Box Office, Talking Pictures, Film History, Racism, Actors, Fun at the Movies, Superhero Flicks; Television; Miyazaki, Animation; Hermione and Ron, Books; Art, Music; Advertising

Box Office

• Why Frozen Crossing $1 Billion Matters For Future Movies—With an impressive record-breaking global take.
• Movies That Weren't Expected To Do Well But Smashed The Box Office
• Number of Frequent Young Moviegoers Plummets in 2013
• MPAA 2013 numbers: Women buy half of all movie tickets, but that won't mean more female characters on screen.
• Theaters May Cut Movie Prices to Lure Customers Back
• Joss Whedon releases new film on demand
• Jeffrey Katzenberg Predicts 3-Week Theatrical Window in Future
• No budget? No stars? No problem! How to REALLY sell a film at Cannes

Talking Pictures

• The Hobbit: Dwarfed Edition (10-minute preview)—"This is the first two parts of a long-term project to edit all three Hobbit movies down to one movie, taking out all the stuff added for the movie and making it just a straight adaptation of The Hobbit."
• I Went to the Oscars and Nobody Cared—"The world watched as my date grabbed my neck while falling on the red carpet. But backstage that night, I had a blast feeding Kerry Washington and sniffing Brad Pitt."
• How to Do Visual Comedy

Film History

• How the year 1999 changed cinema forever
• An Oral History Of 'The Mighty Ducks' Trilogy
• 'Ghostbusters' gets the call for theatrical re-release
• RoboCop (1987) Is an Almost Perfectly Symmetrical Film
• Ten film quotes we all get wrong

Racism

• Let's Stop With The African-American Actress Fade To Black
• Oscar-nominated actress cast as 'Annie' is black — and Twitter racists go nuts
• Taye Diggs Says Hollywood Holds Black Movies To "Frustrating" Double Standard

Actors

• Wham! Bam! Thank You, Liam!—"Since Taken, Liam Neeson has morphed from much-admired actor to pulp-movie badass. As his body count rises, Neeson’s hulking presence and anchoring calm make him the surprise successor to another vengeful giant, John Wayne."
• When Will Hollywood Give Paul Bettany the Role He Deserves?
• How Captain America's Chris Evans Finally Got Tired of Being Famous
• Adam Sandler confirms that his movies are just paid vacations
• Kevin Costner Talks Mike Binder's BLACK AND WHITE, His Ambitious Plan to Make a Western Trilogy, THE EXPLORERS, MAN OF STEEL, and More

Fun at the Movies

• Kevin Bacon cuts "Footloose": Recreates entire iconic dance sequence on Jimmy Fallon, 30 years later Salon
• Doc Brown finally admits Funny or Die hoverboard video is fake—"In an apology titled, 'Funny Or Die is Sorry for Lying about Hoverboards,' actor Christopher Lloyd owns up to the ruse that went on a day too long."
• Giant Transformers exhibit opens in Macau
• Movie poster mash-ups—Here are some more.
• This Is What Modern Movies Would Look Like With Classic Movie
• Movie Title Break-up

Superhero Flicks

• DC finished? They're coming out fighting
• Eccleston reveals some Thor: The Dark World scenes that didn't make the cut
• Michael Douglas: Edgar Wright Ant-Man departure 'very disappointing'
• Dark Knight villain artwork by Jock—Would make for great T-shirts.
• Watercolored Superheroes

Television

• How "Breaking Bad" and "House of Cards" killed the Oscars—"It's not that Hollywood can't make great movies -- but all the talent and energy is migrating to HBO and Netflix." Salon
• Judd Apatow: Everything He's Done Is Revenge for Canceling 'Freaks and Geeks'
• Maryland makes 'House of Cards' threat—"Maryland lawmakers threaten to seize the property of 'House of Cards' if the show leaves the state."
• Frank Underwood invades Westeros in 'House of Thrones'
• Medieval Land Fun-Time World

Miyazaki

• Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki says the anime industry's problem is that it's full of anime fans
• Miyazaki's haunting farewell: A dreamer who made warplanes—"A Japanese legend bids farewell with a subtle, meditative epic about war, guilt and art." Salon
• Pixelated Ghibli

Animation

• The Secret Identity of Andy's Mom in Toy Story
• Simpsons: McBain the Movie
• Badass Childhood—By Tohad.

Hermione and Ron

• J.K. Rowling questions Ron and Hermione's relationship
• Okay, okay, I'm going to tell you what Hermione sees in Ron.
• Regrets over Ron/Hermione pairing?! An open letter to J.K. Rowling

Books

• "Reading Rainbow" Is Trying to Raise $1 Million on Kickstarter to Bring the Show to the Web—They hit the goal in less than 12 hours and doubled it the next day.
• Syracuse district to give 10 books to every elementary student for summer reading
• What every writer needs to succeed—"Sure, practice and research are important. But there's something else that might matter even more: Luck." Salon
• How Mark Twain became Mark Twain: The amazing story of the lectures that made him a superstar Salon
• Feminism, Meet Fiction—"In an age where sexism is more subtle, novels tackle it best. A review of The Blazing World."
• To Kill a Mockingbird and Mice and Men axed as Gove orders more Brit lit

Art

• The Andy Warhol Museum announces newly discovered Amiga experiments
• Lost Vincent van Gogh painting found in bank safe
• Just don't drop it. Man finds egg worth $33.3 million
• Cleaner throws out 'rubbish' Sala Murat artwork
• Miami artist destroys $1 million Ai Weiwei vase in protest—"He told an officer that his act was a protest against the gallery's decision to only display international art."
• Italy: Michelangelo's David at risk from weak ankles

