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Bots show how tough environments affect evolution

Animals come in sorts of shapes and sizes, but why they have to be so different from each other remains a mystery to evolutionary biologists. But a recent computer simulation suggests that body types remain simple when placed in simple environments, but evolve into complex shapes when things get challenging. Evolutionary biologists are interested in…

The proposal to put a bikes-only highway high over London

Will London soon have a bikes-only highway rising high over the city? Well, maybe. The plans have been released, but whether it will actually be built is up in the air. The Guardian explains the plan for the the 136 mile bike-path, dubbed SkyCycle by Norman Foster, the architect behind it: SkyCycle proposes a network…

The “screw you” effect and other perils of informed volunteers

It’s important to keep experimental subjects in the dark; this isn’t hard when they’re rats, but can be challenging when they’re humans. An informed human being can do a lot of damage to your experiment. A misinformed one can do even more. Demand Characteristics An ideal experiment calls for the experimenter to disappear. Subjects are…

Frogs are not okay with being slowly boiled alive, metaphors be damned

Many people have heard the old metaphor about the frog; if you put one in boiling water it will hop out, but if you gradually increase the temperature of the water it will let itself be boiled. It’s meant to warn us about slowly developing dangers in addition to obvious ones. As metaphors go, a…

The GIF Party goes on, come rain or snow

Outside may be cold and snowy, but here in the GIF Party, it’s… well, also cold and snowy. But come on in anyways! How are the conditions out where you are today? Has your day been called on an account of snow? Show us what’s going on (or just any of your favorite GIFS, really)…

You’ve Never Seen Pi Look So Interesting in So Many Ways

Martin Krzywinski is an artist. No, wait, he’s a mathematician. Actually, scratch that: he’s both, and he can make the number Pi look insanely beautiful. In this video, Numberphile takes a look at his work on visualizing the magical number Pi. Some of them are simple, some are complex; all are beautiful. Sit back and…

Try not to get too excited about these Agent Carter TV series rumors

Please take this with an iceberg-sized grain of salt: The Mirror claims that Hayley Atwell has signed the lead role and is moving to Los Angeles to film that rumored Agent Carter TV series to premiere later this year. As much as I would love this to be true, I’m pretty sure it isn’t. See,…

The U.S. Northeast’s gigantic snow storm as seen from space

The NOAA has released a satellite photo of the massive storm that’s currently wreaking havoc across the U.S. northeast. It’s a bad one folks, with snow accumulation reaching one to two feet in some areas and temperatures dropping as low as -13F (-25C). Some 2,300 flights have already been cancelled, with hundreds more likely to…

Move Over, Virtual Reality: Is Mixed Reality the Future?

Virtual Reality has promised big since the 80s, but never quite delivered in the way many of us hoped it would. Now, though, a new form of augmented reality called Mixed Reality hopes to up the game. New Scientist reports that researchers from University College London have modified an Oculus Rift headset to combine real-time…

Is the next Marvel One-Shot going to be all about Loki?

A Captain America: Winter Soldier writer explains why Cap has no character arc of his own. The Walking Dead has a new poster. And new Dracula photos show the show getting its corpse on. Plus, new photos from Arrow and Tomorrow People. Spoilers now! Captain America: The Winter Soldier Co-writer Christopher Markus explained that Captain…

This Is the Sticker That Should Really Be on Your New Computer

Because this. [Bruce Sterling via Boing Boing]

Watch Mars Curiosity’s clever wheels and suspension system in action

In case there was any doubt, the engineers at JPL did an amazing job: Just look at how the the Mars Curiosity Rover deals with the red planet’s bumpy terrainin this time-lapse GIF, taken from the Left Navcam pointed down at the wheels in motion.

DreamWorks Dreamtab: A $300 Android Tab for Kids Full of Cool Content

DreamWorks has teamed up with hardware manufacturer Fuhu to produce an Android tablet specifically for kids, which will be regularly updated with exclusive content from the animation studio. The announcement, made in the New York Times, reveals that an 8-inch tablet will cost “under $300” and be available in spring, with a 12-inch version “also…

Rumor: YouTube Will Debut Low-Bandwidth 4K Streaming Next Week

Watching 4K video is wonderful and all, but with streaming increasingly popular and data caps largely still in place, it also still seems impractical. Not for long, though, if rumors of YouTube’s latest schemes are to be believed. A report by GigaOM claims that YouTube will demonstrate a new 4K streaming technology at CES next…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Free Fall Suspension

So apparently there’s a world record for bungee jumping with the base of the bungee cord embedded into the flesh of your back. To set it, you’ve just got to top this guy’s record-setting 170 meter base jump and not have the hooks tear out.

First Veronica Mars trailer fills us with squee

It’s the first trailer for the Veronica Mars movie, and things are looking damn good. Of course there’s a ten-year high school reunion, and of course bad boy Logan is involved in a murder scandal. And Veronica is kicking ass. Everybody is in this trailer — all your favorite characters from the show, including ones…

Hilarious guy recreates famous movie scenes with a dog

How do you top a couple that recreates movie scenes with their adorable baby? By recreating famous scenes with a dog. Yeah, it’s beautiful inspired work that should make us all want to grab our pet best friend in a warm embrace like Gosling did to McAdams. Redditor user mmsspp is the awesome guy in…

How Daft Punk made One More Time from a sample they say they never used

One more time. Even if you wear earplugs, turn off the radio and stay away from noisy clubs, you know Daft Punk’s song ‘One More Time’. It’s one of those songs that seems to be inserted into the memory of every human who has existed since the year 2000. Here, EDM producer Sadowick Production reveals…

This swarming horde of black stealth fighter jets is not a movie scene

We’re not preparing to fight the aliens. This isn’t a scene from Independence Day 2. It’s just a throwback photo of 25—yes, twenty five—Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk black stealth fighter jets celebrating its 25th anniversary back in 2006. What a beautifully intimidating celebration of power it was. According to The Aviationist, the jets flew over Heritage…

In a special article for the Washington Post Dr. [Thomas E.] Phipps used a series of analytical formulas based largely on past history and population growth to show “by the present calculations, the number of presidential assassinations will by the year 2014 reach one on the average of every four years.” — UPI White House…