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5 Things to Check Before You Get Rid of Your Old Gadgets

Whether you’re raising some funds on eBay or passing on your phone to a nephew or niece, you want to make sure you don’t leave any trace of your activities on there. You also need to make sure the new owner isn’t locked out by your old accounts. Here’s a simple checklist to work through…

Cool Binary Watches and Everything Else You Missed This Weekend

Cool binary watches. Life-saving Galaxy Note 2s. Leaks of the HTC One M9 Plus. All the stuff you missed this weekend and more on BitStream. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Apple Watch. I know. But who gives a shit when you could own this binary beauty right here. Created by Jordan Wills, the binary wrist watch uses…

This Week’s TV: The Superhero Police Procedural We’ve Been Waiting For

It’s finally here: Powers, the cops-for-superheroes TV show based on the comic book debuts this week, and we’ll see if it lives up to the source material. (Eddie Izzard as a villain is a good start.) Plus, we’ve got tons of new Steven Universe this week and check out what Tara and Eugene are up…

Baby Ultron Is The Cutest Maniacal A.I. In This New Avengers 2 Toyline

I mean, just look at him! He may want to wipe out all of humanity to achieve his twisted sense of peace, but I wouldn’t say no to this little cutie, or any of his equally big-headed friends. Hot Toys have finally brought back their Cosbaby series, just in time for Age of Ultron. These…

This Company Wants To Sell You a Life-Size Hulkbuster Statue For $21,500

If you’re looking for the ultimate Avengers: Age of Ultron collectible and Hot Toys’ magnificent 1:6-scale Hulkbuster figure isn’t doing it for you, Beast Kingdom Toys has something a little grander than might interest you. Its created a life-size version of Tony Stark’s Hulkbuster armor and will happily sell it to obsessed and wealthy fans…

This Heart-on-a-Chip Beats Like the Real Thing

Though it may not look at all like the muscle in your chest, this heart-on-a-chip can beat like the real thing. A blend of microfluidics and biological cells, the device will be used as a more efficient means of testing for drug toxicity. Developed by a team of bioengineers form University of California, Berkeley, the…

How To Watch the Livestream For Today’s Apple Watch Event (Update Safari!)

We’ll be livebloggin’ the blow-by-blow straight from San Francisco later today as Apple dishes the deets on its supposedly lethal smartwatch. But if you want to use your eyeballs to watch the action live in video form, Apple’s got a stream for you. As always, the official livestream will attract many hundreds of thousands (if…

The Walking Dead Hosts The Apocalypse’s Most Awkward Cocktail Party

Seriously. Last night’s episode of The Walking Dead — a show that’s about the dead reanimating and trying to eat the living — was entirely about a cocktail party. And I’ll be damned if it wasn’t somehow a damned good episode, too. Part of the reason “Forget” works is that Rick and the others are…

James Gunn Claims Marvel Is Skipping Comic-Con 2015

Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn is claiming that Marvel isn’t going to Comic-Con this year. This news could make a lot of other studios very happy, but sadden a ton of fans. In a Facebook Q&A (spotted by MCU Exchange) Gunn was asked “Will you be at San Diego Comic Con this year?” His…

ThinkGeek’s Made Its Flying U.S.S. Enterprise Frisbee Prank a Real Toy

ThinkGeek’s annual crop of April Fools’ Day prank products are not only great because the company puts so much time and effort into making them see as real as possible, but also because they often end up as products you can actually buy. The latest to go from prank to purchasable is that U.S.S. Enterprise…

Write Some Six-Word Science Fiction For Us!

Sometimes, just a few words are enough to build a universe. So take six words of your own, and tell us some science fiction stories! Maybe you want to write a multiple-part epic, like this chilling little tale put together by two commenters: (“Greetings. We mean you no harm.” – acgilson “With the sequel, ‘Apologies,…

See The Wellcome Trust’s Best Science Photos Of The Year

The finalists of the 2015 Wellcome Image Awards have been announced. From insectoid eyes and cat tongues to curved spines and boll weevils, here are the most spectacular science photos of the past year. Top image: The boll weevil as seen through a scanning electron miscroscope (Daniel Kariko/Wellcome Images). “The breath-taking riches of the imagery…

This Serene Cloud City Is Hidden in the Snow-Covered Atacama Desert

Like a peaceful scene from a Star Wars movie, the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla telescopes sit blanketed in fresh snow as the Sun sets. The characteristic domes of the telescopes are closed off to protect the instruments from the harsh environment of the Atacama Desert. But wait: how come one of the driest places…

This Tree Bleeds When You Cut Into It

Pterocarpus angolensis, or wild teak, looks like a perfectly normal tree until it’s wounded. When you cut into it, it dribbles long trails of dark-red liquid down its trunk. Wild teak has come to be known as Bloodwood, for obvious reasons. Tannins cause the dark red color of the sap. Regular plants have parts –…

Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant only came out last week, but it’s already making steps to go to the big screen. In a Guardian article about the author being “on side of the pixies and the dragons,” Ishiguro confirmed that Scott Rudin had bought the film rights. [via Empire]

Museums in Paris Are Starting to Ban Selfie Sticks

Selfie sticks are a brilliantly simple and increasingly pervasive—but they’re also ruffling feathers. Now, high-profile museums in Paris are beginning to ban them over fears about potential damage to pieces of art. The Telegraph reports that guards at the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris have “started ordering visitors to put away their selfie sticks.”…

Star Wars Is Getting Its First Canonical LGBT Character

The Star Wars universe just got a little more diverse. When Paul S. Kemp’s Lords of the Sith novel is released on April 28th, it will include a character named Moff Mors — an Imperial, a lesbian, and the first canonical LGBT character in the franchise. Not much is known about Mors, although according to…

Solar Impulse Has Successfully Started Its Round-the-World Trip

After years of planning, the solar-powered airplane Solar Impulse 2 has successfully started its round the world trip. If everything goes to plan, it will become the first aircraft to fly around the globe without a single drop of fuel. The image above shows Solar Impulse 2 having just taken off from Al Bateen Executive…

Warning: This video can give you seizures

Filmmaker and animator Masoud Moein made this video transforming the lights of Tehran, in Iran, into a trippy kaleidoscope of blurred lights and moving colors. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Delivered An Epic Burn To Science Skeptics

Ignaz Semmelweis was a European physician who solved one of the most horrifying medical mysteries of his time, and was destroyed for it. One man in the United States agreed with him, proved him right, and delivered a historic burn on the doubters. Oliver Wendell Holmes wasn’t the only one who suspected that doctors were…