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This GIF Party Is Here To Dance

Don’t just hang out there on the sidelines, because the GIF Party is waiting on you. You know what to do: Put your interpretive GIFs, digital mingling, and life updates into the comments, because the party starts now!

Cat Eyes and Other Radical Ideas to Re-Engineer Humans for the Future

If we don’t do something about climate change, humanity is screwed. But do what? Carbon emissions keep creeping up, geoengineering is potentially dangerous, and we continue to stew in endless political debates. One bioethicist has a radical idea: Re-engineer humans for a better planet. A few years ago, NYU bioethicist and philosopher Matthew Liao co-authored…

Deceptive Photo Makes This Eel Look Taller Than A Double Decker Bus

Fishermen working off the coast of Plymouth in Britain snagged a 7-foot-long (2.1 meters) conger eel by mistake after it got tangled in their nets. Weighing in at just over 133 pounds (59 kg), it’s a near-record catch — but this clever optical illusion makes it look much longer than it really is. As reported…

A Snowmobile That Works On Water Looks Way More Fun Than a Jet Ski

As the weather warms up it’s finally time to pack away those winter clothes and start figuring out how you’ll maximize the hot summer months. Any activity involving a lake is obviously a good choice, but before you spend thousands on a Jet Ski, you might want to wait until these engineering students perfect their…

DC Heroes Mixed With Thomas The Tank Engine Is A Most Delightful Horror

DC’s cadre of heroes and villains have been mashed up with a lot of things over the years. But transforming them into the wide-eyed, slightly creepy locomotives of Thomas the Tank Engine makes for a toy that is equal parts laden with animated nostalgia and sheer, nightmarish terror. Mattel’s latest exclusive merchandise for San Diego…

The Avengers reimagined as dark fantasy characters is scary great

Artist Daniel Kamarudin made these excellent illustrations that reimagines The Avengers characters as you know it. He took what we saw in the Marvel movies and turned them darker and added more of a fantasy flair to them. His depictions are great, I wouldn’t mind reading a story illustrated in this way. Here are a…

Could Michael Fassbender Stay On As Magneto After X-Men Apocalypse?

Marvel narrows down its new Spider-Man cast list, and the next Planet of the Apes has a title. Get another great look at Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool outfit. There’s still a chance the next season of Person of Interest may not be its last. Plus, Arrow teases a new villain, and clips from Tomorrowland. To me,…

Uber Accused of Ripping Off Ideas, and Everything Else You Missed

Technology is filled with all kinds of rumors, real and fabricated. It gives us a look at what might be and will be. BitStream gathers the whispers all in one place to divine what the future has in store. In the latest Uber controversy, there are new claims that the ride-sharing service stole trade secrets…

Look at This Shockwave Caught in Action

In this image, MATRA air-ground bombs hit a target during a close air support exercise on the military training area in Munster, Germany, on May 5th 2015. Captured the exact moment of explosion, the visible patterns of the following shock wave make for an impressive picture. [Jana Neumann/Bundeswehr]

This 8 Ball Predicts Your Future in Emojii

Will I ever find true love? How will I die? When will I get a raise? For some life’s biggest questions, the best answers must surely come from an 8-ball that predicts the future via the medium of emojii. Today’s XKCD is an interactive Emojic 8 Ball. Type you question and prepare for enlightenment—though warned…

Of Course Restaurants Are Designing Meals Just to Look Good on Instagram

It was only a matter of time. Though it’s not unusual for eateries to place plenty of importance on presentation (“we eat with our eyes first”, and all that), the rise of amateur food photographers means that one US restaurant chain has now admitted that it actively designs dishes based on how good they will…

Many have attempted to illustrate Middle Earth, Barnes and Noble’s blog asked artist Grant Lindahl to imagine seven more. Head over to see his take on how Al Hirschfeld, Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey, and others would draw Tolkien’s characters.

Watch the Entire History of US County Boundaries Evolve in 30 Seconds

U.S. state and county boundaries have changed a lot since 1629. This wonderfully simple animation shows how they’ve been drawn and redrawn over almost 400 years. Flowing Data points out that you can actually grab the data used to make the full animation below from the Newberry Library site if you’re feeling creative. Or just…

Google’s Prototype Driverless Car Hits Public Roads This Summer

Google’s first consumer-focused prototype driverless cars will takes their first drive on public roads this summer, taking to the streets of Mountain View. In a blog post, Google’s self-driving car project director Chris Urmson explained that a handful of the cars will rolled out in Google’s neighborhood. The cars—which will be fitted with a removable…

Close Up Photos of Bird Plumage Look Like Alien Worlds

Photographer Thomas Lore, who is known for his fashion shoots, has a new project: close-up, abstract photos of birds. He’s gathered them all into a new book. What we see when we look at these? The topography of alien worlds. Lore’s put some “outtake” bird shots on Instagram. The above one looks like a a…

This Is How DARPA Thought Today’s Tech Would Look in 2001

Touchscreens everywhere, voice-activated software, real-time translation and automated cyber-defenses. This may look a lot like present day, but it’s actually DARPA’s vision of current-day technology as predicted in 2001. There’s also an array of bad ideas that didn’t make it, too. Which do you think is worst? [DARPA via Engadget]

What a Mouse Brain Looks Like When It Rewires Itself

The function of neurons in a mouse’s brain isn’t as fixed as you might think. When they’re young, neurons can switch role, literally rewiring the brain—and in this image of a slice of brain, the yellow spots are neurons that have done just that. As New Scientist points out, “neurons normally responsible for interpreting sound…

United Can’t Even Be Bothered To Pay Money For Finding Security Bugs

Bug bounty programs are pretty common among tech firms: the likes of Facebook and Google (although notably not Apple) will offer you hundreds of thousands of dollars in order for exposing security flaws in their products. It’s a good system, and one United Airlines wants to use: just without offering cold, hard cash. Instead, United…

A World Run By Cable Television Logic Is the Worst World

Funny or Die has tackled the insanity of cable television bundling — where you end up paying for a bunch of channels you never use — by showing us a whole world that uses the same principle. It’s a horrible, horrible world. Contact the author at [email protected].

Apple Sues To Prevent Radioshack Selling Customer Data

As the painful destruction of the once-mighty RadioShack empire continues, administrators have been selling off anything worth anything — including a massive trove of customer data, much to the displeasure of some states’ Attorneys General. And now, Apple is joining the good fight. As it currently stands, the data of 117 million RadioShack victims —…