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Do you have coulrophobia, a fear of clowns? Then you probably should cancel your trip to Northampton, England, because an unknown clown is showing up random places, walking the street, and generally freaking everyone completely out.

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The Guinness World Records just awarded the "world's largest walking robot" prize to a Dragon!

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In news that should give all struggling, middle-aged, multimillionaire actors the inspiration to persevere and make something of themselves, Mark Wahlberg and Charlie Sheen have both finally graduated high school, after years spent loitering on movie sets, and hanging out with a bad crowd of agents and producers. Also, the woman next door said she saw them behind the Arby’s, and there was a brown bag that looked like it might have been a beer. Oh, but Mark Wahlberg and Charlie Sheen wouldn’t know anything about that, we suppose.

The 42-year-old Wahlberg, having been elected valedictorian of being fahkin’ awesome, wrote his own commencement speech in The Huffington Post, in which he spoke of the difficulty of getting his diploma after dropping out of ninth grade—a decision that immediately preceded repeated brushes with the law and pop-rap. Wahlberg said that, inspired by his kids, he spent the ...

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Um homem de 23 anos tinha acabado de comprar sua cópia de Grand Theft Auto V depois de ficar esperando pelo lançamento de meia-noite, na fila de um supermercado, quando foi atacado por um ladrão. Os criminosos  o acertou com um tijolo e ainda deu uma facada e teve todos os i...

Chibuihem Amalaha, an award winning student at the University of Lagos, is claiming that he's "disproved" gay marriage through science — and he used the power of magnets to do so. His "groundbreaking" work is backed by the university.

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"Brazilian hackers take down NASA web page. Did they confuse it with the NSA?" - Twitter / samknight1

It sounds poetic, but it's apparently true: in the Amazon, bees and, more often, butterflies, flap around the heads of turtles to drink their salty, salty tears. It's truly a sight to behold.

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Researchers from Emory University have discovered that fathers with smaller testicles are more likely to be involved in caregiving activities like diaper changes, feeding, and nap time. Brains scans also show higher activity in their reward system. But the study is far from complete in its assessment.

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It takes a special author to inspire his own Halloween costume, and George R.R. Martin is now such an author! Martin himself found this costume and linked to it on his Not a Blog, so clearly he’s cool with this next level of adulation. Carbon Costume shows you how to put the outfit together out of fairly simple components, and points out that the initially baffling turtle is included because Martin’s “house sigil is the turtle, the only pet allowed by the housing projects in which he grew up.” So if you want a costume that is authorially-accurate, weirdly sweet, and designed to keep you warm on an October night, GRRM is the way to go! But maybe you want to replace the generic copy of GoT with a blank book titled “A Song of Ice and Fire Book 7,” just to annoy everyone...

Now, maybe you’re a huge Game of Thrones fan, but you don’t want to go as the author, and throwing on a medieval dress and saying you’re Sansa just isn’t good enough. And going as skinny-dipping Hodor is probably illegal in your town. In that case, might we suggest you go as... an event? Well, HalloweenCostume.com has a Red Wedding Costume kit that is sure to confuse everyone who hasn’t caught up on their HBO Go backlog yet!

[Not to mention the people who know nothing about ASOIAF...]

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Thought your job was safe? Not so much, say researchers at University of Oxford's James Martin school. There, a group of futurists have published a report warning that 45 percent of jobs currently done by humans will be computerized in 20 years — including engineering jobs.

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To many Marvel fans, Samuel L. Jackson is Nick Fury. Not only has Jackson played the character in five different MCU films over the past five years, the Ultimate version of the character was actually modeled after Jackson — years before Iron Man came out.

But there was a time long ago (well, 1998) when David Hasselhoff was Nick Fury. And while most people seem to have forgotten that by now, the Hoff hasn’t. In fact, he’s pretty sure that he’s still the better Nick Fury, and he’d like the chance to play the role again.

Hasselhoff portrayed the leather-clad warrior fifteen years ago in a made-for-TV movie called Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The film was quickly forgotten; at this point, most people probably assume that Jackson was the first to play that Fury.

However, Hasselhoff is eager to set the record straight. ”I was the first Nick Fury,” he said in an interview with Yahoo.

Stan Lee put me in that. He gave me the best line ever: ‘Guys like you tend to cling to the bowl no matter how many times you flush.’ Stan Lee came on the set and told me all about Nick. He said ‘You’re the ultimate Nick Fury’. He gave me the greatest compliment ever.

