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Seeing a nuclear reactor start up is cooler than my sci-fi dreams

Ka-freaking-boom. The piercing blue flash reverberates through the water and looks cooler than my imagination. If watching movies has taught me anything, it’s that when you see that particular shade of glowing blue, something superhuman is happening. And yes, a nuclear reactor starting up is as powerful as it gets. Why does it glow blue?…

Nikon D810: Subtle Improvements For One of the Baddest DSLRs Around

The Nikon D800 is commonly held in high regard as one of the best pro DSLRs out there. When it was released back in 2012, it made news for its unique 36 megapixel sensor. This time around, the focus is on minor improvements for some added firepower in an already fiery camera. https://gizmodo.com/nikon-d800-review-a-major-hd-upgrade-but-is-it-the-be-5897968 The $3300…

Incredibly realistic 3D renders of fighter planes

Anders Lejczak loves airplanes. He’s also a great 3D artist capable of capturing every detail of anything from Spitfires to MiGs to F-16s with incredible realism. So realistic, in fact, that I have trouble distinguishing some of these renderings from real photos. Anders Lejczak is a Polish-born artist based in Malmö, Sweden. He works for…

This video proves how hard it is to focus for an entire 3 minutes now

It’s pretty much impossible for me. And probably for a lot of you. Before the Internet existed in our pockets, I’m pretty sure all of us could watch a clip for the entire 3 minutes and not feel the blistering need to change tabs or see what the newest picture on Instagram was or tweet…

Now That Summer Has Come To Gotham, Batman Dons His Skimpier Suit

Cartoonist Stjepan Šejić reveals the one costume Batman doesn’t display in the Batcave, the one he reserves only when the heat in Gotham has become intolerable. Šejić is a prolific comic book artist, but if you haven’t seen his goofier doodles on deviantART, I highly recommend checking them out. Someone really needs to give this…

Do You Have A Short Attention Span? This Video Knows The Answer Is Yes

We’d all like to think we’re thoughtful, patient, and steadfast, especially in our ability to pay attention to things. We are completely and totally wrong, and this brilliant College Humor video is proof. Just try and watch this video without pausing, skipping ahead, or looking at something else — you’ll see. Here’s the kicker: Even…

Here’s liquid nitrogen turning into solid nitrogen in an extreme vacuum

What happens when you put liquid nitrogen in a vacuum chamber? It turns solid. And then it snows. As the vacuum lowers the pressure in the chamber, it decreases the boiling point of the liquid nitrogen which means the nitrogen boils faster. But! The boiling liquid nitrogen is also evaporating which cools itself which turns…

Why The Higgs Boson Should Have Crushed the Universe

This may seem a little far fetched — but if our understanding of the physics behind the recently-discovered Higgs boson is correct, our universe shouldn’t exist. It’s funny when two seemingly distant theories conspire to destroy the universe. You may have heard about the controversy surrounding a certain telescope located near the South Pole. The…

What if Your Dream Home Had a View of an Oil Derrick?

Its promoters billed it as an exceptional housing tract—buried utility lines, curving concrete roads, and a hilltop site whose ocean views gave the subdivision its name: Monte Mar Vista. With country clubs bordering it on three sides, residents of the so-called “central jewel in a Tiffany setting” could easily play nine holes before breakfast. There…

L.A. Glows Red in This Photo From the International Space Station

Viewed from this unfamiliar angle and in the infrared rather than visible spectrum, Los Angeles reveals itself in new ways. City lights and thermal radiation create an abstract, russet shape that’s barely recognizable as metropolitan Southern California. Black voids dominate the frame; many of these are hills and mountain ranges, but the emptiness at the…

Android Auto Hands-On: An Automotive Life-Saver for Android Users

We human-type beings suck at using our mobile devices while driving and we frequently kill and/or dismember ourselves in an attempt to pull off that stupid stunt. To try to keep Android users alive to buy more Android products, Google today unveiled Android Auto. We just got to play with it a bit, and we…

Four Asshole Magical Girls Must Stop The Rise Of King Arthur

Kel McDonald, creator of the long-running webcomic Sorcery 101, messes with magical girls in her latest webcomic, Misfits of Avalon. But these superpowered teens would rather cut class and get into meaningless brawls than save the world. Morgan and Elsa are the kind of high school enemies who are almost friends. Dealing with a lousy…

Was 1984 The Best Year Ever For Summer Movies?

Have you noticed that a lot of really awesome things are celebrating their 30th anniversaries this year? The Macintosh computer, Tetris, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? 1984 was also a really good year for movies, but I’ll go farther than that: This particular week in 1984 was probably the best week ever to see a movie…

These Augmented Reality Specs Can Turn a Regular Joe into James Bond

While 007 can seemingly pull off any impossible mission without breaking a sweat, real world field intelligence agents don’t have it nearly that easy. They must maintain encyclopedic mental records of names and faces as well as relay information to and from HQ—all without blowing their covers. To give its agents an edge in their…

How Comics Readers Finally Got To See Magneto’s Face

In the movies, Magneto has spent as much time out of costume as in it. But there was a time when comic readers only saw Magneto’s face from behind his helmet. Here’s the story of how readers finally got to see the man behind the mask — plus the original pencil drawings of the reveal!…

The Three By Sarah Lotz Could Be This Summer’s Most Engrossing Thriller

I’ll be very interested to see if airport bookstores stock Sarah Lotz’s new novel, The Three. It’s a creepy, engrossing look at the stories we come up with in the face of disaster, involving four airplane crashes on a single day. In the aftermath of these crashes, morbid fascination mixes with conspiracy theories that make…

Android TV Hands-On: This Is How Smart TVs Won’t Be So Darn Dumb

For years, Google’s been trying to plow its way onto your TV with flawed hardware, and today, it shifted its approach to a new OS called Android TV. It’s the very simple way that Google is going to make your TV smart. Finally. https://gizmodo.com/androidtv-googles-bajillionth-attempt-to-take-over-you-1595951410 The built-in “smart” features that come with TVs have always been…

Ann Leckie Refused To Change Ancillary Justice‘s Unusual Pronouns

One of the most notable things about Ann Leckie’s Nebula and Clarke-winning novel Ancillary Justice is its unusual pronoun use, which she talked a lot about when she answered your questions. In a new profile, she explains how she was told it would make the book unpublishable. Top image: Alan Lynch. Without giving too much…

Ginuwine: When Doves Cry (Prince Cover)

Purple Rain turns 30 today. That means two things. One: You should go watch the movie right now—twice in a row if you can swing it. Two: Put that soundtrack on repeat—stat. Good luck finding either of those things free on the internet, though. Prince is famously antagonistic towards bloggers and has apparently done a…

At a wearble computing talk at Google I/O we learned that Android Wear notifications that pop up on your wristables will be available to Google Glass this Fall. It’s an obvious evolution that’ll sync notifications to all your devices.