Author: Rocco Penn

For over a century, people have tried to cope with understanding Einstein’s special theory of relativity and his famous equation, E=MC2. There have been long videos and visualizations that attempted to dumb down both the process that Einstein used to come up with the theories and the way that our minds can wrap themselves around them. Here, the good folks at Minute Physics did as their namesake implies: they explained it to us in a pair of 2-minute videos that (should) make it easier to comprehend. First, let’s look at the special theory of relativity: Now for the fun part – understanding E=MC2:…

With California having major financial woes, the Google Driverless Car may be enough to tank the entire state since ID cards cost $6 less than driver’s licenses. This and many other satirical consequences of the looming possibility of having driverless cars on the road fill this clever graphic. If Google is seeing this, they need to address it soon before people start rebelling against the possibility of hurting the taxi industry. Click to enlarge. From: Chicago Toyota….

One of the most compelling reasons for the rise in piracy over the past decade is the cost. We have the option of buying songs or movies from certain places or we can rip them for free. It can be quite enticing and has fueled the growth of an industry that is currently under fire for hurting other industries. When one looks at the “true” cost of piracy, opinions can change. That’s the perspective taken in the infographic below by BackgroundCheck. Click to enlarge.  Via: Background Check Resource…

Movies have been made into video games since Atari, while video game have been turned into movies for nearly as long. The successes of both types of adaptation are debatable, but now we’re seeing the start of a new type of gaming adaptation: the television show games. There have been others in the past with CSI, ER, and other popular shows getting the platform and PC treatment, but the latest batch of games may break down the walls that have made television series games something that only the most dedicated fans consider buying. “The Walking Dead” and “Game of Thrones” are the two most recent that…

Depending on how you view American society, you may either believe that we’re moving too fast for our own goods and the internet is enabling us, or we’re heading in the right direction for productivity and innovation and the internet needs to hurry up and get out of our ways. It works in both directions as the digital age expands to where our expectations in the real world are matching our expectations online. People are going to websites and leaving before they’re able to load. Heavy images, large files, flash, and other elements that can slow a page down are quickly finding their way to the website…

At SXSW Interactive, there has been a lot of discussion about data visualizations. The industry has exploded in the last 2 years and is quickly becoming both a preferred way of distributing large chunks of data as well as the bane of content creators everywhere. Is it possible to distinguish between true visualizations and invalid ones? Can true creativity, beauty, and usefulness be rewarded while spam is vilified? Yes and yes. The good side of infographics The advantage that visualizations have over spreadsheets and articles is that they can present a message in a way that is more easily and…

There have been many innovations in recent months that have blown us away from the world of robotics. If there’s one common theme between the Smart Bird and other robots that have gone from our dreams (or nightmares) to reality in recent months is the constant embracing of natural movement and style when creating movement. The same can be said about DARPA’s “Cheetah” which recently broke the speed record for legged robots. At 18mph, this machine will both amaze you and possibly scare you in a Japanese horror movie way. …

As the internet and mobile technology enter more aspects of our lives in this digital age, the activities we perform on a daily basis continues to expand at an extreme pace. It’s the way of the world that 2 million blog posts are published daily, that email dominates much of our time with nearly 300 billion sent, and our lives are hitting the web via pictures at a pace that is astounding. It can only get bigger from here, but this infographic depicts where we stand as of this day. Click to enlarge. Created by: MBA Online…

Some say less is more when it comes to marketing. Mercedes takes “less” to a new level in the marketing of their F-Cell vehicle line. The concept is simple and brilliant. To demonstrate that a vehicle has no emissions, they made an “invisible” vehicle to represent its lack of a footprint on the environment. By covering one side of the vehicle in LEDs, they’re able to let people see through it via a camera mounted on the other side. The results of the publicity stunt will be seen over time but it highlights a creativity that has evaded the German luxury car manufacturer for a while. …

Climate change has been a hot topic on land and in the air for some time now. We have data that tells us what’s happening. We have images of polar bears stuck on drifting ice that melted to a nub. We can feel the heat (and cold), smell the quality of the air, and see the statistics that show us something is going awry in nature. We have only been able to skim the surface for the most part when it comes to the seas. The Catlin Seaview Survey seeks to change that. With the help of Google, the organizations wants to establish a 360 degree panoramic vision of the full 2400km stretch of the Great Barrier Reff and Coral…