When a laptop or a phone blows up it's usually because of some dangerous exploding battery. But what if you want to make a laptop self destruct and blow up on its own? You'll have to make something that Q from James Bond would invent, basically. The genius Caleb Kraft did just that.

Caleb from Hack a Day used thermite to make the laptop catch on fire to destroy the hard drive. Burnt up hard drive means all your files are secure, right? Right! Caleb's system has its own self destruct mechanism to catch on fire. But because thermite is really hard to light, he had to get creative. He says:

What I finally landed on was an ignition system that uses model rocket igniters, gun powder, and magnesium to light the thermite. The model rocket igniter can be set off from the 12v line inside your computer. However, it isn’t hot enough to light magnesium shavings, much less thermite. To get it to work, I needed to add some gunpowder. A small amount of gun powder would get hot enough to light the magnesium shavings, which in turn were hot enough to light the thermite. I had to be careful though, because too much gunpowder would cause a rapid expansion, blowing the thermite everywhere instead of lighting it. You can actually see some red thermite being blown out of the external hard drive and the laptop as the gunpowder ignites.

Caleb also made the awesome fire breathing Piranha Plant from Super Mario Bros so we should trust him on all things fire or explosions or explosive fire. [Hack a Day via BoingBoing]

When we saw a 'We the People' petition to the White House to make the US move to the metric system, we listed very sensible reasons why the US should listen: The imperial system is archaic, irrelevant, doesn't scale easily and to be honest, there are just too many damn units to keep track of. Well, the White House listened and is going to do... nothing. In their response to the petition, they basically said use the metric system if you want to.

First, the White House says that America actually uses the metric system all the time! The US uses metric to "define all basic units used in commerce and trade" and says using the metric system with the imperial system actually makes the United States "a truly bilingual nation". I guess since most of us only speak English (and not fifteen thousand languages like citizens of other countries), we'll take that as a compliment. Still, that sounds a helluva lot like a copout.

But basically, what it boils down to is making the use of the metric system (or imperial system) a choice. They're encouraging the voluntary use of a metric system!

Ultimately, the use of metric in this country is a choice and we would encourage Americans to continue to make the best choice for themselves and for the purpose at hand and to continue to learn how to move seamlessly between both systems.

In our voluntary system, it is the consumers who have the power to make this choice. So if you like, “speak” metric at home by setting your digital scales to kilograms and your thermometers to Celsius. Cook in metric with liters and grams and set your GPS to kilometers.

The White House ends the response by saying 'choose to live your life in metric if you want'. Basically, do whatever you want because the US will never officially change to the metric system. Damn. How many ounces in a cup in a quart in a gallon again? [White House]

Image by Håvar og Solveig under Creative Commons license

For YouTube's comedy week, Dane Boe created this music video 'We Didn't Star the Viral' (riffing off Billy Joel's We Didn't Star the Fire) that recaps pretty much all the viral videos that became infamous on YouTube over the last 8 years. You know the usual suspects: Keyboard cat, Star Wars kid, evolution of dance, Charlie bit my finger and oh so much more. Can you recognize them all? Did you watch them all? [Dane Boe via Neatorama]

This is beyond sad. If you've been keeping up with the tornado that leveled Moore, Oklahoma, you probably saw the destruction it left behind. It looked like a movie set war zone or the aftermath of the apocalypse. But it was real. Google released satellite imagery showing what the destruction looked like from above. It's not pretty.

Google's Crisis Center reveals the tornado's path, showing the damage outline and specific damage points. Some areas are so severe they're almost unbelievable. In addition, Google revealed satellite imagery from April 29th, 2013 (before the tornado) and May 22nd, 2013 (after the tornado) to show us the before and after.

If you want to donate to the Moore, Oklahoma cause, you can send your donations to the Red Cross [Google via CNET]

If you're busy this weekend with trips to the beach and delicious barbecues and drinks with umbrellas in them, I feel bad for you. Memorial Day 2013 is not about enjoying the weather or spending time outdoors or kicking off Summer, nope, it's about having a day off so you can watch the new season of Arrested Development on Netflix.

Netflix just put out four short clips of the new season of Arrested Development and they're delightful in a first sip of alcohol on a night out sort of way. This tastes perfectly fine but I want more more more. Luckily, we'll get more more more on May 26th. Cancel your plans guys.

There's been some fuss about how used games work on the Xbox One—do we have to pay a fee to Microsoft to play them? Is Microsoft killing used games dead? Supposedly, no. Polygon is reporting that the Xbox One will NOT require gamers to pay a fee to reactivate an Xbox One used game.

However, Polygon notes, there will still be "a regular online spot check" to verify the authenticity of the used game being played. Which is like basically requiring users to always have their Xbox One connected to the Internet (another big issue with gamers).

