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Gay marriage in the year 100 AD

Gay marriage sounds like an ultra-contemporary idea. But almost twenty years ago, a Catholic scholar at Yale shocked the world by publishing a book packed with evidence that same-sex marriages were sanctioned by the early Christian Church during an era commonly called the Dark Ages. Illustration of Serge and Bacchus, in a same-sex union John…

Google Chromecast Review: A Little Dongle With Big Potential

Over the past few years, manufacturers have been packing more and more features into their televisions—from 3D picture to web browsing—in an industry-wide arms race to differentiate. It hasn’t added up to much more than bloat. Google Chromecast offers relief in the form of a little dongle that puts whatever’s on your laptop, phone, or…

First look at pissed-off, magical Julia Ormond in Witches of East End

Behold our first glimpse of the Witches of East End Lifetime TV series, starring Julia Ormond as the witch of our dreams. Based on Melissa de la Cruz’s novel, Witches of East End stars Ormond as Joanna Beauchamp — and thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we now know what this magical series will look like: badass.…

Exclusive: 538’s Nate Silver tells why he left the NYT for ESPN

The political genius Barack Obama credited with “nailing” the 2012 presidential election has left the New York Times for sports giant ESPN. But why did FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver go? Ask him yourself, right now! https://deadspin.com/espns-nate-silver-is-here-to-answer-your-questions-951328525

First look at Syfy’s not completely awful cosplay reality show

The mind boggles at the potential horror of a cosplay reality show on Syfy, but somehow Heroes of Cosplay looks surprisingly okay. The cosplayers seem like pretty reasonable people, and the show goes into the creation of the costumes in a manner that seems like its going to be informative, so that’s cool. But… The…

Biometric Fingerprint Sensor For iPhone “Leaked” In Latest iOS 7 Build

Somewhere in the bowels of iOS 7 Beta 4 is a folder labeled “BiometricKitUI,” which lends a bit of credence towards the rumors that the next iPhone might have a biometric sensor embedded in the Home button. https://gizmodo.com/apple-wants-to-use-your-fingerprints-to-unlock-your-iph-5950916 First spotted by Hamza Sood, a look at the code reveals the following: Photo of a person…

Bombshell: Marilyn Monroe built the world’s frst drones

Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroe used to be known as Norma Jeane Dougherty, and during World War II she toiled at a California defense factory. But shocking new historical evidence shows that the future movie star helped build the first mass-produced aerial drones—and there are pictures to prove it. https://gizmodo.com/marilyn-monroe-assembled-drones-during-world-war-ii-696681799

Science Has Almost Beaten Testicular Cancer

Testicular cancer used to be a brutal condition with a low survival rate, but that’s all changed in recent years thanks to improved treatment. While just over half of patients survived a half century ago, today 96 percent of men who contract the disease are cured. Throwing around the word “cure” is always an iffy…

Watch these bears use a tree as a back scratching pole

Check out what happened after a group of bears showed up at what appears to be the greatest scratching pole in the history of the universe. Glenn Nayor, a park ranger and photography enthusiast working at Alberta Parks, caught these images after setting up an automated outdoor camera. Nayor adds a word of caution: Remember…

What shape is the Universe?

Two things we know about the Universe, according to NASA: it is flat, and it is immeasurably vast. But immeasurably vast ≠ infinite, and a finite thing must have some sort of edge to it, right? Well… maybe not. In this, the first installment in a three-part series on the shape of the Universe, an…

Why hyperventilating people breathe into paper bags (but shouldn’t)

You’ve seen plenty of movies and TV shows where a person hyperventilates and is given a paper bag to breathe into. Can wood pulp actually help with hyperventilation? And why do so many doctors want the practice to stop? The paper bag as a medical device features in everything from old Looney Toons cartoons to…

The Story Behind Ten Tiny Libraries That Popped Up in NYC This Summer

This summer, ten small libraries mysteriously appeared throughout New York City’s Lower East Side and East Village. But who paid for them? Who designed them? And what was the point? In a short film published today, the creators finally answer our many questions about how the Little Free Library came to be. The concept is…

Dear UPS, This Is Not How You Ship a Gadget

So I was on vacation last week, and came back to the usual mountain of 700+ emails and piles of junk from PR companies Katamaried all over my desk. There was also this. What’s in the box? A brand new Leap Motion, which, you know, not like it’s full of delicate sensors that probably shouldn’t…

How Much Happens on the Internet Every 60 Seconds?

Think about your activity on the internet at any given minute—chances are it’s all over the place. You could very easily be jumping from Twitter to Facebook, listening to Spotify, shooting off an email, downloading a movie, reading a news site, Googling background info to better understand aforementioned news site, and that’s just on a…

Your brain’s most intriguing and crucial mysteries revealed

Do you have free will? How the hell did we become sentient self-aware humans? Why do you sleep and dream? These are three of the eight crucial brain mysteries we haven’t been able to figure out yet. You don’t need a brain to know we don’t have a clue about the brain. https://gizmodo.com/8-things-we-simply-dont-understand-about-the-human-brai-949442979

Japan is making so many terrible Evangelion underpants, you guys

Good news for fans of Neon Genesis Evangelion and people who enjoy wearing underpants: The official Evangelion Store in Japan will offer a veritable mountain of Eva-themed frilly-lace panties and men’s underpants next month. The bad news? They’re ugly as hell. Look, I’m not saying all underpants need to be sexy — far from it…

Apple’s iOS 7 beta 4 is now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod devices through the iOS developer site. A full change log is also available over at BGR. [BGR]

16 Names NASA Considered For The 1980s Space Station That Never Was

During his 1984 State of the Union speech, President Reagan announced that the U.S. would build a new permanently manned space station within a decade. The Space Shuttle program was underway, and a permanent space station seemed like the next logical step in our bold push into the final frontier. It didn’t hurt that the…

The Elements a Fables Movie Must Have, According to Mark Buckingham

Warner Bros. has put a movie based on the Fables comic into development, and at Comic-Con DC’s Diane Nelson said Fables is a top priority. So when we ran into Fables artist Mark Buckingham, we wanted to ask him what are the crucial things a Fables movie must have, to be called Fables. https://gizmodo.com/f-ck-yeah-theres-gonna-be-a-fables-movie-511315108 https://gizmodo.com/dcs-head-executive-puts-sandman-at-the-top-of-their-817359822…

An Alleged Galaxy S4 Explosion Completely Destroyed This Apartment

It’s one thing if your phone bursts into flames and cooks up your leg-meat real bad, but that’s nothing compared to losing your whole apartment in an inferno. That’s exactly what a Hong Kong man claims happened to him while he was just plugging away at Love Machine (an app, not a euphemism) on his…