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Supernatural gets balls-to-the-wall crazy, and you'll love it [Video]

Annalee Newitz — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:47:04 PST

A lot of nightmares came out of the Winchesters' past in last night's Supernatural, "Repo Man," written by the always-awesome Ben Edlund. This was one of the season's best episodes so far, with two plotlines about very different kinds of possession coming together nicely - and shedding light on Sam's current state of mind. More »

Watch an Earth-sized "tornado" gyrate across the surface of the sun [Video]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:00:00 PST

Okay, so the sun doesn't really have tornados in the same way that Earth does. But the shifting of warmer and cooler plasma across the sun's surface can create similar-looking phenomenon — in this case, a spiraling inferno as large as the Earth itself. More »

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Battle on the Zombie Playground [Open Channel]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:30:00 PST

This week's concept art writing prompt takes us back to the playground — but it might not be quite the way you remember it. Have an awesome story idea to go with this crazy painting? Write a piece of flash fiction and post it in the comments. More »

From Apron Hunters to Matricide: Idioms from Around the World [Linguistics]

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:00:00 PST

Anyone who grew up speaking English knows the phrase, "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence," isn't about botany. Although idioms are particular to each language, most languages have them. Find out about strange idioms from all around the world, and what they say about the cultures that create them. More »

A bored alien lady dances with a snake in this bizarre German musical [Video]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:30:00 PST

It's a story as old as time: alien girl sings about how she's bored, alien girl steals spaceship for planet earth, girl dances with snakes, elephants, and stereotypical African natives. And she does it all in sequins. It's just a normal day on the set of the German musical revue Bühne frei für Marika. More »

My parents are dead! Watch Batman scream at strangers on the dark streets of Toronto [Video]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:00:00 PST

What would it really be like if Batman really stormed into your local convenience store and shouted "Where are they?" in that raspy Christian Bale voice? The Sean Ward Show took their own caped crusader out into the Toronto night, where he ambushes unsuspecting strangers, eats licorice, and makes some friends. More »

The Pentagon’s Real-Life Project ‘Avatar’: Same as the Movie, but With Robots Instead of Aliens [Defense]

Katie Drummond - Danger Room — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:30:00 PST

Soldiers practically inhabiting the mechanical bodies of androids, who will take the humans' place on the battlefield. Or sophisticated tech that spots a powerful laser ray, then stops it from obliterating its target. More »

Here's the first clip from The Amazing Spider-Man! [Video]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:27:47 PST

It's here! The first clip from The Amazing Spider-Man has made its way online. It's not, as you might expect, a web-slinging, crimefighting action sequence. Instead, Peter Parker faces off against his greatest foe: Gwen Stacy's doorman. More »

Take a tour of 20th Century fashions, as imagined in the year 1893 [Retro Future]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:00:00 PST

In 1893, a Strand Magazine article imagined how the next 100 years of fashion would look. You couldn't exactly call the article prescient, but one thing's for sure: if this had been our fashion history, we would have a far superior legacy of awesome hats. More »

What happens when a zombie walks into a movie theater? [Video]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:30:00 PST

Movie goers at one South African theater thought they were watching an ordinary (and particularly insipid) romantic comedy trailer — that is, until a zombie started shambling down the aisle. Watch the video to the very end to see this inspired marketing stunt to promote The Walking Dead. All I have to say is, that zombified actor is lucky no one in the audience tried to take a headshot. More »

Your own heart could provide the stem cells to fix itself [Biology]

Tim Barribeau — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:00:00 PST

How's this for cool? Cells harvested from your heart could provide the necessary mechanism to repair itself after a heart attack. A new technique called CADUCEUS (CArdiosphere-Derived aUtologous stem CElls to reverse ventricUlar dySfunction) (which, as an aside, is the most grasping attempt at an acronym outside of a DARPA-funded project or Star Wars novel) has shown the potential to do just that, by taken a small chunk from the heart, refining it into stem cells, and then reintroducing it into the organ to reduce scar tissue. More »

Webcomic Boldly Gone follows an average Starfleet captain with a major case of Kirk-envy [Comics Review]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:30:00 PST

Not everyone can be Captain Kirk. While the corset-wearing flagship captain is off punching aliens and violating the Prime Directive, other captains are simply putting their noses to the grindstone and following the rules. Too bad that doesn't win them the adoration of the alien ladies — or Starfleet command. More »

Exactly what happened in A Wrinkle in Time, explained in a one-page comic [A Wrinkle In Time]

Lauren Davis — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:30:00 PST

Madeleine L'Engle's scifi classic A Wrinkle in Time is 50 years old, and you can relive the entire tale of Meg and Charles Wallace in a brand-new edition. But if you don't have the patience to reread the entire book, cartoonist Faith Erin Hicks has conveniently broken down the entire plot in one brain-punching page.

