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George Lucas worked for a long time on his various early versions of The Star Wars, and the movie that was eventually released in 1977 had a lot of crucial help from his film editor wife and producer pals and director friends. But now his old drafts are being turned into a pricey comic book.…
Users of the extra secure and private email provider Lavabit are out of luck after the owner shut down the service on Thursday offering only a cryptic message as an explanation. Lavabit is the preferred email service provider of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and yes, this matters. In a note posted on lavabit.com, Ladar Levison…
Google Maps app on your smartphone is one of those wonderful things that makes owning the gadget an absolute joy. Instant, essential knowledge. Today, Google announced that it would be robbing its iOS and Android apps of their purity by allowing advertisers to advertise against your searches. So as in the example in the device…
Internet crush Nate Silver was pushed out of the stuffy old New York Times because everybody enjoys reading Nate Silver. Everybody except for New York Times staffers, apparently, because they were all, “Fine, leave, goodbye.” So his new ESPN website will be more fun because of less politics. BUT: lots of sports. https://deadspin.com/what-is-nate-silvers-new-espn-site-going-to-look-like-1068195363
Theoretically, a perfect robot face would look normal. But until we reach utter perfection, everything that falls even slightly short is horrifying. Take, for instance, this robot visage powered by ravenously hungry slime mold. It’s surprisingly functional, and unsurprisingly nightmarish. Slime mold is strange. It has neither a brain, nor a nervous system, yet it…
Amazon is carrying the Anker Astro3E 10000mAh Power Bank for $33 using code EV8R3TKE. That’s $67 below retail and the lowest historical price. This is Lifehacker’s most popular external battery pack and an easy recommendation at this price. The Astro3E will completely charge an iPhone 4-5 times. [Amazon] The ultra-compact Astro Mini is also on…
In 1906, novelist Upton Sinclair founded a cooperative community in Englewood, New Jersey, not far outside New York. It would exist for just six months before being completely consumed by fire, but Sinclair would spend the rest of his life dreaming about his time there. They called it the Helicon Home Colony. And despite sex…
With replicators in every room, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise technically didn’t need to cook anything while away on their missions. But such technology is well beyond our grasp at the moment, and the daily task of prepping meals is thankfully made slightly less mundane when you’ve got the Enterprise in hand to flip…
It probably seemed like a good idea, 10 years ago, for new moms struggling to balance career and family and time: Why not just quit the stupid rat race and stay at home and raise your kids? It’s already kind of how we’re set up, as mammals. Dads go kill saber-toothed tigers for dinner and…
While not as popular as cars, monster trucks, or even planes, remote control tanks have become surprisingly complex and capable over the years, even to the point of actually firing plastic pellets. The No Network tank, however, doesn’t fire at targets you can see. Instead, it’s equipped with a wireless jammer that blocks cellular signals…
In the future, streaming radio stations will be so sophisticated that they’ll know based on all sorts of factors exactly what it is you want to listen to. We’re not quite there yet, but Rdio—our favorite streaming radio service—has a new personalized radio feature, which takes a bold step in that direction. https://gizmodo.com/the-best-streaming-radio-486515844 The new…
For unknown reasons, young males in America enjoy “burning out,” which does not refer to smoking pot but to intentionally driving very badly so that you melt a lot of your tires onto the road surface. Like the jackass in the pickup truck in the video here, drivers often find themselves crashing and burning. https://jalopnik.com/the-ten-biggest-burnout-fails-on-video-1066174305
We all have that friend. The one who’s uploaded 4,000 photos of her fun trips to the football game and her fun trips to the mountains and her fun trips to the beach and her fun trips to the bars and her fun trips to everywhere else. We all have that friend and we all…
The Rose House—the most important modernist building in the Chicago area, featured in John Hughes’ movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—is back on sale for just $1.5 million. That’s three times in three years! Is this house haunted or just a mess to maintain? This dream home and its separated glass pavilion—which housed the Ferrari owned…
How do our young people turn a few hours of sitting on the couch playing video games into an opportunity to have sex with each other? There’s always the old standby of “hormones and marijuana,” but sometimes you need a special video game to get the skin-to-skin. Try this Spin the Bottle game for the…
Stealing computers is bad—everybody already knows that. And stealing from a church (or any non-profit institution for that matter) is extra bad. But if you must steal a computer from a church—especially one you’re a member of—don’t call up the software blocking company and ask if they’ll remove the porn filter. As Troy Ridling of…
You maybe have noticed it’s “Geek Week” on YouTube. Sure, that means plenty of cool videos and whatnot, but there’s also something even better: Missile Command! All you’ve got to do is go to a YouTube video—any YouTube video—and type “1980.” (Not in the search bar. Just like, type it.) Then, whammo, it’s time to…
Mag-guns are pretty impractical, but they’re always fun to fire. Larsplatoon knows first-hand. A few years ago he put together a crazy single-shot coilgun that tore up household appliances one 1.25 kilojoule shot at a time. Now, he’s opted for full auto. And it’s just as fantastic to behold. https://gizmodo.com/watch-this-1-25-kilojoule-diy-coilgun-smash-various-hou-5643971 This DIY gauss rifle—or CG-42…
There’s a story in the New York Times today that details how the NSA hasn’t just been tracking communications to and from (potential) foreigners of interest—it’s actually tracking all emails and text messages that potentially mention these targets. That dragnet just got a lot wider. This is the actualization of the tired and at one…
Breath fresh air, help others, practice smiling… science has demonstrated that, if you follow these ten simple advices, you will be happier. As happy as George Takei, who seems like a pretty happy person to us! Unlike William Shatner, who never listens to science. https://lifehacker.com/ten-things-you-can-do-to-be-happier-backed-by-science-1065356587
