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The stunning visual symmetry between the old Star Wars trilogy and the new movies

Here is a truly lovely visual comparison between the much loved, original Star Wars trilogy and the much maligned, newer prequel movies. The video, called Star Wars Poetry, shows off how the new movies are so strikingly similar with the old trilogy, honoring the original flicks while creating a sense of familiarity in the world.…

Get a ton of Neil Gaiman rarities and support an amazing cause. The latest Humble Bundle raises money for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and includes just tons of incredible Neil Gaiman material. Including his rare book about Duran Duran! Contact the author at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @charliejane

What’s Going On In This Picture of Demons Dancing in the Moonlight?

Under a full moon, the demons gather in a circle. They dance until a mysteroius power lifts them off the ground, and they float above us all. What do you think is happening in this picture? And what happens to the people who encounter these demons? Image credit: Sing-Song. A nursery rhyme book. … With…

Leopards Steal the Show (And a Lot of Lives) In This Week’s Double Episode of Zoo

This week, we got a double-wide episode ahead of next week’s season finale, and between all the gunshots and torture and maulings, it was easily the goriest Zoo entry yet. “Eats, Shoots, and Leaves/Wild Things” begins as Agent Harrington is zooming down the highway, telling the captured Chloe that he’s looking forward to crushing the…

The Surgeon General’s New Prescription for America: Get Off Your Butts and Walk

Every few years, the US Surgeon General issues a recommendation for the country, like encouraging Americans to use sunblock or breastfeed their kids. These are usually public health no-brainers, where the science has determined that Americans would absolutely be better off if they all followed this medical advice. Today the Surgeon General said that simply…

They Said Malaysian Audiences Weren’t Ready For Science Fiction Books

Aspiring science fiction author Kushairi Zuradi got tired of publishers telling him that there was no market for science fiction in Malaysia. So the medical-school grad started his own publishing company, Simptomatik Press. Not only did Kushairi publish his own book of stories about micro-organisms, called Biohazard (pictured above), but he also started publishing books…

Consciousness May Be a Lot Like Making Coffee, Say Scientists

We tend to think of losing consciousness as an abrupt shutting down of our awareness of the world, like flicking a light switch. But it’s actually more of a gradual process. The best way to understand it is to brew a cup of coffee. A new theoretical model described in Physical Review Letters suggests that…

See How Goo Squirting Into Other Goo Makes Shifting Geometric Patterns

This is a very simple operation. A highly viscous fluid is getting squirted, toothpaste-like, into another fluid. Without any outside prompting, the fluid forms first loops, then bonded figure-eights, and then surprisingly chic-looking fused triangles. A small number of forces can create a surprisingly large number of patterns. In this case, all that’s needed is…

Cyclist rides straight down the vertical wall of a dam and plunge crashes into water

The big surprise in this legitimately bonkers biking video is that there is absolutely no surprise in what happens. You see everything happen before it happens even though you’re in disbelief as it is about to happen and question if this could really happen. I mean, the bike rider, Primož Ravnik, rides straight down the…

I Need This Millennium Falcon Asteroid Field Coffee Table In My Life

Star Wars merchandise has been in the news a lot lately, both for good and bad reasons. Mostly though, the headlines are about people’s passion for the series, and wanting to own a piece of it. And there are not many pieces as amazing as the one you see here. What you see is a…

How The iPhone 6S and 6S Plus Stack Up Against The Competition

Please never buy a phone on specs alone. In the grand scheme of things, most don’t matter. But if you’re looking to see how well Apple’s playing the specs game with its two new iPhones, you’ve come to the right place. Before we get to the competition, you should probably see how little the iPhones…

These Anti-Surveillance Cosplayers Are the Best

We’ve got an amazing gallery of cosplay from last weekend’s massive Dragon Con convention, taken from the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Project Secret Identity. EFF activist Dave Maass says: Cosplayers get it: anonymity can be a form of speech. What we learned this weekend is that the fandoms understand the importance of encryption and the dangers…

Saturn Dominates Dione in this Striking New Photo From NASA

Saturn’s satellite Dione is less than half the size of our moon, and it orbits a planet which features a radius nine times that of Earth. It’s a stark contrast in size that’s beautifully conveyed in a picture recently captured by the Cassini space probe. This gorgeous image was taken by Cassini at a distance…

Sperm Whale Clans Speak Different Dialects

We humans pride ourselves on our cultural diversity, but we’re not the only creatures that form unique societies. Turns out, two clans of sperm whales living near the Galápagos Islands speak different dialects — offering yet more evidence that animals have culture, too. Sperm whales — massive, deep-ocean hunters that live in hierarchical social networks…

Tom Cruise and His Edge Of Tomorrow Director May Go To the Moon

Edge of Tomorrow was an underappreciated action-movie classic, and we’re dying for the planned sequel. But for now, director Doug Liman and star Tom Cruise are working on something else: The pair could team up for a moon-based adventure called Luna Park. Variety reports the movie, which “revolves around a group of renegade employees who…

I Used the iPhone 4s for Several Days and Didn’t Die

On Monday night, someone stole my iPhone 6. I had it in my pocket as I ran up the stairs to catch the soon-to-depart train, but when I sat down, it was gone. After the requisite frantic bag search, I resigned myself to the phone being gone. I thought a kind citizen would surely return…

Salman Rushdie’s Bewilderment at Snapchat Inspired Him to Write Science Fiction

Salman Rushdie is getting a lot of buzz for his fantastical new novel Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights. And talking to the New York Times, he says he’s always loved science fiction—but he was inspired to try the genre now because of a sense that the world is turning upside down. Rushdie tells…

What’s The Weirdest Way You Broke Your Phone?

I can’t be the only one in the mood for some phone-smashing stories. Once in college my friend had a few too many, and his phone slipped from his hands and suffered an untimely death. Many of us have been there. But he decided to turn the unfortunate incident into a piece of performance art,…

The fascinating and bloody family tree of the British Royal Family

As we all learned from Game of Thrones (and definitely not sitting through high school history), when there’s a chance to sit on a throne and rule a kingdom, everybody who can sit seemingly wants to be king and queen, even if it means fighting your family members for the chance. Here’s a really fun…

Ultra-Thin Carbon Nanotube Heaters Will Warm Electric Cars Without Draining Batteries

Since all of the electronics in an electric car are reliant on the same battery as its motor, driving around in the winter with the heater blasting can greatly reduce its range. But a new type of ultra-thin, and ultra-efficient, heating panel covered in carbon nanotubes might change that. The heating requirements for electric vehicles…