Vandor Wood Clock, Star Wars, 13-1/2-Inch

The Force is strong in this clock that comes straight from a galaxy far, far away. Quartz movement 13.5" Star Wars wood cordless wall clock. Requires 1 AA battery (not included).

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Mysterious Journey 2

Mysterious Journey II: Chameleon is a first-person perspective puzzle-oriented adventure game that follows on from the best-selling adventure game Schizm. Combining eye-catching environments with challenging puzzles gamers seek to save an ancient colony from destruction.
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UFO sightings and mysterious lights in the sky in New Zealand

New Zealand is finally releasing classified documents that include UFO sightings. These 'x-files' detail the country's best-known UFO mystery, which took place in 1978. A cargo plane reported strange lights following it and air traffic controllers detected radar blips that could not be explained... and never have been.

The thousands of government documents cover more than 50 years of New Zealanders' reports of encounters with unidentified flying objects. Most of the released files suggest natural explanations for the sightings, (including meteors and reflections off boat lights) but they don't explain everything.

I want to believe! Do YOU?

Giant squirrel attacks San Diego

Is it a sign of the End Times? The great squirrel-shaped rainstorm of 2010 in California has been impressive, with 15 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas, tremendous amounts of rain on the coast, and so on. But it pales against the "Super Ark" storm of 1861-62, a 45-day beast (animal shape unknown) that made unusable something like one-third of California's taxable land, and created massive lakes in the Central Valley!

Still the freak, giant-squirrel storm of 2010 remains a frightening shocker... if for nothing else than it's menacing shape alone.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [Blu-ray]

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a seamless continuation of Peter Jackson's epic fantasy based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. After the breaking of the Fellowship, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring of Power with the creature Gollum as their guide. Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) join in the defense of the people of Rohan, who are the first target in the eradication of the race of Men by the renegade wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) and the dark lord Sauron. Fantastic creatures, astounding visual effects, and a climactic battle at the fortress of Helm's Deep make The Two Towers a worthy successor to The Fellowship of the Ring, grander in scale but retaining the story's emotional intimacy. These two films are perhaps the greatest fantasy films ever made, but they're merely a prelude to the cataclysmic events of The Return of the King. --David Horiuchi

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Repo! The Genetic Opera

Likening Repo! The Genetic Opera to its predecessors, Little Shop of Horrors and Rocky Horror Picture Show, conveys this film’s high camp and operatic bursts of song, but does little to describe how absolutely bizarre Repo! is. Like Rocky Horror, Repo! was written for stage performance by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, who stars as a Graverobber, dolled up in vampiric makeup to resemble Rocky Horror’s iconic tranny, Dr. Frank-N-Furter. Hiring newbie director, Darren Lynn Bousman, fresh out of film school to shoot this mutant movie, Smith and Zdunich clearly focused on writing comedy into extremely gruesome slasher scenes, which works with mixed results. Stills of comic strips contextualize each scene, telling the story of biotech corporation Geneco’s repossessions of organs that they implanted into various patients to save human lives during a long history of operations. Organs, here, were bought on credit, and as the economy nosedives, citizens of this a makeshift Gotham City cannot pay bills, and must forfeit their lives to repo men make a killing around town, literally. Heading this enterprise is CEO Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), who has two bickering sons, Luigi (Bill Moseley) and Pavi (Nivek Ogre), whose white facemask is third generation Phantom, borrowing directly from Winslow Leach’s in Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise. Central to the plot is head repo guy/slaughterer, Nathan Wallace (Anthony Head of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who hides his career path to preserve his sexy teenage daughter, Shilo’s (Alexa Vega), innocence. As Shilo discovers her godmom, Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), and the "Z"-addicted surgery slut, Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton), she embarks on adventures through an urban landscape constructed of metal gear, corpse piles, and S/M zombie girls, while dad straps people up in his torture chamber to take back body parts. Hmmmm. Since Repo! looks likes a Marilyn Manson video, its musical niche sensibility will only appeal to fans who like Goth and Industrial music. To anyone who doesn’t go for that look, it does impress for its sheer dedication to choreography and song. In the least, Repo! The Genetic Opera is an anomalous glimpse into visionary horror.

