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Wirelessly Access Any of Your Naked Hard Drives With This Dock

Deep down you know that one day you should conglomerate that stack of hard drives full of random files into a single media server. But thanks to Thermaltake’s new BlacX Urban wireless docking station, that one day doesn’t have to be today. Just slap in any drive of your choosing and its contents instantly become…

This Typeface Makes You a More Alert Driver By Distracting You Less

Despite the grim PSAs and massive fines, plenty of us still end up reading our in-dash displays on the road, whether to navigate or change the song. Today, the type design giant Monotype unveiled a typeface designed to help you read faster and more accurately while driving. How? With a few design tweaks. The typeface…

You Might Be Talking to a Cyranoid and You’d Never Know

Did you talk to your boss today? Did you chat with someone on the bus or have a terse exchange with a barista? Maybe you did. But maybe they were cyranoids, and you were actually talking with whoever put words in their mouths. Odds are, you would never know. The Attack of the Cyranoids Even…

Here’s An Easy Way to Find Out About U.S. Government Spying Projects

A lot of the most bizarre and invasive surveillance technologies that the U.S. government uses to track its citizens are not secret. In fact, you can find out about a lot of these projects as they’re being developed, just by knowing what to search for on U.S. government websites. Over at Electronic Frontier Foundation, Dave…

Meet Porton Man, the $2 Million Robot Soldier Guinea Pig

Looks like Boston Dynamics’ super creepy hazmat robot, Petman, just got a new best friend. Say hello to Porton Man, the Ministry of Defense’s brand new $2 million, animatronic robot pet. Developed with Formula 1 technology, the high-tech mannequin is covered in over 100 sensors, all the better to test new kinds of military gear…

That Goonies Sequel Just Won’t Say Die

It’s been a long time since someone mentioned the possibility of Goonies 2, but original director Richard Donner told TMZ it’s still moving forward. Last we heard, it will feature the original cast as adults with their own kids who — and I’m going out on a limb here — might get into their own…

Harrowing Photos Capture Tense Encounter Between Baby Baboon And Lion

While on a game drive in northern Botswana, a married couple witnessed a dramatic scene involving a troop of baboons fleeing from a pack of lions. What they saw next was completely unexpected — and showed the surprising tenderness that can be exhibited by even the most ferocious of animals. All photos courtesy Evan Schiller.…

Google Glass Livestream App Makes Broadcasting Your Vision Even Easier

The new Livestream app for Google Glass makes showing the entire world exactly what you’re looking at easier than before. Though you’ve already been able to broadcast directly from the specs using Google Hangouts, the new app underscores what makes people most uncomfortable about Glass: It’s creepy! The new app does exactly what you’d expect…

4 Ways Tiny Microbes Changed Life on Earth Forever

This is the microbes’ world—we just live in it. Throughout the history of Earth, microbes have radically reshaped life on the planet, from creating the very air we breath to wiping out almost all life on Earth. Don’t underestimate the power of tiny, tiny microbes populating the Earth trillions of times over. Here are some…

Blackmagic URSA: A Modular Cinema Camera with Insane Swappable Sensor

Blackmagic just announced a new camera, the URSA, a 4k cinema camera with some absolutely unique features like a 10-inch LCD display, dual RAW and ProRes recording, and a crazy swappable sensor and lens-mount design. All for $6000. The URSA is large, definitely not for your handheld run and gun video project. While Blackmagic’s previous…

The Walking Dead #1 Free, Be Highly Effective, The Lion King [Deals]

Fan of The Walking Dead TV show? Want to check out the comics? You can start today with zero barrier to entry. [Amazon] The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [Kindle] | $2 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug 3D Collector’s Gift Set | $64 | use code RETAILME20HE The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug…

This Weedseeking Airport Tractor Spells Death for Dandelions

Weeds growing up through the cracks in airport tarmacs aren’t just unsightly, they can create traction hazards for landing aircraft. But rather than rely on a squad of human herbicide applicators, one French airport is leaving the job to a single computerized spraying system. They call it “The Weedseeker.” Originally developed as an automated way…

The Londonist regales us with this stranger-than-fiction tale about Hugh Mansfield Robinson, a former town clerk who claimed to be an interplanetary psychic. In 1926, when Mars was 8 million miles closer to Earth than average, Robinson paid to have a love letter transmitted via radio to a Martian woman named Oomaruru.

​The io9 Manifesto: Science Is Political

io9 started out in 2007 as the germ of an idea for a site about futurism, with a name that was a joke about brain implants. Six and a half years later, we’ve grown in size — but we’ve also grown up. Our 2008 manifesto still holds true, but in 2014 we’ve got some amendments.…

Simpsons couch gag pays homage to David Letterman

Check out The Simpsons’ homage to David Letterman. The comedian announced his retirement from TV last week. Replacing the usual ride to home, in this couch gag the family is in a cab stuck in Manhattan’s traffic. Then they decide to get out of the cab and run because apparently they are late for something.…

This Bizarre Stop-Motion Film About A Junk-Eating Bird Was Made In 1930

Long before CGI brought 3D talking animals to life on the silver screen, animators were achieving remarkable—and strange—special effects with stop-motion. This segment from the short film It’s a Bird! dates back to the year 1930. It’s a Bird was directed by Harold L. Muller and stars Muller’s frequent collaborator, cartoonist and slapstick comedian Charles…

These Tests Can Prove Whether You Are in the Fourth Dimension

A famous astronomer, Johann Zöllner, came up with a number of different tests designed to show that a person has the power to go into four-dimensional space. See if you can pass one! Johann Zöllner has an optical illusion and a crater on the moon named after him, and he didn’t get either by being…

An RC Plane That Flies on Seawater Fuel

It’s been almost a year and a half since we first reported on the U.S. Navy’s plans to produce cheap liquid fuel from seawater. And as a proof of concept, the unmodified two-stoke engine in this P-51 Mustang remote control model plane was recently powered using the new liquid fuel instead of traditional gas. The…

Believe it or not, these four squares move at the same constant speed

These four squares appear to move at different speeds, stopping and moving, waiting for each other in pairs. In reality, they are always moving at exactly the same constant speed. Seriously. I opened the GIF in Photoshop and used guides to measure it—in every frame, the squares align perfectly. Their motion is exactly the same…

When Will LADEE Smash into the Moon?

LADEE, the spacecraft that completed 100 days of science before entering into a decaying orbit, is getting ever-closer to crashing into the moon. Now NASA is running a contest to see who can guess when exactly that crash will take place. The last planned maneuver is on April 15th, after which little LADEE will be…