Marvel And Sony Are Down To Two Final Spider-Man Candidates

And we might know the final choice this week. George R. R. Martin has even more shows planned for HBO. Get a fresh look at the Fantastic Four in action. Plus, Dean Cain talks Supergirl, Michael Dorn offers another update on his Star Trek spinoff, and more Terminator Genisys footage. Spoilers Now! Spider-Man The casting…

How The Flash Effects Team Used Comics to Bring Gorilla Grodd to Life

One of the best things about The Flash’s first season was that it took on the challenge of Gorilla Grodd, a giant, talking, psychic gorilla. That would be a challenge on a movie budget, with a movie’s post-production time. The Flash did it for TV. In the case of Grodd, the show started working on…

Want to make an origami Discworld for your desk? The tumblr Folds Within Folds has a post all about how to make one.

One Neighboring Galaxy Is a Bright Smear Across Space

The sphere surrounding the Milky Way is called the Local Volume, and it is 35 million lightyears in diameter. In the Local Volume is PGC 18431, a galaxy the Hubble caught as part of a mission to figure out how galaxies cluster and move. Explains The European Space Agency [via NASA]: Hubble’s high resolution allows…

This Is Why Having a Pet Dinosaur Is Just Like Having a Cat

Jurassic World may be thinking that dinosaurs are dangerous beasts hell bent on destruction, but We Have a Dinosaur makes a pretty compelling case that they’re really just big cats. Cats who hate your breakfast. Contact the author at [email protected].

Come Chat With Us For The Season 5 Finale Of Game Of Thrones

The fifth season of Game of Thrones comes to a close tonight on HBO and it’s been a contentious season, to say the least. Weigh in in the comments with your thoughts on how the season went, and how this last episode stacks up.

1st Edition Of The Hobbit Sells For £137,000

A pristine copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel The Hobbit has sold at auction for a record £137,000 (just over $213,000 US), more than double the record for the previous record, set in 2008. One reason for the high price? Tolkien signed the copy for Katherine Kilbride, a student of Tolkien’s in the 1920s. Tolkien inscribed…

This Is The Best Image Of Pluto And Charon Ever Taken

Taken June 9th from New Horizons, at a distance of 42 million kilometers, this is the best picture we’ve got to date of Pluto and its moon, Charon. Image credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI / Emily Lakdawalla

Take A Look At 40 Behind The Scenes Pictures From Jurassic Park

While Jurassic World has been making a killing at the box office this weekend, we wanted to take a look back at the film’s roots. Here’s an album of behind the scenes images from the original flick. The thing that struck us was the physical props that they used. It’s almost completely unthinkable that any…

Here’s A Practical Puzzle: How Quickly Can You Toast And Butter Bread?

This week’s puzzle is an optimization problem: Can you determine the fastest way to toast and butter three slices of bread? (It’s harder than it sounds.) SUNDAY PUZZLE #35: Optimizing Toast This week’s puzzle was suggested by reader Caroline S. Upon further investigation, I found that it traces back, as many puzzles do, to puzzle…

Weekend Listening: Write Brothers’ Take Flight 

Take Flight, the debut album from The Write Brothers, equal parts rapper Devon Ewalt and producer Dante Davinci is a seamless blend of geeky wordplay and hip hop. It’s a fun, engaging record, one that’s catchy and intimate at the same time. Joined by guest vocals by the likes of Annie Costa, Caroline Rose, and…

The Secret Meaning Of Jurassic World: “Hey, Let’s All Fall In Love”

Now that you’ve seen Jurassic World, now’s a great time to check out our in-depth, revealing interview with director Colin Trevorrow. He talks about the themes of the movie, how to make the “monster movie” action fresh in the age of Sharktopus… and why Bryce Dallas Howard never takes her heels off.

Orphan Black Answers The Question We’ve Been Asking Since The Pilot

Orphan Black sent a few of its characters abroad this week in search of answers — and boy, did they find a big, weird one. But the best storyline of the week happens at home, when one of our Leda clones makes a very deep — and violent — familial connection. From the moment that…

In the beginning, Little Golden Books were either based on classic fairy tales or featured wholly original stories and characters. But that all changed in 1944, when the publishers signed a licensing agreement with Disney, which has been in place ever since. via Mentalfloss

Jurassic World Conquers The Weekend Box Office With Record Debut

Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World has pulled in an astonishing $204.6 million debut in North America, and $511.8 million worldwide. The film has overtaken Avengers: Age of Ultron’s record take in the United States (although it hasn’t quite overtaken the original Avengers film from 2012), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 for the…

Student Calls For Eradication Of Graphic Novels From English Course

A student enrolled at Crafton Hills College has protested the inclusion of a number of graphic novels in the curriculum for her English 250 course. Tara Shultz, along with her parents and friends have called for the “eradic[ation] [of the books] from the system,” and have complained to the College’s administrators over their inclusion. The…

Afghanistan’s Destroyed Buddhas Given New Life As Holograms

In March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a pair of giant statues dating to the 6th century in the Bamyan valley in central Afghanistan. Now, the statues have been resurrected with 3D light projection technology. A Chinese couple, Janson Yu and Liyan Hu worked to develop a projector at the cost of…

Peeno Noir Meets Game Of Thrones In Jaqen H’ghar 

Titus Andromedon’s song ‘Peeno Noir’ from Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was a catchy earworm, and now, comedy group Practical Folks take the tune to Westeros. Disclaimer: we bear no responsibility this getting stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You clicked that button, not us.

The Philae Lander Has Woken Up!

This morning, the Philae Lander has re-awoken from its hibernation on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, according to a blog post from the European Space Agency. Rosetta’s lander Philae wakes up from hibernation The lander has been in hibernation mode since November, after coming to rest in a shady part of the comet’s surface. Now, with the comet…

Tracing Lines Across The Sky

This spectacular image comes from photographer Constantine Emmanouilidi. Taken from the top of Mount Athos, Greece, it shows just how busy the night sky can be. Photography credit: Constantine Emmanouilidi, via Earth Science Picture of the Day.