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Johnny Depp In Talks To Join Neil Gaiman’s Fortunately, The Milk Film 

This is neat: Johnny Depp is in discussions to join Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book Fortunately, The Milk. Written by Gaiman and illustrated by Skottie Young, the short book follows a brother and sister as they discover that their house is missing milk. When their father goes out and returns, his story…

This Globe-Within-a-Globe is Essential to Navigating in Space

While this may look like a snapshot from an alternate futuristic-history of transparent overlays on mechanical globes, it’s a real moment from our past. This is John Glenn cramming in off-world navigation training just weeks before blasting off from Earth. In February 1962, John Glenn squeezed in a bit more time with this globe-within-a-globe, a…

Canadian Netflix Subscribers Will Be The First To Stream The Force Awakens

Canadians rejoice: in 2016, the next installment of the Star Wars saga will be available to stream on Netflix. According to Variety, The Force Awakens will hit Netflix in Canada “approximately eight months after the movie leaves theaters.” Why Canada? Apparently it comes down to prior agreements. Disney has existing agreements with Starz, although it…

This is What the Strongest Tropical Cyclone Ever Recorded Looked Like From Space

Yesterday, NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed over Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured, and captured this stunning image in infrared. Hurricane Patricia made landfall on the Pacific coast of Mexico last night, and was downgraded to a tropical storm earlier this morning. The storm is remarkable not only in terms of how…

RIP Harriet Klausner, The Web’s Most Prolific Book Reviewer

If you’ve ever perused book reviews on Amazon.com, you’ve probably come across a name on just about every novel out there: Harriet Klausner. By the time she passed away on October 15th, she amassed an incredible 31,014 reviews. A self-described speed reader, Klausner was a former librarian who tore through four to six books a…

Hurricane Patricia, Live

One of the most powerful storms ever is hitting populated land right now, and none of the major media networks have live coverage. Let’s assemble the best of social media from the storm, and keep it live right here. I’ll update this throughout the night as best I can. And you can help! Post pictures,…

We Can’t Stop Watching This Video of Flowing Sand Art 

Take two panes of glass and glue them together with liquid and sand in between, and you’ve got the makings of some eye-popping dynamic sandscape art. For the above video, Joey Shanks (Shanks FX, in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios) worked with three different frames to get the effects he wanted, but the same principles…

Write a Short Story About Climate Change, And Win $1000!

Arizona State University, the folks who brought you the Hieroglyph anthology of optimistic science fiction, is now hosting a writing contest for stories about the Earth after climate change. And Kim Stanley Robinson is judging the contest! In addition to a $1000 prize for the grand prize winner, the Hieroglyph climate-fiction story contest has a…

Friday the 13th Part 4 Is the Best Friday the 13th Movie

A bold statement. But a true one. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is the best Friday the 13th film, and I say that as a diehard fan of Betsy “Mrs. Voorhees” Palmer. Here are all the reasons why part four is number one. It Acknowledges What Came Before … Then Moves Forward In an…

Watch people’s tattoos transform into animations with cool 3D body mapping

What’s cooler looking than tattoos? Tattoos that can move. Check out this awesome “ink mapping” by Oskar & Gaspar. They map a person’s body and transform their tattoos into kick ass animations that incorporate the tattoos’ original design. Basically, a person’s skin becomes the canvas for moving art. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us…

The Mind Behind Hannibal is Bringing Amazing Stories Back

In the mid-Eighties, Steven Spielberg created and produced an anthology show called Amazing Stories. Each week, a new tale dealing with the supernatural or fantastic was told, totally unrelated to the previous week. Now, it’s coming back with the help of Bryan Fuller. Entertainment Weekly broke the news of the return of Amazing Stories, which…

Steve Jobs Is a Very Entertaining Movie About How It’s OK to Be an Asshole

Five minutes into Steve Jobs, I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I am, indeed, a product of the attention-deficit generation whose mind was ruined by the “beautiful” ideas of Steve Jobs. I’ve heard the stories about Jobs’ meticulous obsession with details, and his mercurial, uncompromising personality. How could I not? They’ve been etched…

Fantastically Nerdy Science Humor Magazine Goes Digital

After 21 years, the Annals of Improbable Research — that bastion of uber-nerdy science humor — is switching from a dead tree format to an all-digital PDF format. And it’s holding a special subscription sale to celebrate. From now until October 31, you can get a yearly subscription (six issues) for just $15/year, instead of…

This Music Video Is a Like Playing a Video Game on Acid

I’m not saying that Pixelord’s “Rescue Cyber Party” is something you should watch while on drugs. I am saying that it looks like the personification of drugs. [Vimeo] Contact the author at [email protected].

LA High School Students Will Help Test the Region’s New Earthquake Early Warning System

Although we’re not 99.9% sure when an earthquake will strike in Los Angeles, an earthquake early warning system would help the city take additional precautions and almost certainly save lives. A group of high school students is partnering with the USGS to test how it might work. Students at Eagle Rock High School, in Northeast…

The fun sparkling spiral of a spinning ball drenched in water

It’s always fun when the least complicated thing—this is just a ball soaked in water thrown in the air by the Slow Mo Guys—makes for such a spectacular visual in slow motion. The spiral of the foam ball is awesome as it jets out all the water it was holding inside. Plus, the droplets of…

There Will Be No Twilight Zone In A New Tower of Terror Movie

Anyone who has been to a Disney theme park has probably screamed on Tower of Terror, the Twilight Zone-inspired elevator drop ride. It was turned into a 1997 TV movie and now, it’s getting remade, but without that iconic show attached. Deadline reports celebrated writer John August (Big Fish, Go) has done a treatment of…

Catch 22 Déjà Vu: Court Rejects NSA Spying Case for Lack of Proof 

Imagine you know your neighbor is spying on you, and you sue them, but your case gets dismissed for lack of evidence. Then a few months later your creepo neighbor gets doxxed and his emails outline his elaborate plan for neighbor-stalking. You sue again. You’re gonna win, right? A federal district court dismissed a case…

GIFs of Life in Zero-Gee Almost Make Space Look Fun

Being an astronaut may sound glamorous, but for the most part, life in space is utter tedium—checking systems logs, labeling test tubes for routine science experiments. Not to mention the fact that simple things like using the toilet and running on a treadmill require monk-like patience and bungee cords. Every now and then, however, astronauts…

How Playboy helped save science fiction. Not only did Playboy provide a huge audience for science fiction stories during the publishing crash of the late 1950s, but the mag also helped keep short SF mainstreamwith its focus on “beginnings, middles and ends.” Our own Andrew Liptak explains.