Videos
Podcasts
Blogs
Quizzes
GamesArchive for March, 2011
Earlier this week, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad spent 45 minutes addressing the country’s Parliament. This was his first public speech regarding the protests in Syria, which have threatened to bloom into a bona fide revolution. In this speech, he claimed that “Syria is the target of a big plot from the outside.” That’s right: He’s [...]
Wednesday on TechStuff, we talked about chiptunes, a musical movement that uses the sounds made famous in classic video games. It’s called chiptunes because the old consoles had dedicated chips that created the sounds you’d hear in video games. Those chips had a limited number of channels (or distinct voices) as well as a set range of tones and pitches they could produce. Some of the best video game music composers saw these features not as limitations but as challenges. And some of the most memorable video game themes trace their origins back to this era.
The Chocolate Hills of the Philippines
by Amanda Arnold | March 31, 2011
Unfortunately, these hills aren’t really made of chocolate.
But they do look funny. Don’t they?
Philippine legend made up a couple of stories to explain them: In one, some giants get into a rock fight (and the rocks are the hills). In another, the hills are the tears of a forlorn giant.
Blow Your Mind: Why Your Brain Likes a Conspiracy
by Robert Lamb | March 31, 2011
Unforeseen events required me to take a sudden leave from the office last week, but the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast must go on. Luckily, fellow HowStuffWorks podcaster Ben Bowlin popped in to help us out with a special guest appearance. The Stuff They Don’t Want You To Know co-host is a student of conspiracy in all its forms, so in this episode he chats with Julie about the nature of conspiracy theories and just why our minds crave them so.
Mark Zuckerberg probably had no idea that the social media juggernaut he created would one day be the stage on which countless women’s gender-specific insecurity and anxiety would play out for researchers to pick apart and analyze.
In 2011 alone, Facebook research (in academic and non-academic settings) has concluded the following…
I’ve been increasingly working toward eating an ever-healthier diet lately — doing things like frequenting a farmers market (fyi: the spices there were AMAZINGLY cheap!) and buying a bread maker — so this was bound to catch my eye when I saw it on NPR: The controversy surrounding artificial dyes and the FDA meeting going on this week to discuss them. Luckily, my food intake is largely unprocessed (or technically, I suppose, mainly processed by me) so that takes out a lot of potential worry right there, but still, it did compel me to do a little research on artificial food dyes and how to avoid them.
Anyone who’s opened a bag of delicious Goldfish™-brand cracker lately knows the sting of undiluted disappointment. Something is rotten in Denmark as far as retail food goes. Little by little the contents within are shrinking, while the bag — and the price — stays the same. The upshot is that we are getting far less food for what we pay for compared to even just a few years ago.
In some cases, like that of Goldfish™-brand crackers or a bag of chips, most of the contents is mere air, which, everybody knows doesn’t cost the manufacturer one red cent.
Trailer for Hawken – A first-person shooter with mechs
by Marshall Brain | March 31, 2011
Mechs are one of those vehicles that have been predicted by Science Fiction for decades but have never made the transition to real life. For example, the mech in Avatar in 2010 is amazing in its realism: 30 years earlier, the AT-STs appeared in The Empire Strikes Back: Even though they don’t yet exist in [...]
Why Do These Breathtaking Russian Images of Earth Look So Different from NASA’s? – “While this morning’s orbital image of Mercury is historic, these two images are the ones that have truly left me in complete awe today. Even more so than the most accurate, highest resolution view of Earth to date…” See also: After [...]
If you follow How-to Stuff on Facebook, then you know that last week I was searching for the perfect cupcake and frosting combo to make for a birthday party. I’d already picked out a classic combo to make for the kids (vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream), but for the parents and other adults, I wanted to prepare something a bit more exciting. Find out what I landed on after the jump.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
- The Painted Beauties of Bucovina
- The Cat Passageways and Track Furniture of Gillette Castle
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
