

Brett Savage
Joined: Nov 21, 2012


The 5pm Quiz: The Office Christmas Special

Building the (Fictional) Car of the Future

The Centaur that Killed the Common Cold
To Desalinate or Not To Desalinate?
With incidents of severe water scarcity expected to rise substantially as the global population grows and fresh water supplies diminish, scientists are scrambling to come up with effective solutions to the pressing problem of increasingly limited fresh dr
When It Comes to Facial Recognition, Caricatures Beat Photos
We have a little saying around here—If the Hamburg Data Protection Authority doesn't like it, we don't like it either. What the HDPA doesn't like these days is the new facial recognition feature embedded in Facebook's new photo-tagging software, which is
History's Best and Worst Advertising Slogans
Remember when Verizon's slogan demanded very directly that you "Join In"? It wasn't that long ago, before that annoying guy started asking everyone under the sun if they could hear him now. How 'bout when McDonald's proclaimed, "We Love to See You Smile"?
How People of the '70s Pictured Space Colonies of the Future
Back in the early 1970s, when Americans were just plain wild about the (seemingly) imminent reality of living in space, a NASA design study attempted to conceptualize just how such an idea could be brought to fruition. The illustrations created to describ
The Secret Talents of the Horseshoe Crab
When I was very young, I overheard one of my dad's friends telling him about a swimmer he had witnessed get attacked by a Portuguese Man o' War. In my youthful naivete, I pictured a Portuguese man in a military uniform coming out of the water and randomly
The World's Worst Photoshop Propaganda
Here's a scenario for you: You're a megalomaniac world leader with an obsequious state-run media outlet at your disposal. You've upset your constituency in some capacity and need to regain their favor, real quick. Releasing an image in the newspaper of yo
Give Me an A! Grade Inflation at U.S. Colleges
I've got some bad news for you. All those A's and B's you received in college that made your parents so proud and boosted your self-esteem? Well—they were bogus (sort
Stereotypical Cartography
The New York Times Magazine posted an abstract illustration capturing stereotypes all over the world. Christoph Niemann's "The World Map of Useless Stereotypes" provides an interesting look at how different nations view each other, stereotypically—of cour
Zoomorpha: The Next Wave of Robot
Everybody loves robots. They make funny noises, work really hard to perform simple tasks of questionable benefit, and are often charmingly skeletal-looking (well, to people who are charmed by skeletons, at
Companies Americans Love to Hate (the Most)
The good people over at The Atlantic recently reviewed the American Customer Satisfaction Index and compiled a list of the 19 Most Hated Companies in America. The list includes all the usual suspects that you've probably had actual or virtual run-ins with
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company Turns 100
One hundred years ago, The International Time Recording Company, Computing Scale Company, and Tabulating Machine Company merged to become the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. Apparently, people one hundred years ago loved naming companies with a co
The 5pm Quiz: Arrested Development
Get comfortable, pop a Teamocil, crank up your favorite Dr. Fünke's 100% Natural Good-Time Family Band Solution album and show us how much you know about the series that was too well-written to enjoy the longevity it deserved on network television. Tak