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Curious how Ouya measures up as a gaming console? Check out the full review from our bleep bloop brethren over at Kotaku. [Kotaku]

Douglas Engelbart, Developer of the Early Computer Mouse, Dead at 88

Douglas Engelbart, an internet pioneer and developer of the early computer mouse, passed away early this morning at the age of 88. Engelbart was involved in the development of the ARPANET—the precursor to the modern internet—and showed off hypertext long before most people had interacted with a computer, let alone touched a networked computer. On…

An Army of Beatboxing Cameras Is One Expensively Awesome Drum Kit

As far as entry costs go, a drum kit can be a little expensive compared to a beater guitar or bass. This Nikon shutter percussion symphony takes it to a whole new multi-thousand-dollar level. Photographer Benjamin Von Wong got the idea from for this Nikon symphony watching a video that compares shutter sounds from different…

Researchers uncover key clues in the mystery of limb regeneration

Why do some salamanders regenerate limbs faster than others? A team of biologists has identified genetic factors that may dictate the rate at which limbs and organs re-grow in these incredible amphibians, shedding much-needed light on one of the most remarkable physiological feats in the animal kingdom. Few biological traits are more enviable than the…

How military sonar may be harming endangered blue whales

Scientists have known for years that mid-frequency sonar can harm deep-diving toothed whales, such as by driving them from feeding grounds. Research now shows that the naval noise even elicits stark behavioral changes in blue whales, which communicate at frequencies far below sonar frequencies, suggesting that the detrimental effects of sonar may be more widespread…

Ford’s New Prototyping Machine Turns Sheet Metal Into Custom Parts

A modern assembly line can churn out a new vehicle every few minutes, but when carmakers want to build and test a prototype, it takes weeks to produce the dies and moulds needed to stamp out a custom one-off part. So Ford has developed a fantastic new prototyping machine that functions kind of like a…

Now it all makes sense: Prince Charles is a Dalek!

The British royal family visited the Doctor Who studios today, and Prince Charles took advantage of the chance to use the Dalek voice effects and yell “Exterminate.” Who producer Steven Moffat says the Prince of Wales has a job if he wants one. After Prince Charles showed off his Dalek voice skills, Moffat told the…

The New York Times has confirmed that Samsung has acquired streaming TV company Boxee. It’s not a monumental deal, but if anything the purchase will probably help Samsung slightly improve its connected TV interface.

What science fiction scared the crap out of you as a kid?

Timing is everything. A Stephen King book read in college may be a fun, suspenseful time, but if you read it in junior high it would give you nightmates. A banal movie like E.T. may bore you now, but you might have seen sinister undertones in it when you were a kid. The world is…

NYT: The Government Is Tracking All Your Snail Mail Too

Your email and phone call metadata certainly isn’t private, but maybe you were holding out hope that good old fashioned snail mail somehow avoided big brother’s living gaze. The Smoking Gun broke the bad news a month ago, and now the New York Times is confirming that nope, that’s all being tracked too. Surprise surprise.…

How Did It Take So Long to Make a Star Trek Phaser Laser Pointer?

Combining a simple red laser pointer with a Star Trek phaser toy seems so incredibly obvious, but apparently it’s taken this long for a clever entrepreneur to put those pieces together and come up with thisadorable keychain that actually fires a glowing blast. That, or it’s taken years to negotiate the Star Trek licensing rights.…

Awesome new TED-ED videos explain the physics of superhero powers

Educator Joy Lin has teamed up with TedEducation to produce a series of fantastic animated shorts that explain the physics behind such superpowers as flight, speed, strength, invisibility, body mass manipulation, and immortality. The physics of superhero flight is explained in the video up top. Super strength explained: Explaining the physics of superhero speed: Immortality…

Man catches freaky 200-year-old fish, promptly kills it [Updated!]

A 40-pound shortraker fish, after minding its business for the past two centuries, was recently caught 10 miles off the coast of Alaska by a Seattle fisherman. But just looking at this thing we kinda wish he just left it where he found it. Shortrakers, also known as rockfish, are actually quite common in the…

In a summer filled with painfully stupid, joyless blockbusters, Disney’s The Lone Ranger offers a very special brand of insultingly terrible boring nonsense. But is it the year’s stupidest movie, or just in the Top 10? At least the western’s “accessories collection is made by a Lakota Sioux leatherworker named Gabriel GoodBuffalo.” “A Pirates of…

Google Maps Street View Now Lets You Explore Thomas Jefferson’s Digs

Nobody wants to spend their vacation day studying history, but if you’re feeling particularly patriotic tomorrow, you can head on over to Google Maps where Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello residence is now available to explore using Google Street View. You can virtually wander around outside the property on its sprawling greens, or head indoors and explore…

DIY Fireworks Instructions From the 1920s Were Ridiculously Unsafe

Americans love things that sparkle, things that glow, and especially things that blow up. So it makes sense that on America’s birthday, we take great pride in our various spectacles of light and noise. Today, there are countless YouTube videos and how-to websites showing how to create your own firecrackers and noisemakers. But back in…

How To Prep Your Grill for the Fourth of July

Tomorrow’s barbeque is going to be epic, a cookout for the ages. But first you’ll need to make sure your grill is up to the task. Here’s how to turn your fire pit up to 11 in time for the 4th. Cooked to the Grills Stuck between open flame and charring flesh, your grill’s cooking…

The 14 Greatest Action Figure Playsets of All Time

An action figure needs a place to act. And while pretending an empty shoebox is a secret HQ, or that dangerous caves lie under your bed, very few imaginations beat an awesome playset. While its heyday is mostly over, it’s worth celebrating the best playsets — new and old — that gave our toys a…

Command a Fleet of Carry-Ons with this Supersonic Jet Fighter Luggage

Why put your luggage in the belly of an aircraft when your luggage can be the belly of an aircraft? Enter the Aviator collection, suitcases that look like they could take the flight to your destination all on their own. Designed by Timothy Oulton, the Aviator collection is a four-piece set with a distressed aluminum…

This Thorium Reactor Has the Power of a Norse God

The Uranium-235 and -238 we use in modern nuclear fission reactors are humanity’s single most energy-dense fuel source (1,546,000,000 MJ/L), but that potent power potential comes at a steep price—and not just during natural disasters. Its radioactive plutonium byproducts remain lethally irradiated for millennia. That’s why one pioneering Nordic company is developing an alternative fuel…