Cheryl Eddy

Amateur Paleontologist Finds Complete Ichthyosaur Skeleton On The Beach

A man out for a stroll on a South Welsh beach stumbled upon something rather remarkable: a fully-articulated, seven-foot ichthyosaur skeleton — described by the National Museum Wales as “a potentially very, very important find.” As Wales Online reports: Amateur fossil hunter Jonathan Bow has unearthed a seven foot skeleton of a ichthyosaur carniverous marine…

Why Does the World Need Black and White Tomatoes?

Ever been chopping a salad or assembling a sandwich and thought, “Dammit, I sure wish tomatoes weren’t so damn red all the time”? British breeders Suttons Seeds, who already perfected the black tomato, have created the world’s first black and white tomato plant, reports the Daily Mail: A [Suttons] spokesman said: “This year we have…

All Hail This Majestically Satanic Holiday Display

Our pals in the Satanic Temple are at it again. You’ll recall the group’s legal battle for equal representation among the holiday displays at Florida’s state capitol; this week, it’ll be unveiling the below display (the bow is a nice touch) at the Michigan state capitol. The Temple’s reasoning is, unsurprisingly, similiar to its Sunshine…

Hong Kong Star Daniel Wu Tries To Resurrect Martial Arts As A TV Genre

NorCal-born Hong Kong megastar Daniel Wu is set to star in and executive produce AMC’s upcoming six-part martial arts drama, tentatively titled Badlands. This could be the first martial arts-centric TV show in the U.S. since Sammo Hung’s late lamented show Martial Law, back in 2000. As Deadline reports, the series is based on popular…

Golden-Winged Warblers Can Predict When Tornados Will Strike

A recent study out of UC Berkeley has discovered that tiny golden-winged warblers can predict impending storms — or rather, they can actually hear them approaching. Scientists hope to use what they’ve learned to help save lives ahead of violent weather. Reports The Atlantic: In April, a massive thunderstorm unleashed a series of tornadoes that…

You’re Better Off Sleeping Through Night At The Museum 3

Night at the Museum: The Secret of the Tomb begins within the Egyptian tomb of its title, but since this is the third Museum flick, there are precious few secrets left. The big reveal this time around is that the magic is wearing off — which seems a good metaphor for this joyless sequel, itself.…

An STD Is A Supernatural Horror In Creepy New Trailer For It Follows

Maika Monroe — so great as the goth waitress in The Guest — returns to genre turf in writer-director David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows. Behold the new, synth-tastically scored trailer, and see why the label “STD horror” so eerily applies. The film earned mega-buzz after its Cannes debut and played in festivals all over the…

Ascension Ends With A Final Supreme Moment Of WTF

So we didn’t especially like Ascension’s first chapter, which seemed to promise one thing and then deliver another. Fortunately, the second and third chapters had better pacing and some great moments… before ending with another huge moment of WTF. Spoilers ahead… The first episode of Ascension ended with a somewhat rug-pulling reveal: the main characters…

The Best Last-Minute Geeky Gifts That You Can Get For Under $10

It’s December 18? How did that happen? If the holidays got away from you this year — and you’re feeling the pinch of the most wonderful … and freakin’ expensive … time of the year — we’ve got you covered in the last-minute affordable gift department. Here are the best last-minute gifts for under a…

How The Simpsons Changed the English Language

Over at the Oxford Dictionaries blog, there’s an essay by author and Indiana University at Bloomington professor Michael Adams that investigates how The Simpsons has helped shape the English language over the past 25 years. Specifically, he’s interested in the words and catchphrases — not all those memorable one-liners, though who among us doesn’t reference…

Idaho State To Offer Bigfoot-Inspired Course

Though the chairman of the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University is careful to note, “It is not a course on Bigfoot. It is a course on anthropology,” ISU will nevertheless be offering an experimental class titled “The Relict Hominoid Inquiry.” Which is kinda a course on Bigfoot. Sorta. The Idaho State Journal…

Watch Sir Ian McKellen School Cookie Monster On Self-Control

“Say there was … a golden ring. And you really, really wanted this golden ring. It was like your precious.” “You know, me not much of a jewelry guy, so me not sure that very relevant example.” (Hmmm … seems Cookie Monster didn’t learn that much from Tom Hiddleston!) Image via Hitfix.com.

Are Anti-ID Theft Jeans A Fashion Statement Or Paranoia?

Clothing that blocks “digital pickpocketing” is now hipster-approved. But do we really need RFID-blocking pockets in our pants? The BBC reports: A pair of jeans containing material that blocks wireless signals is being developed in conjunction with anti-virus firm Norton. The trousers are intended to stop thieves hacking into radio frequency identification (RFID) tagged passports…

A red-and-green rock stuffed with “30,000 teeny-tiny diamonds” was unveiled this week at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting. Though the sparklers are too wee to have value as gems, the unique rock, discovered in Russia’s Udachnaya mine, may help geologists better understand how diamonds are formed.

“Beast Jesus” Has Become A Bona Fide Tourist Attraction

Remember “Beast Jesus”? How could you forget that face? In 2012, this amazingly terrible (and unauthorized) restoration job applied to a 19th-century Spanish fresco by elderly Cecilia Giménez made instant headlines and launched a thousand memes. One year later, the painting —”originally named Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) but now widely known as Ecce Mono…

The Walking Dead Spin-Off Will Take a Bite Out Of LA

The rumors are true: the as-yet untitled Walking Dead spinoff has set its sights on Los Angeles. That said, as Entertainment Weekly points out, Just because the setting is Los Angeles doesn’t guarantee it will be shot there. AMC, which had no comment, is still casting the pilot written by Robert Kirkman and Dave Erickson.…

Thanks for clearing that up: Harlem, Georgia’s Born Again Independent Baptist Church has a special message for everyone during the holiday season about free speech and two different men in red suits. The sign is, unsurprisingly, controversial in the community (a youth director at the nearby Harlem United Methodist Church worried that the sign was…

Syfy’s Ascension Jumps The Shark In Its Very First Episode

Is the heavily hyped Syfy miniseries Ascension the second coming of the second coming of Battlestar Galactica? Nope. Spoilers ahead… The first night of Ascension wasn’t directed by M. Night Shyamalan, but it might as well have been. We’ll get to the final twist at the end of this recap, but suffice to say that…

Museum Receives A Million Dollars’ Worth of Taxidermy

And you thought you had a lot of random stuff lying around the house. The Virginia Museum of Natural History just scored a taxidermy collection so enormous, its value is over $1 million. The haul consists of some 230 items gathered by Gregory Speck, who made the donation when he moved out of his Manhattan…

Pennsylvania And Washington Lead The Nation In Bigfoot Sightings

‘Tis the season for year-end stories wrapping up the cultural and political goings-on of 2014. So why not … “The Year in Bigfoot“? CityLab went through the submissions sent to the admirably user-friendly website run by the nearly 100-year-old Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, crunching the numbers like leaves under suspiciously large, hairy feet. The results,…