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Cannonball Adderley: Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

“Mercy Mercy Mercy” is a great tune, but it was a surprise mainstream hit. It was written and originally recorded in 1966 and had reached #11 on the Billboard charts by 1967. Later it was covered by The Buckinghams and the Mauds, and was on the charts again. Written by the influential keyboardist and composer…

The Glamour! The Drama! The Full Results of the 2013 Hugo Awards!

The Hugo Awards just happened at San Antonio’s LoneStarCon 3, and it was a night of dramatic reveals. The winners: Game of Thrones! John Scalzi! Tor’s Patrick Nielsen Hayden! Ken Liu! Pat Cadigan! Stanley Schmidt, twice! Brandon Sanderson, twice. And Saga! Full details below. Top image: Kevin Standlee. Paul Cornell MCed the Hugo Awards this…

Surprising No One, But This Time Everyone, Water Is A Great Lubricant

Water is kind of important, right? Basis for life on Earth, defines biomes and weather, etc. And even on a really small scale water continues to strut its stuff. And we’re talking really small. Researchers have found that water is the optimal lubricant for nanomachines one molecule big, aka a few dozen atoms, aka tiny.…

T-600 Is Menacing Even When You Can See Puppeteers Moving It

Stan Winston Schools has released other behind the scenes footage of the T-600 puppet from Terminator Salvation, but this gives a clearer sense of how the animatronics evolved and how important the materials are in any puppet. If it’s not lightweight, but with the stability and feel of whatever it’s representing, it can’t be convincing.…

In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

The shape is both talon and ocean wave, cresting into foam and bone. It seems to move, but also to undermine the very idea of motion. It is about to turn your life into nothing but an insane dream of having once lived. This incredible illustration of R’lyeh comes from the pencils of artist Allen…

Tuberculosis may have been stalking humanity for 70,000 years

Tuberculosis is one of the most common infectious diseases on the planet: about a third of the current global population has had TB. It’s also one of the most deadly. Left untreated, it kills about half of all those it infects. Now it seems the disease could date back to humanity’s origins in Africa. There’s…

Why Is A Cheap Color Sensor Such A Big Deal?

We expect our devices to know what’s going on. Automatic doors, smartphones, temperature control systems and beyond all perform actions when they detect certain conditions. And it seems like it would just be convenient to put cameras on everything so devices could have eyes on all different situations. It would also be creepy, but we’ll…

These Are The Weirdest Dinosaur Statues Ever

No animal deserves a monument more than a dinosaur. That’s why some of the weirdest, biggest, and most awesome (in the original sense of the word) statues in the world are devoted to these extinct beasts. Here are some of the most mind-boggling. Kissing dinosaurs, Erenhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region In the border town between…

Want to follow the Hugo Awards? You can watch them live via UStream (unless it gets taken down again), or read the official liveblog. Plus @WWEnd and @LightspeedMag will Livetweet. Plus check back here for the complete list of winners later this evening!

The Star Wars/Game of Thrones crossover you NEED: Darth Drogo!

What if Khal Drogo, the Dothraki horselord, came over to the Dark Side? It would probably look a lot like this. Behold Darth Drogo by jbcasacop on Deviant Art, the first in a new series called Star Wars: The Throne Wars. Check out the whole thing below. Writes jbcasacop: Dark lord of the Khalasar. I’m…

The mainstream media has finally realized that climate change is real, and that including deniers in their “balanced” coverage is the same thing as including flat-Earthers in an article about globes. So says Phil Plait over at Slate.

Draft script for Doctor Who‘s “The Tenth Planet” has different ending

Almost everyone knows how the Doctor Who story “The Tenth Planet” ends — it’s the last story where William Hartnell plays the mysterious time-traveling Doctor. Except that a newly unearthed draft script by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis leaves out the Doctor’s regeneration. Instead, the climax of the story is much more about the Doctor…

Learn from the future… today! The University of California at Riverside is launching a program in Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies, for people who want to study how science fiction addresses our anxieties around technological change.

CARROT Wakes You Up With Empty Threats…And Some Real Ones

Getting out of bed is the worst. And anyone who says they don’t mind waking up can just leave now. Some of us are employing desperate measures to get going every morning, and a manipulative/verbally abusive alarm clock sounds like just the thing. The makers of the CARROT To-Do list wanted to bring their motivational…

Mars could have developed life more quickly than Earth

Nobody is sure how life emerged from the primordial chemistry of Earth. But now we have more evidence that Earthlike life could have evolved on Mars. Illustration of Mars today and Mars several billion years ago, by Kevin Gill It all has to do with phosphates, minerals that are crucial for building DNA, cell membranes,…

Did you know that the classic Clash song “London Calling” was actually about climate change? That’s what the original band members say in a fascinating interview with the Wall Street Journal. According to Mick Jones, who co-wrote the song with the late Joe Strummer: The initial inspiration for the song “London Calling” wasn’t British politics.…

The Most Intrepid Superhero Spaceships

On Earth, superheroes can soar through the air and swing through the urban jungle like Tarzan. But when costumed crime-fighters go into deep space, they often need a ship to zoom around in. Here’s a round up of insane and awesome superhero space vehicles. Note: This doesn’t include most of the actual “space heroes,” like…

What a Sweltering City Really Looks Like in the Summer

It seems like it’s always hot here in NYC, but it’s not only when the oppressive sun is beating down. No, the buildings like to help spread the love around by hoarding the heat and dishing it out themselves. This is what it looks like. Taken by Nickolay Lamm from StorageFront.com, these thermal images show…

What Do People Do On Labor Day?

Instead of the typical lazy, under-achieving feelings, we all get to be pleased with ourselves tomorrow. We’re making productive contributions to the work force, or we’re trying to, and every little bit counts! But Labor Day kind of has an identity problem. The overeager summer obsession from Memorial Day is long gone and there isn’t…

Corn syrup has weird and beautiful powers over light

Corn syrup may be sending us toward a slow death, but in the meantime, it can create pretty swirling colors. Why? Because it’s an optically active material, and can turn polarized light into a rainbow. When light comes in from the sun, or from conventional light bulbs, its waves are jiggling in all different directions.…