Retro

False big toes of the ancients?

Does the curse of the mummy begin with bunions?

Jacky Finch, a researcher at the University of Manchester's KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, is testing to see whether two large wooden toes from the era of the Pharaohs were ornamental or actual medical devices.

If the wooden toes turn out to be prosthetics, this will mean that the art of making fake body parts for practical is centuries older than believed. The oldest prosthesis yet discovered is an artificial leg dating from 300 B.C. The toes are from between 1,000 B.C. and 600 B.C.

One … Read more

Make your own LED fridge magnets

Junior's artwork looks great on the fridge, but it would look even better next to a full-on light show.

If you've ever wanted to turn your fridge into a big ol' Lite Brite, you're in luck. Thanks to this tutorial on the excellent and addictive Instructables site, it's easier than ever.

Using some surface-mount resistors, conductive nickel paint, LEDs, a 4.5 volt power supply, and some other parts, you can recreate the Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED hoax or whatever else you want. In marquee style. On your fridge.

The entire tutorial is available on … Read more

If the Beach Boys had an MP3 radio

Creating a retro music system is tricky business. So often companies either go too far or simply reproduce the same ugly designs sported by the originals.

But Kaito--not to be confused with the band--seems to have struck a rare balance with its radio MP3 recorder. When the removable MP3 player is docked snugly in place, the system looks like a 1960s-style transistor radio. It does far more than relay airwave signals, however, with the ability to record AM-FM or shortwave broadcasts in digital formats not unlike the Swedish-made "Popcatcher" digital radio and recorder we saw earlier this … Read more

Digital radio goes retro for happier days

We've got to hand it to Bush. (No, not that Bush, the one that makes consumer electronics.) There are tons of companies out there that are trying to recapture mid-century chic, but the U.K. company has done the job exceptionally well, which is a good thing because the radio is such an important icon for that generation.

Its latest creation may be the ultimate combination of old and new in the genre. The unfortunately named TR04DABBLK may look like something from Happy Days at first glance with its piano-black finish, according to GeekAlerts, but closer inspection will find … Read more

Long live the series of tubes

Maybe Ted Stevens was onto something--tubes are alive and well, Internet or not. How else can we explain the popularity of tubed gadgets such as the "Nano Head"? And they're not restricted to Lilliputian dimensions either.

The latest comes from China-based Shanling in the form of the "MC-30 Music Center," which Audio Junkies describes as "hi-fi CD player, tuner, iPod dock and tube power amplifier all in one." The price is $995, but that's a bargain compared with Shanling's $3,000 CD player. Both are available at various sites on the … Read more

HP calculator goes back to the future

Believe it or not, there are some retro gadgets that are even too old for us. So we must seize on them while we can, because soon the only machines that will fall into this category will be from the Industrial Revolution.

Enter the HP 35s calculator, a new version of the original HP-35 (note the hyphen) released in 1972, which is being trotted out from the rest home for its 35th birthday. The seminal gadget has been updated to include "ample memory for keystroke programming, equation solving and more than 800 storage registers; 100 built-in functions; and a … Read more

Retro-cool Fiat 500

Fiat's launch of its new 500 model will make fans of Italy in the 1950s, those who dream of Sophia Loren riding a Vespa, as happy as the new Mini made Anglophiles. Fiat combined the new trend toward city cars and retro design to come up with this new version of its iconic car. The original Fiat 500 was launched on July 4, 1957, and the new 500 was launched exactly 50 years later. Fiat takes a page from Mini by offering the 500 with all sorts of cosmetic accessories, including checker patterns for the roof.

Fiat used the … Read more

'Transformers' provoke unexpected variety of rapture

The new Transformers movie has inspired a surprising degree of lyricism and detailed cinematic analysis for what is, in most respects, a kids' movie about giant robots. Blogospheric commentators used the language of formal cinematic criticism or just let fly with off-the-chain gushing normally seen in 12-year-old boys. In particular, scroll down for the entry from a self-styled "film theologian" who offers his exegesis on parallels between the movie and the scriptural Book of Kings.

Everyone seems to agree that the CGI sets a new record in coolness, the action sequences are numerous and fast-moving, and the new … Read more

Autobots, transform and roll out!

It's a big day for our favorite fictional robot friends--opening day for the Transformers movie. And that means a whole bunch of wicked toys for sale.

Now, my older brother had a pretty rad collection of Transformers playthings, but some of the new generation of toys are pretty drool-worthy as well.

Here are my top five picks for Transformers toys. They're just as awesome as the 1986 movie version's soundtrack (Thank you, Stan Bush.):

Transformers movie helmet: Now I don't know if you're into role playing, but if Transformers are your fantasy, you're … Read more

Iconic computer innards as art

This summer, the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif., is featuring an exhibit of intimate photographs of computers from its collection that were recently compiled for a book called Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers.

The book, written by John Alderman and featuring the photography of Mark Richards, chronicles 35 of the most significant computers. The visual history and informative breakdown of the computer reminds us not just how far, but how fast, humans have evolved the computer since the punch card machine.

Click the image of the 1976 Apple I for some highlights from the exhibit … Read more