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How to Chill a Beer With a Slingshot

Slingshots aren’t just good for firing toilet brushes and Oreos: with a little thought, you can even use one to cool a beer. https://gizmodo.com/weaponized-toilet-brushes-wipe-out-zombies-and-hard-wat-493104984 Everyone’s favorite slingshot expert, Joerg Sprave, explains in this video how a little bit of elastic—and effort—can be used to chill a beer to 6 celsius below room temperature. Sure, using…

Samsung has revealed that it’s holding an event in London on 20th June to unveil a new glut of Android and Windows mobile hardware.

How Sending Mirror Image Signals Could Speed Up the Internet

A team of researchers has developed a technique which uses mirror images signals to dramatically increase the accuracy—and speed—of data transmission across the internet. The team explain in Nature Photonics how it’s possible to send not one but two beams of light down a fiber cable: one the normal data signal, the other its mirror…

This Is NASA’s Solar Propulsion Engine of the Future

This Tron-esque glowing blue ring isn’t the latest designer lamp. In fact, it’s NASA’s cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster, being tested in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Using xenon ions to create its thrust, the engine is being considered for use as part of the Asteroid Initiative—NASA’s plan to capture a small asteroid and redirect it safely…

Why We All Love Space Porn

There’s something so beguilingly beautiful about images of space: those awe inspiring images that make us question our place in the universe. In this video, a team of astrophysicists take a look at why we all find them quite so amazing. So, astrophysicist Dr. Emily Rice, Hubble Image Processor Zolt Levay and Astronomer David W.…

Rumor has it that Yahoo is willing to stump up $800 million to take over Hulu. Marissa Mayer is one big spender right now.

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Black Hole

Our universe being governed by the whims of a pair of rambunctious children in a higher dimension makes a surprising amount of sense.

Amadou & Mariam: Si Ni Kan

Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia are the couple that make up Amadou & Mariam, an afro-blues group from Mali. The pair has been performing for decades and have released seven albums, including last year’s Folila, along with a number of compilations. Both musicians are blind and they are sometimes called “the blind couple from Mali,”…

Will We Eventually Need Apps To Tell Us That We Are Moral People?

It feels nice to get points. It doesn’t really matter for what, but the more points the better. When you check into Foursquare you get points, and it feels nice. And sometimes you even get a badge and that feels like the ultimate vindication, even if the badge is for 10 visits to traffic court.…

RNA-laced bandages could treat the worst wounds on the genetic level

While DNA is the building block of life, its cousin RNA keeps the show running smoothly, as it carries the information from DNA that allow genes to be expressed. RNA’s ability to increase or decrease the expression of genes means it has huge potential to treat diseases at the genetic level, including tumors and chronic…

Orphan Black reveals the greatest secret of Sarah’s past

We’re in the penultimate episode of the season, and Orphan Black just keeps throwing revelations at us. Sarah learns about her past—and gains some unexpected family members. Alison has an intervention, and Dr. Leekie tries to convince us he’s one of the good guys. Spoilers ahead. Last week ended with the most shocking, heartbreaking moment…

Ants Will Give You Free Advertising If You Pee On The Billboard

Most people don’t take a trip to the Amazon looking for publicity opportunities, but if you stumble on one you have to run with it, right? At Smarter Every Day, Destin and his rainforest guides took advantage of the complicated process leafcutter ants go through to forage for salt and got the ants to carry…

“You are all going to die” Joss Whedon’s Wesleyan Commencement Speech

It’s not the most comforting thing in the world to have the director known for killing off his characters remind you of your own mortality. But Joss Whedon’s speech at today’s Wesleyan University commencement wasn’t about comfort; it was about accepting contradictions and learning to listen to dissent from ourselves and others. Wesleyan has posted…

Surprising No One, Twitter Is An Arrested Development Explosion

The Netflix-only fourth season of Arrested Development went live at 3 a.m. EST this morning, and if you didn’t see the Twitter deluge coming, well, you’re one of these people: But you’re probably one of these people: Or you actually have to get sleep in order to work: So you hate this person: Or perhaps…

Ghostly Ship Graveyards from Around the World

Where do boats go when they die? Sometimes they end up in vast ship graveyards, sometimes craggy, foggy places where ships have met their doom, and sometimes spots where ships are deliberately left to rust. There’s a quiet beauty to many of these graveyards and their resting inhabitants. The port of Nouadhibou, Mauritania More than…

The Whispermen star in this deleted scene from the Doctor Who finale

One of the unexplained mysteries from the Doctor Who season finale is revealed in this short scene. The Whispermen launch their campaign against the Doctor with a strange visit. This is being listed as a “prequel” to “The Name of the Doctor.” I’m not sure if it was meant to be shown as a prologue,…

What the heck is this strange red rectangle doing in our galaxy?

It’s not often that a nebula looks quite so much like a cheesy special effect from some forgotten ’70s sci-fi movie, but the Red Rectangle Nebula qualifies. After all, this seems to betray a total misunderstanding of basic science, because aren’t nebulae meant to be, well, round? And is any nebula that blood-red? This nebula’s…

Listen To Music Through Your Cheekbones While You Swim Laps

It’s hard to listen to music while you’re swimming because even waterproof earbuds that actually stay on try to conduct sound through air to reach your eardrums, and there’s not a lot of air underwater. The FINIS Neptune works on this issue by sending sound waves straight into your face. Total bombardment. In a good…

Crowdfund a book about Jack Kirby and a tale from The Obscure Cities

This week’s crowdfunding takes us to a counter-Earth, and a never-before-translated story from François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters’ Les Cités obscures. You can also back a documentary about cicadas, a comic starring a young gay superhero, or a book about Jack Kirby collected by his son. The Leaning Girl Translated Graphic Novel Project Some of…

Hybrid Fruits Sound Delicious And Sort Of Exist A Little Bit

I would do basically anything to try a bananaberry, kiwigerine or pinegrape. No matter how varied and colorful nature is, I will always want more delicious fruit options. And Ogilvy Brazil knows. They sense my weakness. To sell Philips’s new blender, the Walita Avance, Ogilvy Brazil designed this ad campaign . . . and created…