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Are LED Streetlights Changing the Way Los Angeles Looks at Night?

Michael Mann’s Collateral may be one of the more memorable cinematic depictions of Los Angeles from the past decade. L.A.’s city lights provided an ever-present backdrop for the film’s action, and Mann gave the city a distinctive look by shooting in high-definition digital video. But the nighttime city Mann captured may never look the same…

Watch how the RIP bullet makes your vital organs explode in slow motion

Rated RR tested the Radically Invasive Projectile (yes, RIP) ammo against ballistic gel, filming it in super-slow motion to show you what a bullet like this would do as it penetrates the flesh of a human body. It’s pretty terrifying stuff. The manufacturer calls these “the last round you will ever need,” designed to “take…

Air Force Is Sending Brand New Cargo Planes Straight to the Boneyard

The C-27J Spartan is a hell of a plane. Famous for its ability to take off from unfinished runways, it’s a staple used by militaries around the world, including the United States. At least it was until recently. The Air Force is sending its latest batch of beautiful, brand new C-27Js straight to the boneyard…

Sorry conspiracy theorists, but the snow in Atlanta was real.

A conspiracy theory is floating around that someone other than Mother Nature is responsible for Atlanta’s latest snowfall, spurred on by clips of people burning snowballs black. This video, using a lighter and some snow, explains why they’re wrong — and explores the phenomenon of “snow that doesn’t melt.” Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy explains…

Scientists from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center recently figured out how to look for extraterrestrial life in tiny samples of space dust using a nanoelectrospray emitter (above, right) that charges molecules into a mass spectrometer (above, left). Previously, they needed large chunks of carbon-rich meteorites to look for signs of aliens.

After 120 Years, Doctors Develop New Brain Surgery Technique

A team of surgeons from Johns Hopkins recently came up with a safer, better method of replacing skull fragments after brain surgery. This is good news for anybody who might need a little work done on their noggin in the near future, as doctors have been using the same method since the 1890s. The difference…

What if Hayao Miyazaki had designed all our consumer goods?

Our world would be a way more wondrous place if Disney and Hayao Miyazaki’s characters littered the logos of our lives. Artist Bruce Yan has created an amazing collection of consumer inspired art that replaces the classic characters with classic Disney, Looney Tunes, Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka characters and more. It’s very clever! Take a look.…

Pro photographer looking for people to do their job without pay

We love photographers, which is why we love this ad by an anonymous professional photographer in Boston, pasted here as is. You can substitute photographer for designer, animator, artist, video editor, cameraman, advertiser, writer, etc. I am a photographer and since people are always looking for free shoots I assume that they must also do…

Scratch-Off Bus Stop Ads Reveal Hidden Art

Oh, bus stop ads: so often a target for vandals and bored commuters. But here’s a clever ad that invites you to deface it. Underneath an unassuming black-and-white ad for a museum exhibition is a whole world of hidden art. To advertise its new archaeology-as-art exhibit, The Way of the Shovel, the Museum of Contemporary…

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods gets a brand new TV deal

Neil Gaiman’s acclaimed 2001 novel American Gods is no longer in development at HBO — but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a TV show. FremantleMedia, which produces The Tomorrow People and the upcoming The Returned, has signed a new deal to develop American Gods for television. According to the press release which Fremantle sent…

The Clasp On This Colorful Watch Is Built Right Into the Face

With its new Sond line of watches, Void has come up with a clever alternative to traditional watch bands that usually has two straps united by a clasp on the underside of your wrist. By integrating the locking mechanism into the watch’s body, a single nylon band is all that’s needed here. The design—a single…

Victorian Children’s Book Illustrations Could Be Pretty Racy (NSFW)

Children’s books from a century or more ago enjoyed the work of some of the most prestigious illustrators of the time: everyone from Gustave Dore and Arthur Rackham to H.J. Ford and William Robinson. Some of the art they created probably would have horrified Disney and there’s no way their art would make it onto…

SF to Google: Get Your Dang Mystery Barge Off Our Lawn

Google’s mystery barge that’s been floating in San Francisco Bay since last fall? Yeah, it’s gotta go because Google never secured any permits for it to be there in the first place. Per the AP: The notice came after the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission investigated numerous complaints about the construction of the…

The Best New Domains Going Up For Grabs Soon (UPDATED)

The internet as you know it might seem infinite, but according to ICANN, it’s still not quite infinite enough. Soon, a whole new world of internet real estate is coming your way in the form of 122 brand new domain names. That’s right, you can finally make YourNameHere.SEXY all your very own. Starting tomorrow soon,…

Joel Huerta, wearing his brother’s NYPD Auxiliary vest, heads back to his own apartment after clearing the local florist’s walk; there, he will continue to clear a path in what has become one of New York City’s more snow-filled winters. Clinton Hill, Brooklyn.

This Ridiculous Victorian-Era Rocking Bath Wasn’t Just For Fun

Hydrotherapy was all the rage in the 19th century. Inventors devised countless contraptions to immerse people in water, hoping to restore them to health using nature’s favorite liquid. But none were quite as awkward as the invention above: the “rocking bath tub” of 1891. Hydrotherapy was thought to be able to cure all kinds of…

Read some of our favorite flash science fiction — written by you!

Six words, used carefully, can build up a world — and that’s just what these pieces of flash science fiction, covering everything from a population of literature-obsessed primates to a Death who would really rather play Candyland than do his job, do. Here are just some of our favorite six word stories, written by you,…

New theory suggests the universe emerged from a long, cold deep freeze

Conventional thinking has it that the universe and all the matter within it exploded out from a single point, the so-called Big Bang Singularity. But a German theoretical physicists says this never happened. Instead, the universe started empty and cold, slowly emerging from a deep freeze. This isn’t the first time a physicist has challenged…

Will this be Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s post-credits scene?

Someone claiming to have seen the Captain America sequel already has just announced the film’s post-credits scene. It comes from an odd source, but the description still sounds pretty plausible to me. Either way, warning: After the jump is a significant spoiler or a pack of lies. The news comes from Lainey Gossip, whose writer…

A LED Robot That Makes Long Exposure Light Painting Easy

Making those ethereal long exposure photos where you ‘paint’ an image with an LED light requires a combination of artistic talent, skill, and patience. But if you’re lacking all three, just order one of these $100 Thymio II robots, that can be easily programmed to do all the light painting for you. Is some of…