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Getting your connected-home gear to actually connect with one another can be a pain. Nest is trying to alleviate at least some of that hassle by adding Weave, its ad-hoc networking system to Works with Nest, it's third party development platform. W...

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Atlaspix / Alamy 007 will return to big screens across the UK on 26 October, but car enthusiasts will cringe to hear that the making of the new title claimed millions of pounds-worth of metal. According to the Daily Mail, stunt co-ordinators for the new Bond movie, Spectre, destroyed seven specifically designed Aston Martin DB10 sports cars,... continue reading

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Two years after his untimely death, Paul Walker's daughter has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Porsche, claiming that the vehicle he was riding in had design flaws that prevented him from escaping from the wreck. The Fast and Furious movie star was travelling as a passenger in a 2005 Carrera GT when it was involved in the fatal crash in... continue reading

Tesla Motors officially launched its latest electric vehicle, the Model X, during a keynote presentation in California today given by CEO Elon Musk.

The all-wheel drive sport utility vehicle partially trades the souped up performance of the Model S for functionality.

The P90D with Ludicrous mode enabled accelerates to 60 miles per hour in 3.2 seconds, has 250 miles of range and a top speed 155 “of miles per hour. The 90D model travels up to 257 miles on its 90 kWh battery, accelerates from zero to 60 MPH in 4.8 seconds and has a top speed of 155 MPH.

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NBC has ordered nine additional scripts for their new series Blindspot.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blindspot, starring Jaimie Alexander, reached 10.6 million viewers after debuting a week ago, which then grew to 15.2 million after three days of delayed viewing, making a notably strong showing among the fall's new series.

The nine additional scripts order does not guarantee that the show will get what's referred to as a full "back-nine" order, expanding Blindspot from it initial 13 episode pick up to a full 22-episode season. However, it's clear NBC is optimistic about the series and wants those scripts ready for the likely scenario that they do order a full season.

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The wait is nearly over, X-Files fans! We're just a few short months from the debut of the new X-Files. Like the original series, this six episode mini-season is being produced by Chris Carter. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reprise their lead...

Akamai announced on Tuesday that its Security Intelligence Response Team has discovered a massive Linux-based botnet that's reportedly capable of downing websites under a torrent of DDoS traffic exceeding 150 Gbps. The botnet spreads via a Trojan v...

Now that Tesla's Model S has the world warmed up to the idea of classy-looking electric cars, it's ready to do it all again with a different form factor. After delays (and more delays), CEO Elon Musk announced the Model X in full specific detail --...

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Photo credit: Business Insider Photos have been released of a Mexican man who disguised himself as a car seat in order to cross over the American border undetected. Back in June 2001, Enrique Aguilar Canchola was found sewn into the passenger seat of a car that was attempting to enter the US. continue reading

The rumors were true: Charlie Brooker's renowned Black Mirror is headed to Netflix as its next original. The company confirmed today that it has commissioned 12 new episodes of the dystopian drama series, with Brooker and Annabel Jones, who produce...

BlackBerry confirmed that rumors of its first Android device, called Priv, are accurate. In the company's latest earnings report, CEO John Chen said that the smartphone "combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive m...

A paraplegic has walked without robotics using his own brain waves, thanks to research done at Southern California's UC Irvine. Scientists used a computer to "link" 28-year-old Adam Fritz's brain to his legs over a Bluetooth connection, bypassing t...

Last year, Zillians launched a high-tech cat feeder called Bistro that'll monitor how much food and water your little feline is eating thanks to a smart built-in facial recognition camera. Since then, the company has renamed the product to the CatF...

The myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains is pretty worn out at this point, but 2011's Limitless was a fun and entertaining movie to come out of that myth, especially because Bradley Cooper's character Eddie Morra was so relatable and charismatic. Now, CBS has brought Limitless to TV, and they've made the interesting choice to keep it in the same continuity as the feature film. Not only does Cooper reprise his role in the premiere (and will recur in future episodes), but he's also an executive producer, alongside Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Fringe, Sleepy Hollow), as well as the film's director, Neil Burger.

Set four years after the events of the movie, the series follows Brian Finch (Greek's Jake McDorman, who previously worked with Cooper in American Sniper), who discovers a mysterious brain-boosting pill called NZT that allows him to do extraordinary things. Of course, these new abilities come at a cost, and soon Brian finds himself caught in the middle of a dangerous drug conspiracy. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Rebecca Harris (Dexter's Jennifer Carpenter) is hot on Brian's tail, but she suspects he may not be the criminal everyone suspects he is. It isn't long before all this catches the attention of Eddie, who is now a successful senator and throws Brian a lifeline.