Music

• Elite Violinists Fail to Distinguish Legendary Violins From Modern Fiddles
• Pono: only a man pays for music quality that he can't hear—"Neil Young's Pono: 192kHz 24-bit music player produces sound quality that is wasted on human hearing. So why pay the extra for it?"
• How Earbuds Have Changed The Sound (And Business) Of Pop
• Satire: David Guetta World Tour Cancelled After Losing USB Containing His Entire Set

Advertising

• Activision, Documentaries Are Not Ads: An Open Letter
• Everything You Hate About Advertising in One Fake Video That's Almost Too Real
• Agency apologizes for offensive ad depicting Malala Yousafzai getting shot by Taliban Salon
• Kevin Bacon’s brother Michael Bacon stars in ad for turkey bacon Salon
• Anti-advertising campaign replaces 360 ads with art in 10 UK cities
• Jon Lajoie: Please Use This Song

May the Fourth Be With You, Empire, Comics, Clips, LEGO; Space Battles, Rocket Science; Universe, "I'm not saying it was aliens."; Trekkies

May the Fourth Be With You

• Star Wars: Episode VII Cast Announced
• "Star Wars" almost didn't get made—"The studio had low expectations for the epic that changed movies forever." Salon
• Star Wars toys made me who I am—"In praise of action figures from a long time ago (1978)." Salon
• Once-lost Star Wars-related short to screen for the first time in 33 years—"How a college script debuted before Empire, went MIA, and revived as Jedi hits 30."
• Officially Licensed Star Wars Luke Skywalker Cermonial Jacket with Medal of Yavin
• STAR WARS High Fashion Gowns Stuns/Geeks Out New York Fashion Week
• West Wars
• That escalted quickly.

Empire

• Darth Vader and Son
• Stormtrooper
• Deathstar

Comics

• 'The Star Wars' that almost was
• Bruce Timm Concept Art for Star Wars comic
• 80s High School

Clips

• Bill Hader on Conan
• Jason Schwartzman, Patton Oswalt, Billy Dee Williams do "Star Wars" karaoke Salon
• Never-before-seen "Star Wars" blooper reel surfaces Salon
• Star Wars Episode IV (Deleted Scenes) - Tosche Station
• Star Wars Episode IV (Deleted Scenes) - Luke & Biggs
• ECCC 2012: Star Wars Trilogy: The Radio Play
• Party rock Cantina Band

LEGO

• LEGO 'Yoda Chronicles' builds on 'Star Wars' legacy
• Lego Sandcrawler rolls through 'Star Wars' universe
• Meet the 23-ton X-Wing, the world's largest Lego model—It's frickin' huge.
• Anatomy of a Logo: Star Wars
• Star Wars Lego prank

Space Battles

• Trampoline to Space? Russian Official Tells NASA to Take a Flying Leap
• Matt Reed: So reliant on Russia, it's scary
• Replacing Russian Rocket Engine Isn’t Easy, Pentagon Says
• SpaceX says rocket purchases violate Russian sanctions, gets injunction—"Lockheed-Martin and Boeing's joint venture barred from buying Russian engines."

Rocket Science

• NASA to conduct unprecedented twin experiment
• NASA Wants Ideas for Mission to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa
• NASA reveals its next generation Tron spacesuit
• Video Confirms SpaceX Pulled Off the Nearly Impossible Falcon 9 Landing

Universe

• Dark matter found? Gamma rays at centre of Milky Way promise clue to mystery of universe
• 'Runaway' Star Cluster Breaks Free from Distant Galaxy
• A "wimpy" dwarf fossil galaxy reveals new facts about early universe

"I'm not saying it was aliens."

• The telescope big enough to spot signs of alien life on other planets
• False Signs of Life on Alien Worlds
• Search for extraterrestrial life clouded by exomoon atmospheres
• Plait: Alien worlds, extraordinary and mundane

Trekkies

• William Shatner, of 'Star Trek' Fame, Gets NASA's Highest Civilian Honor
• Shut up, Wesley: The annoying (and entertaining) kids of Star Trek
• 'Star Trek' meets 'Star Wars' in an incredible sci-fi mashup

First Contact Day, Planets, Galaxies, Universe; Environment and Politics, Pollution, Climate Change, Whaling; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy

First Contact Day

• Bill Clinton says he "wouldn't be surprised" if aliens visited Earth—"The former president shares his thoughts on extraterrestrials with Jimmy Kimmel." Salon
• NASA detects ocean inside Saturn Moon, potential home for extraterrestrial microbes
• North Carolina Town Councilman Resigns In Klingon
• The Most Impressive Costumes from Star Trek: TNG's First 3 Seasons
• Eau My, available on Amazon—"Set phasers to stunning."

Planets

• Planetology comes of age—"Those who study planets orbiting other stars now have plenty of data to play with.
• Scientists Home In On Earth-Sized Exoplanet
• NASA Has Discovered 715 New Planets
• Planet Biden: Scientists Nickname New Dwarf Planet After The VP

Galaxies

• Distant galaxy cluster is so huge it can actually bend light—"MACS J0454.1-0300 is 180 trillion times the mass of our sun." Salon
• Milky Way Galaxy Has Four Spiral Arms, New Study Confirms
• Hubble Opens Pandora's Box, and Thousands of Galaxies Fly Out
• Star Birth Sparked at the Galaxy's Edge—"Gas from another galaxy is hitting our own, triggering the birth of bright new stars and adding fresh luster to the Milky Way."
• Where Do Galaxies Come From?

