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The Anti-Racism Exercise That Taught Kids to Be Racist

In 1968, Jane Elliott was teaching a class of 8-year-olds, and one of them asked why “that King” had been shot, referring to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Elliott was unsure how to explain the context of what happened to elementary school children in Riceville, Iowa, so she made up an impromptu exercise.…

It’s An Attack On the Clones In This New Orphan Black Trailer

Season 2 of BBC America’s fantastic clone drama Orphan Black premieres on April 17th, and it looks like all the Tatiana Maslanys are in serious trouble. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m more excited to see where the story is going or just to see three Tatiana Maslanys acting opposite each other again.

This Is What the Internet Looks Like as a Subway Map

Everything is easier to understand when it’s drawn up as a well-formatted subway map—including the Internet. This one, for instance, shows a simplification of the world’s network of submarine fiber-optic cables. Created by researchers from the Oxford Internet Institute, the map uses data from cablemap.info. Each node represents a country, and the links between them…

Come On In, GIFs! Your Party Begins Now

Welcome to the party, Graphic Interchange Format-enthusiasts! What were you up to this week? Did you start a new project, see or learn something incredible, or just find the perfect GIF to explain it all? Share your news and GIFs with us now, because it’s our party and we can GIF if we want to.

How Our Early Ancestors Spread Far and Wide, Mapped

Over six million years ago, we split off from our common ancestor with chimps. But, recently, scientists have been finding fossils all over the planet that show that hominins diversified into a wide range of species away from their native Africa. New Scientist has a wonderful feature about the research called The Lost Humans That…

Astronomers Release Image Of “Serial Killer” Galaxy

The European Southern Observatory has released a detailed image of galaxy NGC 1316, which has engulfed several other galaxies in its violent history… and has the battle scars to prove it. The image — created by combining several individual photos taken by a 2.2-meter telescope in Chile — shows NGC 1316 alongside a small spiral…

Watch Last Night’s Perfect GI Joe-Style Opening Of Community

Actually, last night’s episode of Community — which was not only animated like the classic cartoon, but also contained several shockingly accurate ’80s GI Joe toy commercials — was pretty much perfect all the way around. But if you missed the show, you at least need to watch the wonderful opening. At least. And here’s…

Who’s The Secret Villain Of Guardians Of The Galaxy?

Batman Vs. Superman adds some more star-power to its cast. Jesse Plemons may be out of the running for Star Wars. And there are photos showing Summer Glau in an interesting new costume on Arrow. Plus, the Captain America 2 writers talk about the Agent Carter pilot. Spoilers now! Batman Vs. Superman We’ve got more…

One of Google’s Project Loon balloons has completed a journey around the globe in just 22 days. That exceeds the expectations of the Mountain View engineers—they thought it would take 33 days—and puts Phileas Fogg to shame. [Google]

Apple’s Latest Purchase Could Bring Siri Offline

It’s all well and good being able to call upon your own pocketable Siri butler, but I don’t remember Bruce Wayne’s buddy Alfred relying on a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection before he could stitch up his crime-fighting boss. Apple’s aware of the limitations that a mandatory web connection brings to Siri functionality, and seems…

Inside the Engineering Challenges of Google’s Modular Ara Phone

Google’s taking its Ara modular smartphone platform increasingly seriously, and in this video it lays bare some of the challenges it’s been facing—and how it’s overcoming them. The overall concept of Ara is to produce a modular smartphone—with a basic version costing just $50—that users can tweak and upgrade themselves. It’s a neat idea, but…

Google Is Struggling to Trademark the Word ‘Glass’

It won’t surprise you to hear that Google is desperately trying to trademark the world Glass—but it may raise a wry smile on your face when you find out that the U.S. government is taking exception to the idea. The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Patent and Trademark Office has objected to granting…

Sprint wants to pay you to switch carrier. Between April 4th and May 8th, it’ll cover $350 of early termination fees and offer up to$300 in service credit for your old phone when you sign up to its Framily plan.

This beautiful newly-discovered species is about to disappear soon

“Just described ‘microjewel’ snail in extinction danger,” announces NewScientist. Every time I see a headline like that and I look a the picture, it really makes me sad. Just admire that beautiful, delicate little beast. Which secrets will this soon-to-be-gone species take away with it? Because that’s the quid here. Even if you’re a cold…

Oh god, Korean plastic surgery will never cease to amaze me

I’m truly fascinated by the obsession of some South Korean women to transform themselves into this animesque beauty ideal through extreme plastic surgery. This is not the case of this woman, however. Her story is quite sad. According to RocketNews 24, her husband “got fed up of her plain features and sun spots and had…

Take a Mind-Melting Trip through 1960s Psychedelics (NSFW)

And that’s why you don’t take the brown acid. This startling short film by Spectacle Theater starts off benignly before jolting the viewer into a fractured cascade of ’60s pop culture iconography. Be sure to watch it with the lights on. Update: Per Greg Eggebeen of Spectacle Theater, In actuality, the video isn’t a ‘short…

Watch an X-Class Solar Flare Ignite the Skies Over Iceland

On February 25th, the Sun let loose an X4.9-class solar flare. It was our parent star’s most violent outburst of the year. When the debris from the ensuing coronal mass ejection collided with Earth’s atmosphere, it produced one of the most colorful auroral displays in recent memory. It was a spectacle to which Henry Jun…

The Universe according to Adventure Time

I’ve been on an Adventure Time binge lately, so I find this GIF from the episode The Real You absolutely stonestastic—just like the rest of the series, really. It should be called Ambien Time. If you have never seen Adventure Time, you must start right now. The first two seasons are on Netflix. SPLOID is…

For a Sharper Mind in Middle Age, Try Running in Your 20s

Reason #34,857 that exercise is important: getting your pulse up when you’re 25 can make for a better brain at 45, according to a newly published study out of the University of Minnesota, the first to examine how exercise in young adulthood affects cognition later in life. Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk // CC 2.0 Researchers…

Here in Ship City, We’re Working Our Way Back to the Information Age

After the collapse, people started recycling things on an epic scale. They lived inside ship hulls and mined skyscrapers for scrap. A strange new civilization was blooming out of the old, and things were going to be different this time. Florent Llamas is a student studying video game concept art in France, and his environment…