technology

Nano Tech Wiperless Windshields Are The Future And We're Scared

Leonardo Fioravanti of Pininfarina fame has dreamed up a new type of windshield that implements some damn hi-tech solutions to the problem of rain automotive glass. Fioravanti must not be familiar with the adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," because he definitely has tried to do away with windshield wipers. This rad new design, perhaps dreamed up while high, use aerodynamics and four fancy layers to keep rain, dirt and other elements from obstructing your view. More »

akira

Leonardo DiCaprio, Warner Brothers To Remake Akira

Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio is set to both act in and produce a live-action, two-part remake of anime classic Akira. The first of which is set to hit screens next summer, expect it to be a blockbuster. The 1988 original was set in a post-apocalypse New Tokyo and featured some of the coolest motorcycles ever imagined, they still influence bike design to this day.

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retro

Karl Benz? Nein! DaVinci Invents the Automobile

Eighteen eighty five is so 122 years ago, Karl. All the coolest engineers and great thinkers were inventing cars back in 1478. Well, if by "car" you mean self-propelled conveyance, then yes, this is totally a car. (If you're going to be a d-bag and insist on internal combustion, then no, but you'd have to be Canadian to define it so narrowly.) Okay, Enough hubris; back to the retro-futuristic innovationism that is the Da Vinci car. The engineer in me really gets hot over the linear output of the spring-drive system big Leo D designed for this thing. Normally a spring drive just can't provide linear output, but DaVinci was kind of a genius and he figured out how to do it. Also new for the 1478 model year was the ability to steer and brake. Some nerds at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy decided to recreate this thing from Leo's original notes. What you see above is the result. Nobody really knows if DaVinci built a prototype, but who cares? It's cool and old. Wait a week and there will be a YouTube vid of some hooligan with JATO bottles strapped to it.–Ben Wojdyla More »