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This beautiful private jet has a skylight on top of its fuselage

If I could buy a private jet, I would definitely get the $45 million Dassault Falcon X. That integrated skylight is just amazing. And the clean cockpit is neat too. A beautiful beast. https://jalopnik.com/the-falcon-x-is-a-fancy-private-jet-designed-with-a-fre-1450089711

Ytasha Womack, Author of Afrofuturism, Is Here to Answer Questions!

Ytasha Womack, the author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, is here to answer your questions today! In addition to Afrofuturism, she’s also the author of Post Black: How a New Generation is Redefining African American Identity and 2212: Book of Rayla. Her credits as a filmmaker include Love Shorts and…

Dung beetles don’t just run to poop, they actually gallop

Most insects walk forward three legs at a time, a manner of locomotion known as the alternating tripod gait. But scientists have recently learned that there’s at least one insect, the industrious dung beetle, that moves along with a galloping gait — and they’re kinda perplexed as to why. In the newly observed movement, dung…

How Agents of SHIELD‘s ragtag crew will become a family

Everybody knows the theme of “misfits coming together to create family” is important to Joss Whedon — so it should come as no surprise that Agents of SHIELD, his new show, is heading in that direction. We talked to showrunner Jeffrey Bell, and he told us how we’ll see more sides of Agent Coulson and…

We can’t stop watching this anamorphic optical illusion

Get ready to have your MIND BLOWN. Behold this amazing anamorphic optical illusion created for Ray-Ban. It’s beautiful. We’ve featured these types of illusions before — in fact, this creation looks a lot like the bananas Rubik’s cube anamorphic designed by the artist Brusspup. Unfortunately, there’s no information on who created it, but it’s still…

Kenyan officials will use microchip implants to prevent rhino poaching

Poaching could be the greatest threat facing Africa’s dwindling rhinoceros populations. Wildlife officials, for their part, are fighting back – often in unconventional ways. Their latest tactic? Microchip implants. https://gizmodo.com/africas-western-black-rhino-has-been-declared-extinct-5858564 https://gizmodo.com/in-south-africa-rhinos-could-soon-become-agents-of-che-5838472 Top photo by digitalART2 via flickr. Via The Verge: Kenya is planting a microchip in the horn of every rhinoceros within its borders, as…

Your Best City Ever! The Proliferation of Self-Help Urbanism

From 2011 to early 2013, the BMW Guggenheim Lab traveled to three cities—New York, Berlin, and Mumbai—holding workshops and events as part of a mobile “urban think tank.” The project outlined 100 trends facing each city—300 trends total—that the Lab’s organizers think will define the cities of the future. An exhibition of the findings, called…

Did The Chronicle open the floodgates? Paramount greenlit Attach,a science fiction spec script by Chris Gorak, the longtime production designer who directed The Darkest Hour, on the strength of some effects tests. It’s described as similar to The Chronicle, with a “big visual concept” and young cast. And cheap, probably.

Google is adding handwriting input to Gmail and Docs. Starting today, you can use your trackpad or mouse to hand-draw characters in a variety of languages. [Gmail Blog via 9to5Google]

The Lindy Lid: A Forgotten Fashion Craze From The Golden Age of Flight

In the summer of 1927 a new fashion craze swept the nation. Called the “Lucky Lindy Lid,” it was a ladies’ felt hat that came in a variety of sizes and colors. Adorned with a small propellor on the front and two miniature wings darting out on each side, it may have looked a bit…

How the Silver Screen Turned Into a Technicolor Dream

Today’s moviegoers are a jaded bunch—it seems to require 3D visuals and advanced audio systems just to get a rise out of them. But it wasn’t always this tough in Tinseltown; there was once a time when something as basic as color film was sufficient to blow an audience’s collective mind. The Early Days of…

Bloody Friday The 13th Wedding Shoot Tells a Pretty Good Horror Story

We’ve seen plenty of zombie filled, dinosaur hiding engagement shoots. But this Friday the 13th inspired masterpiece wins just for having a nice little horror story running through it. Plus the shot of the bride-to-be hiding from Jason is gorgeous. Shot by photographer Brandon Gray, we love to see what happens when Jason goes up…

Exploring Fractals with Dragons and Dungeons

In her two latest videos, maths-maven Vi Hart shows us how to draw fractals freehand, creating Koch curves, dragon curves, and eventually THREE DIMENSIONAL DUNGEONS – all with a little clever doodling. It’s captivating, to say the least. Episode one is up top, episode two down below. Unfamiliar with Vi Hart? What are you even…

Watch Molten Steel Run Through This 19th Century Welding Workshop

A few weeks ago, a tiny gallery in London was transformed into a scene straight out of the 19th century. Amid piles of sand, a worker donned a silver apron and safety helmet and poured molten hot steel down a track to create long slabs of metal. The man in the apron was Raphael Hefti—not…

This Vacuum Detonator Blows Deadly Chemical Weapons to Smithereens

Disposing of the world’s chemical weapon stockpiles is far easier said than done. It’s not like the good old days prior to WWII when we could just dump extraneous supplies of mustard gas and other chemical weapons into the open ocean or under Delaware roadways or just big pits at the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama—no,…

Trimmable Printed Sensors Can Add Multitouch To Any Device

Multitouch user interfaces are slowly finding their way into all kinds of devices, not just phones and tablets. And thanks to researchers at MIT and the Max Planck Institute who’ve developed a printable sensor that can be easily cut down to size with a regular old pair of scissors, any device or appliance you can…

Geneticists Use Herpes to Confirm Ancient Human Migration Routes

Who needs archaeological evidence when you can study the spread of cold sores? By analyzing the full genetic code of the all-too-familiar HSV-1 herpes virus, biologists have confirmed a long held theory of ancient human migration routes, namely the “out-of-Africa” hypothesis. Top image: World map featuring the geographic location of the 6 HSV-1 clades with…

Amazon’s boosting the minimum order eligible for free shipping to $35, a $10 increase. That’s the first time in more than ten years the price has gone up. [Amazon via Lifehacker]

Physical exercise can boost school performance by a full grade

The BBC reports on new research that connects physical exercise with good grades. The scientists found that children could boost their performance by a full grade—from C to B, for example—with 60 minutes of exercise. The study—conducted on 5,000 children by the universities of Strathclyde and Dundee—concluded that boys got a quarter of a grade…

Dogs Shaking in Super Slow Motion Will Fix Any Bad Day

It’s no secret that dogs plus great photography and super slow motion have the power to mend the wounds of the world. Who doesn’t want more of that? You do. We all do. Here. https://gizmodo.com/stare-in-awe-at-wet-hedgehogs-rats-and-dogs-shaking-i-5992589 Shake began as a series of photographs by Carli Davidson from 2012 (check out the book here). The photos were…