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Birdman Inspired Hugh Jackman to Play Wolverine “Until I Die”

If we see a dozen more movies with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, we’ll have this year’s best picture, Birdman, to thank. In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, Jackman spoke from the perspective of watching Birdman as an actual actor with an iconic superhero role. And the movie may have struck much closer to home for…

Academy Award Winners Round-Up: Birdman, Birdman, Birdman!

After hours and hours of songs, heartfelt speeches, and Neil Patrick Harris doing a magic trick about Oscar predictions, we are officially done with the 2015 Oscars. And congratulations to Birdman, a movie we thoroughly loved, for its Best Picture win. The winners are bolded below. Best Picture American Sniper Birdman Boyhood The Grand Budapest…

Watch The Oscars’ “Everything Is Awesome,” With Will Arnett As Batman

If you missed the epic performance of “Everything Is Awesome” by Tegan and Sara and the Lonely Island, then you also missed Will Arnett, who voices LEGO Batman, making an appearance as the very dour Batman. “Darkness. No parents,” indeed. In another bit of nerdy coolness, according to Chris Miller Arnett’s Batsuit was the Val…

Why It’s Amazing News That Takashi Miike Is Adapting This Scifi Manga

Well, this is exciting: cult-beloved Japanese director Takashi Miike is planning a live-action adaptation of popular manga Terra Formars, described as “a crazy, bloody, adrenaline-pumped action-sci-fi-horror series.” Yes. We like that. All of that. The manga is set in the year 2577, when the first six humans land on Mars … which has spent the…

Astronauts Take the Best Selfies

Barry “Butch’ Wilmore and Terry Virts went out for a six-and-half hour spacewalk yesterday in the continued effort to ready the International Space Station for upcoming commercial space taxis. But while the two astronauts were floating above the blue marble, traveling near 5 miles per second, they took the opportunity to take some selfies because…

Drug-Resistant Malaria Is On The Verge Of Spreading Into India

In Southeast Asia, the malaria parasite has been steadily building resistance to the drug that’s used to treat it. This scary news, but even worse: the resistance is on the verge of spreading into densely populated India. This data comes from a new study in infectious diseases publication the Lancet (read the scientific paper here).…

France Wants Google, Facebook, and Twitter’s Help Fighting Terrorism

When it comes to social media presence, the Islamic State (ISIS) has Western nations completely outgunned. In fact, ISIS and its supports tweet and post upwards of 90,000 times a day and has led to the U.S. and the U.K. to reconsider its propaganda social media strategy. France wants to take a slightly different approach…

We Like This Theory About The Simpsons, But We Don’t 100 Percent Agree

On his Bad Astronomy blog, Phil Plait puts forth a novel theory about the mysterious location of Springfield, hometown of the Simpsons. His come-to-Homer moment springs from the recent episode that featured Elon Musk (“The Musk Who Fell to Earth“), specifically a scene, pictured below, in which the SpaceX CEO is staring up at the…

Ruined Fukushima Plant Leaking Radiation 70 Times Above Normal Levels

Fukushima is Japan’s radiation nightmare that just won’t go away. Ever since March 11, 2011, the damaged plant has been riddled with leaks and cleanup setbacks. Now Tepco, the operator of the damaged facility, says they’ve recorded spikes between 50-70 times above average readings in the gutters that pour water into a nearby bay. Tepco…

Stare In Awe At This Fiery Footage Of A Solar Eruption In Progress

The Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) project satellite captured this dazzling, hypnotic footage of a solar eruption yesterday. SOHO is a joint effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA; its purpose, besides capturing incredible images like the one above, is “to study the internal structure of the Sun, its extensive outer atmosphere and…

How much do you know about Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space? This detailed profile sheds light on the cosmonaut’s life and accomplishments, as well as her struggles.

Samsung’s Got a Steve Jobs Problem

Welcome to Reading List, your weekly collection of great tech reads from around the web. This week we learn the problem behind Samsung’s design, why America’s infrastructure is rotting, and on a less grim note, get a rare peek at the technology behind Magic Leap’s mixed reality. Enjoy! If you’ve ever wondered why Samsung’s design…

Wonder Woman Movie Will Begin Filming This Fall

Get the invisible jet ready: the standalone Wonder Woman movie, starring Gal Gadot and directed by Michelle Maxwell MacLaren, will begin filming in the fall, with a summer 2017 release planned. Gadot will first appear in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Bartenders Talk About Your Terrible Tinder Dates

Oh, Tinder, OkCupid, Grindr, whatever your particular dating app poison. Your first date dramas play in bars the world over. Because bars are a typical venue for painfully awkward first encounters, bartenders all have a front-row seat—and they’re definitely talking about it. The bartenders in this video by The Daily Share explain that spotting a…

This Week’s Puzzle Is As Easy As Pie

You can solve this week’s puzzle with a pie (traditional or pizza) and slicer, a pen and paper, or a little math. The choice is yours. Sunday Puzzle #21: Slicing Pie One straight slice through one whole pie divides the pie into two pieces. Simple enough. A second straight cut, crossing the first, will produce…

How Can Space Travel Faster Than The Speed Of Light?

Light speed is often spoken of as a cosmic speed limit … but not everything plays by these rules. In fact, space itself can expand faster than a photon could ever hope to travel. Cosmologists are intellectual time travelers. Looking back over billions of years, these scientists are able to trace the evolution of our…

China used more concrete in 3 years than the US in 100 years

Bill Gates has an incredible statistic: According the USGS’ cement statistics, China has used more concrete from 2011 to 2013 (6.6 gigatons) than the United States in the entire 20th century (4.5 gigatons). It blows my mind but, then again, as Gates point out, look at Shanghai’s evolution in just 20 years… …and now imagine…

Ro-Bow Is a Violin-Playing Robot That Actually Sounds Pretty Good 

Described as a kinetic sculpture, Ro-Bow (as the name suggests) is a violin-playing robot that uses electromagnetic actuators to play digital files. Yeah, it won’t be the first chair at the London Philharmonic any time soon, but its pretty amazing to watch all the machine’s parts work in unison to produce some pretty decent tunes.…

Beautiful aerial photo of New York surrounded by ice

Impressive aerial photo of New York surrounded by ice taken from the southern tip of Manhattan—tiny icebergs and ice plaques floating along the Hudson, the East River and New York bay. CBS has video here. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

A Creepy-Cute Vintage Illustration Of A Vampire Bat

From the British Library archives comes this delightful plate from naturalist J. Leyland’s “Adventures in the far interior of South Africa; including a journey to Lake Ngami, and rambles in Honduras,” circa 1866.