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Champagne is really hard to make. There are rules and regulations and specific grapes and soil requirements and is completely region specific and more that goes into each bottle that it’s impressive that even one bottle gets popped. In this video from the Science Channel, we get to see how Bollinger makes its champagne. It…
Citrus greening is a disease that turns oranges sour and half-green, and it’s been ravaging orange groves in Florida for years. A novel strategy for controlling its spread may be found by mimicking the mating call of a tiny aphid-like brown insect called the Asian citrus psyllid. Richard Mankin, an entomologist at the USDA’s Center…
The word of the day is “autoamputation.” It means a limb—usually a toe—has decided to slowly amputate itself. The other word of the day is “idiopathic.” It means no one knows why it happens. Today this condition is called dactylolysis spontanea. When it first made official medical journals it was called ainhum. Brazilian doctor Silva…
The existence of bubbles is the world telling people that life is silly and fun is worth having and moments, no matter how short they may be, are worth remembering (until they pop and the sadness settles in). I never knew the existence of bubbles also encouraged us to trip the hell out too. Because…
Artist Scott Park managed to do the incredible: he drew nearly all the identifiable spaceships and vehicles and animals used in the original Star Wars trilogy and laid them out in one awesome poster you can buy. There’s basically everything you love and know here: the Millennium Falcon, both Death Stars, TIE Fighters, AT-AT, and…
The best scene in Return of the Jedi isn’t when Vader kills the Emperor, or when the Death Star explodes, or even when Han Solo thaws out of carbonite. It’s when the Ewoks take down an AT-ST walker using a couple of giant swinging logs, and it’s just as satisfying when recreated with Lego. The…
Many of us go through the process of looking up a route on a desktop or laptop and then switching to a phone for the actual journey. Apple and Google are wise to this process because sending directions from one platform to another is way easier than you think.. Here’s how to do it. Google…
Remember when you blew $40 on a Darth Vader pancake maker last week, and then promised your family it would be the last single-use appliance you’d ever buy? It’s time to break that promise because nothing goes better with Vader pancakes than Death Star waffles. ThinkGeek has found a way to pry yet another $40…
Want to see a gender-neutral face turn masculine? How about a neutral face turn friendly, or a sharp picture turn fuzzy? This brief video will take you through all the ways your brain adapts to a stimulus, until you see things that simply aren’t there. We rely heavily on comparison to make judgments. The pattern…
Promises of rain to come withstanding, California is still smack in the middle of a long, punishing drought. So what does it look like when a top agricultural state undergoes years of drought? Not good, friends. The USDA and NASA’s Ames Research Center put out this map comparing the amount of idle farmland four years…
Obviously, Jon Stewart wasn’t done with television when he retired from The Daily Show. The recently bearded comedian will be returning to the screen after signing a four-year contract with HBO. Very interestingly, he’ll be focusing on short form—and very shareable—digital content. It sounds pretty cool actually. Stewart’s new project will be available mainly on…
Halloween is the greatest holiday of the year. You get to dress up. It’s secular. And the candy’s free. Here are photos you shared from your Halloween experience. A Neighborhood Haunting My neighborhood is full of Halloween spirit and I always enjoy the opportunity to take some photos. Without over thinking the setup I was…
This is a fun one. Screen Rant came up with a list of movies that shows how films have recycled and reused scenes from other movies. This isn’t an act of homage or done in inspiration, this is footage taken from one movie (sometimes shot for shot!) and used again in another movie and hoping…
Staunch gun rights advocate Ted Cruz is here seen holding a shotgun while being interviewed by CNN. Can you see what he’s doing wrong? That’s right, he’s violating the first two rules of gun safety. Update: This says it all really. When you learn to shoot, apply for a hunting or carry license and any…
Google’s Project Wing seemed very far from reality when it started getting attention while testing in Australia last year. But now the project’s lead, David Voss, is saying the drone delivery service could be flying goods to people in the U.S. as early as 2017. According to Tech Times, Voss says that Google’s parent company,…
A fan of the simple ‘start menu’ on show in Chrome OS? You can use it on Windows and Mac computers as well—and it offers more features than you might think. As well as launching your online apps, you can perform quick calculations and run web searches from this pop-up box as well. The App…
It’s one of the most iconic outfits in Star Wars, and sci-fi in general: The metal bikini Princess Leia is forced into by Jabba the Hutt during Return of the Jedi. But it’s not without controversy—and Disney may be making moves to remove the skimpy outfit from future Star Wars marketing and merchandise for good.…
Twitter did a silly thing today. It took away its neutral star icon andturned it into a smarmy heart. Turns out, it’s extremely easy to replace that heart. Let me help you with this technique from Robert McNees. Step 1: Download the Stylish extension for Chrome or Firefox. (There are a host of other extensions…
Podcasts are on the rise these days, but as with everything on the internet, garbagecasts proliferate just as quickly as sweet audio excellence. Doesn’t in make sense to let the radio mavens at NPR curate the goods for you? Earbud.fm is a newly-launched guide from NPR’s arts desk which lists more than 200 of the…
Hey! Hey, you! Buzz off, we’re trying to stargaze! …freaking owls, landing on the freaking telescope when the skies are finally clear for some good observing time… Grumble, growl, grouch. An owl perched directly on the lens of a telescope at NASA’s Marshall Space Center, providing an excellent view of wrinkly toes and sharp talons…
