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YouTube Capture can now handle 1080p uploads with improved audio—karaoke night just got a lot more menacing.

Chemistry goes psychedelic with the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction

In the 1950s, Boris Belousov noticed that a certain combination of chemicals could switch off between two different reactions. He also noticed that switch could be made very, very pretty. In the early 1960s, when Anatoly Zhabotinsky noticed the same thing, and entire chemistry aesthetic was born. We’ll show you examples of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction,…

French Government Abolishes the Hashtag

The French, probably in the midst of a Malian air war adrenaline rush, have gone on another offensive: the hashtag is out. From now on, it’s called a mot-dièse, which is sort of like a Twitter Royale with Cheese. The French are notoriously tight-handed when it comes to language—they don’t want American BS corrupting what’s…

American Horror Story‘s season finale: a bloody brilliant hour of television

American Horror Story had its ups and downs this season — but at least the show ended its second season with style and grace. On Wednesday night, Briarcliff went out with a bang. And for the first time in a long while, it felt like the show’s script was getting the same attention as the…

Why Aren’t Telephone Towers This Beautiful Anymore?

You’re looking at what was once the main junction for telephone connections in Stockholm. See all the wires? That’s because it was used for around 5,000 phone lines—literal lines—from 1887-1913. But don’t go looking for the latticed tower on your next trip to Sweden. It remained a landmark until 1953, when it was destroyed in…

Warner Bros. pretends they’re going to make a Robotech film again

THR says that commercial director Nic Mathieu is in talks with Warner Bros. to direct the long-gestating (in-development-hell) live-action Robotech film. It would be the first positive movement the film has had in forever, except that: 1) Nic Mathieu’s IMDB page is completely empty, so goodness knows how he’ll handle a feature film; 2) enough…

Making Artificial Eyes Is 50-Percent Fascinating, 50-Percent Surprising, 100-Percent Gross

There’s something about teeth and eyes out of their sockets that gives me the creeps. That’s why this video of a medical laboratory that has been making artificial eyes since World War I is kind of gross—but also fascinating. And quite surprising. I couldn’t have imagined that they make the veins with red thread, for…

What Would Really Happen if an Unstoppable Force Met an Immovable Object?

The Joker thought he had found the answer while dangling at the end of The Dark Knight, but have you ever really wondered what would happen when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? The folks at Minute Physics did, and as usual brought a mountain of entertaining science to explain how such an interaction…

This Is the New South Pole

There’s a new Geographic South Pole Marker, a pretty shiny metal pole that marks the actual geographic pole. Since the ice sheet that covers Antarctica moves, the previous marker moves along—about 10 meters from its real position. So the scientists from the Amundsen-Scott base celebrate each New Year by unveiling a new pole in the…

James Mangold reveals why The Wolverine is infused with Japanese culture and berserker rage!

Kate Winslet might be in the latest Hunger Games imitator, because Kate Winslet can do as she damn well pleases. Fringe’s Seth Gabel previews his Arrow guest spot. Plus Warwick Davis discusses meeting the Cybermen on Doctor Who, and more! It’s spoilers all the way down! Top image from X-Men: First Class. The Wolverine Director…

This Music Video Was Filmed Inside an MRI Machine

Musicians sometimes describe their music as an intimate look inside their minds. But an artist named Sivu has taken that notion literally with the music video for his song Better Man Than He that was actually filmed inside an MRI machine. Directed by Adam Powell, the video is as revealing a look at Sivu as…

This Snappable Spork Could See You Through a Whole Meal

This spork isn’t really a spork: it’s a spoon that turns into a knife and fork. It’s cleverly designed to see the user through soup then a regular main course—we just can’t really work out what it should be called. A sporkife? Fooife? Knoork? Spifork? So many words to squeeze into a single name. Still,…

Purported Press Images of Blackberry Z10 Leaked

A new set of pictures, purporting to be official press images of BlackBerry’s new Z10 handset, have popped up on the internet courtesy of @evleaks. While a pinch of salt is still required, these match up remarkably well with previously leaked photographs of a switched-off device, that appeared back in December. That suggests that you…

The Changing Book Covers of Sci-Fi, Visualized

When Arthur Buxton stumbled across a super-organized archive of Penguin’s science fiction, he thought it would be interesting to look at how the covers of the books had changed over time. He was right—and the labor of his work is this striking visualization. Buxton explains: Each timeline represents all the iterations of a cover in…

Rumor has it Windows Phone 7.8 might arrive—earlier than expected—on January 30th for AT&T Lumia 900 users.

There Are Some Battles Bezos Can’t Win

Today’s XKCD puts the success of Amazon.com into some perspective. Because I can’t do any better than Randall Monroe’s hilarious alt text: “Amazon.com took a surprise early lead with ‘Time required to transport a package from Iquitos, Peru to Manaus, Brazil’ but then lost it at ‘Minutes to skeletonize a cow’.” Time to pick up…

The Man Who Won the First Ever Software Patent

In 1968, Martin Goetz received the first ever software patent, for an “improved data sorting algorithm”. Little did he know that he’d set a precedent which would, over time, turn into a legal shit storm. Or, as Goetz beautifully puts it in this profile by PBS, “a little bit of a mess.” Regardless of how…

Apple Audit Reveals 106 Cases of Underage Labor in China

Apple has released its seventh annual supplier audit and it reveals that one of its suppliers—Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics—was found to violate its underage labor policy 74 times. Unsurprisingly, Apple was clear about the consequences of such a problems, and has completely severed ties with the manufacturer. Reading through the report, it appears that…

Is Facebook Locking Down Its Social Graph Data?

For all the reasons that Facebook is a massive success, it has one card that trumps the likes of Twitter, Google and LinkedIn: it knows who your real-life friends are. Kindly, Facebook shares that data with third parties apps using its Social Graph API—but it seems that privilege might not be a given for much…

Racing Trains, Giving Shelter, and Hermit Kingdom Kush

Because Why Wouldn’t Weed Be Totally Legal in North Korea? For such a notoriously repressive regime, the DPRK’s Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland party is surprisingly lenient when it comes to enforcing drug laws. According to a report from Big Buds, visitors to the Hermit Kingdom return with tales of cannabis and…