Sometimes The Best Way To Change People’s Minds Is Outright Tyranny

You don’t always have to be a subtly master manipulator in order to change people’s minds and make them your obedient puppets. Sometimes, brute force can be just as persuasive in making people change their own minds for you. Be. Mean. So you want people to believe what you believe, but you lack the Machiavellian…

Some of the greatest advances in technology, from robotics to genetic engineering, are being used on farms. The U.S. National Science Foundation has a fascinating set of articles about the ways agriculture is getting insanely futuristic.

Which Science Gets Mangled The Worst Onscreen?

Sometimes the real-life and on-screen versions of a scientific field can be so far apart that the only thing they share is a name. (Please note, Hollywood: The job of an archeologist is to preserve ruins, not destroy them.) Today, we want to know which science continually gets the worst hatchet job on screen. Tell…

Just what does it look like when every active satellite orbiting around the Earth is set into motion? Something like this lovely interactive graphic from Quartz, which takes all 1,200 satellites moving around Earth and shows you exactly where in orbit they are — plus what they’re doing up there as well as who sent…

Frieza Returns In 2015’s All New Dragonball Z Movie

Uh-oh. The next Dragonball Z anime movie has a title and a villain, and it’s not good news for Goku. In order, it’s Fukkatsu no F (or “F Is for Resurrection”) and indeed, the first look at the movie reveals the return of Goku’s most iconic foe — Frieza. ANN got this art and official…

Today’s Word is Autothysis. It Means Exploding Yourself.

Autothysis means to explode yourself, and not the wimpy way with some device or chemical. Animals that practice autothysis — and they are all insects — rupture their own internal glands or organs with such force that their insides burst through their own exoskeletons. Why would any creature choose to do this? Well, it’s a…

Do Ant-Man Set Photos Reveal An Unlikely Romance?

There are some new guesses about Lupita Nyong’o’s Star Wars character. James Gunn explains why he’s changing Peter Quill’s backstory in Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Set video shows even more detail of Batman v. Superman’s take on a classic Batman moment. Plus all about tonight’s Sleepy Hollow. Spoilers now! Top image: Ant-Man Star Wars…

The Man Who Hears Wi-Fi Signals Wherever He Goes

Frank Swain, who has been going deaf since he was in his twenties, had his hearing aids tweaked so that he could hear Wi-Fi fields wherever he goes. Swain wrote about the experience for New Scientist, describing what has become a regular part of his day. In his first-person account, Swain explains why he’s taken…

Watch Peggy Carter Interrogate Agents of SHIELD‘s Hydra Leader

If there are two things I really love about season 2 of Agents of SHIELD, they are 1) How it’s tying itself into the history of SHIELD and 2) Reed Diamond as Hydra head Daniel Whitehall. Behold, a clip from Tuesday’s episode with both of those things. I’m going to be pretty sad when Diamond’s…

Game of Thrones Concept Art Gives Us a Look at Life North of the Wall

Karakter Design Studio, Game of Thrones’ VFX concept art team, has just released a treasure trove of art from season 4. While locations like Braavos (above) and King’s Landing look great, it’s the art from North of the Wall that is the most captivating. Karaktor’s not only put the art online, but there are also…

Rare Set Photos Show James Remar as the Original Dwayne Hicks in Aliens

When Aliens came out in 1986, Michael Biehn played the Marine squad leader Corporal Dwayne Hicks. But before that casting, James Remar (who can be seen most recently in Horns and heard in Destiny, and is lodged in many people’s minds as Harry Morgan in Dexter) filmed a chunk of the part. At the time,…

Walter White Breaks Frozen, Sings “Do You Want To Build A Meth Lab?”

All right, everybody. We’ve done it. We’ve officially mashed-up Frozen with everything, including a show about a science teacher who becomes a ruthless drug empire kingpin (and somehow it works out disturbingly well, I must say). Everyone give yourself a high-five and let’s call it a day, okay?

All The Hobbit: Battle Of Five Armies Footage In Chronological Order

Someone has collected every clip from every trailer, teaser and TV spot for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and attempted to compile it into chronological order! The result is an uncannily complete summary of the unreleased movie. Sammpo Alternative Channel fully admits this is based on their speculation, so ff you happen…

Canada’s Science World Museum Has Some Brilliantly Clever Ads

Most museums content themselves with advertising whatever new exhibit they currently have going on. Science World, located in Vancouver, tried something different — actually, they tried a lot of of things different, and the results are some of the greatest, most clever ads we’ve ever seen. They primarily seemed to use billboards and signs, like…

My Favorite Literary Physics Myth

One of the crucial scenes in the novel A Passage to India takes place in the Caves of Malabar, in which every whisper comes back as thunder. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the caves were fictional… and my interest when it turns out they’re based on a real phenomenon. If you don’t know…

Can You Guess The Next Number In This Sequence?

Everything you need to solve this riddle can be found in the numbers you see here. Be apprised: The mathematically inclined tend to struggle with this puzzle. I’m on the road this week, so this week’s puzzle is short and sweet – but still quite challenging, in my opinion. It’s another classic, so if you…

Universal’s Monster-Verse Movies Aren’t Even Going To Try To Be Scary

On Friday we mentioned how Universal was hiring a stable of writers to help build their Marvel-style cinematic universe based on their classic monsters. Apparently that was the good news. Now here’s the bad news: Universal has abandoned any pretense that these will be horror movies. Instead of horror, these movies — which I should…

This “Modern” Empire Strikes Back Trailer Is Shockingly Great

Cameron Arrigioni decided to take a stab at how modern-day Hollywood would make a trailer for The Empire Strikes Back, and the result is both revealing and kind of phenomenal. The trailer contains all the modern standards: using of all the most exciting footage, regardless of what it spoils; overwrought captions (“A Man Will Face…

RIP Glen Larson, Creator Of Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider And More

Legendary TV creator Glen A. Larson has passed away at the age of 77 from esophageal cancer. He created the original Battlestar Galactica TV series, brought Buck Rogers to TV, and the kitschy ’80s hit Knight Rider and the less fortunate but cult favorite Manimal and Automan series. Larsen was responsible for a great deal…

Skeletor, Jem, Gumby And Other Toys Really Want You To Buy A Honda

I’m not exactly sure what Honda is thinking by creating a whole commercial series where they let classic toys like Skeletor, Strawberry Shortcake, Stretch Armstong, and the Fisher-Price Little People shill their cars. But I guess I’m at least as likely to buy a car from He-Man’s nemesis as I am an regular car salesman.…