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- Tech NewsDesign
Charles Eames and His Solar-Powered Toy Cosmos
The Eames Lounge Chair is widely recognized as one of the most beautiful pieces of furniture ever designed. But as shown by this lovely photo of his “do nothing machine,” Charles Eames was as much a tinkerer as a designer. Charles and his wife Ray Eames’ furniture and architecture helped define mid-century American design. But … Continued
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- io9
Soundtrack Saturday: The zombie electro of Kavinsky
Welcome to Soundtrack Saturday, a now-and-then column which showcases music that’s tickling our aural syntax nodes. Today’s artist is undead deejay Kavinsky. His music sounds like John Carpenter and Jan Hammer fighting crime together and working out in abandoned warehouses. According to his 2006 press release, Kavinsky is a Testarossa aficionado who died in 1986, … Continued
- Tech NewsGoogle
The Droid X Is Going To Be One Gigantic Phone
The HTC Evo, with its 4.3″ display, is a humongous phone. But next to the forthcoming Motorola Droid X, which reportedly also sports a 4.3″ screen, the Evo looks positively reasonable. Yeah, the Droid X is gonna be large. Gadget University got their hands on a Droid X and shot the clearest photos of the … Continued
- io9
Friendly fungi could revolutionize rice farming
By engineering a strain of symbiotic fungus, researchers have massively increased the growth rate of rice, and may help stave off the specter of global shortages of phosphates, which are essential minerals for plants. Mycorrhiza fungi are those that live in a mutually beneficial arrangement with the roots of plants. Found in just about every … Continued
- io9Comics
Alan Moore is not writing an opera with Gorillaz. Boo!
At a panel at the University of Northampton, Alan Moore confirmed that he was no longer writing an opera about the alchemist John Dee with Gorillaz — apparently all of the writing and planning had been foisted upon Moore. Damn! Says Moore: I should dash cold water on anybody’s dreams of this Doctor Dee opera … Continued
- Tech News
Coral Reefs Have Creepy, Alien-Like Superpowers
Sure, coral reefs are pretty, but they also have creepy almost alien-like superpowers: An entire reef can be regrown from a tiny chunk of coral. Dr. Graham Forrester of the University of Rhode Island simplified what happens when the underwater structures regrow themselves: To use a gardening analogy, the sourced coral is like an orchard … Continued
By Rosa Golijan - Tech NewsGoogle
This Week’s Best Android Apps
No, Android fan boys and girls, you’re not imagining it. We’ll be rounding up the best new Android apps every two weeks from here on out. This week, apps that make you smarterer. Oh yes, to see everything on one page, click here. doubleTwist: It works best if you sync your music and videos with … Continued
- io9Movies
Is Starship Troopers a trenchant war parable for 2010, a cheesy excuse for coed showers, or both?
Some of us think of Starship Troopers as a brilliant satire, others consider it a bastardization of Robert Heinlein’s novel. Scott Tobias of The Onion AV Club considers the 1997 film an apt metaphor for 21st-century nationalism and militarism. Says Tobias: It seems absurd now to write it off as some silly piece of escapism, … Continued
- Tech NewsApple
Reeder For iPad: RSS With Attention to Detail
The hotly anticipated iPad version of Reeder, the popular iPhone RSS app, landed in the App Store last night, and with a clean look and some thoughtful navigational tools, it’s immediately at the head of the iPad RSS pack. A few big name RSS readers, like NewsRack and NetNewsWire, have been available for the iPad … Continued
- io9Movies
Marmaduke is the biggest “F*** You” to modernity I’ve ever seen
Marmaduke is so self-evidently bad that slamming it would be tautological. No, what concerns me is that this superpowered dog movie wasn’t made for modern audiences. It’s a crumbling monument to our own execrable pursuit of entertainment. I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong with the film adaptation of Brad Anderson’s comic strip when the … Continued
- Tech News
Gajillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter, Now Easier to Shoot Down
The jet that’s supposed to make up more than 90 percent of America’s combat aviation fleet may have become a lot easier to shoot down. Lockheed Martin, makers of the Joint Strike Fighter, has been under huge pressure to stabilize the jet’s skyrocketing costs. Production prices have nearly doubled on what was supposed to be … Continued
Noah Shachtman -Wired - io9
A Saturday morning guide to antimatter
Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about antimatter, but were afraid to ask. Or most of the things you kind of wondered about antimatter but didn’t give that much of a crap about. Whichever. Although antimatter sounds pleasantly futuristic, it was both predicted and proven to exist back in the 1930s. A gentleman by … Continued
- io9Comics
Next Generation comics highlight the erotic escapades of Jean-Luc Picard
Cartoonist Jess Fink is notorious for creating the Victorian robot porn Chester 5000 XYV (NSFW). In her spare time, she watches loads of Star Trek and draws comics in which Picard and Riker get their respective smoochies on. This year, Fink started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation — apparently for the first time — … Continued
By Lauren Davis - Tech NewsApple
This App Turns Your iPad Into A Touchscreen Foosball Table
It’s tough to find someone who doesn’t appreciate a good game of foosball—whether he’s a soccer fan or not. It can just be tough to find a foosball table sometimes. Guess this Foosball HD iPad app will do. The game will cost you three bucks in is available in the App Store now. [iTunes]
By Rosa Golijan -