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One of this year’s loveliest new webcomics has a touch of Ghibli magic

Kadi Fedoruk’s webcomic Blindsprings is a lushly illustrated princess tale with a twist. A young mage decides to rescue a princess from the curse that keeps her bound to a mystical forest. But there’s a hitch: this princess doesn’t want to be rescued. At first glance, Tamaura seems like a princess straight out of a…

This migrane preventing space tiara was just approved by the FDA

Fantastic news for people who suffer regularly from migraine headaches. The FDA has just approved a wearable electrical stimulation device for sales in the United States — a headband that prevents the onset of migraines when worn for just 20 minutes each day. A device like this is definitely long overdue. Some 10% of people…

These GIFs Will Make You Nostalgic For Your Favorite NES Games

Before the hi-def graphics of modern consoles, there was the Nintendo Entertainment System—a world steeped in glorious 8-bit imagery. These GIFs by New York-based Brother Brain (aka John McGregor) show how the in-game art compared with real world photos. And somehow, the 8-bit versions are still way more fun. Jaws (NES) LJN 1987 vs Jaws…

Totally Revolting Birthday Cake Shaped Like “Split-Face” from The Thing

We’ve seen birthday cakes shaped like all sorts of science fiction icons, including star destroyers. But it takes a special kind of geek to want a birthday cake fashioned after the “Split-Face” from John Carpenter’s The Thing. San Francisco artistVicky Knoop created this cake for her boyfriend’s birthday, and it’s almost too creepy to eat.…

Babies Everywhere! Endangered Lemur Born in Saint Louis

Because there’s no such thing as too many baby animal videos, here’s one more for today. On January 21, a female Coquerel’s sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) was born at the Saint Louis Zoo, and starting this week, visitors can see her in the zoo’s Primate House. The zoo named her Kapika, which means “peanut” in Malagasy,…

Learning the Lost Art of Ice Harvesting in Maine

In 1805, a twenty-three year-old Bostonian named Frederic Tudor launched a new industry: the international frozen-water trade. Over the next fifty years, he and the men he worked with developed specialized ice-harvesting tools, a global network of thermally engineered ice houses, and a business model that cleverly leveraged ballast-less ships, off-season farmers, and overheated Englishmen…

No, this is not a production still from Bio-Dome: Saudi Arabia, it’s a rendering for the King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh. Barton Willmore International designed the crescent-shaped complex which will recreate animal and plant habitats from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods—in the middle of the desert. [designboom]

A Movie About a Man Who Wishes His Penis Away…and it Becomes a Person

In the movie Bad Johnson, Cam Gigandet is at the utter mercy of his dick — imagine his surprise when he manages to wish it away. And then his penis turns into a separate person. There are so many things wrong with this, we can’t even. Bad Johnson is ridiculous on so many levels, like…

Shooting Challenge: Tilt-shift

Tilt-shift photography originated with large, billowing lenses to capture the proportions of architecture. Today, its often used to blur parts of a frame and make the world appear in miniature. However you use it, for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you’ll photograph in tilt-shift. The Challenge Take a tilt-shift photograph. (Yes, you can use the miniaturization…

These Vintage Postcards Were Invaded By Aliens

Illustrator Franco Brambilla takes beautiful vintage postcards and makes them even cooler, by adding science fiction icons. Like flying saucers, AT-ATs, aliens and even the TARDIS! Check out a collection of postcards from tourists whose trips were enhanced by aliens. We’ve featured Brambilla’s work before, but he’s produced a lot more amazing postcards since then.…

Feast your eyes on these rare aircraft cutaway drawings

After our first cutaway collections on spacecraft and weapons, here comes a new one: Aircraft! You can see here a few really rare and special illustrations, some of them never published on the Internet before. Breguet-905 “Fauvette” Image: Aviation Magazine, May 15, 1958. Jodel-S.A.N. D-140 “Mousquetaire” Image: Aviation Magazine, May 15, 1958. GAMD “Étendard” IV…

Constantly Spinning Dials Replace Hands on This Sleek Minimal Watch

Ressence is following up on its mesmerizing Type 3 watch—which replaced hands and other visible mechanisms with a series of perpetually spinning dials trapped under a curved water-filled sapphire dome—with the new Type 1 that somehow manages to be even more minimal than last year’s model. The watch’s unique approach to displaying the time is…

The Six Types of Apple Store Genius

This isn’t brick and mortar, it’s glass and steel. Pseudonymous Apple Store employee J. K. Appleseed walks you through a choose-your-own-adventure story with a twist. Yep, we’re going backstage at Apple Retail, the supercollider of human expectations and consumer technology. Genius #1 You bring your iPhone to the Apple Store for a repair, and your…

Three Adorable, Endangered Tiger Cubs Born at the London Zoo

ZSL London Zoo is now home to three cubs belonging to one of the world’s rarest big cat species. There are only some 300 Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) still living in the wild. They’re classified by the IUCN Red List as “Critically Endangered,” because they suffer from habitat loss, territory fragmentation, human-tiger conflict, and…

Architect Repays Fickle Utah Customers With Anonymous Concrete Bunker

Are you happy now, Park City? After a planned addition to the Kimball Art Center sparked public outrage over the design—an awesome, spiraling log cabin from space—the architects behind the proposal, Bjarke Ingels Group, have unveiled an austere new design. BIG’s original design for the addition was chosen by museum administrators all the way back…

California just had its warmest winter on record

California just had its warmest winter since record keeping began 119 years ago, according to newly published NOAA data. Meanwhile, the midwest is recovering from one of its top-ten coldest seasons ever. The jury’s still out on the role of climate change in both regions’ wintertide weirdness. Tim McDonnel has details on the debate at…

The most amazing swimming pools on Earth

I’m so sick of this damn cold weather that I just spent the last two hours going through summer vacation porn and collected my favorite swimming pools on Earth from our own articles and some other sources. Watch, dream, and post your own favorite in the comments. Shawn house, Vancouver Ubud Hanging Gardens Resort, Bali…

Most animals can see the flashing and glowing of power lines

In what’s turning out to be a rather shocking revelation, researchers have learned that the majority of animals can see pulses of UV light produced by power lines. Because these flashes are often frightening, they may be having a detrimental affect on wildlife around the globe. Ultraviolet sensitivity is common among animals such as insects…

Do You Miss Google’s Old School Look?

Yesterday, Google’s desktop search page got a redesign. Now it looks the same as Google’s mobile and tablet search pages—bigger titles and, notably, no more underline for linked text. Did you notice? And if you did, which do you prefer? I gotta admit, I felt like something looked unusual in my Google searches yesterday, but…

Which real-life sport is the best choice for scifi/fantasy fans?

Quiddich is great, but I’ve always wanted to follow at least one sport that exists in real life. I’m sure I’m not the only one. Which sports are most likely to work for a person who loves science fiction and fantasy? Where is a nice geek supposed to start? Please tell us which sport you’d…