Universe

• The Most Massive Object in the Universe—How Was It Created?
• Stephen Hawking: 'There are no black holes'—"Notion of an 'event horizon', from which nothing can escape, is incompatible with quantum theory, physicist claims."
• Lasers to Solve the Black Hole Information Paradox?
• Gravity - From Newton to Einstein - The Elegant Universe

Environment and Politics

• The Fight for Wisconsin's Soul—"Gov. Scott Walker granted a company astonishing latitude to construct a mine and pollute pristine waters." NYT
• Neighbors bicker in PA. over forced gas drilling—"An energy company is dusting off an old, unused state law that can force property owners to accept oil and gas drilling under their land, pitting neighbor against neighbor in a Pennsylvania community and raising the possibility that lawmakers will have to take sides."
• Australian government may ban environmental boycotts—"Parliamentary secretary says there is 'an appetite' for removing environmental groups' exemption from secondary boycotts ban."
• China Wants To Close 1,725 Coal Mines By The End Of This Year

Pollution

• North Carolina judge denies secrecy motion in trial over coal ash spill—"A North Carolina judge on Friday denied Duke Energy's motion seeking to shield records related to groundwater pollution leeching from 33 coal ash dumps in the state while a separate federal criminal investigation is ongoing."
• Judge says no to Lake O polluting—"A federal judge ruled Friday in New York that backpumping — the practice of taking water from Lake Okeechobee, using it on farm lands and then discharging the nutrient-laden water back into the lake — is a violation of the Clean Water Act and that the state of Florida should no longer permit such operations."
• Lowe's pays $18.1 million to settle violations—"The civil suit filed in Alameda County alleges that the offending stores routinely sent hazardous waste — from aerosols and pesticides to paints and electronic products — to local landfills that were not permitted to receive it."
• Famous paintings help study the Earth's past atmosphere
• 29 dead dolphins found since Galveston oil spill

Climate Change

• Congress's Scientific Illiterates Are Resigning the World to Ruin—"Scientists are begging the world to address climate change. Meet the handful of American science deniers who are ensuring it won't happen."
• The House of Representatives Committee on Science is turning into a national embarrassment
• The right's new climate change lie: It's all the scientists' fault—"Conservative hucksters argue scientists are politicizing their work. They're wrong -- and climate change is real." Salon
• MPs criticise BBC over climate change reporting—BBC "editors were 'poor' at determining viewers' and listeners' level of expertise and sometimes pitted lobbyists against 'top scientists' as if their views had 'equal weight.'"
• Exxon Mobil says climate change unlikely to stop it selling fossil fuels—"Oil giant issues report on risks that climate policies could pose to the value of its assets and future profitability."

Whaling

• Japan accepts court ban on Antarctic whaling—It ain't scientific.
• Will Japan find a way around anti-whaling ruling?
• Big threat to Japan whaling: Declining appetites—"The amount of whale meat stockpiled for lack of buyers has nearly doubled over 10 years, even as anti-whaling protests helped drive catches to record lows."

NSA Spying

• Germany Opens Hearings On NSA Spying, Want To Offer Safe Passage For Snowden To Come To Berlin
• Obama's NSA overhaul may require phone carriers to store more data
• Obama's promise to prevent NSA spying rings hollow
• New Harris poll finds NSA spying affecting online commerce—Hurting the corporate bottom line.
• ACLU database lets anyone dig into NSA activities
• Interactive Graphic: The NSA Spying Machine
• NSA Has Been Hijacking the Botnets of Other Hackers

Surveillance and Privacy

• U.S. Pushes Canada To Loosen Privacy Laws—"The U.S. government is prodding Ottawa and some provinces to overhaul their privacy laws and allow Canadians' personal data to be hosted on U.S. servers."
• U.S. knocks plans for European communication network—"The United States on Friday criticized proposals to build a European communication network to avoid emails and other data passing through the United States, warning that such rules could breach international trade laws." Oh, the hypocrisy.
• Websites Must Use HSTS in Order to Be Secure—That's the HTTP Strict Transport Security.
• Can Yahoo's enhanced encryption stop the NSA from spying?
• Physicists are building an NSA-proof internet

Happy Pi Day! Einstein's Birthday, Real Geniuses, Math, Decoded, Fun with Numbers; Science Under Siege, Lorem Ipsum, Paper Frail; Ukraine

Happy Pi Day

• 12.1 Trillion Digits of Pi: And we're out of disk space...
• Honor Pi Day with homemade pie: It's a holiday everyone should be able to support
• The Digits of Pi

Einstein's Birthday

• Einstein's Lost Theory Uncovered—"The famous physicist explored the idea of a steady-state universe in 1931."
• Albert Einstein's letter to US soldier on sale for $40000
• Albert Einstein's Worst Fear Realized: Technology Replaces Human Connection
• 20 Best Quotes from Father of Modern Physics
• Iranian Cleric: Einstein Was Muslim, and So Is Relativity Theory

Real Geniuses

• Academician from Astana solves one of most difficult math problems of millennium
• Unknown Mathematician Proves Surprising Property of Prime Numbers
• Teen with higher IQ than Einstein once told he had no future—"When Jacob Barnett was just two years old, his mother was told he might never be able to tie his own shoes. [...] Today, at just 14 years old, Jacob has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein and is a Master's student on his way to earning a PhD in quantum physics."

Math

• Equations Are Art inside a Mathematician's Brain—"A brain area associated with emotional reactions to beauty activates when mathematicians view especially pleasing formulas."
• Is Math a Feature of the Universe or a Feature of Human Creation?
• Is the Universe a Simulation?—"If so, that would help explain some mysterious things about math." NYT
• When Infinity Is Actually a Small, Negative Fraction
• The Golden Ratio—"For centuries, claims both scientific and pseudoscientific have been made for the golden ratio."
• Are Imperial Measurements outdated?
• The Numberphile

Decoded

• 600 year old mystery manuscript decoded by University of Bedfordshire professor
• Internet community helps crack grandma's code
• Blast from the Past (no pun intended): Vikings' Secret Code Cracked

Fun with Numbers

• The Mathematics Behind xkcd: A Conversation with Randall Munroe
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Talk Mathy to me
• Penny Arcade - Kwisatz Haderach

Science Under Siege

• Anti-science NC leaders no laughing matter
• Georgia earns anti-science rep
• Dwindling Intellectual Capital in US Science Research: How Sequestration Continues to Hurt Long-term US Interests

Lorem Ipsum

• Publishers withdraw more than 120 gibberish papers—"Conference proceedings removed from subscription databases after scientist reveals that they were computer-generated."
• Gibberish-Loaded Fake Papers Are Flooding Academia And A New Cat And Mouse Detection Game Is Afoot
• How computer-generated fake papers are flooding academia—"More and more academic papers that are essentially gobbledegook are being written by computer programs – and accepted at conferences."

