treasure

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Facebook launches rewritten iOS app.

- One hundred year-old package opened today, results reportedly underwhelming.

- LL Cool J captures home intruder.

- LL Cool J brings the Boomdizzle to CES 2012.… Read more

There seems to be a slight gold rush going on in the very small town of Lotus, Calif.

Recently, a massive meteorite exploded over the town, so people have been flying in from all parts of the earthly world in order to claim their piece of otherworldly matter.

Brenda Salverson doesn't seem to have been caught up in this frenzy. However, as she walked her dog, there was this thing "sitting at my toes like an Easter egg."

Those were the words she used with CBS Sacramento, anyway.

It turned out to be a meteorite worth around $… Read more

Waste Management seems to be on a quest to see what else it can do with all that trash and recycling it collects.

The garbage collection giant signed an agreement with biotech start-up Genomatica to develop technology that would turn syngas into commercial chemical products, both companies announced last week.

Syngas, consisting mostly of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, is what gets produced when waste materials are broken down by exposure to high heat, pressure, and bacteria.

Though the particular chemicals in mind were not mentioned, it's easy to suss out what Genomatica might develop. The company already has developed … Read more

Ever get the urge to douse your annoying sibling/pal/boyfriend/girlfriend/neighbor/stalker with water (you know, to teach 'em a lesson)? A crafty 12-year-old inventor from Ava, N.Y., has just made public-revenge drenchings a lot easier to pull off than they used to be.

Lilly Bulawa, one of three winners of a green-design contest sponsored by the PBS competition series "Design Squad," created the "Sibling Soaker," a homemade dunk tank fashioned from common household items. After seeing a dunking booth in action at a fair, she decided that she wanted one for backyard parties.

"I made a target out of an old kitchen grease screen that pivots and swings an arm with a pin attached. This pin hits a water balloon hanging off a clothes pin," she said. "Throw, hit target, break water balloon, douse annoying sisters!!"

Now, as a winner of the 2010 Trash to Treasure competition, Bulawa has netted the sort of prize even the most seasoned inventor dreams of: she was flown to Boston to watch her innovation bring built by Continuum, a global design consultancy (watch the video below).

Trash to Treasure challenged kids ages 5 to 19 to recycle, reuse, and re-engineer everyday materials to create the next great green invention.

The device had to fit into one of the three categories: mobility, environmental protection, or play. Lilly's Sibling Soaker, which clearly falls into the latter category (if you're the one doing the dunking), might not seem so green on the surface, but think about how much water it saves, compared with the traditional dunking machines used to keep school principals humble.

Also concerned with saving water is Lilly's 14-year-old sister, MaryAnn Bulawa. No doubt fresh off being hit by a water balloon in the family backyard, she came up with another grand-prize-winning invention, the "Smarter Toilet," which lets users decide how much water they need to flush. … Read more

Babylonian Twins is a tough, old-school puzzle-platformer with great graphics and unusual, unforgiving gameplay.

The game is an enhanced revision of a Commodore Amiga game developed in Iraq in the early '90s that was never published due to economic sanctions and the collapse of Commodore. Given its history, Babylonian Twins feels like a time capsule from that era of gaming, in ways both good and bad: Nostalgic gamers will love the long and intricately designed levels, but tricky twitch controls (made trickier by the touch interface) and a lack of modern checkpoints to save your progress can make the game … Read more

Pirates Lite is a fun three-level preview of Pirates: Sea Battle 2, a nautical-combat arcade game in which you fight enemy ships with cannons and boarding parties.

The game has an easy-to-learn, two-thumb touch-screen interface: you move and steer your ship with a spinning steering wheel under your right thumb, while firing cannons with your left thumb. To fire on an enemy ship, you want to turn around to broadsides (so the side of your ship is facing your target), then press the cannon button to fire some or all of your guns. Status meters on each ship--including your own--show … Read more

Some people log onto Google Earth and spy men sitting on the toilet. Others find buried treasures of a different kind.

At least that is the claim of Nathan Smith, a Los Angeles musician. Mr. Smith was noodling around on Google Earth one day, randomly examining parts of the Aransas Pass in Texas. Suddenly, his eyes darted to a shoeprint-shaped outline near Barketine Creek.

His suspicions and, presumably, his vast knowledge of history, were sufficiently aroused for him to believe that what he had found was the wreckage of a Spanish barquentine (think large boat with three or more masts) … Read more

We've seen the robots that mow your lawn, save your life, hit on your girlfriend, make you an omelet, dispense Kleenex, even make abstract artwork--but where are the robots that help make you filthy rich? We found two robot contenders today that should at least pay for themselves over time.

First off, John Corney from Wiltshire, UK, has spent the past seven years perfecting a remote controlled metal detector. Inspired by robotic land-mine sweepers, John adapted a wonderfully selfless and humanitarian idea into something far more personally rewarding. Although he spent approximately $3,800 to develop and build … Read more