How alcohol is formed naturally in space [Space]
The Sagittarius B2 cloud has ten billion, billion, billion liters of alcohol floating in it. Most of it is undrinkable, but there are some of them are ethanol, which is drinkable by humans. Scientists still don't know for sure why the booze is out there, but they have a theory. More »
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Concept Art Writing Prompt: A Shopping Trip at the Body Parts Store [Open Channel]
Transhumanism meets commerce in today's Concept Art Writing Prompt. What happens when you can shop for feet the same way you used to shop for shoes? Come up with your very own flash fiction piece and share it in the comments. More »
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SpaceX's first bid at cab service to ISS is a bust [Space]
The first attempt to send a commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted less than a second before liftoff this morning, after an onboard computer detected a problem in one of its launch vehicle's nine engines. More »
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Holy hell, this guy built a handheld Tesla coil gun [Video]
Inspired by steampunk graphic novel The Five Fists of Science, Dr. Horrible Rob Flickenger set out to make his own handheld, field-generating Tesla coil gun. More »
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The Victorian Hugos: 1891 [Victorian Hugos]
The Hugo Awards are given to the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year. Unfortunately, they've only been awarded since 1953. That's where this column comes in - Jess Nevins will be awarding honorary Hugo Awards to the best novels of the Victorian era... and beyond. More »
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The only evidence left of a mystery tribe is bodies in jars [Secret History]
A long lost Cambodian tribe has left only one trace behind, but it's a significant one. Human remains have been found in jars. The latest have been found about one hundred and sixty feet up a cliff. More »
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See Pixar characters cosplay as the Avengers [Avengers]
What do you dress up as when you're already a superhero or a giant fuzzy monster? How about a crew of box office-busting superpowered movie stars? See several Pixar characters recast as members of the Avengers. More »
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Jackie Chan's last action movie looks like the most fun he's been in years [Video]
Chinese Zodiac is Jackie Chan's 100th movie, and it's one of his biggest — a single fight scene in this movie reportedly is costing more than $10 million to shoot. And it might be his final action movie, since he's said he wants to retire from doing action films. At the very least, it's reportedly his last big action movie. More »
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Now that, people, is how you end a freakin TV season — with a conspiracygasm! [Video]
Last night's season ender of Person of Interest confirmed that this show is one of the few places you'll find action-packed, thoughtful science fiction on television. And this finale — what an amazing payoff. All season, POI kept multiple, interlocking conspiracies in play, and last night managed to bring them all together in a shivering house of cards whose structure made perfect sense even as it collapsed. Characters, including the Machine, developed in fascinating ways; and we got a seriously cool new Big Bad to kick our asses across the yawning cliffhanger known as summer. More »
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Coors Light goes down slightly better than a Prometheus alien larva [Video]
Why would you use an Alien universe movie to market anything you would ingest? Coors Light has taken the chance that you might associate its beer with edible alien larvae with this co-branded Prometheus TV spot. More »
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Photographs of video games acted out in the real world [Photography]
Patrick Runte's photographs don't just imagine what old video games might look like in the real world — with blocky characters translated into three dimensions. They also imagine how those games might be played in our world — and they look like a good deal of fun. More »
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Watch Neil Gaiman's inspiring commencement speech about succeeding in the arts [Video]
For all the art students about to enter the working world without a roadmap, author Neil Gaiman offers his advice on making great art, honing your skills, and keeping in mind that friendliness and punctuality can be as important to your career as talent. More »
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Dan Harmon fired from Community. Not cool, not cool. [Video]
Community is getting its fourth season, but it probably won't be the show we've grown to know and adore. Sony has fired Dan Harmon from his show runner role. We're channeling Abed here and making unhappy noises. More »
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Frank Frazetta's Lord of the Rings illustrations brought barbarian armor to Middle Earth [Lord Of The Rings]
Frank Frazetta's bare-legged babes and barbarian fashions might seem an odd fit for JRR Tolkien's asexual, Anglon-Saxon epic, but in 1975, Frazetta did indeed collect a portfolio of Lord of the Rings illustrations, putting his own dark fantasy spin on characters like Gollum, Eowyn, and the Witch-King. More »
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Supernatural ends the season with a bangy whimper [Video]
Last night's season finale of Supernatural brought to a conclusion the often-murky battle to stop the Leviathans, and especially their corporate overlord Dick. We've had some outstanding episodes this season, but we've also had a lot of disappointments — especially when it came to exploring all the Leviathan conspiracies, all of which went nowhere. The same could be said about the season finale, "Survival of the Fittest." We got some good closure, and a few crisp, funny scenes, but we also got some frustrating randomness too. More »
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Dancing Darth Maul: Not Sorry For Party Rockin'. [Video]
Whenever there's a big Star Wars event, the main thing to look forward to is the dance-offs. A few years ago, it was Darth Vader tearing up the the stage to M.C. Hammer. Now it's Darth Maul jamming to Flo Rida, "Good Feeling," at the Walt Disney World's Star Wars Weekend event, "Dance-Off With the Star Wars Stars." More »
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Eerie photographs taken with a camera made from a human skull [Graveyard Life]
These sepia-hued photographs look like something out of a dream, but the camera that took them is somewhat nightmarish. Instead of a camera made out of metal and plastic, these photos were taken with a camera made from a human skull. More »
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Which literary character is most frequently portrayed on screen? [Sherlock]
Having appeared 254 times in film and television, Sherlock Holmes is, according to the Guinness World Records, the most frequently portrayed human literary character. But he's not the most frequently portrayed of all literary characters; the one who holds the top slot isn't human. More »
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Do we worry too much about keeping astronauts safe? [Video]
Sixteen years ago, aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin wrote The Case for Mars, outlining his plan for a manned mission to Mars. Since then, we haven't put a human on the Red Planet or returned to the moon, and Zubrin argues that one reason is that we are too obsessed with the safety of astronauts. More »
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World's first vegetarian shark spurns meat for celery sticks [Video]
Fish no longer have any reason to fear Florence, a six-foot tropical nurse shark living at Birmingham's National Sea Life Centre. Ever since she survived an out-of-water surgery, the picky shark has lost all interest in eating meat, opting for a vegan diet. More »
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