<![CDATA[io9: frog]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: frog]]> http://io9.com/tag/frog http://io9.com/tag/frog <![CDATA[Monsters, The Rock, And Adults Trapped In Teen Bodies Flood Movie Theaters]]> A monster from Big Man Japan is giving us the old eye-testicle wink, and we're lovin' it. The LA Times has a spread of new movie pics out, and we've picked the best.


Big Man Japan
A nobody who moonlights as a giant superhero has to battle all sorts of beasties but also has to deal with a growing mob of superhero haters, and an Alzheimer’s-stricken grandfather. BMJ will be out in March.

Pandorum

The amazing, astounding, fantastic Ben Foster is stranded on a spacecraft with his coworker Dennis Quaid — and there's something aboard that wants them dead. Release date is September 4.

The Princess and the Frog

Hooray for old timey animation! Disney returns to the princess animations with a New Orleans set Princess in the Frog fairytale out December 25.

Push


It's like Heroes, the movie. Everyone has a brain power in Push, be they Movers or Sniffers (sadly, no Shakers) The powered film comes out February 6.

Crank: High Voltage

Wow Crank 2 just got a whole lot more insane. Will they be stop motion animating Jason Statham, but huge? God, I hope so. Crank 2 is out April 17.

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li


Kristin Kreuk masters the high-kicks, in her own Chun-Li Street Fighter origins story, due out February 27.

17 Again


Matthew Perry gets shrunk back down to the age of 17, and injected into his own teen's high school, to try and "fix" his crumbling family. That's in theaters April 17.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian


Bill Hader and Amy Adams join the museum cast as General Custer and Amelia Earhart (or rather, the wax figures of these historical figures that come to life after the museum closes). Museum 2 is out on May 22.

Fanboys


A group of serious fans try and break into George Lucas' Skywalker ranch, and mayhem ensues, on February 6.

Coraline


Neil Gaiman's story about a young girl who visits an alternate world comes to life in breathtaking 3D stop-motion animation, out February 6.

2012


John Cusack cools his heels while the wold ends around him, in one terrible natural disaster after another, in 2012. It's out on July 10.

Knowing


Nicolas Cage uncovers a time capsule that details in numbers when everything awful will happen on Earth. Knowing will be released on March 20.

They Came From Upstairs


Ashley Tisdale and her family have an awesome spring break, before an alien invasion happens. Or maybe after, it's hard to tell. Either way, we'll find out on July 31.

Race to Witch Mountain


Dang teens and their alien abilities to move things with their minds. This reboot of a an old Disney classic is released on March 13.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince


The magic boys and girls are back in school, and ready for the fight to end all fights, yet again. Harry is out on July 17.

Cirque du Freak


John C. Reilly is a vampire who runs a circus with Salma Hayek, and your chances of seeing Hayek do something sexy are pretty much guaranteed. There is no release date yet.

More pics at the link. [L.A. Times]

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<![CDATA[Don't Piss off the Wolverine Frog, Unless you Want to Taste its Claws]]> If you ever find yourself in central Africa, here's a piece of advice: don't mess with the frogs. As Ed Yong over at "Not Exactly Rocket Science" warns us, several species of them come equipped with a set of bony Wolverine-like claws that punch through their skin when threatened.


Nature's full of clawed animals, but the frogs' defense mechanism is unique in the natural world because their claws literally rip through the skin when extended. They're also made of bone instead of keratin (sorry, no adamantium claws are known to exist in reality, except for this guy). Researchers aren't sure if the claws are retractable or not, and as Yong notes, they may never really want to find out:

The clawed frogs belong to a family called Arthroleptidae that were discovered in Central Africa more than a century ago. At first, people wondered if the claws just stuck through the skin as a side effect of the preservation process. Alternatively, the frogs may have used them to grip or climb. Their true function as defensive weapons only became clear when naturalists first described actually picking up and handling live animals.

Doing so is a mistake, and anyone who makes it is punished with a series of deep, bleeding wounds inflicted by the struggling animal as it kicks out violently with its claws. The ability is well known to the people of Cameroon, who only ever hunt the frogs with machetes or spears.

Frogclaw.jpg


In the X-Men movie, Wolverine, when asked if it hurts to pops his claws, answers, "Every time." One can't help but think that the same is true for the frogs.
...
However, many amphibians have extraordinary healing abilities that can even regenerate severed limbs. It may be that the clawed frogs, like their comic-book counterpart, have a 'healing factor' that closes up the wounds that open every time their claws are used.

Source: Not Exactly Rocket Science

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