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Instead of Coloring With Crayons, Crayola Wants You To Carve Them All Up

At some point in the history of human development mankind looked down at the humble crayon and wondered if it had more creative potential than just being used to color inside a line. It turns out the answer was yes, and crayon carving has become so popular there are even Etsy shops dedicated to it.…

Go to Prison for File Sharing? That’s What Hollywood Wants

The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) poses massive threats to users in a dizzying number of ways. It will force other TPP signatories to accept the United States’ excessive copyright terms of a minimum of life of the author plus 70 years, while locking the US to the same lengths so it will be harder to…

Forget Zelda, This 20-Inch Link Figure Is Worthy Of an Epic Hyrule Quest

It turns out the re-release of Majora’s Mask for the Nintendo 3DS wasn’t the biggest Legend of Zelda news this weekend because JAKKS Pacific has given Toyland an exclusive first look at the latest addition to its Big Figures Line: a 20-inch Link that’s so detailed you can even see the texture of the fabric…

Watch different layers of clouds move in completely different directions

This is cool. A time lapse, aptly named Highway in the Sky by the guy who filmed it, shows how different layers of clouds in the same sky can actually move in completely different directions. It’s like seeing clouds respect different flows of traffic. It’s like seeing multiple skies in one. It’s like staring at…

Elephants Were Once Used As Executioners

Here’s a horrifying fact. Trained elephants were once used to torture an execute people. Some of the earliest references come from the Bible. The latest came in the 1800s. In The Surgeon’s Daughter, a novel by Sir Walter Scott, the villain seduces a pure young Scottish girl, gets her to elope with him to India,…

Artists Draw Celebrities As Gender-Swapped Versions Of DC Characters

Sigourney Weaver as Bruce Wayne? Jennifer Connelly as Clark Kent? David Bowie as Poison Ivy? Several artists have been having fun the past few weeks by imagining famous folks as superheroes — but with male celebs as female characters and vice versa. Here’s what they came up with. These artists, many of them professional cartoonists…

This is ​How The Trinity Supercomputer Will Keep Its Cool

We love it when things are organized neatly. This tidy pile of warm-water cooling components is at the Strategic Computing Center of Los Alamos National Laboratory, where installation of an energy-saving cooling infrastructure to support the Trinity Platform is well underway. The Trinity supercomputer is the first of the NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing program’s…

Volunteers Are Making 3D-Printed Aerial Drones For The Ukrainian Army

Troops fighting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine are being equipped with 3D-printed aerial drones. The AEVs, which are being paid for by volunteers, are currently being used at the front. Mercifully, a ceasefire is scheduled to take effect at midnight tomorrow (14 February). It’s not known, however, if and how long it will last. Last…

Women kicking ass in action movies

The film editing maestro Clara Darko stitched together this perfect montage of actresses in action movies kicking mother freaking ass. I love how each punch or kick or swing of the sword or crossbow shot or anything perfectly blends together from one movie to the next. More ass kicking please! SPLOID is delicious brain candy.…

Why Jurassic World Should Just Give Us The Feathered Dinosaurs We Want

Jurassic Park and its sequels have never been what you’d call scientifically accurate. (Sorry, Dr. Malcolm, standing still isn’t camouflage.) And, yet, somehow, the lack of feathers is the inaccuracy that most rankles. Does it really matter that the new dinos will be scaly instead of soft? You bet it does. Here’s why. A Kinja-conversation…

Providence of Fire Is The Perfect Blend of Politics, Magic and Action

Last year, we really dug Brian Staveley’s debut fantasy epic, The Emperor’s Blades. The trilogy’s second volume picks up from the first, and Staveley delivers a solid and suitably epic adventure that ratchets up the action and muddies the waters, all while completely throwing all expectations out the window. https://gizmodo.com/the-emperors-blades-may-be-the-years-breakout-epic-wa-1500335590 Staveley’s Chronicles of the Unhewn…

Phèdre From Kushiel’s Dart Is The Greatest Courtesan-Spy In Epic Fantasy

Fantasy has lots of sex workers or courtesans who also work as spies — but for our money, the best is Phèdre nó Delaunay de Montrève, the hero of the first Kushiel trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. She thwarts a major conspiracy, stops an invasion, saves her country and avenges her master… with kinky sex. Top…

What’s the Best Game for Killing Time With Your Phone? 

Once upon a time, humans had to entertain themselves during the few idle minutes of waiting in line. No more! Now we have pocket computers with access to dozens of games at once. Tell us, which are you favorites? On this Valentine’s Day eve, I’d like to write a brief love letter to Monument Valley,…

The Best New Windows 10 Phone Features in 6 GIFs

The Windows 10 preview for laptops has been out for a while, but the beta version of the new Microsoft operating system only came to (a few, select) phones yesterday. The update is super limited, so it’s far from Windows 10 for phones in full. But! There’s some cool stuff in there. Here’s that stuff…

Here’s What Skype Was Like In 1947

Thanks to tech like Skype, the ability to both see and hear someone across thousands of miles is a mundane exercise for most of us here in the early 21st century. But back in 1947, signing a contract over videophone was like looking into the future. Even if that future turned out a bit different…

Apple Really Is Working on a Car, Claims Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has hundreds of people working on a top secret project: an electric minivan. The massive undertaking, codenamed “Titan”, is expected to last years, and it’s entirely possible that Apple will abandon it. But if it doesn’t, Steve Jobs’s iCar dream will finally come true. This shouldn’t come as…

Webcomic Explains How Pythons Invaded Florida—And Why They’re A Problem

Burmese pythons are native to Southeast Asia, but in the last 40 years, they’ve invaded the Florida Everglades, where their population has exploded. This short comic explains how Burmese pythons got there in the first place — and how it’s wreaking havoc on the ecosystem. Cartoonist journalist Andy Warner‘s latest piece at Medium’s The Nib…

Droughts in the latter half of the 21st Century could be even more severe than previously predicted, according to a study published in this week’s issue ofScience Advances. Analyses suggest the drying could be the worst in nearly 1,000 years. Scientific American has more.

Here’s That Weird Genetically Modified New Dinosaur From Jurassic World

We’re starting to worry about Jurassic World. Spoilers. Today, Entertainment Weekly had the pleasure of introducing the world to Jurassic World’s new genetically enhanced villain. And here it is the Indominus (REAL NAME) Rex in toy form. The Hasbro toy will be prominently displayed at this year’s Toy Fair, and we’ll have more looks at…

How To Roll Back Windows Updates If They Bork Your PC

By and large you should certainly be keeping Windows Updates switched on to download and install automatically. If a serious new threat should be uncovered, it’s the best way of making sure that you’re protected. However, there are occasions when applying a new update can cause problems, and here’s how you can undo the changes.…