Archives for August 2014

From Sanrio, the makers of Hello Kitty, to Anthropologist Christine R. Yano from the University of Hawaii:Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature.... Read More »

David Strege:The phenomenon of the “sailing stones” on Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park has baffled scientists for decades.By some mysterious force of nature, rocks move along the flat-as-a-pancake playa and leave long trails behind. What causes the stones to move?Martians?... Read More »

This cannot come as a surprise given General Motors' rebirth, Chevrolet's resurgence, and the Corvette's new muscle design. Antony Ingram:According to Corvette Blogger, a graphic shown by GM reveals that 37,288 Corvettes were built in the 2014 model year alone. That's the third-best number in the... Read More »

Catey Hill on survey details from the American Customer Satisfaction Index: Customers’ satisfaction with both domestic and foreign automakers hit a five-year low this year, falling 1.2% from last year to a score of 82 out of 100. What’s more, satisfaction with 80% of the 21 car brands measured fell... Read More »

Just when you thought nothing would ever be banned again, here's a list of 10 toys deemed too dangerous to use. Josh Goller: Throughout history, toy makers have designed some truly brutal products (lawn darts, anyone?). But with modern-day lawsuits, you'd think we would've curbed that problem. Yet,... Read More »

Smartphones can be unlocked in the U.S. Legally. What about elsewhere? Cyrus Lee says China Telecom will unlock the iPhone 6:China Telecom... said it will unlock the unreleased smartphone, meaning the upcoming iPhone 6 sold by China Telecom is going to support dual 4G network, both TDD-LTE and FDD-LTE,... Read More »

Apparently, this is easy to do. Charlie Osborne:US researchers have discovered a flaw which may exist across Android, Windows, and iOS operating systems, and could allow popular services such as Gmail to become compromised... The attack works through a user downloading a seemingly harmless application,... Read More »

Jeff Perez found a listing for a true blue blue classic muscle car, circa 1971.Anyone in the market for a classic muscle car? If you don’t know what this is, it’s a 1971 Ford Gran Torino Cobra, wearing a Grabber Blue paint scheme and wielding a potent V8. And it’s downright stunning.Introduced... Read More »

Lists like this one are subjective, of course. I think the Nissan Juke is so ugly it's cute, but it's the only one on Jason Notte's list. There have been vehicles released within the past year that are every bit the detriment to design that the 2001 Pontiac Aztek, 1977 Lincoln Versailles and 1985 Cadillac... Read More »

Brad Reed:Why do people love working at Google so much? There seem to be many reasons and one of them is without a doubt the fact that Google showers its employees with perks when they come into the office every dayHow do Google employee's perks differ from the rest of the world?Of course... Read More »

Where I live we get more than our fair share of tsunami warnings from Japan. Here's a story worth watching:The small, but growing, island appeared last year and quickly engulfed the already-existing island of Nishinoshima, around 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south of Tokyo... The island's craters... Read More »