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There may be scientific evidence for ESP, says researcher holding up a flash card with a couple of wavy lines

A Cornell psychology professor has written a piece (based on experiments with his students) that suggests that the future influences the past with regard to human thought - a concept known as "retrocausation." In some of the experiments, students were able to guess at future events at levels of accuracy beyond what would be expected by chance. In others, events that took place in the future appeared to influence those in the past, such as one in which rehearsing a list of words enhanced recall of those words, with the twist that the rehearsal took place after the test of recall.

But he's not alone.  Hundreds of articles reporting significant results on psi experiments have already been published in dozens of academic journals. What's the big deal?"  To begin with, this is not just any psychologist; he is one of the most prominent psychologists in the world.  In fact, he was probably mentioned in your Psych 101 textbook, and may have even co-authored it!  Granted, these psi effects are generally small.  But let's remember that it shouldn't even be possible to peer into the future at all (even a little), given what we generally understand about how the world works. Time is only supposed to go one way. Perception is supposed to be limited to the past or the present and only to those phenomena immediately and locally accessible by our five senses. When exceptions to these rules are observed, particularly under controlled laboratory conditions, they deserve a closer look.

Take running the four-minute mile. If scientists had studied even thousands of people in the 1950s, they might have concluded that running a four-minute mile was not humanly possible. Over time, however, it was found that a few people could actually do it -- an extremely 'small effect' to be sure, but these anomalies proved that it was, in fact, possible. Not only do we now know that running a four-minute mile is possible, it is the standard for professional middle-distance runners (for those of you paying attention, that was the example with the running man).

I 'predict' that science will soon develop a renewed interest in psi effects!

Read the full story here.

Did Leonardo Da Vinci really leave all of these secrets in his paintings, or was he the Ashton Kutcher of the Renaissance?

Like something right out of a best-selling Dan Brown novel, tiny hidden numbers and letters have recently revealed to have been painted into the eyes of the famous 'Mona Lisa' portrait, prompting an investigation by art historians and conspiracy buffs from around the world.  Members of Italy's National Committee for Cultural Heritage says the letters and numbers can be seen when magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa'a eyes... or just using a magnifying glass.

"To the naked eye, the symbols are not visible.  But with a magnifying glass, they can clearly be seen," Silvano Vinceti, president of the Committee, was quoted as saying.  "In the right eye appear to be the letters LV, which could well stand for his name, (Leonardo Da Vinci), while in the left eye there are also symbols, but they are not yet as defined.  It is very difficult to make them out clearly, but they appear to be the letters CE - or - it could be the letter B.  You have to remember the picture is almost 500 years old, so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted.  While in the arch of the bridge in the background the number 72 can be seen or it could be an L and the number 2."

Somehow, the discovery of a 50-year-old book in an antique shop is claimed to be the catalyst for the discovery of the symbols.  Why exactly, nobody has yet said.

"We are only at the start of this investigation and we hope to be able to dig deeper into this mystery and reveal further details as soon as possible," says Mr Vinceti.  "It's remarkable that no-one has noticed these symbols before.  And from the preliminary investigations we have carried out, we are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist."

Buck Rogers Atomic Disintergrator Pistol Replica

Buck Rogers pistols were the most popular toy 'ray guns' for kids and adults for years! Starting with the Atomic Pistol, and then (after WWII) the Disintegrator Pistol, these celebrated ray guns became the gold standard by which all others would be judged. The Go Hero version is a hybrid of these two designs with a 10" metal pistol, four fins (sub-atomic condensors), and nearly a piece-for-piece reproduction of the originals. Pull the trigger for a loud pop sound and bright flashing spark to deliver that great original experience! Used as cover art for the 1995 Foo Fighters debut album, and inspiration for blasters in several modern day sci-fi films, it is the epitome of iconic design perfection. It shoots no projectiles and is completely harmless, unless you happen to be an evil alien! Travel through time to see what the future used to be, as Go Hero presents the Buck Rogers Atomic Disintegrator Pistol!

