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Your Ultra-Short Stories Provide Glimpses Into A Cheerful Dystopia

Whether they were focusing on a cybernetic raven with a sardonic side, a Grim Reaper who just wants to figure out how to retire already, or a search engine out for revenge, your flash fiction stories took us into some dark (yet surprisingly fun!) worlds. Pulled from your submissions to our six-word science fiction call,…

Yelp’s Original Business Model Was to Just Berate People Over Email

In honor of Yelp’s 10th anniversary, Eater has published a fairly comprehensive history of its journey from startup to revenge vessel. The best part, though, comes at the very beginning of the journey, when Yelp’s entire business model consisted of sending out what were essentially chain letters. And then badgering those who refused to respond.…

Are these the 10 best movie fight scenes of all time?

The people at Cinefix say these are the best ten movie fight scenes of all time. It’s a pretty good list. I don’t know if these are the very best. Maybe they are. I don’t really care much because a) I liked it and b) I just wanted an excuse to make a Bruce Lee…

Love Ravioli But Suck at Making It? This Clever Rolling Pin Will Help

Why would you choose to swirl boring ass spaghetti around your fork instead of biting into a delicious, cheesy mouthful of ravioli? Unfortunately, the fun pasta shapes are harder to make. But it doesn’t have to be so hard. If engineer Michael Finizio gets his way, you won’t have to settle for beginner’s noodles just…

The Forrest Gump Syndrome: Soft History, Full Of Famous People

We tend to idealize the past. We file off a lot of the rough edges, imagine everybody having better teeth, and generally tone down a lot of the ugliness. This can be problematic — especially when we soften the depiction of past atrocities. And science fiction and fantasy contribute to this. Science fiction and fantasy…

This Fanny Pack Could Save You From Drowning

Fanny packs fell out of fashion sometime in the mid-1990s, but would you still wear one if it could possibly help save your life? Or, if it meant that when boating or kayaking you didn’t have to wear an awkward and uncomfortable vest-style life jacket? Dakine is betting you will with its new unobtrusive waist…

​More Mars Spacecraft Are Added To NASA’s Augmented Reality App

Finally, you can see the Curiosity Rover land in your front yard and the MAVEN spacecraft hover over your roof. NASA has released a new-and-improved version of its Spacecraft 3D app to coincide with the second anniversary of Curiosity’s landing on Mars. The updated app has added Curiosity’s Descent Stage, MAVEN and two antennae from…

How Doctors Simulate Death to Help Bring You Back to Life

Mark is lying on the operating table right in front of me, and it is obvious that his day has taken a turn for the worse. Which is too bad, because his day started out quite well. About three hours ago, this 42-year old scientist and seasoned long-distance runner went into surgery to remove a…

An artist paid in stock options to paint Facebook’s HQ made $200 million

When artist David Choe painted murals inside Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters back in 2005, he was given a choice for his compensation: $60,000 cash or the same amount in Facebook stock. Choe chose the stock options, which turned out to be a pretty smart move. When Facebook went public in 2012, Choe reportedly made about…

Visual Breakdown For Snowpiercer Reveals The Train’s Secret Meaning

We shall never tire of analyzing Bong Joon-Ho’sSnowpiercer. And now, Nerdwriter has compiled a video breakdown of the film’s visual allegories. Watch how the director uses camera angles and colors to perpetuate (or challenge) the driving force of this film. Did you catch all these different layers on your first screening? Warning: major spoilers for…

Old Cigarette Butts Could Be Used To Make Supercapacitors

The world has too many nasty old cigarette butts. On the other hand, the world could use some supercapacitors, the high-tech replacements for batteries that could potentially charge in seconds. Scientists in South Korea have found a simple process to turn used cigarette filters into high-performing material that works better than graphene or carbon nanotubes…

This Is What Famous Landmarks Would Look Like After A Global Disaster

You’ve seen lots of post-apocalyptic worlds — but how would some of the most famous places on Earth look after everything fell apart? These digital paintings by John Walters and Peter Baustaedter, inspired by The Last of Us, show how 20 years of decay after the fall of humankind affect some iconic buildings. Berlin Hauptbahnhof,…

Watch Nic Cage Get Stuck In The Apocalypse Because He Didn’t Believe

Nic Cage is a pilot, a father, and one of the unlucky people who remain stuck on Earth, because he didn’t pray. Because 2014 is officially the year of movies and television about the Biblical end of days, behold the very emotional trailer for Left Behind. Don’t worry — God remembered to take all the…

The Last Trace of Humans On Earth Will Be the Holes We Dug

When most of us think of what humans will leave behind when we go, we imagine skeleton buildings or toxic landfills. But according to some geologists, the longest-lasting impact we’ll have on Earth is actually beneath our feet—in the form millions of tunnels, deep boreholes, and mines. In a new paper inAnthropocene, the geologist Jan…

A Giant Floating Duck That Generates Solar Power—Because, Why Not?

A group of artists, scientists and engineers have proposed a novel solution to help Copenhagen’s achieve its goal of becoming a carbon-neutral city: a 12-story-high solar energy farm in the shape of a duck. [Image: LAGI] Energy Duck is the brainchild (brainduckling?) of the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), which designs public art installations that…

Image: Scanned from the July 1964 issue of Popular Mechanics Factually is Gizmodo’s new blog of fun facts, interesting photos, and weird trivia. Join us on Twitter and Facebook.

Who’s The Most Obnoxious Fictional Teenager Of All Time?

It’s hard to be a teenager. Everybody wants to shape you in their own image, other kids are horrible, and your hormones are running out of control. So it’s only fair that fiction reflects the turbulence of adolesence — but sometimes, it goes too far. Who’s the most aggravating adolescent in science fiction or fantasy?…

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: A Deckbuilding RPG Of Surprising Depth

The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is like a cooperative RPG, with stacks of cards instead of a DM. Explore forgotten ruins and haunted towers, battle weird undead cultists and hordes of goblins, and collect magical treasure, building your character’s abilities for the challenges ahead. The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game(PACG) is a deckbuilding card game that…

This Insane, Screaming Hawk-Man Was Almost Doctor Who

If you know the venerable, boisterous actor Brian Blessed, you probably know him as the leader of the Hawk-Men in the Flash Gordon movie, the voice of Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace, or his masterful performance as Augustus Caesar in I, Claudius. But you almost knew him from Doctor Who. In an interview, Blessed…

What the Heck Is Toothpaste Anyway?

It’s been part of humanity’s hygiene regimen for more than 4,000 years, but have you ever stopped to think what’s actually in the stuff you’re smearing across your teeth? The ingredients of modern toothpaste may read like a mad scientist’s shopping list, but they’re far better than what our ancestors had to endure for healthy…