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Deals: Lego Castle 10-33% off at Amazon

Amazon currently has all of the 2013 Lego Castle sets on sale. These are phasing out of the product line very soon. Now is a really good time to pick them up. Forest Ambush (70400) $7.99 (was $11.99) Gold Getaway (70401) $13.59 (was $19.99) Gatehouse Raid (70402) $22.25 (was $29.99) Dragon Mountain (70403) $45.37 (was…

40 years of US household income inequality in one graphic

NPR’s Planet Money has a feature on household inequality in the United States shown in graphics. The graphic above on household income over the last 40 years is particularly striking: After adjusting to inflation, you can see that the lowest incomes have barely moved. In fact, they went down. By contrast, the top layers of…

Watch Workers Blow Up Bedrock to Make Way for NYC’s Second Ave Subway

After years and years of deliberation, the first phase of the Second Avenue subway is finally getting built. The effort is a lot more complex than you’d even imagine. The New York Times takes us behind the scenes in its third installment of the Living City series—showing us the unintended byproduct of heavy infrastructural construction:…

Historian Tracks Down The World’s Oldest Book Doodles

Historian Erik Kwakkel has spent years at Leiden University in the Netherlands examining some of the world’s oldest books and manuscripts. He’s fascinated with “pen trials”—small sketches drawn by medieval scribes testing the ink flow of their quills. Among his discoveries: the smiley face goes back centuries. As the art and design site Colossal writes:…

Scientists Make the World’s Smallest “Microphone” From a Single Molecule

With a name like “microphone,” you’d expect something small—but perhaps not quite as small as this. Scientist have figured out how to use just one molecule to detect the vibrations from sound. Although we talk about “hearing” rather than “feeling” sound, sound is made up of the physical vibrations through some medium, usually air but…

Facebook Says Whoops, Updates Rules for News Feed Manipulation (Updated)

A few months ago, the world found out that Facebook made its users into test subjects, showing some folks artificially happy (or artificially sad) News Feeds to see if it affected the emotions in the user’s own posts. The internet was not happy about that. Now, Facebook says it’s updated its research guidelines in response.…

Bose’s SoundTouch Wireless Systems Now Have Deezer Streaming Built In

A few weeks ago, fabled streaming music service Deezer finally made its way to America exclusively on Sonos systems, and exclusively in the form of its new, CD-quality Deezer Elite. Today, Bose gets in on the action too. Bose SoundTouch music systems now come with a Deezer Premium account baked in, so that you don’t…

Ikea’s New Furniture Assembles in Minutes Without a Single Tool

Ikea has made buying furniture as easy as picking up milk at the corner store, but as convenient as the company’s flat-pack approach to selling desks and shelving is, the assembly part can still be a pain. Its new living room line, though, uses specially-designed wedge dowels, allowing the pieces to be assembled using only…

Warner Bros. Chooses Random, Unrelated Script To Be I Am Legend Prequel

There are two things the recently announced I Am Legend prequel won’t have in common with the 2007 Will Smith-vs.-world-full-of-vampires movie I Am Legend: 1) Will Smith, and 2) A script that has anything to do with I Am Legend. WB has decided to turn a random, unrelated script they purchased earlier this year into…

These are the four candidate landing sites for the ExoMars 2018 mission. This particular region of Mars is at an acceptable elevation and free from excessive dust. And the sites – Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Aram Dorsum – are all close to the equator. Touchdown of the ExoMars Rover is expected in…

The best flying experience ever perfectly recreated in cool new photos

Michael Kelleyis a Los Angeles-based architectural photographer and aviation lover who often catches himself “at 2am looking up articles on aviation” (I know that feeling.)So when the opportunity came to recreate the famous Pan Am way-of-fly using a vintage 747, he jumped right in.His new photos are perfect. From its founding in the 1920s to…

This Ghostly Town Spent 25 Years Underwater Before Resurfacing

At one time, Epecuén was a booming resort city: a grand town on a beautiful lake, attracting vacationers from all over Argentina in the 1920s with its revitalizing salt waters. There were hotels, nightclubs, and restaurants. Today, it’s a thicket of bleached white ruins, latticed with rusted steel and fallen power lines. Like so many…

It Looks Like Camera Roll Is Coming Back to iOS 8

Apple’s throwing us a bone, folks. Despite the seemingly never-ending hiccups of iOS 8, the company has apparently decided to respond to overwhelming demand and reintroduce the much-missed Camera Roll feature in iOS 8.1. It’s a little unclear exactly what this means, however. Mention of the Camera Roll magically and quietly appeared in the iOS…

Peter Capaldi’s Most Embarrassing Moment As A Young Doctor Who Fan

We know that Peter Capaldi was a huge fan of Doctor Who long before he took up the mantle of the 12th Doctor, but apparently his enthusiasm earned him the ire of the BBC’s Doctor Who office. Watch him squirm adorably as he hears what one BBC employee thought of his younger self. While Capaldi…

Eneloop Rechargeables, Kitchen Toys, Free Amazon Coins [Deals]

Eneloops are really the only rechargeable batteries you should consider buying, and the massive Super Power Pack is both in stock (not a given), and on sale today. That gets you a charger, 12 AAs, 4 AAAs, 2 C spacers, and 2 D spacers. [Eneloop Super Power Pack, $47] Get these deals and more, and…

Your New Telescope, Alien: Isolation, Sleeping Beauty [Deals]

The best Disney movie that isn’t The Sword in the Stone, and an absolute must own on Blu-ray. Preorder the Diamond Edition, which is down to $20. [Sleeping Beauty Diamond Edition] There is also an alternate, exclusive cover available at Best Buy. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/sleeping-beauty-diamond-edition-blu-ray-disc/8429485.p?id=3275803 Alien: Isolation is out in just a few days, so get your…

A Redesigned Drain Cover Fixes the Worst Cleaning Chore In Your Home

Taking out the trash is never fun. Vacuuming the living room is rarely enjoyable. But few chores are as despised as having to clean the hair from the drain cover in your shower. Thankfully, a clever designer named Chen Wanting agrees, and has come up with a brilliantly simple solution allowing long hair to be…

These wonderful doodles transform Starbucks’ Mermaid Logo into cool Art

When Reddit user IHunt gets bored at work, he takes discarded Starbucks coffee cups and doodles over the company’s Mermaid logo and turns her into lovely stylised versions of comic book characters and more. My favourite might just be IHunt’s take on the new Batgirl design seen above, but his Wolverine and Teenage Mutant Ninja…

Luminous Nature Photographs Will Restore Your Sense of Wonder

The submission deadline for National Geographic’s annual Photo Contest is still a month away, but this year’s competition is already swarming with spectacular entries from photographers around the world. The deadline for submissions is October 31st, and winners’ names will be available online after November 30th ( see here for Ts and Cs). In the…

Will GMO Labeling Raise Food Prices?

Oregon will soon vote on Proposition 92, which requires mandatory labeling of GM foods. While opponents of the measure warn labeling costs will increase food prices, supporters just released a study saying the median cost to consumers would only be $2.30 per year. But that estimate overlooks some crucial ingredients. The 14-page study, published by…