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Meet The New Characters Who Will Join Game Of Thrones In Season 5

It’s usually a pretty safe bet that not all of the stars of Game of Thrones will survive though the season finale, and as always, more new players will arrive next season to replenish the ranks. Based on the casting info, here are the new faces that will be joining season 5. These characters will…

This Hyperspectral Eye in the Sky Gives Police Planes X-Ray Vision

Unless your home planet is Krypton, seeing through solid objects is a bit of a challenge. However, with these airborne infrared peepers, everyone from law enforcement to the military to energy production companies will soon be able to spot hidden dangers in real-time. Hyperspectral (HSI) sensors collect visual data over a wide swath of the…

More Evidence That Longevity Depends on Your State of Mind

We all know that having goals is important, but a joint US-Canadian study reveals that having a sense of purpose can affect our longevity. Remarkably, it doesn’t matter how old we are or what we aspire to — as long as we have goals, we live longer. Psychologists have known for some time that a…

The Fermi Paradox: Where the Hell Are the Other Earths?

Everyone feels something when they’re in a really good starry place a really good starry place on a really good starry night and they look up and see this: Some people stick with the traditional, feeling struck by the epic beauty or blown away by the insane scale of the universe. Personally, I go for…

The terrifying view of a slackline walker between hot air balloons

We’ve seen this stunt before: a daredevil with nerves of steel and absolutely zero fear of heights walks a slackline strung between two hot air balloons. But until today, we’d never seen it from the walker’s-eye view. Deep breaths. Deep, terrified breaths. Stunt superhero Andy Lewis clearly has the balance of a ninja, but even…

Report: Samsung Is Still Working on a Smartwatch That Is Also a Phone

In the lead up to the announcement of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear, there were rumors aplenty that this would be the device that would satiate the strangest of nerdom’s appetites: a watch that is a phone. The Galaxy Gear was not that at all, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Samsung is not done quite…

The Ring Nebula Stretches Filaments of Gas into the Darkness

The visible-light Hubble Space Telescope images of the Ring Nebula are iconic enough, but layering on infrared data brings out even more detailed structure. This is a composite of the visual-light observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, paired with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years…

Frequencies Asks, “What If Physics Determined The Laws Of Attraction?”

Loosely inspired by the theoretical physics work of Stephen Wolfram, the new movie Frequencies is set in a future where your romantic destiny is predetermined by science. Will tampering with the algorithm of love destroy or unite society? We’re premiering a special “alt” trailer for the movie’s big debut. Check it out. Here’s the official…

Why Screenwriter Gary Whitta’s Rant Proves He’s Perfect For Star Wars

In addition to naming Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards as the director of the first Star Wars spin-off, Disney also announced that Gary Whitta (above), screenwriter of the excellent The Book of Eli and the not excellent After Earth. But one particular rant has us convinced Whitta is going to do his Star Wars movie right. In…

The Army Is Redesigning Its Smoke Grenade For the First Time Since WWII

Despite the billions upon billions of dollars funneled into the hungry maw of the military over the past 70 years, some technology has remained the same since World War II—including the smoke grenade. Now, the Army is choosing a new version that, in theory, will be slightly less toxic than the “classic” model. According to…

Why Do Cycling Startups Use Crappy Bikes in Press Shots?

Selling a product is as much about selling a lifestyle and consumer confidence in the product as anything else. So we’re dismayed by the fact that an awful lot of cycling startups seem to persuade us to use their products with press shots featuring the crappiest of bicycles. If a company developing a cycling product…

Disney’s new Big Hero 6 looks gorgeous

Here is the first trailer for Big Hero 6—Disney’s first attempt to make an animated series using Marvel characters. The movie is based on material from the fairly obscure comic of the same name and this short clip sees the protagonist, Hiro Hamada, attempting to dress his homemade robot Baymax. The movie is set in…

Causes of death across all age groups in the United States

Here’s a fascinating look at the different causes of death across all age groups in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is data from 2010—the latest compilation. There’s many more interesting graphics. Evolution of death causes since 1958 Rate of deaths per age group Life expectancy evolution by…

Report: the NSA Is Recording Nearly Every Phone Call Made in Afghanistan

At the beginning of the week, reports from The Intercept revealed that the National Security Agency has been recording nearly every phone call made in the Bahamas and “another country.” Today, WikiLeaks released a statement saying that the other country is, in fact, Afghanistan. In its original report, The Intercept didn’t reveal Afghanistan was part…

It’s GIF Party Time! Come On In!

Cheer up, GIFs! It’s time for your party. What do you have planned for this week? Tell us about any upcoming travel plans, the things you’re looking forward to, and just which GIFs you’ve chosen to accompany you through it all. H/T Hands of Orlok for this week’s GIF.

When Amazon Plays Dirty, You Lose

Amazon sends everything you could possibly need or want to your door in two days. That’s in addition to a growing stable of movies and TV shows, all for a great price. It’s easy to fall in love. But Amazon’s recent crusade against one book publisher is a nasty reminder that the company doesn’t love…

How to Get Rid of Your Facebook News Feed

Remember the days when Facebook was simple? There was no News Feed, no FarmVille requests, no massive privacy violations—it was a nice, clean directory of all your friends and their basic information. Well, thanks to a developer from Hamburg, you can finally have that Facebook back. Max Friedrich recently published this browser hack that simply…

Creation Museum To Display Dinosaur That “Proves” Biblical Flood

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, is set to unveil the skeleton of an Allosaurus fragilis — one that supposedly proves the biblical account of creation. Dubbed Ebenezer, the skeleton is set to be unveiled this coming Memorial Day. Measuring 30-feet long, standing nearly 10-feet high, and slightly resembling a smaller version of a T.…

Newly updated census data reveals dramatic inequalities in public school spending across the U.S. The nine states in the Northeast all rank among the top 15 states by per-pupil spending. Of the 20 states spending the least, 18 are in either the South or West.

Nerf-Like Foam Headphones Your Kids Won’t Instantly Destroy

There’s a reason brands like Nerf and Tonka are popular with parents: it’s because they’re almost impossible for kids to destroy. So Marblue decided to take a similar approach with its headphones designed for kids, by making the frame out of nearly indestructible foam. And of course, they called them Headfoams. Available in bright orange,…