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Why is Bluetooth Called Bluetooth? (Hint: Vikings!)
Bluetooth's odd name harkens back to Swedish telecommunication company Ericsson's Viking heritage
August 27, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Alphonse Mucha Designed the Nation State of Czechoslovakia
When the country gained its independence after World War I, artist Alphonse Mucha was called upon to help design an important part of any country's identity - its money
August 21, 2012 |
By Jimmy Stamp
Celebrating 80 Years of LEGO
Children and hobbyists rejoice - today is Lego's 80th birthday.
August 10, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
How Advertisers Convinced Americans They Smelled Bad
A schoolgirl and a former traveling Bible salesman helped turn deodorants and antiperspirants from niche toiletries into an $18 billion industry
August 03, 2012 |
By Sarah Everts
Why We Hoard – And How to Stop
While there may be many books, stuffed animals or DVDs that are exactly the same as the ones stuffed in your closet, there's something special about the copy you own specifically because it's yours.
July 23, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The History of the Olympic Pictograms: How Designers Hurdled the Language Barrier
Infographic design first appeared at the Olympics in 1948, when the games were last in London.
July 20, 2012 |
By Sarah C. Rich
360-Year-Old Advertisement Extolls Coffee’s Virtues
An advertisement issued by some brilliant London entrepreneurs may well be the first coffee ad ever.
July 18, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Remembering Bloomingdale’s Chairman, the Dearly Departed Martin Traub, 1925-2012
The department store chain's visionary executive beat the competition in exotic fashion flair
July 13, 2012 |
By Emily Spivack
How Our Food System Could Be Radically Better in 2032
Fast forward 20 years. How will we get our food? What delicacies will stock our fridges and appear on restaurant menus? Will our diets be significantly different, or will we have simply found new things to stuff in yet-undiscovered pockets of our pizzas? Andrew Purvis of Green Futures Magazine ponders the question, with an optimistic slant: [...]
July 07, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Science Answers Age-Old Question, Should We Live to Work or Work to Live?
It’s summer time, and the temptation to skip the office and head to the pool is intoxicating. If only each and every day could be spent lazing under an umbrella rather than toiling away in pursuit of the next paycheck. But according to NatCen Social Research, a British independent social resaerch center, it’s precisely the [...]
July 03, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Wearing Wool, All Summer Long
Layered, corseted summer garments kept women proper and fashionable, if not cool
July 03, 2012 |
By Emily Spivack
1931′s Remote-Controlled Farm of the Future
The farmer of tomorrow wears a suit to work and sits at a desk that looks oddly familiar to those of us here in the year 2012.
July 02, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Surgery, Security and Sales: The Future of Closed-Circuit Television
Just as people were experimenting with the potential uses of broadcast TV in the 1930s, so too were they envisioning ways to utilize closed-circuit TV in the 1950s
June 26, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
High-Tech’s Crucial Rare Earth Elements Are Already Running Low
Rare earth minerals are used to make smartphones, flat-screen televisions, drills, electric vehicles, compact florescent bulbs, wind turbines, and military equipment. But now China, the world’s nearly-sole provider of rare earth elements, is warning that modern lust for high-tech toys and tools has caused the supply of these materials to plummet. According the a recent official [...]
June 22, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
The Arc of History is Long, But it Bends Toward Asian Economic Dominance
Derek Thompson from The Atlantic manages to present 2,000 years of economic history in 5 paragraphs plus a colorful little graph by Michael Cembalest, an analyst at JP Morgan. In Year 1, India and China were home to one-third and one-quarter of the world’s population, respectively. It’s hardly surprising, then, that they also commanded one-third and [...]
June 21, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
The 1958 Plan to Turn Ellis Island Into a Vacation Resort
Give me your huddled masses yearning to go shopping and swimming
June 18, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
The Rise and Fall of Ken-chan, the $43,000 Robot Waiter
The spaghetti-slinging robot drew crowds at Grazie’s Italian Restaurant in Tokyo
June 12, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Don’t Let Your Money Fly Away: A 1909 Warning to Airship Investors
Flying aboard aircraft? Just a passing fad
May 31, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Jobs of the Future: How Accurate Were the Soothsayers of 1982 At Predicting Today’s Top Careers?
College graduates take note: Your dream career as a robot psychologist or nasal technologist is just around the corner
May 15, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
Billboard Advertising in the City of Blade Runner
Are Angelenos destined to be perpetually surrounded by super-sized advertisements?
April 27, 2012 |
By Matt Novak
