Watch As A Black Bear And Her Two Cubs Are Released Into The Wild

This is simple, charming video, but there’s a lot of things worth noting here. First, there’s the emotional element: The three bears in the clip – a sow and her cubs – were captured after they were spotted rooting through household garbage. When animals become so habituated as to venture unafraid into cities and towns,…

The Confederacy Almost Had a Helicopter During the Civil War

The American Civil War was probably the first truly modern war in that technology was so important. The military use of balloons, the development of steam-powered ironclads and monitors (as well as the invention of the gun turret), rifled cannons of unprecedented size, submarines, guncotton and telegraphy were all invented or perfected during the war.…

A Quick Guide To Predicting Earthquakes

It is simultaneously incredibly easy and outright impossible to predict earthquakes. It all depends on how much detail you expect in your predictions. Photo Credit: United Nations Development Programme via flickr | CC BY 2.0

Watch This Guy Try To Recap All The Game of Thrones Books In 2 Minutes

It goes about as well as you might expect. Spoilers, obviously. But, then again, not really. [Slacktory]

Internet Shaming, d20 Style

Via The Trials and Tribulations of Needle The Weedle comes a form of public chastisement we can get behind: d20 shaming. Just look how guilty that die looks. As it should. H/t Laughing Squid

Only the Owls Know the Answer to Your Riddle

I have heard it said by wise people that birds are the only creatures who can truly answer a difficult riddle. Perhaps it is because they are used to seeing everything from above — and, when they land, from below. That double perspective is the key to their peculiar understanding. This is a detail from…

Politician Explains Why Sodomy Is Causing AIDS Due to “Sperm Enzyme”

Bob Frey is a Republican running for the Minnesota House of Representatives, and he’s worried about the economic cost of sodomy. He’s not against gay people, mind you — the problem, he explained yesterday, has to do with the way sperm burns our anal cavities. Here’s his theory. It turns out that Frey has a…

What Created This Beautiful “Sky Jellyfish” in the Upper Atmosphere?

You know it can’t be a UFO because this picture is actually in focus and doesn’t look like it was taken from the back of a moving truck. Lauren Hitchings at New Scientist has the answer: According to Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this is just one of many…

When a Book Is Set in Your Home City, Does That Enhance the Story?

Authors sometimes set their stories in fictionalized versions of real cities. But how does a book’s setting being close to home change how you read the book? In response to this post on science fiction and fantasy version of real life cities, commenters began discussing some fictional cities — from Ursula K Le Guin’s take…

These Rarely Seen Maps Turn Earth Into A Land From A Fantasy Novel

While each of these maps is incredibly striking, it isn’t always easy to recognize the places within them as spots on our Earth. Some of them look straight out a J.R.R. Tolkien novel, while others are more fanciful takes on familiar countries. https://gizmodo.com/a-collection-of-very-strange-maps-479288345 The World Map from the Saint-Sever Beatus, an apocalypse manuscript from the…

Thomas Jane Will Play The Hardboiled Space Detective In Syfy’s Expanse

We’re excited for Syfy’s “Game of Thrones in space” series The Expanse, based James S. A. Corey’s series of books (which begin with Leviathan Wakes). And now the show has cast one of its leading men, Hung, The Mist, and The Punisher actor Thomas Jane. THR reports that Jane will be playing Joe Miller, a…

Does Anyone Really Understand The Angel War In Dominion?

No. The answer is no. Also YIIIIIKES, that last scene. There are two subjects I want to talk about from last night’s Dominion. First, there’s the fact that the angel war has all these stupid arbitrary rules for certain angels and not others and it just makes no sense at all. Second is the killing…

Snowpiercer Is Out On Demand Today, Just Weeks After Hitting Theaters

Snowpiercer looks like a badass movie. Like if Blade Runner had sex with Speed. The sci-fi film has great reviews, an intriguing plot about hardscrabble future people engaging in class warfare on a really fast cold-weather train, and Tilda Swinton. But with a limited theatrical release, it hasn’t been very easy to see. That’s about…

Smoke From Canada’s Copious Wildfires As Seen From Space

Canada is currently experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons ever. The active fires blazing in British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and Alberta are spewing tremendous amounts of smoke into the atmosphere, affecting weather patterns in both Canada and the United States. This gorgeous shot was taken by the NOAA’s GOES-west satellite on July 9,…

“This Story Throws You In The Deep End — And That’s A Very Good Thing”

Not every story needs to start out with an ordinary, relatable person discovering a strange world. Sometimes, it’s great to follow a character who’s already steeped in the weirdness, and get caught up in the action right away. What’s your favorite story that shoves you straight into its weird world, with no hand-holding? This is…

A Surprisingly Poignant Short Comic Set In A Side-Scrolling Video Game

What happens when a video game character can’t move either forward or backward in a side-scrolling game? This comic reveals the answer—and just might make you cry. You can see the first few panels of Shenanigansen’s comic We Go Forward below to get an idea of our protagonist’s predicament. Check out the rest over at…

What If H.R. Giger Had Designed Galactus?

The Devourer of Worlds becomes even more nightmarish in this fan art mashup. This week’s drawing challenge at Comics Should Be Good’s The Line It Is Drawn asks, “What if comic characters had different creators?” One reader asked to see what and H.R. Giger-created Galactus and artist Axel Medellin obliged with this piece of horror.…

Here’s What It Really Means When Astronomers Say “Earth-like Planet”

In June, the media went wild. A planet had been discovered that was so much like Earth it was heralded as our best bet for supporting life. Positioned 16 light years away, Gliese (or GJ) 832c was a mere hop from home, too. How did the press get it so completely wrong? The original journal…

How Hemlock Grove Will Top Last Year’s Psychotic Werewolf Transformation

The most memorable thing about season one of Hemlock Grove was the batshit transformationof a human into a wolf. How can this show beat that thrill this time around? By going even more crazy with the “wolf-face exploding out of human face” action. And by reversing the process. This featurette shows Eli Roth and VFX…

Inducing hypothermia in oxygen-deprived newborns can protect them from brain damage. Researchers cooled infants to 33–34°C for 72-hours within 6 hours of birth. Treated babies were 60% more likely to have normal intelligence, hearing and vision, and had better mental and physical health through 7 years of age.