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You Can Watch This Baby French Bulldog Play With A Door Stop Forever

His name is Carlos B. and he is adorable. [Via The Laughing Squid.]

These 3,000-year-old trousers are the oldest in the world

An international group of archaeologists have found these trousers—worn between 3,000 and 3,300 years ago—in a tomb in western China. The trousers were invented for horse riding by Chinese pastoralists and are the oldest known examples of this kind of apparel: “This new paper definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented for horse riding…

These are the oldest pants ever discovered. They belonged to a nomadic herder living in China between 3,300 and 3,000 years ago. The invention of trousers, say archeologists, is likely due to the advent of horseback riding and the increased need for mobility. (M. WAGNER/GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE)

Designers Explain Why Apple’s New OS X Typeface Is a Strange Choice

It was one of the more subtle changes showcased during yesterday’s WWDC keynote: Apple finally ditched its OS typeface Lucida Grande to use Helvetica Neue across the board. Now, at least the OS and iOS systems match. But is Helvetica—which is basically unreadable at small sizes—really a better choice? The slim, unfussy Helvetica Neue is…

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Is Tetsuo In Concept Art From Live-Action Akira

We weren’t exactly devastated when the live-action adaptation of Akira fizzled out, but the project certainly left behind some stunning concept art. And it looks like at one point, the filmmakers imagined Chris Evans and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the starring roles. Director Ruairí Robinson has posted several concept images, which apparently come from his tenure…

Did Dolphins Really Save A Girl From Drowning?

According to one researcher, dolphins intentionally led a group of scientists to rescue a suicidal girl in the ocean near Los Angeles. Could that really be true? Last week, Ocean Conservation Society President Maddalena Bearzi published an article in National Geographic Newswatch, adapted from her book, on a moving experience she had while conducting dolphin…

The biggest, most accurate Lego Imperial Star Destroyer ever built

More than 40,000 bricks. 110 pounds (50 kilograms). 6.62 feet long (2.02 meters). 4.1 feet wide (1.25 meters). 1.9 feet tall (58 centimeters). Eight months of design and building. Those are the stats for the biggest, most accurate Lego Imperial Star Destroyer ever built. It’s truly amazing. This model of the Chimaera—the Imperial II-class Star…

Apple Code Hints That Bigger iPhones and iPads Are On The Way

Yesterday, Apple pushed out a beta for its latest suite of developer tools, Xcode 6. And inside, there’s new functionality that hints at iPads and iPhones of varying screen sizes and resolutions. It’s just the latest evidence that new hardware is on the way soon. The Xcode development environment allows you to set the model…

Publishing Industry Plays Eschaton. As the ugly fight between Amazon and Orbit Books’ parent company Hachette continues, there’s a fascinating profile of Hachette chief Michael Pietsch — who was the book editor that made Infinite Jest readable. Image via Poor Yorick Entertainment/Design by Chris Ayers.

No, Female Hurricanes Are Not Deadlier Than Male Hurricanes

A group of marketing researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign decided to tackle the problem of gender bias by analyzing a peculiar statistical anomaly: hurricanes with female names tend to be more deadly than ones with male names. And that was only the first thing they did wrong. Kiju Jung and colleagues published the…

A Transformers Trucker Hat Mask Is the Easiest Halloween Costume

The general rule of thumb is that the older you get, the simpler your Halloween costume becomes. And with yet another Transformers movie hitting theaters this summer, there’s no doubt these Optimus Prime and Megatron-themed trucker hats, complete with masks that unfurl, will be a popular choice this October. When it comes to believability, you’re…

What Is The One Movie That You Never Watch Alone?

There are movies that scare us—and then there are movies that really scare us. I’m talking about the type of films that make us sleep with the lights on after we’ve seen them, or that prompt us to seek shelter in a hastily constructed pillow fort. And, most of all, the type of films that…

Hugh Howey Talks About the Process of Writing His New Novel, Sand

We have an exclusive video interview of Hugh Howey (Wool) and his UK editor, Jack Fogg, discussing Howey’s new novel Sand. It’s a fascinating look at the creative process of one of the most popular science fiction authors today.

Chromecast Deal, Popular Carry-On Bags, IPS Displays, Breaking Bad

If you’ve been meaning to pick up a Chromecast, Amazon has it for $5 off again right now. [Google Chromecast, $30] The Jawbone JAMBOX basically invented the market for portable Bluetooth speakers, and it still holds up well today. You can grab one right now from eBay for $75 new. It’s not uncommon to see…

Behold The Awesome Sight of Four Galaxy Clusters In A Collision

Galaxies often hit each other. But what about galactic clusters? It happens — and this is what it looks like when the largest gravitationally bound objects in the universe slam into one another. This region of space is located about five billion light-years from Earth. It shows no less than four clusters of galaxies in…

How Bad Street Design Kills Pedestrians

In the United States between 2003 and 2012, one pedestrian was hit by a car every eight minutes. 676,000 of those pedestrians lived. 47,025 of those pedestrians died. That’s 16 times the number of people who were killed by natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, or tornadoes during the same period. A new report by Smart…

Behold The Trailer For BoJack Horseman Starring Every Comedian You Love

Check out the first-ever trailer for BoJack Horseman, Netflix’s newest original animated comedy featuring Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie and Aaron Paul. Basically all of the best people. The show centers on a horse who used to be a famous star of a sitcom, and is now just trying to make things work. The…

Leaked Plot Details And Character Art From Disney’s Big Hero 6

With the trailer for Disney’s adaptation of Marvel’s Big Hero 6 finally out, everyone has been itching for more details about the movie. There isn’t much to go on yet, but some new tidbits did just get leaked — and they’re interesting! First off, Hiro’s parents (who were originally going to play a role in…

A Simple Bottle Redesign Makes Removing Lids a Lot Easier

There’s good news for those of us who’ve ever felt embarrassed about not being able to get the cap off a bottle. A team of researchers in Japan have found that the bottle’s round shape could actually be to blame, and that getting caps off bottles with a parallelogram-shaped cross-section is considerably easier. Developed by…

These Medieval-Style Tolkien Illustrations Are Like Nothing We’ve Seen

At first glance, these may look like Russian Orthodox iconography from the Middle ages. But they are actually striking illustrations of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien by Ukrainian artist Sergei Iukhimov. Iukhimov’s watercolor illustrations have graced Russian-language editions of Lord of the Rings, and we’re honestly jealous that we didn’t grow up with these faux-Medieval…