Apparently things are still in flux at Microsoft about used games and an always on Internet connection, but Polygon says Microsoft plans to address user's concerns before E3 this year. They should, cause it's only getting more confusing. [Polygon]

Every so often when the Moon is especially ginormous or we can see Venus or Mars from Earth, humans collectively freaks out. So cool three exclamation points, we scream. Look how big with thirty i's, we yell. And it's warranted! Seeing things that don't belong in the sky pop up, well, in the sky is fun. So could you imagine if one day Earth developed rings like Saturn? It would be insane.

Amazing science and space artist Ron Miller imagined what life on Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn and it's mind blowing. The coolest thing is that different areas of the world would see Earth's rings differently—a streak of light dividing the sky at the Equator, a bending ring that looks brightens the Moon in Guatamela, a permanent rainbow on the east coast of the United States and so forth. I want to live on this make believe planet now. Earth is too ordinary.

[Black Cat Studios via PetaPixel]

In Polynesia, Earth would cast a shadow on the rings creating a warped ring.

Near the equator, the rings would be a streaking light splitting the sky.

Probably the most beautiful looking view of the ring would be in Guatemala.

Please be true, please be true, please be true. After Google announced that it would be selling a pure Android version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Google Play, the entire world screamed joys of Hallelujah Halle Berry. An awesome phone running completely stock Android has always been the dream. Now, HTC might be making real life better than any dream by making the HTC One pure Android too.

Supposedly, according to Geek.com's sources, HTC is considering making a stock variant of the HTC One. That'd mean there would be no HTC Sense to muddle the Android experience. That means we'd use a phone the way Google would want us to use it. What's unclear now is if it happens, how we'll get the pure Android HTC One.

Google's version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is sold unlocked for $650 on Google Play. Would HTC go down that same route? What should be noted is that Geek.com had initially reported on the stock Android version of the Galaxy S4 before it was announced. They nailed that rumor. Maybe this one will be true too. In any case, I'm crossing my fingers. You should too. [Geek via Phandroid]

If you think you're looking at color palettes of different shades of brownish gray, you're not exactly wrong. I'm sure people would love to paint their bathroom Roman Rotunda Slate or some made up name like that. But it's not that simple. You're actually looking at the seasons—spring, summer, fall and winter—and you just don't know it.

Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun combined one million pictures of each season using photos one million pictures from Flickr tagged spring, summer, fall and winter. Each picture filled up a pixel (with the dominant color of that picture actually filling the pixel) and you have one million pixels showing you what the season looked like.

It's kind of funny how all the colors of the pictures just blend together to create something that doesn't look like what we expect it to look like. I like that. Though fall owns the lovely brown, yellow and decaying hues, every other season looks like static. But that's because when we see a small version of the pixels, everything blends together. Getting up close, it reveals more details like blue streaks, green tint and white backgrounds.

You can see more of the work here. [Shin Seung Back Kim Yong Hun via PetaPixel]

That's Spring above.

This is summer

I love fall

Winter is coming

According to the WSJ, Iran has hacked US oil, gas and power companies. The hackers were able to gain access to control-system software "that could allow them to manipulate oil or gas pipelines". Basically, the hackers are far enough inside that people are starting to get worried.

US officials say that these break ins from Iranian hackers are like reconnaissance missions for Iran. They're gathering information on the operations of energy companies and figuring out how to "disrupt or destroy them in the future". Gaining access to the control-system is serious. The WSJ explains:

Control systems run the operations of critical infrastructure, regulating the flow of oil and gas or electricity, turning systems on and off, and controlling key functions.

In theory, manipulating the software could be used to delete important data or turn off key safety features such as the automatic lubrication of a generator, experts said.

Iran was also accused of launching DDoS attacks on US banks, so this isn't their first time jumping into cyber warfare (of course, the US and Israel launched the Stuxnet virus on Iran first). For what it's worth, Iran denies involvement with the hackings, but hey, that's what China says about hacking us too. The next World War is so going to start because of some hacker. [WSJ]

Image by Aleksandar Mijatovic/Shutterstock and andersphoto/Shutterstock

Did you ever realize how silly 2D video game backgrounds are? Especially those in fighting games like in Street Fighter 2 or Samurai Showdown. Random people watching you fight with random objects like planes and dogs around them in random places of the world. Let's fight in an aquarium! Or an airport hangar! Or a gym filled with beefcakes!

RudeBootie, a redditor, created GIFs of the fighting game backgrounds, removing the fighters to reveal true works of art. I would totally want a painting of a Street Fighter 2 background in my apartment. Some are beautiful. Others are hilarious. A few make you nostalgic. All are wonderful—I can't stop looking at them.