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James Carville is spotted feeding in the wilderness

BERWICK, Louisiana (WVLA) - A deer hunter captures a spooky image wandering through the Louisiana woods at night.  A hunter near Baton Rouge says he found this freaky photo on his deer stand camera.  The hunting camera was broken but the memory card was still there and so was this bizarre image.  It looks like a cross between a human and an animal, with long slender appendages and glowing eyes.

The hunter says he just hopes it's a vegetarian, if he runs into it in the woods again.

Now as for my opinion...

A complete lack of sexual organs (as far as we can tell) causes me to question this. If it was part human, I would expect to at least see something to indicate that it was male or female.  However, I don't see anything that hints at either one. Since it is appears to be a heat camera, then cloths won't be a factor to hide anything.

So this leads me to believe it is a fake. Otherwise, it is questionable that it's even a mammal. Anyone who is an expert feel free to correct me, but I don't know of any examples of mammals without visuals. So if isn't a mammal, what is it?

If it is real despite the missing parts, then I would point out the similarities to the Chupacabra. There are two different variations of this animal. One being a 4 legged dog like creature (often mistaken for a cyotee with Mange) and the human-like version. It is this version that is extremely familiar with the image in the article. There are a couple stories of human like Chupacabra, but the particular one in question involves two Hispanic men walking throught the woods when they come across an eerie noise in tall grass. When the light shines for a second on a creature, it looks VERY similar to the creature in this article. I figured that was a hoax too.  However, for it to appear in two separate locations is interesting.

Perhaps Global Warming is pushing them north... (smile)

BioShock for XBOX 360

BioShock (Xbox360) After your plane crashes into icy uncharted waters, you discover a rusted bathysphere and descend into Rapture, a city hidden beneath the sea. Constructed as an idealistic society for a hand picked group of scientists, artists and industrialists, the idealism is no more. Now the city is littered with corpses, wildly powerful guardians roam the corridors as little girls loot the dead, and genetically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn.

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The real question is, why would you NOT hunt alligators using electric eels?

The linked article has a video that you might not want to watch if you have a weak stomach... or if you think it's cruel to snag gators with electric eels.

But if your dare, read about it here.  (new window)

The most impressive life sized Optimus Prime ice sculpture you will see today

The photo speaks for itself!  Until it 'transforms' itself into water, what else need be said about it's awesomeness?

Unicorn Cow Discovered in China

Looks like unicorn meat may be more than just a geek's meme-tastic joke. A farmer in China's Hebei province is apparently the proud owner of a (potentially magical!) unicorn cow. 'Unicorn' a bit of a misnomer, actually, since the cow really has three horns.  But the big one smack dab in the center of her head is much larger than the two normal ones on either side, and so it definitely qualifies as unicorn status.  In fact, the horn measures a full eight inches and it ain't made out of rubber.

To know for sure if it is a true unicorn, one would have to talk to the crowds of unicorn-seeking pilgrims who have touched Mr. Jia's cow (and it's mysterious horn) and document how many illnesses were healed, how many guilty parties identified, how many virginities restored, etc..  On thing's for certain, though.  This beef critter isn't going to be stir-fried anytime soon.  Well, unless the farmer gets really hungry, I mean.

Strawberry picking Robot only picks the red ones. At time of press, Sarah Connor has not returned our phone calls

Think your job picking fruit in the fields is safe?  Think again.  Yet another category of high-paying jobs has been wiped out by some steel pincers — Japanese, robot strawberry-pickers. Japan's job-stealing robot detects which berries are at least 80 per cent red, and picks them gently off the vine.  And it doesn't gripe about working conditions, either.

The mechanical field-worker is being trained to pick other forms of berries too, but if the berry-bot gets to the point where it can be released safely into the wilds of strawberry farms alone, it'll supposedly reduce harvest time by 40 per cent. That means fewer jobs for humans, and even more 'bots handling our sweet little bombs of juice. The future is definitely mechanical (and doomed), especially when these things learn how to swim the Pacific and get into the country illegally.