A Sneak Preview of Darth Maul's Return & My Little Pony's inspired take on Spielberg's Warhorse [Video]

Keith Veronese — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 07:00:00 PST

Clone Wars takes the week off, but we've got a sneak preview of the season finale featuring an appearance by Darth Maul! This Saturday morning also brings clips from this week's episodes of Adventure Time, Archer, and a couple of new reader request shows! Minor spoilers ahead!

Best of the Week: February 11-February 17, 2012 [Best Of Week]

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:16:09 PST

THE OATH OF BLOODY VENGEANCE | Awesome barbarian art by Toasty, just one of the barbarian artworks in our gallery here.

Start your weekend with an expertly crafted mashup of the internet's most gorgeous time-lapse videos [Video]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:00:00 PST

There's a good chance you'll recognize a few of the clips featured in Welcome to Earth — a beautifully composed "universal time-lapse" made up of 179 of the internet's most stunning videos — but we're guessing you haven't seen them all, and you definitely haven't seen them like this. More »

A veteran monster-hunter faces one last challenge, in an excerpt from Saladin Ahmed's fantasy debut [Book Excerpt]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:40:00 PST

Saladin Ahmed has been a finalist for the Nebula and Campbell Awards, and now at last his debut fantasy novel, Throne of the Crescent Moon, is here. Check out the prologue and first chapter of the book, in which the last great Ghul-hunter faces the fact that he might just be getting too old for this life. More »

Disney Princess Torture Porn makes us really uncomfortable [Holy Crap Wtf]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:30:41 PST

Has the trend of weird, messed-up Disney Princess art finally gone too far? A new exhibition of Disney Princesses by photographer Thomas Czarnecki depicts them dying and getting injured, in "hilariously" clever fashions. The exhibition's been making a splash the past week or so, with mentions on HuffPo and Design Boom, but is it too much? More »

Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation [Mass Effect]

Kyle Munkittrick - Pop Bioethics — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:20:15 PST

Mass Effect is epic. It's the product of the best parts of Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and more with a protagonist who could be the love-child of Picard, Skywalker, and Starbuck. It's one of the most important pieces of science fiction narrative of our generation. Mass Effect goes so far beyond other fictional universes in ways that you may not have yet realized. It is cosmic in scope and scale. More »

Unique mid-sized black hole is the lonely survivor of a shredded galaxy [Space Porn]

Alasdair Wilkins — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:20:00 PST

This is the Hubble Telescope's latest and clearest yet image of the galaxy ESO 243-49. We've been watching this galaxy for a while now, because it's likely home to the only known medium-sized black hole. And now we might know why that is. More »

I Am Legend Sequel (Or Maybe Prequel) Really Moving Forward? [Please God No]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:08:47 PST

Will Smith's I Am Legend movie had a terrible, tacked-on ending that would make it difficult to continue the story — but Warner Bros. is determined to try. The Wrap reports that Warners is moving forward with an I Am Legend sequel — or, if Will Smith is willing to come back, a prequel, since his character met a sticky end in the first movie. (And maybe they can bring back the poor dog, too.) Sigh. Let's hope they call it, I Am Really Legend This Time. More »

The Physics of Magnetic Nail Polish [Physics]

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:00:00 PST

Being of the Hack 'em Off or Chew 'em Up school of nail design, I was unaware that there was such a thing as magnetic nail polish. Now that I've learned about it, let's take a look at the physics of a nail polish that forms fascinating patterns when exposed to a magnet! More »

Little girl's cyclops cosplay is adorable and/or horrifying [Cosplay]

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:50:00 PST

Kids can do no wrong when it comes to cosplay, but this moppet went far beyond the call of duty with this jarring cyclops costume. Photographer Danny Choo snapped this bizarre cyclopean attire at Tokyo's Wonder Festival recently. I wouldn't know whether to call children's services, prefectural police, or a yōkai extraction team. More »

The Artificial Sweetener Splenda Could Prevent Your Birth Control Pill from Working [Birth Control]

Keith Veronese — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:39:14 PST

Birth control is probably the last item in your pharmaceutical arsenal that you would want to fail. Which is why some recent research on artificial sweeteners could be major cause for concern. More »

The Beautiful, Deadly Vortex That Tears Huge Buildings Apart [Video]

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:17:20 PST

The Karman Vortex Street isn't someplace you'd want to take up residence — it's literally the path of destruction, where buildings collapse and destruction reigns. Unfortunately, under the right conditions, a Karman Vortex can follow you. More »

An exclusive sneak peek at Dark Horse's upcoming Dragon Age comic [Concept Art]

