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What It’s Like to Lose Your Sense of Smell

Losing your sense of smell takes away more than scents and flavours – it can fundamentally change the way you relate to other people. Nick Johnson skims the lunch menu at the White Dog Cafe, a warren of little rooms and ante-rooms in Philadelphia’s university district. “Beef empanadas… I would have loved those. But all…

How Much Whale Oil Is There in Space? More Than You’d Think.

This is a real question. Whale oil is a wonderful industrial lubricant and remains liquid at extremely low temperatures. It was almost certainly used in some NASA technology over the decades. But how much whale oil have we sent out into the cosmos? While it’s more likely that NASA currently uses synthetic lubricants meant to…

The New Spider-Man Reboot Won’t “Revisit” His Origin Story At All

Rumors about Scoot McNairy’s Batman v Superman character resurface again. Spider-Man may have a bigger role in Civil War than previously thought. Charlie Hunnam wants less spectacle in Pacific Rim 2. Plus, Ron Perlman still wants Hellboy 3, and Legends of Tomorrow casts a new DC superhero. Spoilers! Captain America: Civil War Birth Movies Death’s…

A Hack Turns the Square Card Reader Into a Skimmer

The Square Reader has helped lower the barrier to entry for many small retailers keen to take payments on card. Now, though, new research reveals that it’s possible to turn one of the readers into a skimmer. Security researchers have discovered that it’s possible to disable the encryption systems on the device to garner card…

A Drone Captured This Adorable Orca Family Photo

This isn’t the kind of family snap we’re used to seeing — but it is still insanely cute. A drone piloted by conservationists close to Vancouver Island captured this image of a family of orcas as they swam through the sea together. The drone was set into the air by John Durban from the National…

For all your medieval world-building needs: Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources. Knightwine is particularly inspiring. [via Metafilter]

A Privilege Bug in OS X Is Being Exploited to Hijack Macs

A new bug in the latest, fully patched version of OS X is being exploited by hackers. The vulnerability allows attackers to install malware on a Mac without needing any system passwords. Hot on the heels of the world’s first firmware worm for Mac, Ars Techinca reports that a bug first identified last week is…

Cold in the Office? Blame the Equation Used to Set the Thermostat

If you work in an office, chances are you or the person sitting next to you has grumbled about it being too hot or cold. No one likes rugging up on a summer’s day to contend with the air-conditioning. Or having to shed one too many layers in winter to compensate for stifling heat indoors.…

Movie Studios Seek SOPA Power Through Broad Site-Blocking Order

Major movie studios are again trying to make a website they don’t like disappear without a trial. This time, the studios are asking for one court order to bind every domain name registrar, registry, hosting provider, payment processor, caching service, advertising network, social network, and bulletin board—in short, the entire Internet—to block and filter a…

London’s New Baby Sloth Is Named After Edward Scissorhands

Look at that adorable slow mover! That is little baby Edward, a sloth who needs a lot of help to survive since his mother stopped producing milk. So Zookeeper Kelly-Anne Kelleher and a stuffed sloth toy give him food and love. Here’s Edward in very slow motion: [via Tastefully Offensive] Contact the author at [email protected].

This Is Probably The Weirdest Bridge In The World

I haven’t seen every singe bridge in the world, so I’m not happy calling this bridge-ferry-gondola hybrid the weirdest. But it’s definitely top five, and makes me question (once again) the sanity of Wales. The Newport Transporter Bridge is a relic of a time when mankind wanted to conquer nature, but didn’t quite have the…

A Private High-Speed Network Will Help Researchers Do Better Science

Scientists working with supercomputers (or machines like the Large Hadron Collider) are generating vast amounts of data. Trying to pass around terabytes of numbers using Dropbox can get a little slow, so researchers on the West Coast are getting their own private fibre-optic network, dubbed the Pacific Research Platform. The network will link a few…

I Want To Build All These Amazing Alternative Lighthouses

A new lighthouse would probably be a fitting memorial to the 2012 sinking of the Costa Concordia off the coast of Italy. Open-idea competition platform matterbetter has been running a contest to design a new lighthouse concept to live at the spot where the ship capsized, and while the entries aren’t realistic, they’re sure pretty…

Ikea Is Buying Up Whole Forests, and So Is Apple

Ikea bought 83,000 acres of forest last month. In April, Apple bought 36,000 acres. What’s the reasoning behind these retail giants buying their own forests? To manage them. Last year, we saw major technology and retail companies buying up wind and solar farms. Walmart, Facebook, Apple, Ikea, Google—all decided to either build or buy renewable…

What Should We Name The Drought?

It’s been called a historic drought. An exceptional drought. A catastrophic drought. But it’s four rainless years later, and we still don’t have an actual name for that drought that’s spreading throughout the Western United States. Everyone just calls it “The Drought.” It’s time to come up with something better. Maybe it’s just because our…

An Architect Wants To Retrofit This London Power Plant With Tesla Coils

A few weeks ago, the design mag Dezeen reported on a lecture by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels at the Royal Academy in London. During the lecture, Ingels nonchalantly described a plan to turn an aging power station’s smokestacks into tesla coils—if only London would let him. The Building Battersea Power Station is a landmark…

Rob Rhinehart’s Latest Attempt to Make You Buy Soylent Is Terrible

I think Rob Rhinehart is trying to turn himself into some sort of creepy nerd messiah. Today he posted a giant essay to promote the release of Soylent 2.0, the next version of his sperm-esque food replacement drink. It was all about how he’s given up alternating current so he can get ready for his…

Watching Patagonia’s sky fill up with clouds is so beautifully ominous

This whole timelapse video, Patagonia 8K by Timestorm Films, is totally worth watching in its entirety just to see the landscapes of southern Chile and Argentina but I especially enjoy the clip right above where the scattered clouds dance and merge together to form a dense layer that completely blocks out the sky. You know…

Everything You Need to Know About Obama’s Clean Energy Plan

Last month, scientists at a UN conference delivered a sobering warning: To prevent catastrophic warming of the planet, we must reduce all carbon emissions to zero by the end of the 21st century. Today, the Obama administration announced its plan to get there. This afternoon Obama detailed a new clean energy plan that calls on…

The Far Side of the Sun Gets Its Moment to Shine

The “blue moon” made news on Friday, but what about a blue sun? This eerie and gorgeous image of the sun was snapped on July 15 using the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager aboard NASA’s STEREO-A spacecraft, “which collects images in wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye.” Why does it look blue? NASA…