Scientists discover a pseudo-scorpion with venom in its claws. I wonder what it looks like... OHMYGODNIGHTMARESFORAWEEK

Researchers have found something that's new and is basically a half scorpion and a half spider.   This 'animal' enjoys lurking inside the dark and mysterious caves of Yosemite National Park.  They're calling it a pseudo-scorpion, which would be like an arachnid that has an abdomen like spiders (and with the expected eight legs attached), but claws like scorpions. Unlike actual scorpions, however, they don't have the dreaded stinger in their tales.  But this bizarre new life form more than makes up for it by sporting venom-filled claws instead. Lucky for unwary adventurers, this new pseudo-scorpion (Parobisium yosemite) happens to be blind, slow-moving and pretty small.  In fact, they typically measure no more than about half an inch.  In fact, nobody's noticed the little buggers so far because they only dwell in deep in dark granite caves, where nobody tends to go anyway.

Is it possible that there are giant-sized, man-eating versions dwelling far deeper underground and guarding hoards of forgotten treasure.  Anything's possible, I guess.  So if you and your party just happen to be on an underearth quest (deep below the earth's surface under Yosemite park) and a large claw taps you on the shoulder, you should probably think about running...

Milky Way stars move in "mysterious ways", ostensibly due to the gravitational effects of Bono's ungodly huge ego

Most galaxies (so we're told), including our own Milky Way, are spiral-shaped and their stars are distributed in a thin disk that tends to rotate around the galactic center, with areas divided into spiral arms or elliptical regions such as the central bar. Due to gravity, the spiral arms move through the disk in the form of density waves. For over twenty years, scientists believed that the potential impact of these density waves on stellar velocities in the Milky Way was insignificant in comparison with the circular motion of the stars in the galactic disk. This belief has now been blatantly proved wrong by an international team including several researchers from the Strasbourg Astronomical Observatory: near the Earth, stars move towards the exterior of the Galaxy at an average speed of around 10 kilometers per second, which is considerably faster than previously thought. 

To reach this conclusion, the team systematically analyzed the velocities of over two hundred thousand stars located within a radius of a little over six thousand light years around the Sun. Using data from the major star survey RAVE (RAdial Velocity Experiment) collected since 2003 by the Australian Astronomical Observatory's Schmidt telescope, they were able to measure for the first time the radial velocities of hundreds of thousands of stars and determine whether they were moving towards or away from us.

The researchers were thus able to ascertain that the average speed of stars towards the exterior of the Galaxy increases with their distance from the Sun in the direction of the Galactic center, reaching 10 kilometers per second at a distance of 6,000 light years from us (in other words, 19,000 light years from the Galactic center). This result was completely unexpected and all the more surprising as it appeared to mainly affect old stars, several billion years old. Until now, it was thought that the spiral arms mostly affected the dynamics of young stars (only a few tens-of-million-years old). However, theoretical study of the combined effect of the spiral arms and the central bar, both within and outside the plane of the Galaxy, could explain the strange distortions of stellar motion observed by the astronomers in the RAVE team.

So much for 'settled science'...

Is there life on [rolls dice] Titan?

Is NASA going to announce that they've found evidence of extraterrestrial life on Titan? 

That's what a lot of people are beginning to think.  NASA has been touting "an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life" (astrobiology, besides being a cool word, is "the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe").  Supposedly, this evidence has been gathered/analyzed by the following individuals:

• A geobiologist who's written about "geology and life on Mars";
• an oceanographer who's done extensive work on arsenic-based photosynthesis;
• a biologist examining Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and its similarities to early Earth;
• and an ecologist investigating the "chemistry of environments where life evolves."

Now, yes, obviously, throw in a grizzled marine and you've got the making of an awesome movie about discovering aliens.  Of course, the announcement could be something totally different! Or, it could be that NASA has been contacted by a warlike race of space aliens and a certain-to-fail mission carried out by a ragtag bunch of scientists is our only hope of survival.  (The picture, by the way, is an artist's concept of a lake on Titan, "the only place in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface." HOW COOL IS THAT?!

