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How Ancient Embalmers Pulled the Brains and Guts Out of Mummies

We’ve unearthed mummy upon mummy from Egypt, the oldest dating back to 3500 B.C., but one thing has remained a bit of a mystery: what does the mummification process actually entail from a surgical point of view? How did they remove the brains, guts, and other vital organs—what tools did they use and how did…

The Hindenburg Had a Smoking Room. Yes, That Hindenburg.

Did you know that the notoriously flammable Hindenburg airship had a smoking room? Passengers could only get to it through an airlock door. But yes, the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg had a special room where people could set sticks of tobacco on fire. (1937)

The Ugliest Star Wars Shirt of All Time Has Been Achieved

There’s been an important breakthrough in the field of ugly Star Wars shirts today, as scientist have announced that the worst, ugliest, most awful Star Wars shirt that could possibly exist in this universe or any other universe has been created — and there’s no doubt it will never, ever be topped. This nightmarish sweatshirt…

It’s time to start reading hard science fiction again

I write science fiction and fantasy, but mostly my work is classified as “hard” science fiction. I’ve found that there are many readers who know and love hard science fiction, but I think just as many are determined to avoid it, convinced that the hard stuff is not for them. Why? They just don’t know…

The voice of Albert Einstein

Have you ever heard Albert Einstein talking? In the fall of 1941, Albert Einstein gave this extraordinary reading of his essay “The Common Language of Science” to the British Association for the Advancement of Science. It’s truly fascinating. Einstein’s essay first touches on the incongruity of language and thought: Is there no thinking without the…

Deconstructed Gaming Controllers Reveal Gorgeous Old School Guts

Above, you’re looking at the surgically disassembled guts of an old Jaguar controller, the short-lived console originally released by Atari in 1993. It’s a thing of beauty, and just one of a series that’s equal parts nostalgia and drool. Brandon Allen‘s photos of dissected gamepads are nothing short of breathtaking. A strange obsession with the…

The HDMI Adapter You Deserve, Kindle Fire, External Power [Deals]

We recently posted a bundle pack of HDMI cables that included one of these adapters, and while the cables were cool, lots of people were super excited about the added convenience of the adapter. Well, today you can get as many of these adapters as you want for $1.55/each. Essential? No. Convenient? Very. Cheap? Absolutely.…

Who was the sexiest couple on last night’s Arrow?

Yesterday Arrow had its most appropriately-titled episode ever, with, “Keep Your Enemies Closer.” Dynamic duos got very, very close indeed, but who ended up being the sexiest? We’ll find out. There were couples doing what couples do best all over last night’s Arrow episode. Because this is the CW, those couples were not deficient in…

A Self-Driving Mini Cooper Submarine for Commuting on the L.A. River

You’re late for a meeting in downtown Los Angeles and you’re still all the way over in Burbank—13 miles and 45 stop-and-go minutes away by freeway. Instead, you walk a few blocks to the Los Angeles River, where you board a stylish pod-like watercraft. Soon, you’re zipping down the river channel, faster than any vehicle…

65 of the greatest fantasy adventure books

Joshua Glenn has been rescuing classic science fiction and fantasy books from dusty vaults for years. Now he’s getting excited about the “adventure” subgenre — he shared a list of great science fiction adventure yesterday, and today he’s got a list of fantasy adventures. https://gizmodo.com/the-top-101-science-fiction-adventures-listed-in-chron-1463897780 Over at Hilobrow, Glenn lists 65 of his personal favorite…

No tricks were used in this unbelievable stunt

Not only Jean-Claude Van Damme shows a formidable form at 53 in this stunt for Volvo, but his balls are made of the same steel as the trucks’ bearings. He makes it look easy, but this obviously was a very dangerous thing to do. https://jalopnik.com/jean-claude-van-dammes-split-between-two-moving-trucks-1464285108

Nexus 5 Camera Battle: Welcome to Photography, Google

Last year’s Nexus 4 was a wonderful phone paired with a miserably subpar camera. By contrast, the Nexus 5 is loaded with all the excellence Google and LG could muster, including a camera that can almost keep up with the big boys. Here’s how it stacks up. Just how good is the camera on the…

​10 Scientists Who Played God (And Didn’t Get Punished)

Fictional mad scientists usually meet a dreadful fate: destroyed by their own creation, or by villagers with torches. After all, we can’t send the message that dabbling in the universe’s secrets is okay. But sometimes, a scientist is just too clever, or lucky, to get burned. Here are 10 mad scientists who didn’t get punished.…

Annoyed that GIFs don’t automatically start playing in your Twitter feed? Of course you are, andjust as they did with Facebook,Giphy has your answer. Now, any time you link to one of Giphy’s GIFS in Twitter, it will be broadcasted to the whole world whether they like it or not.

The world’s largest Lego snow globe is so big it can fit people inside

The world’s largest Lego snow globe is now on display at Covent Garden in London. Lego master builder, Duncan Titmarsh used 120,000 bricks to showcase the London skyline. The build took about 75 days to complete and features 14 London landmarks, including Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, the London Eye and Big Ben. Titmarsh had his work…

Car Mechanic Dreams Up Genius Baby-Vacuum To Ease Births

Counter to everything you’ve ever been told, it appears that wrapping babies’ heads in plastic bags may very well be the key to a full and happy life—at least for those born of obstructed labor, anyway. And what’s more, this novel idea came about from one of the most unlikely sources: a car mechanic dreaming…

Google Wins the Right to Keep Scanning Millions of Books for Free

Nearly a decade after it started, the lawsuit between the Authors’ Guild and Google over its book-scanning program has been thrown out. This means that Google can keep digitizing millions of books for free distribution, and more importantly, that fair use is in the public’s best interest. On Thursday, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in…

Will Dallas Build a Giant Protective Shield For Its Death Ray Tower?

For the past two years, Dallas has been locked in a debate over a new class of buildings that have lovingly become known as architectural death rays. In Dallas’s case, it’s a shard of light reflected off a hastily-built condo tower that has killed plants and ruined art at the nearby Nasher Sculpture Center. https://gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-buildings-that-melt-things-1247657178…

J.J. Abrams’ Pet Peeve: When Futuristic Stories Use Present-Day Jargon

Sunday sees the first episode of Almost Human, the android-cyborg buddy cop show from some of the peeps behind Fringe. Co-creator J.J. Abrams has been doing interviews to promote the show, and he brought up the biggest thing that annoys him in future-set stories: anachronistically present-day references. Talking to Time, Abrams says: I don’t often…

New York’s Futuristic Central Vacuum System That Never Was

New York City at the turn of the 20th century was a pretty pungent place. Piles of garbage, millions of people cooking food, and about 2.5 million pounds of horse manure emptied into the streets per day will do that to a city. And don’t forget the 420,000 gallons of horse urine flowing through the…