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Someone Is Writing The Ultimate Generic Dystopian YA Novel On Twitter

We love young adult science fiction, but even we have to admit that sometimes, it can feel like dystopian novels are following a bit script. The new Twitter account @DystopianYA is poking a bit of fun at some of the more common conventions of the genre. Writer and comedian Dana Schwartz is behind the @DystopianYA…

Original Copy of the Magna Carta Found in Forgotten Old Scrapbook 

An unassuming scrapbook buried inside the archives of Sandwich, England turned out to hold quite a treasure: an original copy of the Magna Carta from 1300, one of just several that have survived all these centuries. The Magna Carta Project announced the discovery this week, after verifying the tattered page found in December was indeed…

Physics Valentines (And Anti-Valentines), For Those You Love (And Hate)

The staff of symmetry has created a fun set of physics-themed Valentines to share with the people you love. And because ours is a universe that contains both matter and antimatter, they’ve created a complementary set of anti-Valentines, for the people you love to hate. My favorite Valentine/anti-Valentine pair appears above. The cards are designed…

Shooting Challenge: Love

Valentine’s Day is this weekend. And whether or not you believe in spending $5.95 on Hallmark greetings, hopefully, you still believe in love. So for this week’s Shooting Challenge, that’s what we’re celebrating: Love. The Challenge Take a photo that features love as the subject. (It doesn’t have to be pro love if you prefer…

That Time A Bankrupt Businessman Declared Himself Emperor Of America

For many years, Joshua Norton was a successful 19th-century businessman. Then he lost his entire fortune trying to take over San Francisco’s rice market. Here’s the story of how his fortunes flipped around one final time and made him Emperor of America. In response to this call for your take on history’s most fascinating figures,…

NASA Spots A Huge Gash Across The Surface Of The Sun

Scientists working at the Solar Dynamics Observatory have spotted a massive solar filament that stretches across a good portion of the sun’s visible surface. It’s about 533,000 miles long (857,780 km) – equivalent to 67 Earths lined up in a row. NASA says this solar filament — one of the longest ever recorded — is…

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? According to Jinzi Huang, co-author of a recently published study that examines how “hard candy bodies dissolve in laminar high-speed water flows,” approximately 2,500.

Apple JUST Got Around to Banning ‘Bonded Servitude’ In Its Factories 

Apple has banned ‘bonded servitude,’ which means it won’t let its supplier factories make their new hires work for free to pay for the costs of hiring them. Good!!! And also: Why the hell is this just happening now? When Apple gears up to make a new product, its supplier factories go on hiring sprees.…

Finch Learns A Very Different Way To Hack Reality On Person Of Interest

Here’s the funniest scene from last night’s Person of Interest, in which Harold Finch gets a crash course in swaying a jury from the inside. It’s a very different kind of hacking than Finch is used to, and it requires him to be sort of a blowhard. But it’s all part of an episode that…

Peter Dinklage May Or May Not Being Playing A Leprechaun In New Comedy

Peter Dinklage is one of those actors whose roles of ranged from the sublime (Game of Thrones, The Station Agent) to the bizarre (Underdog), and one of his upcoming projects sounds pretty crazy. In the comedy film O’Lucky Day, Dinklage is set to play a con man who may be a Leprechaun. Deadline is reporting…

An Air Conditioner That Follows You Around

In the future, our air conditioners will look like giant clouds of mist — and they’ll follow us around. When we last checked in with MIT’s Senseable City Lab, they were debuting a prototype heater that targets the exact space where you’re standing. Now, the lab has created a system that does the same thing—for…

These Penguins In Sweaters Are Fake

You may have recently seen the heartwarming story of Australia’s oldest man (109 years young!) who knits sweaters for penguins. The story is currently making the rounds with an adorable photo purporting to show the grateful penguins of Australia’s Phillip Island. The only problem? Those penguins in that particular photo are totally fake. The photo…

Pole vaulting from a pole vaulter’s point of view

You probably have to be a little crazy to be a pole vaulter. I mean, what normal person wants to catapult their bodies as high as possible? This GoPro footage of pole vaulter Allison Stokke filmed from her point of view confirms the crazy and shows the violent movements and perfect grace necessary to make…

Tell Us About Your Cross-Platform Emoji Miscommunication

Half the time I send an emoticon I have no idea what the person on the other end is actually seeing. Which may seem pretty trivial, but is not entirely trivial! A lot of care goes into crafting a chat or text so as to relay tone and intention without body language. The emoji is…

Attend A Rave At Bangkok’s Outrageous Ghost-Themed Shopping Mall

Mansion 7 is a ghost-themed mall in Bangkok. It contains a haunted house called the Dark Mansion, which is supposedly haunted by the owner’s daughter and all the black-magic beasties he unleashed trying to raise her from the dead. And it hosts insane-looking parties. We wanna go! Also contained therein: a “neglected garden;” “a large…

The Photographic History Of Robots As Restaurant Employees

We may think of robotic waitstaff as something that belongs to the future, but the truth is that robots have been serving people at restaurants since the 1980s. How well have these robot servers worked out? Here is a brief history of robot waiters over the last 30 years. Tanbo R-1 and Tambo R-2, two…

How To: Win Impressively At Gameshows Using Simple Maths

Here’s a fun clip from BBC Two’s collegiate quiz show University Challenge. Host Jeremy Paxman asks the contestants what day of the week it will be 100 days after Monday. A player named Binnie responds quickly: “Wednesday.” Paxman’s face contorts. “How did you know that?” he asks, astonished. “Modular arithmetic,” Binnie replies, matter-of-factly. What’s wonderful…

How The BBC Fooled Viewers Into Thinking Spaghetti Grows On Trees

Who knew the BBC had this much of a sense of humor? Here is a fantastic clip broadcast on April Fool’s Day in 1957, which shows the “traditional spaghetti harvest” and educates its viewers on dangers like the spaghetti weevil. I am a relatively credulous person. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve believed…

The Creator Of The IT Crowd Is Co-Writing A Science Fiction Sitcom

This could be amazing. Graham Linehan, creator of The IT Crowd, is co-creating a sitcom called The Cloud, with Adam Buxton, who was one half of The Adam and Joe Show with Joe Cornish. It takes place on a space station that’s archiving all of the junk on your phone and other devices. Buxton will…

The Most Fascinating Spy Gear From The Spy Museum’s Archives

To celebrate all things espionage, Washington, DC’s very own International Spy Museum has rounded up their collection of completely wicked spy gadgetry and goodies. Behold the wonders of the pigeon cam! All captions and images are courtesy of the Spy Museum. THE BOND CAR, ASTON MARTIN DB5 The Aston Martin DB5 first appeared in the…