How Pixar transformed its studio into the Monsters University campus

Each time it prepares to release a new movie, Pixar redecorates its Emeryville, Calif., studio to match the theme of the film. This year, in anticipation of Monsters University, the studio was transformed into the MU campus, complete with a student lounge, cheerleaders, and the fabled Monsters University gates. We, along with several other members…

Kiki’s Delivery Service reopens with a new live-action movie

Fans of anime legend Hayao Miyazaki, the wonderful works of Studio Ghibli, or just really good family movies, rejoice: A live-action version of Kiki’s Delivery Service has been announced. The movie will be directed by Takashi Shimizu, who also directed the horror movie Juon (a.k.a. The Grudge) and will star 16-year-old ice skater-turned-actress Fuka Koshiba…

It Takes a Small Artistic Army to Bring a Pixar Film To Life

Monsters Inc blew more than a few minds when it premiered in 2001. Sully’s coat comprised a million rendered hairs, and Boo’s oversized pink shirt moved with such a natural flow it appeared nearly life-like to audiences. And while advances in technology during the twelve years between the original film and the prequel—premiering in June—will…

The many, many reasons you should still hate Walking Dead’s Lori

Welcome to this week’s “Postal Apocalypse!” As usual, we tackle the tough questions — questions like, “How much Doctor Who can I make my wife watch if I agree to read 50 Shades of Gray?” YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO GO WITHOUT THIS KNOWLEDGE. Please keep ’em coming — email them to [email protected]. Evening Shades Ken:…

What did Benedict Cumberbatch do to make Spock scream like this?

Alert, there’s a new Star Trek Into Darkness clip featuring a super-frazzled Spock. Looks like our Vulcan friend can’t catch a break in this new Trek franchise. In other news, Benedict Cumberbatch for every book-on-tape everywhere. Star Trek Into Darkness is out May 17th, 2013. [via Yahoo]

The Horsehead Nebula gets a reboot

To commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA/ESA has released this gorgeous new image of the iconic Horsehead Nebula. We’ve seen this stunning nebula before, but never quite like this. It’s located in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) and features massive plumes of gas in the infrared. The nebula, which will…

The petition to get Isaac Asimov a commemorative plaque at his 1940s homehas already reached 2000 signatures, but it could use yours. Show that the Good Doctor still has a posse.

Birdemic is the ultimate so-bad-it’s-awesome movie — and now there’s a sequel!To celebrate, director James Nguyen is on Reddit, answering readers’ questions right now. Including “what bird would you be and why.”

Do you know more about science than the average American?

Feeling science-savvy? Take Pew Research Center’s 13 question Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz and see where you stand against a representative sampling of Americans. “Representative sampling,” in this instance, means 1,006 randomly sampled U.S. adults presented with the same questions in a survey conducted in collaboration between the Pew Research Center and Smithsonian magazine. And…

Incense flowers and magnet trees

This is what you see when you light a stick of incense, you just don’t know it. A project sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Education makes smoke into flowers and creates trees out of magnets — and then photographs them all. All you need is smoke, a light to illuminate it, and a very…

This jaw-dropping water simulation is the most realistic yet

Simulating the complex ebbs and flows of liquid in real-time is not easy, but this jaw-dropping new demonstration from PhysX shows we’ll eventually get there. This new system is called Position Based Fluids (pdf), and it works off a previously developed model called Position Based Dynamics. The new algorithm reduces water to a large series…

A Pushing Daisies star will be the villain in Guardians of the Galaxy!

Shane Black explains why the Mandarin is the “über-terrorist” in Iron Man 3. Dan Aykroyd is excited again about Ghostbusters 3, and this time the Higgs boson is involved. Matthew McConaughey has some more cryptically chill things to say about Interstellar. There’s tons of info about the Arrow season finale. Spoiler alert! Top image from…

How long before Marvel makes its own Daredevil movie?

We’ve known since last fall that Marvel was going to be getting the movie rights to Daredevil back — last October, there were widespread reports that Marvel was willing to extend Fox’s option for a Daredevil film, in exchange for getting to use Galactus in a Marvel movie. But Fox chose the Destroyer of Worlds…

You’re all pronouncing Khaleesi WRONG

We’ve all been pronouncing Daenerys Targaryen’s title wrong! In an interview with Vulture Game of Thrones language maker (official title) David J. Peterson revealed that the Dothraki tongue pronounces Khaleesi as “KHAH-lay-see,” not “ka-LEE-see.” Boom, mind blown. Does the fact that every human on the planet butchers his made up fantasy language bother him? You…

The littlest dragon chases a bug — and lights some stuff on fire

Spyro the dragon sometimes got into a little trouble. All he wanted to do was sniff the flowers, but he kept screwing up and destroying cities when he sneezed. Accidents do happen when you’re learning to control a breath weapon. Lindsey Wakefield is an artist in the United States. You can see more of her…

Travel with Albert Einstein through Space and Time in This Comic

Journey by Starlight is a graphic novel that takes you on a historical journey through the discoveries of astronomers and physicists, kicking off in the year 1200 BCE and ending with the postmortem travels of Einstein’s brain. “Journey” is a very apt word apt to describe this work, as the reader is comfortably taken through…

Italian activists create mayhem at an animal testing lab

A lab at the University of Milan was raided by animal rights activists this past weekend, taking nearly 100 mutated mice (and one rabbit) with them and mixing up cage labels to confuse researchers. It could take years for the facility to recover. As Nature News reports, no arrests were made after the 12-hour standoff,…

New clip from Star Trek Into Darkness shows the lighter side of Trek

The new Star Trek film is so dark, it’s even in the title. There’s a scary new big bad, people appear to be dying left and right in the trailers, and the whole world is rumored to be in peril. But what about the comedy? The laughs are a key part of the Enterprise crew’s…

The Bizarre Phenomenon of Mass Photography

In the early twentieth century, photographers fell in love with “mass photographs,” or pictures where thousands of people create one unified image. Often, at this time in history, the themes were patriotic and the participants were soldiers. Here are some of the most astounding. Mole & Thomas: Machine Gun Insignia –Machine Gun Training Center, December…

Nanomachines really are magic, according to Revolution

Ah, nanomites… is there nothing you can’t do? Apparently not, judging from the “lights out and stop texting, kids” show Revolution. This show has apparently decided that nanotechnology is the all-purpose explanation for everything. Spoilers attack! Not only did nanomachines cause all electricity and technology generally to stop working — they also cured the rare…