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This New Ikea Desk Goes From Sit To Stand With the Push of a Button

Sitting is comfy, but hours (and hours and hours) on your rear-end isn’t great for your bod (even though it probably won’t kill you). Standing is good, but tiresome after a while. Hybrid desks can be pricey but Ikea is betting on Bekant, a workspace that raises and lowers on two telescopic legs with a…

Well, THAT Was Surprisingly Easy, Supernatural

Not that we’re really that surprised or anything. But last night’s Supernatural definitely felt like it was a little too easy. Spoilers follow… Dean Winchester getting turned into a scummy demon was one of the most interesting things that’s happened to Supernatural in a while, so it’s kind of too bad the show shoved this…

Air New Zealand’s New Hobbit Video Is Greatest Flight Safety Film Ever

In honor of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the folks at Air New Zealand have updated their Hobbit-studded flight safety video with even more special effects madness and costumed flight attendants—plus cameos from Elijah Wood, Peter Jackson, and Sylvester McCoy. https://gizmodo.com/air-new-zealand-s-insane-hobbit-filled-flight-safety-v-5957022 Taika Waititi directed what Air New Zealand is calling “The Most…

All the President’s Men Is What Made Me Want to Become a Journalist

Ben Bradlee was editor of the Washington Post when the newspaper did something phenomenal: It took down the Nixon administration in the Watergate scandal. I didn’t know anything about Bradlee or newspapers or the Washington Post when I saw the 1976 film about the scandal—I only knew I wanted to work somewhere just like that.…

This is first trailer for Avengers 2: Age of Ultron and it looks amazing

Comicbook Resources got the trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, apparently leaked early by Movieweb, and now it appears it has leaked everywhere. It’s narrated by Ultron (James Spader), and features all the team members—plus the much anticipated Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor. [UPDATED with highlights] Update: Here’s the official trailer from Marvel. Here are the…

What Do You See In This Nebula?

Did that swirl of gas and dust just face-palm a pulsar? System PSR B1509-58 has a history of inspiring pareidolia, and this latest infrared and x-ray composite image is just calling out for creative interpretation. Top image: X-ray (gold) and infrared (red, green, and blue) composite of neutron star PSR B1509 imaged in 2014. Credit:…

A man returns to Chernobyl after leaving decades ago

This is the music video for It’s Alright, by Fractures, filmed in location in Chernobyl, Ukraine, right after the Maidan revolution that shook that country. It’s not as visually or musically powerful as Paolo Nutini’s Iron Sky, but I like the overall tone. Fractures is the moniker of the Melbourne-based musician Mark Zito. You can…

These Insanely Detailed Star Wars Models Are Truly Works of Art

As the next wave of leaks from the next Star Wars are oh-so-slow to trickle in, hopefully this will tide you over: A colossal collection of 140 photographs featuring Industrial Light & Magic’s model-building process from 1977 to 1983. It’s simply incredible. These photos can tell you everything you need to know about great filmmaking.…

Here’s The Hulkbusting First Trailer For Avengers: Age Of Ultron

The trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron has arrived online a bit early, showing off Iron Man’s Hulkbuster armor and Ultron himself in creepy, creepy action—along with the MCU’s version of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Update: Official trailer now up in all its hi-res glory! Yep, that chilling version of the song from Pinocchio…

The Best times An On-Screen Adaptation Strayed From The Book

The disappointing changes made in the on-screen adaptations from some of our favorite books have been well catalogued. But what about the times when the on-screen adaptation diverted from its source material, for the best? In response to this post on the reasons not to worry over adaptations switching up plot points from the books,…

Ancient Europeans were lactose intolerant for 5,000 years after switching over to agriculture. DNA extracted from skulls dating from 5,700 BC to 800 BC shows that Europeans carried the genes for lactose intolerance. But that didn’t stop them from eating dairy products like milk and cheese for 4,000 years. The study shows that genomes can…

MIT’s Science Fiction Society Has 60,000 Books And Some Zany Traditions

Reason number 5,000,000,000 to wish you’d gone to MIT… There’s a great article in MIT News Magazine about the MIT Science Fiction Society, with its incredibly awesome library. Which started with a wooden crate dragged between dorm rooms in 1949 and is now a massive storehouse of awesome. According to one chemistry grad student, D.W.…

Hot Chip: I Feel Better

Music videos allow artist to convey profound emotions: Joy. Sorrow. Bliss. Anger. It’s also capable, in rare instances, of making you nearly pee your pants with laughter. Such is the case with Hot Chip’s classic 2010 video for I Feel Better. The video starts off with a slick performance from a fictional boy band called…

iPad Air 2 Teardown: Slimmer Body, Smaller Battery

The iPad Air 2 is probably most impressive for its design. The original was super slim, and somehow Apple managed to make the new iteration even thinner. But as iFixit’s teardown of the new tablet reveals, that hot design comes with a smaller battery. Maybe it’s not totally surprising that the battery got smaller. You…

Adrianne Palicki’s Mockingbird Outfit On Agents Of SHIELD Is SO GOOD

You may have seen the first Marvel Cinematic Universe appearance of Bobbi Morse, the agent codenamed Mockingbird, in last night’s Agents of SHIELD. But you haven’t seen her in her official Mockingbird superhero outfit, because Marvel just released the first pic — and it’s damn near perfect. Now that’s a suit that would look 100%…

This Is How We Imagined Aerial Warfare 120 Years Ago

These gorgeous illustrations from the late nineteenth century reveal what people imagined air combat would be like in the future. It’s pretty spectacular — and weirdly prescient, too. These illustrations come from the novels The Angel of the Revolution: A Tale of the Coming Terror and its sequel Olga Romanoff (also known as The Syren…

Wild mountain goats in the Italian Alps have gotten significantly smaller over the past few decades in response to a warming climate. Call us crazy, but rising seas seems a small price to pay for adorable tiny goats. Thanks, global warming!

Which States Have The Most Restrictive Voting Laws?

Republican candidates are poised to gain next month from new election laws in almost half the states in the U.S., where additional requirements defy a 50-year trend of easing access to the polls. This infographic shows where it’s the most difficult to cast your ballot. As Bloomberg Politics notes: In North Carolina, where Democratic U.S.…

You Probably Never Realized How Marble Is Harvested, But It’s Beautiful

Ever wondered how marble is quarried? The process, documented in this stunning short by Italian artist and filmmaker Yuri Ancarani, is utterly transfixing. Assorted observations: It’s a little unreal how beautiful this is. I never realized that raw marble is harvested in colossal slabs from the sides of mountains. That is just unreal. The quarry…

Which Series Did You Love — Until It Killed Your Favorite Character?

Death adds real stakes to a fictional universe. If nobody ever dies, then nothing feels real. And yet some deaths don’t just diminish us all, they just plain ruin a series. For good. Which science fiction or fantasy series lost its heart, or just became less good generally, when one character died? Please include a…