“The ultimate Nick Fury” is a terribly ironic phrase considering what the Ultimate Nick Fury looks like, but that’s neither here nor there. In any case, Hasselhoff isn’t too taken with Jackson’s more recent portrayal.

You know, it wasn’t Nick Fury. They take these shows and they make it the way they want to make it and unfortunately, they should have had Stan Lee on the set and let him kick him into gear – whoever directed [The Avengers] decided they wanted to go that way. But it’s their prerogative. He’s still a great actor.

This isn’t the first time Hasselhoff has criticized Jackson’s casting. While promoting Piranha 3DD in 2012, he told Movieline, “My Nick Fury was the organic Nick Fury that was written and discussed with Stan Lee before anyone got in there to change it.”

This time, Hasselhoff quickly took to Twitter to clarify his comments.

Set the record straight..Samuel Jackson is one of my favorite actors, a friend and I wish him well in all his roles especially Nick Fury !

— David Hasselhoff (@DavidHasselhoff) September 5, 2013

But as the Express points out, it doesn’t seem like Jackson was much a fan of the Hoff’s earlier performance, either. Explaining to EW (via ComicBook.com) last year how he’d prepared for the role, Jackson said, “I watched David Hasselhoff… and decided I was not going to do any of that.”

Despite Hasselhoff’s apparent frustration at being replaced, he says he’d be willing to strap on that eyepatch again.

I was hoping to have played him in the movie. And then Samuel L. Jackson came in and he was a great Nick Fury but he wasn’t really the consummate Nick Fury, the way he was written. And I think that’s a shame because he’s a great character and a funny character… I’m hoping to do it again sometime.

Okay, Mr. Hasselhoff, but we don’t recommend you hold your breath.

• Nick Fury Won’t Get His Own Movie, But Look for His Story in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’
• Confirmed: Nick Fury Appearing in Both ‘Thor’ and ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’; Will Have a Female Sidekick in ‘The Avengers’
• Samuel L. Jackson Says We’ll See A SHIELD Film After The Avengers
• Marvel News: Avengers will Begin in February, Nick Fury Will Not Appear in Thor, and Stan Lee’s Cameo Revealed?
• Marvel Updates: Bucky in Captain America, Two-Sided Johansson, Another Movie for 2012
• Samuel L. Jackson May Not Be Nick Fury?!

If you've been mourning the coming end of AMC's Breaking Bad, today's a good day: the network is moving forward with a spin-off series based around the adventures of Walter White's attorney, Saul Goodman. Deadline reports that the show is tentatively titled Better Call Saul, and will actually take place before the events of Breaking Bad.

Played by Bob Odenkirk, the character of Saul Goodman is a favorite of both fans and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, and the idea for a spin-off has been floated for some time. AMC has now closed the licensing deal it needed with Breaking Bad producer Sony Pictures TV, and the show is expected to get a series order once deals are closed with Odenkirk, Gilligan, and Peter Gould, the writer-producer...

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In a crushing blow to Jurassic Park enthusiasts worldwide, the odds of successfully extracting genetic information from fossils preserved in amber appears to be downright nil. That's the verdict from a team of UK scientists who used highly sensitive sequencing techniques in an effort to detect ancient DNA molecules in fossilized insects.

"Because these fossils were captured in amber, there was a possibility that their DNA might resist degradation and be available to extract," says study leader David Penney, PhD, a biologist at the University of Manchester. "Unfortunately, we've shown that this is not the case."

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Major Nelson may not like the idea of the Xbox One being nicknamed the “Xbone”, but that hasn’t stopped the company from acquiring the domain name Xbone.com.

According to the latest WHOIS records, Microsoft Corporation is the name’s new owner.

While it’s only speculation, it’s very possible the domain’s previous owner got an undisclosed amount of cash from Microsoft.  And considering all the recent buzz this week, it probably wasn’t a small amount.

Earlier this week, Larry Hryb (the Director of Programming for the Microsoft gaming network Xbox Live), posted a message on NeoGAF saying the nickname, “…disrespects the teams that have put in thousands of hours (already) into the development of the product. Sure, it’s cheeky but I don’t care for it myself.”

No domain dispute was ever filed by Microsoft against the owner of Xbone.com and even if it had been, there’s no guarantee the company would have won.

In July, Microsoft’s lawyers took ownership of the domain names XboxOne.com and XboxOne.net after filing a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum (NAF).

