Latest

These bros in a boat get the Imbeciles of the Month Award (video)

Why do people insist on killing themselves being ridiculously reckless and uploading their stupid failed stunts to YouTube? It’s a modern mystery! We like it. Here are some idiots filming a skimboarder’s attempt to high five his bros in a speeding boat. There are still five days left in the month. If you think you…

Yet another awful study on the connection between TV and crime

A new study suggests that so-called cybercriminals — people who commit crimes related to computer data — are going to cool it over the next few years. Why? Because they watch CSI. It’s one of the most entertainingly awful examples of science you’ll ponder today. The study, conducted by informatics researcher Richard Overill at Kings…

Microsoft Has Invented a Way To Embed Data in 3D Printed Objects

Say you have a 3D-printed item you’re selling. Maybe you slap a barcode on it that identifies what it is, where it came from, and how much it costs. However, Microsoft has developed a new technology called InfaStructs that offers a better alternative. With it, you could embed information directly inside of an item. InfaStructs…

This is what frozen light looks like

Can you imagine the idea of freezing light, stopping its photons in space as if time itself seemingly stood still? You are looking at it. German scientists have actually frozen the fastest thing in the universe for an entire minute. It’s a major physics breakthrough.

Steven Moffat promises closure on his Doctor Who storylines THIS YEAR

There are a lot of dangling plotlines on Doctor Who, going back to Matt Smith’s first story. Why did the TARDIS blow up? Why were the Silence so keen to kill the Doctor before he answered the First Question? And showrunner Steven Moffat promises that everything will be explained this Christmas. When we caught up…

What should you call your new mistress?

It’s not enough these days to have a mistress—everybody on Wall Street has at least one. What’s important is to give your new girlfriend the kind of fake name that will impress your bros and help the tabloids while instantly arousing suspicion from your wife and friends.

The written word is a foreign power, in Sofia Samatar’s Olondria

What if you came from a country with a purely oral tradition, and then you had to learn the written language of another culture? That’s the magical question at the heart of a brilliant new novel, Sofia Samatar’s A Stranger in Olondria. The hero of Samatar’s novel, the mystic Jevick of Tyom, is a refreshing…

Ford’s New Shift Knob Teaches You to Drive Stick

In this touchscreen, push-button, mouse-click world, there’s an undeniable mechanical satisfaction about driving a manual transmission. A perfectly rev-matched downshift proves to the world that you’re the master of the machine, not vice-versa. But if you’re a stick shift novice raised on video games, how will you teach your button-mashing hands to finesse a gear…

New Nexus 7 Now On Amazon [UPDATE]

Update 1: Check out the “offers” section on your Amex account to get $25 off at Best Buy that you can apply to your Nexus 7 purchase. Update 2: Use coupon code 41178 to get $30 off the Nexus 7 (or any tablet) at Staples. Amazon has Google’s latest and greatest tablet ready to ship,…

The mysterious Abney Effect twists colors

When it comes to colors, physics is easy. Physiology is hard. This is why the Abney effect is still debated. We know that it can turn blue into purple and orange into red, but we’re not sure why. William de Wiveleslie Abney was a chemist and physicist who got a lot of scientific work done…

Marilyn Monroe Assembled Drones During World War II

It seems every six months or so these photos of Marilyn Monroe from World War II make the rounds on the good ol’ internet machine. At the time they were captured in 1944 she hadn’t yet taken the name Marilyn Monroe, nor had she dyed her curly locks blonde. She was simply known as Norma…

This Biosensor Knows When Your Body Will Quit Before You Do

Extreme athletes often hit a point during competition wherein their bodies simply can’t produce the requisite amount of energy to sustain their current output, commonly known as “hitting the wall.” While much research has been done towards countering this event (looking at you Gatorade) actively estimating when the wall will hit remains a cumbersome exercise.…

Archaeologists Discover World’s Oldest Calendar in Scotland

The discovery of a near 10,000-year-old lunar calendar in Scotland has archaeologists scrambling to rethink the beginnings of history. The implications are huge, too. It turns out that the men of the Stone Age weren’t as primitive as we’d previously thought. The calendar itself is primitive to be sure. However, it’s also the oldest calendar…

How to know whether your house is occupied by demonic forces

If you’ve been paying attention to the hallowed house of learning that is Hollywood cinema, you know The Conjuring offers a scholarly methodology for examining haunted houses. In that spirit, we present these research guidelines for identifying a haunted house before it consumes you and your family. A haunting often starts with “cold spots,” “stink…

The Only Book You Really Need: The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister

At last, there’s a guidebook to how to navigate life’s tricky ethical quagmires: The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister! We’ve got the exclusive cover reveal of this book, tying in with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Plus a few pithy quotes. Here are just a few of the…

Homeland Security Is Moving Into an Abandoned Insane Asylum

Did you know that the US government’s third-largest agency is ramping up a 20-year, $4.5 billion construction project that will turn the grounds of a former mental hospital into an “elaborate” headquarters for its sprawling network of agencies? It’s already a decade behind schedule and $1 billion over budget. In Bloomberg Businessweek, Devin Leonard describes…

Everything We Know About Planet Formation Might Be Wrong

Scientists believe they may have stumbled upon a planet that currently circles its sun at twice the distance Pluto’s does ours. And should they be able to confirm that, yes, this is in fact a planet we’re dealing with, astronomers may have to redefine the entire way we think about planet formation. In images captured…

Starting tomorrow, T-Mobile will be waving the downpayment on hot phones like the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 “for a limited time.” Usually those phones would cost you $150 and $100 down respectively. The catch? The downpayment will be incorporated into T-Mobile’s monthly device installment plan. Pay now or pay later—you decide.

Meet Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.‘s deadliest, most mysterious operative

We’ve met Agents Ward, Fitz and Simmons; now it’s time to meet the resident badass of Coulson’s special ops S.H.I.E.L.D. team, Melinda May. Play by Ming-Na Wen, May seems to be the team’s equivalent of Black Widow — except this team doesn’t have Thor, Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, or even a Hawkeye. Something tells me…

The psychological syndrome that mimics Joker venom

Anyone remember the Batman animated series episode that had the Joker dosing people with venom that forced a creepy smile onto their faces and drove them insane? Turns out you don’t need the venom. The smile alone may drive people crazy. Professor Makoto Natsume at Osaka University practices psychiatry as well as teaching it. He…