Paper Frail

• PLOS' New Data Policy: Public Access to Data—"[A]uthors must make all data publicly available, without restriction, immediately upon publication of the article." Hopefully this will bring in better accountability.
• How Academia and Publishing are Destroying Scientific Innovation: A Conversation with Sydney Brenner
• 5 Psychological Studies that Require a Second Look—"Lessons learned from unusual research publications from my laboratory."

Ukraine

• John Kerry: Russia has until Monday to reverse course in Ukraine
• Kerry, Lavrov hold last-ditch talks before Crimea vote
• Russia says planned US financial aid to Ukraine is illegal
• Ukraine creates National Guard ahead of Crimea vote
• Russia Is Preparing to Invade East Ukraine, Estonia Says
• Pro-Kiev protester killed in east Ukraine rally clash
• After Crimea, Sweden Flirts With Joining NATO—"Officials worry that the Swedish military is woefully unprepared for a Russian attack."

Fat Tuesday, Hostile Hospitals, Health Issues, NHS; Viral, Anti-Vax; National Grammar Day, Quebec, Bad Language, Punctuated, Names; Ukraine

Fat Tuesday

• Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade—"The data, reported in a major federal health survey, offered the first clear evidence that America's children have turned a corner in the obesity epidemic, and came as a surprise to researchers." Go Michelle. NYT
• America's obesity cure: Laziness?—"New research finds one bad habit we’re often tagged with (sloth) can help us overcome another (overeating)." Salon
• Average obese woman gets just 1 hour of exercise a year
• Birth by C-Section May Raise Obesity Risk—"A large review of studies has found that birth by cesarean section is associated with being overweight and obese in adulthood." NYT
• New F.D.A. Nutrition Labels Would Make ‘Serving Sizes’ Reflect Actual Servings—"The Food and Drug Administration will propose major changes to nutrition labels on food packages, including more prominent calorie counts and the adjustment of some portion sizes." NYT

Hostile Hospitals

• Feds to fine Florida over limit on Medicaid patients’ ER visits
• 3 hospitals failed to help dying deaf patient: suit
• Cancer doctors treat woman on wrong breast
• Red Light Cameras at Hospital Entrance Investigated by Channel 10—And "the fine was upheld by the Judge Magistrate appointed by the city." Nice shakedown. Does the hospital get a cut of the proceeds?

Health Issues

• GOP finally goes too far on Obamacare: Why the 50th repeal vote is not the charm—"Last year Republicans could call for killing Obamacare, with no consequences. Now it means something very different." Salon
• Being a doctor was once a job with great purpose. Now it's just a business—"The 'free market' approach to care means seeing more patients in less time. We've lost the human connection in health reform."
• Seth Rogen: Why were only two senators at Alzheimer's hearing?
• Fraternity waited an hour to get help for passed out pledge, Googled symptoms—The student died.
• Doctors give up on efforts to revive Michael Schumacher: Report

NHS

• Hospital records of all NHS patients sold to insurers—"Hospital records of all NHS patients sold for insurance purposes days after controversial plans to extract patient data from GP files put on hold."
• NHS England patient data 'uploaded to Google servers', Tory MP says—"Health select committee member Sarah Wollaston queries how data was secured by PA Consulting and uploaded to servers outside UK."
• Hospital records used to 'target ads on Twitter and Facebook' say privacy campaigners, in latest NHS data concerns

Viral

• California BART rider with measles potentially exposed thousands
• 'About 20' cases of polio-like illness found in California
• AIDS Denial Crazies Go All DMCA On Videos Educating People Of Their Crazines

Anti-Vax

• How Many People Aren't Vaccinating Their Kids in Your State?—"In some places, dodging your children's immunizations is as easy as checking a box."
• Study: Trying to convince parents to vaccinate their kids just makes the problem worse Salon
• Polio vaccination teams attacked by Pakistani militants—"Militants ambush convoy of health workers with roadside bomb, killing 12 of their security team and wounding dozens more."

National Grammar Day

• Every day is grammar day when you've got this job
• This Pronoun Will Make You Irresistible to Women
• Bill Flanagan of the grammar police on "I and me"
• The 9 Most Controversial Rules In English Grammar
• The Wrong Way to Teach Grammar—"No more diagramming sentences: Students learn more from simply writing and reading."

Quebec

• Quebec: Expect tougher language laws if PQ wins majority, minister says
• Quebec store owner ordered to change Facebook page to French—"Eva Cooper argues that Quebec's language law, Bill 101, doesn't cover social media."
• Montreal Board of Trade criticizes Quebec language police over Facebook crackdown

Bad Language

• Pope Francis accidentally drops F-Bomb in Vatican Sunday blessing—"The Holy Father confused similar-sounding Italian words with very different meanings in his sermon about charity, but quickly corrected himself."
• Starbucks Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Bar for "F Word" Beer, Owner Sends Back $6 Check and This Letter
• No Sex Please, We're Google.—Android's dictionary treats some common words as misspellings — including some of the names of Google's own products.
• The world's 19 most imaginative insults Salon
• Video: The Count Censored

Punctuated

• The 5 Best Punctuation Marks in Literature
• The Period Is Pissed. When did our plainest punctuation mark become so aggressive?
• Comma usage rules are unclear. Could the punctuation mark die out completely?

