A Hong Kong man was caught with 94 iPhone handsets taped all over his body by customs agents at a checkpoint in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Sunday. What gave him away, authorities said, was his jerky movements as he tried to walk with the cellphones attached to him while he crossed the border late Sunday, the South ... Read More »
It’s been a banner year for architecture your ten-year-old self dreamed of — from 3D printed homes to buildings grown from trash. Below, we’ve compiled our favorite buildings of 2014. Red Pepper House by Urko Sanchez Architects: For this camouflaged vacation home in Lamu, Kenya, the client, a lover of nature, requested that the design preserve as much of the ... Read More »
Landsnet, Iceland national power transmission company launched a competition with the goal to obtain new ideas in types and appearances for 220kV high-voltage towers and lines. The competition emphasized that specific consideration be given to the visual impact of the towers (or lines) and that careful consideration be given to the appearance of towers near urban areas and unsettled regions. ... Read More »
Astronauts on the International Space Station were in need of a new wrench. However, thanks to 3D printing, they didn’t have to wait for a shipment to arrive in space. Instead, they were able to open a simple email attachment and print a new wrench. Once the digital file arrived on the space station, astronaut Wilmore fired up the printer, ... Read More »
When Steve Areen imagined his dream home, it wasn’t your typical white-picket-fenced mansion. He had $9,000 and a plot of land in the middle of Thailand. He writes,In 2011 I had a wonderful visit with my friend Hajjar Gibran. For years he has inspired me with his creative ideas. This time he was building domes at his retreat center in northeast Thailand. ... Read More »
The Navy has been testing a robotic spy fish designed to resemble a five-foot, 100lb bluefin tuna. If it is operational next year, it will be used to patrol harbors, enter enemy territory, and report back on the movements of enemy ships. The biometric fish is controlled by a video game-style joystick, but it can also be programmed to travel ... Read More »
The U.S. Navy says its new laser weapon works and it will use it if it has to. The Office of Naval Research reported Wednesday that its laser weapons system — dubbed LaWS — had performed flawlessly in tests aboard the amphibious transport dock USS Ponce in the Arabian Gulf from September to November. Klunder said the laser performed so ... Read More »
Samsung’s virtual reality headset, the Gear VR Innovator Edition, showed up on the company’s online store Today for $199.99. Samsung Gear VR is a virtual-reality headset that uses the company’s new Galaxy Note 4 as its main display. It looks a little like an Oculus Rift, and a “powered by Oculus” logo appears on the side. But it reminds us ... Read More »
Envisions a future where self-propelled elevators can travel both horizontally and vertically along skyscrapers in places like New York, for example, it’s estimated you’ll spend almost 16 years waiting for an elevator and about six years inside one. ThyssenKrupp just introducedthe “Multi” elevator — the first cable-free elevator that will use magnetic levitation and a linear motor — similar to the ... Read More »
Nifty, a U.K. based company that has already successfully funded a nifty portable storage solution for MacBook laptops (the MiniDrive) is back on Indiegogo looking to raise funds for an equally interesting project, the XOO Belt. What’s so great about the company’s new belt? It has a hidden, but very important, feature: It can offer additional battery life to an iPhone ... Read More »