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Design FX - World War Z: Building a Better Zombie Effects Exclusive

WIRED's exclusive behind the scenes look at the making of "World War Z" reveals how the visual effects artists at MPC used massive crowd simulations and hand animation to create the devastating swarming of Jerusalem by a zombie horde.




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Codefellas - How To Hack a Website

Nicole finally gets a chance to hack into a personal email, only to find herself in the bowels of Agent Topple's locked messages from the 90s. As imagined, this is unfortunate.




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Angry Nerd - Zynga's Shameful Digital to Board Game Switch

Like we weren’t going to notice, Zynga? Turning Words With Friends into a board game does not make it not-Scrabble. Same goes for Hungry Hungry Herd. Angry Nerd takes a stand against the shameless genre crossing of digital games back to board games.




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Codefellas - The Antisocial Network

After an urgent alert from the PRISM program followed by a shocking revelation from Nicole, Agent Topple doesn't not panic.




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Design FX - Pacific Rim: Designing Destruction Effects Exclusive

WIRED breaks down an exclusive clip from "Pacific Rim" with John Knoll, Chief Creative Officer from Industrial Light & Magic, exploring how design decisions affect the success of a blockbuster visual effects shot.




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Codefellas - Spy vs. Spy

After recently discovering Winters is actually his supervisor, Agent Topple mobilizes the full power of the National Security State to neutralize this inconvenient threat on his own security. All while catching up on his “stories,” also known to many as the illegal surveillance of private citizens in the comfort of their own home. This is surprisingly stimulating.




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Angry Nerd - Chris Baker Defends His Disapproval of Zynga Board Games

Chris Baker got Angry and Nerdy about Zynga making board games out of online games out of board games. Commenters commented. Baker defends his purchase of said games. And gets Angry.




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Codefellas - Blackmail at 4:20

Nicole strikes back with a hefty dose of new-school espionage, but Topple is not to be outdone. Hint: you can't topple Topple 'cuz Topple don't stopple!




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Codefellas - 25 Reasons the NSA Should Hire Buzzfeed Staffers

After Nicole debunks Henry's Buzzfeed logic, he must chose between destroying all electronic music or preserving Downton Abbey.




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Codefellas - How to Kill Your Boss

Topple settles into his new role as a cyber-spy, but hold on to your tequila sunrise: a hangover from his swinging '70s past leaves him odd-man-out at the counter-intelligence key party ... until his target conveniently "disappears."




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Design FX - Elysium: Futuristic Effects Exclusive

WIRED has an exclusive look at the visual effects of Director Neill Blomkamp's dark futuristic thriller, Elysium. Find out how the artists at "Image Engine" brought the patrolling packs of armed robots to life and turned the real world nirvana of Malibu into the orbiting playground of the space bound elite.




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Codefellas - How to Hack a Telegram

Hot on the trail of a devastating computer virus, Topple and Winters burn the midnight oil. Are the North Koreans sending encrypted telegrams or has Kim Jong-un taken up beat poetry?




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Codefellas - How to Cheat to Win

Nicole accuses Topple of treason and Topple plays the class card. But do average Americans really want to live in world where elites are held to the same standards? We think not.




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Design FX - Game of Thrones: Dragon Effects Exclusive

Daenerys Targaryen's dragons on HBO's Games of Thrones are fan favorites, and WIRED has an incredible, exclusive look at how they were brought to life with feature film quality by the visual effects artists at Pixmondo. Virtual wind tunnels, water simulations and real world references all played a part in constructing their realistic behaviors.




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Codefellas - Shout to All My Lost Spies

Topple’s bravado is put to the test when his old-school spy game gets the green light. Winters busts out her best pep talk, but can Topple get back to his fighting weight? The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of one man—and his mustache.




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Codefellas - The Cougar Lies with Spanish Moss

Agent Topple's mustache does its dirty work, and Nicole brokers a deal for peace. But why is the NSA collecting millions of Instagram brunch photos? And if your waffles have nothing to hide, what are they so worried about?




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WIRED Live - Slash Talks Movie Music and Scoring the Horror Film Nothing Left to Fear

Velvet Revolver and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist, Slash, sits down to talk about scoring Anthony Leonardi III’s new horror flick, Nothing Left to Fear.




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Design FX - Ender's Game: Creating a Zero-G Battle Room Effects Exclusive

A signature sequence in Gavin Hood’s newest film Ender’s Game is the zero-G battle room, a place where the titular character played by Asa Butterfield trains in space. Hoping to create a sense of weightlessness, the filmmakers shot actors in a mix of harnesses and on wires against a greenscreen set.




