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Sophisticated chatbot poses as teenage girl to lure pedophiles

Spanish researchers have developed an advanced — and extremely convincing — chatbot that poses as a 14-year-old girl. Called Negobot, the system will help authorities detect sexual predators in chatrooms and social networks. To sniff out pedophilic behavior, the “conversational agent” utilizes natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and even game theory — a…

Prepare for a Nerf apocalypse with the new Zombie Strike line!

Who says the zombie apocalypse can’t be fun? io9 is proud to bring you the exclusive reveal of Nerf’s awesome new Zombie Strike line, featuring shotguns, crossbow, swords and more. All aspiring zombie hunters are going to want to get their hands on these ASAP, so check out the entire 2013-14 line-up! Above is the…

Holy crap this waterspout is enormous

A positively massive and downright otherworldy waterspout vortex formed over Tampa Bay, Florida on Tuesday. WDRB meteorologist Jeremy Kappell shared the above photograph to Facebook. Said one commenter: “Thats freakin aliens stealing our water………” In fact, waterspouts are just non-supercell tornados that form over water. Via the American Meteorological Society: Waterspouts occur most frequently in…

This Is (Almost Certainly) What Nokia’s Lumia 1020 Will Look Like (Update: Video too!)

We’ve already seen a leaked set of specs ahead of today’s expected launch of Nokia’s new Lumia 1020. But now the Verge has come across press shots and final specs for the new phone. According to the Verge, the 1020 will pack a 41-megapixel camera with PureView branding, a 4.5-inch AMOLED display, 2GB of RAM,…

The BBC’s Doctor Who docudrama gets the first Doctor exactly right

Shockingly, that’s not an old picture of William Hartnell as the first Doctor. That’s actor David Bradley as Hartnell, in the first promo picture for Mark Gatiss’ An Adventure in Time and Space, the docudrama retelling the creation of Doctor Who. Bradley — who you might recognize as cranky janitorial staffer Argus Filch from the…

A Massive Glacial Crack Just Made an Iceberg as Big as New York City

A massive crack in the Pine Island glacier (PIG) in Antarctica has created a massive iceberg—which is as big as New York City. While cracks in glaciers are common—PIG cracked in 2001 and 2007—this one took longer to propagate, which meant that more ice has accumulated by the time giant iceberg broke away. The German…

What is the evolutionary advantage of death?

Taxes may be inevitable, but death is an evolutionary puzzle. Owl skeleton photographed by mugley, via The Conversation We are all getting older. The average human lifespan has doubled in the past one hundred years, prompting claims that 60 is the new 40 and 50 the new 20. But decade relabelling aside, we are still…

Futurama gets a current event just right

“The Inhuman Torch” shows off how fun Futurama is when it features a great parody of current events. It stumbles, a little, when it comes to the relationships in the show — but at least it has Zapp Brannigan. It starts with Zapp showing off his trademark incompetence as he collapses a mine shaft into…

Rare Egyptian Sphinx discovered in Israel — well, its paws, anyway

Archaeologists working at a site in Tel Hazor National Park in north Israel have unearthed the base of a unique sphinx. It features a hieroglyphic inscription linking it to an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was one of the builders of the Giza pyramids. These adorable little paws date back to 2,500 BCE. It was discovered…

Lumia 1020 Spec Leak: 41 Megapixels, 1.5GHz Chip, 4.5-Inch Screen

A supposed spec sheet for the forthcoming Nokia Lumia 1020 has popped up online, confirming, if it’s to be believed, that the 1020 will indeed be a photography-themed device, powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon chipset on a modest 4.5-inch 1280 x 768 display. As we’ve seen in apparent photos taken with the device, the…

Could Arrow‘s Stephen Amell join the big-screen Justice League?

Summer Glau is joining another genre TV show, and Sean Astin is starring in Guillermo del Toro’s vampire TV show. Check out another clip from The Wolverine, plus Hercules and Transformers 4 set photos. Plus, Jonathan Nolan drops hints about Person of Interest and Legend of Korra adds a ton of characters. Spoilers now! Hercules…

Following a deluge of complaints about the lack of an offline maps button in the new Maps app for Android, Google engineers have brought it back. The update is being pushed out now.

This Is How a Transistor Works

Transistors are the magical electronic components that make your computer, smartphone and virtually every other gadget on the planet function—but how the hell do they work? One word: semiconductors. But if that means nothing to you, then you should watch this video—which offers up a great explanation of the science behind transistors. You’ll never have…

IFTTT’s New iOS App Mines and Automates Your Entire Phone

If This, Then That (IFTTT) is a pretty clever system for linking data flows between websites—but until now it’s only been available on the web. Now, it’s been made available for iOS, and it looks set to mine and automate your entire phone. The new app brings plenty of the web-based features to iPhone, allowing…

Humorous HTML Greeting Cards Are the Route to Any Geek’s Heart

If there’s a way to any geek’s heart, it’s through a dubious HTML-based joke—which is why these greeting cards are the perfect way to tell your loved ones exactly what you’re thinking. Put together by Athens-based designer Costas Papaconstantinou, these Coding Cards use strong colors and bold fonts to spell out their geeky messages. They…

A Guy Fawkes Mask for Every Skin Tone, Gender, Culture and More

The creeptastic Guy Fawkes mask has become synonymous with Anonymous, protesting and basically any group that is trying to fight against injustice. But why does a Guy Fawkes mask have to just be one white male face? Can’t it be represented in different genders and ethnicities and cultures? Maybe! ANIMAL came up with a bunch…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Offering Athena (NSFW)

La Fura dels Baus, the Monegros des Art festival, is billed asa the biggest rave in Spain. This 20-hour marathon party will host 40,000 people and include massive live theater acts as well as the oontz-oontz. As part of “Aphrodite and the Judgment of Paris,” a live performance wherein the audience observes the entire production…

LG’s World’s Slimmest 1080p Display Is Impossibly Thin

With everyone racing to become the thinnest, slimmest thing in technology, LG just showed off how skinny it has gotten. Millimeters matter man! LG’s new 1080p HD display is perfect for giganto smartphones at 5.2-inches big and just 2.2mm thin. On top of that, it only has a 2.3mm bezel which makes it practically floating…

How to Make Awesome Green Slime

Here’s a super quick and fun project you can make with your inner kid (or your real kid, if you have one): make perfectly green slime that oozes and gets gooey in all the right places. It’s Nickelodeon in a homemade toy. It’s realistic mutant plasma that makes you feel as if you’ve murdered an…

WSJ: Google Is Spending $500 Million to Advertise the Upcoming Moto X

The WSJ is reporting that Google is ready to dump half a billion dollars in marketing for the upcoming Moto X. That’s a huge chunk of change. Supposedly, the Moto X will be available on all four major carriers, free of most of those carriers crapware and will come in different colors. The flagship Moto…