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In New Neil Gaiman Book, Sleeping Beauty Is Woken By Snow White’s Kiss

Neil Gaiman’s upcoming children’s book, The Sleeper and the Spindle, is a richly illustrated collaboration with artist Chris Riddell that retells the story of Sleeping Beauty. But this time the princess is rescued not by a prince’s kiss, but by a queen’s. Here’s a description of the book, due out October 23rd, from Amazon: A…

Raymond Loewy’s NASA Designs Are The Space Future That Never Was

From 1967 until 1973 NASA employed the services of Raymond Loewy, a legendary figure in the design world. Loewy’s firm produced over 3,000 designs for NASA during this time. And everything they produced for the space agency would fit perfectly in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey — like the Loewy space taxi pictured above.…

What Would Gravity Falls Look Like As An Anime?

Now, no one is suggesting that Gravity Falls toss out its energetic animation style in favor of a more anime-inspired one. But it’s fun to see cartoons redone in a different type of animation. Animator Mike Inel took a “what if” approach, reanimating part of one episode as anime. The audio for this segment comes…

Quit Stalling and Upgrade to a Mechanical Keyboard, and More Deals

Monoprice’s Cherry MX Black mechanical gaming keyboard is on sale today for just $60 with free shipping, and an extra Columbus Day promo code knocks another 10% off. This is about as cheap as you’ll ever see a decent mechanical keyboard. [Monoprice Cherry MX Black Mechanical Gaming Keyboard, $60] If you’re running low on iTunes…

Your Cheap Ticket to the Whedonverse, Future Past, and More Deals

Here’s your cheap ticket to the Whedonverse. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Series [DVD] ($59) | Amazon Angel: The Complete Series [DVD] ($50) | Amazon Firefly: The Complete Series ($14) | Amazon Serenity ($8) | Amazon Dollhouse: Season 1 ($15) | Amazon Dollhouse: Season 2 ($14) | Amazon Days of Future Past is the…

Electric brand apple crate label from the turn of the 20th century in the National Museum of American History collection. Electric brand apples were shipped from Wenatchee, Washington by the Mann Fruit Company. Factually is Gizmodo’s new blog of fun facts, interesting photos, and weird trivia. Join us on Twitter and Facebook.

Square-Enix continues to make Gotham’s characters even wackier

Play Arts Kai’s unrepentantly mad appropriation of their DC license continues! Square-Enix brought their A-game to New York Comic Con , but it wasn’t just Tetsuya Nomura’s Catwoman that gave use their bizarre look at Batman’s Rogues gallery there – there were also these figures of Harley Quinn and the Joker too. The prototypes of…

Lego Bionicle game, app and GOLD mask rumors

BZPower recently interviewed Kari Vinther Nielsen, social marketing manager for Lego Bionicle, at the new Flatiron Lego store. In the interview she hints at a game and an application on the horizon. There is also some very vague talk about what might happen with the 14k gold masks that were on display at New York…

High Speed Trains Can Make Underground Sonic Booms

High speed rail may be an efficient way to get large numbers of people between two high-traffic destinations, but it does pose some problems. One is the recently-confirmed existence of “ground vibration booms.” These are sonic booms that happen underground. Sonic booms are usually produced by airplanes, because sound travels at a certain speed in…

Fireballs and Wolves: The Horrifying Story of the First Spacewalk

Almost 60 years ago, we took our first steps into the big, black nothingness of space. Or more specifically, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had the honor of taking the very first space-dip. But this was a rush job—a means for the Soviet Union to shame the US and win the space race once and for…

Incredible photo of an F-18 zooming through the Golden Gate bridge

Rich Shelton loves airplanes and San Francisco, which shows in all his beautiful photos. He was able to take this incredible image of a Blue Angels’ F/A-18 zooming through the Golden Gate bridge at Fleet Week in San Francisco. Here are some more images taken by him from previous editions. Based in Tiburon, California, Rich…

Movie and Gaming Calendar Updates, Future Past Pre-Sequel Edition

X-Men: Days of Future Past comes home this week with a Collector’s Edition and various retailer exclusive versions, along with the first seasons of Fargo and Penny Dreadful. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel headlines this week’s gaming releases, but don’t forget about Playstation TV which is finally hitting shelves. Are you picking up a Playstation TV? Which…

The GOP Intensifies Its Attacks On The National Science Foundation

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the Chairman of the House Science Committee on Science, Space and Technology has repeatedly denounced the National Science Foundation for squandering taxpayer money on frivolous research. Now he’s gone a step further, demanding personal political scrutiny of peer-reviewed research grants. Smith has used several hearings this year as an opportunity to…

Report: We’re Not Getting Retina MacBook Airs This Week After All

It looks like we may have to wait a bit longer for those crystal-clear retina MacBook Airs. In a report on Re/code today, John Paczkowski claims that Apple’s long-awaited pixel-powered MacBook Air update won’t be released at Apple’s impending event this Thursday. The upgrade to retina screens has been on our most-wanted list for more…

How To Put Your Photos on Your TV with Chromecast

Google had promised us it was coming, and how its here: Chromecast has been updated with a new Backdrop feature that lets you display your own photos when you’re not busy streaming something. You can also display popular photos from elsewhere, and news and weather snippets. Here’s how to get the new feature set up.…

When Ultralight Isn’t Right: How To Slow Down And Enjoy Backpacking

Shorter toothbrushes, lighter weights and longer distances. Ultralight backpacking and its subsequent bragging rights are all the rage right now, but are its goals-based proponents missing the entire point? At dinner on Thursday night, an old buddy told me of his plan to set a through-hike record on the John Muir Trail next summer. He’s…

Using iOS 8’s QuickType on Tinder Will Not Get You Laid

Among the worst features of Apple’s iOS 8 is QuickType, a feature that believes it can figure out what you’re going to text someone before you even think of it. It could be magical, instead it’s only good for writing nonsense sentences and mangling famous movie quotes. But maybe, just maybe you can use it…

Finally, a Lithium Battery That Warns You Before It Bursts Into Flames

Lithium ion batteries are wonderful things, but they’re unfortunately given to short circuiting and bursting into flames every now and then. It’s extraordinarily rare, but it happens. A Stanford research team thinks they’ve solved this little big problem by building an early warning system into an existing battery. They say it could save lives, which…

Has America Been Installing Its Solar Panels Sideways For Years?

There’s a structure to installing solar panels. The size, the shape, and the configuration are all pretty rigidly prescribed. There’s also a direction they face: South. The trouble? They might actually be facing the wrong way. The rationale behind rooftop southern-facing panels seems solid. By having them face south — which almost all the rooftop…

The Genius Who Thought The Greek Hell Was Located in Sweden

It’s always entertaining when really smart people get carried away. Olof Rudbeck was really smart. He could do pretty much everything. Unfortunately, “everything” included convincing himself that Hades, the Greek land of the dead, was located in Sweden. Olof Rudbeck had a lot of brains, and he made good use of them. There were very…