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Angry Nerd - The Implausibility of Thor's Physics-Defying Hammer, Mjölnir

Thor’s hammer Mjölnir is undoubtedly one of the most badass superhero weapons around. But its physics-defying and trajectory-changing travel powers are too much for Angry Nerd to handle. A majestic hammer...come on!




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Angry Nerd - The Unraveling of Secret Societies in Pop Cultural References

Long gone are the days when secret societies were, in fact, secret. Now, hacks use underground organizations as shorthand for evil in their pop culture products and Angry Nerd demands an end to it. Is a mention of the Templars in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Jay Z rapping about the Illuminati worth taking away from the power of the actual conspiracy theories?




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Design FX - Thor The Dark World: Previsualization Effects Exclusive

To create the world of Asgard in Thor: The Dark World, filmmaker Alan Taylor enlisted the help of digital effects company The Third Floor. Using a process called previsualization, The Third Floor created fully rendered low-res CG sets and characters, allowing the director to see, plan out, and experiment with scenes before shooting them.




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Angry Nerd - Giving Thanks for TV Shows That End Before Their Time

It’s the time of the year for counting blessings and giving thanks. And the Angry Nerd is most thankful for the cancellation of Futurama—because it let the show go out on a high note (and avoid a slow decline, like so many other one-time favorites).




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Happy Holidays from Codefellas

Agent Topple attempts to get some holiday spirit.




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Design FX - Walking With Dinosaurs: Muscle Simulation and Feathered Effects Exclusive

Find out how animation company Animal Logic used complex feather and muscle simulation systems to depict the prehistoric animals in Walking With Dinosaurs.




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WIRED Live - Milk Refrigeration Systems for India's Off-Grid Communities

As the largest producer and consumer of milk in the world, India faces a serious problem when it comes to off-grid dairy farmers. In this World Economic Forum discussion, Promethean Power Systems co-founder Sam White describes his approach to ensuring that milk is properly refrigerated and not spoiled by bacteria.




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Design FX - RoboCop: Breaking Down the Special Effects of the RoboCop Suit

For the latest reboot of sci-fi classic RoboCop, filmmakers opted for a mix of visual effects to achieve a realistic look. Fxguide’s Mike Seymour dives into the combination of creating a special effects suit for star Joel Kinnaman to wear, and the post CGI work that helped bring the half-man/half-robot to life.




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Design FX - Maleficent: Re-creating Fully Digital Characters

Angelina Jolie stars in Disney’s new Maleficent, featuring a forest world of detailed visual effects. Mike Seymour delves into how facial movement experts Digital Domain, worked to re-create realistic, fully digital counterparts to the story’s three fairies.




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RetroGrade - Before the i-Everything, There Was Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak & the Apple lle

Remember when Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were the new kids on the block? In the early ’80s they debuted the Apple IIe, blowing away the competition. RetroGrade takes a look at the “modern” technology that helped set the industry benchmark for personal computing.




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RetroGrade - Before Snapchat People Took Videos on This JVC Camcorder

The color is striking, but beauty is more than skin-deep with the JVC GR-C7U camcorder. You can record picture and sound in one unit and watch your masterpiece immediately on instant-playback. Watch out, John Hughes—there’s a new era of filmmakers on the horizon.




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Design FX - Hercules: Creating Mythical Creatures with Advanced Special Effects

In Brett Ratner's new big-budget flick Hercules, the title star portrayed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson battles mythical creatures, including a three-headed dog, giant boars and lions, and multi-headed serpents. Mike Seymour shows how the visual effects experts at Double Negative created the complicated, yet lifelike beasts.




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RetroGrade - When Was the Last Time You Left a Message on an Answering Machine?

“Please leave a message after the ….” It’s a phrase we all know, but in 1971 the PhoneMate 400 took voicemail to the next level. Find out why the hi-tech machine changed the answering machine game.




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Jeff 1000 - Summer Glau on Having a Robot Best Friend

There’s definitely benefits to having friends, but can you have a friend with benefits with one of the parties isn’t actually human? Summer Glau opens up about her close relationship with a 10-foot tall robot.




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Jeff 1000 - Giant Robots Have Feelings, Too

During a shoot Jeff can't seem to get his lines quite right. It’s two simple words, but with so many different ways to convey the emotion behind them Jeff and co-star Summer Glau are left pondering the philosophical meaning behind “human alert!"




