Archive for the 'Off Topic' Category
Apple Macbook Neo
March 5th, 2026Update: Apple 2026 MacBook Neo 13-inch Laptop (Affiliate link) — I hear from people who are experiencing a lot of difficulties with Windows 11. Here’s a brief post about a couple of alternatives. For common tasks like web browsing, email, word processing and watching videos, ZorinOS is almost certainly a better choice than Windows 11. […]
Something Was Making Stone Tools In China 600,000 Years Before Homo Erectus Showed Up
February 22nd, 2026Via: StudyFinds: Stone tools discovered in China date back as far as 2.4 million years. The oldest confirmed human fossils from the same region? Only 1.77 million years old. That gap, now significantly narrowed by new research, leaves one question stubbornly unanswered: who, or what, was already there?
Korg Phase8 Acoustic Synthesizer
January 23rd, 2026There are probably fewer than five people who read Cryptogon who will be interested in the Korg Phase8, but I want to make sure they know about it. 🙂 Via: loopop: Related: Korg Phase8 Acoustic Synthesizer
Scientists Mimicking the Big Bang Accidentally Turn Lead Into Gold
January 22nd, 2026Via: Independent: While smashing lead atoms into each other at extremely high speeds in an effort to mimic the state of the universe just after the Big Bang, physicists working on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland incidentally produced small amounts of gold. Extremely small amounts, in fact: a total of […]
Monday Morning in Los Angeles…
January 19th, 2026I sometimes have Conner playing in the background as I read through headlines… Gunfire at Los Angeles street takeover, Monday morning. pic.twitter.com/gYEMVDVYNa — cryptogon (@cryptogon) January 19, 2026 Just a little slice of life in Los Angeles that won’t be reported anywhere.
Voyager 1 Is About One Light-Day from Earth
November 26th, 2025Via: Science Clock: After nearly 50 years in space, NASA’s Voyager 1 is about to hit a historic milestone. By November 15, 2026, it will be 16.1 billion miles (25.9 billion km) away, meaning a radio signal will take a full 24 hours—a full light-day—to reach it. For context, a light-year is the distance light […]
Moss Survives 9 Months in Space Vacuum
November 22nd, 2025Via: American Association for the Advancement of Science: Mosses thrive in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sands of Death Valley, the Antarctic tundra to the lava fields of active volcanoes. Inspired by moss’s resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes—reproductive structures that encase spores—to the most extreme environment […]
1800s Style Gold Mining in 2025
August 30th, 2025Via: Ghost Town Living:
CCTV Footage Captures the First-Ever Video of an Earthquake Fault in Motion
July 26th, 2025Via: Smithsonian Magazine: On March 28, a devastating magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Myanmar. By chance, one camera caught a rare video, capturing the moment when the ground cracked and shifted in opposite directions. CCTV footage along Myanmar’s Sagaing Fault—about 74.5 miles south of the earthquake’s hypocenter—shows the fault as it cracks and slides. This marks […]
Marion Howard: The Strange Tale of The Beekeeper of McElvoy Canyon
July 13th, 2025Via: Ghost Town Living:
