Since it was first translated and published by Scandinavian linguist Grímur Jónsson Thorkelin in 1815, most new translations of the text have interpreted the very first word of the classic ancient text, “hwæt” (sounds like cat), as a sort of interjection or interruption — kind of like shouting “Hey!” at somebody to get their attention. As a result, it gets turned into “Listen!”, “Ho!”, or in Seamus Heaney’s most recent translation of the text, “So.”

However, according … Read More → "Turns out we may have been misinterpreting the first line of Beowulf for 200 years"

The photography aficionados among you who still recall with teary-eyed nostalgia the days before digital domination might appreciate an agreeable return to the old school, albeit with a hi-tech twist: a 3D-printed pinhole camera…

Inventor Clint O’Connor promises “magical photographs from a new, yet old perspective” from the 6x6cm format camera, which rather marvellously features a state-of-the-art rubber band locking system. 
… Read More → "High tech meets old school: a 3D printed pinhole camera"

More than 230 miles above Earth, aboard the International Space Station, is a seven-window observatory module called the Cupola. It’s a relatively new addition to the ISS, which made its debut just three years ago, and it happens to be the largest window in space.

That’s where Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano spends time taking photos of Earth.
via npr</ … Read More → "The view from the largest window in space"

Video games get a bad rap when it comes to positive portrayals in the media. In fact, gamers are often seen as losers who sit in their parents’ basement playing World of Warcraft for hours on end. Video games, themselves, are blamed for everything from increasing violence in the U.S. to turning one’s brain … Read More → "Playing video games makes your brain bigger"

Japanese company HiBot, specialized in robots for extreme environments, will unveil the latest version of its ACM-R5H snake robot at the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) this week in Tokyo.

HiBot says the new model is more modular and easier to customize that earlier versions. You can easily attach more segments to the snake’s body to make it longer, or remove segments if you need a shorter robot. … Read More → "HiBot demos new amphibious snake robot"

In what at first glance seems like a terrible sense of direction, in March students from the University of Washington fired rockets from kites and balloons at an altitude of 3,000 ft (914 m) straight into the ground at Black Rock, Nevada: a dry lake bed in the desert 100 mi (160 km) north of Reno. This may seem like the ultimate in larking about, but it’s actually a serious effort to develop new ways of collecting … Read More → "Students crash rockets to develop new asteroid sample collection technique"

King Tutankhamun, may not have had quite the civilized send off that we thought: researchers are now suggesting that a botched mummification process led to his body spontaneously combusting inside its sarcophagus.

A fresh new analysis of King Tut’s remains, using X-ray and CAT scans, reveals that his bones … Read More → "King Tut’s body spontaneously combusted inside its sarcophagus"

… Read More → "FIRA robot soccer at RobotWorld 2013"

Artist Diane Meyer adds pixelated sections to her photographs by embroidering pixel-like squares directly on to the photos with a needle and thread. The embroidered areas obscure the underlying photo, much like digital pixelation is used to obscure portions of a photo or video.
via Laughing Squid

Read More → "Artist makes pixelated photos by sewing embroidered ‘pixels’ on them"

It’s happening, folks. The self-driving car phenomenon is finally jumping from the test track onto public roads. And the revolution isn’t just happening in the United States—it’s happening in the UK, too.

The small town of Milton-Keynes, just north of London, will soon deploy 100 driverless pods  … Read More → "A UK town is replacing its buses with driverless pods"