Landmark Buildings That Were Never Supposed to Last This Long

Temporary architecture, buildings created to be torn down after a special event or brief use, gave us fascinating and revolutionary works in the 19th and 20th century. But some outlasted their death sentences to become permanent. Here are some of the most amazing examples. The Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton,…

You Can Finally Download DRM-Free Comic Book Backups From Comixology

The biggest digital comic book distributor in all of digital comics land, Comixology, just took a relatively unprecedented move for a platform its size. Customers will now be able to download DRM-free backups—meaning when you buy a book, you’ll finally get to own it, too. Digital comic books have made huge strides in recent years,…

An Argument for More Biologically Accurate Emoji

Over at Beatrice the Biologist, cartoonist-cum-science blogger Katie McKissick has thrown down the gauntlet to “I

Check Out Mark Hamill’s Real Jedi Beard For Star Wars: Episode VII

We’ve heard the rumors. We’ve seen the fan art. But now we can confirm that Mark Hamill will be sporting a fantastic, Jedi Master-appropriate beard when he reprises his role as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode VII, and he looks completely awesome with it. Note the beard is bigger, bushier and — well, Obi-Wan-ier…

10 Clever Bets You’ll (Almost) Never Lose

Quirkology’s Richard Wiseman is back with another roundup of devious little pub tricks. As with previous installments in this series (see here, here, and here), some of these “bets” are liable to get you clobbered (looking at you, #10), but most of them are actually pretty clever. The jumping rubber band trick is a topological…

Your Sperm Velocity Has Been Measured and Found Wanting

Human sperm can swim pretty fast, most of the time, but they’ve got nothing on the sperm of deer mice. What is the deer mouse’s secret? Recently, a Harvard professor created a mathematical model of sperm behaviors to figure it out. Deer mouse sperm image via Heidi Fisher Over at Not Exactly Rocket Science, Ed…

We’ve Seen Jack Black as R.L. Stine in the Goosebumps Movie!

We finally got a peek at the Goosebumps movie. Jack Black came to Comic-Con to talk about playing Goosebumps author R.L. Stine, and we saw his Stine battle his own monstrous creations after they had escaped from his books. Black and Goosebumps director Rob Letterman came to the Sony panel at San Diego Comic-Con to…

New Evidence Suggests Tyrannosaurs Hunted In Packs

One of the most frightening creatures to ever terrorize this Earth just got scarier. The fossilized remains of tyrannosaur tracks found in British Columbia are providing the strongest evidence yet that these predators travelled and hunted in family groups — a conglomeration the researchers are calling ‘a terror of tyrannosaurs.’ Though skeletal records are common,…

This Final Fantasy-Style, Redesigned Action Figure Of Batman Is Madness

Tetsuya Nomura, best known as the director and character designer of videogames like Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, and decided to take a crack at redesigning the World’s Greatest Detective. Then Square Enix USA decided to make an action figure of the results. The result? Shut up and take my goddamn money. It’s like Batman…

Drought Is Parching The United States From Underground, Too

It’s been a tough summer for drought in the United States and the latest news isn’t going to make it it any better. Because it turns out that it’s not just the surface that’s drying up. There’s a drought happening underneath us too. https://gizmodo.com/half-of-the-u-s-is-in-now-in-a-drought-1576252758 The map above, which was put together by NASA’s Earth Observatory,…

Researchers Test A Prototype Of An Alien-Hunting Robotic Ice Drill

Recent discoveries of active under-ice oceans on Europa and Enceladus have kindled speculation that life may exist at the outer reaches of our solar system. But to prove it, we’re going to have to employ devices like the one recently tested by Stone Aerospace researchers in Alaska. https://gizmodo.com/massive-plumes-of-water-are-erupting-from-europas-icy-1481376874 https://gizmodo.com/weve-found-a-hidden-ocean-on-enceladus-that-may-harbor-1557622077 Called VALKYRIE, the Stone Aeorospace cryobot…

WB just released a new official picture of Ben Affleck as Batman — one where he’s actually in the suit this time — from BvS: Dawn of Justice. He still seems pretty sad, but you have to admit Affleck’s jaw looks like it was made to stick out of the Bat-cowl.

Plants Are Actually Kind of Evil

Generally speaking, plants get filed under the “boring” category. Occasionally, they smell nice, look pretty, or provide some tasty food, but that’s about it. Until you realize that these immobile life forms are engaged in a terrifying daily battle that involves theft, slavery, eavesdropping — and explosives. https://gizmodo.com/the-smell-of-freshly-cut-grass-is-actually-a-plant-dist-5623112 Plants face a pretty unique set of…

Here’s The Life-Sized TMNT Pizza Thrower In Pizza-Throwing Action

Pizza Hut has been talking about their life-sized replica of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vehicle the Pizza Thrower for weeks now, but we finally have the first footage of it in action, straight from this year’s Comic-Con. Warning: Contains graphic pizza-on-Shredder violence. Admittedly, the pizza are more disc-like than edible, but to be…

Nickelodeon Yanks Legend Of Korra Off TV, Shoves It Online

I’ve got good news and bad news, Bending fans. The bad news is that Nickelodeon has taken season 3 of Legend of Korra off the air; only one episode will air this Friday night, and after that, nothing (well, nothing unless you count the good news, which is that the remaining episodes will be released…

​12 Of The Craziest Characters Created By Jack “King” Kirby

Jack Kirby was a genius, one of the forefathers of the entire comic industry, and a man with limitless imagination. He was also kind of insane. Besides creating Captain America, the X-Men and countless other heroes and villains, he produced some of the weirdest comics ever made. Here are only a few of Kirby’s craziest…

Scientists have identified whale-ship collisions as a possible factor in why blue whale population numbers have remained low, despite international laws against hunting. One possible solution: speed restrictions in shipping lanes would give whales time to get out of the way.

How Would Christianity Deal with Extraterrestrial Life?

How would the world’s religions react to the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence? There is, of course, no single answer. But for Christians who believe in the redemption of humanity through a singular event—the Incarnation of God through Christ—the question poses an especially complex dilemma. To appreciate the conundrum, a good place to start is with…

Our Favorite Protest Sign From Comic-Con So Far

This fellow is waiting in the infamously massive line for Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con. But he’s not protesting the long wait; he’s protesting the current leadership of Westeros. Melisandre might have a thing or two to say about one side of that sign. If I were this guy, I’d steer clear of any…

Watch Guillermo Del Toro Give A Personal Tour Of His Tiny Haunted House

Tucked away on the massive convention floor inside Comic-Con, Guillermo del Toro built a miniature version of his haunted house from his upcoming Gothic horror story Crimson Peak. And then proceeded to give personal tours of his tiny terror. It was amazing. Watch! First up, apologies for the quality of this footage. It’s not great…