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Around 1,500 BCE, a student in ancient Babylon inscribed six riddles on a tablet. 3,500 years later, these proto-jokes lose a lot in the translation, but one thing's for sure: the Babylonians are saying something about your mother. More »
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Are you ready for LOLTrek and LOLWars? I Can Has Cheezburger launched a new site, Set Phasers to LOL, the other day. So far, it's pretty slow going, although I did like the Maury Povich/Game of Thrones mash-up and a few others. If you've been looking for a place to post your funny captions on pictures of Captain Picard facepalming, you now have the ideal destination. [via Geek Wire] More »
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It's the IgNobel Prize ceremony for science that makes you laugh — and think. Don't forget your paper airplanes! More »
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Nothing breaks the ice like a good joke, right? Sadly, that isn't the case with scientific papers, as those with the funniest titles get swept aside in favor of dry, technical titles. When did science become so hopelessly square? More »
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No matter how hard you struggle, these phrases worm their way into your consciousness. No matter how much you deny it, you let them back out. Here's a list of ten phrases too good to not repeat. More »
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Just because scientists don't generally major in English doesn't mean they can't turn a phrase. Especially when that phrase is mean-spirited. Take a look at ten verbal burns that scientists have issued over the years. More »
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The latest Tumblr to get a book deal is Fake Science, the site "for when the facts are too confusing." "Senior Fake Scientist" Phil Edwards will turn his amazing site into Fake Science 101, a textbook for Adams Media. The blurb at Publishers Marketplace describes the book as "a humorous tour of all the subjects you cheated on in school." More »
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Simon Pegg's new movie Paul was a pretty cute nerd-bonding road-trip movie, but it made me realize something: I no longer laugh at Star Trek in-jokes, or inside references generally. More »
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Mr. Plinkett, the weird old codger famed for his hilariously harsh reviews of the Star Wars prequels, has finally reviewed Revenge of the Sith. He's not totally annoyed with it. After all, it doesn't star baby Han Solo. More »
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As glamorous as a pizza smorgasbord with four genetically altered specimens of the order Testudines sounds, the reality is far less appetizing. Pepperoni just doesn't taste the same when you're knee-deep in human waste. [FFFFOUND via Super Punch] More »
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Our Valued Customers is a webcomic run by cartoonist MRTIM, who works in a comic book store. MRTIM assiduously records the strange conversations he overhears in his shop for posterity's sake. The result is nothing short of amazing. More »
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On October 31, the annual Baca Robo ("Stupid Robot") Contest took place in Budapest, Hungary. Contestants vied for a €2,000 grand prize by displaying their insane creations, who were judged by the audience's laughter. Witness this cyberpunk Muppet Show. More »
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What's it like to a be a firefighter at the FDNY Hook & Ladder No. 8 Firehouse in Manhattan? 50% of your day is dedicated to extinguishing fires; the other 50% is spent dealing with Ghostbusters fans. More »
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Youtube videographer MorRokko dressed up her dwarf caiman in an itty-bitty suit of Tony Stark's armor. Ergo, Iron Croc! Reptiles in power suits are right up there with four-eared kittens on the Scifi Cuteness Scale. More »
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Last week, winners of the Ig Nobel prizes for humorous but thought-provoking research were honored in a ceremony at Harvard. Winners included the inventors of a remote-control helicopter whale snot collector, and researchers documenting bat fellatio. More »
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Sleeping in R'lyeh under the sea for millennia is no excuse for smelling like mackerel and elements that don't exist in our star system. Allow the ever-debonair Cthulhu to shill you some shower goop that will leave you smelling Shoggoth-fresh. More »
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Hanna is Not a Boy's Name stars a nameless zombie employed by a bouncing-off-the-walls hyper detective. Together, they investigate offbeat paranormal mysteries — and try not to get too many people killed in the process. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5629847&view=rss&microfeed=true Red Letter Media's cantankerous old gadfly Mr. Plinkett has now focused his critical lens on 2009's Star Trek, and surprise, surprise! He doesn't hate it. He's still as grumpy and weirdly monotone as ever, though. More »
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The Brothers Grim and Grimy have translated H.P. Lovecraft's classic tale of mind-bending cosmic horror into two minutes' worth of 21st century layman's terms, replete with OMGs and allusions to Lost. [Spotted on Neatorama] More »
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Psychologist Abraham Maslow may have influenced generations of self-help gurus with his ideas about the hierarchy of human needs. But he forgot to explain robot needs. Luckily his omission has been corrected with this handy chart. More »
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A sense of humor is one of our most fundamentally human behaviors, but psychologists and philosophers alike have never really been able to satisfactorily explain why we find certain things funny. The latest theory suggests it's all about benign immorality. More »
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Here's the trailer for Blackstar Warrior, a mysterious blaxploitation-inspired Lando film that never hit theaters. The teaser includes sexy Stormtroopers and a funky soundtrack perfect for cruising down the Kessel Run. Also, watch the hilariously straight-faced mockumentary about the project. More »
