Silk Road Kingpin Apparently Hid a Stash of $80 Million in Bitcoin

Ross Ulbricht, the recently arrested mastermind behind Silk Road, appeared in court today where his lawyer begged for more time before the detention hearing. The judge said he didn't "know what you're going to accomplish in the next several days." Maybe move some of his massive stash of hidden Bitcoin?

Valve's Top Steam Machine Prototypes Have Absurd Specs

Here are the specs for the prototype Steam Box units that Valve will be sending out. Rather than just sending a single design to the lucky beta testers, they'll be sending out a variety of units. And holy crap, the top-of-the-line will be spec'd to high heaven.

Tour the Art Train That Traveled from New York to Oakland

Last week a train twinkling with LED lights chugged into Oakland's 16th Street Station, its final destination on a 3,000 mile, ten-city whistle stop art happening orchestrated by Doug Aitken called Station to Station.

How a Total Accident Saved the French Wine Industry

Amy Harmon's excellent, recent article in the New York Times describes how the Florida orange juice industry may soon be wiped-out because of a new bacterial disease spread by an introduced insect. It looks like there could be a technology-fix for the problem using genetic engineering. The question is whether the growers will get to apply that solution.

The iPhone's First Demo Was Buggy as Hell

Saturday is the second anniversary of Steve Jobs's death, and a lot of remembrances are making their way around the web. One of the most revealing comes from the New York Times Magazine who just published a sprawling report on the original iPhone. Long story short, that thing was a mess.

A Desk Toy For Fidgety Types That Appears To Bend Time and Space

Part sculpture, part toy, part perfect time waster, the OSM—or Object for Spatial Manipulation—is like a kaleidoscope brought into the 3D world that you can manipulate and morph without having to look through a faux telescope.

This Week in Time Capsules: How Do You Put a Website in a Capsule?

This week we have a brand new time capsule in the U.K. with the Star Wars movies, a 1960 capsule in Michigan that was thought to be lost for good, and a town in Oregon that included a website print-out in their latest low-tech time travel box.