Names

• Ex-U.S. magistrate who changed baby's name from 'Messiah' censured
• Mexico state bans odd baby names including 'Facebook'
• Teenager's new name is fantastic

Ukraine

• Putin: Russia has no plans to annex Ukraine's Crimea region
• Kerry, Arriving in Kiev, Offers $1 Billion in Loan Guarantees to Ukraine NYT
• Ukraine praised for 'refusing to rise to Russian provocation'
• Opinion: Don't listen to Obama's Ukraine critics: he's not 'losing' – and it's not his fight—"The 'do something' pundits rear their heads. Just like they did on Iraq, Afghanistan and every other crisis of US 'credibility.'"
• The Ukraine-Russia Crisis in 26 Nail-Biting Numbers—"845,000 Russian troops plus 1,389 Russian combat aircraft plus a $115,000 wild boar statue equals big trouble."

Sochi; LEGO; Let It Go; Back to the Future; Movies; Television; Music; Comics; Superhero Flicks; Pranks

Sochi

• Sochi's popularity problem: Why haven't the Olympics been bigger?—NBC's coverage sucks. Salon
• Bode Miller interview: U.S. Olympic skier responds to criticism of NBC—He was a class-act in trying absolve Cooper's badgering, but NBC was just cunt-astic in this regard.
• Pussy Riot attacked with whips by Cossack militia at Sochi Olympics—"Members of group set upon by uniformed Cossacks and plainclothes security men as they tried to record new song."
• Why Snowboarders Hate Shaun White—Is he really so bad [WaPo]?
• Under Armour suits blamed for slow US speedskaters at Olympics
• Canadian snowboarder Michael Lambert pierces the Sochi bubble
• The Onion: Olympic Village Tour: See Where The Athletes Live, Train And Fuck Each Other

LEGO

• The Lego Movie—"A clever, vivid, funny, oddly profound movie … about plastic bricks."
• Fox Host Attacks The Lego Movie—"... for pushing "an anti-business message to kids."
• Here Is The Number Of LEGO Bricks It Took To Make 'The Lego Movie'
• Everything Is Awesome About the LEGO Movie's Blooper Reel
• LEGO 2014 Oscar Movie Posters
• Google and LEGO team up for new Chrome experiment that lets you build anything in your browser
• 12-year-old builds low-cost Lego braille printer—"A seventh grader's science fair project turns into a quest to develop a customizable low-cost printer for the blind."

Let It Go

• Multilingual 'Let It Go' from 'Frozen' will melt your heart—Check out the full translated versions by Anais Delva (in French), Takako Matsu (in Nihongo) and Malinda Reese (via Google Translate).
• Caleb Hyles—So far the best male cover of the song I've watched that's on the original pitch. Omar Cabán's version is two steps lower, but still enjoyable.
• Christine Bianco's Diva-liciousness—Fun to listen to a second time with your eyes closed.
• Alex Boyé's Africanized version featuring One Voice Children's Choir and 11-year-old Lexi Walker
• ThePianoGuys' mash-up with Vivaldi

Back to the Future

• Back to the Future's Self-Tying 'Power Laces' Are Coming in 2015
• 'Back to the Future' Musical Confirmed for 2015
• Album: Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly

Movies

• Theater Owners Call For Shorter Movie Trailers, Fewer Spoilers
• How to spot a winter turkey at the movies
• "Gravity" revives "sensation cinema" of Hollywood's silent era—"Alfonson Cuarón's latest provides the kind of visceral moviegoing experience big tentpole movies seldom do." Salon
• The Truths Behind 'Dr. Strangelove'—The Soviets did have a doomsday machine, and a rogue American officer could have launched a nuclear attack."
• The real Maleficent: The surprising human face behind the "Sleeping Beauty" villain—"Move over, Angelina Jolie. I've uncovered the long-forgotten model for the original cartoon witch." Salon
• Video: Fight Club minus Tyler Durden
• Toy Story with real toys
• 10 Movies Roger Ebert Really Hated

Television

• Jay Leno: goodnight, and good riddance—"After 22 years, perennial 'nice guy' Jay Leno is about to hand over the reins of The Tonight Show to the younger, funnier Jimmy Fallon. What took him so long?"
• Why French people love "The Big Bang Theory"—"Against the odds, the uber-American sitcom 'The Big Bang Theory' has taken over France." Salon
• It's Elementary, Sherlock: How the CBS procedural surpassed the BBC drama
• Jeopardy's Controversial New Champion Is Using Game Theory To Win Big
• Hail to the Sleaze—"House of Cards returns more ridiculous than ever. Thank goodness for that."
• Why Netflix Is Winning—"Its shows aren't as good as HBO's, but there's more to business than quality."
• Blast from the Past: Five Reality Shows With Better Romance Track Records Than The Bachelor/Bachelorette

Music

• Classical music in America is dead
• An Insider's Account of The Beatles' American Invasion
• Watch That Wild Imagine Dragons/Kendrick Lamar Grammy Performance

Comics

• Help 'Guardians Of The Galaxy's Rocket Raccoon Creator Bill Mantlo, A Hero In Need
• English Professor urges students to study comic book heroes
• Ka-Pow! Marvel Opens Massive Comic Book Images Archive And API To Fans, Developers
• JL8 creator Yale Stewart is writing a series of Superman kids' books
• Where In The World Is ComiXology?—Digital comics getting more popular.
• Blast from the Past: The Science of Superheroes: Beyond the Incredible

Superhero Flicks

• 'Fantastic Four' Cast Revealed
• Man of Steel from a Baby's Perspective
• How Warner Is Rebranding 'Batman Vs. Superman'—Here's a fan-made teaser trailer.
• Tom Hiddleston Had a Hell of a Week

Pranks

• Devil Baby
• Chucky
• Carrie

Violent Times Day, Politics, Corruption, Censorship, UK not OK, Scottish Independence, Japanese Revisionism, Israel and Palestine, Racism, Surveillance and Privacy; Valentine's Day, Disputes, Marriage, Mariticide, Till Death

