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If you blinked, you missed it

Not only is cult favorite Bruce Campbell headed back to TV for the Starz series Ash Vs. Evil Dead, but he's also just joined Season 2 of FX's acclaimed Fargo.

As revealed by TVLine, Campbell will play former president Ronald Reagan. And since Season 2 takes place in the late '70s, and stars Patrick Wilson as a younger version of character Lou Solverson (played by Keith Carradine in Season 1), Campbell's Reagan will be a Reagan on the presidential campaign trail.

Bruce Campbell (seen here in Last Fan Standing).

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A slew of actresses were considered for the role of Anastasia Steele in the blockbuster Fifty Shades of Grey before Dakota Johnson was cast. One such actress was none other than Daenerys Targaryen herself, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke.

Clarke met twice with Fifty Shades director Sam Taylor-Johnson about starring in the erotic drama. So why did she ultimately turn down the film?

Clarke -- who has appeared nude on Broadway as well as in several episodes of Game of Thrones before stipulating that she won't do that again -- was simply uncomfortable with appearing naked onscreen (in what would end up being a large portion of the movie).

"I'd done nudity before and was concerned with being labeled for doing it again," she told The Hollywood Reporter. "No regrets," Clarke said of her decision.

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Amazon leans heavily on warehouse robots to assist workers and fulfill your orders on time, but these machines still can't pack items quickly enough to replace humans. However, the internet giant is determined to make these mechanical helpers more us...

A custom map you've created for a trip is only useful if you can access it when you need it. Thankfully, Google's bringing back My Maps integration with Android, so it's now easier to view your personalized files on mobile. As you might know, you can...

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via http://fuckyeahdementia.com/page/3

As California limps through another nearly rain-free rainy season, the state is taking increasingly bold action to save water.

On Tuesday, the California state government imposed new mandatory restrictions on lawn watering and incentives to limit water use in hotels and restaurants as part of its latest emergency drought regulations. On Thursday, California Gov. Jerry Brown announced a $1 billion plan to support water projects statewide and speed aid to hard-hit communities already dealing with shortages. Last month federal water managers announced a “zero allocation” of agricultural water to a key state canal system for the second year in a row, essentially transforming thousands of acres of California farmland into dust.

This week’s moves come after the state has fallen behind targets to increase water efficiency in 2015 amid the state’s worst drought in 1,200 years. Last year, voters passed a $7.5 billion water bond and the legislature approved its first-ever restrictions on groundwater pumping, which won’t go into full effect until 2025. Stricter, more immediate limits on water use are possible as summer approaches.

But it’s not enough. These moves are small potatoes compared to what’s needed to rein in statewide water use, of which agriculture forms the vast majority. Last week, a pair of op-eds, one in the Guardian, the other in the Los Angeles Times, spoke with urgency about the West’s growing water crisis.

“California has no contingency plan for a persistent drought like this one (let alone a 20-plus-year mega-drought), except, apparently, staying in emergency mode and praying for rain,” wrote NASA water scientist and University of California-Irvine professor Jay Famiglietti. A better plan, he said, was for “immediate mandatory water rationing” across the state. Famiglietti’s work has focused on the shocking recent declines in groundwater across the West, where excessive pumping has caused the ground to sink at rates up to a foot per year and a measurable rise in global sea levels.

Underlying the frantic, short-term search for water is an ominous underlying trend that threatens to fundamentally transform America’s most important agricultural state. Climate change may have already initiated a new megadrought.

But first, a reality check: California’s cities have more than enough water to withstand the current drought and then some. They simply don’t use that much. Not true for agriculture, which uses 80 percent of California’s water—10 percent of that just on almonds. Though it’s still a national powerhouse, fed increasingly by fast-depleting groundwater supplies, the state’s agriculture industry has likely begun a long-term decline due mostly to simple math. Abnormally dry conditions have dominated in 11 of the last 15 years, and the cuts have to come from somewhere. Agriculture is the elephant in the ever-shrinking room of California water.

Statewide, California’s snowpack is now at a record low—just 12 percent of normal, and less than half of last year’s astonishingly meager total. Normally, California’s snowpack holds the equivalent of about 15 million acre-feet of water around its traditional April 1 peak, about as much as all the state’s reservoirs combined. This year, it’s as if half of the state’s water reserves simply vanished. It’s difficult to imagine the hardship the state will face this summer as the rivers of snowmelt that normally feed the state during the dry season dwindle dangerously. As I wrote last year during my drought-themed reporting trip across the West, California just wasn’t built to handle a world without snow.

