Nothing beats a movie recommendation from a friend who knows your tastes. At least not yet. Netflix wants to change that, aiming to build an online recommendation engine that outperforms even your closest friends.

The online movie and TV outfit once sponsored what it called the Netflix Prize, asking the world’s data scientists to build new algorithms that could better predict what movies and shows you want to see. And though … Read More → "Netflix is building an artificial brain using Amazon’s cloud"

Take 300,000 computer-controlled mirrors, each 7 feet high and 10 feet wide. Control them with computers to focus the Sun’s light to the top of 459-foot towers, where water is turned into steam to power turbines. Bingo: you have the world’s biggest solar power plant, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.

Long-mired by regulatory issues and legal tangles, … Read More → "The world’s largest solar plant started making electricity today"

Rock band Radiohead has expanded beyond its audio walls and created a visual experience based on its music. Created in collaboration with digital agency Universal Everything, with art by Stanley Donwood, PolyFauna — free for iOS and Android — is a sort of game based on recording sessions for 2011’s King of Limbs — in particular, the first track, “Bloom”.

If you could call … Read More → "Radiohead mobile “game” is a beautiful, explorable fantasyland"

Finding your way around New York City’s subway system is beginning to get a lot easier. The city’s first 18 interactive subway maps are now live throughout Grand Central, letting travelers plan their routes just by tapping a destination, look into points of interest, and view train arrivals, delays, and outages. The interactive maps are being called “MTA On-the-Go kiosks” … Read More → "NYC installs first interactive subway maps in Grand Central"

These fantastic sand sculptures were on display at the Third New Zealand Sandcastle Competitionat New Brighton Beach in Christchurch last weekend. The event featured professional sand sculptors Rusty Croft and Sue McGrew of the Sand Guys as well as amateur individual and team entrants.
via Laughing Squid

… Read More → "Fantastic sand sculptures created at the Third New Zealand Sandcastle Competition"

Human bones are amazing—seriously, they’re incredibly cool—but up until recently, it’s been hard to engineer a synthetic material that replicates the super-strong structure of the real thing. Now, scientists in Germany are using a 3D printer to do just that—and it could mean a breakthrough for how we build everything from architecture to spacecraft.

Read More → "Tomorrow’s spacecraft could be made of the same bone you are"

We’ve known for a long time that crows and ravens (and other corvids) are very, very clever birds, but we’re continually surprised by just how clever they are. As scavengers, their livelihood is entirely dependent on their ability to find food, meaning that they get rewarded for creativity. This BBC video shows what happens when an animal that gets rewarded for creativity evolves over untold generations. It get to a point where cleverness and the ability to reason combine for an epic level of problem solving:

… Read More → "Video of the Day: This crow is smarter than you"

A sinkhole reportedly opened up inside the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, KY at around 5:44AM local time, swallowing eight vintage Corvettes that were on display. The sinkhole is reportedly about 40 feet wide and at least 25 feet deep. No one has been hurt.

The Bowling Green fire department was on the scene right away and geologists from Western Kentucky University have been  … Read More → "Eight vintage Corvettes swallowed by 40-foot sinkhole inside National Corvette Museum"

Cancer surgery is tough. Even with high-powered microscopes, surgeons have a very difficult time distinguishing cancer cells from healthy cells. But these new glasses developed by Washington University, St. Louis could change all that.

Put simply, the glasses make cancer cells glow blue, after the patient is injected with a special dye that targets the cancer cells. Because cancer is so notoriously difficult to spot, it’s … Read More → "Cancer-spotting glasses light up the bad cells for surgeons"

A group calling itself the Efficient Passenger Project has installed signs on the New York City subway that help riders navigate the system by showing where they should board their train for optimum transferring down the line. The signs are not authorized by the MTA and WNYC reports that the transit authority intends to take them down.
via Laughing Squid</ … Read More → "Efficient passenger project posts rogue signs showing New York City subway riders optimal boarding locations"