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480GB Ultrabook SSDs Will Arrive in 2013

If 256GB just isn’t enough for your ultrabook-toting needs, things are set to change. Mushkin has announced what it claims to be the “world’s first” 480GB mSTATA SSD—and it will be available in January. Slim laptops—we’re talking ultrabooks—don’t have room for even a standard 2.5-inch SATA SSD, so use a smaller form factor known as…

Rumor has it the Washington Post will put up a paywall in 2013. Gorge on free news while you can. [Wall Street Journal]

Here Is the Official Color of 2013

Pantone, the hoity toity decision council for everything we’re allowed to see, has announced the color of the year for 2013: green. Or well fine, emerald. It’s unclear what scientific process Pantone goes through to determine what the COTY is (other than complete arbitrariness) but hey, emerald’s a nice color. Last year’s color of the…

The Stoner Channel: Corporate Weed, Blamestorms, and a Tale of a Country Doctor

Former Microsoft Exec Trades in the Board Room for Bong Rips Michael Shively is living the dream. A corporate strategy manager for Microsoft from 2003 to 2009 (and great-grandson of Diego Pellicer, the number one pot producer of the 19th century), Shively recently announce that he’s currently developing a premium cannabis retail business in Washington…

Watch Tim Cook in His First TV Interview Since Becoming Apple CEO

It’s been about a year since Tim Cook took the helm at Apple, and he has apparently decided now is a good time to start talking to people. Brian Williams got first dibs, interviewing Cook earlier tonight on NBC’s Rock Center. It was a pretty standard issue CEO interview—laden with vague answers and lofty corporate…

Every Single Mental Thing Ian McShane Screams as American Horror Story’s Santa, in One Video

I thought I had seen an unhinged Ian McShane — I mean, I’ve seen Deadwood. But I had no idea what would happen when McShane stepped onto a truly crazy show: basically, no rules. American Horror Story gave McShane a Santa suit and let him off the leash. We’ve rounded up some of the best…

How Photoshop Would Work in Real Life

Imagine if you had the powers of photoshop in real life. You could fix any blemish, smudge any color and brighten any situation with a quick drop down menu. How would it work? Photographer and graphic designer Flora Borsi imagined a life version of photoshop in a photo series called, “Photoshop in Real Life”. Check…

What Color Means to Blind People

Tommy Edison, the wonderful blind film critic who once showed us how he used an iPhone, has a new video describing something nearly impossible for blind people to understand: color. What’s great is that even though Edison doesn’t understand the concept of color, colors still have meaning to him. Watch him describe what red, blue,…

How to Say Google in Different Languages

Google, the word not the company, has become such a common word for anyone who uses a computer (other than the yahoos who still use Yahoo, I guess) that it’s surprising to learn that other languages have a different word for it. Like Italians say Googlare. Or that the Portugese say Googlar. It gets weirder.…

Famous Photos Taken As Selfies Are So Damn Hilarious

Selfies are hilarious photographs people take of themselves. It’s a close cousin to the MySpace mirror shot and birthed from the proliferation of smartphones and point and shoots and really, there’s nothing more awkward than catching someone in the process of taking a selfie. So when you take these famous photographs and repurpose them as…

On Supernatural, it’s Benny vs. Amelia. Guess who wins?

OK, I lied. As much as I would like to see a smackdown between Benny and Amelia, in which one broods beardily and one delivers fragile pouts, these two characters didn’t actually meet in last night’s episode. But their plotlines looped around each other as Sam and Dean confronted what it means to have their…

When dinosaurs team up with lasers, you’re basically screwed

This is my favorite scene from the Roger Corman film Raptor — which is basically an ultra-cheap Jurassic Park rip-off starring Eric Roberts and a bunch of people you’ve never heard of. In this scene, a researcher working on a project to breed dinosaurs has lost sight of the mission — so he has to…

M83: Wait

M83’s album Hurry Up We’re Dreaming came out last October. Doesn’t that seem like forever ago? And yet, here we are at the end of 2012, with the last of the album’s beautiful visuals for “Wait.” It’s the conclusion of a trilogy that was a collaboration between M83 and Fleur & Manu for the album.…

I Want to Eat This Awesomely Yummy 3,000 GummyBear Lamp So Badly

Fortunately, this gummy bear lamp is not actually made of real gummy bears, but 3,000 cast acrylic GummiBears. Not because of security concerns—imagine all those poor bears melting and causing a disaster—but because I would eat the whole thing. Designed and handmade by Jellio via Kevin Champeny, you can buy them in two sizes: 18…

Scientists Revolutionize Pina Colada Production With Coconut-Flavored Pineapples

Australia’s Department of Agriculture has announced that its researchers have made a breakthrough that will send shockwaves across beach resorts and tiki-themed restaurants around the world. Through careful breeding they’ve managed to produce a sweet pineapple that also tastes like coconut, reducing future Pina Colada recipes to just two ingredients. The new breed of fruit,…

Proof that Molly Gloss Deserves to Be One of Your Favorite Authors

Molly Gloss is one of the best writers you’ve probably never read. Though she fits, both chronologically and thematically, into a cohort of female genre writers of feminist-inflected, anthropological SF — a group that includes Eleanor Arnason, Karen Joy Fowler, and of course Ursula K. Le Guin — Gloss is probably the least well-known among…

The Real Reason Why Nitrous Oxide Hits You So Fast

Nitrous oxide started as anesthesia, but found a nice second career as a drug for anyone who could find a can of spray-on whipped cream. Why does it hit people so suddenly? Why does it stop so quickly? The answer may be found in biochemistry and physics that are unique to this particular gas. Nitrous…

Gorgeous Minimalist Art That Strips Science Fiction Down to its Essence

The Musée des Arts Contemporains (MAC) in Belgium is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a special science fiction-themed art exhibition called “SF: Art, Science et Fiction.” It brings together the work of a number of artists, to explore the links between science fiction and the arts. The artworks include modern art pieces speculating about scientific…

Back to the Future Hoverboard Hands On: So This Is What a Real Life Hoverboard Looks Like

The official Mattel Back to the Future hoverboard is here and it looks exactly like it did in Back to the Future II: happy neon pink retro future glory. All the details are there—the hole where Marty ripped off the pole, the foot strap and the graphics—but it doesn’t actually hover. No matter, this is…

Bullshit Ipsum Dummy Text Works Perfectly Fine In Most Business Documents

You probably know Lorem Ipsum, the dummy text based on Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum used by designers all over the world to fill up layouts before using the final text. There are sex and bacon alternatives, but this bullshit ipsum is the best. https://gizmodo.com/the-fifty-shades-of-lorem-ipsum-nsfw-dummy-text-genera-5936446 The best because, after reading plenty of business plans,…