Latest

Men climb real life version of Game of Thrones’ northern Wall

It’s not the 700-foot-tall Wall of Game of Thrones, but this looks like the scene of the wildlings climbing the Wall in George R.R. Martin’s series. It’s 40-year-old Tim Emmett and 38-year-old Dawn Glanc climbing the 250-metre thick Sólheimajökull glacier, in Iceland, at sub-zero temperatures. Because risking your life while freezing your gonads is always…

It’s Friday! Welcome To Your Party, GIFs.

It’s the end of week, you know how this works: Your GIF Party is here! We want to hear all your week’s news, stories, and updates all through our favorite medium of the interpretive GIF. Let the party begin!

It’s Time to Ditch Facebook and Start Over

Most of us have had Facebook accounts for the past few years, if not a decade. But time and bloat have turned once-beloved font of nostalgia into an onslaught of faux-sentimental sludge from strangers. So as Facebook stands poised to break itself into a bunch of different apps, we say to you: Screw it. It’s…

Yes! Google’s New Camera App Yells at People For Taking Vertical Video

Google’s new standalone Camera app is a sleek and powerful alternative to the stock Android camera. Turns out, it’s also a soldier in the war against vertical videos. Try to shoot a portrait-framed vid, and you’ll stare down the cold judgment of an icon telling you you’re doing it wrong. You’ve been warned. First spotted…

The Curiosity Rover’s Tracks Across Mars, As Seen From Space

The Curiosity Rover keeps on trekking. An image captured by the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter offers a spectacular view of Curiosity’s journey of discovery as it winds its way across the Red Planet. With faint impressions of tracks from its six metal wheels trailing behind, Curiosity appears as a bright blue dot in the in…

A Turntable Snowboard Brings the Party To the Slopes

The folks at Signal Snowboards like to experiment over the winter months with conceptual deck designs—sometimes they’re practical, and sometimes they’re downright crazy. And the company’s latest creation, a snowboard with a built-in turntable, probably falls into that latter category. Like with all of Signal Snowboards’ creations, the Scratch & Shred Turntable Snowboard is completely…

Military blogger CDR Salamander is perplexed by the breathless news coverage of the Navy’s effort to turn seawater into fuel. Not only is the story two years old, there are lots of unanswered questions, such as the power requirements to make it happen, and what the EPA will say about the unspecified chemical leftovers.

Will Kristen Bell Play Her Frozen Character On Once Upon a Time?

There are more rumors from Star Wars’ Abu Dhabi set. Reviews are mixed for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Robopocalypse may happen soon. And the Orphan Black writers already have the endgame for the show in mind. Plus, details about the season finales of Arrow and Game of Thrones. Spoilers now! Top image: Orphan Black Star…

7 Charming and Wacky Treehouses You Can Rent For a Night in the Forest

At Treehotel in the north of Sweden, the rooms rise up like trees in an enchanted forest: a UFO, a mirrorcube, a giant bird’s nest. It’s some of your wildest childhood fantasies—brought to life by Swedish architects. So how did it all begin? The hotel is the work of its two founders, Britta and Kent,…

The latest version of Ubuntu—14.04 LTS or Trusty Tahr to its friends—is now available, with support for touchscreens and super hi-res displays. Go download it now for free

Do You Live Near a Risky Chemical Plant?

This map shows the 9,000 chemical plants across the U.S. where, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a “catastrophic chemical release” could occur. It helps us answer an unsavory question—whether you live near a potentially dangerous chemical plant. Mother Jones put this map together a year after the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that…

The Humble Supermaterial: There’s More to Tin Than Cans

Hear mention of tin and your thoughts instantly turn to cans stuffed with limp vegetables. But while the metal has become ubiquitous thanks to its use in convenience food packaging, it actually serves all manner of exotic purposes—and it could just change the future of electronics. Humble Origins Tin—or Sn to its buddies in the…

Running the Heartbleed Code to See Exactly How It Works

By now, you’ve read all about Heartbleed—but what, exactly, does it look like in action? Thankfully some nerdy brave computer scientists have run it, so you don’t have to. In this video, Dr. Steven Bagley run the Heartbleed code to show you exactly how it works. Rather him than us. [Computerphile]

Gardening Meets Geekdom: The Open Source Seed Pledge

Gardening and technology couldn’t, perhaps, seem more different, but don’t you believe it: a new initiative out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will soon see your veg patch become an open source project. The Open Source Seed Initiative has been designed to make a new range of seeds—including broccoli, celery, kale, quinoa and other…

What Would Happen If the Earth Span So Fast a Day Lasted One Second?

The Earth takes a little under 24 hours to rotates on its axis. But what if that leisurely paced pick up—and up and up and up? In this week’s What If, Randall Munroe decided to answer that exact question. If the Earth rotated so fast that a day lasted a single second, things would go…

Legendary British News Agency’s 85,000-Video Archive Is Now on YouTube

Pathé News was perhaps the most well-regarded news agency of the 1900s—and now, its entire 85,000-video newsreel archive is available to watch for free on YouTube. The stash of videos contains from as far back as 1896 right up to 1976. There’s clips from the the First and Second World Wars, scenes of the 1937…

This Is the World’s Fastest MicroSD Card (For Now)

It’s easy enough to find ultra-fast SD cards—if you’ve got the cash—but super speedy microSD cards are harder to come by. No longer: Toshiba has just launched the world’s fastest, and it should breathe life into your compact mirrorless camera. The new microSD cards are the first to ever meet the UHS-II spec, which means…

Free Speech Doesn’t Mean You Can Say What the Hell You Like Online

Your right to free speech means that the government can’t arrest you for what you say, but it doesn’t means that anyone—anyone—has to listen the crap you come out with. In today’s XKCD, Randall Munroe remind us that the first amendment doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want and suffer no consequences—just suffer no…

Disneyland Grew Around This 118-Year-Old Palm Tree

When it was planted in 1896, this Canary Island date palm counted the orange trees of an Anaheim citrus grove as its neighbors. Today it rubs shoulders with the bamboo stalks of Adventureland. The tree was already 58 years old when Walt Disney bought the ranch it ornamented for his new development. Bulldozers soon reconfigured…

Let’s Rob This Damn Hydrogen Station

Xerxes figured that if they wanted to rob the Himalayan hydrogen station, all they’d need would be one gun, one tank, and a lot of gumption. Which — at least one of those things was true. This illustration is by Jan Ditlev Christensen, a Danish concept artist and the founder of MOOD. You can see…