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How the iPhone 6 Stacks Up Against Its Toughest Competition

The iPhone 6 is here! It’s sleek and rounded, just like the leaked photos we’ve been seeing for months. But now we finally know what’s inside that Jony Ive-designed shell. How’s it measure up to the stiff smartphone competition? Let’s see. First things first, screen size. Apple boosted the iPhone’s screen to 4.7 inches diagonal,…

A New Kind of Baker’s Yeast That Gets You High

The powerful painkiller morphine comes from opium poppies, which only grow in a few places around the world. But now, a group of bioengineers are on the cusp of creating a modified form of baker’s yeast that can synthesize the drug. What happens when we can brew up heroin in a vat of yeast? Photo…

Read an Excerpt from John Darnielle’s Haunting Novel Wolf in White Van

Wolf in White Van is one of the most intense, engrossing novels about gaming you’ll ever read, and we’ve got an excerpt. Written by John Darnielle, creator of The Mountain Goats, it’s a moody, surreal character study of a game designer whose face was disfigured in a mysterious accident. We reviewed the novel here ,…

The Guardians Of The Galaxy‘s Anime Debut Must Be Seen To Be Believed

You may remember Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers, the ridiculous, Beyblade/Pokémon-esque anime series in Japan, designed solely to sell Marvel merch to young kids. Well, the Guardians of the Galaxy are making their debut in the show next week, and OH MY GOD WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE THAT Ignoring Star-Lord’s almost hilariously stereotypical spiky…

Sponges: How Do They Work?

They wash your dishes, your car, even your back. Sponges are a ubiquitous tool of the modern world—and have been since the earliest days of mediterranean culture—but how much do you really know about the absorbent little helper riding your kitchen sink’s rim? Until just recently, sponges the animal and sponges the domestic tool were…

A Pair Of Unusual Princesses Decide To Rescue Each Other

Sadie is a princess who loves dancing, cries at the drop of a hat, and has found herself imprisoned in a tower with a pudgy dragon as her sole companion—that is, until the unicorn riding, butt-kicking Princess Amira shows up to rescue her and throws a wrench in their fairytale story. Strangely Katie’s Princess Princess…

Exclusive Look At Outlander’s Wily Bunch Of Highlanders

Oh Outlander, how we love thee. We love your gorgeous hills and green fields and weird peeing rituals. But most of all, we love your angry highlanders who love to get drunk and fight. So here’s an exclusive tribute to the highlanders who populate the lovely landscape that is Outlander.

Ancient Egyptian Art Contains The Records of Past Extinctions

Six thousand years ago, the Egyptian wilderness was a very different place. Lions ruled, zebras gathered in large herds, giraffes foraged from tall trees. We know that, in part, thanks to drawings on the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs. Can ancient art help us better understand modern Egyptian wildlife? Fossilized remains of plants and animals…

This Cuddly Python Redirects AC to the Back of Your Car

If you’re looking for an act of futility, try keeping a couple of young kids comfortable in the back of a car during a long road trip. There’s an infinite number of sources of discomfort they’ll eventually find, but with this long plush tube that redirects an air conditioning vent directly to the back seat,…

Ship Lost in the Arctic 160 Years Ago Found Thanks to Climate Change

In 1845, the explorer John Franklin set off to sail the fabled Northwest Passage, an Arctic sea route that would hypothetically connect the Atlantic and the Pacific. He never returned. His ship was lost to the ice. But now, thanks to the obsession of Canada’s prime minister, an expedition has located one of Franklin’s two…

This excellent Brienne of Tarth Cosplay is simply wonderful

Cosplayer Galacticat had a whole host of delightful outfits for this year’s Dragon Con, but none are as flawless as her excellent recreation of Game of Thrones’ Brienne of Tarth. This is some of the best Brienne cosplay I think I’ve ever seen. Not only is the gear spot on, a brilliant rendition of Brienne’s…

The Fonts That Come With Your Computer Are Older Than You Ever Thought

While you may take for granted the basic pack of fonts that came with your word processing software, someone had to invent each and every one of those fonts. And while some common fonts were invented after the advent of the computer, others are centuries old. Above: An example of the memetic use of Impact,…

Greenhouse gases are increasing at the fastest rate they have in 30 years. That means our atmosphere collected more greenhouse gas in the past year than they have in decades, and ocean acidification is moving faster too. The BBC has a report on this new finding.

iTunes Comes With Free Bono

Your iTunes subscription now comes with its very own free Bono (album in which he sings lead vocals). Yep, every single iTunes user (500 million customers total!) is getting the new U2 album absolutely free. What’s more, you won’t be able to get it anywhere else (Beats Music and iTunes Radio not included) until mid-October.…

The Apple Watch Wants to Be Your Full-Fledged Personal Trainer

The Apple Watch wants you to work up a sweat. Apple’s newest gadget is a pedometer and a heart-rate monitor, and it comes with a robust array of fitness tracking features, including three separate rings to track your movement. The Move ring will tell you if you’ve done a normal amount of brisk human activity…

​Don’t Miss Grant Morrison’s Other Mind-Blowing Comic Book Epic

Still have a few firing synapses after trying to wrap your head around Grant Morrison’s unified theory of DC that is Multiversity? Then you’d best not miss out on Annihilator, in which fiction and non-fiction collide — and a struggling writer must keep his mind and the universe from imploding! New Issues Annihilator #1 (Legendary)…

An Outbreak Turns These Creatures To Blue Goo—But Who Is Responsible?

The creatures in this clever short film are hit by a terrifying outbreak, one that causes them to explode into a blue gooey substance. Be sure to watch to the end to find out who is behind this mysterious menace. Nexus produced It’s Payback Time to promote the Stand Up to Cancer Telethon airing on…

Apple Just Gave iOS 8 a Few New Tricks

We’ve long known that iOS 8 was a powerful (mostly under-the-hood) upgrade. But on its official launch day, Apple announced a few new features that really take the operating system to the next level. And you won’t even have to hunt very hard to find them! Pro Tip: iOS 8 will be available on September…

Apple Watch’s Walking Directions Buzz Your Wrist When It’s Time to Turn

Apple Maps have always had turn-by-turn walking directions, provided you had your iPhone in your hand. Now Apple’s new Watch will not only provide high-quality maps right there ON YOUR ARM, it will also give you an haptic nudge when you need to turn right. Using the Watch (do we call it “The Watch?”), you’ll…

Do Gene-Based Dating Services Pass The Sniff Test?

Singld Out, an online dating service based on “cutting-edge” science, has the solution for busy singles to — quite literally — sniff out the perfect companion. So, should you drop $299 a year for a perfect match and eternal happiness — or is it all just a load of crap? The dating site, in conjunction…