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:15:00 PST

Starting next Wednesday, Dark Horse Comics will release a six-part miniseries based on Bioware's Dragon Age roleplaying game. Here's an exclusive first look at the full collage of the miniseries' cover art. The first issue hits February 22 on Dark Horse Digital, and here's the plot synopsis: More »

This May, Wolverine and Deadpool go up against a spanking new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants [X-men]

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:30:00 PST

Out of all the X-Men titles on the stands, writer Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force has consistently been one of the best. This is thanks to intricate story arcs, the morally muddled politics of Wolverine running an assassination squad, and the comic's willingness to delve into byzantine corners of X-Men lore. More »

Why You Should Never Eat Acid Snow [Chemistry]

Keith Veronese — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:20:00 PST

We grow up hearing about acid rain, but what about other forms of acidic precipitation — do they even exist? More »

Earth's orbit is swarming with debris — meet the satellite designed to clean it up [Video]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:50:12 PST

At any given time, NASA is keeping track of about 16,000 pieces of space junk in Earth's orbit — and those are just the big chunks. This debris poses a serious safety hazard, primarily to operational satellites in the planet's orbit, but also to astronauts like those on board the ISS. In fact, according to some NASA models, the amount of crap orbiting our planet may be reaching a dangerous tipping point — one that could make space travel prohibitively risky. More »

The Short, Strange History of Decimal Time [Secret History]

Alasdair Wilkins — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:43:27 PST

For thousands of years, we've divided days into 24 hours, hours into 60 minutes, and minutes into 60 seconds. But why do we have to do that? Here's the story of the one gloriously failed attempt to decimalize time. More »

Incredibly NSFW, anatomically correct Hobbit doll will crush your very soul [Holy Crap Wtf]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:40:00 PST

One unique entrepreneur is peddling naked Hobbit toys, for a whopping $89.99. But when you have first hand knowledge for what a Hobbit's penis looks like, you can set your price anywhere. More »

On Vampire Diaries, being the bad guy is an act of self-sacrifice [Tv Recap]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:38:17 PST

Last night's episode of Vampire Diaries was all bout people choosing to embrace evil — in many cases, for noble and unselfish reasons. But more than just another story about people doing the wrong thing for the right reasons, this was a great look at the ways in which "villain" is just another role that people play, which is often totally cosmetic. More »

Behold, Inception: The Theme Park [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:55:00 PST

Christopher Nolan's dream heist flick Inception avoided the obnoxious amusement park tie-in, but that hasn't stopped Black Sheep Films from creating their own Inception Park in Buenos Aires. But the real question is, "Do you have to kill yourself to find the exit?" More »

The Lost Art of Detecting Incoming Aircraft Using Your Ears [Secret History]

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:40:00 PST

We didn't always have radar to detect incoming aircraft. During the First and Second World Wars, there were multiple attempts, and multiple apparatuses, used to detect incoming planes based on the sounds they made. Check out how people spotted enemy planes, using tubas — and modern art. More »

Frozen fruit fly larva brings us one step closer to cryogenics [Mad Science]

Tim Barribeau — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:20:00 PST

It's been a dream for years — freezing your body at the moment of death, so that you can be revived later, when medical science has advanced enough to cure you, and possibly rejuvenate you as well. More »

Meet the youngest person on Earth to achieve nuclear fusion [Afternoon Reading]

Robert T. Gonzalez — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:15:00 PST

Taylor Wilson built his first bomb when he was 10 years old. Four years later, he became the thirty-second person on Earth to ever build a working nuclear fusion reactor. More »

The Year Without a Summer, and How It Spawned Frankenstein [Secret History]

Keith Veronese — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 12:00:00 PST

The summer of 1816 brought unseasonably cold temperatures to the Northeastern United States, Canada, and Europe. Damaged crops and impeded trade caused widespread famine, leading to skyrocketing food prices, and the deaths of thousands. More »

This little boy and his drivable R2-D2 robot will make you misty-eyed [Video]

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:35:26 PST

Seven-year-old Matthew Grammer, who is undergoing chemotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia had a simple request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation — he wanted to become R2-D2. More »

Watch the entire pilot for Awake right now [Video]

Meredith Woerner — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:20:00 PST

Tired of waiting for Lucius Malfoy's new alternate reality drama, Awake? Wait no more! The entire pilot has been released to the internet masses. Sit back and watch a very sad tale about a detective (Jason Isaacs) stuck between two crappy realities: one where his wife is alive and his son is dead, and another where his son is alive and his wife is dead. Tell us what you thought in the comments.

What is best in life? Epic Barbarian Art! [Friday Gallery]

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:00:00 PST

It's Friday — which means it's time to party, sword and sandal-style. To help you get into the right mindset for a properly barbaric weekend, we've painstakingly assembled some of the most glorious barbarian art on the internet. Including lots of Conan and Red Sonja, but also tons of other great sword-wielding heroes. More »