Matt Gibbons

Brandon Stanton has been internet famous since 2010 for his wildly popular street portrait and interview series, Humans of New York.

Indoor lettuce-growing is in vogue. And it’s being taken over by robots.

It sounds like the plot of an Indiana Jones movie: A small team of US and New Zealand researchers hit the geoscience jackpot when they found large gold and silver deposits in six reservoirs underneath a group of volcanoes on New Zealand.

If you hanker for the power trip that comes with owning your own Humvee, the time is probably nigh. The US Army has picked a replacement for the aging military vehicle, and that could mean that the army will be dumping its outdated Humvees into the used car market or the junkyard.

At the end of World War II, a Polish legend started circulating about a lost Nazis train laden with treasure. Though there isn’t much evidence to support the existence of such a train, the rumor is told enough that adventurers regularly take up the golden-train goose chase, according to the Telegraph.

As a society, we may be some ways from the Back to the Future Part II-style hoverboard technology that we were promised. But at least one man is standing up for our right to hover—even when going through customs at the airport.

Londoners can already go “wild swimming“ in a pool with toads and plants. Soon, brave urbanites will be able to swim through the sky, from one tower block to another.

The famed command ”beam me up” could become more than just a geeky reference to Star Trek. Canadian space and defense company Thoth Technology is attempting to make reaching the stratosphere as simple as riding an elevator up a tower about 23 times taller than the world’s tallest building.

For lovers of the robotic vacuum, the lawn-mower equivalent is finally on its way in the US.

Modeling social media maven and astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has been wooing space enthusiasts with tweets of his cosmic adventures. Kelly’s latest is a time-lapse of the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights, taken just before sunrise from the International Space Station. He tweeted the video on Aug. 15, the 141st day of his #yearinspace mission.

Japan has a drinking problem. So prevalent is the act of tippling in public that 60% of passengers hit (link in Japanese) on train platforms in the year beginning in April 2013 were drunk (via the Wall Street Journal).

Remember the name Nicole Barr. The 12-year-old girl scored a 162 on the Mensa Genius test—the highest reportable score—sending the British media into a frenzy last week. Nicole’s score, which is a measure of IQ, puts her in league with some of the greatest minds in history. Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking are estimated to have IQs around 160.

Kickstarter has birthed yet another nifty gizmo that treads the line between intriguing and totally unnecessary.

The latest in touch-screen technology involves the use of your own skin.

Dust off your lawn chairs. The most visually stunning meteor shower of the year is about to reach peak activity over the next 2 to 3 days. According to NASA, during peak hours that vary by region, viewers will be able to see up to 100 meteors an hour zooming overhead at 37 miles (about 60 km) per second. In April, NASA said on its Asteroid Watch page that “[i]f you see one meteor shower this year, make it August’s Perseids or December’s Geminids.”

The English Premier League starts again today—and soccer fans can express their love for their team on Twitter, which is now offering emoji for all teams. Using the emjoi is as simple as hashtagging an abbreviation for your favorite team.

This post has been corrected.

In case your summer travels this year haven’t included scuba diving with whales or gazing across a star-studded desert sky, National Geographic is here to help. Its 2015 traveler photo contest is a breathtaking escape from the  grind of work and household chores. This year’s competition attracted 18,000 submissions and awarded prizes to 10 photographers in the following categories: travel portraits, outdoor scenes, sense of place, and spontaneous moments.

The favorite nutritional shake for time-crunched techies, Soylent, is getting even easier to drink.

Gas station bathrooms are known for being the restroom of last resort for weary travelers. Notorious for their stench, lack of soap, toilet paper, and working toilets, most of us would rather wait for the nearest porta-potty.

Today, people the world over are learning the origins of the expression ”once in a blue moon.”

In 1989, Back to the Future II dreamed of a 2015 in which teens everywhere would use hoverboards to get around. Strangely enough, 2015 has turned out to be the year when actual hoverboards are making their real-life debut.

Grandstanding is a tried and true political tactic on the US Senate floor—usually involving stale jokes made by stiff politicians who want to appear relatable. But as the pace of pop culture has accelerated, so too have politicians’ desperate attempts to keep their humor current. Case in point: On July 30, Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse took a shot at the Republican plan for climate change (or the lack thereof) by flashing the ¯_(ツ)_/¯ emoji in one of his floor charts.

Watching a gaggle of balloons shaped like french chateaus, chubby cartoon characters, and slender wine bottles taking flight simultaneously is a rare spectacle. But that’s about what happens every other year at the Lorraine Mondial festival in Chambley-Bussières, France. This year, on July 26, 433 balloons sailed into the air, breaking the world record for the most balloons to take flight at once from the same area. (The biennial event broke the record in 2013, too, with 391 balloons.)