Rome wasn’t built in a day. And the Nazis didn’t exterminate 10 million people overnight. When we look for historical parallels to the current rise of fascism around the world, it’s important to remember how things became normalized in the past. And an old book about propaganda is a helpful tool in understanding how…
If you spend too much online, you’re probably familiar with the “distracted boyfriend” meme. It shows a man checking out a woman on the street while his partner looks on in disgust. Meme makers typically put text on each of the three characters to highlight attention being given to something unimportant at the expense…
You’ve seen video of the Hindenburg disaster in New Jersey from that flame-filled day in 1937. But what about the zeppelins that didn’t crash? How did they work and what did people imagine they would do to revolutionize air travel?
When it comes to high-tech surveillance, identity theft, and financial crimes, humanity lives in a hell of its own making. Technology here in the second decade of the 21st century has created a world where our personal information is constantly getting exposed. And for what benefit? The “convenience” of being able to…
It was a Friday evening in 1975, and Woody Wise was driving from Los Angeles to Palm Springs, with his two kids in the car. He had picked them up from school in a rush, but they weren’t going on vacation. They were hiding out from the FBI.
When you imagine the American police officer of the future, what do you see? In the 1980s, one police officer saw “supercops”—a highly trained force of professionals who had the most high-tech toys at their disposal and almost never killed people.
Uber unveiled a new design for its futuristic “aerial taxi” at the second annual Uber Elevate conference today. And judging by the concept art, Uber is still trying to figure out how to make electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) a practical reality. The company’s latest design looks like the Spruce Goose of…
This TV set was the futuristic vision of illustrator Frank R. Paul in 1922. And I absolutely love it.
Disney is currently broadcasting a livestream of the sunrise at the Magic Kingdom theme park in Florida. I have no idea why Disney is doing this, but it’s honestly just what I needed this morning.
There’s a new documentary series in development called Artist Depiction about NASA artists and their visions for the future. Or, in many cases, their past visions of the future. And it all looks incredible.
It’s still weird, isn’t it? German Chancellor Angela Merkel is palling around with robots at every opportunity, with her most recent robo-encounter happening just yesterday on ‘Girl’s Day’ at the chancellery in Berlin.
In 1854, at the height of the California Gold Rush, the San Francisco Mint produced less than 300 special $5 coins. Only three were known to survive into modern times. Until today, that is. Now there are four.
Later this month, Van Eaton Galleries is holding an auction of art and memorabilia from designer Rolly Crump. The eccentric artist helped design some of Disney’s most iconic theme park rides, and some of the most fascinating items going up for sale come from Crump’s early days working on what would become the Haunted…
Have you ever seen the 1981 BBC miniseries version of The Day of the Triffids? My wife was recently rewatching the classic scifi tale and she saw something that she’d never noticed before: Someone eating Tide laundry detergent. Or at least trying to eat it.
Harvey Weinstein is a disgraced movie producer who will be remembered as one of the most vile sexual predators to ever emerge from Hollywood. But before the “open secret” of his crimes truly became open, Weinstein was hobnobbing with politicians nearly as often as he was making movies. One of those politicians was…
If you’ve seen any old gangster movies, you’re probably familiar with the phrase: “Calling all cars, calling all cars!” It became a cliche for when police headquarters sent out an alert via radio. But radio hasn’t been around forever. And at the dawn of radio technology, there were some pretty goofy-looking devices…
The Rajneesshee cult started building their utopian city of the future in rural Oregon during the early 1980s. And while it all began with peace and love, it ended with attempted murder, the exploitation of thousands of homeless people, and cult leaders who ordered the poisoning of an entire town by spraying salad…
As I vaguely recall, 2001: A Space Odyssey might have been trying to tell us something about the dangers of artificial intelligence. But I haven’t seen the movie in years, and instead of morals, all I can remember is how cool HAL9000 seemed, so I’m already fantasizing about making room on my wall for this replica of…
On June 12th, 1886, a German ship in the Indian Ocean tossed a bottle into the water to track the currents. Amazingly, that bottle was discovered earlier this year on a beach in Australia, making it the oldest message in a bottle ever found—a time capsule, 131 years in the making.
The hand-cranked radio allows people in remote communities to have access to modern broadcasting—all without needing an external power source, aside from your own hand. The technology’s British inventor, Trevor Baylis, died today at the age of 80. The death of Baylis was announced by David Bunting, the chief executive…
