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Modern Recuts of Disney Trailers Show How Melodramatic We’ve Become

Video editor Ryan Shukis has re-edited a bunch of Disney movies to create the trailers that would market Disney animated films to grown-ups. His latest is The Lion King, which takes on a much more heartwarming tone than in the original trailer. Shukis calls these “modern” trailers, but they’re less modern and more “adult.” I…

iOS 8.4 Quietly Disables Home Sharing for Music

With one hand Apple giveth, and with the other, it rips a long-standing feature away with no warning. As part of the iOS 8.4 update that brought Apple Music, Home Sharing has been disabled for iOS devices. Home Sharing would let you stream your local iTunes library from your computer to your iDevice on the…

NASA Proves Mars Isn’t Just One Big Desert

If you’ve spent any time looking at the average satellite image of Mars, you’d be forgiven for concluding that our planetary neighbour is actually just one gigantic sandy wasteland. But as this close-up image of the Aureum Chaos proves, Martians don’t just hide in the sand. The Aureum Chaos is a light-toned deposit some 230…

Stay calm, citizens: Apple Maps’ sensor-laden minivans, which have been on the road for months in some regions, are expanding to 15 new states. The full list of locations is available in some detail on Apple’s blog. I’m not saying you should start planning your elaborate prank right now, but it’s certainly a possibility. Contact…

Why Leap Seconds Confuse Computers

Last night, time on Earth had a leap second. The planet’s computer systems survived unscathed, thanks to months of careful preparation by engineers. But here’s a concise explanation of why, left to their own devices, a bunch of very expensive computers could’ve thrown a hissy fit. YouTuber Tom Scott explains the system, called Unix time,…

The Tech That’ll Save Us From An Apocalyptic Asteroid Looks Awesome

In celebration of World Asteroid Day this week, scientists came out of the woodwork to explain to all the different ways we can prevent an asteroid from causing an Armageddon-level apocalypse. The European Space Agency used the occasion to promote its proposed Asteroid Impact Mission, which would study how an asteroid’s trajectory could be altered…

A new report based on data from 34 countries finds many women around the world are severely mistreated during childbirth. “They are slapped and pinched during labor, yelled at, denied pain medicine, neglected and forced to share beds with other women who just gave birth,” the NYT reports. “And that is just a partial list.”…

DEA Agent Who Stole Bitcoin During Silk Road Investigation Pleads Guilty

One of the two government officials charged with some shady dealings during the investigation of Silk Roadpleaded guilty today. Carl Force used to work for the DEA and during the course of his investigation was doing things that might even make the darknet blush. Force contacted Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht under the name Nob…

Moby Dick Meets Ringworld, And Other Great Literary Mashups

What would Herman Melville have made of Larry Niven’s huge space mega-engineering project? You don’t have to wonder any longer. The venerable zine File770 has a collection of literary mashups, including Simon Bisson’s Melville’s Ring World: Call me Louis Wu. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having far too much money in my purse, and…

NASA’s Thermal Camera Turns Galapagos Volcano Into an Eruption from Hell

After 33 years without a peep, the highest volcano in the Galapagos began belching hot magma in May. The eruption was pretty badass on its own, but a new NASA photo, digitally altered to look as if rivers of black lava are streaming down a red mountainside, makes it look like it occurred in an…

Slicing golf balls in half exposes the weird guts that hide inside

Golf balls are really, really weird. Especially the old ones used over a hundred years ago. The dimpled shell can hide things like goose and duck feathers, wound rubber and all other sorts of colorful and bright polymers and rubbers and plastics. The current balls are super fancy, I wish each golf ball still hid…

So Many Fires Are Burning In Alaska the Midwest Is Covered In Smoke

The drought hitting the West is not just striking the continental US. That same weather pattern that’s sucking the life out of California is also making life hot, dry, and dangerous for the top third of North America: Alaska and Canada have seen little rainfall, soaring spring temperatures, and now, a record-breaking wildfire season. The…

When Twitter Q&As Backfire Disastrously 

This was not a good week on social media for writer E.L. James of Fifty Shades of Grey and would-be Presidential candidate Gov. Bobby Jindal. Both took to Twitter to answer fans’ questions. But they are controversial figures online, and the majority of Tweets were delightful take-downs that burned so good. First up: E.L. James.…

Archaeologists working in Spain have discovered several new cave etchings dating back 14,000 years to the Middle Magdalenian period. Using innovative methods of photography, photogrametry, and 3D laser scanning, the researchers were able to identify faint etchings of a bison, horse, and a possible doe and wolf. Image: Tracing of a bison (Garate and Rivero,…

There’s a new model of the Surface Pro 3 that gives you a Core i7 processor and 128GB of storage for $1300—the same price as a Core i5 model with 256GB. You know, in case that’s what you were waiting for. [via The Verge]

In Puritan Times, A Teen Was Hanged For A Crime Judged Worse Than Murder

Perhaps if young Thomas Granger had been more discreet, more circumspect, his name would have long since vanished in the mists of history. But in Puritan times, his unusual crime so offended his community that it warranted the harshest of punishments. He was but a servant boy in the early days of Plymouth Colony, occupying…

The New King Kong Movie Just Lost Two Major Actors

The upcoming King Kong prequel, Kong: Skull Island, took a gorilla sized gut punch Wednesday when two of its leading actors, Michael Keaton and JK Simmons, left the project. Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Kong: Skull Island is currently scheduled for release March 10, 2017. Production was supposed to start in the fall—but it got pushed…

The bike tricks in this video are impossibly fun to see

Road bikes are meant for the road… but that’s too limiting and not fun at all. What’s really fun is seeing Italian cyclist Vittorio Brumotti freestyle all over anything that can remotely come close to being ridden on with his road bike. Like highway rails next to the ocean or narrow hand rails or an…

Watch This Tennis Ball Disappear Before Your Eyes

You’re looking at high-speed footage of a tennis ball being served at 142 miles per hour. The video (below) was recorded at 6,000 frames per second. In the span of twelve frames—two thousandths of a second—the ball transmutes from a sphere into a fuzzy green patty, all but disappearing behind the rim of the racquet.…

We Still Don’t Know Why Men Find Ovulating Women More Attractive

Are you in a public place? Look around. Can you tell whether any of the women you see are ovulating, just by looking at them? Neither can anybody else. But several small studies have suggested that men nevertheless find women’s faces more attractive when they’re most fertile. No one knows what signals the men are…