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After China launched its first ever lunar rover earlier this week, debris from the rocket sending it up apparently fell and damaged several homes in the process. Oops.

There’s Going To Be a New, Reversible USB Plug

Holy mother of all things long overdue. After years of subjecting us to fumbling and rotating cables blindly behind devices around the world, the powers that (US) be have decided to make a Universal Serial Bus plug that is reversible. In a press release, the USB 3.0 Promoter Group—that’s a thing, it really is!—just announced…

Andy Rubin Is Leading a Secret Google Project to Build Robots

Andy Rubin was the man behind Android, but he stepped aside earlier this year. At the time, people suggested he was planning to concentrate on his personal interests—and now an interview with the New York Times reveals that he’s busy working on a secret Google project to create a new breed of robots. Speaking the…

Sound by Fire

That is how Ernest Gonzales sums up his grief, and his way through grief: “Sound by fire.” He reports in the liner note to his new, 11:13-long piece “Cremation” that after the passing on a single day last month of his grandmother and of the man he describes as the closest thing he had to…

This animation explains what aging is and how we can live longer

Growing up sucks. Getting older is no fun. Having your body deteriorate to a shell of itself is embarrassing. But wrinkles and brittle bones are a fact of life. But why! PHD Comics and integrative Biologist Joao Pedro de Magalhaes explain in this nifty animated comic on what aging is and how we can use…

Who’s foolish enough to not bid on a Batman Tumbler golf cart?

I don’t know about you guys but I don’t have much self control when it comes to awesome things that deserve to be purchased. Even if they don’t do anything I can’t help myself. See awesome, buy awesome. I assume the entire world operates like that too. So now I’m thinking about how many people…

There Will Be Blood Through Numbers

The Golden Ratio applies to black gold as well, apparently. This thought-provoking short by Ali Shirazi explores the use of this ubiquitous ratio in the cinematagraphy of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

Oh my God, idiot geniuses jump started a car with an AK-47

Filed in things you now know are possible but should probably never try in your lifetime unless your life depended on it but maybe still shouldn’t: jump starting a dead car battery with an AK-47. Yes, you can do that. Watch these insane Iraqi soldiers use the metal of the AK-47 to bridge the two…

I want to dip everything in this magic hydrocoating water paint

Everything I own, everything I will buy, every fiber of my body, everything in this world should be dipped into water paint. The hydrocoating process is popular in weapons and helmets but really deserves to be shmeared all over the world. We might have to come up with better designs but I never want to…

He only dreamed when his bed was on fire

When the mattress crumbled into charcoal, he woke up. His skin was covered in a layer of ash, but his mind was clear. This incredible image (a detail of the larger work) was created by photographer/artist Christopher McKenney. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.

Amazon Prime rockets are only sightly more stupid than Amazon drones

Amazon Prime Air’s drones are plagued with practical problems that would make them inviable in urban environments for the foreseeable future. What about Amazon Rockets? They’re only a bit more ludicrous. But seriously now, what Jeff Bezos should really do is build a delivery network made of supersonic pneumatic tubes connected to every home in…

Why did this invasive species suddenly take over Maine’s coastline?

This scary looking beastie is the European Green Crab. It’s not native to Maine, but they started coming over attached to the hulls of wooden trading ships a hundred years ago. But it’s only just in the last two years that there’s been a massive spike in the crabs’ population, devastating the local clam-fishers. According…

This mashup video of over 100 movie trailers from 2013 is so much fun

December is the time to catch up on everything you missed out on the year before. Like movies. Maybe you didn’t realize so many watchable movies came out in 2013. Maybe you said you wanted to watch them in theaters. Maybe you said you wanted to watch them when they got out of theaters. Maybe…

Own Han Solo’s blaster! Up for auctionis a blaster prop used by Harrison Ford (and maybe also Mark Hamill) in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Based on a German C96 Mauser pistol, it’s a lightweight non-firing prop. Valued at just $200,000 to $300,000!

Don’t Build This DIY Fireball Machine (Unless You’re Super Awesome)

Here’s a how-to video you probably shouldn’t follow, teaching you how to build a do-it-yourself explosion maker you probably shouldn’t make, so you can make simulated action movie fireballs in your backyard. Which you probably shouldn’t do. DIY instructor extraordinaire NightHawkInLight shows us how to build a home-brew rig that belches action movie fireballs in…

This 80,000-brick Lego kingdom from ‘The Hobbit’ will blow your mind

17 year-old Blake Baer and 18 year-old Jack Bittner have built an incredibly-detailed recreation of Erebor, the home of Tolkien’s dwarves in The Hobbit. Using nearly 80,000 bricks and taking around 400 hours to build, this Lego kingdom is simply mind-blowing. It’s 200-lbs and 56″ of awesomeness. Just like a dwarf! Erebor was home of…

Another pushbutton development will be projection of microfilm books on the ceiling or wall in large type. – 1959 prediction from the Sunday comic strip “Closer Than We Think” for the future of media

The Airship Heaven That Upstate New York Never Was

All Over Albany recently posted this futuristic illustration of Troy, New York, drawn in 1916. The image shows Troy in the year 2016: the streets lined with streamlined buses and trolleys, the sky filled with giant airships, and a rather phallic-looking building towering over downtown. The director of the local historical society is quoted as…

Viva Brazuca: Taking the 2014 World Cup Game Ball For a Spin

Every four years, there’s another World Cup. Every World Cup gets a new game ball. And since 1970, that ball has been made by Adidas. Enter Brazuca, the official game ball for World Cup 2014. It’s different, which is great—especially for players who find themselves in need of a scapegoat. Disclosure: We were so excited…

Why Don’t We Design a Better Wheelchair?

What’s the difference between using a wheelchair and wearing glasses? Both take advantage of technology to adjust or enhance human capabilities. Yet we tend to consider people in wheelchairs as disabled, and people with glasses as, well, relatively normal. It’s all about perspective. The Atlantic’s Rebecca Rosen recently interviewed Sara Hendren, who runs a blog…