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Is This TV’s New Supergirl?

The Vampire Diaries’ Claire Holt is in the running to play Kara Zor-El, the Kryptonian better known as Supergirl in CBS’s upcoming superhero TV series. I don’t know Holt’s work on VD (hey, that’s how The CW abbreviates the show), so you tell me — is this a good thing or a bad thing? I…

How Scientists (And Artists) Make See-Through Corpses

Labs, taxidermy stores, and movies about mad scientists are populated with semi-translucent creatures in jars. These are commonly called “diaphonized” creatures, and they’ve been in real labs since the 1970s. But what started as a way to get a good look at skeletons became art. The first step in the diaphonization process is a long…

Feeling intellectual? Then you’ll delight in the fact that Nature has made all of its archived scientific papers free to read—though sadly you can’t print them out.

How Scientists Gained the Ability to Reverse Overdoses

Naloxone can reverse an otherwise fatal heroin overdose within minutes. Carrie Arnold meets the doctors who put this remarkable drug in the hands of the police, families and addicts—and saved thousands of lives. Alexander Walley was a twentysomething medical student when he witnessed the power of naloxone. It was the midnight shift at the Emergency…

How Can the Rest of The Walking Dead‘s Season Get Even Darker?

There’s a new rumor about who Andy Serkis is playing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens — and it’s more than one character. Plus more filming for Avengers: Age of Ultron, and details for the Doctor Who Christmas special revealed! And David S. Goyer updates us on the Sandman movie. Spoilers now! Top image: The…

Black Mirror, the dark science fiction anthology series created by Charlie Brooker, now has both season 1 and season 2 available on Netflix. We loved this series and highly recommend checking it out, if you haven’t yet. Or, re-watching it if you have.

What Actually Happens When You Click on a Link

You see a link, you click on it, and it takes you somewhere. Simple, right? But actually, that remarkably straightforward user experience has a fairly complex series of computational processes going on in the background. In this video, Dr Richard Mortier essentially explains the basics of how links work. He does a pretty great job…

This Year, Google’s Santa Tracker Gets Kids to Code

Santa is under surveillance—but not by the NSA. Instead, Google is helping children of all ages to to keep tabs on the jelly-bellied gift giver, and even learn some new technical skills along the way. This year, Google’s Santa Tracker—no longer in conjunction with NORAD since they defected to Microsoft—is set in an interactive town,…

The FBI Has Warned That ‘Destructive’ Malware Attacks Could Hit the U.S.

The FBI has issued a confidential report to businesses in the wake of the Sony Pictures hack which explains that U.S. businesses should remain vigilant against new malicious software that can be used to launch “destructive” cyberattacks. While the report doesn’t name the Sony incident, it describes an attack thatcybersecurity experts tell Reuters is large-scale…

4 hilariously insane ways to remove your mustache that aren’t shaving

Is shaving the best way to remove hair? Mehdi Sadaghdar emphatically answers yes after performing stunts for this video. He hilariously tries crazy alternative hair removal methods—burning it off and electrocuting it off, for example—and decides that shaving is so much easier than any other way. This guy is funnier and crazier than the guys…

Here’s Thor Made Out of Coffee Cups. Because Coffee. And Australia.

As near as I can tell, this was a promotional gimmick for the Australian coffee chain The Coffee Club. The fact that the Coffee Club is Australian makes the choice of Chris Hemsworth understandable. It took 2000 coffee cups to make this. It would have taken longer if Thor was there smashing cups as they…

HP’s New Laptop Definitely Isn’t A Macbook Air

HP has just announced a new business laptop. But judging on looks alone, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s just a Macbook Air with a sticker over the Apple logo. Thankfully, there’s a few tricks inside to differentiate things. For starters, the Folio 1020 technically two laptops — there’s a standard edition, which weighs…

Christopher Nolan Was Asked to Bless The LEGO Movie‘s Jerk Batman

The LEGO Movie’s version of Batman is not exactly the same guy that prowled the streets of Christopher Nolan’s Gotham. So, according to producer Dan Lin, the production went to both Nolan and Warner Bros. to make sure Will Arnett’s horrible boyfriend version of Batman was okay. Speaking at the Animation Roundtable, Lin said: We…

This Is What It Looks Like To Build A New Subway

Oblivious to the people sleeping and eating on the surface, subterranean London is undergoing one of the biggest construction projects the city’s ever seen — Crossrail, a new high-speed subway line traversing the capital. New photos released from the build put all that in perspective. The work is nearing completion — eight giant tunnelling machines,…

These engineers probably made the best Thanksgiving turkey this year

I don’t understand America’s fascination with Thanksgiving turkey, especially when most people cook it so badly that they make it more bland than it already is. But if you insist in cooking this instead of a flavorful bird or meat, at least cook it properly. Or crazy. Or both, like these engineers didin this experiment.…

Short film: The hilarious truth about time travel is that we’re selfish

If you could travel through time where would you go? To the future? To go see dinosaurs? And what would you do? Cure cancer? Prevent wars? Sure. But what about just using time travel to selfishly make your life easier? It sounds silly but it really might be the funniest thing you can do with…

Star Wars: The Force Awakens posters made by fans could be official

I’m surprised by the quality of some of these Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailers made by fans. Some are so good that they could be made into the official ones for all I care. Like the one above, by Kode Logic. It seems like all fans are mostly excited by the crusader-type lightsaber from…

This Typographic Analysis Of Alien Is Terrifyingly, Wonderfully Geeky

You might consider yourself an Alien expert. You may be able to quote the entire film, backwards, or know who was the third assistant focus-puller. But I guarantee that not even Ridley Scott has knowledge of the movie’s typography like this guy. Dave Addey is an Apple employee, but he also writes a blog called…

Here’s a really fun sneak preview clip of the Breaking Bad prequel

I’m still not sure if Better Call Saul is going to be good but I do know that I miss watching Breaking Bad so much that I don’t really care. I’d watch characters like Saul Goodman and Mike Ehrmantraut in anything. Here’s the first real good sneak peak of the upcoming TV show. It shows…

A Seesaw Table Means You’ll Never Eat Alone

Some people sit down to enjoy a nice, relaxing meal with their partners. Others, like the mad evil genius behind this seesaw table, like a little extra danger with their microwave pizza. The table is the (only slightly crazy) brainchild of Dutch designer Marleen Jansen. Rather than being a product you can actually buy (although,…