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Dust off those ethics books because the official follow-up to Tom Cruise’s 2002 flick, Minority Report, picks up on many of the same themes of morals and justice as the original. And that’s not the only thing the incoming FOX TV series borrows from the original film.

For fans of the now 13-year-old project, there will be plenty of Easter eggs, including a familiar face in Daniel London’s “Wally the Caretaker” character and new fly-like contraptions resembling the film’s original spiders. The way the characters use the new technology in regards to breaking down culprits and the victims is visually similar too, as are the rooms in which they work.

For those who never quite caught onto the film, there’s enough exposition within the first few scenes to catch them up, too. Via a flashback to the year 2040 we meet the three children (or Precognitives) who eventually became the basis of the Precrime unit in Washington, where Cruise’s character worked. The opening quickly whips through the premise of the film before extending beyond, brining everyone to the year 2065—10 years following the end of the experiment.

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Tying one end of a string to a doorknob and the other to a loose tooth is so 20th century. Here in the 2000s, advances in technology now allow dads to extract teeth from their precocious children's faces using the power of remote-controlled quadcopters.

One father helped bring the act of tooth-pulling into the modern era, attaching a string to his son's "very loose tooth," with the other attached to a drone. The boy, named Adam, looks positively excited in the video. Did you think even for a second there wouldn't be video?

As you can see, the tooth comes out cleanly using the power of flight, and no kids were harmed in the making of the video. It's a modern update on baby-tooth removal, and its one of roughly a million novel tooth-removal solution videos posted on YouTube right now.

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Monday night marked the first real night of the new fall season and NBC’s BLINDSPOT had a strong opening thanks to its lead-in THE VOICE. Over on Fox, freshmen series MINORITY REPORT had a rather quiet opening. On CBS, THE BIG BANG THEORY and SCORPION both scored good numbers for their season premieres and new […]

Think you could survive in this day and age without access to a broadband connection? The White House has its doubts. A recent report from the Broadband Opportunity Council (under the auspices of the Oval Office) described broadband connectivity as...

Kickstarter Inc. has announced that it is no longer Kickstarter Inc. The company is no longer registered as a for-profit entity. Kickstarter has joined a small list of American companies registered as Public Benefit Companies.

The last 24 hours have served as a reminder of just how precarious the strands that connect us to the internet can be. Skype is reporting that some its services have fallen over after a bug was found that's preventing users from being seen as visib...

While in-flight WiFi is now pretty common in the US, connectivity in Europe is a little harder to come by. But that could soon change if a new joint-venture between UK satellite company Inmarsat and operator Deutsche Telekom gets off the ground. Th...

If you know your internet message board history, you know that Chris Poole's legendary 4chan was inspired by 2channel, a board dedicated to anime and other aspects of Japanese culture. Well, things are about to come full circle: Poole (aka Moot) j...

Microsoft-owned online chat service Skype is currently facing issues and seems to be down for most users worldwide. Skype Support has sent out a tweet acknowledging the problem and saying that a fix is being worked on. We are aware of an issue affecting Skype status at the moment, and are working on a quick fix: http://t.co/ymSzmrgEX0 pic.twitter.com/8LoqqL0hh7— Skype Support (@SkypeSupport) September 21, 2015 "Some of you may experience problems with Skype presence and may not see online. We have detected an issue with the status settings of Skype," said a Skype spokesperson. "Affected users will not be able to change their status, their contacts will all show as offline and they will be unable to start Skype calls to them." The issue seems to have affected both desktop and mobile clients - instant messaging seems to working fine though. Skype for Web, meanwhile, is working without any issues. Source |...

Just like dominoes

Google's codebase -- the programming instructions that run every one of its services from Gmail to Slides -- span a whopping 2 billion lines of code that stretch across 1 billion files and require 86 terabytes of storage, according to Google engine...

Virtual currencies like bitcoin just came one step closer to legitimacy in the US. As part of its first action against an unregistered bitcoin options trading outfit, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has determined that digital currencies...

One of the big selling points of drones is that they can get to areas that aren't exactly safe or accessible by humans. That's why watching quadrocopters assembling a rope bridge that's sturdy enough for a person to walk across is so damned awesome...

Heart surgeries could be so much safer if surgeons can see and feel an actual representation of the patient's organ before the procedure itself. A system developed by a group of researchers from MIT and Boston Children's Hospital might make that a...

