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New obesity drug cuts off the blood to your fat supply

News about anti-obesity drugs is pretty common, but many of them never make it past the testing stage in rodents. Now, a new fat-fighting drug has passed the primate test: it’s proven to be successful with obese rhesus monkeys. It just might be appropriate for us, too. Most obesity drugs either ramp up metabolisms to…

Wikileaks Has Spawned Books, a Film… And Now an Opera?

Just when you thought there was enough drama surrounding Julian Assange here comes some more. Because those crazy Australians are planning a freaking Wikileaks opera to celebrate their home-grown hacker-cum-sexual deviant. The idea was dreamt up by Lyndon Terracini of Opera Australia six months ago. But over the last month – with Assange’s approval –…

The long-awaited Neuromancer is courting a major star… but for which role?

Aaron Eckhart’s post-apocalyptic Frankenstein movie chooses a location. Director Bill Condon says something shocking about Breaking Dawn’s special effects. Army reservists reveal secrets of being an Avengers extra. Plus showrunner Jeff Pinkner explains why Peter had to disappear on Fringe! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Immortals. The Dark Knight Rises Here’s a…

Necrophile RIM Promises to Keep Flash Alive on PlayBook for Some Reason

RIM, with a finger in each ear and a third, cybernetic arm poking out its own eyeballs, has decided to license Flash from Adobe and keep it alive for PlayBook, AllThingsD reports. Nothing says the future like supporting dead technology! https://gizmodo.com/report-adobe-is-finally-pulling-the-plug-on-mobile-fla-5857784 With the sentencing to death of mobile Flash, Adobe admitted it didn’t deserve existence.…

Whoa: Amazon’s $79 Kindle Costs $84 to Make

That jaw-dropping $79 price point on Amazon’s new Kindle just got a little nuttier: It turns out the thing costs a $84.25 to manufacture, according to an exclusive report to Mainstreet by serial gear teardowner iSuppli. The $79 Kindle is the “special offers” version of Amazon’s ereader, which means it features localized advertisements on its…

French Built “Replica Paris” to Foil German Bombers in WWI

French newspaper Le Figaro has unearthed an incredible development from the first world war, revealing that French authorities built a life-size replica of Paris to the north of the city to trick German bombers. According to Le Figaro, this pretend Paris featured streets with electric lighting and dummy buildings, a recreation of the famous Gare…

ARM Planning OCTO-CORE Mobile Graphics Processor for 2013

Chip company ARM has announced its latest processor evolution, in the form of its Mali-T658 GPU. ARM says this’ll provide “desktop-class performance” with “ten times” the power of the 400 series found in the Galaxy S II. The Mali-T658 offers PC and console gaming image enhancement features like 4x Full Scene Anti-Aliasing, plus it can…

The (British) Voice of Siri Asked to Keep Quiet by Apple

The British voiceover artist who provided the male voice for Siri only discovered he had been included in the iPhone 4S after seeing it demonstrated on TV — and was then asked not to talk about it by Apple’s PR people. Jon Briggs is the man in question. He was completely unaware of his involvement…

Philips Beehive Concept Has Urban Farmers Abuzz

Urban beekeeping is reemerging as a popular pastime for city-dwellers but a stack of conventional hive boxes won’t generally fit in a third-story apartment. Philips’ new urban beehive concept, however, aims to bring a colony to every balcony in your town. The hive consists of a smart-looking central chamber pre-loaded with honeycomb frames. Bees enter…

XXIT Is 11 Minutes of Awesome from Stargate Studios

I was never much of a Stargate SG-1 fan—just wasn’t the same without Kurt Russell—but if the TV series is as good as this short film (by a completely unrelated, yet similarly-named company), I’m going to need to clear some space on my Instant Queue. XXIT is the story of a time-travelling replicant who travels…

Can 3D Printers Make Libraries Useful Again?

As the printed word gives way to digital distribution, libraries must change in both form and function in order to remain relevant in the Internet age. One New York book repository has taken the lead in this effort by installing the country’s first “maker’s space” within a public library. The effort is being spearheaded by…

How To Enable iOS 5’s Hidden Auto-Correct Feature

Turns out iOS 5 is hiding Easter Eggs aplenty. Besides the camera’s secret panorama mode, an Android-style auto-correct bar has been uncovered as well. https://gizmodo.com/there-is-a-secret-panorama-mode-hidden-in-the-iphones-c-5857318 Here’s how to enable the feature in just six steps per 9 to 5 Mac: 1. Download iBackupBot 2. Backup your iPhone/iPod in iTunes 3. Open iBackupBot and find the…

World’s Priciest Picture Is as Bland as It Is Expensive

Andreas Gursky is well-known for his stunning full-color landscapes, though this one seems to only include green and grey. And yet it just became the world’s most expensive photograph, fetching a whopping $4.3 million. This is Andreas Gursky’s Rhein II, an 81- x 140-inch print of the famous German river. It went on sale at…

Daily Desired: A Recreated Eames Fiberglass Chair

Originally designed as inexpensive furniture after WWII, Eames Pressed Fiberglass Chairs are still made today—only now they’re made of eco-friendly polypropylene. Boo. Then the original was recreated from scratch. Think of it as the impossible project for classic furniture. You could buy an “Eames Molded Plastic Chair” from Herman Miller for $250 a pop, or…

Suck on These Single-Serving Coffee Sacks

I’ve never been one much for chewing tobacco—couldn’t ever quite get the hang of spitting without drooling all over myself. These coffee sacks provide a similar kick without water or, you know, the whole mouth-cancer issue. The Grinds Coffee Pouch works just like bagged chaw does, just cram a pack into your lip and leave…

If You’re Buying a New Camera, You Must Use This Website

Buying a new gadget is hard. We try to help as much as we can! But there are little things you need to know, like the exact size of a camera compared to another camera, before you buy. CameraSize does exactly that. It’s so smart I wish I invented it. You can see the size…

Can You Imagine This 10-Story-High Lightning Machine That Covers An Entire Football Field?

Insane. There’s no other adjective that can describe this mad project. A mad project that is perfectly doable: two 10-story Tesla Coil towers separated by 260 feet. They will be capable of unleashing the energy of natural lightnings. The Lightning Foundry is a project to re-create super-long discharge effects normally found only in lightning. Two…

Immortals Cast Interviews

Ice Snitches and Cocktails Alike with These Frozen Bullets

Long known in assassin circles as a means of offing targets without leaving evidence, ice bullets now serve a less-than-lethal function—cooling your drinks. The Bullet Ice Cube Tray’s banana clip-shape holds ten icy rounds. It supposedly fills like a normal ice cube tray, though looks like it uses a separating two-part design. Be warned though,…

Sense of Wonder in a Can: The Amazing Beauty of Spraypainted Science Fiction Art

Is there anything more wondrous than art showing interstellar phenomena and dolphins — together? It’s like a whole universe of awesome, all in one place. Brandon McConnell’s spray-painted art is full of pyramids, galaxies, sunsets, true love and dirt bikes. Including some paintings he put together in under a minute! Check out some of his…