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Letters from Whitechapel is a ripping good board game

In Letters from Whitechapel, a team of detectives scour the streets of Victorian London, searching desperately for the depraved murderer known as Jack the Ripper. It’s a lot like the classic ’80s board game Scotland Yard, but with more bloody murder. Scotland Yard was my favorite board game to play with my cousins when we…

Virgin Galactic says it’s on track to begin tours of space in 2014

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo underwent its second successful rocket-powered test flight yesterday, demonstrating its “wing-feathering” capabilities for the first time. In a video announcement released soon thereafter, Virgin CEO Richard Branson stated the company is “on track for a 2014 start of commercial service.” Rich space-enthusiasts, rejoice! Above: SpaceShipTwo during yesterday’s rocket-powered test flight // Credit:…

This Ship Makes Its Own Waves Inside to Remain Stable in Rough Seas

It can take a land lubber quite a while to get their sea legs, so MARINTEK (the Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute), working with Norway’s Salt Ship Design, have created a boat that can actively cancel out the rolling motion of the ocean’s waves. Designed for use alongside oil platforms under construction as a temporary…

Police arrests man who broke the drive-around-Manhattan speed record

His name, according to the New York Police Department, is Christopher Adam Tang. He claimed he drove around Manhattan in just 24 minutes and seven seconds using a BMW Z4. The man was arrested following the publication of his video and an interview in Jalopnik. https://jalopnik.com/source-says-police-have-arrested-manhattan-speeder-afro-1253640248

Here’s the Gigantic Nokia Windows Phone We Might Never See

There’s a new leaked image of Lumia’s gigantic phone-tablet, the Lumia 1520, and it looks pretty nice. It comes from @evleaks, a historically reliable source for advance shots of phones. It looks pretty nice—if it ever comes out. Evleaks posted the image as “Nokia Lumia 1520, 2013”, but it’s unclear what’s happening to all of…

7 Surprising Structures That Would Have Transformed San Francisco

When you live in a city for a while, it begins to feel—for better or for worse—like every block is completely familiar. But there’s a heck of a lot of invisible history inherent in even the most recognizable sites. This month, San Francisco is celebrating its own unrealized gems; Unbuilt is the theme of the…

Jennifer Lawrence explains why Mystique is “naked” in the new X-Men

The latest Star Wars casting rumor will thrill Lost Girl fans. Could Will Smith be in Independence Day 2? There’s a new Mad Max photo. Find out what Tyrion’s doing in Winds of Winter. See new pictures of Daniel Radcliffe in Horns. Plus Agents of SHIELD, Thor and Outlander. Spoilers ahead! Top image: X-Men: Days…

According to 9to5Mac, we may have to wait until the end of October for the final release of OS X Mavericks. The update—which features a lot of small improvements that add up—is reportedly taking extra time to mourn the tragic loss of Goose.

Even Behind-the-Scenes That Chest Bursting Alien Is Terrifying

A lot of people try and avoid behind-the-scenes looks at their favorite movies for fear it could ruin the mystique of what they’re seeing on-screen. But surprisingly, seeing the inner workings of the infamous chest bursting alien from Aliens is just about as terrifying as the actual scene in the movie, if not more so.…

Qualcomm Toq Hands-On: This Is Tonnes Better Than the Galaxy Gear

Disregarding my opinion that smartwatches (unless they’re the Pebble, or something as intuitive and elegantly-executed) can all be tossed in a skip and set on fire, I’m actually really impressed after a brief play with the Qualcomm Toq (pronounced “talk,” not “toc.” Dubbed “the anti-Galaxy Gear” (by us), such is the stripped-down nature of what’s…

LG’s 77-Inch Curved OLED Ultra HD TV Is a Monstrous Beauty

Currently, the biggest curved curved ultra-high resolution OLED TV tops out at a mere 55 inches—but LG is shaking things up with this monstrous 77-inch creature. Being shown off at IFA 2013, it’s not clear why anyone would really need a 77-inch curved TV like this. But that’s OK, because it’s currently just a concept…

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Craig From Craigslist

Craig Newmark is the Craig of Craigslist whose estimated net worth as of 2010 was around $400 million. This is in direct contrast to his financial wealth during childhood, where his mother struggled to support Craig and his brother, Jeff, after the death of their father. Craig Alexander Newmark was born on December 6, 1952,…

Visualizing Published Science as Forming Galaxies

Scientific research is published by the bucketload every single week—to the extent that it’s virtually impossible to keep up with. So this neat way of visualizing published papers as growing galaxies is particularly fun—and useful. Initially basing the idea on arXiv—the open website where scientists publish research, not yet peer-reviewed, to make it available as…

China Telecom Leak Seems to Reveal New iPhones

On Thursday afternoon, a verified China Telecom account on the Weibo microblog posted an advert for advance orders of the iPhone 5S and 5C—the phones we expect Apple to announce next week. https://gizmodo.com/the-new-iphone-s-are-officially-coming-sept-10th-1245187290 While the post was swiftly withdrawn, a journalist at the Wall Street Journal spotted—and screen grabbed—the web page. It’s not clear if…

Can You Identify a Mystery Cocoon Which Has the Whole Internet Stumped?

Usually, throw the internet an image of something you can’t identify and it’s only a couple of minutes until you’re bombarded with people pointing out how dumb you are. Not so with this mystery cocoon, though—because nobody can work out where it comes from. First spotted by Troy Alexander in Peru, he calls it a…

Some Guy Got a Random Guy’s Facebook Profile Pic Tattooed to His Butt

When we said that Selfless Portraits, an awesome website where strangers drew pictures of other stranger’s Facebook profiles, is something we should all totally get behind, we definitely didn’t mean this: Joey Jordan took one of those random Facebook profile pictures and got it tattooed on his butt cheek. Now some guy’s face from Brazil…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Palette of the Ocean

This must be what Jacques Cousteau’s dreams looked like. This gorgeous visual poem from watercolor artist Will Kim is accompanied by an original score composed and performed by Ray Lee.

Could The Fork and Knife Chopsticks Be the Only Utensil You Ever Need?

There’s an eternal battle going on in my head on what’s the greatest utensil in the entire world. I flip with a fork but then flop to chopsticks, I side with the spear and then Benedict Arnold to extended fingers. It’s never settled. Different types of food require different utensils. If only there was one…

This Might Be the Nexus 5 Because It Looks Like That Leaked Nexus 5

This involves a meticulous combination of dots plus a mini-leap of faith but a LG phone with the name D820 just cleared the ranks of the FCC. Usually this wouldn’t mean much to us but it does sort of, kind of look like the mysterious Nexus phone that popped up in the Android Kit Kat…

This Parody Video Shows How Apple Will Announce the Next iPhone

You already know what’s going to happen. Tim Cook will get on stage next week, Jony Ive will wax poetic about chamfered edges, Phil Schiller will be his jolly self and a new iPhone will be announced to the world. It’ll look a lot like the iPhone we already know but Apple will find some…