whale

Tweet failures plaguing Twitter's official apps

Twitter users are reporting problems receiving tweets in their official Twitter apps this afternoon.

In a post to its official status blog, Twitter acknowledged the issue, saying: "Some users may be experiencing a delay with new tweets in their timelines. Our engineers are currently working on this issue."

A search for "Twitter app" reveals a lot of unhappy people, though people using clients like TweetDeck seem to be having no problems.

In recent days, there's been much talk of the end of the so-called "fail whale" in light of Twitter's performance having … Read more

New iPad app could help save endangered whales at sea

You might not think that an iPad could help save whales, but that's just what an app released today is designed to do.

Known as Whale Alert, the iPad app is designed to help ship captains avoid colliding with whales in congested shipping channels.

Specifically, the app, which was created in partnership between the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), private companies, academia, and the government, is meant to link "the bridge of a ship to the latest data about right whale detections and informs users when their vessels enter right whale management areas."

North Atlantic right … Read more

Killer Whale Submarine a killer personal submersible

Jules Verne had the market on imaginative submarines cornered for many long years. And then Hammacher Schlemmer came along and offered a $100,000 Killer Whale Submarine.

The Killer Whale Submarine can breach from the water, just like a real whale. It has pectoral fins with control levers and a 255-horsepower supercharged Rotax axial flow engine. I can't really explain what that is exactly, but it sounds super cool.

This aquatic beast is also pretty fast. Underwater, it can go 25 mph. On the surface, it can hydroplane at up to 50 mph. I think that's faster than my Prius can go on land.… Read more

Tetris wall graphics let blockheads stick up bricks

LAS VEGAS--Many world champion Tetris players claim to see falling bricks in their dreams (see: Tetris Effect), and now players of all skill levels can wake up to the puzzle game with their own Tetronimo wall graphics, thanks to a collaboration between Tetris and Walls360.

Walls360 is a start-up co-founded by Tavia Campbell, John Doffing, and Yiying Lu, the artist responsible for the famous Twitter Fail Whale. Their wall graphics first caught my eye when they hosted a kick-off event two years ago to launch the company, and since then they've partnered with brands like Star Trek and Paddington Bear to create high-quality adhesive wall images.… Read more

Twitter-by-post breeds analog 'Fail Whales'

On the way to our digital world, a strange thing happened--analog became cool again. How else can you explain something like Twitter-by-post?

The idea is simple, the execution not so much. Freelance writer Giles Turnbull decided to take his tweets offline by responding to his Twitter feed using physical postcards. He laid out the mechanics of the experiment--done with the help of about 15 "volunteers" from among his Twitter followers--in The Morning News:… Read more

Route 66: Build your own giant Blue Whale

CATOOSA, Okla.--There's a big Blue Whale in a small lake in Catoosa, Okla., on Route 66. It's an unexpected sight as you come over a rising bend in the road. I had heard there was a whale here, but the scale of the beast is enough to make Captain Ahab think twice about his life's mission. It's 80 feet long and 15 feet high.

Clearly, the Blue Whale didn't just wander inland from the ocean. Someone put it here. It's a maker project on a scale maker projects don't usually achieve. If Make Magazine had existed back in the '70s, the Blue Whale would have been a centerfold model.

In the spirit of DIY, I'm going to help makers prep their own whales. Here is your materials list:

2,650 feet of sucker rod 1,179 feet of 2-inch steel pipe 100 feet of 1-inch pipe 2,520 square feet of plaster lath 126 bags of concrete mix 19.5 square yards of Redi-Mix concrete 19,400 pounds of crushed stone 15 tons of sand 2,454 linear feet of wood 20 pounds of nails Assorted tubing and valves

If you can find a hardware store that hasn't changed prices since the '70s, the material costs should work out to less than $3,000. You will also need to find a friend willing to donate 100 hours of welding time. Assuming you want to follow the original build timeline, it will only take you two years of work to assemble your own Blue Whale. … Read more

The 404 777: Where 10 bucks says it's a hoax (podcast)

Fooling people on the Internet is far from a difficult feat, but Web magicians are finding creative ways to make us question our own skepticism. Take YouTube user BITcrash44's concept video that shows him hacking video screens in Times Square.

This guy supposedly fashioned a broadcast device that pulls video data from the headphone jack in an iPhone and can hijack any feed in the process. The accompanying video makes creative use of After Effects, but real techies should be able to spot the discrepancies--even still, without dissecting it to death like everyone else has online, can we at least appreciate the humor and ingenuity in this project? Well done BITcrash44!

Unfortunately, not everyone uses the Internet in jest like our buddy BITcrash44--some people use it to exploit the philanthropy of innocent people who just want to donate money to charities in Japan to assist the relief effort. Be careful if you receive an e-mail that claims to be from the British Red Cross using the subject line "Japan Tsunami Appeal | British Red Cross"; it's a charity scam.

You should also keep a lookout for traps hidden… Read more

'Fail Whale' creator aims to democratize art

SAN FRANCISCO--Since the famous "Fail Whale" is known for signifying that Twitter is down, it might surprise you to know that there are a lot of people out there who appreciate seeing it.

"People are actually looking forward to [Twitter] downtime," said Yiying Lu, the artist who created what came to be known as the Fail Whale. "I'm [always getting] tweets from people telling me it makes them happy" to see the whimsical image of a whale being hauled out of the water by a group of small birds.

Lu may be best … Read more

Ig Nobels honor research on cursing, bat sex, socks

The next time you get injured, go ahead and swear.

Researchers who found that cursing actually relieves pain were among the winners of Ig Nobel prizes today. Also honored were projects on whale snot and certain things fruit bats do while copulating.

Sponsored by the science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research," the annual awards were presented tonight in a ceremony at Harvard University to projects that "cannot and should not be reproduced."

The Ig Nobel peace prize was awarded to research from Keele University in the U.K. that confirmed that swearing can lessen pain. … Read more