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The Dark and Twisted History of the Children’s Friend Society

The Children’s Friend Society is among the most misleadingly-named charities in history. Supported by wealthy Londoners in the 1800s, the group promised to “do something” about the appalling abundance of vagrant children in England. And they did do something: the children disappeared. What came next was horrifying. The Vagrant Child Problem In 1830, Captain Edward…

Makerbot Is Letting You 3D Print With Metal, Limestone, and Wood

Makerbot—perhaps the most consumer-friendly of 3D printer manufacturers—is about to go a long way toward turning the tech intosomething consumers can actually use. Starting late this year, MakerBot is going to let you 3D print with a range of new materials, including composites of limestone, iron, and wood. The new PLA filaments are made with…

Sleepy Hollow‘s Back!…But Is It Better?

When we left Sleepy Hollow, it was torching its premise, shaking the show to its foundations and setting up for a wild comeback. How can it recover from so dramatic a midseason finale? …Oh, you know. Stuff. As we discussed in the midseason finale recap, blowing up the show’s entire premise halfway through the second…

An Otherworldly Village Made Entirely from Ice Sculptures

In the city of Harbin, China’s 31st International Ice and Snow Festival has begun. This is one of the world’s largest such events, and always brings some psychedelic wonderment to the bitterly cold city. Here are some photos as the fest gets underway. As CNN reports, the festival’s multiple themed areas sprawl across some 750,000…

Breweries Have Run Out of New Names (and Hop Puns) For Craft Beers 

Hoptimus Prime. Smooth Hoperator. Hoptical Illusion. If a brewer has the chance to make a hop pun (and odds are good, thanks to thehop boom), they’ll make it. But NPR’s The Salt says that the explosion of craft beer over the past decade has led to a legal problem: There are no new names left.…

The Largest X-Ray Flare Ever Just Erupted From The Center Of Our Galaxy

Astronomers attempting to monitor a cloud of gas reacting to the black hole at the center of our galaxy got a huge surprise: A giant x-ray flare erupting from that black hole, the largest one ever detected. So what caused it? NASA has two theories — and both of them have a black hole at…

Shiny Deal on Firefly, Coen Brothers Classics, and More Deals

There are no superlatives left to throw Firefly’s way, this deal on the other hand… Firefly: The Complete Series ($15) | Amazon Quadruple Coen Brothers classics for 20 bucks. [ Coen Brothers Collection, $20] Cosmos, one of our most popular Blu-rays of last year, gets back down within a couple bucks of its lowest price.…

A new study could explain why we often get sick when it’s cold outside. Researchers have learned that the virus for the common cold replicates more efficiently at cooler temperatures — especiallyinside our noses. The finding suggests we should keep our nose warm and avoid cold air when we’re infected. Photo: vesna cvorovic/Shutterstock.

Mad Max: Fury Road Pics Are So Metal

Every time Mad Max: Fury Road puts outsomething new we end up dry heaving in the corner like an overexcited poodle. And this new crop of stills is no different. Behold the fury. This new Fury Road gallery from The Playlist showcases a whole mess of awesome. It’s so very intense, especially the pictures of…

Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Sailor Moon Villain

When scientists finally fessed up that Pluto wasn’t really a planet, some people were upset — none moreso than Sailor Pluto, who discovered she’d suddenly lost membership in the Sailor Scouts. Here’s how Neil deGrasse Tyson accomplished what Wiseman never could. Lots of great Sailor Moon in-jokes for the faithful in here. Why the hell…

Marvin The Martian Channels Napoleon In This Glorious Royal Portrait

Earth’s diminutive would-be destroyer plots his next move in this perfect imperial portrait. In this picture, he’s already emperor of Mars and he’s ready to change the solar system to his liking. Ricardo Chucky painted Marvin’s “Martian Emperor” portrait, and it is fantastic. We imagine this is how the spaceman truly sees himself. After all,…

The stunning beauty of the Faroe Islands

Photographer Julian Calverley recently got a job in Faroe Islands, in the Kingdom of Denmark. He used the frequent dead times during the shooting to take some pictures of the surroundings with his camera phone. The result is this stunning collection of otherworldly landscapes that makes me wish I was there now. These beautiful islands…

How Bowie flaunted a huge dick on Saturday Night Live and nobody noticed

Yesterday was the anniversary of one of the most surreal music performances in TV story: 35 years ago David Bowie ushered the 1980s in Saturday Night Live. The producers censored a gay reference in the last of his three-song set—but they missed him repeatedly showing a giant penis at the end of it. [NSFW-ish] Bowie’s…

Razer Has Its Own $200 Virtual Reality Headset

Razer wants a piece of virtual reality. Here at CES, the company has its very own VR headset to help stake that claim. Why yes, it does look just like an Oculus Rift developer kit! But Razer isn’t staking the claim you’d expect. This isn’t an Oculus competitor, CEO Min-Liang Tan tells me. This is…

Razer’s Master Plan To Win Living Room Gamers Starts With Android TV

Every year, Razer comes up with a crazy product to wow the crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. A tablet with a built-in controller! A Lego-like desktop PC! But this year’s surprise is actually four products that work together: an Android TV microconsole, a Bluetooth gamepad, a streaming service, and a wireless lapboard. The best…

Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Adaptations Are Statistically Too Damn Long

Look, we know everyone’s been complaining about the length of the Hobbit trilogy ever since the decision to make the adaptation into 3 separate movies. And they were right to! But now we have actual statistics to show that they’re some of the most gratuitous book-to-movie adaptations ever. Data blog FiveThirtyEight took the unenviable task…

This Curiosity Image Suggests Microbial Life Once Existed On Mars

It may not look like much — just an old rock with dust on it. But after careful examination of this and other images taken of the Martian surface, a geobiologist is now claiming that these distinctive surface features could have only come from one source: microbes. This isn’t proof that life once existed on…

Razer’s Hard-To-Find Nabu Fitness Band Now Comes In a Cheaper $50 Model

The $100 Razer Nabu smartband never quite made it to market—unless you count a few thousand early adopter pre-orders here and there. But Razer’s already taking the wraps off a cheaper alternative: the $50 Nabu X. Long story short, the Nabu X ditches the screens for three red, green and blue LEDs, and the fancy…

Schlage’s Bluetooth Lock Turns Your Smartphone Into Your Front Door Key

Even if you’re the forgetful type who’s always prone to losing their keys, there’s a good chance your smartphone never gets misplaced. After all, how could you ever risk missing a single tweet or Instagram update? So Schlage is introducing a new electronic door lock called the Sense that adds Bluetooth alongside a glowing keypad…

A Smart EpiPen Case Lets Family Know You’re Having an Allergy Attack

Anyone dealing with severe allergies always carries an EpiPen. In an emergency it provides an injectable dose of epinephrine to narrow blood vessels and open airways to help minimize the dangerous symptoms of an allergy attack, and when used with the new Veta casethat’s designed to safely store the EpiPen, it can automatically let your…