Violent Times Day

• Furious Bosnians Shut Down Central Sarajevo—"Protests against politicians viewed as self-serving and corrupt spread to other cities as demonstrators urged those in authority to 'resign today.'" NYT
• Venezuela anti-government rally turns deadly—"At least four killed, including a police officer, as thousands gather in capital to demand president's resignation."
• Thailand's highest court rules opposition protests that have paralysed capital for months are legal

Politics

• Canada's new citizenship bill a Trojan horse—"Bill C-24 would give the Conservative government unprecedented authority to strip Canadians of their citizenship. It's not just Omar Khadr who'll be hit."
• Indian Parliament erupts in chaos after MP uses pepper spray
• Golden Dawn photos shock Greece—"Thousands of pictures and video clips allegedly show party members posing with weapons and giving Nazi salutes." Correlated to the country's unprecedented joblessness?

Corruption

• Corruption across EU 'breathtaking' - EU Commission—"The extent of corruption in Europe is "breathtaking" and it costs the EU economy at least 120bn euros (£99bn) annually, the European Commission says."
• So Many Bribes, a Greek Official Can't Recall Them All NYT
• Silvio Berlusconi goes on trial over £2.5m 'bribe' to opposition defector

Censorship

• Turkish PM acknowledges phone call to media executive—"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo?an has acknowledged that he called a media executive at the height of the Gezi protests to order the removal of news content, days after an alleged phone transcript of the exchanged was leaked online, sparking anger over political pressure on the media."
• Why South Korea is really an internet dinosaur—"Every week portions of the Korean web are taken down by government censors."
• Bing censoring Chinese language search results for users in the US—"English and Chinese language queries for terms such as 'Dalai Lama' return radically different results on Microsoft search engine."

UK not OK

• Immigration minister resigns for employing illegal immigrant—"Prime minister accepts resignation of Mark Harper, who launched government's 'go home' campaign last year."
• Election reform bill an affront to democracy, Marc Mayrand says—"The Fair Elections Act says it 'limits the chief electoral officer's power to provide information to the public.'"
• 'Power of recall' of MPs ditched by coalition—"The coalition is to drop plans to give voters the ability to dismiss MPs for 'serious wrongdoing.'"

Scottish Independence

• Britain warns Scotland: Forget the pound if you break away
• It's the economy stupid: how Scotland's voters approach the independence vote—"Sir Tom Hunter and the BBC have dug deeper than the headline polls, and mined some intriguing nuggets about what will motivates Scotland's 4m voters on 18 September."
• Foreign Office caught asking Spanish press to undermine Scottish independence

Japanese Revisionism

• Japanese Broadcast Official: We Didn't Commit War Crimes, the U.S. Just Made That Up—"Japan's top TV figures are making increasingly outrageous statements about World War II."
• How Japan’s 'BBC' is rewriting its role in the Second World War—"Naoki Hyakuta says Japan was lured into the Second World War by America while liberating Asia from white colonialism."
• China criticises Japan over comments doubting Nanjing massacre.

Israel and Palestine

• How the US is Bankrolling Israel—"Israel has been the top recipient of American foreign aid for the last three decades, despite instability in the area."
• Bill to block federal funding to universities that boycott Israel—"It may well be constitutional, because of a recent Supreme Court decision widely viewed as 'liberal.'" WaPo
• What's Really Going On With The 'Israel Boycott' Debate In Academia
• Stone Cold Justice—"The Israeli army is both respected and feared as a fighting force. But now the country's military is facing a backlash at home and abroad for its treatment of children in the West Bank, occupied territory."
• Israel blocks hospital transfers over use of 'State of Palestine'

Racism

• Russian Figure Skater Apologizes For Racist Obama Tweet, Now Blames Hackers
• Nigerian Pop Star Stirs Controversy Over Her Popular 'Whitenicious' Bleaching Cream
• Gay Russian Artist Responds To Garage Magazine's Racist 'Black Woman' Chair With NSFW Image

Surveillance and Privacy

• Snowden 'left in the lurch' by EU Parliament—"An EU parliament's committee has issued a damning report about the scale and the impact of mass surveillance. But there is no consensus on an amendment to give asylum to intelligence leaker Edward Snowden."
• NSA civilian employee stripped of clearance due to ties with Snowden
• Reforms won't hamper NSA's efforts, official says WaPo
• E-mails back claim that Sen. Rand Paul 'stole' NSA lawsuit WaPo

Valentine's Day

• How a Math Genius Hacked OkCupid to Find True Love
• Science: Men Who Use Smiley Faces Online Get Hit On Less
• All by my selfie! Blogger shows how to take travel photos with an imaginary girlfriend
• Netizens react to marriage proposal via dolphin
• 'Give me five minutes': Oklahoma man arrested while proposing to his girlfriend
• Man arranges fake arrest for surprise marriage proposal
• Community Valentines

Disputes

• Woman charged with battery after boyfriend refuses to 'cuddle' with her
• Man Choked, Stabbed After Crock-Pot Dispute
• Teen throws boiling water into girl's face after she unfriended him on Facebook

Marriage

• 5 Romances That Changed History
• Will your marriage be a happy one? Only your subconscious will tell—"Our deepest, darkest feelings affect how we interact with our spouses."
• Happy Wife, Happy Life?—"What we found is that the happiest marriages were the ones in which wives were able to calm quickly during conflict."
• Divorce Rate Cut in Half for Couples Who Discussed Relationship Movies
• Video: Seeing her for the first time again
• Meet the man left with amnesia after thug attack who fell in love all over again
• Other brides will be green with envy: Couple dress as Shrek and Fiona for charity wedding

