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Chipotle’s Putting Essays On Its Cups So You Can Brain Up At Lunch

Sitting at a fast food joint eating by yourself is, at best, kind of boring—what are you gonna watch/read/stare at? Chipotle’s new cups and bags, printed with original essays from writers including Malcom Gladwell and Toni Morrison, give you some reading material with your eating material that’s maybe more interesting than a nutritional chart. Maybe.…

Girl swimming in a lake full of millions of golden jelly fish

This video of Nana Trongratanawong “surrounded by millions of golden jellyfish during a freedive at Jellyfish Lake, Palau.” Although you can’t see them, that “millions” figure is not an exaggeration: “Millions of golden jellyfishmigrate horizontally across the lake daily.” I don’t know if I should feel amazed or freak out. According to Wikipedia, Jellyfish Lake…

How Comics Can Save Your Life

Webcomics can entertain, educate, and enlighten, but can they also save a life? After looking at this list of webcomics that offered a look at some real experiences with mental illness, one commenter told us the story of the time when a comic did exactly that. The comic in question came from Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole…

This Lock Disables Steering So Your Bike Can’t Be Ridden

Most bike locks are designed to make it harder to remove your bicycle from a rack, and they’re often an effective deterrent to thieves. But when bolt cutters render them useless, the Stemlock serves as an extra layer of security by preventing a freed bike from actually being steered and ridden away. When permanently installed…

Popular New Baby Names Of 2013: Vanellope, Kaptain, Tuf, And Kyndle

The Social Security Administration just released its 2013 list of baby names in the United States. And once again, Game of Thrones rules. There were 1135 Aryas, 241 Khaleesis and 67 Daeneryses born in 2013. And 15 Theons and five Robbs. But some new names also came on the scene. For one thing, there were…

Everyone On The 100 Makes Terrible Decisions, But It Makes For Good TV

Where does the Grounding Leader get her hair ombre done? Asking for a friend… Last night, The 100 made a lot of bad decisions—a lot. But they were HIGHLY watchable bad decisions. So that’s good. Spoilers ahead! The 100 is still continuing its very aggressive decision to KILL EVERYONE ALL THE TIME. For example: Take…

Is It Scientifically Possible for Godzilla to Exist?

Thanks to the newest iteration of the Godzilla franchise, there’s been quite a bit of chatter recently about everyone’s favorite giant, murderous lizard. But isn’t being able to take on the beast a moot point if he can’t technically exist in the first place? Thanks to a little help from science, Vsauce has our answer.…

Turkmenistan’s Astonishing Attempt To Build A City Of The Future

Turkmenistan was once an important stop on the Silk Road, and the country still has 2,000 years of architectural masterpieces. But since the fall of the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan’s capital city Ashgabat has become a futuristic wonderland, with free internet and some astonishing architecture. The last First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party named Saparmurat…

First Look At Hunger Games: Mockingjay Reveals The Secret District

Here it is: your first look at Julianne Moore as President Alma Coin, along with a collection of stills from Hunger Games: Mockingjay. This is your first-ever look at the beginning of the end of Katniss and friends. The website The Hunger Games Exclusive just launched a whole set of new images from the first…

Colbert Follows In Amazon’s Crazy Patent Footsteps and Patents Patents

Last week, we reported on the bizarre patent that Amazon was granted for photographing products against a white background. You might jump to condemn the actions of Amazon and the US Patent Office, but Stephen Colbert is smarter than that. He’s getting in on the action. Last night’s hilarious segment featured Colbert’s brilliant plan to…

A Snowboard With Headlights Keeps You On the Slopes All Night Long

There are very few sports you can’t play at night, thanks to the magic of gigantic stadium floodlights. But if your hunt for fresh powder leads you to the dark side of the mountain after the sun has set, careening down the slopes blind is a terrible idea. So the ever-innovative folks at Signal Snowboards…

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is mysteriously shrinking in a dramatic way

Scientists have noticed something dramatic happening in the Solar System: Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot, the crimson monster storm that once was so large that it could eat three Earths, is mysteriously shrinking at high speed. Now it’s only the width of one Earth. Would it disappear in a few decades? According to the observations…

Earth’s Lightning Ramps Up With The Solar Wind

What causes thunderstorms? Previous research showed that one cause is cosmic rays from space, generated by supernovas. But a new paper shows that something much closer and powerful is also responsible: solar wind from our own Sun. Above: Time-lapse photo of several lightning strikes at night. Credit: NOAA Photo Library, NOAA Central Library; OAR/ERL/National Severe…

Oh Great, Now the Drought Could Be Causing Earthquakes in California

As if the drought couldn’t get any worse, geologists now think that changes in groundwater could be destabilizing the infamous San Andreas Fault. The new research presents what one may call, as the SF Public Press put it, “a grand unified theory of California problems: drought, water use, and earthquake risk.” Translation: sucks to be…

In an effort to find and train promising science communicators—perhaps even find the “Carl Sagan of chemistry”—the American Chemical Society is launching the Chemistry Champions contest. The first round of the contest asks scientists to explain their research to the general public in a fun, two- to three-minute video.

Who’s The Coolest Fictional Assassin Of All Time?

Assassins are deadly and stealthy — so it’s no surprise that they have a certain mystique and glamor going on. Science fiction and fantasy are full of assassins who win our admiration while taking lives. But who’s the most badass fictional assassin of all time? Please include a picture, book cover or clip for your…

Why Life Before Anesthesia Made Doctors More Caring

In 1812, the English novelist Frances Burney described her mounting terror as she prepared to undergo a mastectomy without any anesthetic. Having two hours to wait until the dreaded event (her ‘execution’, as she put it), she wandered into the room where the operation was going to take place and ‘recoiled’. In an effort to…

Charge Everything In Your Car, Makeshift Camelbak, Free Amazon Coins

There are car chargers, and then there are car chargers. This model from Mpow features two USB ports, and 20W of power, which means you could charge two full-sized iPads at nearly full speed at the same time. At $7, why not? Mpow 20W 4.2A Car Charger | $7 | Promo Code MPOW42AP Here are…

Smart Drugs Could Be Impairing The Brains Of Young People

It’s estimated that over a million students in the U.S. misuse prescription drugs and stimulants to boost their attention span, memory, and alertness. But a new study suggests some of these drugs are detrimental to developing brains, causing long-term impairments to cognitive function. As noted in the new study by Kimberly Urban and Wen-Jun Gao,…

Japanese Architects Are Uniting to Stop Tokyo’s Heinous Olympic Stadium

We knew that a cadre of famed Japanese architects were… unhappy with Zaha Hadid’s design for the 2020 Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. But we didn’t quite realize how pissed they really are: A petition to stop the project, started by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tokyo Ito, already has nearly 14,000 signatures. Back in October, a group…