Internet killed the Video Store: An Abandoned Industry

Blockbuster in New Orleans, Louisiana (Image via Alex Gaidouk) I remember my trips to the local Blockbuster store on Saturday nights as a kid, trying to convince my babysitter that Mum had given me her express permission to see films PG-13 like The Bodyguard and Pretty Woman. It’s been hard not to notice the disappearance…

Here’s What a Futurist World’s Fair Looked like Behind the Iron Curtain

The World’s Fairs used to capture the public’s imagination. From the millions who attended such iconic Fairs as the ones held in New York in 1939 and 1964, to the nostalgia they’re viewed with today, the World’s Fairs were places where people could catch glimpses of a futuristic better world; seeing such technological marvels as…

America’s Boneyards: Where Airplanes go to Die

Before they are put to rest, airplanes undergo funeral-esque rituals known as ‘pickling’. Their engines are removed, the windows covered and the fluids drained. But of course these giants are too big to bury. In the parched deserts, where a dry climate is an old machine’s best ally, aircrafts young and old lie nose to…

20 Questions with the Real Woman Who Voiced Siri

Today, we meet Messy Nessy’s most unusual muse du jour: Susan Bennett, AKA the real Siri. In the early 2000s she did a hefty chunk of voice work for an intermediate company – unbeknownst that, years later, it would be used to create the personality of the iPhone assistant technology that dotes on roughly 500…

The Vault

Things the Soviets Made

Welcome comrade, to a special edition of Soviet “Show & Tell”, where we take a look back at the wackiest inventions and products that came out of the USSR. From the things they made to the things they never quite got around to doing, you can’t deny the Soviets certainly had ambition… This Epic Snow…

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The Vending Machine Supermarket, 1948

Welcome to the the first fully automated grocery store in the United States; a most futuristic shopping experience that the world just wasn’t ready for… We’re in Memphis Tennessee, 1948, at the Keedoozle store, a vending machine concept developed by the man behind Piggly Wiggly, Clarence Saunders, who had patented the concept of the “Self-Serving Store” in 1917.…

Burning iPhones and Designer Bags on China’s Day of the Dead

It’s common belief in China that people still need money and material goods in the after-life and that ghosts can go hungry or homeless unless the living can give them a helping hand. The Qingming Festival or ‘Tomb Sweeping Day’ comes but once a year, and when it does, it calls for some serious damage to be…

Human Doll Cloning Is So Hot right Now in Japan

Here is a 3D printed doll, cloned from a real human’s head, that you can never unsee. She has a few friends that may or may not haunt you in your dreams later on… The cloning service is popular among some Japanese women looking to preserve that special moment in life such as their wedding day,…

Steve Jobs’ Nerdy Dating Show with Bill Gates

A large part of Steve Jobs’ genius was the way in which he made new technologies not only exciting, but relatable. “Apple and Jobs fundamentally changed advertising,” said former Jobs employee, Bill Cleary, to Forbes. Watching Jobs in action at one of his many, legendary keynote (or “Stevenote,” as they were soon dubbed) speeches was like…

A Brief Compendium of When Buttons Ruled the Earth

I think we can all agree that buttons are extremely satisfying to push. But with our touchscreen smartphones, tablets and all the interactive technology we use today, it seems the only buttons we’re pressing lately are those of our nearest and dearest. And I’m not just talking about those sad little keys on your laptop keyboard– I’m talking…