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Just what kind of movie is Godzilla anyway?

Is it horror, action-adventure, disaster porn, a superhero flick, an old-school monster movie, or some mix of all of these? After watching the trailer for the newest Godzilla movie (which you should seriously check out now, if you haven’t yet already), a question arose about just which category a movie like Godzilla belonged in: https://gizmodo.com/new-trailer-showcases-godzilla-vs-a-very-pissed-off-br-1530711756…

Hilarious monkey steals a GoPro camera and takes a selfie

Hey Mister Man, what are you doing filming us with that camera over there. Hey Mister Man, I don’t appreciate you tempting me with food to trick me into dancing like a monkey. Hey Mister Man, that’s it, I’m stealing your camera. That’s—I’m assuming—what went through the head of this funny little monkey in Bali…

Flying man in wingsuit comes close to crashing into Rio’s Jesus statue

A good policy on all wingsuit jumps is to never crash into anything. A secondary policy to follow would be if you do crash into something, make sure it’s soft and not Rio de Janeiro’s 125-foot tall Christ the Redeemer statue. Jesus Christ may be forgiving but his statue made of 635 metric tons of…

This Expensive Perfume Smells Like Pot In The Classiest Way Possible

Richard E. Grant is a noted teetotaler who played one of cinema’s greatest lushes in Withnail and I. Now, the actor is shifting gears by introducing Jack, a British-branded, pot-scented perfume, that—well, it’s like he went all Mad Libs on his next career move, because this just seems bizarre. Of course, Grant is not the…

Starlog Magazine is available for free online!

It’s still one of the greatest magazines about science fiction of all time, and you can read Starlog for free over at the Internet Archive. The first issue includes a great look at Star Trek from the perspective of a mid-1970s fan, plus a look at how Space: 1999 is changing in its second season.…

This cute stop motion animation was made entirely with drops of water

Who knew a sad story told through water drops can be so fun to watch? This stop motion animation called Cachoeira (which means waterfall in Portuguese) by Rodrigo EBA! is illustrated with a little droplet man in a little droplet car trying to take a dip in a little droplet waterfall. I find it adorable.…

Just another reason why tardigrades are the best micro-animals

Nicknamed water bears and moss piglets, the tiny creatures called tardigrades are adorable under the laser scanning microscope. Plus they can survive in the vacuum of space. Image by Andreas Schmidt-Rhaesa, Corinna Schulze and Ricardo Neves/Nikon Small World The biggest tardigrades never get to be more than about 1.5 mm long, and most of them…

Who are the other monsters in the new Godzilla trailer?

The first official Godzilla trailer with actual movie footage was released today — and already we think we’re spotting a whole lot more than just Godzilla. See for yourself! https://gizmodo.com/new-trailer-showcases-godzilla-vs-a-very-pissed-off-br-1530711756 It’s no big secret that the Godzilla reboot would have additional Kaiju. Director Gareth Edwards has long been teasing the idea of multiple monsters: “I’d…

The Opening Sentences of Classic Novels, Diagrammed

How does the first line of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road compare grammatically of those of George Orwell’s 1984, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451? They all get the Reed-Kellogg sentence diagramming treatment in this grammatical series. Pop Chart Lab put together a poster of opening sentence diagrams, taking lines from 25…

Geniuses created a robot that plays Flappy Bird better than humans

Suck at Flappy Bird? Don’t worry, most humans do. Even if you’re smart, the game is so silly it won’t reward your intelligence. But do you know how you could outsmart Flappy Bird? By building a Flappy Bird terminator. Two guys from China used their frustration to make a robot who basically kicks ass at…

The​ drought in Brazil could cause a global coffee shortage

DON’T PANIC, coffee-drinkers. But Brazil is facing an epic drought, having just wrapped up one of the driest months on record — and the bad news could be making its way right into your (empty) coffee cup. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee by far, but this year the drought and hot temperatures…

Dancing baby stingrays are super cute but they freak the hell out of me

Awwwww, look at these little alien angels dancing and moving their tiny feet. They are so cute! Too bad they’re really trying to destroy that aquarium glass to rip your throat and suck all your blood through the aorta. OK, so they won’t really do that but they’re totally thinking about it. See what I…

Are elevated bicycle highways the future of transportation?

Bicycles are an amazing form of transportation — they get you from A to B quickly, without harming the environment, and they’re terrific exercise. But biking in a city or on a highway can also be dangerous. So for over 100 years, people have designed elevated highways just for bikes — and a couple of…

California Couple Finds Time Capsules Worth $10 Million

A couple in Northern California recently uncovered a time capsule hunter’s dream: six metal canisters filled with rare coins, valued at about $10 million. The canisters were filled with a total of 1,427 coins, all dating from 1847 to 1894. The face-value of the coins only adds up to about $27,000. But the fact that…

Skate Tricks Look Even Gnarlier From the Skateboard’s-Eye View

From the usual viewer’s vantage point, it’s hard to appreciate the violent physics of a really great series of skate park tricks. That’s why this video shot from underneath pro skater Dean-Paul Denniston’s board is so mesmerizing: you get a front-row seat to all the grinding, slamming, kickflipping action. Amazingly, the individual moves that go…

Take a dip in the salty waters of the Dead Sea, visit a surprisingly musical milking parlor, get swept away by the surreal majesty of “underwater rivers,” and go birding in the urban alleyways of Cambodia—all in this week’s landscape reads. A Ridiculous and Audacious Plan to Save the Dead Sea Could the Dead Sea…

Morgan Stanley Thinks Self-Driving Cars Will Bring Utopia by 2026

The term “techno-utopian” is helpful for referring to people who believe technology alone can solve the world’s problems. The term is rarely used literally. But if the financial services company Morgan Stanley is to be believed, driverless cars will literally bring about a utopian society in just over a decade. Business Insider has this slide…

Tacos, Moviefone, and Vibrators: My Most Interesting OkCupid Date Ever

I was excited about this one. It had been a while since I’d dusted off the old OkCupid profile. I’d been working a lot and thinking about my ex too much, and this girl looked cute. So, when she actually agreed to a date, I was thrilled. This one felt important! She suggested brunch, which…

Almost Human strives for a Gattaca future, but it doesn’t quite connect

This week’s Almost Human takes us back into the world of the beautiful and brilliant genetically engineered “chromes”—people whose parents used their wealth an prestige to purchase perfect lives. But in a world where perfection can be achieved through technology, some people will do anything to become perfect. This episode embodies so many of my…

Sony wants to release a Spider-Man-related movie. Every. Single. Year.

Too much Spider-Man is not enough — at least, not according to Sony. The studio says it wants to release a Spider-Man movie, or a Spidey spinoff, every year. Like clockwork. Because with a great media property comes great overkill. This fact comes from a Variety article about the fact that Sony needs more big…