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Wilson’s Bird of Paradise: Weird-Looking Bird or Weirdest-Looking Bird?

This is photograph is underselling how colorful Wilson’s Bird of Paradise is. This bird goes all out on the pigmentation, but pigment isn’t the only thing that’s producing color. What else is? Just as a hint, those aren’t blue feathers on its head. The only feathers on the head of Wilson’s Bird of Paradise are…

Astronauts Spot Another “Rare” Red Sprite Already! 

After years of describing red sprites as “rare” and “elusive,” astronauts on the International Space Station are out to prove me wrong. They photographed two entirely unrelated sprites above thunderstorms in the Midwest and Mexico within minutes. What’s going on?! Red sprite over Missouri or Illinois as seen from 2,200 kilometers away over Mexico. Image…

Skynet Wins After All: Terminator Genisys Is a Monster Hit in China!

Terminator Genisys was a flop in the United States, making just $89 million here. But now Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to the franchise has scored a monster opening day in China, which means it will probably wind up being considered a hit overall. And a sequel just got much more likely. Genisys made $27.4 million on…

I Kayaked the Part of the Los Angeles River That Actually Looks Like a River

It was 90 degrees at 10:00 a.m. when I stepped off the Orange Line in the LA neighborhood of Van Nuys. A perfect day for the beach, or for the pool, or for positioning yourself directly beneath those little misters you can find at finer restaurants in the Valley. But I was about to embark…

Science Fiction Writers Explain How to Write Videogames That Never Feel Dated 

An imagined future is supposed to tell us something about the world to come, but how we imagine it usually ends up telling us a lot more about our present than our future. Here, several different science fiction writers explain how to create videogame worlds that feel timeless. Some of the authors behind the new…

Watch Sony’s Drone Prototype Take Flight 

Aerosense, Sony’s new drone business, just released video of its drone prototype flying, and it’s so cool I kind of wish I had the ability to Honey I Shrunk the Kids myself so I could fit inside it. Now, obviously, this isn’t the most original drone design in the world. Sony partnered with an autopilot…

It Looks Like Ashley Madison Execs Hacked a Competing Dating Site in 2012

Karma’s a bitch. Hackers recently leaked the inbox of Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman (pictured above). Turns out Noel and his cronies have done some hacking of their own. The emails reveal that the company’s CTO hacked into a competing dating site back in November 2012. Biderman even asked him to steal emails. The revelation…

Thanks to advances in marine technology, police are better-equipped than ever to discover submerged evidence, according to dive-safety periodical Alert Diver. Among the evocative examples: the sticky search for a murder weapon within Los Angeles’ La Brea Tar Pits, and a cannibal’s river-tossed trove of hacksaws. Top image by Betsy Weber

Lois Lane Is Getting a Second Thrilling Young-Adult Novel!

Despite getting to reveal one of the biggest secrets in comics, Lois Lane isn’t getting that much exposure in DC Comics lately—it’s been ages since she had her own title. So it’s great news that the acclaimed prose novel, Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond, is getting a sequel. Lois Lane: Fallout got a starred…

Classy Sunglasses That Keep The Wind Out Of Your Eyes?

Action specs are great at keeping wind and debris out of your eyes through fast-paced sports like mountain biking. But their blade-like styling looks dumb once you slow down. Enter this new range of casually-styled, but high-performance sunglasses from California brands Salt Optics and Aether Apparel. Available in a couple different styles and a bunch…

Exciting News: This Pterosaur Fossil May Be Full of Crap!

Fossilized feces, aka “coprolites,” are an uncommon paleontological find. But fossilized poop inside a fossilized creature? That’s rarer, still, and why researchers are so excited about the pterosaur fossil pictured above. The specimen dates back 146- to 161-million years, to the Late Jurassic, and is exceptionally well preserved. Its soft tissues, including its wing membranes,…

If Our Eyes Could See Wireless Signals, Here’s How Our World Might Look 

Our lives today depend largely on systems and infrastructure that is invisible—a hidden landscape of webs and waves that come from cell towers, routers, satellites, and more. We rarely have to grapple with this hidden world, thanks to handy graphical user interfaces that parse all those waves and signals into information that our brains can…

The Largest-Ever U.S. Gallery Of Jack Kirby’s Comic Art Heads To California

Jack Kirby’s career crossed all over comics, from Marvel to DC and beyond, giving us a veritable treasure trove of some of the most iconic pieces of comic book art ever produced. Want to get up close and personal with it? If you’re in Los Angeles, you can. Opening today and continuing until October 10th,…

Crooks With Drone Busted Trying to Smuggle Porn and Drugs Into Prison

Unmanned aerial vehicles often get a bum rap for being technological troublemakers, and this story ain’t gonna help: Maryland State Police say they’ve arrested two men who suposedly planned to smuggle contraband into a state prison using a drone. The Baltimore Sun reports that, along with the drone, CDs loaded with porn were confiscated, as…

Take That, Ice Cube! Vin Diesel Confirms He’s Making a New xXx Movie

Before Fast and Furious turned into one of the biggest franchises in the world, people though of Vin Diesel of a man of three franchises. Fast and Furious, of course, Pitch Black and xXx. Even though Diesel only showed up in the first xXx film, he long said he’d return to the spy-fi series. Now…

Living in a human zoo on an alien planet is as crazy as it sounds

[Note: This short film has been taken down by specific request of its author and has been disqualified from our film festival. Sorry for the inconvenient.] That powerful un-motivating slacker voice inside me thinks that living in a human zoo ruled by aliens wouldn’t be so bad. You don’t have to worry about work, housing,…

Comcast Says It’ll Offer Gigabit Internet Nationwide Within Two Years

Comcast can’t stop talking about all the upgrades it has planned for its internet service. An executive recently told the press that it plans to upgrade its entire network to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard, a move that would enable gigabit speeds for all Comcast customers. Testing is underway now, and it should be done in…

This Book Will Make You Want a Banker’s Point of View of Game of Thrones

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived, by Greg Steinmetz, is about Jacob Fugger, a man who never drew a sword, nailed up his theses on a church, or painted a picture, but still helped turn the Medieval era into the modern world. Learn how money, properly applied, changed everything. Whether you find this book is…

Hannibal Deploys Fire and Blood in its Build-Up to Next Week’s Series Finale

Sob. We’re down to Hannibal’s final episodes, and the latest William Blake-titled ep, “The Number of the Beast is 666…”, only hammers in the cold, hard truth that TV is sure gonna be a lot more boring when this creepy, juicy show exits the airwaves. Spoilers! We open as Will Graham is having a therapy…

This Week’s TV: The End of Everything

Mr. Robot, Defiance, and Dark Matter end for the season, Teen Wolf ends for the summer, and Hannibal ends forever! All on This Week’s TV. Tonight Gravity Falls (8:30PM, DISNEY XD) Grunkle Stan runs for mayor! Super promising. Star Wars: Droid Tales—Crisis on Coruscant (9PM, DISNEY XD) Series premiere: “C-3PO and Ackbar’s pursuit of the…