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Watch The 1988 Video WB Made To Prove Tim Burton’s Batman Wouldn’t Suck

Holy crap. Has it really been 25 years since Tim Burton’s first Batman film came out and proved superhero movies could be serious? People forget this seemed impossible at the time, which is why WB made this fascinating behind-the-scenes promo video in 1988. According to the special’s director, Andrew Gillman, the video was made to…

NASA’s 70-metric-ton Space Launch System (SLS) is poised to be the rocket that will take us to Mars and beyond. An aerodynamics team at the Langley Research Center recently tested a model of the SLS in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel to measure the tremendous static and dynamic forces that will be exerted on the vehicle…

How the “Spirit” of Japan Is Helping Build a Better Stealth Fighter

Our relationship with Japan has improved considerably over the last several decades, but this chummy relationship definitely has its limits, which manifests specifically inAmerica’s unwillingness to sell Japan any of our new F-22s. That’s why Japan has decided to build a better warbird than the Raptor, all on its own. Our refusal to share the…

One Chart Showing Who Trades With Who In The World

Global trade flows can seem complicated, but this visualization breaks down global trade flow into one chart showing just which countries engage in trade with each other. The chart was put together by Virgilijus Narusevicius for Euromonitor, using their data on global trade flows. As Narusevicius points out, a lot of who trades with who…

David Sedaris Really, Really Loves His Fitbit

Who better than everyone’s favorite manic pixie hyperbolic memoirist, David Sedaris, to write about the agony and the ecstasy of Fitbit ownership? No one, considering how well his latest essay in The New Yorker reads as a love note. Sedaris, who once accused Kindle of bespelling doom, doesn’t seem like the most tech-savvy writer. But…

OneDrive just more than doubled its free-storage offering, bringing it up to 15GB. That’s the same amount you’ll get with Google Drive. On top of that, all versions of Office 365 now come with a full 1TB of storage attached. That’s a lot of spreadsheets.

A Mysterious “Magic Island” Has Appeared On Titan

Saturn’s largest moon has truly strange geography. Astronomers working on the Cassini mission recently observed the sudden appearance of a bright, mysterious object in one of Titan’s northern seas — only to watch it disappear again. Uncertain as to what it is, the researchers offered four explanations. Last year during a routine flyby, the Cassini…

This city from another world is right here on Earth

When I first saw this picture I thought it was an alíen world city from a sci-fi movie. Then I learned it is real: It’s the city of Yangshuo, in China. According to National Geographic’s spectacular feature Empire of Rock: It was a sleepy village two decades ago, when foreign climbers and cavers began frequenting…

Mysterious “Magic Island” appears on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan

A mysterious new geographical feature has appeared on Saturn’s moon Titan. These two Cassini’s radar images show a “mysterious geologic object” surfacing in the Ligeia Mare, Titan’s second largest sea. Cornell University’s astronomers call it “Magic Island” because they are puzzled by its origin and nature. According Jason Hofgartner—a Cornell’s graduate student and lead author…

How New Yorkers Handle A Possession Problem In Deliver Us From Evil

Deliver Us From Evil, the supernatural crime thriller shows us how the people of New York City handle the devil. Apparently it’s with a lot of sass and street savvy quips like, “Where’s your collar, Padre?” Because this movie is based off of the totally factual story from a REAL New York. That really, really…

Not Every Familiar Word In A Foreign Language Is Your Friend

Asking people to pass you the jam in France will get you raucous laughter. Writing to a host family in Spain can get you uninvited to the house. Why? Due to “false friends” — sneaky words that don’t mean what we think they mean. A Spanish teacher I once studied under told me about her…

The Military’s Mini X-Ray Camera Can See Through Your Suitcase

American Science and Engineering (AS&E) just released a tiny new X-ray gun with some impressive capabilities. Roughly the size of a breadbox, the Mini Z Backscatter imaging system can find contraband in bags and see through car doors. It could also someday also be plugged into Oculus Rift for a full-on X-ray goggle experience. The…

Watch As The U.S. Population Goes West Over The Last 220 Years

A lot has changed in the U.S. over the course of the last 220 years, but one thing has remained the same: The steady migration of the population more and more westwards with each passing decade. The visualization was put together by the U.S. Census and tracks the Mean Center of Population, which the Census…

Dolby’s Crazy Atmos Surround Sound Comes to Your Living Room (Update)

More than two years ago, Dolby trotted out Atmos, the most advanced surround sound system in history. It’s been used to bring explosions and battles to deafening life in everything from Gravity to The Hobbit. It’s available in hundreds of theaters and now Dolby plans to bring Atmos to your house. The system supports up…

This Young Impressionist Is A One-Person Game Of Thrones Cast

If someone ever decided to make a Game of Thrones animation, they can save a lot of money by hiring this kid as the sole voice actor. This newest assortment of season 4 voices proves his impressions are still uncanny — close your eyes, and I bet you’ll recognize almost all of them. DrSteveLove, as…

A Luxurious Mechanical Paper Fan That Cools You Like a Pharaoh

Well before air conditioning and oscillating fans kept us cool in the hot summer months, servants waving giant palm leaves was the ideal way to beat the heat. And Thanko’s new USB-powered mechanical paper fan provides a similar experience, without requiring you to keep a professional fanner on staff. For $40 it can run off…

How to Take Care of Your Laptop Battery the Right Way

You probably know a few tricks for extending your laptop’s battery life—whether it’s dimming the screen or switching off Wi-Fi—but there are plenty of other ways you can and should look after its long-term health too. Here’s how to get the most juice out of your laptop by following just a few simple rules. Every…

This U.S. Map Shows the Millions of Streets That Have No Name

Cartographer Kenneth Field is making a series of maps inspired by song lyrics about geography. Taking a cue from U2’s song “Where the Streets Have No Name,” he created this visualization of the 15 million unnamed street segments in the U.S. As he explains at his blog, Cartonerd: First, start with a nice healthy dataset…

Computers are now automatically selecting the best embryos for life

These time lapses are captured by a computer that automatically tracks embryo growth from the moment the sperm enters the egg during in vitro fertilization. It selects the best candidates for implantation in mothers, using special algorithms that look for some key markers during the cell division process. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

Is Nathan Fillion Finally Getting Cast As A Marvel Movie Superhero?

Was a brand new Star Wars character gender-swapped? Kevin Feige gives details on the futures of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange. Dean Devlin explains why they’re rebooting Stargate. And details about the new villains in Orphan Black and Teen Wolf. Spoilers now! Top image: Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy…