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Microsoft Just Improved the Xbox One’s Graphics Powers

Well, Microsoft does seem to be listening to people. A sticking point for a lot of fans on the next-generation console has been that it’s less powerful than Sony’s PlayStation 4. In a podcast today, though, Major Nelson talked with Xbox’s Marc Whitten about some changes to the Xbox One that will let it crank…

The 10 Dumbest ATM PINs Are Even Dumber Than You’d Think

In an age of mandatory password complexity and burgeoning biosensory protection, the idea of a four-number PIN for the ATM seems almost quaint. That doesn’t excuse the fact that the most popular PIN is still, yes, 1234. Come on, people. The following list of most-used ATM PINs comes compliments of a company called DataGenetics, and…

Europa Report is a space opera that gets it right

About halfway through Europa Report, you may find yourself holding your breath. Partly that’s because you’ll be feeling the tension in this psychologically intense story of the first humans to visit Jupiter’s moon Europa. And partly that’s because this small indie manages to show you visions of space that are heart-wrenchingly beautiful. Set in the…

Gamer forgets he’s in his room during 5-hour Virtual Reality session

Kotaku’s Richard Eisenbeis says that “at times [he] literally forgot [he] was really sitting in my living room” while playing with the Oculus Rift—a new virtual reality gaming eyeglasses system—for five hours straight. He really means it. His description of the surreal experience is incredible. When Alyx jumped into my arms at the start of…

20 Most Inspiring Entries in Red Bull’s Epic Photo Contest

It’s back! Can you believe it’s already been three years since we wrote about Red Bull Illume, the world’s biggest photography contest for action and adventure sports? (Remember the incredible winners?) Beginning in June, Red Bull has been slowly leaking its top 250 finalists, and today, we’re happy to announce that the gallery has been…

Akira movie lives on, despite everyone trying to kill it

Warner Bros. hasn’t given up on their live action, Americanized Akira movie. And now that the $180-million project has been stripped and streamlined down to an even smaller budget, director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) is back on. But can you make Akira for less? Variety is reporting that the long road through development hell may be…

For the Weekend: How to Bake a Planetary Structural Layer Cake

You’re looking at the geo-culinary creation of self-taught chef Rhiannon, showrunner of the mouthwatering baking blog Cakecrumbs. Her latest creation? This scientifically accurate structural layer cake of Jupiter. “Our knowledge is mostly theoretical of course,” she writes, “but the gas giants are thought to have a core comprised mostly of rock and ice,” depicted here…

Earth Is Just a Pale Blue Dot… Or Pixel… Or…

The image above is what Earth looks like from Saturn, a stunning reminder from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft that we’re nothing but a small speck of dust. And sometimes, as xkcd points out below, that can be quite literal. All respect to Carl Sagan, but it’s definitely hard sometimes to tell a dot from a pixel.…

Müllerian mimicry helps prey train their predators

We’ve heard about harmless animals “camouflaging” themselves by imitating deadly animals. Müllerian mimicry doesn’t work that way. Instead, deadly animals form an alliance and train their predators. Maybe. On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, but its ideas were available to a certain subsection of the public well before that. Charles Darwin discussed…

Spectacular winning images from Nat Geo’s 2013 travel photo contest

The winners of the 2013 National Geographic Traveller’s photo contest have been announced — and they’re absolute stunners. There were over 15,500 photos submitted for this contest, with major prizes awarded to the three best images, along with 7 merit prizes. The photos, taken from around the globe, spanned four categories: travel portraits, outdoor scenes,…

Did Newton get Newton’s rings wrong?

If you’ve ever seen strange concentric ring patterns show up when two panes of glass are pushed together, you’ve seen Newton’s rings. Most people see them as evidence of the wave nature of light. Newton, however, did not. You’ve most likely made a set of Newton’s rings by accident. Perhaps you’ve set down a lens…

Warwick Davis & Carrie Fisher Reenact Their Return of the Jedi Intro

Watch as the original Princess Leia and the ORIGINAL Wicket, Warwick Davis, recreate their meet cute on the planet Endor. Warwick still remembers 1/4th of Ewok talk. Davis is wearing the orange hat blanket and still totally has the movements down. It’s completely adorable. Mostly the two actors just adorably ham around to the original…

Could We Move The Sun?

At some point in the far future, our descendants may want to relocate the Sun — a hypothetical megascale project referred to as stellar engineering. But as crazy as that sounds, the physics says it could work. Here’s how we’ll do it. A Type I Kardashev civilization would use the power of its entire planet.…

When the Universe expands do we expand with it?

If the Universe is expanding (as opposed to, say, getting fat), shouldn’t we, our planetary neighborhood, our galaxy, be expanding right along with it? If so, would we even be able to notice? In the latest episode of Minute Physics, Henry Reich tackles this cosmological conundrum of vast, expanding proportions. [Minute Physics]

Is Peter Parker the only hero in The Amazing Spider-Man 2?

Aaron Taylor-Johnson explains the psyche of his Avengers character Quicksilver. Check out awesome set photos for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Mark Wahlberg has a crazy sword on the set of Transformers 4. Plus the latest on Arrow, Supernatural, The Originals, and more. It’s spoilers all the way down! Top image from Game…

How Much Caffeine Are You Actually Getting in That Cup of Coffee?

Confession: I don’t drink coffee. I know next to nothing about what makes a good cup of brown flavored water other than it involving sniper precision measurements, calculus-level math, tools that are fit for a serial killer, forearms that would make Popeye jealous and a full beard. What I DO know is that more is…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Buffalo Rider

Enjoy the heartwarming tale of a man, conveniently named Buffalo Jones, and his buffallo, named Buffalo. No wait. Its name is Samson, because that’s so much more original. Whatever you call them, the two chum around the American frontier, saving babies and stuff for an hour and a half (even though the script was apparently…

Have You Gotten in Trouble with Work Because of Your Computer Habits?

If there is one thing we can all agree on, it’s that being at work is different than from being at home. Well, unless you work at home or live at work, which, um, maybe we can’t agree on anything. But! The things you do on the computer at work should probably be different from…

For folks who miss the colorful 3D world of giant blue people and/or want to see more Dances with Wolves movies, Avatar 2, 3 and 4 will come out in December 2016, 2017 and 2018. [Deadline]

What Happens to Your Poop After You Flush It?

Though we may think we pump out roses when it’s go time on the ivory throne, nobody in their right mind would actually want to keep those roses around. So flush them away and down the magical toilet they go! But where do they go? To the vague destination of the sewers. And then where?…