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How a pair of torpedos led to the worst shark attack in history

On July 26, 1945, the USS Indianapolis reached the island of Tinian, where it delivered the components and enriched uranium necessary for the atomic bomb Little Boy, which would soon devastate Hiroshima. But it’s perhaps best known for its role in history’s worst shark attack. This incident may be burned in a lot of folks’…

The History of Doctor Who as a Tube Map, with a Line for Each Doctor

Crispian Jago represents the Doctor’s multi-threaded history as a Tube map, with one transit line for each of the eleven doctors, and the various characters and aliens the Doctor encounters as stops. Daleks are pretty much the ultimate cosmic transfer station. Head over to Jago’s site to see the complete interactive map—and be sure to…

Cartoon Reality Show Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. hits your TV

This week in the world of cartoons, Leela grows some tentacles on Futurama, we are treated to a very interesting new Hulk series on DisneyXD, and an hour-long TMNT season finale! Ultimate Spider-Man is off for a little while to make way for the new Hulk series. As always – minor spoilers ahead! Hulk and…

Why the Hell Doesn’t McDonald’s Serve Breakfast All Day? (Updated)

Look, say what you will about McDonald’s — they know how to do breakfast. The Egg McMuffin is such a perfect packet of good-morning deliciousness, I swear Ronald McDonald must’ve cut his burger-flippin’ teeth in the kitchen of a roadhouse diner. But unlike my favorite diners, where breakfast is a Constitutional right 24 hours a…

These Gorgeous Black And White Photos Turn Truckstops Into Art

Sometimes it feels like the romance of the road is lost at truck stops. Those oases of diesel fuel and stale coffee seem too industrial, too pragmatic to fit into a Kerouac-style vision of road tripping. Photographer Michael Massaia lends some highbrow class to the truck stop with his series Seeing the Black Dog. Suddenly,…

What It Would Be Like If You Were Trapped Inside a Mirror Sphere

There’s not a single soul in the world who doesn’t love it when they get to see the endless world that appears when you’re in a room of mirrors. I remember trying to count as a kid how many versions of myself I could see. But what would happen if you were in a perfect…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet: SUPER SAYAN KUSH

Remember stoners, it’s one thing to think, “This is the best weed ever, Imma go punch somebody’s grandma in half.” It’s another thing entirely to go balls-out, “I am a Golden God” Super Saiyan and actually knock her into next Tuesday.

The NSA Monitors 1.6% of the World’s Internet Traffic

To be slightly more transparent and/or spew numbers to confuse the common citizen, the Obama administration released two documents to show the scope of the NSA’s data collection program. Those documents reveal that the NSA monitors 1.6% of the world’s Internet traffic and reviews .00004% of all traffic. Sounds so little, right? Just what the…

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Disney’s Vehicle Movies

If you’re over the age of 12, you probably wondered why the hell Pixar ever made Cars 2. And then when you heard about Planes, you probably wondered who in the world would go see a Pixar-less Disney movie that sounds like the direct to DVD cousin of Cars. Merchandising is not an excuse for…

The next Xbox 360 update will finally officially kill Microsoft Points dead. All your points will be converted over to an amount of currency equal to or greater than your points. Any Microsoft Points Cards will still be valid too (and transferred to real dollars). [Microsoft]

Watch an Epic Supercut of the Last Shot in Blockbuster Movie Trailers

This is fantastic. The Nerdwriter Evan Puschak created this killer compilation video that stitched together last shots of different blockbuster movie trailers. You know that last scene. Spectacular explosions, beautiful screaming heads, tense as hell sequences and probably an Inception horn thrown in. It’s the scene that if successful, leaves you gasping for air and…

How Technology Has Innovated Loneliness

It’s simple, as the world has gotten easier because technology has gotten better since touch screens have gotten touchier and social networks have filled every social void in our empty soul, we’re still searching for substance. Too often social networks can result in the technological equivalent of empty calories—sure it feels good to get liked…

Artist invents his own killer Game of Thrones characters

We’ve seen tons of amazing Game of Thrones fan art before, but we’ve never seen anything like this. British concept artist Bjorn Hurri created a brand new set of characters in the Game of Thrones universe — including this dragon-wrangler, who looks like she could give Daenerys a run for her money. https://gizmodo.com/a-gallery-of-great-and-not-tv-inspired-game-of-throne-5985595 As Hurri…

Behold San Fransokyo from Disney’s first animated Marvel movie

Big Hero Six will be Disney’s very first animated Marvel feature — taken from the lesser known, but highly praised, Japanese superhero manga of the same name. Check out this brand new artwork. We love what they’ve done to the Golden Gate Bridge. This brand new image is straight out of D23 and (we think)…

Deep and Wide: Stunning Amateur View of the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae

Here’s a beautiful deep look at a wide-field view of the Lagoon Nebula (M8, NGC 6523) and the Trifid Nebula (M20, NGC 6514) along with star cluster M21 and star forming region NGC6559. Amateur astronomer and astrophotographer Terry Hancock from Michigan says this is one of his favorite fields of view to observe. However right…

Ecstasy of Order: Remember How Good You Wanted to Be at Tetris?

Tetris and I were born just a month apart. And what Cold War kids we were. Tetris was the brainchild of a young Soviet computer engineer with a knack for building addicting games. I was the actual child of a couple of former hippies with a bit of a disco hangover. I knew Tetris and…

Weird Facts You Never Knew About H.G. Wells’ Movie, Things to Come

Did you know the Criterion Collection had recently come out with a deluxe DVD/Blu-ray release of Things to Come, H.G. Wells’ 1936 movie? It includes a restored print that’s way better than any previous release, plus unused special effects footage. And the Criterion site includes some astonishing facts about Things to Come. Top image: H.G.…

The Coolest and Weirdest Artworks That Are Visible from Space

How do we know that aliens aren’t watching us right now? We don’t. There could be cloaked vessels right on our doorstep. Luckily, some intrepid souls have been creating some illustrations for our new friends. Here are some of the wackiest pictures that are visible on Google Earth. Top image: Stop Frames of the Planet.…

The Snapshot Game Has Changed, According to Collector of Thousands

No one can say that the snapshot is dead. If judged by sheer quantity, our culture is no doubt taking more photographs than ever before. Robert Jackson collects vintage snapshots, and points out that even though the practice is alive and well, it is not what it once was. There have been entire shows devoted…

New Computer Programming Language Imitates The Human Brain

As we pointed out earlier this week, we’re still far from being able to replicate the awesome power of the human brain. So rather than use traditional models of computing, IBM has decided to design an entirely new computer architecture — one that’s taking inspiration from nature. https://gizmodo.com/this-computer-took-40-minutes-to-simulate-one-second-of-1043288954 For nearly 70 years, computer scientists have…