There are 125 GIFs in his collection of fighting game backgrounds. Go check it out here. [Reddit via Visual News]

When you search for something on Google, Google knows what you're looking for even if you're not saying it exactly. Google search is smart like that. Like if you search for 'hilarious videos', Google will also show you results for 'funny videos' too (words that Google equates as synonyms pop up in bold in Google search results). Which is why it's troubling that Google thinks 'gayest' and 'worst' mean the same thing.

BuzzFeed found that when you search for 'gayest trends' or 'gayest disney movies', Google will list '10 worst men's fashion trends of the decade' and 'the eight worst movies in Disney history' among its results, with 'worst' being bolded. As in gayest means worst. Newsflash! Gayest does not mean worst.

But of course it's naive to think that people don't use the term 'gay' to represent something as 'being bad' (even in 2013). You can still hear it on playgrounds, suburban coffee shops and random streets across America. But just because it's common doesn't mean it's not wrong. It's a problem that needs to be fixed. And what's most odd is to see the insensitive homophobic 'definition' of the word be reflected in Google searches. You would think Google would make some effort to scrub its algorithm clean. Google told BuzzFeed:

Google’s results, including when a search term is synonymized with another, are a reflection of content on the web and how people search. These results are determined by algorithms and we don’t manually correct this process, but we are always looking at how we can improve our algorithms.

Algorithms are jerks. [BuzzFeed]

The monstrously giant mechs of Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim are controlled by two different people at the same time. The two pilots interact with the computer in Drift Space to control the giant mech and this featurette explains a little about how that works.

It basically looks like the funnest video game ever (also the creepiest since you gain acess to other people's brains). [WarnerBros]

Microsoft, which has been trying to force Windows Phone into the Android and iPhone conversation in its recent commercials, is going head on against Apple in its latest spot. That's not surprising (as Samsung loves to pick at Cupertino all the time), but what's hilarious is that Microsoft is using Apple's own Siri to do the ribbing in the commercial. You can hear Siri poke fun of the iPad when compared to the Surface in the ad. It's pretty good (for a commercial). [Windows Video]

It's human nature to immediately pick up and play with an Etch A Sketch whenever you see one. It's in the Hall of Fame of toys (does that exist?) and almost everyone has struggled making anything more than squiggly lines with its knobs. But did you know that you can actually make an Etch A Sketch toy at home? Yeah.

Steve Hoefer of MAKE delves into the history behind the Etch A Sketch and then shows you how to build it in accordance to the patent. Creating the pulley mechanism to control the Etch a Sketch isn't so hard but re-creating the magic screen takes some, well, magic. In any case, it's fascinating to see how one of children's favorite toys (it's the tablet for when we were kids!) works. [MAKE via Mental Floss]

Here's a short video that'll wrinkle your brain a bit. Like debunking 50 common misconceptions, this video shows 13 facts you might not know are true. Like how Neil Armstrong had to clear customs after going to the Moon. Or that Russia is bigger than Pluto. Learning is fun.

If I learned all this stuff in elementary school, I'm pretty sure my brain would have melted. [BuzzFeed Video]

Nymphomaniac, a movie directed by Lars von Trier (he did Melancholia), will use a groundbreaking digital editing technique to show graphic sex scenes on the screen. For the non-explicit portions of the sex scenes, you'll see celebrities and actors you recognize. For the penetrative portion, you'll see the body doubles doing it. The difference is you won't know the difference because the film will digitally stitch the two together.

Producer Louise Vesth said:

“We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital-impose the two. So above the waist it will be the star and the below the waist it will be the doubles.”

It's a lot like how body doubles are used now in movies but presumably more seamless in its execution because of technology. So not unlike the CGI nipples we've seen recently in movies (though I guess a lot more explicit than that). Von Trier, who's done movies like Antichrist and Dogville, will also use "experimental graphical elements in the two Nymphomaniac films, using double exposures and imposing words and symbols over the action as part of his storytelling."

It's going to be a treat to watch. Nymphomaniac stars Uma Thurman, Shia LaBeouf, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Christian Slater and others. Because of the post-production work required to stitch these scenes together, the movie won't show at the usual film festival circuit (Cannes, Venice, Toronto). [Hollywood Reporter]

If you weren't excited from the explosions-filled Man of Steel movie trailer before, after seeing this final trailer that teases General Zod threatening Earth, you will be. It shows more of the conflict of the film and reveals even more insane action sequences.

In the trailer, which is probably the final one before the movie releases next month on June 14, you hear Michael Shannon as General Zod demand that Kal-El surrender himself or Earth will suffer consequences. This is going to be a good one, huh. [WarnerBros]