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Testing Microphones with Rockstars from Apollo Run and OK Go

When it came time to review Blue’s Spark Digital microphone, we could have put a few mics in a row, sang a little, played a little guitar, then scrutinized the sounds. Or we could have talented musicians from two amazing bands create an all-new song for us. Guess which one we picked? Here’s how this…

New Doctor Who Christmas minisode follows our favorite Victorian aliens

Wondering how The Doctor’s alien buddies manage to pal around in Victorian England undetected? The latest Christmas minisode explains it all! This short little video, set up as a prequel to the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas Special, shows how Vastra and Strax have been getting by in the past looking the way they do. The…

Is This the Most Over the Top Christmas Tree Ever? Maybe

I came across this image buried in one of those wacky picture dumpster sites, wandering from url to url across the web. I don’t know who set the tree up. I don’t know how many thousands of LED lights are around that tree. And I don’t know why people spend so much money making these…

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth” and other Cthulhu-ian Christmas songs

Okay, admittedly, there’s only one other Cthulhu-ian Christmas carol besides “I Saw Mommy Kissing Yog-Sothoth” here, and that’s “Freddy the Red-Brained Mi-Ho,” below. But I knew you guys wouldn’t want to miss these two fantastic holiday tunes by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society (who happen to have composed several other Lovecraftian, non-holiday songs here). These…

This Expanding Lamp Is Beautifully Intricate

When I was a kid, I had a toy Hoberman sphere. Despite the fact it did absolutely nothing of interest, it was utterly fascinating in an incredibly nerdy way—and now there’s a lamp that will let me play with one as an adult, too. Designed by Erik Stehmann, this is called the Expanding Lamp, and…

That Samsung Sex Tape Ad Is Way Creepier When It’s Santa

We all remember that time Samsung made a Galaxy S III ad that promoted the healthy exchange of sex tapes between mature adults, right? Like all good things, it’s received its mandatory holiday tie-in. One that manages to ruin your childhood. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-suggests-you-make-and-share-sex-tapes-in-latest-5954764 On the one hand, sure, I’m glad that Santa and Mrs. Claus still…

This is what a lorikeet’s tongue looks like. That is all.

The extra-long tongue of the lorikeet is, at first glance, highly reminiscent of the pharyngeal jaws on the Alien franchise’s titular beastie — but this bird’s exploratory organ is decidedly less lethal. At the end of the fictional extraterrestrial’s oral appendage you find extra teeth; at the end of the lorikeet’s you find tufts of…

Japan is finally building the ultimate anime theme park

What do Dragonball Z’s Goku, One Piece’s Monkey D, Luffy and Naruto from Naruto have in common? They’re all some of the most popular anime characters in the world, they all star in the Shonen Jump weekly manga anthology, and they’re going get their own theme park in Japan later this summer. Namco Bandai announced…

10 Bets You’re Guaranteed to Win At Your Holiday Party

YouTube’s favorite conman Richard Wiseman has returned with ten more bets you’ll never lose, just in time to spice up the never-evending barrage of holiday parties and family get-togethers this time of year. The trick where simple science and a little gravity is used to magically swap water and whiskey between two shot glasses is…

Dish.fm Consults Foursquare and Yelp to Help You Decide What to Order

What should you order for dinner? Dish.fm is a new iOS and web app that pulls from thousands of reviews on Yelp and Foursquare to help you decide specifically which dish is the best. The app culls these user-generated reviews to check for mentions of specific menu items. So if the pad thai is a…

How Jurassic Park’s FX Wizards Sculpted a Life-Size T-Rex Out of Clay

Before special effect artists can bring a creation like a T-Rex to life with robotics and animatronics, they first have to build and sculpt a life-size detailed mockup of the creature out of clay. And while it’s probably one of the best jobs on earth, seeing the artists at Stan Winston Studios having to hand-carve…

NASA captures ominous video of the three-mile-long asteroid that buzzed us last week

On December 12, the three-mile-long (4.8 km) asteroid Toutatis came within 4.3 million miles (6.9 million km) of Earth — which is about 18 lunar distances. During the flyby, NASA used its 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, to generate a series of radar data images — which has revealed a slowly…

TNT is blowing up on Amazon. Falling Skies and The Closer will now be available on Prime Instant Streaming.

Hackers Take Over Westboro Baptist Church Twitter (Updated)

We can all agree that the Westboro Baptist Church is the objectively worst collections of humans in the history of the species. And after planning to “protest” the funerals of dead children, the hackers at UGNazi got revenge. Update: We spoke with UGNazi. A Twitter account belonging to Shirley Phelps-Roper, a “lawyer” and “official spokesperson”…

Your Instagram Data Is Now Officially Facebook Data

A new Instagram privacy policy goes into effect on January 16th, 2013. The service will now be sharing your data with its new owner Facebook. Get used to it. Basically, Instagram has updated a few of the subhead sections of its policy to reflect the fact that it is a part of Facebook now. Instagram…

Major Reveals for Oblivion, Elysium, Tron 3, Fringe and Amazing Spider-Man 2!

Matt Damon praises Neil Blomkamp’s sci-fi epic Elysium. Does a casting call give away a huge Amazing Spider-Man 2 plot point? Len Wiseman’s new Mummy movie is going full-on horror. Plus check out new trailers for Doctor Who’s Christmas special! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from Star Trek Into Darkness. Star Trek Into…

Scientists Develop the World’s First Chemistree

Making a strong case for the Nobel Prize in Holiday Cheer, Redditor Breokz posted a photo of the Christmas ‘Chemistree’ at the Avans University of Applied Science laboratory. Instead of the more traditional pine tree, this creation is assembled from glassware and support structures like a giant chemistry experiment. And while this ‘research’ isn’t going…

The Evolution of the Batman Logo, Visualized

The Batman logo has changed an awful lot in the 72 years since the dark knight started cleaning up the streets of Gotham back in 1940. Fortunately, Cathryn Lavery has pieced together its changing form in this amazing poster. There have been some clear trends (click on the image below for a larger version): the…

Woman Gains Full Mind Control Of Robotic Arm, Just Like in Star Wars

This is truly extraordinary: Jan Scheuermann, a 52-year-old quadriplegic woman, has gained full control of a robotic arm. Not just simple commands, but truly complete control with “skill and speed almost similar to that of an able-bodied person.” According to the study—led by the University of Pittsburgh’s professor of neurobiology Andrew Schwartz—she achieved this incredible…

Rumor: Facebook Will Launch Its Own Snapchat-Style App

Facebook is apparently testing its own version of an app which resembles Snapchat, the messaging software which allows users to send “disposable” photographs to each other. All Things D claims, citing “sources familiar with the matter”, that Facebook will launch the app in the coming weeks, sometime before the end of the year. ‘Things D…