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What Makes You Block Someone? 

People have varying thresholds of tolerance for putting up with ignorance, dickishness, and other crap online. What does it take for you to head straight for the “Block” button on social media? Each major platform has a slightly different concoction of options to let you digitally delete someone from your life. Twitter and Facebook both…

A San Francisco jury has ruled against all four claims of gender discrimination and retaliation by termination brought by Ellen Pao against venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, in what many are calling a landmark case for Silicon Valley. Pao is currently the interim CEO of Reddit. [Valleywag]

DDOS Attack Targets Popular Anti-Censorship Projects on Github

Github is getting hammered by a huge distributed-denial-of-service attack. Looks like it pissed off the wrong pro-censorship group: The attack is aimed at two popular Github projects, Great Fire and CN-NY Times, that help Chinese citizens get around their government’s restrictive online censors to access blocked content. Who does that? The attackers are using China’s…

These Birds Really Do Use “Spanish Fly” To Get Laid

Spanish fly isn’t just a mythical drug. It’s a real thing, and these male birds use it to get females to mate with them. Learn how spanish fly works, but only when males take it. https://gizmodo.com/why-spanish-fly-only-works-on-men-and-is-deadly-5983275 Spanish fly should be called “Spanish beetle.” The name of the drug came from beetles that men used to…

Hypnotic hyperlapse of Paris teleports you all over the beautiful city

Maxime Gaudet’s hyperlapse experiment video of Paris lets you jump all over the city in 3 minutes. The video moves at such a frenetic pace that the feel of the video doesn’t quite match up with the feel of the City of Love but it’s still a lot of fun to watch because it feels…

A Short Comic About The Time New York Outlawed Pinball

Pinball may seem today like one of the most innocent of pastimes, but in 1942, the game was banned in New York City. Why? And what happened to all those machines? This short comic by Julia Wertz has the answer. Over at the New Yorker, Wertz explains New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia’s vendetta against…

Archer Gang Gets “Dr. Shrinkered” On What Could Be Their Last Mission

Archer’s sixth season is almost over, with the first of a two-part finale seeing the blundering super spies and assorted hangers-on being miniaturized and injected into a comatose scientist. “Drastic Voyage: Part One” (blorp!) mixes high-stakes danger with goofy references … a classic Archer recipe for success. Spoilers. Seriously! We open, as almost always, at…

Tropical Regions Are Getting Wetter Thanks To Bigger Thunderstorms 

Climate scientists are reporting that increasing rainfall in the world’s warmest and wettest regions are being fueled by a recent surge in large, well-organized thunderstorms. Top image: Change in precipitation by end of 21st century, inches of liquid water per year. The dark blue regions in the Pacific represent projected increases of up to 60-inches…

“It’s Not My Job to Plug Things In,” and Other Nightmare IT Stories

We asked for the worst stories you had about working in IT. You rose to the challenge and then some. We may need to wipe and reboot our brains to recover from these. People are strange Ari Harrison: I told a woman that she needed to plug in her monitor to the wall as the…

Which “Lovable” Villain Is Actually Terrifying When You Think About It?

Science fiction and fantasy are full of straight-up scary villains. But then there are the lovable ones, who are too quirky and goofy to seem really threatening. They start to become part of the gang, even. But they’re still horrible people. Which “lovable” villain is actually horrifying if you think about him or her? Please…

Thank The Maker, Dragon Age Is Finally Getting The 1/6 Scale Treatment

Bioware’s fantasy video game franchise Dragon Age is no stranger to the figure world — there’s been a few in various sizes. But it’s about time that someone got round to bringing the series to ultra-detailed, 1/6th scale glory it deserves. Step up Alistair, from ThreeZero! Based on his appearance in Dragon Age Inquisition (which,…

Transformers To Become Marvel-Style Connected Movie Universe, Sigh

Everyone wants to copy Marvel’s multi-layered, money-making set-up. Now Deadline is reporting that Paramount has hired Akiva Goldsman to “ramp up” Transformers output, which means if you thought the Transformers franchise was already stretched to the breaking point, hold on to your hat. Goldsman will join up with Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg and Lorenzo di…

The 12 Plot Ideas That Every Single Classic TV Show Did To Death

Making a TV show is a terrible grind — especially back in the day, when shows were entirely made up of standalone episodes. So it’s no wonder that so many classic shows reached for the same handful of plots, over and over. Here are 12 storylines you’ll find in every old science fiction and fantasy…

How Far Samsung’s Galaxy S Phones Have Come, in One GIF

The evolution of any smartphone is a long, drawn-out process. But when you cram it all down into a four-second GIF, the results are pretty mesmerizing. This GIF, created by GadgetLove, shows the Samsung Galaxy S circa 2010 to 2015. Of course, it’s fun to see the physical size of any phone slowly extend to…

The Walking Dead spin-off has an official (dumb) name. Creator/producer Robert Kirkman tweeted it will be call Fear the Walking Dead, in case, you know, you thought it might be Annoy the Walking Dead, Hug the Walking Dead or even Be Ambivalent About the Walking Dead. Contact the author at [email protected].

A Beginner’s Guide to Navy-Strength Rum

The Royal Navy’s successful invasion of Jamaica in 1655 had a lot of terribly negative outcomes. The commanders ended up in the Tower of London. Many of the English sailors fell sick or starved. A lot of Spanish settlers died. But there was one undeniably positive outcome: rum. It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through…

It’s Almost Impossible To Tell This Butterfly Is Actually a Robot

The butterfly is one of nature’s most graceful creations, but with upgrades from Festo, this robotic doppleganger is better equipped to navigate large spaces. It might flap and flutter like the real thing, but this butterfly is 100 percent artificial—although the branding on the wings probably gave that away. Festo showed off a small swarm…

An FBI Profiler Explains The Psychology Of Breaking Bad‘s Walter White

In the latest episode of Vanity Fair’s “Psych of a Psycho” YouTube series (previous subjects include Game of Thrones’ “hideous and vile” juvenile criminal King Joffrey), host Candice DeLong, a former FBI profiler, breaks down the psychology of Breaking Bad’s Walter White. As anyone who’s seen the show can attest, Walter’s evolution from cancer-stricken chemistry…

Listen To Every Single Musical Genre, Ever

If you’ve ever wanted to hear the difference between traditional funk and Memphis soul, or understand where they fit in the context of more than 1300 musical genres, you might want to clear your schedule. An interactive project called Every Noise at Once is about to devour the rest of your day. According to project…

How a Virus Can Make Water Boil Faster

Here are some things that won’t make water boil faster: watching the pot, adding salt. And here’s something that does: nanostructures made from plant viruses, which subtly alter the physical properties of bubbling water. Everyone who has impatiently watched a pot boil knows to watch for the bubbles that start forming at the bottom. These…