Latest

You’ll Never Understand Under The Dome Without My Help

The pivotal moment in last night’s episode of Under the Dome comes halfway through, when Julia Shumway comes and prays to me, the Dome. She doesn’t actually get on her knees, which displeases me. But she does beg for one last chance. And then… I look at her, and go “Nah.” Spoilers ahead… There’s a…

All of Harry Potter summed up in one giant comic strip

If you somehow missed the Harry Potter boat and wanted to read all the books now, you’d have to flip through 4109 pages spread across 7 books. Or if you just want to catch up with the Harry Potter movies instead, you’d have to sit and stare for 19 hours and 38 minutes for all…

ZTE Brings Its Phablet-Sized ZMax to T-Mobile

ZTE is a smartphone company that probably exists on the periphery of your consciousness. They’re as well known as any other Chinese mobile brand, which is to say not very much at all. But the company wants to change things up by bringing its affordable phablet to the United States. The ZTE ZMax is coming…

Amazon’s Using the Heat From Its Data Centers To Warm Its New HQ

Downtown Seattle is being slowly consumed by Amazon-funded infrastructure, thanks to the expansion of its corporate headquarters—glass domes, bike lanes, streetcar improvements. Now the company has figured out an innovative way to heat their new buildings by using the energy generated by their data centers across the street. The process—called hydronic heat—works by transferring the…

Nothing Like the Welcoming Glow of the Spaceport’s Holograms

When you’ve been traveling a lot, even the lurid red and blue landing fields of the spaceport are a welcome sight. The arcs of its solar towers seem to embrace weary passengers as they touch down and glimpse the green fields of the city floating below. Chris Kesler is a concept artist in London who…

A Magical Patch of Grass Turns Evil in This Scary Short Film

Whenever people stumble on a mysterious natural phenomenon that grants them powers in movies, things don’t generally turn out so well. You’ll have to watch Burnt Grass to find out exactly what goes awry with the short film’s central couple when they discover a patch of their lawn with the ability to duplicate organic material.…

Lucifer TV Series Will Follow Neil Gaiman’s Devil To Los Angeles

The Sandman character, who got his own spinoff comic series, just landed a TV show on Fox. And in even better news, the show is being made by the creator behind Californication. This is a perfect match. Deadline is reporting that the version of Lucifer introduce in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman books has inspired his own…

This video of a crowded intersection makes me hyperventilate

Even though I know that this video was made by the visual effects experts of Black Sheep Films and isn’t real, I can’t help but feel queasy when I watch it. The rotoscoping is just so well done. I gasp as I see the cyclist cross the road, I churn when the pedestrian decides to…

Lauren Beukes Explains How to Tell Great Stories About The Internet

We live much of our lives online — and even the parts we don’t are still touched in hundreds of ways by our digital presences. And yet TV, movies, and books struggle to portray the crossover between our digital and physical worlds in a way that feels real. Here, author Lauren Beukes gives us her…

Elric Of Melniboné Comes To Life In The Ultimate Comic Adaptation

If you’re any kind of fan of Michael Moorcock or Elric, the dark fantasy antihero he created, you owe it to yourself to check out this new graphic novel adaptation. Not only is it empirically gorgeous, Moorcock himself says it’s the first comic to “capture the sense of utter decadence” of his fantasy epics. New…

Living in the Future Entails More Space Raves Than You’d Expect

Risk of spontaneous nuclear annihilation aside, the Cold War proved a potent period in the history of technological development. I mean, just look at all this cool stuff we invented for little reason more than simply sticking it to the Soviets. It’s amazing the lofty heights mankind can achieve when inspired by smack talking. Leveraging…

iCloud’s Two-Step Authentication Is Back and Now Covers Backups

Good news after a harrowing week: Your iCloud account is now (a little) more secure. After popping up briefly and then disappearing—and a highly publicized, unfortunately timed security breach—iCloud’s two-step authentication has returned for good, with several important improvements, according to Ars Technica. In the wake of Nudegate, it was revealed that Apple ID’s original…

Here’s Why Longsword Fighting Is Now A Popular Sport

If you love sword battles in your fantasy films, then this emerging sport may be perfect for you. Called longsword fighting, it’s a revival of a once-forgotten ancient skill. There’s been a renewed interest in what enthusiasts call historical European martial arts, or HEMA. It includes such things as grappling and several types of swordfighting.…

Tom Hiddleston Joins King Kong Movie Skull Island!

The King Kong reboot that took everyone by surprise at this year’s Comic-Con just got a whole lot crazier—and closer to getting made. Legendary Pictures has announced the director of Skull Island and its brand new star, Tom Hiddleston. This is 100% giving the people what they want. According to a press release, Jordan Vogt-Roberts…

​Architects Made These Amazing Cat Playrooms

A group called “Architects for Animals” held a feline-focused benefit in LA earlier this week. 14 different firms were each commissioned to each design a distinctive cat shelter, “resulting in an exhibition of idiosyncratic spectacles for habitation and play,” reports DesignBoom. While NAC Architecture’s scheme clads three tubes in colorful panels (above), this design (below)…

More Weird Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About The Original Star Trek

50 years ago, one of science fiction’s greatest series was in development. The original Star Trek series was born out of desperation as much as inspiration, and a recent book called These Are The Voyages reveals tons of insane behind-the-scenes details. You think you know Star Trek? Here are tons of details you probably didn’t…

Australian Vet Removed a Brain Tumor From a Goldfish Named George

The BBC is reporting that a goldfish in Australia is now recovering from a successful surgery in which a tumor was removed from its brain. Dr Tristan Rich, who carried out the operation, told Melbourne’s 3AW radio station that the fish was now “up and about and swimming around”. Vets say the 10-year-old fish is…

While watching Alfred Hitchcock, a man who has been in a vegetative state for 16 years exhibited similar brain patterns to healthy viewers, including parts of the brain involved in higher cognition and the processing of sensory information. The study “provides the best evidence to date that fMRI can be used to identify consciousness in…

Inside the Design of the New Gawker Media (and Gizmodo) Offices

Gizmodo—and Gawker Media—are moving. We’re packing up our cozy little SoHo walkup and heading to a big new office in Union Square. And according to the architects who are designing it, it’s going to be very, very cool. After news broke about Gawker’s relocation today, we talked the two architects leading the project: Kirsten Murray…

Dramatic Vintage Photos Of Wind Tunnel Tests

Wind tunnel tests are essential in testing how planes will hold up at various wind speeds and during turbulence—and they also make for some striking photos that take us through the history of aviation. The Loening SCL-1 seaplane in the tunnel, at Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, October 1931 (via Library of Congress) The Ninth…