Robbie Gonzalez

Watch The First Trailer For Batman vs Robin

Warner Bros. has just released the first look at Batman vs Robin, the upcoming feature-length direct-to-DVD sequel to last year’s Son of Batman. https://gizmodo.com/damian-lives-in-dcs-next-direct-to-dvd-movie-son-of-ba-1505711607 Here’s the trailer debut, courtesy of IGN: THR has the full voice cast. Some highlights: Jason O’Mara, the Terra Nova star who also plays George Washington on History’s Sons of Liberty,…

The Alien-Abduction Plot Line That Could Have Been The Simpsons Movie 2

In a recent interview, Simpsons executive producer Al Jean estimates there’s a “50-50” chance we’ll get a sequel to 2007’s The Simpson Movie. He also revealed that January 4th’s alien abduction episode – ‘The Man Who Came to Be Dinner” – almost provided the plot line for said sequel. EW got the details from Jean:…

Here’s How Close SpaceX Came To Landing A Rocket On A Barge In The Ocean

On Saturday, SpaceX tried to land its reusable Falcon 9 rocket on an autonomous spaceport drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. But the rocket came in a little too hot, and the touchdown was more impact than landing. Now, SpaceX has released footage of the landing attempt, as shot from the landing barge. Read our…

Yep, 2014 Was The Hottest Year In Recorded History

Two independent analyses by NASA and NOAA have both concluded 2014 was the warmest year ever recorded on Earth – hotter, even, than 2010, the previous record-holder in a field of contenders stretching all the way back to 1880. “This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades.…

The Most Common Misconceptions About Getting Sick, Debunked

In the latest installment of Mental Floss’ debunk-tastic series Misconceptions, Elliott Morgan serves up factual counterpoints to ten of the most common misconceptions about getting sick. It’s all in here – from food poisoning myths to false notions about the common cold. For my money, the most interesting myth on this list is the one…

Everything You Need To Know About Cyberterrorism In One Chart

I don’t know how we missed this chart on its first go-around (it was created by Eli Dourado in May 2014, using data extrapolated from a 2013 op-ed by Jon Mooallem, who spent the summer of that year keeping track of power outages caused by squirrels), but it is everything, and you deserve to know…

A study published this week in the journalNature concludes that sea-levels rose more slowly during the 20thcentury than previously believed. That being said, if the revision is corroborated, it will mean that the recent acceleration in sea level rise has been “significantly larger than previously supposed.”

High-Speed Video Reveals The Source Of That Incredible After-Rain Smell

That smell has a name. It’s called petrichor. For decades, scientists have speculated on where this smell comes from, but the mechanism behind the phenomenon has remained elusive. Now, researchers at MIT studying high-speed video of raindrops think they’ve found the answer: The smell is released in tiny aerosol clouds that raindrops emit upon impact.…

Scientific Sushi Art Is The Best Sushi Art

Japanese chef Takayo “Tama-cha” Kiyota uses carefully arranged food to create cross-sectional sushi-roll art. Her subjects include everything from popular iconography to Japanese demons, but I’m particularly impressed by the rolls with some scientific flair. This single roll depicts different stages of embryological development, depending on where it’s cut. Other sciences represented in Kiyota’s sushi…

How To Prove A Geometric Formula With A Clementine And A Piece of Paper

Here’s a fun demonstration from Cornell maths professor Steven Strogatz. Take a clementine (or any spherical, peelable fruit) and trace around its widest part four times. Then peel it. Flatten out the peelings as best you can and divvy them up evenly among the circles. Voilà! Tangible proof that the the surface area of a…

Here’s Why More Schools Should Schedule Recess Before Lunch

A study published in the latest issue of Preventive Medicine found that when recess is held right before lunch instead of immediately after, the amount of fruits and vegetables eaten by students increases by more than 50%. The NYT’s KJ Dell’Antonia has more details at Motherlode: Research has long suggested that students who have recess…

Here’s What It Looks Like To Fall To Titan From Space

In honor of the Huygens probe’s historic 2005 landing on the surface of Titan (Saturn’s largest satellite, and the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere), NASA has released a movie that recreates, with data collected by Huygens and the Cassini orbiter, a dramatic approach of the moon’s surface from deep space.…

Incredible CT Scans Show What’s Happening Inside A Body In Motion

The next wave of CT scanners combines motion correction technology and organ-wide coverage to limit radiation exposure — while also obtaining hi-res images of soft tissue, organs and bones as they move within the body. Translation: They can acquire remarkable images of your insides in motion. Here’s the proof. Above: A high-definition image of the…

A Special Font to Help Dyslexics? More Like Snake Oil.

The marketers for a typeface called “Dyslexie” claim the font can make reading “easy and enjoyable for people with dyslexia.” The reasoning behind the font’s design is intriguing. But before you get too excited — the scientific evidence supporting Dyslexie’s usefulness is far from conclusive. Created by Dutch designer Christian Boer, Dyslexie has been around…

If This Doesn’t Sell You On Episode VII‘s New Lightsaber, Nothing Will

When the new crossguard lightsaber showed up in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, many regarded it with scorn. Stephen Colbert was quick to come to the weapon’s defense, but a lot of people still doubted its practicality. What we really needed was a demonstration. Now we’ve got one – and it’s pretty convincing.…

The CW Renews 8 Shows For 2015-2016 – Plus, Our First Look At iZombie!

The CW announced a trove of series renewals today, including a fourth season for Arrow and a second season for The Flash. The network also released is midseason premiere schedule – AND A TRAILER FOR iZombie! REJOICE! Right off the bat, here’s are first look at iZombie, which is slated to premiere March 17th: The…

Here Are Three Variations On A Classic Puzzle – Can You Solve Them All?

I’ve always enjoyed water-distribution puzzles. They are simple in structure and usually straightforwardly posed, but their plain presentation belies their challenging nature. Here are three classic variations on the theme to wrap your head around. Sunday Puzzle(s) #15: Pouring And Partitioning Water I. You are handed two water glasses. The smaller glass can hold exactly…

I’m Tired Of Seeing This Charles Darwin Quote Taken Out Of Context

In the sixth chapter of On The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin addresses “Organs of Extreme Perfection” – organs like the eye, the formation of which due to natural selection, Darwin “freely confessed,” seems “absurd in the highest possible degree.” But this is only part of a much longer quote. The sentence is almost always…

This Computer Program Is ‘Incapable Of Losing’ At Poker

If you thought IBM’s chess-playing computer, Deep Blue, was impressive, this is going to blow you away. Two-player limit Texas hold’em poker has been solved. Pitted one-on-one against the world’s best poker players, a new computer program named Cepheus would never lose. You can even challenge it to a game, yourself. Cepheus, developed by Finnish…

The Hottest And Coldest Temperatures Allowed By Conventional Physics

You’ve probably heard of absolute zero, but what do you call the opposite end of the temperature spectrum? This visualization from the BBC starts with absolute zero and ends with “absolute hot” (the temperature “above which conventional physics breaks down”). Between the two, you’ll find thermal milemarkers for things like the eruption temperature of volcanic…