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Thor Stops By SNL To Do Running Man, Celebrate Victory Over Ultron

Last night’s Saturday Night Live was hosted by Chris Hemsworth. Naturally, Avengers: Age of Ultron … specifically its final scene … made for a ripe target. Watch the video below, but beware: SPOILERS GALORE! (Obviously not really). Booooom! H/T Uproxx

Mercury’s Caloris Basin Is Buried In Kilometers Of Lava

Once upon a time, the Caloris basin on Mercury was flooded with lava, forming a volcanic layer 2.5 to 3.5 kilometers thick with an occasional fresh crater punching through to the original basin floor. The image is enhanced-colour, revealing geological details. As NASA explains: This mosaic of Caloris basin is an enhanced-color composite overlain on…

This Is What Happens When You Load Uranium In A Cloud Chamber

What do you do onceyou’ve built a cloud chamber using party supplies? If you’re Cloudylabs, you load it up with a chunk of uranium and watch the physics happen. From the video description: This video shows the Cloudylabs’s cloud chamber running for approx. 50 min with an Uranium mineral. After 40 min, there is not…

There’s haunting, abandoned-building fascination galore, plus some intense graffiti, in this photo-heavy look at Long Island’s shuttered Kings Park Psychiatric Center. Unsurprisingly, multiple horror movies have been filmed there; it’s also the subject of a documentary made by a former patient.

The Silk Road Mastermind Just Applied For A Retrial

Last month, it took a jury of peers just four hours to convict Ross Ulbricht on seven counts related to his running of The Silk Road. But Ulbricht isn’t giving up that easy — his lawyer has applied for a do-over. In a court filing submitted yesterday and spotted by Ars Technica, Ulbricht’s superstar lawyer…

Goodyear’s Concept Tires Harvest Heat To Power Your Car

In the world of electric cars, efficiency is king — wasted energy is just more miles you can’t travel. While regenerative braking is old news, regenerative tires that use heat and vibration to recharge the battery would be something completely new. That’s the concept that Goodyear introduced at the Geneva Auto Show this week. The…

A Color-Saturated Look At Mercury’s Massive, Ancient Caloris Basin

Mercury’s Caloris Basin is seen in an enhanced color mosaic. The massive crater, formed some 4 billion years ago, is orange. Smaller craters made subsequently are rendered in blue, while orange splotches around the perimeter may be volcanic vents. (Side note: Props to the punster who titled the photo “All About that Basin” on the…

This Solar-Powered Plane Is About To Fly Around The World (Very Slowly)

After endless years of planning (and a not-so-successful dry run), the Solar Impulse sun-powered plane is about to take off on its around-the-world voyage — provided it’s not too cloudy, of course. The Solar Impulse 2 isn’t your average aircraft: it’s been designed from the ground up with this mission in mind. Over 17,000 solar…

Mars Loses an Ocean But Gains the Potential for Life

Looking at Mars’ dusty, dessicated landscape, it’s hard to believe that it once possessed a vast ocean. A recent NASA study of the Red Planet using the world’s most powerful infrared telescopes clearly indicate a planet that sustained a body of water larger than the Earth’s Arctic Ocean. NASA scientists have determined that a primitive…

Being A Human Cannonball Looks Completely Terrifying

Yes, it’s not exactly a surprise that being launched out of a compressed-air cannon is a stressful way to earn a living. But that doesn’t stop this GoPro footage of a woman being shot 40 feet into the air from being white-knuckle terrifying. Mashable persuaded 25-year-old Gemma Kirby to strap the GoPro on for one…

This Vintage Medical Advertisement Is Ever So Slightly Problematic

Where to even begin, really? How fast do you think those kids built that log cabin after popping a few of these? Courtesy of the National Library of Medicine‘s archive of amusing and/or disturbing Patent Medicine Trade Cards.

Dreamy Video Captures Murmuration Of Starlings Undulating In The Sky

Starling flocks are called “murmurations.” The birds fly in massive, tightly-packed groups to fend off predators, find food together, and seek mates. There are several theories as to how they coordinate their flight patterns so smoothly; what’s certain is how hypnotic it looks from the ground. [Via The Guardian]

Watch This Heroic Bald Eagle Keep Her Eggs Warm In A Snow-Covered Nest

Though the live camera feed of her nest in Pennsylvania’s Codurus State Park reveals that she’s gotten some relief from the snow, this image (captured March 5) shows a bald eagle mother keeping her eggs warm … despite what was clearly some deeply inconsiderate weather. Screengrab via ABC 27. Via the Audobon Society.

Vivaldi Is A Slick New Browser For Internet Addicts

In the beginning, there was Netscape. Then came Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and the love-it-or-hate-it Chrome. Now, there’s a new competitor in the war to capture your online attention, a stripped-back browser built from the ashes of Opera and designed for power users. Opera enthusiasts will tell you that the browser hasn’t been the same…

New Recipe For 19th Century Shipwrecked Beer 

Scientists have scrutinized the contents of four bottles of beer found in a Baltic Sea shipwreck from the 1840s, an amber ale that perhaps was brewed in Belgium and was on its way to ports in Russia or Scandinavia. Researchers Arvi Wilpola and John Londesborough use an aseptic method to open one of the found…

Bluetooth Beacons Will Help Blind People Navigate London’s Tube

A new smartphone app and Bluetooth beacon system is currently being trialled at Pimlico Station on the London Underground, and could revolutionise the way blind and partially sighted people navigate the UK capital’s Tube system. Born from the Royal London Society for Blind People’s Youth Forum, the Wayfindr system offers independence to those that would…

The man who dreamed up the Keurig K-Cup has some regrets, not just about selling his stake in the popular company for a song, but for the amount of waste the non-recyclable single-serving coffee brewing pods have generated: nine billion pods were sold last year, most of which now languish in landfills.

In 1923, Daylight Saving Time Was Actually Illegal In Some States

Americans in most states (but not all) will “spring forward” their clocks tonight. Most people know that Daylight Saving Time caught on as part of energy-saving efforts during World War I. But did you know clock-changing actually became illegal in some places once the war concluded? In a fascinating look back into its archives, Time…

Backing Up An Entire Nation Is Unsurprisingly Difficult

You might not realize it, but the most technologically advanced nation in the world is a small ex-Soviet state in Eastern Europe. Estonia has pioneered secure digital identities for its citizens, helping it become a frontrunner in everything from online voting to preventing Craigslist ripoffs. But it also makes the country a particularly juicy target…

Jeremy Renner And Amy Adams Will Greet Aliens In Ted Chiang Adaptation

HOLD UP. Is Hollywood actually planning a genre movie that’s not a sequel or reboot? Signs point to yes, since Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams are set to star in scifi drama Story of Your Life, an adaptation of a Nebula Award-winning Ted Chiang short story. Denis Villeneuve will direct. The Hollywood Reporter has the…