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The First Smartwatch You Might Actually Want Is Designed For Kids

As if kids didn’t have it pretty awesome already, now it looks like they’ll be among the first of us to get their hands—or wrists—on a bona fide smartwatch with the Filip. But don’t get too jealous. The Filip is designed as a safety device more than anything, with Wi-Fi, cellular, and GPS capabilities designed…

A bigger, better look at Agents of SHIELD with tons of new footage

Okay, when I say “tons” I really mean “about 30 seconds or so,” but you should still watch this quick featurette anyways, because it also includes director Joss Whedon and star Clark Gregg explaining why Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is going to be the best. You know, my semi-carnal love for Agent Coulson may be making…

Our Brand-New Godzilla, Revealed at Comic-Con!

The last time Americans tried to reboot Godzilla, the results were… disappointing. But now, Gareth Edwards, director of Monsters, is trying again. And we got the first proper look at what the big bastard looks like this time around. Last night we partook of the Godzilla Experience at Comic-Con, which is a walk-through maze, created…

7 Graphics of Earth’s Coolest Phenomena, From Rainbows to Earth Wobble

What’s the oldest tree on Earth? What’s a rainbow? Is the Earth wobbling? It’s fun to ask these questions but trickier to answer them—in simple terms, at least. Luckily, Viennese designer Michæl Paukner has done us all a huge favor by creating these lovely visual explanations. Paukner is a graphic designer by trade, but a…

Netflix’s House of Cards Got an Emmy Nomination

Hey now! This year’s Emmy nominations were just announced, and House of Cards is up for Best Drama. Which is fairly good news for everyone hoping for streamed, original shows take off. Especially with all the hype around Orange Is the New Black, this legitimizes original online content just a little bit further. Kevin Spacey…

Google Maps just annihilated an entire 141-square-mile island

The latest update of Google Maps appears to have wiped out the Scottish island of Jura. But while the internet giant is aware of the problem, it has yet to fix it. Despite the oversight, Jura island is very much a real place. It’s home to about 188 people and is famed for its whiskey…

Harrison Ford gives a grim history lesson in first Ender’s Game clip

Harrison Ford would like to welcome you to Battle School! And then he’d like to depress you by reminding you of the ever-present alien threat and how you kids are the only thing standing in the way of another slaughter of countless innocent human beings. No pressure, though! So Mazer Rackham pulled the ol’ “Randy…

Solving the Mystery of the Plague That Decimated Ancient Athens

In 430 BC, during the Peloponnesian War, a plague ripped through Athens. We now know it was caused by typhoid fever. You’d think, when we’ve known about an infectious disease for a couple thousand years, we would know how it works. But we didn’t. Until now. Plague, typhus, typhoid fever: some diseases sound so comfortably…

The 10 Most Controversial Wikipedia Topics Around the World

Give a bunch of scientists a dataset like Wikipedia to play with, and it’ll keep ’em amused for a long old time. Now, a team of researchers from Oxford University have mined the rich seam to work out the ten most internationally controversial topics on the online encyclopaedia. By analyzing edit wars—where one editor changes…

How will humans cope with boredom on their first missions to Mars?

A human mission to Mars will last more than 8 months, each way. Ship quarters will be sardine-esque. Communications will be laggy and intermittent. And, despite the thrilling nature of the larger mission, astronauts en route to the Red Planet will likely struggle with psyche-crushing boredom. So how might an astronaut occupy her time on…

The early reviews for The Wolverine are decidedly mixed

According to reviewers in the U.K., The Wolverine is a lifeless, tired superhero movie that brings nothing to the genre and whose plot is nearly as wacky as X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And then according to other reviewers, it’s the superhero movie of the year. The one thing it isn’t, apparently, is just okay. The divide…

This Samsung SSD Runs at a Blistering 3,000MB/s

If you think your SSD is speedy, think again: this new Samsung SSD is capable of reading data at a frankly obscene 3000MB/s. Sadly, there are some caveats. First up, it won’t run with a normal SATA-6 port—instead, it requires a PCIe hook-up. Second, it’s actually intended for enterprise customers. But hey, we all do…

Futurama makes me wish Nixon were president

“Saturday Morning Fun Pit,” is another anthology episode, which makes it great. What makes it even greater is that Nixon is in control this time. I shouldn’t yearn for a Nixon presidency, but the show makes an irresistible case for it. Anthology episodes of Futurama are the jewels in the crown. They free the creators…

America’s present heat wave is so big you can see it from space

If you live anywhere on the eastern half of the United States, you’ve probably been sweating it out over the past several days in what certainly feels like the warmest week yet for the season. The cause of the oppressive weather? A large mid-level ridge centered over the Ohio Valley — large enough to be…

Android 4.3 Leaked via a Googler’s Second-Hand Nexus 4

A version of Android 4.3 has come out of Google—thanks to a Google staff member selling a Nexus 4 with a near-final version of the OS update onboard. The code’s been extracted from the phone and released and—bar a missing radio—would appear to be a virtually complete version of the next version of Android. If…

Did a massive dragon just wash ashore along England’s Jurassic coast?

Beachgoers on a Dorset beach were in for quite a jolt earlier this week as they encountered what appeared to be the remains of a giant dragon. In reality, it’s a sculpture put together by Blinkbox to promote the third season of Game of Thrones which is arriving to the service. The skull, which measures…

Netflix has responded to allegations of cropping movies, claiming “we do not crop” and suggesting that the issue is aresult of movies arriving in awkward aspect ratios. “When we discover this error, we work to replace that title as soon as possible,” the company claims. Just, you know, slowly enough for someone to Tumblr them.

Does J.J. Abrams Have the Script for Star Wars Episode VII Already?

Hugh Jackman hints at how The Wolverine will set up X-Men: Days of Future Past. Caesar will be talking by the end of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. What role is Doctor Who’s Mark Gatiss playing on Game of Thrones? Spoilers ahead! X-Men: Days of Future Past Hugh Jackman spoke to Coming Soon…

3D Printed Sugar Is Intricately Beautiful

Forget medical applications and guns: when 3D printing is this beautiful, I don’t care if the result is only good for sweetening my coffee. Liz and Kyle von Hasseln, from The Sugar Lab, have taken 3D printing to a new level. With a background in architecture, the pair have developed 3D printing processes which allow…

ICANN Approves the First Generic Top-Level Domains–and They’re Non-English

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is currently busy deciding the future of the internet in Durban, South Africa, this week. First on its list: non-English generic top level domains. According to ICANN, a new set of four domains names “mark the first time that people will be able to access and…