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Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash Caused By Lack of Oversight 

An official investigation into the deadly crash of a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo over California last October finds that a co-pilot unlocked the ship’s braking system too early. The incident, according to the National Transportation and Safety Board’s report, could have been prevented with better safety procedures. At 9:19 PDT on October 31st, 2014, a Virgin…

Get a Good Look at the New Superhero Revealed at the End of Ant-Man

If you’re seen Ant-Man—well, if you’ve seen Ant-Man and didn’t immediately book out of the theater when the credits start to roll like an insane person—then you saw the first look of the superhero outfit of a legendary Avenger and a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now get a good look. Marvel revealed…

Color-Changing Map Shows the Best Attractions Based on the Weather

You can plan ahead all you want, but a vacation is often at the mercy of the weather wherever you’re traveling to. And that inspired designer Camilla Hempleman to create a special map, printed with thermochromatic ink, that changes color to reveal the best places to visit based on the local weather. The BATH °C…

Death Star Timer Counts Down to Dinner Instead of a Planet’s Destruction

Opening your oven to find a tray of burnt brownies isn’t quite as devastating as learning that your home planet was destroyed—but it’s pretty close. So instead of wiping out worlds, this Death Star kitchen timer counts down to when it’s time to yank something out of the oven. Simply twisting the Death Star’s top…

In DC’s Bombshells, Batwoman Messes Up Batman’s Origin in the Best Way

When DC announced that their series of World War II, pin-up style takes on their cadre of female heroes was getting a comic, we couldn’t wait to see some of comic’s coolest ladies swing into action—and now we’ve got a taste of just how great it is with a new, Batman-filled preview. Well, sort of…

The Little-Known Robot Taxi That Could Outrun Google and Uber

By 2020, visitors landing in Tokyo for the Summer Olympics could be greeted by a fleet of self-driving taxis. At least, that’s the dream of Japanese tech company DeNA, which hopes to have autonomous cars shuttling tourists around the crowded, maze-like streets of that megacity within five years. You probably haven’t heard of DeNA. But…

Video: The beautiful tracking shots from films by Stanley Kubrick

Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. There are few directors like Stanley Kubrick so we have to appreciate all that he’s left us with. This video montage by CutPrintFilm puts together various tracking shots (or shots meant to look like tracking shots) from Kubrick films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, A Clockwork Orange And Eyes Wide…

Gillian Anderson REALLY Wants Lego to Make an Official X-Files Set

On July 24th, goddess of beauty and science, Gillian Anderson (AKA Scully on The X-Files) announced on Twitter that “it’s time to start an X-Files Lego campaign.” I want to believe this will happen. Since this is 2015, Anderson took her campaign to twitter to rally the troops! As the world eagerly awaits the return…

What You’d Hear If You Found Voyager’s Golden Record In Deep Space

It’s been 38 years since NASA launched a gold record containing sounds and sights of Earth into space. Yesterday, NASA made it easier to hear those noises for yourself. On Soundcloud. After joining Soundcloud last year, NASA has uploaded some very interesting audio to its account—from sounds of radio waves in space to Sputnik’s timid…

How Researchers Transformed Living Cells Into Tiny Lasers

A research team from Harvard University has made pig-skin lasers. Here’s how they did it—and perhaps more importantly, why. Above: Inserting an optical fibre into a piece of pig’s skin to excite and extract the laser light generated by subcutaneous fat cells. Matjaž Humar and Seok Hyun Yun, CC BY-ND. In the last few decades,…

Give the Olympics to Los Angeles

The news that Boston no longer wants to host the 2024 Summer Olympics isn’t really a shock. Few cities these days do. But the Olympics don’t have to be bad for the host city—and done right, they can actually benefit it. Nowhere is that clearer than Los Angeles, the new frontrunner for 2024. The Olympics…

Fake a Birthday Every Day Just To Get These New Star Wars Balloons

The older you get, the less excited you are to celebrate another birthday. But that all just changed with these new Star Wars helium balloons from Amscan. If you thought Stormtroopers were easy to kill before, now they can be taken out with just safety pins. Available in the coming months from your favorite party…

The Victorian Hugos: 1892

Welcome back to the Victorian Hugo Awards, what I hope will be a semi-regular column in which I award honorary Hugo Awards to the best novels and short stories of the Victorian era. When I wrote about the slate of nominees for the 1891 Hugo, I undoubtedly sounded underwhelmed and disappointed. If I did, it’s…

This might be the closest you’ll get to taking a guided tour of the ISS. The ESA has stitched together photographs and maps to make a virtual panoramic tour which you can use to float your way through the ISS, clicking on parts of it to get a more detailed view, without ever leaving the…

Moto X Style Hands-On: A Great Smartphone With a Price To Match

The Moto X Style is in every way a successor to last year’s Moto X. It’s got all the requisite upgrades you’d expect: the better quad HD display, the better 21 megapixel rear camera with a front-facing selfie flash, and just an all around better look and feel. And somehow, it only costs $400. Picking…

Uber Is Faking Us Out With “Ghost Cabs” on Its Passenger Map

If you use Uber, you’ve seen the map that comes up when you want a ride. The map shows little car graphics hovering adorably around your location and the wait time for a pickup. Once you request a ride, you can watch a little car creep closer to your destination as you wait. It’s a…

Which Obsolete Tech Will You Never Throw Away?

The technological cycle is not a sentimental one: A new update comes and the old tech gets thrown out, over and over again. Sometimes, though, something goes askew in the whole process, and there’s something you just can’t quite let go of. Today we want to know what that thing is. Tell us in the…

Flag All Company Emails for Faster Inbox Processing

Internal emails from the company you work for can be crucially important or a complete irrelevance—either way, being able to spot these company messages at a glance in your inbox can make a big difference to your email productivity. Here’s how to quickly set up a filter in three of the most popular desktop clients.…

Not Even Bioshock‘s Big Daddy Can Escape Funko Pops

The Big Daddies of Bioshock and the word “cute” rarely go hand in hand… until now, apparently. Yes, not even the warped weirdness and Randian politics of the hit Bioshock video games. No gods or kings, only Pops. Yes, the dearly-departed Irrational Games series is just the latest entity to be consumed by the Funko…

Ride Along on an Insane 2,000-Feet Long Slip ‘N Slide

New Jersey’s Action Park continues to be the single best reason to move your family to that state. In addition to a waterslide with a vertical loop arriving sometime next year, it also now boasts what has to be the world’s longest Slip ‘N Slide that measures about a third-of-a-mile long. Jason Mulder, an employee…