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Help prevent the apocalypse alongside Dikembe Mutombo and Science the Bear

According to the Mayan Calendar, we are all hurtling toward inescapable destruction. On December 21, the world will cease to be. What better way to help prevent the apocalypse than to join former NBA player and current Old Spice Champion Dikembe Mutombo in his quest to add more time to the calendar? Play, baby, play!…

NASA’s GRAIL Mission returns jaw-dropping maps of the Moon, unprecedented findings

Not since we laid eyes on these stunning, Jackson Pollock-esque astrogeological maps have we seen lunar cartography this gorgeous. These colorful, remarkably detailed maps of the Moon’s surface are just some of the early data collected by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission — findings published across three papers in this week’s issue…

Other Solar Systems Might Be More Habitable Than Ours

Our Earth feels like a warm and welcoming place for us life forms, but beyond our little planet, the majority of the solar system is too cold for us to live comfortably. But a new study suggests that planets in other solar systems might be more habitable than our own because, on the whole, they…

Spotify’s New Interface

A Round-Trip Ticket to the Moon Will Cost You a Mere $750 Million

Let’s face it; you’re never going to be an astronaut. And even if you were, there’s no chance NASA would send you anywhere but the ISS. Lucky for you, a company called Golden Spike is officially offering moon rides. All it takes are some very, very deep pockets. As the Washington Post reports, what Golden…

8 ways X-Men movie continuity is irretrievably fucked

With the news that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are in talks to reprise their roles as Professor X and Magneto, respectively, in the upcoming X-Men: First Class sequel Days of Future Past, Fox made a statement: That the X-Men movies are one continuity. They also made another statement: We are morons. In a mere…

What if The Little Mermaid was a horror movie?

What if the The Little Mermaid wasn’t a fired-up ginger hellbent on finding interspecies love on land? What if she was a Coney Island Freak Show attraction with the taste for blood? Then she would be a lot more like director Nicholas Humphries’ simple horror short The Little Mermaid. As a rule, we like anything…

What American Macintosh Factories Looked Like Last Time Apple Built Them Here

Tim Cook laid some pretty exciting news on us today, saying that an entire Mac line would be manufactured in the US starting next year (some iMacs are already assembled here). But time was, that was just ho-hum standard for all Macs, when they were made in Fremont, California. https://gizmodo.com/apple-will-move-mac-production-to-the-us-in-2013-5966177 Here’s what the factory making…

Spotify Overhauls Its Player to Make Discovering New Music a Breeze (Updating)

Today’s Spotify event, billed as “Discover what’s next,” is not so subtly supposed to be about how Spotify is going to one up its competition by helping you find music better than anyone else. The service is adding a new “Discover” and “Follow” tabs to its player that not only gives you recommendations, but also…

The Mathematical Formula For a Perfectly Decorated Christmas Tree

It turns out that decorating your Christmas tree isn’t necessarily all about taste. Mathematicians at the University of Sheffield in the UK have developed a formula for the perfect way to deck the halls. More specifically, what ratio of ornaments to lights to tinsel will make your tree most aesthetically pleasing. Since the geniuses behind…

T-Mobile’s Finally, Officially Getting the iPhone

Next year T-Mobile will finally get the iPhone. It’s not even a rumor this time—it’s an official announcement from T-Mobile and Apple. We’ve been waiting on this for pretty much forever, and not having Apple in its lineup has been pretty hard on T-Mobile. Now the three people still on the carrier are pretty pleased.…

Nvidia’s GeForce Experience Fixes Your Graphics Settings for You

Nvidia is no stranger to trying to make your video games look good, but this is a different take. Nvidia’s doing software now, and its GeForce Experience wants to optimize your graphics settings. GeForce Experience’s flagship feature is the ability to optimize visual settings for PC games with one click. If you’re not into guess-and-check…

This is all the beautiful space litter left on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover

Four months ago, NASA landed a one-ton, nuclear-powered rover on the Red Planet, scattering the Martian terrain with heaps of debris in the process. Curiosity, upon arrival, shed so much of its Entry Descent & Landing hardware that high resolution images of the planet’s surface are still turning up traces of the rover’s rubble. Let’s…

Google+ is rolling out its “Communities” interest-based discussion pages to all users today — all dozens of you.

This Is the Freakiest, Most Perfect Artificial Eyeball I’ve Ever Seen

I wrote about Visionary Effects awesome—and freaky—animatronics work before. The second version of their robotic eye with dilating pupil is even more impressive and way freakier. Just amazing. I wish I had a pair of these on my living room walls. [Thanks Visionary Effects!] https://gizmodo.com/animatronic-eyeballs-freak-me-out-5764104

Killer Catfish Have Figured Out How To Hunt Down Pigeons

In Southwestern France, a group of European catfish — which can get between 1 and 1.5 meters long — have taught themselves the art of fowl hunting to satisfy their discerning paletes. As unsuspecting pigeons often wander towards the shore, the fish have learned how to lunge out of the water, capture a bird, and…

Tron 3 is officially online again

Good news, programs! Disney has finally started running Tron3movie.exe, to the delight of me and about 500 other Tron nerds. From The Hollywood Reporter: The sequel to the 2010 reboot Tron: Legacy – called Tron 3 in some quarters – is moving a step forward with Disney in negotiations to hire Jesse Wigutow to pen…

How an Old Biosphere Project Could Help Build a Better Climate Model

We only have a fragmented understanding of the complex interactions that go on in the dirt as water flows past soil and microbes. To gain fresh insight into the hydrologic processes that make life on land possible, the University of Arizona has built a trio of massive, man-made hillside labs. Just recently, the $200 million…

A Website in Japan Lets You Rent a Boyfriend For $364

Japan provides its lonely men with plenty of way to find sweet respite from the emptiness and isolation of everyday life-provided you have the cash. And we’re not just talking about prostitution: you can rent a girlfriend at Moé Date for day of “simulate romance” or find a cuddle partner at Soine-ya to help you…

All the Clues and Easter Eggs from the Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Trailer

Just how dark does Star Trek Into Darkness get? And who is the dashing bastard unleashing total destruction on the Federation, and Kirk in particular? We’ve gone through the first teaser trailer frame by frame and studied every clue. Check out our roundup of every great Benedict Cumberbatch moment — including his battle with a…