scientists and British leaders to ask Prime Minister David Cameron to "formally forgive this British hero." Steve Parker/Flickr At the end of World War II,...
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Home Page Design Advice from October 1991, 3 Months After the Web's Public Debut
In the early days of the web, its developers created a backchannel for discussing its progress. They called the mailing list www-talk, and it remains an active discussion group. This week, Ed Summers,...
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