Best Apps for Taking Great Photos

Now that most smartphone users also have access to the wildly popular app Instagram, it seems like taking mundane photos is, quite literally, everyone's hobby. But what if you want photos that aren't mundane? What if you're looking to create photos that are actually good? Photosthat don't require filters and blurring and lens flares and whatnot? Here's a quick rundown of some iPhone apps we like that help our pictures look better.

Artist Creates Dirty-Car Art

Artist Scott Wade doesn't work on canvas--he works on cars. And he creates what he calls "dirty-car art." Settle down, it's not what you think. It's not pornographic or erotic, rather, it's art created using dirty car windows as the canvas. Wade lives along a dirt road that's a blend of limestone dust, gravel, and clay.

Music Festival Survival Guide

Festival time is here, which means spending a day or more in the sun rocking out to band after band, fighting crowds, waiting in Port-A-Potty lines, and trying not to suffer heat stroke. Whether you’re just going for the music or you’re hoping to experience some sort of postmodern bacchanal, being prepared will help you have the best time possible.

Woman Awarded for Proving Stripes Make You Look Fat

From the time they are young, women are told that stripes are a tricky beast when it comes to clothing. If you wear horizontal stripes, you'll look wider, and if you wear vertical stripes, you'll look thinner. Now, Val Watham has won an award for scientifically proving just that.

Backyard Games For Summer

Having fun at the backyard barbecue can mean more than just stuffing your face with animal flesh and seeing who gets too drunk to be able to drive home. Even if you don’t have a pool there are plenty of fun games to play in the comfort of your own backyard. Here are our five favorites.

A Brief History of the Super Soaker

Now that it's summer, it's not uncommon to walk down the street and see kids playing in sprinklers, splashing in kiddie pools, and having water-gun fights. And frankly, we best identify with the water-gun shooters, because let's face it: a fight-to-the-soaking (not death, of course) with the most powerful guns on the market is by far the most fun summer activity of the three.But they weren't always the carnage-bringers that they are now.

Car Talk Gets Musical

Answering a question that nobody asked, a theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts has brought "Car Talk", the NPR automotive chat show that is ending its run later this year, to the stage. Featuring voiceover cameos by Ray and Tom Magliozzi themselves, Car Talk: The Musical!!! began its run at the Central Square Theater on June 14 and will run through August 12.

Warped Tour Stirs Controversy

Rock festivals are a reality of the summer. Tons of bands come to town and the cities that host them see them as a boon to their economy. Lots of hotels, restaurants, bars, clubs, all do gangbuster business, and the city cleans up in permits and taxes. But the Irvine, California city council is not too happy about bringing the Warped Tour to their town. They fear the hard-rock/pop-rock festival will bring nothing but trouble.

Couple Does Bucket List, Ends Up Broke.

A man named Frank was told in May 2010 that he had cancer. He and his wife, Wilma, then took to their bucket lists, crossing things off one by one. Two years later, they're $80,000 in debt and are blaming it on the New Zealand health care system—the cancer diagnosis turned out not to carry any weight, and though healthy, the couple is now broke.

Apps We Like

When it comes to apps, it seems like there's a new one every five seconds...and let's be honest, there probably is. But when it comes to the ones that we like, that tends to stay a bit more static. Here are the apps that are most popular among us and the general public this week.

Road Tunes

"The heat is on," as Glenn Fry famously sang. "The heat is o-on." Fortunately (or sadly, depending on your taste), there’s nothing on the order of a Glenn Fry solo album on this week’s list of new releases, but there are some big releases from some big artists, and some cool stuff from some lesser-knowns.

Lady Gaga Launches Fragrance: Fame

Lady Gaga released a perfume this week. Earlier this year, she promised it'd smell like, of all things, "blood and semen," which is pretty disgusting. Today, she's changed her mind, and the new description says it smells like "the tears of a Belladonna," (among other things), whatever the hell that means. The fragrance also includes notes of "dripping honey" (which is probably not different from still honey) and apricot nectar, but all we can really wonder is who on earth buys these celebrity fragrances?

Woman Sues For $500 Billion over Towed Car

When Michelle R. Mathis discovered that her car had been impounded while she was in the hospital recovering from injuries suffered in an auto accident, she wasn't too happy. In fact, the Ohio woman was so upset that she sued the Columbus city council.

Mobile Music in Your Car

It's hard to believe that just a few short years ago, people were limited to hooking up their iPods through static-heavy iTrips to listen to music while driving. Thankfully, there are other options to get your favorite music from your mobile phone to your car's stereo that don't involve cursing and shuffling through station after station, looking for the one that's the least fuzzy-sounding.

Neil Young Journeys to the Past

Neil Young is no stranger to car culture. He has a passion for vintage automobiles, but he’s not stuck on a nostalgia trip—he’s also been one of the pioneers in the alternative fuel movement. So it’s no surprise that his new concert film, “Neil Young Journeys,” directed by Jonathan Demme, features Young on a road trip in a 1956 Crown Victoria.

Researchers Discover Healthiest Meal Ever

Food researchers investigated over 4,000 health claims made by various food manufacturers and supermarkets and have found what they say is the world's healthiest meal. The 4,000 claims were slimmed down to 222 claims that were actually true, and from those foods the researchers have drawn up a menu.

Cargo Hauling: You're Doing It Wrong

In a scene that reminded us of the beginning of The Simpsons Movie, an unidentified Tennessee man was stopped for improperly hauling a propane tank. A police officer in Bradley County said he could smell propane from behind the man's van, and when the fire and rescue unit was called in, they found the tank had a small leak that was being plugged by a golf tee.

Amazon Lets You Watch The Unwatchable

You may think that by now, nearly 20 years after the invention of the DVD, every movie and TV show ever made would be available to buy or rent, but you’d be sorely mistaken. There are still thousands of films and countless TV shows that until now never saw the laser light of a DVD player, and probably never would have, were it not for Amazon’s “Never Before on DVD” store.

FDA Delays Sunscreen Label Scrutiny

With the summer weather in full swing and sunburns lurking around every corner, bottles of sunscreen and sunblock are selling like hotcakes. There's one problem, though: the labels on most brands' products are vague and don't explain well enough what the consumer is actually getting. And what's worse is the FDA was supposed to enforce regulations for sunscreen bottle labels starting this month, but now, those regulations won't go into effect until December.

Arizona Gets New Wind Tower

When you think of wind power, you usually picture quaint Dutch windmills or those modern wind turbines that resemble airplane propellers, but a new way of harnessing energy from wind has been created, and it’s just been approved for use in Arizona.