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Experimental Households in Seattle Have Their Tech Charged By Wi-Fi

Wireless charging isn’t anything new, but it usually requires direct contact if not cables. But in Seattle, six houses have been rigged up to provide power to small devices using Wi-Fi routers. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have fitted out these houses with devices which can convert the energy held in Wi-Fi…

This Crazy Shape-Shifting PC Is the Gaming Rig Optimus Prime Would Use

If you’ve always been disappointed by the simple way the Asus Transformer changes shape, prepare to finally be impressed. This Asus gaming PC tower flexes and folds more like Opitmus Prime than any two-in-one tablet ever could. A collaboration by the Asus Republic of Gamers and case manufacturer In Win, this transformer-esque case was spotted…

This Mad Max: Fury Road Cosplay Is Shiny and Chrome

Remember her? This perfectly on point Furiosa cosplayer, Kayla Rose, was at Northwest Fan Fest last weekend, and The Will Box took this amazing photo. We fully expected a wave of awesome Mad Max: Fury Road costumes to emerge from this movie, and we are not disappointed. Contact the author at [email protected].

Can You Guess The Hidden Meanings of These Minimalist Star Wars Posters?

Artist Nick Barclay, who made a series of movie posters using only circles, is back with minimalist character posters for Star Wars. Using only three colors, Barclay has tried to make posters that are instantly identifiable Here are some of the posters, with Barclay’s explanations at the bottom. See if you caught all the references.…

Uprooted Is a Perfect and Original Defense of the Power of Folklore

Naomi Novik’s latest book, Uprooted, combines fantasy, fairy tale, and coming of age stories in a way that is both original and deeply compelling. If any of those three descriptors sound interesting, go pick up this book. Some minor spoilers ahead. Uprooted is told from the point of view of Agnieszka, who lives in a…

Eddie Redmayne Will Star In Harry Potter Spinoff Fantastic Beasts

It’s finally official: Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) will star as Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It seemed for a while that it was between Redmayne and Matt Smith, who wasbriefly rumoredto be in talks for the lead. But now Warner Brothers and director David…

95 Percent of Fake Bombs Made It Through Airport Security in DHS Test

Does taking off your shoes, emptying your pockets and putting your laptop in a little plastic bin make you feel safe? Maybe it shouldn’t. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the TSA is doing a lousy job. Like, “failed to detect mock weapons 95 percent of the time” lousy. That number comes from a…

What Is the Most Obnoxious Behavior You’ve Seen on Public Transit?

Manspreading—the phenomenon where males require extra room on trains for their oversized scrotums—has been in the news lately with several reports of men being arrested on the New York City subway for occupying more than one seat. Surely this isn’t the worst offense committed on our public transportation systems? While manspreading is often assholish and…

What happens when you pour molten aluminum into a lava lamp

Pouring molten aluminum into things is always a fun science experiment so let’s see what happens when the hot hot gooey metal gets dropped inside a groovy lava lamp. A lot of what you expect to happen, happens: the molten aluminum initially follows the wax pattern but then eventually overwhelms the liquid and starts burning…

Where Decommissioned Spaceships Get A Sky Burial

In the world of Wayne Haag’s Ankaris, ship breakers realize that the vehicles they dismantle may have once been sentient beings, so they treat their mechanical charges as they would human bodies, providing the ships with funeral rites. Haag is a concept artist who has worked on The Fifth Element, Farscape, and the first two…

A Robot That Pushes Like a Human Is More Impressive Than It Sounds

A truly smart robot adapts to a variety of challenges on the fly—like adjusting its posture to push or pull big objects, just like a person does. But what comes naturally to humans is a lot more complicated for robots. Take this ‘bot developed by the University of Tokyo’s JSK Laboratory, for example. The clever…

Microsoft Is Slowly Buying Its Way Onto Your Smartphone

Like a penny-pinching extreme couponer, Microsoft has an eye for good deals—especially wonderful productivity apps for iOS and Android. In its latest mobile app bargain, Microsoft is reportedly buying Wunderlist, a well-loved to-do list app, which would basically make Microsoft the unofficial monarch of mobile productivity. The $100-200 million asking price, if it goes through,…

Roger Moore Explains The Key To James Bond: He Doesn’t Enjoy Killing

James Bond is known for racking up a pretty high body count, and for having a great quip every time he puts someone in the ground. But Roger Moore, who played the role for a dozen years, says he thinks the key to Bond’s character is that he dislikes killing. We’re stoked to feature an…

When used together, a pair of cancer medications can shrink tumors in 60% of patients with advanced-stage melanoma. During an international trial involving 945 patients, UK doctors discovered that ipilimumab and nivolumab can cue the immune system to attack cancerous cells. Unfortunately, the drugs’ side-effects are amplified. Image: A patient’s CT scan before treatment (left)…

NECA’s Latest Pacific Rim Figure Is Half Blown Up, But Still Beautiful

It’s a damn good job Pacific Rim’s Gipsy Danger is such a cool robot, otherwise getting like, the billionth Gispy Danger figure in NECA’s sublime toy line based on the movie would be very annoying at this point. I mean, it still is a little annoying, but when Gipsy can look this great, it’s easy…

BlackBerry Settles Lawsuit Over Ryan Seacrest’s Garbage Typo Keyboard

The Typo is dead, huzzah! BlackBerry has settled its lawsuit against the makers of the the terrible Ryan Seacrest-backed snap-on physical keyboard for iPhones. You might recall that Seacrest’s Typo made a big splash a few years ago when it was first released. The design was an obvious homage to the old-school BlackBerry keyboard that…

The Charles Dickens Cinematic Universe Begins in New BBC TV Series

It is a good day to be English literature nerds! Because the BBC is currently filming Dickensian, a 20-episode TV series where all of Charles Dickens’ characters essentially live together in Victorian London, including Oliver Twist, Fagin, Ebeneezer Scrooge, Miss Havisham from Great Expectations, and more. Guys. Guys. It’s the Charles Dickens Cinematic Universe. THE…

Want to Save Water? Build a Pool, Says the Pool Industry

Sure, you’re already doing a lot to save water—plucking the almonds from your granola each morning and shaming your grass-owning neighbors daily on Twitter. But when will you get serious about the drought and install a pool? That’s the logic currently being promoted by a group of pool industry lobbyists who are claiming that pools…

On Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell War Is Hell, And So Are People

Last week’s episode of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was all about showing the dark side of fantasy. This week however, the darkness on display is very much in the realm of reality, as Strange finds himself on the front lines of war, and poor Lady Pole descends further into madness. Warning: Although the series…

Steven Moffat Feels Guilty For Changing Doctor Who‘s Time War

When Doctor Who came back in 2005, the show featured a tormented Doctor who was the last of his kind and the sole survivor of an unimaginable war that had ended with the Doctor committing double genocide. Should this have remained the show’s status quo? Talking to Doctor Who Magazine, showrunner Steven Moffat says he…