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The History of NASA’s Iconic Countdown Clock (And a Look at the New One)

A few days ago every space enthusiast got sentimental when, after 45 years of operation, the iconic countdown clock at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Press Site was disassembled for removal. Perhaps more than any other piece of equipment near the launch site, the countdown clock was a piece of history. The clock was designed by…

Cumberbatch Nails It, But The Imitation Game Still Disappoints

Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars as computing pioneer Alan Turing, is the best thing about the uneven period drama The Imitation Game. A pair of movies about British geniuses are about to go head-to-head in the year-end awards race. Both are science-minded period dramas cast with rising-star actors whose respective performances — Cumberbatch as Turing, and…

This John Constantine Fan film is as good as the TV show

Constantine’s transition to NBC has gotten off to a pretty good start, but man, this fan film captures the tone of the Hellblazer comics so well that it can easily rival the show, at a fraction of the cost. Warning: There’s some decidedly NSFW language throughout, so be careful where you’re watching! The Soul Play,…

A CNC Mill Backpack Drills Permanent Messages Into Solid Rock 

Everyone wants to live forever. Or at the very least, leave something behind that will last. In some ways, that’s the most basic driving force behind graffiti: I was here. Paint washes away, but rock carvings, on the other hand, have a considerably longer half life. The device you see above is called The Petroglyphomat:…

Review: Lego Friends, Star Wars, City advent calendars–day 2

Day two of the advent calendar review had a couple fun builds and some garbage. Check out the December 2nd sets after the jump. Friends Advent Calendar (41040) The second day gives us a sled for Mia. As with all of the Friends sets we get some great colors mixed with the old safe ones.…

Did Bigfoot Just Visit Britain? Watch The Video And Judge For Yourself!

Because whenever Bigfoot makes the news, it’s news you can use. Multiple British tabloids are reporting on the recent findings of one Adam Bird, who claims to have captured evidence of a mysterious beast lumbering through the Lincolnshire woods. Image by Pyro Helfier via Deviant Art. From the Mirror: After hearing of previous Bigfoot sightings…

Apple Patents Method to Make iPhones Fall Like a Cat

Apple can’t stop dreaming up with ways to keep its glass screens from cracking. The latest attempt comes in the form of a pretty bombastic patent which was just approved by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Basically, it would make your iPhone fall like a cat. Cats are famous for their righting reflex, an…

Microsoft Is Killing Clip Art Because Nobody Uses It Anymore

Microsoft will no longer offer Clip Art. As an alternative, the company is pointing users to use Bing image search instead. Which is fine, because that’s what everyone was doing anyway. Except maybe for the Bing part. For years, Microsoft’s Clip Art library was a way to get images when finding some quick art to…

Under the Right Conditions, Humans Can See Infrared

Humans can’t see infrared. That’s why we fear animals like snakes, bed bugs, and the Predator. No longer must we live with this fear! Scientists have shown that, under certain circumstances, our retinas actually can detect infrared light. Top image: PandaWild/Shutterstock How Animals Sense Infrared It’s worth noting that, though there are numerous animals that…

New “Wiretap” ATM Skimmers Are Invisible to Your Eye

ATM skimmers just keep getting scarier. In his ongoing series on skimmer innovation, security guru Brian Krebshighlighteda new card skimmer—the increasingly thin device that intercepts and snags your credit card details—that’s been spotted in the wild. And unlike the vast majority of skimmers that attach to or replace machine’s card reader, this skimmer just eavesdrops…

Stephen Hawking’s New Speech System Has SwiftKey Suggestions

Stephen Hawking’s famous computer-generated speech system just got a whole lot better. Intel redesigned the software he’s been using to pick out his words for almost 20 years, and the new version comes complete with SwiftKey predictions. Previously, Hawking’s speech system was able to predict some characters here and there, but now with SwiftKey’s algorithms…

Believe It or Not This Paper Scarf Will Actually Help Keep You Warm

You’ve always got a place to jot down ideas with a smartphone in hand, but can your Nexus 6 keep you warm on a cold morning? Not likely, and definitely not like this Paper Scarf from Little Factory can, while giving you over five-and-a-half feet of white space to scribble down notes and doodles. Made…

Nature just announced that it’s making its articles available to be freely shared. It’s part of a new program that lets subscribers share the full text of research papers, dating all the way back to 1869, through a read-only link that, while it can’t be downloaded or printed, can be saved with annotations.

Medieval Libraries Developed A Crude GPS System To Locate Books

It wasn’t easy to find a specific book on library shelves in the Middle Ages. The spine title had not yet been invented, and the books weren’t published in standard sizes. But readers didn’t have to spend hours searching, thanks to an ingenious system that made use of concepts similar to modern GPS. At his…

The Original Evangelion TV Series Is Finally Coming To Blu-Ray

The wait is almost over! Studio Khara — new owners of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime franchise — have announced that they will finally be remastering the classic ’90s TV series in HD for the show’s first-ever Blu-ray release. Right now, this of course refers to a specifically Japanese release, but if you think if…

A Newton’s Cradle Stuck To Your Fridge Easily Bests Magnetic Poetry

It’s weird that the one room in your house where you’re constantly killing time waiting for the microwave to finish, or the stove to heat up, has the least number of distractions to keep you entertained. And a fridge covered in magnetic poetry (yawn) isn’t the answer, but a magnetic Newton’s Cradle hanging from the…

Oh my god, there’s an actual Hobbit House in Los Angeles

In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit, or so the saying goes – but discerning Hobbit wannabes should skip the comfy hole and check out this amazing Hobbit-themed house in Culver City, CA. And it’s available to rent! According the the advert, the house was built many years before Peter Jackson recreated…

King Richard III’s Remains Have Been Confirmed To 99.999% Accuracy

The case is officially closed on what’s being called the oldest forensic investigation in history. A new genetic analysis is providing incontrovertible evidence that the skeleton found under a parking lot in Leicester belonged to the king, while uncovering new truths about his appearance and lineage. Richard III was the last king of England to…

10 Reasons Our Universe Might Actually Be Virtual Reality

Physical realism is the view that the physical world we see is real and exists by itself, alone. Most people think this is self-evident, but physical realism has been struggling with the facts of physics for some time now. The paradoxes that baffled physics last century still baffle it today, and its great hopes of…

A container ship turns into a giant photo using 2,600 paper sheets

Artist JR made something beautiful in Le Havre, the second biggest port in France: He used 2,600 sheets of paper and pasted them into the ship containers to form an image. The ship will go all the way from Le Havre to Malaysia. This piece is part of the project Women Are Heros. This video…