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Tech NewsNew York to Chicago — In Just 12 Hours!
Regular air line passenger and freight transportation between the larger cities, particularly New York and Chicago, promises to become an accomplisht fact this spring. All the usual conveniences will be available to passengers, besides wireless communication, mail service, sleeping quarters and aerial promenade. Not to mention the most wonderful scenery ever presented to alpine tourists, … Continued
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Tech NewsThis 1930 Song About 1992 Didn’t Mention Kurt Cobain Even Once
In 1930 Arthur Fields and Fred Hall recorded a song about the futuristic world of 1992. And if you can believe it, they didn’t mention a single grunge band. Not even once. No Soundgarden. No Nirvana. These supposedly future-minded charlatans didn’t even give a passing mention to Eddie Vedder. Then what were these guys yammering … Continued
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Tech News
US Government Says Time Capsule Coins Weren’t Stolen From Them In 1901
“There is nothing connecting these coins to any theft from the Mint,” U.S. Mint spokesman Adam Stump told SF Gate. “We’ve done quite a bit of research, and we’ve got a crack team of lawyers, and trust me, if this was U.S. government property we’d be going after it.” Well, so much for that theory. … Continued
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Tech NewsWhat Is This Fake Hoverboard Company Actually Promoting?
In 1989 the director of Back to the Future II went on TV and declared that hoverboards were real. “They’ve been around for years, it’s just that parents’ groups have not let the toy manufacturers make them,” Robert Zemeckis insisted. “But we got our hands on some and we put them in the movie.” This, … Continued
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Tech News
Unlocking the Mystery of the $10 Million California Time Capsule
An anonymous Northern California couple out walking their dog recently discovered six rusty canisters buried on their property. The canisters were filled with 19th century gold coins, worth about $10 million today. Who’s responsible for that much buried treasure? You might just be looking at him. Several theories have emerged about the Saddle Ridge time … Continued
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Tech News
America’s First ‘Wireless Newspaper’ Killed Catalina’s Carrier Pigeons
If you lived on the small Southern California island of Catalina at the turn of the century, news was hard to come by. The island had a rather unreliable carrier pigeon system and copies of the L.A. Times wouldn’t arrive by boat until around 1:30 in the afternoon. News was slow moving. But all that … Continued
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Tech News
Is it beyond the bounds of reason, in view of our recent progress, to imagine that the day is coming when, by touching a button on some convenient part of our anatomy, we may get in tune with a central wireless, typeless, inkless, pulpless, paperless, newsless distributing agency that will telepathically convey to us the … Continued
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Tech News
This Week in Time Capsules: Mice, Cameras and Presidential Portraits
This week in our time capsule news round-up we have the “other items” from that Steve Jobs capsule, some century-old photos in Oklahoma City, and a signed portrait of FDR that’s been sitting under Oregon soil since 1941. A look at what else was inside the 1983 Steve Jobs capsule The so-called “Steve Jobs time … Continued
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Tech News
The editors of the Oxford English Dictionary are crowdsourcing research about WWI-era slang. Have you found a use of “Zeppelins in a cloud” (slang for sausage and mashed potatoes) that’s older than 1925? How about a use of “shell shock” older than 1915? The OED wants to hear about it. [Chronicle of Higher Education]
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Tech News
This Guy Had a TV In His Taxi Before Most People Had One At Home
Less than 1 percent of American households had a TV set in 1948. But if you were lucky enough to hail a special cab in Chicago during the summer of ’48, you got a brief taste of America’s television-obsessed future. Chicago taxi driver Charles De Lorne was able to give his passengers quite a show, … Continued
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Tech News
This 1924 Illustration Nails the Real Future of Drone Warfare
It’s no secret that military drones predate the 21st century. But it’s still amazing to see illustrations of unmanned aerial vehicles that are nearly a century old. Like this drone command center from 1924, with pilots sitting 500 miles away from the battlefield. It’s an image that’s strikingly similar to the drone pilots of today. … Continued
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Tech NewsRussian Man Uses Horse Treadmill to Power Log Splitter
You may have seen the video above making the rounds on the old internet box. An anonymous Russian man is using his horse on a treadmill to power a log splitter. It’s a brilliant idea, but far from new. Back in the late 19th century, the horse treadmill (or “endless floor”) was considered the latest … Continued
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Tech News
And Yet the Hamburglar Remains At Large…
On September 24, 1996 the mayor and police chief of San Jose, California swore in Officer Mac, a McDonald’s-sponsored robot. Officially, Officer Mac’s duties were limited to educating Bay Area citizens about crime prevention. But we all know Mac was deputized for one purpose, and one purpose only: to teach kids how delicious McDonald’s food … Continued
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Tech News
This 1920s ‘Taste Organ’ Was Like a Symphony For Your Mouth
Think of it like music, but for your taste buds. Confused? Well, the people in this illustration from 1926 probably were too. The July 1926 issue of Science and Invention magazine raved about the advances being made in alternative-organ technology. Composers of the future wouldn’t just be making beautiful music, they were going to create … Continued
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Tech News
California Couple Finds Time Capsules Worth $10 Million
A couple in Northern California recently uncovered a time capsule hunter’s dream: six metal canisters filled with rare coins, valued at about $10 million. The canisters were filled with a total of 1,427 coins, all dating from 1847 to 1894. The face-value of the coins only adds up to about $27,000. But the fact that … Continued
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Tech News
Morgan Stanley Thinks Self-Driving Cars Will Bring Utopia by 2026
The term “techno-utopian” is helpful for referring to people who believe technology alone can solve the world’s problems. The term is rarely used literally. But if the financial services company Morgan Stanley is to be believed, driverless cars will literally bring about a utopian society in just over a decade. Business Insider has this slide … Continued
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Tech News
“When it comes to the things that people really want in science fiction—like space travel—the simplest things end up causing them not to happen. Humans are 100-pound bags of water, built to live on Earth.” — Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist and author of The Physics of Star Trek You can read the entire interview over … Continued
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Tech News
This Is What I See Every Time You Tell Me How Cool Oculus Rift Is
Virtual reality sure is cute. And, yes, I do mean that in the most condescending way possible. Look, I understand just how cool the Oculus Rift may seem to my tech nerd brothers and sisters. And I shouldn’t judge something before I’ve tried it. But every time someone tells me how awesome this cutting-edge virtual … Continued
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Tech News
6 Incredibly Accurate Predictions About TV From 1989
It’s easy to laugh at futurist predictions. But when they’re proven accurate, it’s hard not to be impressed. Especially when it comes to technology that we now use every day. Pausing and rewinding live TV? Dialing up virtually any movie you like without leaving home? Watching films on the go? For the most part, these … Continued
By Matt Novak
Matt Novak
Matt Novak is a reporter at Gizmodo covering news and opinion, with a little history thrown in for good measure. Novak started at Gizmodo in 2013 and has been writing about past visions of the future at Paleofuture.com since 2007. Novak is fascinated with the history of technology and got his start writing professionally for Smithsonian magazine. Emails telling him to "stick to tech" can be sent to [email protected].
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