- Tech NewsSploid
Extremely rare image shows bee and butterfly drinking crocodile tears
This image is so weird and rare that you may think it’s a bizarre photoshop. It’s not—it was taken by aquatic ecologist Carlos de la Rosa,who says it’s a extremely rare and unique photo. The butterfly and the bee drank the tears from a Caiman crocodilus for 15 minutes. There’s video too: According to De … Continued
By Jesus Diaz - Tech NewsSploid
Young blood transfusions may be source of eternal youth
Two separate teams of scientists have announced that blood transfusions from young individuals make older individuals younger, fixing their hearts and curing aging brains. Speaking to the New York Times, Harvard Medical School’s professor of neurology Rudolph Tanzi, “these findings could be a game changer.” Tanzi, who is not associated to the studies, also said … Continued
By Jesus Diaz - Tech News
Are These Star Wars-esque Rental Homes Yub Nub or Bantha Poodoo?
What better day than Star Wars Day to start planning your next Star Wars-themed getaway? The vacation rental site HomeAway.com has selected several properties that they think serve as earthbound stand-ins for famous Star Wars sites. What do you think, Jedi Council of readers? Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s House, Tatooine To fulfill your fantasies … Continued
- Tech News
This Is What Happens When You Turn a Street Into a Slip ‘n Slide
Closing streets to cars is one thing—how about flooding them with water and letting people slide down head first? Hundreds of Brits got to do just that when a busy street in Bristol was transformed into a fully operational water slide today. As expected, the photos are absolutely incredible. The slide was the idea of … Continued
- ScienceAnimals
For These Tiny Frogs, a Pencil is a Log
A few very special frogs just hatched at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. They’re fairly unique among frogs, because they break out of their eggs as fully-formed tiny frogs, not as tadpoles. The Solomon Island leaf frogs, Ceratobatrachus guentheri, which are also known as triangle frogs, complete their tadpole stage fully inside the egg, … Continued
- Tech News
NYC Cyclist Arrested for Trying to Film a Cop with His Phone
When 24-year-old Brooklyn resident Will Paybarah was stopped by police for running a red light on his bike on March 20, he was expecting a ticket or possibly just a warning—until he took out his phone. “When I tried to record my interaction with the officer I was arrested… in 10 seconds flat,” he tells … Continued
- Tech News
Drones Ordered Out of Yosemite by the National Park Service
The National Park Service issued a stern message on Friday to quadcopter-equipped Ansel Adamses: Drones are illegal in national parks, so keep them out of Yosemite’s air space. According to the NPS, drones are being used to film just about everything in the park, from capturing scenic aerial footage to documenting the progress of climbers. … Continued
- io9
Rappers, Ranked By Vocabulary-Size
Who’s got the largest vocabulary in hip hop? A data-scientist crunched the numbers to find out. [UPDATED] Data nerds and rap fans alike will enjoy this fantastic post from designer-cum-data-scientist Matt Daniels [UPDATE: Daniels has stopped by in the comments (username: mfdaniels) to field your questions], in which he examines the lyrics of 85 hip … Continued
- Tech News
Star Wars Rebels First Full Trailer Sows The Seeds Of Rebellion
In honor of Star Wars day, check out the first full trailer for Star Wars Rebels. It’s definitely too early to if this will live up to the legacy of Star Wars: Clone Wars, but it certainly has its own tone. Instead of the subtle evil of the Republic, you can feel the full force … Continued
By Jason Krell - ScienceSpace
May The Fourth Be With You, Real-Science Edition
Today is the day for Star Wars puns, and paying tribute to the space-fantasy epic. The movie pops up as a regular inspiration and analogy in real-life science. From robots on the International Space Station, to real-life exoplanets, Star Wars is everywhere. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…. In astronomy, every … Continued
- io9Movies
What’s Your Favorite Star Wars-Related Memory?
With the cast of Episode VII finally revealed, I have to admit, I am getting pretty freaking excited about a new chapter of Star Wars blasting its way into contemporary pop culture. In honor of Star Wars Day, let’s relive your best Star Wars moment from your childhood—or your adulthood! My memory is more a … Continued
- io9
The Pocket Guide to Bullshit Prevention
Here for sharing far and wide is a handy guide to stemming the flow of nonsense in your daily life. Originally written by science writer Michelle Nijhuis for the outstanding science blog The Last Word on Nothing, these words have the power to make you a more discerning consumer – and sharer – of information. … Continued
Michelle Nijhuis – The Last Word on Nothing - Tech News
Super-Specific Artisanal Goods Might Be Bad for the Economy
You’d think a renewed focus on handmade products would be good for a country’s economy. That’s not the sentiment in Australia, where a new report is claiming that handcrafted industries which require more employee hours, like bread baking and winemaking, are to blame for the country’s sagging productivity. The Australian Productivity Commission has determined that … Continued
- io9
The Glass Harmonica’s Music is Like Being Stalked by Fairies
The Glass Harmonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 and has been making creepy music ever since. Take a listen! Have you ever rubbed your wet finger around a wine glass to hear the resonant hum? It’s an interesting sound, noted all the way back during the Renaissance by Galileo. Over the years, people … Continued
- Tech News
How Location Scouts Find The Places That Look Like Somewhere Else
For filmmakers, Los Angeles is basically infinite. It is a mega-city that contains every other city within it—indeed, seemingly every other Earthly landscape is hidden somewhere in plain sight—whether it’s a street that looks like Manhattan or a county park that literally looks like another world. In Los Angeles, something as simple as an empty … Continued
- io9
The Mouth Of A Blood Worm Is A Terrible Thing To Behold
You think you know horror? You know nothing. You might assume – upon glimpsing its ghastly, four-pronged, pharyngeal maw – that the blood worm is a carnivorous animal, and you would be right. But this creature’s name actually has nothing to do with its doubtless considerable capacity for bloodletting. The blood worm’s name is actually … Continued
- Tech NewsDesign
Earrings of Uncertainty
Quantum mechanics is strange. Theoretical probabilities absolutely need to exist to match experimental observations: the quantum waveform really does describe particles in the world we live in. Inspired by this week’s Friday Physics, I went hunting for the most decorative quantum waveform earrings. Quantum State Earrings These quantum state earrings are the work of Nicholas … Continued
- Tech News
The Men Inside of R2-D2 and C-3PO Actually Hated Each Other
In 1975, George Lucas was casting for his upcoming sci-fi film The Star Wars (name later changed to simply Star Wars). After a joint casting session with Brian De Palma, who was looking to hire actors for his new horror movie Carrie, Lucas was able to cast many of his principal actors. He decided on … Continued
Matt Blitz - Today I Found Out - io9
When Reading the Article Takes Too Much Time, There’s TL;DR Wikipedia
One of the best/worst things about Wikipedia is the temptation to spend hours trawling its depths. Poring over a long article. Clicking through to other entries. Opening a tab for each of the cited sources. It can be a lot to digest. But for those who would rather avoid all that reading, there’s TL;DR Wikipedia … Continued
- Tech News
Navigate by Barcode and Never Get Lost Again
Libraries have terrible maps; supermarkets and department stores have bad signage; all of them have a built-in system for navigation that we don’t use: barcodes. That’s the argument of researchers Simon Robinson, Jennifer Pearson, and Matt Jones from the Future Interaction Technology Lab at Swansea University. They’ve come up with a way to use barcodes … Continued
Lev Bratishenko