Mariticide

• Jordan Graham pleads guilty to pushing husband off cliff
• Man Tried to Throw Wife Off San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, Prosecutors Say
• Minister's wife suffered 'unnatural sudden death' in India days after exposing husband's alleged affair on Twitter

Till Death

• Couple die of carbon monoxide poisoning while having sex in car: police
• Harassed boyfriend jumped to his death after his girlfriend insisted on going into another clothes shop
• Denied sex, man kills girlfriend with vacuum cleaner
• Groom killed while helping motorist in snow on way back from wedding
• New Jersey Couple Each Die Hours Apart, After Lifetime Together

LEGO Day, LEGO-lution, LEGO Movies, LEGO Builds, LEGO Tech; Data Privacy Day, NSA Spying

LEGO Day

• Beautiful Lego
• Lego advert in 1981
• A LEGO a Day
• Challenge accepted
• Showcase of PH tourism spots in Lego map
• Picture This: Lego That Purse

LEGO-lution

• What Happened with LEGO
• Lego, you are dead to me—"Give Lego credit for innovating after losing patent protection on its bricks. It's now a $4 billion company built on brilliant licensing deals and increasingly expensive, specialized sets. Which is exactly why I'm starting to hate it so, so much."
• Legos Are Getting Angrier And That's Not Funny, Study Says
• Girls' Legos Are A Hit, But Why Do Girls Need Special Legos?
• Lego building expert says he's sad for the children after helicopter destroyed at Cairns Central
• Lego thief pleads guilty—"Prosecutors say 67-year-old John Strang shoplifted as much as $600,000 worth of goods since 2007." Salon

LEGO Movies

• This LEGO Hogwarts includes everything from Snape's classroom to the Chamber of Secrets
• James Bond LEGO concept sets
• Lego Serenity
• Lego Casino Royale

LEGO Builds

• Behold an amazing 200,000-piece Lego alien city—"Artist Mike Doyle has created an absolutely jaw-dropping extraterrestrial Lego city called K'al Yne."
• A New Eiffel Tower Building Set for Paris-Loving LEGO Fanatics
• Lego tower measuring 11 stories claims Guinness record
• A Lego Set for Budding Architects, With No Instructions

LEGO Tech

• LEGO Mindstorms EV3
• Lego machine removes DRM from Kindle e-books—"Lego Mindstorms, a Kindle, and a laptop combine into an art project that is an automated system for scanning e-books and creating DRM-free versions."
• The 7 Most Ridiculously Advanced Machines Built Out of LEGOs
• LEGO Hot Rod: 500,000-Piece Working Replica Runs on Air
• Apple Engineer Creates Elaborate Drawing Machine, Using Legos
• Lego prosthetic leg

Data Privacy Day

• If You Used This Secure Webmail Site, the FBI Has Your Inbox—"While investigating a hosting company known for sheltering child porn last year the FBI incidentally seized the entire e-mail database of a popular anonymous webmail service called TorMail."
• Spy Agencies Probe Angry Birds and Other Apps for Personal Data—Plug those leaks.
• Tech Giants, Telcos Get OK to Release Stats on NSA Spying—Ploy to have their lawsuits dropped?
• Here's Why Obama's Surveillance Transparency Deal With Tech Companies Doesn't Matter
• British Judge Rules Google Can Be Sued In UK Over Privacy Case
• Apple's Tim Cook: 'There is no backdoor. The government doesn't have access to our servers'
• Joy of Tech: Google buys Nest

NSA Spying

• German TV: Edward Snowden says NSA is involved in industrial sabotage
• Wanted dead by US officials, Snowden tells German TV
• The NSA's Losing Argument
• On Children's Website, N.S.A. Puts a Furry, Smiley Face on Its Mission NYT
• Democrat Dianne Feinstein proves an obstacle to Obama’s push for changes at spy agencies WaPo
• Republicans Blast Their Own—"Bush era Republicans are making their anger known after the RNC passed a resolution denouncing the NSA's blanket surveillance.'"
• Andrea Mitchell Had To Interrupt An NSA Discussion With Breaking Bieber News—Mainstream media eats up all-too convenient distraction.

Happy New Year, Movies, Music, Comics, Tech and Gaming

Happy New Year

• The best pictures from around the world as we welcome in 2014
• TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2013
• The most incredible nature photography of 2013—"Highlights from this year's National Geographic Photography Contest." And are the winners. Salon
• David Bianculli's Top 10 Shows: 2013 Was A 'Good Year For TV'
• Best Books 2013: Slate Staff Picks
• The top memes and viral videos of 2013
• The 39 Worst Words, Phrases, and Parts of Speech of 2013

Movies

• TIME's Top 10 Best Movies
• The best movies of 2013: Dana Stevens on a year of outrageous cinematic bounty
• The 10 best movies of 2013 Salon
• List of Best-Reviewed 2013 Films Among Criticwire Members
• Every Movie Trailer from 2013: The Supercut

Music

• The best and worst music moments of 2013—"From Miley's missteps to Beyoncé's triumph, it's been a roller-coaster year for music." Salon
• Nirvana, Kiss, E Street Lead Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 2014 Class—"Hall and Oates, Peter Gabriel, Cat Stevens and Linda Ronstadt will also be inducted on April 10th."
• Pop Danthology 2013

Comics

• The A.V. Club: The best mainstream and superhero comics of 2013
• The 10 best superhero comics of 2013 Salon
• Looking Back on Another Banner Year with Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson

Tech and Gaming

• Top Products in Two Decades of Tech Reviews—Walt Mossberg's farewell WSJ column "on the products that changed the digital industry." WSJ
• Duolingo: Apple's choice for App of the Year—Me gusta mucho este programa.
• Best gaming product of 2013: Steam

Merry Christmas, Uplifting; Entertainment; Tolkein, Music

Merry Christmas

• 2 years after death, woman gets her Christmas Wish for family
• Dying girl's Christmas wish granted by 10,000 carolers
• All I Want For Christmas is Chatroulette—Steve Kardynal strikes again.

