While You Were Offline: Twitter Says Goodbye to the Opportunity Rover
What kind of a week includes Congress turning on the president, Barbies in wheelchairs, adorable wire fox terriers, and actual, genuine discussion over where politicians fall on the moldy jam issue? Your answer, of course, should simply be, "Oh, just any ol' week in 2019." This, dear friends, is the hyper-accelerated world of today, and…
How to Build a Space Communication System Out of Lasers
In October 2013, a moon-orbiting NASA spacecraft aimed a laser beam at Earth, 239,000 miles away. Within seconds, the intended recipient—an observatory in New Mexico—locked onto the beam of infrared light, invisible to the naked eye. Encoded inside the light was a high-definition video of NASA administrator Charles Bolden delivering a short speech. Bolden had,…
Fallout 76's Buggy Beta Apologia and the Rest of the Week in Gaming
Halloween is nearly upon us, and game news is—well, actually pretty normal. Let's catch up. Bethesda Prepares Readers to Expect Bugs, Hilariously With all the grace of an iPhone Notes application apology, Bethesda tweeted out a very official-looking letter to fans this week in advance of its Fallout 76 beta test. The letter does two…
A Month's Worth of Rain Will Hit California This Weekend
You can see it on satellite imagery—a chaotic blur of wind and water shaped like a giant alien starfish over Australia, extending a tentacle diagonally across the Pacific and right into the Golden Gate. It’s called an atmospheric river, over a thousand miles of water and wind. This weekend is going to be as wet…
The Future of Super Bowl Ads Doesn’t Include TV—or Football
This Super Bowl Sunday, as football fans gather for pre-game festivities, musical theater enthusiasts will have their own spectacle to appreciate: a one-time-only performance at famed downtown NYC theater Joe’s Pub, starring actor and Broadway star Dexter’s Michael C. Hall. The production, written by Pulitzer-finalist playwright Will Eno, is an anti-consumerist allegory filled with songs…
The Physics of the Speeder Chase in Solo: A Star Wars Story
I make it my job to hunt through all the best trailers and find some cool physics thing to explore. In this case, it's the trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story—the Han Solo-led movie, scheduled to come out in May, that takes place some time before Episode IV: A New Hope. Right at the…
The 6-Foot Chinese Giant Salamander Is in Serious Trouble
The 6-foot-long, 140-pound Chinese giant salamander is a being that defies belief—and seemingly the laws of the physical universe. It’s the largest amphibian on the planet, a gargantuan (though harmless) beast that rests on river-bottoms hoovering up fish. Once it grows big enough, not many critters dare touch it—save for, of course, humans. Particularly the…
Save Us From Superheroes—Because They Can't Save Us
Superheroes are over, done with, dead. There, I said it. If I see one more lustrous cape, magic doodad, or chiseled hunk of a Chris, I’m gonna beg Thanos to keep snapping. Look, I love Black Panther, and Captain Marvel totally deserves her own movie. But, man, the story is played out. Some misunderstood dweeb…
Eagles vs. Seahawks Analysis: Why Russell Wilson's Forward Pass Looks Backward
During Sunday's NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Philadelphia Eagles, Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson makes a pretty nice move. After taking the ball and running with it, he makes a quick pitch off to the side while faking out the defender. Looks pretty cool, but it probably wasn't legal. In the NFL, once…
Cantina Talk: Boba Fett Is Dead (Again)
Normally this time of year, fans are eagerly awaiting the December release of a new Star Wars movie. But with Episode IX not hitting theaters until the end of 2019, things are relatively quiet in the galaxy far, far away. But at least the news that is coming out is good: Composer John Williams is…