Latest

​12 Of The Craziest Characters Created By Jack “King” Kirby

Jack Kirby was a genius, one of the forefathers of the entire comic industry, and a man with limitless imagination. He was also kind of insane. Besides creating Captain America, the X-Men and countless other heroes and villains, he produced some of the weirdest comics ever made. Here are only a few of Kirby’s craziest…

Using goTenna’s Pocket Antenna to Send Texts Without Cell Service

Inspired by the downed cell towers and utility outages of Hurricane Sandy, the folks at goTenna wanted a way to keep smartphones connected even when the grid fails. What they came up with is a pocket-sized handheld antenna that lets users send texts and location info without cell service. And we got to see a…

Scientists have identified whale-ship collisions as a possible factor in why blue whale population numbers have remained low, despite international laws against hunting. One possible solution: speed restrictions in shipping lanes would give whales time to get out of the way.

What the far future of space mining could look like

When it’s time to colonize space, we will need space miners to provide with the minerals and gases needed to build massive ships and refuel stations across the Solar System. There are serious companies already working on it—and concept designer Cuba Lee has imagined how this would look in moons, asteroids, and gas planets. It’s…

How Would Christianity Deal with Extraterrestrial Life?

How would the world’s religions react to the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence? There is, of course, no single answer. But for Christians who believe in the redemption of humanity through a singular event—the Incarnation of God through Christ—the question poses an especially complex dilemma. To appreciate the conundrum, a good place to start is with…

Sonic Cannons Are Going to Wreck East Coast Ecology in Search of Oil

The Obama administration’s record on environmental responsibility took a huge hit last Friday when the Feds approved not only energy exploration off the Eastern seaboard for the first time in 40 years, but also the use of sonic cannons, which have been linked to immense disruptions of oceanic life. Who cares about the survival of…

Our Favorite Protest Sign From Comic-Con So Far

This fellow is waiting in the infamously massive line for Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. But he’s not protesting the long wait; he’s protesting the current leadership of Westeros. Melisandre might have a thing or two to say about one side of that sign. If I were this guy, I’d steer clear of any…

Watch Guillermo Del Toro Give A Personal Tour Of His Tiny Haunted House

Tucked away on the massive convention floor inside Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro built a miniature version of his haunted house from his upcoming Gothic horror story Crimson Peak. And then proceeded to give personal tours of his tiny terror. It was amazing. Watch! First up, apologies for the quality of this footage. It’s not great…

19th century America grew 14,000 varieties of apple. Today we have 90.

North America used to have a much more diverse assortment of apples. In fact, it’s estimated that as many as 14,000 different varieties of apples were grown here in the 19th century. Today, only about 90 varieties are commercially grown. From the Brooklyn Botanic Garden: But in the 19th century, apples came in all shapes…

Watch This Bot With a Broken Leg Learn To Walk Straight Again

Humans are highly adaptable creatures, and we’ll do anything we can to prevent an injury from completely immobilizing us. So if robots are supposed to eventually take over all of our duties, they need to learn how to quickly bounce back from damage as well—which is what this research with walking robots is hoping to…

Deals: Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery, Transformers Comics, PS1 RPGs

90 minutes of deleted scenes! One of television’s best, and one of my favorite shows ever finally gets the awesome package it deserves with Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery. You can get it for $89 today five days out of release, compared to $120+ elsewhere. Use code SHIPFREE. [Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery] Unlike the…

Why Don’t Ice Cream Sandwiches Melt?

An “ice cream” sandwich left in the sun doesn’t melt. How is that even possible? Image Credit: WCPO Cincinnati. Cincinnati-area mom Christie Watson recently discovered that an ice cream sandwich, left uneaten on a sunlit patio table for 12 hours, had not completely melted. Unnerved, she took a second sandwich from her box of Walmart…

Deals: Your New Soundbar, Custom Bluetooth Speaker, Timbuk2 Sale

Today’s Amazon deal of the day is a highly-rated Polk Audio soundbar that’ll be perfect for upgrading your home theater, or streaming music from your phone via Bluetooth. Today’s price is over $80 less than Amazon has ever sold it for, and I’d be surprised if it lasts all day. [Polk Audio 39″ Bluetooth Soundbar,…

You Can Actually Buy a Flux Capacitor Car Charger Now

The folks at ThinkGeek put so much effort into their April Fool’s Day prank products every year that often times they end up turning them into a reality. Remember the Star Wars Tauntan sleeping bag?, that started life as a prank. And of all the wonderful products ThinkGeek pretended to announce on April 1 this…

Why Can’t We Protect Commercial Planes From Attacks?

Last week’s downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 over the disputed territory of Eastern Ukraine has set off worldwide outcries against the conflict, and calls to better defend commercial airlines from missile attack. But is it even possible to defend civilian jets against military-grade weapons? To understand why it’s so difficult to defend civilian planes,…

The Very Best Finds On The Floor At Comic-Con 2014

The San Diego Comic-Con floor can be both a sensory delight and an overload of color, light, and swirling brand names. To help you cut through the pop culture fog, we’ve collected the sights you won’t want to miss this week inside the exhibition hall. One thing we particularly noticed while walking the floor this…

This video shows that freaking fish are the closest thing to Alien

This slow motion video shows how fish actually eat. Instead of moving their whole bodies as most people think, they expand and throw their jaws forward to create a space where water rushes into their mouths to suck in their prey. It’s kind of gross and disgusting—but so damn cool. SPLOID is a new blog…

Mind-twisting short shows that ignorance is bliss

Imagine that you have the ability to know how many times people lied in their life. Or how many days they will live just by looking at a number displayed on the top of their heads. That’s the premise of this mind-twisting short film by Robert Hloz: Two people with that rare ability meet randomly…

The Pre-Holocene Climate Is Returning — And It Won’t Be Fun

Our planet has been witness to plenty of strange weather happenings recently, from devastating floods to the polar vortex. These events are providing a glimpse of what it was like during the pre-Holocene era — a time of volatility and destruction. But it could also be a demonstration of where climate change is taking us.…

This Super-Efficient Lightbulb Uses Tesla Tech for an Incandescent Glow

Despite their inefficiency, old-school incandescent lightbulbs sure did put out a pleasant, natural-looking light. The folks at Finally Light Bulb missed that light, so they brought it back with an efficient, affordable bulb using technology Nikola Tesla once patented. The team visited Gizmodo’s NYC office to show us the light. The Finally Light Bulb is…