The Visit Trailer Interrogates An Alien Visitor

Behold the befuddling, yet enticing trailer for Michael Madsen’s The Visit. Part of the 2015 Sundance lineup, this is the first look we’re getting at the mockumentary that asks how the world would respond to alien life. Here’s the official synopsis from Sundance: The Visit / Denmark, Austria, Ireland, Finland, Norway (Director: Michael Madsen) —…

“Oldest Time Capsule” in U.S. Unearthed in Boston

History buffs, start your engines: CNN is reporting that a Boston crew has removed a time capsule from the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House, believed to have been stashed there by then-Governor Samuel Adams and patriot Paul Revere. Inside the capsule are contents that will be showcased as soon as the box is removed…

Complete Woolly Mammoth Skeleton Found In The North Sea

The year of the woolly mammoth lumbers on with the revelation of a 40,000-year-old skeleton plucked piece by piece from waters off the east coast of England. North Sea Fossils, a Netherlands-based team of “archaeologists, salvagers, and palaeontologists… including an expert they call ‘Mr. Mammoth'”, collected the skull, tusks, and other fragments over multiple years.…

These Sculptures Turn Car Parts Into An Entire Animal Kingdom

Yesterday we showed you the incredible sculptures of Yong Ho Ji, who turns regular tires into amazing and disturbing creatures. Now we’re showing you the art that can be made from the rest of an automobile, including a wild world of robotic animals. (And maybe even a human or two!) Wild Boar Tiff Red-Shouldered Bastard…

Watch The Magical Trailer for Irish Animation Song of the Sea

Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon — creators of wonderful, Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells — return with Song of the Sea, another Tomm Moore-directed blend of fantasy and folklore. Irish superstars Brendan Gleeson and Fionnula Flanagan voice adult characters, but the story’s mostly about a motherless boy and his little sister, who may or may…

Star Wars: Rebels Is About To Reveal Its Own Unconventional Lightsaber

Who’d have thought that lightsaber-claymore hybrid seen in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer wouldn’t be the only insane lightsaber we’d see this year? As it turns out, Ezra, the young would-be padawan of Disney XD’s Rebels cartoon, will soon be wielding an equally unusual version of the Jedi weapon. Spoilers! This image comes…

More Proof That People Basically Suck. One new study finds that white people get 12 percent more money than black people for basically identical apartments on Airbnb. And another study finds students give higher ratings to professors they think are male than to ones they think are female. Yay! Image: Toni Birrer.

Your New Desktop Wallpaper: A Fetching Geological Map Of The Arctic

Via Natural Resources Canada comes a gorgeously detailed geological map of the Arctic, served up hot and fresh for all your wallpaper needs. You can download the massive, original, 27MB-map here, along all the accompanying charts, legends, etc. Below is a browser-friendlier version of the entire map, which you can download by clicking expand. Below…

Genetic Analysis Shows That Fin-Eating Fish Are Complete Assholes

Some freshwater fish in sub-Saharan Africa have evolved this nasty habit where they bite off and eat the fins of other fish. DNA barcoding now shows these things are nastier and far more indiscriminate than we thought. This behavior is exceptionally rare, but ichthyologists have a name for it: “pterygophagy.” These fish have evolved highly…

What’s The Most Hours You’ve Ever Watched Something In One Sitting?

Some people watch a TV show or movie series for a few hours, and call it a marathon. WIMPS. A real marathon lasts 20 hours, with out sleep breaks and only minimal bathroom breaks. What’s the longest marathon you’ve ever had, and what were you watching? Please include a picture, poster, clip, DVD cover or…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Creature From The Geode

Someone—or something—is emerging from a geode covered in strange markings in this week’s Concept Art Writing Prompt. Tell us a story about this image and the being who is about to step out into this mysterious world. “Geode” is by artist Aldo Katayanagi, who has numerous other fantastical (and sometime nightmarish) images at his portfolio…

What a 9,000-Year-Old Mystery Taught Me About Honoring the Dead

Last month, I told a story for the podcast Story Collider about visiting an ancient city in central Turkey. It’s about the mystery of why people living 9,000 years ago buried their dead underneath their beds — and the mystery of my father’s recent death. If you’ve got a spare 10 minutes, give it a…

Beads Found In Ancient Danish Graves Match Glass Made For King Tut

An analysis of artifacts retrieved from Bronze Age burial sites reveals that Denmark and ancient Egypt traded with one another 3,400 years ago, and possibly practiced similar religious rituals. Scientists from the National Museum in Denmark and the Institute of Archaeomaterials Research in France used a technique called plasma mass spectrometry to examine the chemical…

Lord Of The Rings, As Told From The Orcs’ Perspective

We know the story of Lord of the Rings as it occurred from the Hobbits’ perspective (guy receives some disappointing heirloom jewelry, decides to melt it down). But what would the story look like from the Orcs’ point-of-view? Gather ’round, friends, and hear the tale of Gandalf the Betrayer. In response to this post, looking…

New Star Wars New Character Names Revealed!

J.J. Abrams has revealed the names of his brand new Star Wars characters from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And they are the most Star Wars names we have ever heard. Entertainment Weekly has revealed the new crop of names via Photoshopped vintage Topps Star Wars trading cards, made up with stills from the recently…

The Oldest Horned Dinosaur Ever Discovered In North America Is Tiny

Say hello to Aquilops americanus, the newest addition to the neoceratopsian family of horned dinosaurs. The diminutive creature, which was found in Montana, was no larger than a crow, sporting a beak-like nose and sharply pointed cavities on its cheeks. Paleontologists working in southern Montana recently discovered a 3-inch beaked skull, which they believe is…

Well, The New Doctor Who Christmas Special Looks Bleak As Hell

The first, extremely brief look at this year’s Doctor Who Christmas special has arrived, and I think showrunner Steven Moffat may be trying to put a bit of coal in Who fans’ stockings, metaphorically speaking. Even with Nick Frost as Santa, this looks like the darkest holiday special yet. And seeing as previous specials included…

In case you missed it, we’re having a New York meetup with our sister site Lifehacker tonight at the Magician on the Lower East Side, starting at 7 PM. Come have a drink with us!

How do you diagnose a malfunctioning spacesuit? Easy, with a CT scan. NASA has sent one of their space suitsover to Houston Methodist Hospital to be run through the hospital’s scanner to figure out the source of the leak in the suit model that almost drowned astronaut Luca Parmitano during a spacewalk this summer.

Comets May Not Have Brought Water To Earth, After All

The Rosetta spacecraft has detected some strange water vapor streaming from Comet 67P — water that’s significantly different to what we have here on Earth. The startling discovery challenges the popular assumption that much of our water was delivered here by comets. By ‘weird’ water we’re talking about major differences in the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio (D/H).…