To call garbage collection an inglorious job would be an understatement -- it typically involves early mornings, monotony and (of course) lots of smelly trash. It's the perfect sort of job for a robot, don't you think? Volvo agrees. It's partner...

"QUANTUM SHOT" #453(rev) Link - article by M. Christian and Avi Abrams "It's not the size that counts but what you do with it" - this saying does not seem to apply to military engineering (top image: Captured WWII Railroad Gun; image via) 1. Chinese Hand Cannons Although they aren't known for having the biggest cannons, the Chinese were definitely the first builders and also the first to point them at people they didn't like. For many reasons, though, they stopped using them, mostly because while the big guns terrified the folks they were pointed at, they also had a little defect. They blew up. Chinese Hand Cannon - Bronze firearm, Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 AD). Photo by Yannick Trottier A functional miniature replica of a Chinese Hand cannon, and a Hand Bombard, Europe 1380 Europeans really took to the idea of a thick metal cylinder, a charge of gunpowder, and a nasty surprise to hurl at people they didn't like. A first these early cannons were simple mortars: a lump of bell-shaped iron (because bell-makers were the first cannon-makers) with a hole for the charge and the shell. They still exploded as often as they fired, but unlike the Chinese, the Europeans thought the bang was worth the buck. As long as someone else lit the fuse, that is. Once they got that whole "exploding in your face" thing fixed, or at least tuned down to a dull roar, they began to really play the "mine is bigger than yours" game. 2. The First True Supergun The first true "supergun" was The Great Turkish Bombard, which was also called the Dardanelles Gun, the Royal Gun, the Hungarian Cannon, Muhammed's Great Gun or the less common but more honest "Good Lord, Look at the Size Of That Thing." Built in 1453 in Hungary and used by turks to conquer Constantinople, they shocked their builders by unexpectedly doing what they were designed to do: lobbing a 1,500 pound granite sphere at whoever they were pointed at. 3. Tsar's Bragging Monster Not to be outdone, the Russians swaggered up with their own Mutually Assured Demolisher. Forged in 1585, the Tsar Cannon was a 35-inch-wide yawning monster designed to toss 800 pounds of grapeshot -- a whole lot of little cannon balls instead of one big one. The Tsar Cannon was never fired, but that didn't stop the Russian military from boring everyone by bragging about how huge it was. (image credit: Will) Another huge cannon: Mons Meg, made in 1449 and actually fired for almost 200 years - is now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland: (image via) 3. Trench Horror Upgrade It's said that the first world war was truly the first modern war. Poison gas, tanks, air combat, the machine gun -- they were all gleefully experimented with during those years of trench horror. But the classics were used as well, the old standby of thick metal cylinder, a charge of gunpowder, and a nasty surprise, never really going out of style. But as this was a modern war, the classic cannon got a big -- a very big -- upgrade as well. It's odd that such a monster got a woman's name, but the always-romantic Krupp engineers did just that: smashing champagne over the 17-inch-caliber gun, they christened it after their boss's -- possibly zaftig -- daughter. Big Bertha, or more accurately "Fat Bertha" was a hit with the German military, showing the Belgians at Liège, Namur and Antwerp, and the French at Maubeuge who had the really big one. (image courtesy of C. Luzent, les Canons de l'Apocalypse) (images via) But that wasn't enough. Sure Bertha had the thickness and the length, but what the Germans wanted was something to really show off -- especially since those swaggering Americans were about to enter the game. 4. Long Max to follow Big Bertha Searching for something they could get to their Eastern Front, German military engineers glanced out at sea and hit on the idea of transplantation instead of simple enhancement . To put it simply, the Long Max was a naval gun, the biggest one the Germans had. Luckily it quickly got its land legs: on the battlefield it showed its potency by shooting off 1,600 pound shells a respectable distance ... of 30 miles. (Comparison of 30.5 cm/50 and 38 cm/45 guns, image by Peter Lienau) A naval ordnance on wheels - a 14in., 30 mile gun... an entire train composed of rail artillery... (images via) 5. The First Terror Weapon But that wasn't enough. The Paris Gun wasn't named because it reminded those warm-hearted Krupps of the famous City Of Light. Hardly. Another transplanted naval piece, the gun has sometimes been called the first terror weapon. Although it needed a lot of maintenance, didn't shoot anything very heavy or destructive, but it still horrified that romantic city by dropping shells from ... wait for it ... 