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While you weren’t looking, Tomorrow People became a great TV show

Tomorrow People had a shaky start, but has been steadily improving week by week. But last night’s episode was probably the first time this show could legitimately claim to be great, rather than just watchable. Here are all the fist-pumping “fuck yeah” moments in last night’s episode. Spoilers ahead… One thought that kept going through…

Star Trek has a carol to sing you!

Yeah, we know the season has past. But, when you have a holodeck, it’s Christmas any old time you choose. After listening to this mashup of Frozen’s “Let It Go” and Star Trek: First Contact, commenter falseprophet recommended another other version of “Make it so”, this one a little more seasonally-themed, featuring Captain Picard, Data,…

See Nevada’s Hellish Nuclear Moonscape From Above

The 1950s were an optimistic time. Houses and cars were affordable, the economy and the birthrate were booming, and—oh yeah, America was detonating hundreds of nuclear bombs in its own backyard. Much has been written about the Nevada Test Site—aka the Nevada Testing Grounds—since the last bomb was detonated in the early 1990s. In fact,…

Knights of Badassdom is a sweet, gory tale of geek social life

Knights of Badassdom is finally coming to VOD next week, and it’s about damn time. This horror comedy is about live action role-playing gamers who accidentally stumble across a real spell book, with hilarious performances from fan favorites like Peter Dinklage and Summer Glau. The real mystery is why we had to wait so long…

The World’s Most Powerful Laser Is Headed for a Czech Research Lab

Imagine a laser that fires super-powerful blasts of light ten times a second. A laser with one quadrillion watts of power. That’s one powerful piece of equipment—the most powerful—and it’s exactly what’s being built for the ELI-Beamlines science facility in the Czech Republic. The “High Repetition-Rate Advanced Petawatt Laser System,” or HAPLS, is being built…

This is what $425,659.59 in camera gear looks like

These are all the cameras and lenses that the Getty Images photographers have brought to the Sochi Winter Games. Exactly $425,659.59, according to Robert Cianflone in Petapixel—”that’s the value of a house and more than a Lamborghini Aventador!” Here’s the list: 20 Canon 1Dx cameras 3 Canon 5DmkIII cameras 1 Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS…

This robot will utterly destroy you at air hockey

In an effort to suck the fun out of every activity still left for us puny humans, an engineer has built an amazing 3D printable air hockey playing robot that, in addition to moving across the required two dimensions, can predict the movements of rebounding pucks. The robot was developed by Jose Julio who describes…

Keep Track of Your World Travels on This Cork-Covered Globe

Great news for globetrotters who like to impress their friends with their travels: Now, instead of having to sacrifice a big chunk of wall space for a giant map covered in thumbtacks, they can downgrade to this clever and compact cork-covered globe. At just ten inches in diameter, it can fit on any desk, counter,…

Illustrated Cosplay Guide Does All the Work For You

Curious about Cosplay, but not sure how to get your ensemble started? Artist Patrick Dean has you covered. His illustrated work “My Half Assed Cosplay Ideas” is anything but half baked. It’s a treasure trove of easy-to-recreate comic costumes if you have the patience. Dean’s entire Tumblr is STUFFED with great ideas, and details on…

Sealand: The Island Nation Founded by a Guy Calling “Dibs”

If you haven’t heard of Sealand before, it is the site of one of Britain’s Maunsell Naval Sea Forts that were utilized during WWII. This particular one was originally named HM Fort Roughs. The fort’s primary function was to keep tabs on the Germans who were laying mines off the coast of England at the…

General Motors’ wind tunnels aren’t only used to test the aerodynamics of the carmaker’s latest vehicles. Here we see a member of the Canadian Alpine Ski Team working to improve his tuck position so he’s as streamlined as possible as he streaks down a mountain. [FastLane]

1920s London Underground Posters Remind Us That Trains Are Wonderful

Remember the Roaring Twenties, when the future looked like Metropolis and cities were going to become battalions of marching skyscrapers? In these colorful 1920s ads for the London Underground, trains never felt so much like the transport of tomorrow. When Wet / Travel Underground / It’s Drier, by Cecil Dillon McGurk, 1922 Brightest London is…

8 Viral Sochi Olympics Photos That Are Total Lies

Thousands of images are pouring out of Sochi in the lead-up to the Olympics. And things don’t look great. There are unfinished buildings, a lack of winter weather, and an abundance of trash. But don’t believe every image you see. Like so much of what gets passed on social media these days, a lot of…

Bloomberg Businessweek’s New E-Cig Cover Also Comes in GIF Form

Everybody knows that Bloomberg Businessweek’s design team is damn good at what they do. What’s truly impressive is how often they out-do themselves. Take this week’s cover about e-cigarettes, for instance. It’s a hypnotic animated GIF! Of course, the magazine on the newsstands just has a regular cover: a portrait of a Marlboro man obscured…

A spectacular new impact crater appears on Mars

NASA’s Mars Orbiter has discovered a brand new impact crater on the Martian surface — and it’s a beauty. The crater measures about 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter. The image, snapped by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, shows a large, rayed blast zone that painted the…

RIP Mark Rogers, Creator of Samurai Cat

Mark Rogers, the artist and author who created Samurai Cat, passed away last weekend while hiking with his family. I knew Mark off and on for many decades (he was godfather to one of my brother’s children). He was an extraordinarily talented artist and writer whose abilities were only exceeded by his graciousness. And he…

Please let this LEGO X-Men Mansion playset become a reality

You may not be able to attend Xavier’s School for Gifted School for Gifted Youngsters, but this proposed LEGO playset would let you act out your mutant school fantasies, from Storm’s attic garden to Cerebro and the Danger Room. User DarthKy submitted this X-Mansion set to LEGO CUUSOO, where folks can submit and vote on…

What Do Fertilizer, Omega-3 Pills, and Pig Feed Have in Common? A Fish

You have never seen a menhaden, but you have eaten one. Although no one sits down to a plate of these silvery, bug-eyed, foot-long fish at a seafood restaurant, menhaden travel through the human food chain mostly undetected in the bodies of other species, hidden in salmon, pork, onions, and many other foods. Millions of…

Scientists discover new species that looks like a giant snot

When Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin saw this photo of two kids next to what looked like a giant snot she says she said “Phwoar!” out loud. After all, she was looking at a completely new species, one that she had been chasing for a decade. The thing that I first said when I saw it [the…

Who is the worst sidekick ever?

Plenty of sidekicks are better than their heroes. There are some sidekicks who just kick so much ass all on their own. But then there are the other kind. Who’s the absolute weakest sidekick ever? The one that you wish the hero would just let the bad guy get rid of? Please include a picture…