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Deals: Select Lego BOGO 50% off at Barnes & Noble Online

Until October 14th, Barnes and Noble is running a buy one get one 50% off promotion on select educational toys & games in their online store. There are several Lego sets covered under this sale, most of them now making their best seller list. City Arctic Outpost (60035) and Creator Tree House (31010) to name…

The dark, creepy side of The Simpsons’ home town at night

Peaceful and lovely Springfield turns into a creepy place at night in this collection of drawings by Tim Doyle. Tim Doyle is an illustrator and print-maker working out of Austin, Texas. Growing up in the suburban sprawl of the Dallas area, he turned inward and sullen, only finding joy in comic-books and television and video…

These rompers just made your Female Ghostbusters cosplay a lot easier

We’re hitting the half-way point for October soon, which means it’s time to start thinking about your Halloween costume (or rather, panicking that you’ve not started thinking about your costume yet!) – but never fear, ladies: your Female Ghostbusters outfit just got a lot easier to pull off with these new rompers. The outfits, made…

How Computer Chips Work

A modern microprocessor is a tremendously complicated entity, and it has taken decades of work by thousands of people to get it where it is today. It’s nearly impossible to cover all the bases, but I’m going to try anyway. And get a bucket of popcorn ready—because this is going to be long. Any modern…

How Private Donors Dodge Regulations and Supply Spy Gear to Cops

In 2007, as it pushed to build a state-of-the-art surveillance facility, the Los Angeles Police Department cast an acquisitive eye on software being developed by Palantir, a startup funded in part by the Central Intelligence Agency’s venture capital arm. Originally designed for spy agencies, Palantir’s technology allowed users to track individuals with unprecedented reach, connecting…

Source of Leaked Snapchats Says Only 500MB of Data Affected

Over the weekend, third-party Snapchat service Snapsaved confirmed it was hacked. The good news is that it claims only 500MB of data were compromised. The bad news is that it could still be a ton of snaps. It seems the Snapchat hack—The Snappening—isn’t as bad as initially reported. Though we heard that as many as…

Jerry Greenfield, the co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, traveled to Portland where he unveiled a new flavor—“Food Fight Fudge Brownie”— to support Oregon’s ballot measure to impose mandatory GMO labeling. Ironic, given that Greenfield’s state, Vermont, has exempted dairy products from GMO labels.

Short film: The mind-blowing feast of a three Michelin-star restaurant

DiverXO—a three Michelin-star restaurant in Madrid, Spain—is known for its radical flavors and textures. Eating there is not just about the food. It’s an experience for the senses that might not blow your brains off literally, as they show in this short film, but in some ways it certainly does. NSFW. SPLOID is a new…

You Can Finally (For Real) Buy an Xperia Z3 Compact in the U.S.

The availability of Sony’s Xperia Z3 Compact smartphone in the U.S. has been a point of confusion. Sony has yet to make any official mention of the small flagship, despite bringing its bigger brother to Verizon and T-Mobile. Today, though, the small wonder has silently appeared in the U.S. online store, unlocked and available for…

GT Advanced Court Filing Reveals Apple’s $50 Million Penalty for Leaks

Apple is ordinarily hush hush about its deals with suppliers. But a court filing with GT Advanced, the company that was supposed to supply the Apple Watch’s sapphire screens, reveals that Apple would inflict a $50 million penalty for any leak of clandestine product info. Ouch. These documents were released ahead of a hearing for…

The Very Best Cosplay From New York Comic-Con 2014

New York Comic-Con cosplayers, you did a hell of a job this weekend. This convention had some seriously legendary cosplay, along with a whole lotta Saga and Guardians of the Galaxy awesomeness. Here is a collection of the best of the best cosplay that we spied at NYCC. Top Image from Getty Images Photo by…

The Indelible Feud Over Who Invented Fingerprinting

Fingerprints have been used as a unique identifier for over 100 years — and chances are you’ve had your fingerprints inked or scanned recently. But who invented this process? Turns out that’s the subject of a massive feud — which helped provide useful insights that benefited all of us. Top image: Photo by Charlie Jane…

SNL Has Made The Perfect YA Movie, And It’s As Dumb As Rocks

“Written entirely from the comment section of a Hunger Games trailer.” Behold Saturday Night Live’s Group Hopper movie. Stuffed full of arbitrary rules and terrible names for every hero and villain, this may be our favorite YA movie ever.

Dropbox Delete Your Files? You Might Get a (One Year) Free Pro Upgrade

Earlier today, news came that Dropbox had deleted user files from the cloud. While it’s going to restore some of them, it can’t bring them all back to life. But it can, according to an email published at Engadget, offer those who lost digital detritus a year’s worth of Dropbox Pro to make up for…

This Propaganda Poster Showed Martian Technology Winning World War I

A 1917 poster by French artist Henri Montassier offers hope for a quick conclusion to the war through new technology. But, his image has little in common with the armored vehicles under development. Instead, he unveiled a weapon that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Martian war machines from The War of The Worlds. Under…

Watch a Coder Build a Real-Time VR World Around Himself With Oculus Rift

On the left, rows of small green squares. On the right, the code that brought them into being. Not pictured? The guy wearing the Oculus Rift headset, who’s making it all happen in real-time. Forget The Matrix. This is low-level deity stuff. Brian Peiris is the man who made this happen, this live-coding web app…

The Walking Dead‘s secret best character is getting an Action figure

No, not Michonne. Or Carol. Or Daryl. They already all have figures anyway. I’m talking about the zombie-apocalypse-universe’s real finest survivor: Clementine from the Walking Dead video games! A lead character and star across Telltale Games’ two seasons of adventure games, little Clementine’s been put through an awful lot as the zombie hordes chomp their…

Four Famed American Structures That Almost Looked Radically Different

Mount Rushmore. The Washington Monument. The Empire State Building. These are some of the most familiar, most photographed structures in the country. But though they seem unchangeable to us, all of these icons came close to looking very different than they do today. Over the past few years, we’ve looked at the unbuilt world in…

This Week’s TV: America’s Stabbiest Clown Attends A Children’s Party

As we settle into the fall TV season, two of our summer shows—The Knick and Manhattan—reach their seasons’ end. Plus, C-3PO and R2-D2 return to TV, and a familiar DC villain pops up on The Flash. Get all the details below! Tonight Gotham (8 PM, Fox) It’s not a good time to be a politician…

What’s The Greatest Scientific Visualization Ever?

Sometimes a picture (or a video, or even a GIF) can express a scientific concept more clearly and concisely than words. Today, we want to know about the most informative, and beautiful, scientific visualization you’ve ever seen. Image: 99 planetary nebulae (and one protoplanetary disk) in one picture / Judy Schmidt. Tell us about (and…