We’re all alive right now to know what 2013 is like. Some of us can tell stories about life 30 years ago. But most of us have no clue what life was like 60 years ago. This fantastic video by the BBC compares that whole timespan. It shows the same exact train ride filmed in 1953, 1983 and 2013, to reveal the difference of 60 years.
     |
The year was 1960, and phones were changing. It was the beginning of the end for rotary dialing, and buttons were the future. But engineers faced an important, looming question: what order do you put those buttons in?
| |
These days there’s a mountain of extra data saved every time you snap a digital photo. So figuring out where and when a shot was taken requires minimal detective work. Back in the days of film it wasn’t so easy, so Kodak built a camera in 1914 called the Autographic that let photographers sign and denote their shots for easy reference later on. Basically, it was the world’s first camera with EXIF data.
| |
When you think about World War II tech, chances are your mind leaps right to the atomic bomb. But there was another less explosive tech that complete changed the defensive game: Radar. And this map outlines exactly how it saved Great Britain.
| |
Long before prison guards started carrying tasers, tear gas, and other non-lethal deterrents, they apparently relied on these cell door keys that also functioned as tiny one-shot pistols. They probably weren’t lethal, but there’s no doubt they packed enough of a punch to make an inmate very uncomfortable if they tried anything while a guard was unlocking their cell.
| |
You can yell, "Beam me up, Scotty!" all you want, the only thing that will happen is you’ll elicit a bunch of bemused stares from passersby wondering if you’ve bonked your head recently. The sad fact is human teleportation devices don’t yet exist in 2013, and even if they did, the tremendous lag would make it extraordinarily impractical. Such is the reality of science that it doesn’t always mesh with our fantastic visions of fictional futures filled with flying cars and other implausible technologies. In other words, reality sucks compared to what we’ve grown up watching on television.
| |
Should you have happened to find yourself dining with Bulgarian royalty 700 years ago and the wine tasted a bit off, you would have been smart to put the goblet down. Bulgarian archaeologists have just discovered a medieval bronze ring explicitly designed to poison political foes—in the most discreet way possible.
| |
Today I found out that the soft drink 7 UP used to include a psychiatric medication as one of its ingredients.
| |
Digital cameras and high-speed photography go hand in hand today, with many models letting you easily adjust the frame rate to capture your own high-speed footage. But believe it or not, high-speed digital cameras are actually a relatively new technology. Up until recently this was another area of photography where film still reigned supreme.
| |
Deep below the Pacific Ocean, dozens of WWII pilots are lying in watery graves, still inside the aircraft took them across the sky decades ago. It’s far too late for a rescue, but as Popular Science explains, the people behind the BentProp Project—and their undersea drones—are surfacing these soldiers’ incredible history.
| |
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