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Jeff 1000 - Pug vs. Giant Robot

She’s one of Jeff’s best friends, so when Summer Glau recounts her near-death experience, Jeff is all ears—at least, as much as a robot can be. But when Jeff’s beloved pug Baby Princess continues to interrupt the story, Summer refuses to come second to the tiny dog.




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Jeff 1000 - 9 Questions with David Arquette (Just Don’t Ask About Robots)

Things take a turn during a "Jeff 1000” shoot when David Arquette takes time to do a behind-the-scenes interview. Everything starts off smoothly, but the second David is asked about his robot co-star Jeff, all hell breaks loose with David comparing Jeff to a second-rate WALL-E.




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Jeff 1000 - Meet Jeff: 10' Tall Robot & Hollywood Actor

Summer Glau has to attend her ex-boyfriend’s art gallery opening and who better to accompany her than a ten-foot tall robot? Jeff agrees to go and is tasked with one job, but things go haywire when he meets the ex—David Arquette.




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Jeff 1000 - Behind the Scenes of Summer Glau’s New Robot Series

“Alphas” co-creator Michael Karnow is behind the new series "Jeff 1000,” which stars Summer Glau and David Arquette. Go behind the scenes and see what it’s really like to work with a robot-turned actor.




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Design FX - Agent Carter: Creating Movie-Quality Effects on a Weekly TV Schedule

In the new series “Agent Carter” Marvel expands its universe to the small screen with help from Industrial Light & Magic. Creating high-quality visual effects was nothing new for the the award-winning team, but working against grueling weekly delivery dates proved to be a monstrous challenge. Mike Seymour finds out how they did it.




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Angry Nerd - Can Will Forte’s “The Last Man on Earth" Defy the Sci-fi TV Curse?

The new Will Forte TV show “The Last Man on Earth” is sort of a funny version of “I Am Legend,” without the vampire zombies. But science fiction comedy has a grim history on American television, as even fans of “Alf,” “Mork & Mindy,” or “3rd Rock from the Sun” would have to admit. Angry Nerd hopes Forte’s approach escapes the curse.




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Huggable Robot Befriends Girl in Hospital

Meet Huggable Robot—an app-controlled stuffed animal designed by the MIT Media Lab. Created to help young patients who are fighting cancer, Huggable is operated by an expert Child Life Specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. See the interactive bear in action, and find out how it’s helping to relieve children’s anxiety while engaging with them on an emotional level.




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Hands On With Star Wars: Battlefront

WIRED senior editor Peter Rubin tests his skills in the new Star Wars: Battlefront game which was featured at Nerd HQ at San Diego Comic Con 2015.




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Predicting Hurricanes in High Definition

In the decade since Hurricane Katrina, tools for tracking and modeling powerful storms have grown in sophistication and detail.




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Think Like a Tree - How Coral Reefs and Carbon Dioxide Can Change the Future

Most people think of carbon dioxide as a poison, but in nature it’s a building block. Find out how we can imitate coral reef by using CO2 as a raw material for the creation of concrete.




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Meet the Star Wars Fans Who Lined Up Two Weeks Before the Premiere

We caught up with fans who lined up for tickets nearly two weeks before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. From keeping your job to keeping your marriage, the cosplay-dressing superfans break down the rules to waiting in line.




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Design FX - Inside the Incredible Visual Effects of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens"

Mike Seymour goes behind the visual effects that earned “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” an Oscar nod. See how Industrial Light & Magic crafted complex action sequences, detailed environments, and realistic characters with the help of advanced motion-capture technology and performances from actors like Lupita Nyong’o.




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The On-the-Job Film-Schooling of Jeff Nichols

For each of his films, Jeff Nichols gives himself a set of directorial challenges that he wants to master. He's learning the skills that he'll need to someday make a gazillion-dollar blockbuster.




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Design FX - The Special Effects Behind Zero Matter in "Agent Carter"

We go behind the scenes to show you how visual effects company Double Negative created the dark energy Zero Matter in ABC's "Agent Carter."




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Award-Winning Chef Takes on NASA Space Food

We brought a renowned Houston chef to NASA's Food Lab so he could try and provide a fine dining experience using only space food.




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WIRED by Design - Writer and Director Jeff Nichols on Finding a Point of View

Jeff Nichols at WIRED by Design, 2014. In partnership with Skywalker Sound, Marin County, CA. To learn more visit: live.wired.com




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Jeff Nichols: The Evolution of a Film Career

Writer and director Jeff Nichols takes us through his three previous films and his upcoming film Midnight Special.