Does this 1995 video of a Mike Tyson fight show a time traveler with a cameraphone? The simple answer is no. And the complex answer is also no. But it’s a perfect example of how the past can play tricks on us.
Kapustin Yar (known today as Znamensk) is one of the Soviet Union’s first rocket launch and missile development sites. The test ground was established on May 13, 1946, and to mark its 70th anniversary Russia’s Defense Ministry has declassified revealing photographs of the site that offer a peak inside the top secret…
When I was a kid I loved Disney Dollars. For those unfamiliar, they’re Disney’s paper notes that look like real money and feature cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse and Dumbo on the front. They’re only good at Disney Parks and stores, making them essentially like gift certificates. But Disney will stop printing…
Today, Ayn Rand is perhaps best known as your virgin cousin’s favorite author to fawn over during Thanksgiving dinner. But back in the 1940s, Rand was better known for helping root out Communists in Hollywood. She testified to Congress and even wrote an entire pamphlet about how to make their movies as pro-America as…
Back in March, I filed a Freedom of Information request with the FBI asking if the agency had ever wiretapped an Amazon Echo. This week I got a response: “We can neither confirm nor deny...”
Don’t think Republicans can be punk rock? Well, in 1987, they staged one of the most punk rock protests that Capitol Hill has ever seen. They smashed a boombox to pieces with some sledgehammers. The part that was slightly less punk rock? They smashed it because they were mad at Toshiba for making electronics sold in…
The First World War began just over a century ago, and in 2017, the United States will begin to commemorate its entry into the conflict. These three maps show the beginning of the end of the war in incredible and beautiful detail.
In 1894 the Wright Brothers’ first flight was still nearly a decade away. But people were obsessed with figuring out how to use powered flight for any number of applications. The May 5, 1894 issue of Scientific American featured one such idea—an aero-train that could zip across the country at 150 miles per hour.
I’ve never been one for JFK assassination conspiracy theories. But I do love studying what movies the presidents watched. So while compiling the list of films that President Kennedy viewed while in the White House I was surprised to stumble on what seems like fuel for a new conspiracy theory. How did President Kennedy…
President George H. W. Bush hosted a star-studded screening of The Hunt for Red October at the White House on February 19, 1990. The guests included everyone from Tom Clancy and James Earl Jones to the CEO of Paramount and Colin Powell. Robert Gates was there, as was the director of the CIA, and men from the highest…
Hard to believe that it’s almost Monday. How time flies. If you’ve got a case of the Mondays, Office Space style, please RT this tweet from four years ago.
This weekend Johnny Depp and his wife Amber Heard posted a bizarre apology video to Australia for not declaring their dogs when they brought them into the country. They were in violation of biosecurity laws and faced prison time. But this isn’t the first time that the land down under has been hostile to American…
On October 12th, 1983, Bill Landreth called his friend Chris in Detroit to chat. Chris frantically explained that the FBI had raided his house. “Don’t call me anymore,” Chris said in what would be a very short conversation. Bill didn’t know exactly what was happening, but he did know this: If the FBI had come for…
What if the CIA created a reality show? That’s the premise of the upcoming movie For All Eyes Always. And it’s a ridiculous fucking premise. But it’s just ridiculous enough to be plausible in some perverted near-future that turns every subject imaginable into entertainment.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has a long and colorful history in rocketry and space exploration, from early missiles and rockets, to landing on the moon and remotely navigating rovers on Mars. Behind all the prominent men who spearheaded the programs was a group of unsung women.
The 21st century can be so confusing. But don’t worry, because we’re here to help. Paleofuture’s very own Robot From The Future is here to answer your questions in our new advice column.
Rumors are swirling that Alphabet, the parent company formerly known as Google, wants to build its own techno-utopian town. But the size and feasibility of a town “built from the internet up” remains in question.
Good news for the basements and attics of the world: bulky old cathode ray TVs are no longer useless! And turning them into a retro streaming device is easier than it looks.
Sometimes I’m more surprised by who doesn’t have an FBI file than who does. Yesterday I got a letter from the FBI in response to my Freedom of Information Act request for any records they might have on Ray Tomlinson, one of the inventors of email. They insist that he doesn’t have a file.
Cuban sculptor Alexis Leiva Machado, better known as Kcho, has helped Google open a small “technology center” in Havana that offers free internet via Chromebooks, complete with those goofy cardboard VR headsets. And it’s a State Department dream.
