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Turn Twigs and Office Supplies Into Weapons of Mass Annoyance

We’ve all been encouraged to reduce, reuse, and recycle to help the environment, but helping Mother Nature can have its own consequences. Case in point: this simple block of wood called the Stix, which is strategically notched to let you reuse sticks or dried-up pens to construct a working elastic gun. Great for conserving our…

Out of the multiverse and into the White

To travel between universes, you must visit a place that’s profoundly unnatural: the monoverse of the White. There, surrounded by blankness, you confront what it means to have only one timeline, one future, and no alternatives. A few go mad; most of us just learn to endure it to get to the next string in…

Apple isreportedly buying Topsy, a social analytics company whose efforts have been focused on Twitter. We have no idea what it exactly Apple plans to do with what amounts to a very sophisticated Twitter search engine. Weird. [WSJ]

Guillermo del Toro’s viral teaser for The Strain is pretty creepy

Check out a bewildering teaser trailer for Guillermo del Toro’s new vampire series The Strain. But wait — before your eyes glaze over at the mention of vampires, give this a shot. It’s really cool. The rats pumping out of the sewers is a BIG part of the mystery series that this soon-to-be TV show…

Grand Canyon completely flooded by clouds in “once-in-a-lifetime” event

You’re looking at the Grand Canyon completely flooded by clouds, “a once in a lifetime event,” according to park ranger Erin Whittaker. It didn’t only happen once, she says, but two times in only three days: The canyon gave us a second rare inversion in three days. Freezing fog dominated yesterday … by the end…

The NSA’s Thanksgiving Dinner Talking Points: A Play in One Act

Today, purported talking points instructing NSA workers on how to effectively communicate with angry family members emerged on the internet. Following is an imagined conversation using said talking points. All emphasis is original to the document. UNCLE TED – An NSA Employee MOM – A mom DAD – A dad SON – A son KEITH…

Failed Delivery Receipts From Our Future

Today, we took a moment to imagine the not too-distant future promised by Amazon, where all our packages would arrive borne upon the backs of flying robots, a mere thirty minutes after we ordered them. But what, then, of the humble delivery receipt? Surely that simple artifact would not survive into so grand future? Well,…

The Moral of this Week’s Atlantis: Never Leave Hercules on Watch

We’re getting wacky with the Bacchae this week on Atlantis, which continues to be a zippy little mythic adventure show. And once again, the best bits involve Hercules, who’s Sir John Falstaff with a little bit of Vila from Blake’s 7 mixed in. Observe in this handy clip. Basically, when you leave Hercules watching your…

The CIA’s Bizarre Art Collection Memorializes Its Greatest Hits

Great victories in intelligence are, by definition, usually destined to remain secret. But inside its headquarters in Virginia, the CIA keeps its own little oil-and-canvas shrine: 16 pieces of art commemorating important moments in intelligence history. Up until this month, only CIA employees and VIPs had access to the “secure” gallery, according to the AP.…

Is this ice drumming for real?

Last year, Russian percussion band Etnobit recorded themselves creating incredible music by drumming on ice shards on Siberia’s ancient Baikal Lake. You won’t believe it. According tothe Siberian Times: How did they realise they could make their own Coldplay on Baikal? [Said Natalya Vlasevskaya,] ‘The wife of one of our drummers, Sergei Purtyan, slipped and…

A Tiny Stamp Brands Your Can To Make Sure No One Steals Your Drink

Is there anything worse than being at a party and having someone steal your drink? Sure! Taking a long swigg on a can only to realize it isn’t yours. But now you can avoid both situations with this keychain-sized stamp that lets you brand an aluminum can with a permanent message, leaving no debate as…

Oil Companies Could Create Dozens of Toxic Lakes In Alberta

Canada’s tar sands are an unequivocal environmental nightmare, ravaging the landscape and spewing billions of gallons of toxic water into the world. Now, oil companies are claiming they’ve figured out what to do with all that poisonous water: Turn Alberta into one giant man-made lake district. Bloomberg has the story of Syncrude Canada, one of…

The Very Best Camera Trap Photography

Don’t look too surprised, giant kitty — you’re live on candid camera trap! Zoologists and ecologists these days use “camera traps,” or motion-activated cameras hidden in natural habitats, to observe wildlife without harming them. The resulting pictures are often heartbreakingly gorgeous, occasionally goofy, and reveal animals we never knew existed. Top image: An African leopard…

Real life version of the Hobbit’s Sting sword glows blue too

Master swordsmith Tony Swatton—who also made Wolverine’s claws and Thor’s hammer—just forged the famous Sting, the ancient elvish blade that glows blue when orcs and trolls are near. Swatton’s version can cut like the real thing and glows blue too, thanks to his amazing technical prowess. Sting was the blade used by Bilbo and Frodo…

This Incredible Portrait of Morgan Freeman Was Painted on an iPad

Remember iPad art? Like those New Yorker covers that look, well, basically just okay? Or the hobby that David Hockney had for like ten seconds? Well British artist Kyle Lambert’s been practicing, and he’s gotten good. Like, photorealism good. The latest Lambert creation is this jaw-dropping portrait of Morgan Freeman. You almost feel like you…

Dissection reveals the insides of Sulley from Monsters Inc.

Curious what the insides an employee of Monsters Inc. (or a student from Monster’s University) looks like? Well now you know, thanks to artist Jason Freeny. Behold, the guts of a great monster. Freeny reveals half of the great blue James P. Sullivan, better known as “Sulley.” We love it. Both prints and sculptures are…

Boing 474: The Chinese Are Now Knocking Off Our Airplanes

Chinese manufacturers are experts at knocking off just about anything, from “Rat Ban” sunglasses and “Wee” gaming consoles to, yes, “HiPhones.” But now it looks like they’re very close to copying another American export: They’re bootlegging our Boeing 747s. Copying our planes is actually nothing new for the Chinese aerospace industry. This has been going…

The first person in the world to become a government-recognized cyborg

Neil Harbisson is the first person on the planet to have a passport photo that shows his cyborg nature — in his UK passport, he’s wearing a head-mounted device called an eyeborg. The color-blind artist says the eyeborg allows him to see color, and he wants to help other cyborgs like himself gain more rights.…

Radio broadcasting will have disappeared, for no one will tune in a program that cannot be seen. Radio will long since have reverted to a strictly communications medium, using devices now unheard of and unthought of. — Associated Pressarticle from 1950 about the year 2000

Farewell, Comet ISON. After a weekend of hemming and hawing from experts, the sun-grazing ball of ice and dust has been declared officially dead. Again. Except this time, it’s pretty much for sure. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has the post-mortem. Astrophysicist Karl Battams even penned a eulogy.