Scientists working on ways for farmers to grow crops on Mars and the moon; presumably to give the whalers someone to talk to

Science fiction fans are not the only ones attracted by the possibility of studying another planet for colonization. Scientists are engaged in many research projects focused on identifying the planet upon which mankind could exist as it does on earth. Mars, for example, may have had liquid water on its surface (or might have some now), and one day could become a home-away-from-home for future travelers.

"The colonial impulse of new land is intrinsic in human beings," said Giacomo Certini, a researcher at the Department of Plant, Soil and Environmental Science (DiPSA) at the University of Florence, Italy. "So to expand our horizon to other worlds is not considered strange at all..."

People who go to Mars, either to visit or settle down, may have to use the resources of the planet rather than bringing everything they need with them on a spaceship. But remember that agriculture on another planet would happen in an 'ecosystem' that is very different from Earth's!  Researchers from the University of Palermo, Italy, recently published a study in planetary science and space that makes encouraging statements about the future of space colonization. They say that the surface of Venus, Mars and the moon (for example) appear suitable for certain methods of agriculture.

However, one of the first obstacles in considering the planetary surface, and its usefulness in space exploration, is to develop a definition of 'land'.  This has been a subject of much debate.  According to the proceedings of the 19th World Congress of Soil Science held in Brisbane, Australia, in August, Donald Johnson and Diana Johnson proposed a "universal definition of the land." They determined the land is "at or near the substrate surface and similar bodies altered by chemical, biological, and / or physical agents and processes."  On Earth, the five elements work together in the formation of soil: parent material, climate, topography, time and organisms (or organisms in an area such as its flora and fauna) . That last factor is still a subject of debate among scientists.  The definition implies that land can only exist in the presence of the organism. Some argue that land is a 'document' containing information about the history of its environment, and that the presence of life is not a necessity.

One of the main applications of land on other planets will be it's use for agriculture to grow food and sustain any populations that may one day live there. Some scientists, however, question whether the land is indeed a necessary condition for cultivation space.

Crops without soil - It is not science fiction

Crops without soil can conjure up images from a "Star Trek" movie, but it's hardly science fiction.  Aeroponics, is a process of soilless cultivation - i.e. the development of plants in an environment without air or mist and/or with very little soil and water. Scientists have been experimenting with such methods since the early 1940s, and aeroponics systems have been used on a commercial basis since 1983.  In 1997, NASA experimented with a system of plant growth (without soil) onboard the Mir Space Station.  Using this method to grow plants in space will reduce the amount of water needed for interplanetary travel, thereby reducing the load.  Aeroponically crops can also be a source of oxygen and water for the crew of space.  And who knows... maybe they can someday change the planet itself!  But seriously, how likely is that?

The 6 staples of science fiction and fantasy television

From the alternate dimension, to the inevitable dream episode, this story runs you through the now-predictable scenarios.

Look, there are only so many ideas in the multiverse, and they occasionally get reused, some more than others. TV Tropes lists many hundreds of them, but this article is about the special few that provide the basis for episode after episode of television.  Some ideas are so common that just about any science fiction or fantasy television series (if it runs long enough) will end up using them at some point. These are the top six.

You’ll be hard pushed to find a genre show that doesn’t use these eventually!

Enjoy... (new window)

Would you stop to see Civil War Union soldiers mercilessly devoured by hungry lizards or the Museum of Menstruation?

Those are some of the bizzare items that you just might encounter if you are a traveler of America's highways.  You see, the U.S. probably has the world's greatest and strangest (and even unexplainable) array of road-side attractions.

Include one in your next vacation!

Read the full story here.

"I saw a UFO. It was blue." "Uh, it was a glider. Look, here's the evidence." "I still believe it was a UFO. It just feels right to me"

Probe into alien life forms picks up steam

~ By H. Darr Beiser, USA TODAY

Bryan Fains of Centreville, Va., made a video of a strange flying object on his cellphone camera.

