California

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China’s Bullet Trains Recalled Over Safety Concerns

4:00PM August 12, 2011 | Kelly Hodgkins

China’s second largest bullet train maker has recalled fifty-four trains over safety concerns. The government is also suspending future expansion of the high-speed railway while it examines the safety of existing lines. More »

Cameras

Beautiful Tilt Shift Video: A Day In California

9:30AM August 7, 2011 | Kwame Opam

Confession: I’m an East Coast American: I’ve never been to California. It’s a fact I regret the older I get. This video does not help. Created by Ryan Killackey, each scene is comprised of hundreds of stills taken by he and his wife. More »

Science

California May Be Riddled With Poorly Mapped Underground Fuel Pipelines

9:00AM July 28, 2011 | Kelly Hodgkins

Since 1998, fuel pipeline owners in California were required by law to give local officials detailed maps of their underground pipe network. Problem is, many companies submitted inaccurate maps early on and haven’t updated them. More »

News

Helicopter Dumps Giant Water Load On Reporter

9:40AM July 13, 2011 | Sam Biddle

Suzi Theodory was ready to cover an LA County wildfire for Time Warner News. She even had her anti-smoke sunglasses on! But what she wasn’t prepared for was to be doused with hundreds of litres of water from above. More »

Science

California Deploys Wasp Army To Counter Apple Moth Threat

1:40AM July 12, 2011 | Sam Biddle

In the unceasing war between man and nature, the ranks of homo sapiens is about to use a dirty trick – using the natural world against itself. Californian agricultural officials are sending in wasps as instinctive mercenaries. More »

Science

The World’s Most Powerful Laser Will Create Tiny Stars On Earth

1:30AM July 8, 2011 | Andrew Tarantola

While CERN researchers are busy potentially obliterating the Earth by creating a black hole in France, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Lab have their own Doomsday machine: a 10-story laser that may well create a miniature star over Northern California. More »

Geek Out

Monstrous Metropolis II Cityscape Treats Matchbox Cars To A True Infinite Loop

6:00AM June 20, 2011 | Jack Loftus

Four years of work. Exactly 1,100 toy cars. Eighteen lanes of one-way traffic. One mega-mini-city. Meet Metropolis II, the Hot Wheels/Matchbox car utopia created by California artist Chris Burden, lead engineer Zak Cook and ten assistants. [MAKE]

News

Fukushima 90210

3:40AM May 18, 2011 | Mat Honan

Hey Californians, you are all going to die. Not in some abstract, eventually, kind of way. But horribly. In a radioactive fire. Probably. More »

Geek Out

The Perfect Skateboard For Cruising The Golden State

4:00AM April 17, 2011 | Casey Chan

Skateboarding is an integral part of California culture, so why not make California an integral part of skateboarding? This skate deck, from Evilgoods, does just that—it’s actually shaped like California. More »

Geek Out

California Bureaucrats Are Throwing A Bubble Rave For At-Risk Salmon

11:20AM February 25, 2011 | Adrian Covert

In California, some impressionable, young Chinook Salmon in the Sacramento river are heading down the wrong path. A path leading towards death and destruction. A path otherwise known as the San Francisco Bay. To get these disenfranchised fish on the right track, the Department of Water Resources are installing an underwater “bubble barrier,” complete with loud acoustic noises and a strobe lights. That shit sounds like a rave to me. More »