Author: Lorie Wimble

Reports this week of Iran’s “successful” launch of a monkey into space and its safe return were met with skepticism when images revealed that the space-traveler before the flight was replaced by a different monkey after the flight. It was launched into space with a prominent mole above its right eye. When it returned, the mole was gone. It could be heralded as the first successful cosmetic surgery performed in space, a claim that is about as credible as what Iran is actually saying. After journalists picked up on the discrepancy, Iranian quickly asserted that a mistake had been made with the images….

Clever. Tasty. Creepy. Hot Pop Factory has been able to make a name for itself by generating creative pieces of jewelry using 3D printers. Now, they’ve used a neat hack with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system to scan a person’s head, print it out on a 3D printer, and put it on the top of a Pez dispenser. If you’ve ever wanted to distribute candy through a hole beneath a figure of your head on a stick, this is the way to do it. Check out the video of how they scan the heads through Kinect and some images of the finished results:  …

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have a new advocate and he’s asking his billions of worldly followers to go forth through social networks to reach the nations. While Pope Benedict XIV is not at the level of Justin Bieber yet on Twitter, he hopes to continue to grow his month-old account well beyond his million and a half followers while encouraging them to spread the word of the gospel through social media. In an address given for the 47th World Communications Day, the Pope urged his followers to start participating in social networks. Some excerpts of his speech are below and the full transcript…

There are dozens of iconic images of history’s most famous physicist that demonstrate both his personality and kind heart, but one that doesn’t get as much attention is this picture from 1931 when he visited Hopi House on the Fred Harvey concession at the Grand Canyon. While on a trip with his wife to do work and get courted by the California Institute of Technology, he took his wife to the Grand Canyon and had this photo taken with 4 Hopi adults and a Hopi child. In the background of the image to the right, we see J. B. Duffy, General Passenger Agent of the ATSF (the famous Atichson, Tokepa and Santa Fe Railroad),…

Those of us old enough to remember the somewhat-cool-but-mostly-annoying boomboxes that were carries on streets, across playgrounds, and on public transportation during the 80s can experience the portable music machines all over again in the form of the Boompack by givingshape. It’s a ghetto blaster for a new generation that has grown up more secluded (and polite) with their musical enjoyment through smaller devices with earbuds. Bigger is better with the Boompack as it boasts 8 speakers, 100 watt sound power, and 32Gb of internal memory, plenty to store as many Beastie Boys or Def Leopard…

Everyone knows that dolphins are intelligent. They may be the most intelligent creatures in the animal kingdom and have been known to interact with boats and divers in ways that no other animals ever do. In this amazing video, a dolphin that had been hooked in tangled in fishing string lingered around divers off of Kona in Hawaii. At the 3:37 point, you’ll see that the ailing dolphins “lingers” by the humans and even interacts with one, apparently in hopes that the human could remove the line and hook. For the next several minutes, the dolphin stays with the human as he works at the line with a diving…

Mark this down as technological idiocy. It isn’t just that the “Make Me Asian” app (and it’s lesser-known cousins, “Make Me Indian”, “Make Me Russian”, “Make Me Frankenstein”, and “Make Me Fat”) used stereotypes to encourage racist humor. It isn’t just that the apps themselves were not that good at delivering what they promised. No, the real idiocy comes in the form of effort: why would anyone put in an ounce of effort to create something that they should have known with an absolute certainty would be removed? You can’t chalk it up to infamy. The username, “KimbereyDeiss”, does not appear to be real….

As military and domestic surveillance technology continues to advance, many fear a “Big Brother” society that is emerging around us. It’s no longer just terrorists that are being targeted by drones and cellular tracking according to some conspiracy theorists. The various governments around the world including the United States are secretly installing ways to covertly track and account for everyone if the “wackos” are to be believed. For those who buy into the possibilities, there’s Stealth Wear. New York artist Adam Harvey has designed a heat-censor-shielding cloak that when seen through…

It doesn’t matter whether you like Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga. The fact that the #1 and #2 most followed accounts on Twitter are about to flip positions is important for the sustained success of Twitter. The key to understanding why is in the audience. Today’s kids are tomorrow’s adults. One of the biggest reasons that MySpace was beaten out so easily by Facebook a few years ago was because MySpace did not grow its base up and down. It had a niche, the people who were in or just out of high school in the mid 2000s, and did not do enough to appeal to the next generation of young people nor the older people who…

Everyone knows about Google’s search domination. Most are aware of their foray into social media and other internet-based engagements. Some know that they’ve ventured into hardware with driverless cars, nifty glasses, and various attempts at computers. What many do not realize is that Google is deeply embedded into renewable energy and has just invested in their 10th green venture, bringing the total to 10 with investments over $1 billion. Their $200 million stake in Spinning Spur in the Texas panhandle makes 5 wind projects to match their 5 solar projects. They now have investments that…