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Have you ever wanted to hear Arnold Schwarzenegger sing (with a chorus) the line, "Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women"? Now you can. And oh, it is glorious. More »
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Back in 1997, David Cross and Bob Odenkirk's HBO sketch comedy program Mr. Show filmed one of the most memorable depictions of the medieval scientific method ever. Remember — "All facts begin as dreams, dreamt by a wizard!" More »
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New, grainy footage of the Lost finale has hit the web. What exactly is the Island? This video wraps up all the loose ends in one internet-friendly swoop. It's like St. Elsewhere, but 100% more mundane and 1000% more macho. More »
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Why do women make sexy sounds during intercourse? According to a recently-published study, it's to manipulate men. How the heck do you study something like that scientifically? Allow me to explain. More »
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The internets are chockablock with poor attempts at suck-you-in hilarity today — but here are the best we've found More »
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Noted time-travel expert Dave Goldberg, a physics professor at Drexel University, just saw Hot Tub Time Machine and was - disturbed. Here he explains the "egregious number of inviolable paradoxes" in the film, in an open letter to its creators. More »
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Halloween brings out the creeps and ghouls, but werewolves attack any time the full moon rises. Recently bitten and don't know where to turn? The Werewolf's Guide to Life can help you adjust to a lifetime of fangs and fur. More »
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The melting of the polar ice caps has supervillains all in a panic. It's not just that global warming has stolen their thunder (though that doesn't help). The melting ice has also revealed their secret Arctic lairs. [The Onion] More »
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Sure, you've all watched Christopher Eccleston and Sienna Miller act out your childhood fantasies as the charismatic villains in GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but did you stop to wonder what it was like for the lowly Cobra grunt? More »
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If Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace had managed to complete the Analytical Engine and usher in an age of Victorian computing, what would they do next? According to one comic, the obvious answer is: team up and fight crime. More »
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Not sure what to do when the zombie apocalypse strikes? The Green Light Anti-Zombie Squad treated New York Comic Conners to a lively demonstration on how to survive your next encounter with the walking dead. More »
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Flying, controlling the weather, and turning invisible are officially out. A new blog gives us the goods on the true superpowers of the future. More »
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Seth Green is currently guest starring on Heroes, but in this clip from tomorrow night’s Robot Chicken season premiere, Tim Kring wasn’t the first science fiction television producer he approached for work. Green and his Robot Chicken co-creator Matthew Senreich find themselves unemployed and ask Joss Whedon and Battlestar Galactica creator Ron Moore for a job. The meetings don’t go as well as they had hoped, but expose everything you secretly suspected about the producers. More »
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Now that we're living in a technological wonderland, you're in constant danger of losing your humanity. It's just a fact — every scientific or medical advance makes us that little bit less human, and every time you play with your Google Android or eat another stem-cell sex donut, a few cells of your body transform into day-glo bubble wrap. Science fiction has been warning us for years! But how can you tell when you're no longer human? We're here to help. More »
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Other writers may claim we're living in a science fictional world, but only the Daily Show's professional know-it-all John Hodgman has the wherewithal to demonstrate it conclusively, with a rain of facts. Hodgman's new book, More Information Than You Require, is the only place you will discover unshakable certitudes about the Brain Shark, a superintelligent shark with a second brain on the outside of its body. Read on for more important facts we've learned from this book. More »
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Can someone out there not take a joke? After BoingBoing and most of the rest of the Internet linked to MightyGodKing's hilariously snarky photoshopped covers of classic science fiction books, the page was yanked. The page now just says: "This Account Has Been Suspended. Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible." Did one of these books' publishers invoke the DMCA? Or was there some other reason? [MightyGodKing] More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5066953&view=rss&microfeed=true If you liked the Large Hadron Collider, you'll love this new large-scale experiment. Scientists are going to smash single-celled organisms together at high speeds to see if they kind find special particles. Apparently the device they've created is big enough to smash squirrels together, so it's gotten the somewhat unfortunate nickname "squirrel smasher." [via BBspot] More »
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The summer's most anticipated monkey movie, Space Chimps, goes for the really low-hanging fruit (sorry) when it comes to scifi humor. Either the whole movie is full of jokes like this cheesy "Space, the final frontier" routine, or they just packed all those moments into the trailer to reassure the grown-ups they'll have something to giggle at while their kids laugh at the funny monkeys. In any case, chances are you'll enjoy Space Chimps for the kid-reasons — funny slapstick, wormhole rollercoaster — rather than the grown-up" humor. Luckily the kid stuff looks pretty great. Click through for details. More »
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