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Don’t Giggle at Some of the Unusual Ways Giraffes Can Die

Featuring stunning proof that life sometimes imitates Far Side cartoons, this short piece on unusual giraffe deaths takes us through all the ways a creature with a long neck and no hands can perish, and there are some doozies. This one comes to us by way of Alexis Madrigal’s newsletter, Real Future. The post, courtesy…

Watch how Photoshop magically transforms Halloween costumes into the real X-Men

Everyone should celebrate Halloween with graphic designers or expert Photoshoppers because they can turn silly group pictures on Halloween into a truly epic photo that looks more like a movie poster than something you’d be embarrassed to have on Facebook. Designers at Clearlink dressed up under an X-Men theme and then Photoshopped a group photo…

We’re One Step Closer to Green Rocket Fuel

Is it possible to have an eco-conscious rocket? While that may seem like a laughable concept, NASA is testing new green propellants to replace hydrazine, the current toxic and corrosive standard moseying around space. Nearly every satellite depends on hydrazine, the highly toxic and corrosive fuel that played a starring role in The Martian. NASA…

There Could Be Plans For More X-Files—Without Mulder And Scully

Lego Batman gets a butler. Tim Miller discusses which mutants could have been part of Deadpool. Andrew Kreisberg teases Cyborg Superman on Supergirl. Greg Nicotero thinks it’s unlikely a certain Walking Dead character will ever lose a limb. Plus, details on Rob Thomas’ new sci-fi show on The CW. Spoilers Now! Deadpool Director Tim Miller…

Sugar Molecules May Be the Key to Safer Chemo

The ability to aim chemotherapy drugs at cancer cells – and just cancer cells – has been a goal for medical researchers for a long time. So is the recent discovery of a malaria protein that appears to target the tumour and not the patient’s normal cells a significant step forward in the arms race…

Google Security Research Found 11 High-Impact Flaws on the Galaxy S6 Edge

Google’s Project Zero security team recently turned its attention to Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge, and the results make for awkward reading: it found it found a total of “11 high-impact security issues” with the smartphone, with OEM software introducing new vulnerabilities. In a blog post, the team details its findings and describes its motivations for…

Google’s EU Antitrust Defence: Search Is Free So Stop Complaining

Google says it shouldn’t be punished for allegedly abusing its search dominance in Europe because it provides a free service to users. The European Commission wants to slap the company with a hefty fine — possibly as high as $6.6 billion — but, Big G is convinced that the charges won’t stick. EU antitrust regulators…

Sprint’s parent company, Softbank, is struggling to turn as much profit as it would like. Sadly, the U.S. carrier is set to shoulder some of the responsibility—with “thousands” of jobs to be cut, according the Wall Street Journal.

China Burns a Lot More Coal Than It’s Claimed in the Past

It’s come to light that China has been burning up to 17 percent more coal than its Government has previously claimed — pumping up to 1 billion more tons of carbon than expected into the atmosphere every year. The figures, which come ahead of the international climate talks to be held in Paris at the…

You Can Finally Buy a Dedicated Hardware Emoji Keyboard

Communicating via the written word can sometimes fail to communicate the nuances of human emotion. For those times, there are emoji—and now you can actually buy a dedicated hardware emoji keyboard to help. The concept of an emoji keyboard is nothing new, for sure, but this is the first dedicated, self-contained emoji hardware keyboard we’ve…

San Francisco Has Voted Against Limits on Airbnb Rentals

San Francisco’s attempt to more tightly control services like Airbnb has been voted down in a city-wide ballot. The proposed initiative, Proposition F, was ambitious. It aimed to limit the total amount of time a propriety could be rented out for to just 75 days per year, as well as imposing severe fines for those…

Do Trees Really Help Clean the Air in Our Cities?

It may sound like a no-brainer to say that trees improve air quality. After all, we know that trees absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO₂), and that their leaves can trap the toxic pollutants nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), ozone, and harmful microscopic particles produced by diesel vehicles, cooking and wood burning. Yet some recent studies…

Man Hires ‘Hacker’ Through Craigslist, Actually Hires Undercover Cop

In case you’re ever in a situation where you think hiring a hacker off Craigslist will improve things, just remember: you’re more likely to get an undercover police officer instead. Lancaster PA native Zachary Landis had $16,000 in outstanding fines to Lancaster County in relation to a string of DUIs and assaults. So, he placed…

Painful Failure for First Launch of U.S. Air Force Rocket from Hawaii

During its first trial launch tonight, the U.S. Air Force’s experimental Super Strypi did not make it to space. Instead, it seems to have suffered a ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly’ somewhere over Hawaii, which in normal-people speak means the $45 million rocket blew up. The rocket launched around 2245 EST this evening. From the looks ofthis…

Wireless Charging Standards Just Got Slightly Less Confusing, Still Suck

While regular people have spent the last five years wondering what’s wrong with cables, the nascent wireless charging industry has been battling over standards. Thanks to a recent industry shakeup, there are now only two different types of wireless charging for everyone to ignore. Two of the big names in the game, the Alliance for…

Ryan Reynolds Trolls Pint-Sized X-Men In “How Deadpool Spent Halloween”

Ryan Reynolds dressed up as Deadpool for a Halloween video in which he tries to unite a motley crew of kid X-Men, Deadpool-style. The video is a promo for Reynolds’ Deadpool movie (which comes out in February), and the actor doesn’t break from full-on Deadpool—meaning he’s foul-mouthed, sarcastic and super-talkative. Watch Reynolds’ Deadpool try to…

Why Hollywood Protects Its Sign So Fiercely

Trademark law can be a tricky thing, but people normally have a good idea when they’re illegally using a likeness. Wait, you do know that filming the Hollywood sign without permission can get you sued, right? As Tom Scott explains, trademark rights don’t expire as long as the property is in use. That means that…

Alexander Skarsgard and Paul Rudd Have Been Cast In Duncan Jones’ Mute

Casting news just dropped for director Duncan Jones’ new science fiction thriller, and it’s two of our favorite fantastical leading men. Plus we’ve got a Mute synopsis. Deep breaths. It’s no secret that we loved Duncan Jones’ Moon ‘round these parts, and that we’re excited for his upcoming project, Mute. Well, we just got wind…

How the Hell Did This Happen?

It’s been a rough year for snakes eating things. Sure, any halfwit could’ve told that python eating a porcupine was a bad call, but apparently, snacking on your own kind is, too. What’s next, we’re not allowed to eat bacon anymore?! It’s not clear what exactly happened between these two snakes, which were photographed by…

This Shot-By-Shot Comparison of Old and New Mad Max Is a Blast

Reboots are hard. It’s hard to find the sweet spot between paying tribute to the original while improving upon it at the same time. Watching a shot-by-shot comparison of the original Mad Max and Fury Road, however, reveals what a great sequel can be. Compiled by Vimeo user whoispablo, this split screen investigation into the…