Superfast Spinning Black Hole Tearing Up Space at Nearly the Speed of Light

Artist's illustration of matter falling into a black hole, with X-rays blasting out from the very center. Click to chandrasekharenate. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Black holes are the Universe’s ultimate garbage disposals: Stuff falls in, and never gets back out. It can’t. To get out, you’d have to travel faster than the speed of light, which (as far as we know) is impossible. Black holes grow by consuming matter, and in the centers...

The Most Truthful iPad Ad Ever

CONAN Highlight: Finally, Apple comes clean about how most people use their tablet...

Scientifically Accurate Spider-Man

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Why don’t Apple laptops have touch screens?

No touching. Photo by Kimberly White/Reuters Like many kids, my 2-year-old son can run circles around you on an iPad. He learned to unlock the screen before he learned to conjugate verbs, and nowadays he can turn it on, find Netflix or a game, and keep himself occupied forever, or at least for a merciful 40 minutes. (Email me here to tell me what a terrible parent I am.) Computers, though, flummox him. He’s especially confused...

Harry Styles hit by flying shoe at 1D gig

Harry Styles fell to the floor in pain live on stage last night after being hit below the belt by a shoe thrown by a fan. On stage in Glasgow, Styles was hit in the crotch with a show thrown at him by a fan, and fell to the floor as Liam Payne and Zayn Malik rushed to his aid. Styles recovered and carried on the performance, doing a few lunges on stage to make sure everything was ok. The boys have been touring since...

1D's Louis "Very Sad" Over Comic Relief Single Leak

One Direction star Louis Tomlinson has expressed his sadness after the boyband's Comic Relief single leaked online ahead of its official premiere. A low-quality version of their cover of the Blondie hit One Way Or Another has emerged on the internet ahead of its release on February 17 - leaving Tomlinson to take to Twitter to urge fans to pre-order the song instead. The 21-year old tweeted: "I hear...

The most shocking photo of Beijing air pollution I’ve ever seen

At left, a view of downtown Beijing on a clear day. At right, the same view on Wednesday night, U.S. east coast time. Click to enlarge. (Photos by Bill Bishop) China’s air pollution has been bad lately. Really, really bad. We’ve posted photos of it before, but the above shot really drives home how severe this has gotten. Both photos were taken in Beijing by Bill Bishop, who runs an excellent all-things-China e-mail newsletter called Sinocism (go...

This Comedian Just Blew Up Italian Politics

Profile: Beppe Grillo Beppe Grillo, seen here at a rally in Turin, says he has started a "war of generations" Voice of protest for some, populist demagogue for others, comedian Beppe Grillo has become a serious political player after taking a quarter of the vote in Italy's election, with his anti-establishment Five Star Movement. Once effectively banished from TV after sending up politicians, he has created...

Experiments on Cadavers Settle 100 Year-Old Puzzle Over Human Skin Strength

Langer lines map out the pattern of forces within the skin but nobody knew what caused them. Until now. The mechanical properties of skin are important factors in everything from forensic science to razor blade design. And yet studies that have actually measured these properties are few and far between, most research in this area being done on synthetic or animal skin.  Today, Aisling Nı Annaidh at University College Dublin in...

15 Things You Didn't Know About “Bloodsport”

The real Frank Dux reveals details of the classic fight movie 25 years after Jean-Claude Van Damme took on the role. posted on February 27, 2013 at 12:42pm&nbs...

What Uncle Sam Charges Anne Hathaway for her $47K Oscar Goody Bag

An all-expenses paid trip to Australia, a gift certificate for a facelift, and oh yea, a bottle of Windex. These are just some of the items celebrities received on the film industry’s biggest night of the year, and Uncle Sam will get his piece. Despite the 2013 official Oscar gift bag being worth a reported $47,000 this year, celebrity lifestyle expert Dorothy Cascerceri says that number is tame compared to the value of swag filling...

Sh*t People Say To Female Journalists

'ARE YOU LOST, LITTLE GIRL?' Sh*t People Say To Female Journalists-> ...