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Compare a movie’s first scene with its last scene, side-by-side

Film editor Jacob T. Swinney put together this interesting edit showing 55 movies side-by-side, putting each film’s first scene right next to the final scene. Sometimes you get a story that comes completely full circle, sometimes you get a finished story with coherent imaging and other times you get something else. Swinney writes: What can…

Comedy Moonwalkers Wonders: What If We Faked The Moon Landing?

Indie action comedy Moonwalkers picked up a distributor after its world premiere at SXSW over the weekend. We’re excited, given its cast (Ron Perlman, Rupert Grint) and premise, which puts a hilarious-sounding spin on the long-held conspiracy theory that Apollo 11 failed to land on the moon. It’s directed by first-time feature helmer Antoine Bardou-Jacquet,…

“Good Guy Sauron” Meme Shows Off The Helpful Side Of The Dark Lord

History is told by the victors, and when it comes to Lord of the Rings, Sauron doesn’t much good press. That’s why someone came up with the “Good Guy Sauron” meme, to show the good side of this bad guy. With the right perspective, you can find the upside of the worst tyrant. I think…

The Strange History Of How A Gene Was Named “Sonic Hedgehog”

There’s a gene that’s pivotal in not only separating your right brain from your left, but also in making sure that you have two, individual eyes. That gene, and the protein it codes for, are both called Sonic Hedgehog. Here’s how that happened. As the NIH (somewhat wearily) explains in their notes on the gene,…

A Slimmed Down Windows 10 Could Make Cheap Tablets Suck Way Less

Windows 10 already seems waaay better than Windows 8. Cortana integration, Spartan browser, a Start Menu—yes please. But how about some more storage space on your tiny solid state drive? Yeah, that sounds nice, too. Bloated software has been an issue for Windows 8 and RT devices—particularly cheap tablets and laptops that come with as…

Video Contest: Remix The Avengers: Age Of Ultron Trailer!

The latest trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron was full of so much greatness, we had to rewatch it a hundred times. But it also has the potential to be so many other things. So we’re inviting you to remix the Age of Ultron trailer. Into a romantic comedy. Or a horror movie. Or a…

Egypt Wants To Build a Second Cairo… In Just Seven Years

1,100,000 units of housing. 6,200 miles of boulevards. 2,000 schools. $45 billion dollars. Egypt is planning a sparkling new capital outside of Cairo, and it wants to do it fast. Image: AP Photo/Hassan Ammar As we wrote last week, Egypt hosted an economic development conference in which it detailed plans for a massive new pyramid.…

Watch This Bipedal Robot Get Hammered With Dodgeballs

Introducing ATRIAS, a bipedal robot designed and built by Dynamic Robotics Labs. Its developers are optimistic that it’ll eventually become the world’s fastest two-legged robot. Until then, it’ll have to endure the physical abuse typically afforded robots these days. ATRIAS stands for “Assume The Robot Is A Sphere.” Alternately, the robot could have been named…

A 500-Year-Old Eulogy, Written On An Ostrich Egg

Add this to the list of ancient texts written on unconventional media: An ostrich egg, discovered in more than 100 pieces in the remains of a mausoleum in Egypt, covered with a eulogy penned in Arabic script. https://gizmodo.com/this-1750-bc-babylonian-tablet-is-an-ancient-customer-s-1688317703 “We’ve managed to rebuild one eggshell,” said Dr. Dionisius Agius, who helped translate the text when the…

The anti-robot protest at SXSW got tons of publicity, and it was a hoax. Even worse — it was actually a viral marketing stunt for a dating app. [io9]

These Smartphone Cords Look Like Miniature Audio Cables

Audio cables look just plain sexy, especially when they’re encased in those retro braided fabric jackets that make it even easier to coil them up. And now you can get that audio cable hotness for your smartphone cord, thanks to SuperFly Cables. Most of us carry smartphone cables around every day, and they are an…

Airplanes Look Like Swarming Fireflies In These Mesmerizing Timelapses

We’re so used to seeing planes flying overhead, but these timelapse videos track the flight patterns of planes, bringing air traffic to light in trails of busy, beautiful light. They make air travel look positively wondrous. Paths of Flight Approaching planes at London Heathrow Airport Landing planes over San Diego, California Over Los Angeles International…

Much Like Evil, The Spooky-Kid Horror Movie Will Never Die

In Before I Wake, parents (Kate Bosworth, Thomas Jane) still grieving the loss of their young son decide to foster an adorable boy who’d be a perfect li’l angel (“He likes butterflies!”) if only he didn’t have such horrifying nightmares that come true. Yo kid, don’t peek under the bed! Before I Wake may feel…

This car parade of DeLoreans is the coolest thing

A prediction about the future that I’m pretty confident in making: this picture will be the best thing to come out of St Patrick’s Day 2015. The photo, showing a line up of DeLoreans and a BTTF DeLorean caboose, was taken by BruceK and shows the DeLorean portion of the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day Parade…

How The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle Fell In Love With Fantasy Books

Electric Literature asked John Darnielle, singer/songwriter with the Mountain Goats and author of Wolf in White Van, to pick a book to talk about. And Darnielle chose The Worm Ouroboros, a 1922 fantasy novel by Eric Rücker Eddison that’s one of the precursors to Tolkien. Top image: 1978 map by David Bedell. Darnielle gives a…

An Obsolete Robot Falls In Love With The Model Designed To Replace It

C-29 was content to move packages along the assembly line until one day, when a shiny new model appeared on the opposite side of the conveyer belt. What happens next is extraordinarily sweet — and more than a little sad. Charlie Davies created Magnetism, and it feels a bit like WALL•E and EVE meets Romeo…

See How Data Moves With This Vintage-Inspired Map of Submarine Cables

Do you like vintage maps? Do you like the internet? Then you’ll love this vintage-inspired world map of the underwater cables that connect the entire planet. The data-minded folks at TeleGeography just updated their world map. Of course, the submarine cables that span from continent to continent don’t just carry internet traffic but also all…

How To Avoid The Horrible Things That Happen When You Give Ducks Bread

Step 1: Stop feeding them bread. Photo by Porsupah Ree via flickr | CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Are you feeding the ducks at your local pond pieces of stale bread? You might be contributing to their untimely demise, not to mention the deterioration of local ecosystems. That doesn’t mean you need to stop feeding ducks –…

Awesomely cute 9-month-old baby surfs with his dad for the first time

Before you sic the No Fun Federation of Parenting onto Jorge Tirado, an awesome dad and surfer, just look at how much fun his 9-month-old baby who was apparently born for the thirst of the ocean is having. And just think about how awesome he’s going to be when he grows up after having such…

Rogue One Will Be The First Star Wars Movie Not Scored By John Williams

Alexandre Desplat has been named the composer of Rogue One, making the first stand-alone Star Wars movie the first to also be made without the help of John Williams. I feel pretty confident, however, that even if Williams doesn’t personally work on the film, many of his iconic Star Wars themes will. To be fair,…