Aug 05
If someone told us that these stunning new photos had been taken on Earth, we wouldn’t have blinked an eye. But they weren’t. Instead, every one of these photographs comes from a planet millions of miles away from us.
Aug 05
Now you can eat—and more importantly, drink—like an 18th-century denizen with Outlander Kitchen: The Official Outlander Companion Cookbook.
Aug 05
We Built a Bose Speaker (Kind Of)
Posted in: Today's Chili
Bose has a long history of making great-yet-pricey speakers. But its latest, the BoseBUILD Speaker Cube, is a first for the company—a build-your-own speaker, intended for kids. It’s designed to help teach the basic concepts of sound and speaker design. It’s a cool idea, with dead simple setup and instructions, but for $150 it could be a bit of a hard sell.
Aug 05
Say hello to the “Echo Hunter,” a 27 million-year-old toothed whale that’s helping scientists understand how these ancient sea creatures evolved the ability to hear high-frequencies underwater, and then turn that ability into a killing technique.
Aug 05
Last fall, a little-known star called KIC 8462852 became our planetary obsession
when astronomers said that its erratic flickering could be the result of an alien megastructure. Further observation of Tabby’s Star yielded no signs of aliens
, but the sudden dips in luminosity continue to defy explanation. Now, things just got a bit weirder.
Aug 05
This is a pretty impressive video demonstration of the incredible 83X optical zoom lens on Nikon’s COOLPIX P900 digital camera, which can be had for just over $500 these days. Its zoom is so good, it can fly you to the Moon, just like a real astronaut… who is on Earth, holding a camera.
In the video demos here, you can see the camera zooming in on the surface of one and only Moon. It is pretty impressive, especially when you consider the camera’s price tag. Especially when you think about how shaky a zoom image must get at that distance.
For comparison, there’s another video taken during the day too:
So if you want to check out the moon up close, this is the camera for you. Or you could just buy a telescope. Don’t look at the Sun though. That’s a bad idea. Never stare at the sun.
[via Sploid via Geekologie]
Aug 05
A very cool project has popped up on Kickstarter for a very unusual book. The book is made of laser-cut wood with puzzles that you have to solve to go to the next page. The book is called Codex Silenda: The Book of Puzzles and the story focuses on an assistant in the workshop of Da Vinci who gets trapped in the book when snooping in the shop.
To escape, the apprentice had to solve the same puzzles you have to now solve. As each puzzle is solved, a page of the story is revealed. There are just five pages in the book, but each puzzle looks quite complex, and could take some time to figure out.
The big catch here is that the project has proven so popular that there are no more completed books available to purchase. You can get plans to cut out and build your own, or a version with all the parts and directions so you can build your own. A pledge of $125 or more will get you the unassembled book, with shipping starting this December. The project has already demolished its Kickstarter goal, so it’s definitely going into production.
Aug 05
There have been other so-called “smart umbrellas” released, but Jonas by Fantastik looks like the smartest one yet. This umbrella connects to a smartphone through an app over Bluetooth. It will give you alerts if you left the umbrella behind and the umbrella will vibrate if you’ve left your phone unattended somewhere.
It will even download weekly weather forecast for you, and alerts you of incoming calls, messages and emails. Those are cool features, but it has more going for it. It’s made from premium pongee cloth, and comes with a strong aluminum handle. That means Jonas is going to last you a long long time.
You can pre-order yours from MiNDEPA or directly through the Fantastik store for ¥10,778 (~ $105USD)
[via Rocketnews24 via Damngeeky]
Aug 05
Robot Tattoo Artist: Ink Master 2.0
Posted in: Today's ChiliWould you trust a robot to give you a tattoo? What you’re looking at here is the “world’s first tattoo by an industrial robot.” Notice how tightly the person getting the tattoo is strapped to the chair. You just know that if he moves, that robot is gonna cut him. Or at least it will give him a bad tattoo.
The project was engineered by French designers Pierre Emm and Johan da Silveira. Back in 2014, along with fellow ENSCI Les Ateliers-graduate Piotr Widelka, they created Tatoué, a Makerbot 3D printer with a tattoo gun instead of a plastic extruder, so they have a bit of history in this field. This big industrial robot ups the ante.
I wouldn’t trust it. Sure, it might have steadier “hands” than a human, but something could go wrong and it might tear your limbs open.
[via The Verge]
Aug 05
Keep track of your fitness, receive notifications, and more with Razer’s minimal smartband. The Nabu X can track calories burnt, steps taken, and sleep quality, and runs for up to a week on a single charge.
The Nabu X pairs with iOS or Android phones and discreetly alerts you to incoming phone calls, notifications, and alarms using a series of color-changing LEDs on front, as well as vibrations. It also offers features like the ability to exchange contact information with other Nabu X wearers by simply bumping wrists.
The Razer Nabu X retails for $49.99 (USD), but we’ve got it in the Technabob Shop for just $29 for a limited time.
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