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Subpoenaed Clinton Staffer Will Plead the Fifth Over Email Scandal Questions

The FBI is investigatingwhether Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email compromised national security. And now the staffer who set it up is planning to stay silentduring questioning to avoid incriminating himself. Bryan Pagliano, the Clinton IT staffer who set up the private email server for Clinton in her Chappaqua home, first attempted to fend…

What Happened When I Set Out To Celebrate Science Fiction From Around the World

It’s hard to put my finger on the exact moment the idea for the Apex Book of World SF series first crystallised, but the seeds for it were sown long before. I grew up on a kibbutz in Israel, and even as a child I was drawn to fantastical works, many translated from Europe: not…

These cards look like they’re floating on their own and destroying gravity

Zach Mueller has mastered the art of cardistry and in doing so, probably destroyed the laws of gravity. The Fontaine cards he’s using seem to have a mind of their own with special rules that don’t apply to other objects on this planet. It’s not so much that his hands are controlling the card but…

Mr. Robot Season Finale: This Is TV’s First Great Cyberpunk Show

In a previous Mr. Robot recap, I predicted Elliot Alderson will join Don Draper and Walter White as one of the iconic male antiheroes of 21st century TV. After last night’s season one finale, I think Elliot is also on track to becoming the definitive hacker in pop culture history. SPOILERS AHEAD. Why make such…

Wacom’s New Digitizing Notebook Could Bring Me Back to Pen and Paper

I love writing stuff down. Well, I love the idea of writing stuff down. Often I abandon the actual task because keeping track and archiving written notes is a huge pain in the ass. Wacom has a new toy called Bamboo Spark that digitizes your handwritten notes without you having to think about it…much. The…

This Professor Can Teach Anyone Calculus Using These Simple, Beautiful Animations

Calculus: A word that triggers involuntary fear spasms in the best of us. But the days of slogging through tedious textbook derivatives are over, if you want them to be. For the past few years, people across the world have studied calculus for free online, by exploring a set of gorgeous, dynamic animations. “My goal…

Ricoh’s Theta S 360-Degree Camera Gets an Image Quality Upgrade

A few years ago, Ricoh launched its odd little 360 camera, the Theta. Since then we’ve seen countless others. But how many of them allow you to dump your images and footage on Google Maps? The new Rioch Theta S looks basically the same as the last model but it’s got some improved specs. The…

The 10 Most Unfilmable Books (That Absolutely Must Be Made Into Films)

One of the best parts of science fiction and fantasy books is that they let our minds go to places where reality can’t follow. Recently creators havetaken an interestin visually showing us these impossible places, and we love it. Here are 10 books that we think can’t be put on film, but we’re hoping that…

Use Dropbox to Keep a Shared List of Links or Bookmarks

Dropbox is one of those services that’s always getting a minor upgrade or two in the background without anyone really noticing. One of the newest features added to the web interface is the ability to drag-and-drop links into a Dropbox folder for safe keeping—the feature’s rather rudimentary right now, but it’s a useful way of…

Video: The scientific art of sound when making a guitar

The Art of Sound is a short documentary by Rodgers Townsend that reveals a bit of the genius of Tom Bills and the painstaking precision that goes into his making of guitars. Equal parts science and art, every decision of every carving of every shape of every guitar is motivated by making the instrument sound…

Google May Hold a Nexus Event on September 29

When a company announces a new phone, it generally comes with a tech event. It’s true of Apple, Samsung, LG, and every other smartphone maker out there—except for Google. The Nexus phones usually just come out quietly with a press release and availability in the Google Store. That might be changing this year. Technology is…

Before we invented the tough, tearable plastic we use for condom wrappers, condoms came in tins of three. And as this 2006 post on Cardhouse shows, those tins were a canvas for some pretty amusing advertising. Like the Three Cadets “standing at attention”, or Dr. Robinson’s prescription pad (oh, these are just for my medical…

Key and Peele‘s Spoof of Neil deGrasse Tyson Was Astronomically Brilliant

Tonight’s episode of Key & Peele was pretty geeky overall—there was a long sequence about Game of Thrones. But the penultimate Key & Peele also included a fricken brilliant running gag about Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos. Check out the first of the three segments above—there were two others, in which Tyson also uses his wacky…

Let’s Wildly Speculate That Cartoon Network Is Making a New Justice League Series

A Reddit user took the above photo at what appears to be a Warner Bros. Animation office of some kind. As you can see, the posters include current Cartoon Network series like Teen Titans Go, but also recently announced upcoming series such as Bunnicula and Be Cool Scooby-Doo. Then there’s a few that haven’t been…

Her Screams for Help Were Ignored, But Her Murder Inspired the Creation of 911

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was returning home from her job as a bartender around 3 a.m. when she was attacked–two times–and then raped and killed by the same man. The string of crimes took place in her New York City apartment building, and 38 witnesses did nothing to help her. Twenty-eight years old at the…

Sphero BB-8 Review: This Is the Coolest Star Wars Toy Ever

For the past 38 years there hasn’t been a robot more loved by fans than Star Wars’ R2-D2. But that could all soon change when The Force Awakens hits theaters, especially now that anyone can own a tiny working version of the movie’s BB-8 droid that can roll and balance all by itself. Star Wars…

An Extra Door On This Front-Loading Washer Lets You Add Last Minute Additions

They’re more eco-friendly than top-loading machines, but front-loading washers don’t let you add forgotten garments once the wash cycle has started. With the addition of a second smaller door, though, Samsung’s new WW8500 AddWash lets you toss in that missing sock you just found. The extra door, located at the top of the washer’s main…

How NASA Created a Flight Simulator for the First Astronauts Landing on the Moon

December 5, 1961. A man at the controls of a module gazes at the lunar surface from close up. Is this an astronaut, approaching the Moon nearly eight years before Apollo 11? Nope—it’s a pilot testing Project LOLA, a massive network of hand-painted mosaics and tracked cameras that trained astronauts for the moon landings. Test…

Hell Comes to the Underdark in D&D’s New Rage of Demons Campaign

It feels like Wizards of the Coast has been relying a little too much on their demon lords as the Big Bads in their adventures and campaigns the last few years. Demon fatigue—it’s a thing! But if you’re going to stick with the demon theme, then what the hell—use all of the demons. And that’s…

Scream Queens’ Title Sequence Confirms a Lot of Screaming Is Going On

If this opening credits sequence is anything to go by, Scream Queens is going to be bloody with a very large dose of knowing winks and nods to its spiritual predecessors. Hell, these credits have literal winks and nods. Let’s see, we’ve got fire, knives, rope, golf clubs, plastic bags, axes, bathtubs, a literal woman…