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Alfonso Cuarón Could Direct The Shining Prequel

Well, color us intrigued. Gravity and Little Princess director Alfonso Cuarón is rumored to be next in line to direct The Shining prequel. Interesting… Schmoes Know is reporting that two close sources with knowledge of the project have spilled the beans that Hollywood’s new director darling Cuarón could lens the long-awaited horror prequel Overlook Hotel.…

Your Phone Will Break Before These Fortified Charging Cables Do

It’s widely assumed that printer manufacturers make all of their money from expensive replacement ink cartridges, not the hardware. Perhaps the same can be said for smartphone makers, given how often their USB charging cables break. But you can put an end to constant replacements with these MOS Spring cables that are reinforced six ways…

NASA Is Letting Citizens Commandeer a Long-Lost Satellite

Yesterday evening, NASA officially granted permission to a group of scientists and enthusiasts who want to do what NASA can’t afford: Make contact with a 36-year-old satellite called ISEE-3 that’s still capable of taking directions for a new mission. It’s the first agreement of its kind—and it could hint at where the space industry is…

Congress Asked Some Really Weird Questions at the Alien Life Hearing

Yesterday, SETI astrobiologists told the U.S. Congress there’s “close to a 100% chance” that aliens exist, adding that we might detect signs of life in 20 years. But things went south when the floor opened up for questions. Dan Werthimer, director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, and Seth Shostak,…

New Thermal Technology Turns the Entire World into a Touchscreen

Holy crap, somebody invented something that makes Google Glass seem cool. The augmented reality wizards at Metaio just showed off their Thermal Touch technology, a new kind of user interface that basically turns the whole world into a touchscreen. It looks pretty futuristic. The idea itself is surprisingly simple. Whenever you touch something, you leave…

Fossil Poaching and the Black Market in Dinosaur Bones

Fossils are amazing, so of course you want to own one. Not so much. Owning a piece of geologic history seems awesome, but the fossil trade is ethically dubious and can substantially harm science. Selling fossils into private ownership means they’re lost to research forever. Above: Sue the Tyrannosaurus was recovered from the auction block…

Free Android App Credit, 1000+ Games On Sale, Mighty Subwoofer

If you own an Android device, Amazon is basically giving away $10 in free app credit just for downloading five free apps. Whether you keep the apps or not is irrelevant; the $10 is yours to use as you see fit on the Amazon App Store. If you haven’t yet downloaded GTA: San Andreas from…

Soon You Can Sleep in This Fake Bavarian Castle in the Middle of China

China loves to counterfeit, and architecture is no exception. So it was no surprise when a massive, massive German-style castle popped up in the seaside city of Dalian. It’s exciting, however, that Starwood Hotels has announced that it will open a giant hotel inside of it. The new and appropriately named Castle Hotel will feature…

The last time anyone saw a Clarion nightsnake – the gorgeous, nocturnal snake pictured above – was in 1936. Now, after going missing for close to 80 years, researchers have rediscovered the species on the remote Mexican island of its namesake. Photo Credit: Daniel Mulcahy via BoingBoing

This Is The Darkest Place Ever Seen In The Universe

When we look out over the universe, it’s the bright spots that tend to stand out. But the darkness out there is also incredible, particularly in on spot 16,000 light years away, where scientists have recorded the deepest darkness ever seen. Image: Map of cosmic clusters / NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Zurich The darkness is courtesy of…

A Giant Sinkhole Just Opened Up in the Middle of Manhattan

According to a tweet from @NYCityAlerts, a massive sinkhole has just opened up in lower Manhattan. The collapse was preceded by a water main break around 11am, flooding several restaurants including the famed Katz’s Deli (don’t worry, the pastrami is safe). We went down to check out the scene for ourselves and were told that…

A Woman Replaced Her Soap With a Daily Mist of Bacteria—And It Worked

Since we dirty buggers have already made the case against antibacterial soap, it’s time to consider the case against all soap. And showers. Basically all hygiene as we know it in the 21st century. In the latest New York Times Magazine, Julia Scott gives up soap for a mist of bacteria usually found in dirt—and…

What Science Reveals About The Craft Beer Revolution

Between 2011 and 2013 the number of U.S. craft breweries jumped from 1,970 to 2,483. And the trend shows no sign of slowing down, with at least 413 new breweries opening in the past few months. Why is everyone so hopped up about craft beer? (See what I did there?) As usual, science has the…

You can’t eat this burger with your hands and that’s perfectly fine

The Sookie Monster Burger is the Southern equivalent of the Asian ramen burger: Instead of ramen as buns, it uses pan-fried pimento cheese grits. Inside: “Heirloom tomato, a Louisiana hot link sausage patty, cajun spiced shrimp, smoked jalapeño, and a Sazerac roux.” I just can’t take this Pornburger dude anymore. SPLOID is a new blog…

FCC Incest: Meet the Cable Cronies Who Control Net Neutrality’s Future

The fate of net neutrality has never looked bleaker, with the FCC’s proposed rules basically dismantling the free and open internet that we know today. You can thank the agency’s notorious revolving door for that; for years, FCC officials and the people they’re supposed to be regulating have been playing a horrible game of telecom…

$10 In Free Android Credit, Huge Amazon Game Sale, 4K Samsung, LEDs

Amazon is continuing its assault on your Android device with $10 in free Coins for downloading five free apps. Whether you keep the apps or not is irrelevant; the $10 is yours to use as you see fit on the Amazon App Store. If you haven’t yet downloaded GTA: San Andreas from Amazon, they’re still…

This Is What It Looks Like When A Mammal Hatches From An Egg

The echidna – aka the “spiny anteater” – is a mammal. But unlike almost every other mammal, baby echidnas (aka “puggles,” aka “baby Max Rebos” aka “the most adorable creatures on Earth with four-headed penises“) emerge into the world not from their mother’s wombs, but from eggs. This short clip from a 1974 film called…

Watch Time Evaporate With a Clock That Paints the Hours In Water

It’s probably related to our limited existence on this planet, but mankind has an unmistakable obsession with time. How else would you explain all the energy we put into building countless clocks designed to tick away the seconds, from a simple Timex watch, to this wonderful WaterColorBot that paints every passing minute? The folks over…

The 10 Algorithms That Dominate Our World

The importance of algorithms in our lives today cannot be overstated. They are used virtually everywhere, from financial institutions to dating sites. But some algorithms shape and control our world more than others — and these ten are the most significant. Just a quick refresher before we get started. Though there’s no formal definition, computer…

The Best Fake Movies from Netflix’s Summary Screw-Ups

In what might just be the best bug of all time, Netflix accidentally started mashing up one-sentence summaries from different movies and TV shows. What follows is a list of the most amazing movies you’ll never get to see. The journey seems to have started on May 17th, when the Twitter account @SummaryBug hummed to…