Uplifting

• Young Girl Gets Dream-Come-True Dance With Prince Charming
• Shoeshiner Donates $200K in Tips to Kids' Hospital
• Man Survives 3 Days At Bottom Of Atlantic

Entertainment

• Netflix's War on Mass Culture—"Binge-viewing was just the beginning. Netflix has a plan to rewire our entire culture."
• 'Walking Dead' creator sues AMC over profits from zombie series
• WHOLOCK - Sherlock meets The Doctor!—The Doctor and the Detective.

Tolkein

• On The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and weaknesses in the source material—"Ars' resident Tolkien nerd explains why deviating from the book can be a good thing [Salon]."
• Here's Why Peter Jackson Can't Make More Tolkien Adaptations (Even If He Wanted To)
• 'Gandalf' Recreates 'You Shall Not Pass' Tolkien Scene on Tram Tracks

Music

• The 19 best cross-genre covers of all time Salon
• Steve Irwin Gets Autotuned in a Delightful Musical Tribute
• Seth Rogen & James Franco Bound 3

Entertainment, Disney, Advertising, Television, Movies, Comics, Fun Art

Entertainment

• Why do people feel it's OK to reveal plot details?
• Surprising Celebrity Twins: Scarlett Johansson, Kiefer Sutherland, and More!
• 'What Does The Fox Say?' Will Soon Be A Children's Book

Disney

• Joe Jonas: My Life As a Jonas Brother
• Women Are Hard to Animate Because They Have Emotions, Says Disney
• Disney Mashup Will Make You Nostalgic...But Only For A Minute
• 'Lion King' Is Broadway's First $1 Billion Show
• Walt Disney's & Salvador Dali - Destino 2003

Advertising

• Brilliant Award-Winning Romanian Tourism Campaign—"A perfect response to negative comments about Romanian immigration by the British government."
• Someone Wrote Extremely Racist Comments On A Gap Ad, And Gap Responded Perfectly
• Ad Agency Rejects 'Uncomfortable' Photo of Muslim Woman Embracing a US Soldier from Its Times Square Billboards

Television

• Doctor Who - 50 years of memories
• Breaking Bad alternate ending
• The Big Bang Theory physics joke without laugh track

Movies

• Google Map of Middle-Earth
• Jason Statham Calls for Stunt-Actor Oscar Category
• 'Gravity' Spinoff Reveals Unseen Side of Sandra Bullock's Cry for Help
• Hans Zimmer Feels "Horrible" When His 'Inception' BRAMMS Are Used In Movie Trailers
• What if movie posters were neon signs?

Comics

• The Problem With DC's 'Superman: A Celebration of 75 Years'
• Ben Affleck, Christian Bale Give Two Thumbs Up to Batkid: 'Best Batman Ever'
• Steven Attewell: Steve Rogers Isn't Just Any Hero
• 7 Best Superhero Suits From Film and Television
• Why We Are Going To Be Even More Obsessed With Saga Ten Years From Now

Fun Art

• Video game characters as Japanese woodcuts
• Batman Noir
• Eeie Superhero posters
• Origins: 1 | 2
• Wonder Woman and the DC Band—By Cliff Chiang

Family, Feud; Relationships, Sex; Parenthood; Exes; Missing

Family

• The Changing American Family—"Same-sex parents. Cohabiting couples. Voluntary kin. Children with parents in prison. Immigrant-Americans. What we thought of as the typical American family is being rapidly redefined. It is more diverse than it was even half a year ago." NYT
• Brazilian Mother Names All 15 of Her Children 'Walter'
• McDonald brothers team up with Pats—"[W]hat makes the McDonald brothers' story special is that they are now reunited after being adopted by separate families as teenagers."
• Glenview couple reflects on 15 years as foster parents to teens
• Mike Rowe narrates a family gathering

Feud

• Ohio man, 92, allowed to buy back his home after his own daughter tried to evict him —Scumbag daughter.
• Judge allows Colorado soldier's defense of citing twin as potential suspect
• Mo' Money, Mo' Problems—"My husband is young, rich, and retired—and it's driving me nuts."
• Man Successfully Sues Wife Over Ugly Children and Judge Orders Wife to Pay $120,000
• The Secret of La Chancla

Relationships

• Can't Buy Me Love: How Romance Wrecked Traditional Marriage
• Millions shop for a spouse...and much more: Bare branches
• Online dating users more open to interracial relationships, study finds

Sex

• How Disney Ruined Sex For Everyone
• Modern life 'turning people off sex'
• What is the average number of sexual partners for men and women in the UK?
• Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex?—"What happens to a country when its young people stop having sex?" Or have they?
• Women less likely to achieve orgasm during casual sex

Parenthood

• Make fatherhood a man's choice!—"The burden of pregnancy will never be fair. Child support can be -- but men need to have a chance to opt out." Salon
• Custody Battle Raises Questions About the Rights of Women—"After a brief affair with the skier Bode Miller left her pregnant, a former firefighter moved across the country, prompting a battle over parental rights and legal jurisdiction." NYT
• Kansas judge hears arguments in case of sperm donor sued for child support
• Mother can have dead son's sperm harvested, Texas judge rules
• Sperm-donor children: Finding your biological father

Exes

• Man throws away $500K in gold to spite ex-wife—"A Colorado man was so angry at his ex-wife for divorcing him that he had the couple's life savings of $500,000 converted to gold — then tossed it in a dumpster so she couldn't have any of it...."
• Man buys house next to ex-wife, erects giant middle finger statue
• Tiny House Divorced Woman Built for 'Spite' Turns Massive Profit

Missing

• For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II
• Father and son missing for 40 years after Vietnam War found in forest
• Missing woman found 52 years later living with new family 1,000 miles away