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Soviet Bombers and Scythian Mummies: The Archaeology Uncovered By Climate Change

In Poland, severe drought has revealed the remains of a Soviet fighter plane that went down in 1945. It’s far from the first (or last) archaeological site that climate change is revealing, in some cases for the first time in millennia. Melting glaciers, thawing permafrost, and historic droughts are all playing a part in some…

It’s Impossible to Watch This Profile of AeroPress-Inventor Alan Adler and not Fall in Love With Him

Inventor-engineer Alan Adler is the man behind the record-setting Aerobie Flying Ring and the widely beloved AeroPress coffee maker. In this profile by filmmaker David Friedman, Adler tells the stories behind his superior designs— and man, is he ever charming*. I defy you to watch this and not fall in love with the guy. Some…

Video: This dancing drone is a beautiful painter of light

To show off the world’s most precise drone system, PRENAV made this video demonstrating how exact their drones can be. The drone basically plots points in the air and then becomes a dancing array of light that’s oh so fun to watch. The PRENAV system supposedly lets drones write letters and draw shapes in the…

Ashley Madison Built an App Called “What’s Your Wife Worth”

Another day, another revolting revelation from the Ashley Madison hack. This time, the Daily Dot reports that Ashley Madison executives were excited about an app their team built. It was called “What’s Your Wife Worth,” and it’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Based on a 2013 email exchange between Ashley Madison CEO Noel…

Which Science Fiction or Fantasy Book Was So Much Fun You Couldn’t Stand It?

Some books keep you turning pages with suspense. Others keep the pages flipping with their deep character studies. But then there are those books that are just so much damn fun, you can’t do anything but keep reading and laughing out loud. But which science fiction or fantasy book is just the most fun ever?…

Lettuce Is the Bottled Water of Produce

Another day, another story about what we should consume when confronted with a water-scarce future. On today’s chopping block: Lettuce, should you eat it? Let us begin with this provocative statement: A head of iceberg contains the same amount of water as a bottle of Evian, it’s wrapped in lots of plastic, and shipping it…

Seeing Japanese handmade paper get made is completely soothing

I don’t know exactly what’s going on but you see trees get chopped down and stripped and cooked and boiled and drained and dried and flattened and then transformed into pieces of paper that were all delicately made by hand. It’s a lovely process to watch, especially since it’s so damn soothing. Kuroyanagi Takashi made…

USA Postpones Mr. Robot Finale Due to Similarities to WDBJ Shooting

The finale of USA’s buzzed about hacker show Mr. Robot will not be seen Wednesday evening because of a scene that shared similarities with the tragic shooting in Virginia earlier today. In a statement, USA said the following: “The previously filmed season finale of Mr. Robot contains a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s…

The season one finale of Mr. Robot has been postponed until next week: Wednesday, September 2 at 10 p.m. EST on USA. In a statement, the network said the episode contained “a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s tragic events in Virginia,” and is being delayed out of respect to the victims. USA will…

Birds Are Way More Lethal Than Bullets on This Week’s Zoo

After last week’s rat-pocalypse, the team gets back to facing enemies of a more human sort: the villainous puppet masters at Reiden Global and the vengeful FBI. But this wouldn’t be Zoo without some animal insanity, and the episode’s title, “Murmuration,” offers a big ol’ hint to keep watching the skies. Spoilerzzzz… As you’ll recall…

If You Want Better Public Transit, You Probably Shouldn’t Use Uber

I’m writing this from a train. Without access to a car, I had to make a plan this morning for how to get to an interview: rent a car, ride a bike, take a train and a bus, use an on-demand ride service. I chose the train for a few reasons. But mostly because I…

Anne Hathaway Is Making a Movie About Meteors That Turn Men into Aliens

Working with Christopher Nolan must have given Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway a taste for space. The Interstellar co-star just signed on to make The Shower, a film about a baby shower that turns into a meteor shower that turns men into blood-thirsty aliens. The Shower was written by Jac Schaeffer and made the Black List in…

Some Cops Are Now Allowed to Taser and Tear Gas People From Drones

North Dakota just became the first state to legalize taser drones. Shocking. The Daily Beast reports that the state’s House Bill 1328 was designed in response to concerns over the militarization of police. The bill requires police to obtain a warrant before searching for evidence in a criminal investigation. The bill also originally prohibited the…

These Kooky Batman ’66 Toys Look Like Aardman Animation Puppets

Imagine if we lived in a world where, years later, Batman ‘66 was re-imagined by Wallace & Gromit creators Aardman Animation and turned into a stop-motion TV show. Not only that be THE BEST WORLD EVER, but I would imagine that the puppets looked just like these kooky, and slightly creepy, toys. The series of…

This Webcomic Perfectly Captures the Awe and Poetry of Astronomy

Boulet has done it again. The cartoonist’s latest installment is a quasi-animated pixel comic that challenges the notion that science has somehow robbed the universe of poetry. Recalling his own experiences looking at the night sky through his telescope, Boulet takes us on a lovely and lyrical tour of the cosmos. “Brassens in Space” is…

Scientists Discover That Proteins in Your Body Can Make Plutonium Glow

There’s bad news and there’s good news in this post. The bad news is proteins from your own body accidentally smuggle radioactive metals into you. The good news is that those proteins can make those materials glow. Do you know how the periodic table has that unconnected band of elements that kind of floats below…

Here Is Adobe’s Attempt to Stop People From Using the Term “Photoshop” All Willy-Nilly

Poor Adobe. Along with everyone pre-eulogizing Flash, the only other property of theirs you can name—Photoshop—is in danger. Intellectual property danger. What Adobe’s been worried about for years is “genericization,” which is when the brand name becomes a synonym for a product. Which is how the Bayer-trademarked “aspirin” took over for the real name for…

This Drone Goes From Canister to Aerial Selfie In 20 Seconds Flat

What if you could pull a giant Pringles can out of your backpack, and turn it into an incredibly safe, easy to fly camera drone in practically no time at all? I just described the Fotokite Phi—one of the coolest quadcopters I’ve ever tried. Where most GoPro-equipped flying machines require you to pull them out…

DC’s 1982 Character Style Guide is a Beautiful Treasure Trove of Comic Book Nostalgia

If you’re a fan of classic DC comics, then it’s probably the artwork of the ‘80s that is burned into your memory—more specifically it might be the art featured in the rare, never-released-for-sale 1982 style guide. While bits and pieces have made their way online in the past, we’ve never had a chance to see…

Whiskey Discovered in 121-Year-Old Time Capsule, But Would You Drink It?

Construction crews in Scotland just discovered a time capsule from 1894 containing what they think is a bottle of whiskey — leading the literally dozens of time capsules aficionados in the world to ask themselves the obvious question: Would I drink it? The capsule, a rusted metal box that is clearly showing its age, was…