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Google Now cards appear to have started warning us about impending solar eclipses. Which is, uh, useful?

Listen to the Historic Sounds of Space Travel on NASA’s SoundCloud

In space, perhaps nobody can hear your scream—but that doesn’t mean that stellar travel is a silent pursuit. Now, NASA has started compiling mountains of historic space-related audio clips for us all to listen to. And there are some belters. There’s Sputnik’s lit-tle beep; Apollo 8’s charming Christmas greeting; the Space Shuttle launch countdown; and,…

How Many Undiscovered Blood Groups Are There?

You may think that you know your blood type, but did you know that there are in fact 35 blood group systems in humans? These include well-known systems such as ABO and the Rh system (formerly known as ‘Rhesus’). Advances in research technologies in the past few years have made it possible to identify three…

Fox Orders Frankenstein Pilot That Has Nothing to Do with Frankenstein

And they’re pretty confident in it, since they’ve made a “put pilot” commitment on it. That means they either air it or pay a lot of money. The project comes from Rand Ravish (Crisis, Life) and Howard Gordon (Homeland, Tyrant). The former is writing and executive producing and the latter is executive producing. Frankenstein is…

B&O Has a Stunning New High-End Bluetooth Speaker

Bang and Olufsen is usually best known for audio equipment that costs more than your car. But now, it’s decided to create something that normal people can afford—its first ever portable Bluetooth speaker. The BeoPlay A2, presumably squaring up to Bowers & Wilkins’ new offering, claims to be supremely portable—so, despite a reassuring weight, it’s…

This Bench Is Built Using Two Power Mac G5s

The Apple Power Mac G5 was an iconic computer—but, launched back in 2003, it’s since been superseded by the Mac Pro. So what better way to celebrate its long and useful life than using its bold looks elsewhere in the office? Put together by Klaus Geiger, this piece of furniture brings new meaning to the…

Yahoo’s new email app, available for Android and iOS, integrates event and travel notifications alongside all your messages. Sound familiar?

Brand New Isaac Asimov Essay Mulls the Origins of Creativity

In 1959 Issac Asimov wrote an essay on where new ideas come from. It wasn’t found until fifty-five years later, when Arthur Obermayer, scientist and friend of Asimov, cleaned out some of his old files. It is as illuminating now as it was then. In the introduction of the essay, published in full by the…

Good night, Chicago

I like Chicago. The city is clean, the architecture is nice, Wrigley Field is fun, a river cuts through it and the lake is right there. I wanted to make fun of the Bean but it drew me in like a mosquito about to be zapped. And hey, I realized that I don’t really like…

Classic sci-fi spaceships make me nostalgic for a future that never was

French illustrator Manchu is one of the masters of classic sci-fi illustration. His worlds and spaceships are massive, optimistic, colorful, and sometimes even zany on his alien spaceship designs. Masterfully crafted, his work reminds me of another one of the greatest: The British Chris Foss. Seeing these paintings make me happy. Manchu is the alias…

These Paper Masks Are Halloween Costumes Made Easy

And polygonal. While you’re considering making some of your own Halloween decorations, you can also consider getting some of these paper mask patterns from Steve Wintercroft. https://gizmodo.com/the-ultimate-collection-of-clever-halloween-decorations-1649445688 His patterns are available on etsy and his website. You can go minimalist and just leave it the color of the paper you use or you can take…

The new Double Down burger is even more ridiculous than the original

Foodbeast found a new KFC Double Down burger that is even more insane than the original: the Zinger Double Down King at KFCs in Korea. Instead of just sandwiching bacon and cheese with two fried chicken filets, this Double Down uses the same fried chicken for buns but adds a sauced up burger patty in…

Air New Zealand made a Lord of the Rings movie for an epic safety video

Air New Zealand loves to make fun in-flight safety videos that can include anything from body paint to supermodels to Richard Simmons to Betty White. This time though, they’ve gone beyond epic: the safety video is basically a full on LOTR and Hobbit movie set in Middle Earth. It’s impressive. Air New Zealand has featured…

They Come Here to Appreciate the Abstract Beauty of Skyscrapers

Even when we are cyborgs, our skins hardened into exoskeletons and our lungs tuned to breathe whatever gasses are available, we will still share at least one thing with our human ancestors. We will never tire of looking out over our cities, watching their lights wink on in darkness. Steven Messing is a visual effects…

How to cut a goose feather into a lovely quill pen

I’m not going to lie, I don’t really need to know how to cut and make a quill pen from a goose feather. No one does anymore. But! I was completely fascinated by the process of it. It’s funny how he uses both vintage tools (an 1800’s era quill cutting knife) with modern technology (a…

This Lego Hachi-Roku makes me want to go drifting

It was a fantastic surprise to be greeted with the above model today. Allen Hickmon, of the Just Brick League was commissioned to create this super sweet AE86 model as a birthday present for yours truly. I am a gigantic fan of Initial D and have been working on some mini-figure scale versions of the…

What the USA thinks of Europe and what Europe thinks of the USA

Stereotypes today are typically outdated and vaguely racist but when harmless, they can be quite comical. Like these quick hitter animations about what the USA thinks of Europe and vice versa and what different parts of Europe thinks about the other parts. They’re a lot of fun to watch. Most of the humor seems to…

Can anyone really eat this insane five-patty Japanese cheeseburger?

I always feel guilty eating plain double cheeseburgers at Shake Shack, but after seeing the Tower Cheeseburger by Korean-Japanese fast food chain Lotteria, I won’t anymore. These people are crazy. And the real thing even looks crazier than this beauty marketing shot: Holy crap this thing! Instant heart attack between two buns. I honestly think…

NFL Fans By U.S. County, According to Twitter

Earlier this year, Facebook used information gathered from its users to determine the most popular NFL team in every U.S. county. Now, Twitter has released its own map of NFL fandom in America – and Twitter’s version is interactive. https://gizmodo.com/a-county-by-county-map-of-nfl-allegiance-1631651161 At first glance, Twitter’s fandom map is pretty comparable to Facebook’s. Where the latter uses…

Person of Interest Delivers One of the Most Disturbing Episodes Ever

Just in time for midterm elections, Person of Interest pulled out all the stops with a story of vote tampering, political corruption, and the real difference between good and evil. This was seriously punch-you-in-the-gut storytelling. Our number of the week was Simon Lee, a pollster for a political campaign, whose shoo-in candidate somehow lost the…