Talking about this story: CNET, Joystiq, The Escapist, Kotaku, MTV.com, IGN, The Daily Dot, VG247, NBCNews.com, Complex.com, ComputerAndVideogames.com, Examiner.com, Eurogamer.net, Gaming Bolt, GameRanx, GameSided, GameSpot, GameStar, GameZone, GamesWelt, Geeky Gadgets, Game Rant, Game Revolution, Geekosystem, Hard OCP, IntoMobile, Kotaku Australia, GamePlanet, Latinos Post, MCV, Neowin, OXM, playm.de, PC Games, El33t, Polygon, kaldata.com, SpieleRadar, SPONG, The Next Web, TheSixthAxis, The Verge, WinFuture, Videogameszone, 411mania.com, VideoGamer.com, VR-Zone and Ubergizmo

(Image via Xbox.com)

The wizarding world of Harry Potter is coming back to the big screen through a new spin-off movie written by J.K. Rowling herself. The movie will be set 70 years before the events of Harry Potter, and will follow the adventures of Newt Scamander. For big fans, Scamander's name may be familiar — in the original series, he was the author of a textbook called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Harry was required to buy. Warner Bros. announced the new film this morning, saying that it would be the first in a whole new series, and that some familiar characters and creatures could turn up once again.

"I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about," Rowling says in a...

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Economic or industrial espionage has long been one of the most important strands of intelligence activity – regardless of the sponsor nation — so it is unsurprising that many quietly suspect the U.S. National Security Agency of stealing corporate secrets from other countries. I’ve heard it plenty of times here in Germany, though in the absence of proof it’s not usually something people want to talk about too loudly.

But now the economic espionage angle has surfaced for real in the long-running NSA scandal: working with leaker Edward Snowden ally Glenn Greenwald, Brazil’s O Globo has published new training slides that suggest the NSA has targeted the private networks of Google, the French foreign ministry, SWIFT (the organization that enables secure international communications between financial institutions) and Petrobras.

SWIFT would be an obvious target for those investigating terrorist money-laundering. However Petrobras is an oil firm – not the sort of outfit you’d expect to be targeted in an anti-terrorism drive.

But that’s OK, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has said. Responding to the O Globo piece, he said in a statement:

“It is not a secret that the Intelligence Community collects information about economic and financial matters, and terrorist financing. We collect this information for many important reasons: for one, it could provide the United States and our allies early warning of international financial crises which could negatively impact the global economy. It also could provide insight into other countries’ economic policy or behavior which could affect global markets…

“What we do not do, as we have said many times, is use our foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — US companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

It is certainly the case that Petrobras is a big deal. Majority-owned by the Brazilian government, the company is one of the largest in the world. Petrobras’s thoughts are plainly of interest to those observing the economic tides – but then again, there are plenty of U.S. firms that would sell their firstborn for insights into the company’s oil reserve findings.

At this point, we know nothing about the true reasoning behind the NSA spying on Petrobras, but that won’t stop people guessing — don’t forget that Brazil (Greenwald’s home) is already outraged at the NSA’s spying on President Dilma Roussef.

The NSA private networks operation is apparently known as “Royal Net”. Meanwhile, O Globo’s scoop also includes references to two British programs called “Flying Pig” and “Hush Puppy”, which apparently involve the bypassing of TLS/SSL encryption — this ties into last week’s revelations about the weakening or cracking of basic web encryption methods.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
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• Google and the Ghost of Silicon Valley Past
• Cloud and data second-quarter 2013: analysis and outlook
• Survey: How apps can solve photo management

"Twitter user Hasan Syed has taken on British Airways by buying a promoted tweet to complain about his father’s lost luggage. Syed, who uses the handle @HVSVN, told Mashable that he bought the tweet in the New York City and UK markets Monday night. He said he used Twitter’s self-serve ad platform to make the purchase. Syed declined to disclose how much the tweet cost."

Man Buys Promoted Tweet to Complain About British Airways

You’ve seen him cheer on celestial beings in the outfield. You’ve seen him have his heart broken by Zooey “500 Days of Summer” Deschanel. You’ve seen him kill Bruce Willis in the future. You’ve heard him on the Nerdist Podcast. And now you can see Joseph Gordon-Levitt make his directorial debut in Don Jon, a film which he also wrote and in which he stars alongside Scarlett Johansson, Julianne Moore, Tony Danza, Brie Larson, and more. JGL plays Don Jon, a modern day Don Juan and meathead who suffers from a crippling porn addiction and a deep, resounding sense of emptiness in his life. A pitch-black comedy tinged with moments of genuine honesty, Don Jon finds Gordon-Levitt taking on the role of a gym rat Jersey Shore-style meathead and digging deeper than the spray-tanned exterior.