Bryan Fains still thinks the blue object he saw skittering across the sky above Centreville, Va., on Nov. 3 might have been a UFO.  Although the object that Fains captured on cellphone video was later identified as a remote-controlled glider plane outfitted with LED lights, he's just not sure. "It seems impossible that we're the only ones in this universe," says Fains, 29, a warehouse worker. "Whatever it was, I've never seen anything like it before."

Recent sightings have revived a debate that has stirred skepticism and research for generations. Were lights over El Paso in October skydivers with flares or extraterrestrial aircraft? Were objects over New York City this fall balloons or alien visitors? Was the California mystery plume really a jet contrail?  Fascination with unidentified flying objects seems unabated, though there are limits: Denver voters on Nov. 2 rejected a ballot measure that would have required the city to develop a protocol for welcoming aliens.  Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, says there's no tangible evidence of visits from other planets. "The evidence is so fleeting, so thin, so fraught with human error," he says. "People have fantastic imaginations."

George Mason University astronomer Harold Geller says Venus and Jupiter might be responsible for recent sightings. "The more reports picked up by the media, the more people report seeing such apparitions," he says, but there's "no convincing evidence" of alien visitors.  Christopher French, a University of London psychology professor who studies paranormal beliefs, says some UFO believers are drawn to the idea that aliens are contacting humans. "It would just make the world a more interesting place," he says.  For some, belief in extraterrestrials "takes on a spiritual dimension," French says.

Stephen Diamond, a clinical and forensic psychologist in Los Angeles, says the need for meaning can be satisfied by UFOs. "It's a questing for something to believe in that goes beyond ourselves" and is especially potent in times of cultural upheaval and economic crisis, he says.  "People need a sense of beauty in life, and a sense of mystery and awe," Diamond says, and the "sense of dread" that accompanies the notion of alien beings also can be tantalizing.

"People who view the world as a hostile place are more likely to think extraterrestrials will be hostile," says Douglas Vakoch, a psychologist who leads a SETI Institute project to compose messages that could be sent in reply to a signal from extraterrestrials. The institute uses astronomy in its Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.  A 2008 Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll of 1,003 adults found that 56% believe it is very or somewhat likely that intelligent life exists in other worlds. One in every 12 Americans say they have seen a mysterious object in the sky, it found.

Those who are convinced that UFOs exist have their own theories about people who won't acknowledge their existence.  Cliff Clift, international director of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), which investigates reports of sightings, says admitting "that there is an intelligence more advanced than we are is really an affront to (skeptics') intelligence."

He says he and his grandmother saw a UFO in 1953.

Clift's group collects about 500 reports a month. Of those, he says, about 100 can't be readily explained and 15 "really curl your hair."  In one recent case, he says, a farmer and two MUFON investigators say they saw a UFO and a 3-foot-tall alien creature in the Southeast.  Jeff Peckman, who led the effort to put Denver's UFO measure on the ballot, believes the federal government is covering up decades of alien visitations. His explanation for non-believers: "Some people are just afraid of the unknown" and choose to ignore "overwhelming" evidence.

Former Air Force captain Robert Salas didn't believe in UFOs until 1967. He was in an underground missile launch facility in Montana when guards outside spotted strange lights in the sky. Then all the missiles shut down.  Salas believes extraterrestrial visitors disabled them to highlight the dangers of nuclear weapons.  Salas thinks there was another message: "We're here; we're real."  He is accustomed to skeptics. "Nobody really understands what the heck is going on," he says of those who doubt that aliens were responsible. "Fear is definitely part of it."

Fains is waiting for proof.

"I catch myself looking at the sky," he says, "every time I'm outside."

10 classic science-fiction books that were originally considered failures. Who's laughing now?

Some of science fiction/fantasy's classic books failed to win over readers at first. And the publishers of some of SF's most beloved works were convinced they had a disaster on their hands.

Here are 10 masterpieces that were deemed failures.