Latest

A Voting App Thinks I’m a Libertarian. I’m Not.

This is the last week to register to vote in many parts of the country, and with several pivotal midterm elections on deck, it’s a good time to make sure you’re an informed citizen. Normally this would entail things like reading up on the issues, but these days apps and sites are trying to make…

Brutally Honest Trailer shows Fight Club’s biggest flaw—or strength

Fight Club opened in theaters 15 years ago. I was an impressionable teenager at that moment and it blew me away. Fincher’s work is spotless—cinematographically speaking. But, as Honest Trailers say, there is a very basic flaw in its plot. Or perhaps this is not a flaw but its biggest strength, as Jesus [Diaz] says.…

See Neal Stephenson’s Badassery As He Opens A Bottle With A Sword

Sabering, or sabrage, is a champagne-opening art popularized at the time of Napoleon’s military campaigns. In this video, Neal Stephenson, the author who gave us Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, shows that doing it properly requires not blunt force, but elegance, precision and a knowledge of physics. A bottle of champagne is under around 90 pounds…

Teenager recreates Hollywood classics in stop motion Lego video

Commissioned by Warren Elsemore, author of the book Brick Flicks: 60 Cult Movie Scenes & Posters Made from Lego, Morgan Spence has created a two-minute stop motion video of several iconic movie scenes. From Breakfast at Tiffany’s to Dirty Dancing there are some really creative builds and this short video is just great. Spense has…

This Nexus Player Is The First Official Android TV

Chromecast who? The real Android TV is here. This is the Nexus Player, a four-inch, half-pound hockey puck of a set-top box designed to watch all your movies AND play your Android games. It’ll cost $99 on October 17th. Powered by a quad-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom processor with PowerVR Series 6 graphics, 1GB of RAM…

Android 5.0 Lollipop: More Than Just Material Design

Google just announced the release of the latest version of Android. It’s called Android Lollipop, and as we already knew, it is damn pretty. There’s a lot more to the updated operating system than a flashy look-and-feel powered by the new Material design interface, though. Android Lollipop is also a powerhouse. https://gizmodo.com/what-material-design-means-for-the-future-of-android-1595976211 More Versatile Google…

​Has Marvel Finally Lost Its @#$%ing Mind?

Between the announcement of Captain America 3: Civil War, the cancelation of the Fantastic Four comics, and all the other Marvel madness that occurred over this past week, there was of course only one question I could lead off with. On the plus side, though, I get to talk about vampire erections. Could be worse!…

Google’s Nexus 6 Superphone Is Here, and It’s a Monster

The long-awaited (and long-rumored) Nexus 6, the 6-inch (technically 5.96) monster phablet, is finally, officially here. The Nexus 6, like its predecessors before it, will be the first device in the world to ship with Android’s new operating system, Lollipop. It’s the purest vision of what an Android phone should be. Apparently Android phones should…

The Nexus 9 Is Android’s iPad Air

It’s been nearly two years since we’ve seen a new Nexus tablet, but the wait is over. Alongside a new Nexus 6 phone, the Nexus Player, and a new version of Android, the Nexus 9 is finally official. It’s like the iPad Air, but Android. https://gizmodo.com/googles-nexus-6-superphone-is-here-and-its-a-monster-1646581919 Just as the rumors indicated, the new Nexus 9…

Starting January 1, you’ll be able to stream every episode of Friends on Netflix (even in Canada). If there was ever a time to challenge Gawker’s definitive ranking of every Friends episode, that time is fast approaching and it is January 2015. Ross Gellerheads everywhere are rejoicing. Could you BE any more excited?

Extraordinary video of the ISS floating in space taken from Earth

ESA’s Optical Ground Station took this extraordinary video of the International Space Station on October 8 as it was being illuminated by a 3.6-Watt 532-nm green laser. The video was taken at 7 frames per second, but the final effects is amazing. It’s incredible to see it moving like that. From ESA: This extraordinary video…

This Science Was Invented by a Man Who Believed That Plants Have Minds

Plants aren’t as flashy as animals, but they’re complex beings with elaborate survival strategies who actively engage with the environment around them, and sometimes even helping their fellow plants react to danger. Still, it would be rather a stretch to claim that they have “minds.” And yet this is what Gustav Fechner believed. The 19th…

How to get your free Lego Bat Signal

Though not nearly as cool as the above build by R D L, on Saturday, October 18th from 12:00-2:00pm all Toys”R”Us locations are hosting a special building event where you can build and take home a Lego Bat-Signal. The stipulation is that this build is intended for children ages 5 and up, so, bring your…

NYC Is Home to a Hyper-Real Simulation of a Massive Nevada Solar Plant

In the desert near Tonopah, Nevada, a circular sea of oversized mirrors— 10,000 mirrors—follow the sun, and direct its rays onto the power tower in the center of the Crescent Dunes solar energy plant. Now, in the middle of Manhattan, a computer-generated visualization of that scene glitters on an LED wall outside Lincoln Center. Solar…

The Latest Agents Of SHIELD‘s Comedy Conceals A Deep Layer Of Darkness

On the surface, last night’s episode of Agents of SHIELD was about “facing reality” — something both Coulson and Fitz were grappling with. But on a deeper level, the (super funny) episode was about how the two men are both severely damaged. And the question of how far you can trust yourself, much less your…

Ask An Entomologist Anything You Want About Mosquitoes

Mosquito bites are not just annoying, they can also spread illnesses. Public health entomologist Grayson Brown is here to take all your questions about mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases. Brown directs the University of Kentucky’s Public Health Entomology Lab, where they look at everything from the spread of Chikungunya to how flooding impacts mosquito populations. Brown…

You too can be Star-Lord with these Guardians of the Galaxy hoodies

Come on, GOTG fans, admit it – ever since you saw Guardians of the Galaxy, who hasn’t wanted to put on an awesome mix of their own and pretend to be one of the Guardians, zipping about space and being badass? These Hoodies will help you pretend just that little bit better. The two licensed…

Can A Human Being Morally Be Friends With A Human-Eating Monster?

That’s one of the questions that comes up in the latest installment of the webcomic Subnormality, in which a young woman has befriended an ancient Sphinx who occasionally feasts on human flesh. And people won’t stop asking her how she can be friends with one of humanity’s few predators. Winston Rowntree wrote and drew the…

The 1,300-Person Quest To Build the Perfect Mechanical Keyboard

The keyboard is functionally invisible. It’s the single piece of hardware you touch the most. But despite being your primary interface with the digital world, it’s remained almost unchanged for decades, ignored, except for the small community of enthusiasts who design, program, and build their own—like the Infinity Keyboard, a new mechanical keyboard that a…

Yes! HBO Without a Cable Subscription Is Coming Next Year

This is big news: HBO just announced it will launch a web-only service sometime next year. Meaning, you can get HBO with no cable subscription. Yay! HBO CEO Richard Pleper made the announcement at an investor presentation today. He said: [There] is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped. It…