Topic

Technology & Innovation

A collection of 98 issues

The $40 Billion Miscalculation: How Yahoo! Fumbled the Deal of a Lifetime

In 2008, Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo for a staggering $44.6 billion. Convinced they were worth more, Yahoo's board rejected the deal. Eight years later, after a long decline, they sold their core business to Verizon for a mere $4.83 billion—a fraction of the original offer.

Confess to the Skeleton: The Bizarre 1930s Patent for a Robotic Ghost Interrogator

In 1930, Helen Adelaide Shelby patented a terrifying device: a skeleton with glowing red eyes, a hidden megaphone, and a camera, designed to be used in a dark room to scare suspects into a supernaturally-induced confession. It was a ghost in the machine for criminal interrogation.

The Pi Paradox: Why NASA and Your Computer Only Care About the First 15 Digits

For most scientific and engineering tasks, including NASA's interplanetary calculations, only about 15 digits of Pi are used. This isn't arbitrary; it aligns with the precision of double-precision floating-point numbers, the standard format for calculations in modern computers.

Dialing the Divine: The Curious Case of Vatican City's Unused Country Code

Vatican City was assigned the international dialing code +379 but never implemented it. For practical reasons, the world's smallest state is integrated into Italy's telephone network, using the country code +39 followed by Rome's area code, making its numbers indistinguishable from local ones.

The Unlikely Best-Seller: How a Computer Named MADDIDA Dominated 1952 with Just Six Sales

In 1952, the commercial computer market was born. The best-selling digital computer wasn't a giant mainframe, but the 'desk-sized' MADDIDA, a specialized machine that sold a grand total of six units, marking a pivotal, if tiny, first step in the digital revolution.

The Ugly Duckling Jet That Taught NASA to Fly Vertically: The Story of the Bell X-14

The Bell X-14 was a one-of-a-kind experimental VTOL jet built from spare parts. Flown by NASA for over two decades, its pioneering research into thrust vectoring provided crucial data that directly influenced the development of modern aircraft like the Harrier and the F-35B.

The Leviathan of the Thames: Brunel's Great Eastern Was a Ship 40 Years Ahead of Its Time

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Eastern (1858) was a maritime titan. The largest ship for four decades, it could carry 4,000 passengers to Australia without refueling. Its immense size necessitated a revolutionary and difficult sideways launch, marking it as a marvel of its era.

Before the Beep: The Explosive, Gas-Lit Story of the World's First Traffic Light

The world's first traffic light, installed in London in 1868, was a marvel of Victorian engineering. Gas-lit and manually operated, it used semaphore arms and colored lamps. Its promising career was cut short when it exploded just weeks later, halting progress for nearly 60 years.

Riding Invisible Waves to the Edge of Space: The Unpowered Glider That Flew Higher Than a Spy Plane

The Perlan II, an unpowered glider, holds the astonishing world record for the highest subsonic flight. It soared over 76,000 feet by 'surfing' rare atmospheric waves, pushing the boundaries of aviation and conducting vital research at the edge of space without burning a single drop of fuel.