And now, if you’re in the Los Angeles area, you can see it absolutely free on Tuesday, September 10th at the Cinefamily Silent Movie Theater at 7:30PM, hosted by yours truly. That’s right – come join me at Cinefamily for a free screening of Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon. What do you need to do in order to attend? Simply RSVP at our Gofobo page using the code NERD18F! See? That was pretty painless and now you’re going to see a rad movie totally free!

Need more convincing? Check out the trailer below:

Will you be joining us? Let us know in the comments below!

RoboCop has returned to Detroit. The first trailer for the remade RoboCop has just debuted, and while it shows a similar outfit, it looks much more like a high-concept, big-budget action film than what was seen in the original 1980s picture. Even so, director José Padilha says that he's still out to capture the political tones that were ubiquitous in the original — this time with an eye toward drones. RoboCop is set to hit theaters on February 7th of next year, and you can catch your first glimpse of its dystopian world below.

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Inmates at an Australian prison have begun lighting their cigarettes with broken TV sets, using a tactic popularized by Walter White. According to Australia's News.com.au, prisoners at a correctional center in Queensland have been taking apart jail-issued television sets and using frayed wires to light cigarettes — a technique used on the TV show Breaking Bad. In the episode "Buyout," which aired last year, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) chews through the power cord of a coffee machine and uses its wires to burn through the plastic ties holding him to a radiator.

It's impossible to say whether Queensland's inmates were directly inspired by Heisenberg's exploits, but the practice has certainly become pervasive; according to prison...

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Lots of actors regret taking on one role or another — but few go as far as George Clooney, who actually hangs a picture of himself as Batman prominently in his office to remind himself what happens when you make a movie for purely commercial reasons.

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Technically, 2012 marked the 25th anniversary of Street Fighter, the classic Capcom fighting game franchise that's made a comeback over the past few years. This weekend, however, Capcom has made "I Am Street Fighter," a 72-minute documentary film, available to stream free on YouTube. Originally only available as part of the $149.99 Street Fighter 25th Anniversary Collection, the film traces Street Fighter all the way back to its roots, through the glory days of the arcade, and finally to today's tournament scene, where pro players can make a name for themselves internationally.

Listen to directors and players of the original Street Fighter talk about the series' humble origins, see life-long fans share their stories, their art, and...

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An anonymous reader writes "After the airline lost his father's luggage (and presumably was less than helpful in resolving the issue), one man decided to use Twitter's self-serve ad platform to issue a warning to fellow travelers in the New York and UK markets. The tweets have gotten the attention not only of media outlets, but also of fellow airlines. A JetBlue executive even retweeted it. While companies use the platform to target customers, it's interesting to see it being turned around."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In the middle of a Senate hearing on the use of force in Syria, ex-presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was caught playing a poker game on his iPhone. The Washington Post photographer Melina Mara broke the news by reporting that the senator was "passing the time by playing poker on his iPhone during the hearing." Mara followed up shortly after with photographic evidence, as seen above. In reaction to being caught, McCain posted a tongue-in-cheek admission of guilt on Twitter. Later, he told CNN: "as much as I like to always listen in rapt attention constantly [to] remarks of my colleagues over a three-and-a-half-hour period, occasionally I get a little bored."

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Why did so many people have to die in the climax of Man of Steel? Even in a summer full of disaster porn and murder porn, the Superman reboot stands out in its bloodthirstiness. But now at last, director Zack Snyder is explaining: the deaths are necessary to make it connect to myths and legends.

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R.U. Sirius was a founder of Mondo 2000, the definitive futurist magazine of the early 1990s. And now he's posted a ton of snippets from it over at Omni Reboot – including this amazing 1993 chart showing all the gadgets a cyberpunk needed. Like a portable computer and cellular phone!

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There's nothing more magnificent than a T-rex skeleton — except, maybe, one made entirely of chrome that is rising up over the River Seine in Paris.

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Of all the doomed Superman projects leading up to Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, the oddest might be the Nic Cage-starring, Tim Burton-directed, disco-tinged Superman Lives. We dissected the majesty of the movie's screenplay before, but here's your first glimpse of the documentary. Featuring Cage himself!

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"Facebook is considering incorporating most of its 1 billion-plus members’ profile photos into its growing facial recognition database, expanding the scope of the social network’s controversial technology."

Facebook may add your profile photo to facial recognition database - NBC News.com