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Edward Snowden Takes a Victory Lap

The Washington Post just published the first interview with Edward Snowden since the initial wave of press after the 30-year-old former analyst’s leaks this summer. His main theme: Edward Snowden done good. This is not to say that Snowden doesn’t deserve the praise. The Washington Post makes it very clear in nearly 4,500 words of…

Researchers say Samsung’s Knox security software for the Galaxy S4 could be vulnerable enough to allow email tracking and data interception. Bad timing for Samsung’s pitch to compete with Blackberry as the US Department of Defense device of choice. [WSJ]

A Map That Reveals the Most Popular TV Show Set in Your Home State

No matter what state in the U.S. you live in, a popular TV show has taken place there. But what’s the absolute most popular show of all time to be set in your state? Business Insider has you covered. The Business Insider crew determined the most popular shows set in each state, by looking at…

ILM’s Effects For The Lone Ranger Were Way Better Than the Movie

Just because a blockbuster tanked at the box office, doesn’t mean the talented folks who worked on the film didn’t pour their hearts and souls into every frame. Especially those responsible for a film’s visual effects, whose work often goes unnoticed when they’ve done their job right. And to give the talented artists at ILM…

What TV shows should we binge-watch this holiday season?

The holiday season is upon us — and with it some large swaths of uninterrupted free time to bask in the soothing glow of the television (whether alone or in the company of those nearest and dearest to us.) What are the best TV shows to stack our Netflix queues and DVD players with over…

Saturn does its best to imitate a Christmas ornament

Assuming you read the headline, I’m probably not going to be able to convince you that this image is an extreme, shadowy close-up of a Christmas bauble. But it can still be hard to believe that these boldly colored, oddly perfect circles and hexagons can really be found in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. This photo, taken…

Watch Today’s ISS Spacewalk Live, Right Here, Right Now

It may be Christmas Eve, but today’s a working day for the astronauts on the International Space Station. NASA’s Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins are conducting the second spacewalk in four days to repair the ISS’s cooling system, and you can watch it live right here. https://gizmodo.com/15-awesome-facts-about-the-international-space-station-1468236778 Today’s mission is the second half of a…

The Surprising Inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons‘ Weirdest Monsters

How the heck did they come up with some of the crazy monsters in Dungeons & Dragons? There are a lot of weird, memorable monsters that GMs can use to strike fear into the heart of players — and the inspiration behind them is way different than what you probably expect. https://gizmodo.com/the-10-most-memorable-dungeons-dragons-monsters-1326074030 In the 1970s,…

61 Years Later, Alan Turing Finally Got a Royal Pardon

Alan Turing, father of modern computer science, destroyer of Nazi encoding, has finally been posthumously pardoned, 61 years after he was convicted for being who he was. About damn time. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-build-turing-s-universal-machine-5891399 It’s been a long time coming; 59 years have passed since Turing’s suicide by cyanide-laced apple in the face of force chemical castration after…

7 of the World’s Most Awesome Alternative Christmas Trees

Nothing will ever be able to replace the simple beauty of a real, live Christmas tree—and don’t even get us started on the smell. But no matter how much we may cherish this piney holiday tradition, the reality remains: They’re bulky, messy, and a pain in the ass to toss out once they’re dead. But…

Could the next Pacific Rim film be a prequel? Plus New RoboCop Pics!

But don’t hold your breath for Clash of the Titans 3. Orla Brady talks more about her “killer nun” character in Doctor Who’s Christmas special. Plus, a fresh set of photos featuring the humanity at the center of Robocop. Will we finally get to the bottom of Coulson’s resurrection? Spoilers now! Top image: Pacific Rim.…

This Laser Smartphone Add-On Accurately Measures Everything In a Photo

Forget the sanding, the painting, and all the construction; the worst part of a renovation is having to use a tape measure to size up a room. But if you’re willing to cough up $560, there’s now a much better way that almost sounds like magic. It’s a smartphone accessory called the Spike that uses…

The Coolest Toys from the 1911 FAO Schwarz Catalog

Smithsonian’s Around the Mall blog recently dug up an awesome FAO Schwarz catalog from 1911, found over at the Internet Archive. It’s filled with some pretty fantastic toys, including airship-themed board games, Kodak cameras, and carriages led by sheep. But these gifts didn’t come cheap. Even the board games were expensive. That airship-themed game (complete…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: What Is Christmas?

‘Tis the season for family gatherings, home cooked meals, and drugs, apparently. All of the drugs, all at the same time by the looks of things.

Awesome parents recreate famous movie scenes with their adorable baby

Aww. This is adorable. Lilly and Leon Mackie play dress up with their little kid Orson and turn him into baby versions of Luke Skywalker, baby Batman, baby Macaulay Culkin, baby Castaway and so forth so that they could recreate scenes from famous movies. You’ll see mom, dad and child pose for photos of baby…

This amazing T-rex illusion is somehow moving its head to follow you

As far as tyrannosaurus rex replicas go, this one seems pretty cheery. Sure, it has sharp teeth and claws but they look playfully toothy. One thing scary about it though: the head and eyes seems to follow you wherever you go. Like the paper T-Rex is watching your every move. What’s scarier? It’s not actually…

The Tetris Theme Played in 100 Moog Patches Will Wreck Your Brain

It took me a second to wrap my brain around what exactly is going on here, but even if I didn’t know, I could listen to these two Moog synthesizer modules play the Tetris theme over and over again forever. I think this music made my brain more smarter. So what we’ve got here is…

These Wallpapers of Icy Planets Are Perfect for Winter Escapism

Winter is lovely, but it also makes us yearn for even more extreme wintry landscapes on other worlds or in the ice-studded realms of outer space. Here are some wallpapers to give your computer some seasonal flare — in space! An icy asteroid belt (via Ryan Bliss at Digital Blasphemy) Cold Planet (via MovScreen) Cooling…

This Glass Room Lets You Float Over of One of the Alps’ Highest Peaks

The Aiguille du Midi, or Needle of the South, has been home to the terrifying highest vertical ascent cable car in the world for three decades. But this month, it’s stepping up its scaring-the-wits-out-of-tourists game—with a glass box that hangs over the yawning void next to the peak. Image: Alexis Moro/AP. The installation is called…

Watch out: This book is addictively brilliant!

Ian Tregillis’ Something More Than Night is one of those books that manages to be both clever and exciting — you want to pause to admire all the brilliant ideas he’s tossing around, but you have to keep turning pages to see how it’ll turn out. This tale of angels is so brilliant, you might…