80 miles away. It was a monster to the Germans as well -- mounted on a special train carriage, it was so loud that a set of regular artillery was fired along with it to hide its thunderous discharge. Side note: Dr. Kapitza proposed an interesting Electric Cannon in 1932, which would use no gun powder, generating noiseless magnetic explosions - a sort of silent "Big Bertha": "SILENT guns sending their whistling messengers of death into the sky at speeds far beyond those now attained by powder-driven shells..." (images via, click to enlarge) 6. The Largest Gun Ever Built Then, as Monty Python said, peace broke out and everyone got much more polite about the size of their ammunition. Howitzers and field pieces tucked away, the refined gentleman nations of the world played croquet and gin rummy for a few decades until someone -- that is, Germany -- decided to wave their barrels and calibers in everyone's faces. No doubt about it, the Schwerer Gustav certainly was impressive. Like the old Paris gun, this monster belonged to the German Navy, but unlike the piece that had frightened the City of Light, the Schwerer Gustav was more than a thunderous braggart. First gun was named "Gustav", the second - "Dora": The monster was so huge it took a team of 2,500 "volunteers" to lay track for it, and the train carrying and supporting it was 25 cars long, about a mile. (See the rare video of "the biggest gun in the world" firing here) Unlike the Paris version, it only had a range of about 30 miles, but this one could throw a shell that didn't weigh just 1,000, 2,000, or even 3,000 pounds -- the damned thing could fire a 7,100-kilogram shell! (That's more like 15,620 (US) lbs) (right image credit: Pepe Garcia) Another gun from that era: K-5E "Leopold" (images credit: one35th.com) See the 3-D drawings of various German railway guns on this page, made by Greg Heuer: 7. The Centipede Supergun The Germans weren't the only ones obsessed with the size of their guns. The Brits and the Americans were not to be outdone, but they certainly seemed to be constantly looking down at their drawing boards, and wondering how their guns could be even bigger. Before peace again broke out, Germany had one last idea, a gun that, once and for all, would given them ultimate bragging rights. What makes the V3 Hochdruckpumpe ("High Pressure Pump", or "Centipede") gun so interesting is that it wasn't one gun but a bunch of smaller ones that fired in precise order to kick its shell faster and faster. Part of the whole Victor Weapon package that included the V1 Buzz Bomb and the V2 (the first ballistic missile), the V3 was to be permanently mounted in a concrete fortress in France where it would have blasted a 300-pound shell more than 100 miles, straight into the heart of London - the Yanks and the Brits, however, blasted the gun into oblivion before it was ready to fire back. 8. More-Than-Supergun to reach stratosphere Things got coolly polite after the war. We and They still obsessed over the sizes of our pieces, but new toys had begun to seriously threaten the satisfyingly primal big bang of massive artillery. Missiles, luckily, hadn't completely stolen the show. Back in '61 two superpowers, the US and ... Canada? ... worked with the genius gun-designer Gerald Bull on the HARP system, a more-than-supergun designed to reach to the edge of the stratosphere. Like those charming folks at Krupps, Bull loved his guns. After HARP went nowhere, Bull tried to find someone else to back his idea of a true supergun, a piece to end all pieces. His ultimate project was called Project Babylon, and while Bull's final intentions are a bit hazy, no one doubts that what he really wanted to do was make a gun big enough to do what HARP didn't have a chance to do: fire something into space. Bull was a genius. But he was profoundly stupid in one very crucial way: his choice of clients. After knocking on all kinds of doors for Project Babylon sponsors, he finally managed to secure the backing of the president of a Middle Eastern country, who'd write the checks if Bull the gun master would build the biggest one in human history. 9. Saddam's Supergun spells doom for its inventor The problem was the signature on those checks belonged to Saddam Hussein (more info), and a lot of his neighbors began to get kind of ...well, twitchy about someone like Hussein being able to wave Bull's massive piece around, especially, if Bull had succeeded, it would have been able to fire a shell almost 500 miles. (image credit: fas.org) In the end Bull didn't succeed, not because of poor engineering but because of a considerably smaller gun. A tiny thing, really, compared to what he wanted to show the world. But, as the old saying goes, it's not the size that counts but what you do with it. And the Mossad (the Israeli Secret Service) knew just what to do with their small gun: put a tiny bullet in the brain of the man who was building a supergun for Saddam Hussein. Article by M. Christian and Avi Abrams, Dark Roasted Blend. CONTINUE TO DRB MILITARY CATEGORY ->