When you open TikTok, its weird hits you like a train. There is no preamble, no consistent landing page: Your whole phone screen is now teenage cheerleaders bouncing, then a cat attacking a hand to the beat of the Black Eyed Peas’ “Pump It,” then two people lip-syncing to Bebe Rexha’s “I’m a Mess” in […]
This is a cooler physics problem than I initially realized. It goes something like this. Here, a picture will help. Let's do this. I will start with a force diagram. There are four forces acting on this block: downward gravitational force, the force from the push, a frictional force, and a normal force from the […]
Since its founding in 2015, chat and messaging client Discord has become a powerful upstart in the gaming software scene, drawing a commanding user base in a short time—150 million monthly active users, the company revealed today—and cracking the code of "social gaming integration" in a way that larger companies have failed to do. Along […]
The phrase "heat engine" might trigger some bad memories from your introductory thermodynamics course. But don't worry, I am going to show you the coolest heat engine you could possibly image—the thermoelectric generator (TEG). The basic idea behind a heat engine is to draw some useful energy out of a temperature difference. This output energy […]
If you haven’t spent your life reading comic books, they can seem weird. Like any medium, like movies or books or podcasts, comics have their own informational syntax. The pairing of static images with cartoon indicators of motion, typographically distinct onomatopoeic sound effects, enbubbled words for dialog—you have to learn to digest all that. After […]
In retrospect, 1976 may not have been the absolute dawn of videogames, but it was certainly the dawn of moralizing about games. That was the year Exidy re-worked its arcade title Destruction Derby as Death Race, tying it to recent cult hit Death Race 2000—and receiving blowback from the National Safety Council in the process. […]
The mantis shrimp is neither a mantis nor a shrimp, but it does wield perhaps the most stunning strike in the animal kingdom. Sitting below its face are two hammers, which the crustacean cocks back and launches at its prey with such speed that it shatters snail shells and tears crabs’ limbs right of their […]
You've got a little more than seven weeks left before the end of 2018. You've probably also got a pile of books you bought this year that you still haven't finished. Normally we'd tell you to buckle down—but not right now. Right now, you're surrounded by new releases that demand your attention, whatever your preferred […]
Click:quordle If you’ve been putting off your flu shot until the season really gets going, wait no longer. It’s already here—and it’s looking like it’s going to be a doozy. Influenza viruses quietly circulate year-round in the US, but every winter they go big, triggering a seasonal epidemic of sniffles, sweats, and sore throats. And […]
This story was originally published in September 2018, before Hurricane Florence made landfall in the Carolinas. Its advice, however, is timeless, and we've updated the post accordingly. Social media can be a lifeline during natural disasters. It has become an essential tool for people to find accurate information—about highway closures, weather forecasts, evacuations—and to contact […]