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Tables of Power: Inside the Inner Sanctums of Fortune 500 Companies

Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink has been inside some of the most important and cloistered rooms in the world. But these aren’t science labs or political offices—they’re the opulent boardrooms of Europe’s largest companies, which Hassink photographed as part of a project called The Table of Power. During the boom of the mid-1990s, Hassink set out…

A Colorful Budget iPhone Could Look Awfully Pretty on Shelves

There’s been a lot of leakage about that rumored budget iPhone lately, from sneakshots of all-white “iPhone 5C” packaging to repeated WSJ mentions. We still haven’t seen one of the devices in color, though. Not yet. And these renders by Martin Hajek show off how positively delightful a nice splash could be. https://gizmodo.com/a-plastic-iphone-called-the-5c-may-really-be-on-its-way-943206014 These renders…

Lego Makes a Fan’s Dream Come True

Russian Lego fan Egor Karshiev recently won the Lego Co-Creation Challenge, ‘You Design it, We Make it’. His prize? Lego built a 20,000-unit limited edition set of his awesome 4×4 technic vehicle and invited him to tour the factory in Billund, Denmark. https://gizmodo.com/this-secret-underground-facility-guards-all-lego-sets-e-5018990 https://gizmodo.com/exclusive-look-inside-the-lego-factory-5022769 Best. Day. Ever. (I can attest that visiting the factory is…

Does infinity really exist?

Our universe appears to be bound by a finite set of laws, yet we often talk about things that go on for an eternity. “Infinity” is a strange idea. But it’s crucial if you want to understand anything from philosophy to mathematics. Here’s why. There are three broad domains where infinity can be applied. It’s…

What Happens to Us as the Universe Expands?

You’re probably already well aware that the universe is expanding; that big, black void up there is getting bigger with each passing second. But what’s happening to us in the meantime? Are we getting embiggened? Or being ripped apart at the seams? Fortunately neither. As MinutePhysics explains, the cosmic expansion of space is just one…

Stephen King once wrote that “perfect paranoia is perfect awareness”

King might have been describing how Americans are reacting to today’s new revelations about just how much the NSA has been reading our email, chat logs, and more. Leaked documents released today offer more evidence that you are being watched, for no good reason.

She survived future wars, but can she survive her own fancy brothel?

In Kieran Shea’s novel Koko Takes a Holiday, Koko Martstellar has retired as a mercenary after living through some of the most intense warfare imaginable. Her reward? Running a luxury brothel full of simulated violence and weirdness. Until it all starts going south. Here’s the first ever excerpt. Titan Books, which is putting out Koko…

Computer chips in your mouth will know what you’re saying

Tiny computer chips installed on your teeth could one day allow you to monitor everything from the chemical composition of what you’re eating, to your ratio of talking to chewing. This technology could be part of your “quantified self” regimen, or a whole new system of surveillance. According to Jon M. Chang at ABC News,…

How to add secret compartments to your car—and other cool hacks

Check out Jalopnik’s ten awesome secret car hacks. It includes a complete guide to add secret compartments to your car—which is useful for criminals and innocent people pretending to be criminals. https://jalopnik.com/ten-awesome-secret-car-hacks-975213289

Facebook Status Updates Are About to Leak Into the Rest of the Web

Facebook’s just taken the next step towards becoming an inescapable part of the very internet itself. Starting today, Facebook will be rolling out Embedded Posts, meaning that you’ll eventually be able to embed your status updates into all the third-party websites your heart desires. The embedded status updates will appear exactly as they do on…

Looks like Verizon’s launch date for the HTC One has been bumped back to August 15th. The device, originally slated for launch tomorrow, has already been available from other U.S. carriers for some time. [DroidLife via DroidForums]

Thank God They Didn’t Use These Early Movie Character Concepts

When you’ve grown up with a movie since you were a kid, its characters can seem just as close and familiar to you as your own family. Maybe even more so, since they’re frozen in time. Which is why these early concept images of some of our most iconic cinematic friends are so jarring. That…

Samsung Galaxy S4 Will Connect To Whichever LTE Format You’re In

For world travelers with a need for LTE speed, Samsung’s newest version of the Galaxy S4 might be the answer to your jet-setting prayers. When they arrive, the updated Galaxy S4 and S4 Mini will be the world’s first handsets to automatically switch between the two different types of LTE networks used worldwide. While FDD-LTE…

The Sneaky Trick Crappy Movie Studios Use to Rack Up On-Demand Views

Movie studios are betting you’re crazy impulsive when it comes to picking what movie you want to watch. Apparently, many movie titles are selected purely on alphabetical prioritization, so that they’ll pop up higher on your on demand menu. If your movie isn’t good art, you’ve got to make an art out of the business…

This Astronomically Correct Jupiter Cake Is a Gas

Not only is this Jupiter cake just a marvelous sight, it’s an astronomically correct model of Jupiter. Hungry? Good. But first, let yourself remember a little elementary science. Created by Cake Crumbs—the same smart baker behind this awesome, accurate Earth cake—the edible Jupiter shows the planet’s core of rock and ice, surrounded by a layer…

The Great 1952 Space Program That Almost Was

In 1952, Collier’s magazine sponsored a gathering of the world’s greatest space experts who, in a series of illustrated articles, outlined one of the first comprehensive scenarios ever conceived for the exploration of space. Collier’s was one of the four top-circulation general magazines that flourished during the 1940s and 1950s. It was rivaled only by…

Watch Facebook’s Slow Creep Toward Total World Domination

Slowly but surely, the Facebook singularity approacheth. As of last month, Zuck’s Empire can proudly call itself the reigning social network in 127 out of 137 polled countries. That’s a lot of selfie uploads. What’s more, this a huge leap from where Facebook ranked just three years ago. As you can see below, it could…

Why history has forgotten the man who discovered protons and electrons

Today we have positive and negative charges in an orderly binary system. We owe that orderliness to its original discoverer — Charles Du Fay. If he hadn’t stepped in, we might have been calling charges by their colors. Charles Du Fay was a scientist in the early 1700s, when people were first playing with electricity…

40 Years of Nike’s Most Iconic Shoe Designs, Visualized

Nike’s impact on both pop culture and the shoe industry is unrivaled. It’s consistently one of the most popular brands in the world and has an insane sneakerhead following. But of all the hundreds of shoes released since the 1970s, what are its most iconic designs? British designer Stephen Cheetham took it upon himself to…

What do supernovae and salad dressing have in common?

Hint: The above video still shows a simulated example of the phenomenon they share. When you place a dense layer of fluid atop a less dense layer of fluid, it results in what physicists call a Rayleigh-Taylor instability. You can observe this effect in everything from salad dressing to lava lamps to evolving supernovae. Two-dimensional…