But it’s not just California. It’s been freakishly hot out West all winter. Other states are also suffering, with record low water levels expected this year in the two major reservoirs on the Colorado River—Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The warm winter has helped to dry up the land even more, and pre-emptively melt what little snow has graciously fallen.

If a megadrought has already begun—and there is increasingly strong evidence to support that it has, or will soon—there will be widespread implications, including a significant reshifting of California agriculture outside the state. The California of the past is gone, and climate change is bringing a new one faster than it seems we’re ready for.

(photo by artschoolkiddropout)

TIE Fighter is an incredible example of how truly amazing and painstakingly created a Star Wars fan film can be.

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Glasses that let colorblind people see colors for the first time.

Yep, it's happening -- if not quite in the way you might expect. After a flurry of rumors, Fox has confirmed that it's bringing The X-Files back to TV as a six-episode "event series" arriving this summer. It won't be the full-on relaunch some fans we...

Here's a cool alternative to the traditional physical mouse.

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Photo credit: SWNS SWNS Two extremely valuable classic race cars - worth around £5 million together - crashed into each other at an event at the iconic Goodwood race track on Saturday. continue reading

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AFP/Getty Images Michael Schumacher's son Mick has reportedly escaped unharmed after a 100mph crash at a racetrack in Germany. continue reading

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Photo credit: SWNS SWNS A fleet of brand new Fords have been destroyed before ever turning a wheel on the road, after a transporter lorry carrying them became wedged under a low bridge. continue reading

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Photo credit: Getty Images Getty Images As Formula One world champion and one of Britain's most prolific sportsmen, Lewis Hamilton must have one of most photographed and recognised faces in the world. continue reading

So easy anyone can do it

3D printers can build anything from prosthetics and musical instruments to Hershey chocolates. But, even as the technology continues to make strides with materials (metal, concrete, etc.) and takes on full-fledged architectural projects, it seems to ...

Tinnitus affects the ears but it originates in the brain. The condition, which causes ringing in the ears, is mainly triggered by age-related hearing loss and prolonged exposure to excessively loud noise. But neuroscientific studies reveal that tinni...

The Virgin giganto-brand already encompasses a media empire, a few airlines, wireless phone service, some hotels and an honest-to-goodness space program -- why wouldn't it churn out some electric cars for us, too? CEO Richard Branson hinted as much d...

Google's multi-million dollar investment in augmented reality startup Magic Leap appears to be paying off if this demo reel is any indication. In it, the fledgling AR firm shows off what a year and half a billion dollars can accomplish. That includes...

Rising from a wall of flames, a Raytheon RIM-161 Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) takes flight from the Deveselu missile defense base in Romania. Designed to intercept short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles before the inbound threats re-enter the ...

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You may see yellow taxis as virtually synonymous with New York City transportation, but you might have to reconsider that image before too long. New Taxi and Limousine Commission data shows that Uber cars now outnumber cabs on NYC streets, with 14,08...

taikonaut:

humanoidhistory:

Fifty years ago today, cosmonaut Alexei Leonov made history when he stepped outside the Voshkod 2 spacecraft and became the first person ever to walk in space. As a small step, as a great leap, Leonov’s 12-minute spacewalk was an adventure for the ages — and it almost killed him.

The BBC has the story of how his spacesuit started inflating into a death trap:

At this point the cosmonaut realised something was wrong. The lack of atmospheric pressure in space had slowly caused his spacesuit to inflate like a balloon. He recalls:

"My suit was becoming deformed, my hands had slipped out of the gloves, my feet came out of the boots. The suit felt loose around my body. I had to do something.”

"I couldn’t pull myself back using the cord. And what’s more with this misshapen suit it would be impossible to fit through the airlock."

In five minutes he would be in the Earth’s shadow, and plunged into total darkness. Without telling ground control, the cosmonaut decided to bleed half of the air out of his spacesuit through a valve in its lining. This risked starving his body of oxygen, but if he couldn’t get back inside the capsule, he’d be dead anyway.

Leonov let out a little oxygen at a time to reduce the pressure. But as he did so, he started to feel the first hints of decompression sickness.

“I began to get pins and needles in my legs and hands. I was entering the danger zone, I knew this could be fatal.”

He started coiling the cord in order to haul himself back. When he finally reached the airlock, he pushed the camera in, grabbed the sides and lurched through head first.

The extreme physical exertion had caused his temperature to soar; he was now at risk of heatstroke and sweating uncontrollably. The globules filled his helmet, obscuring his vision.

Leonov was supposed to re-enter the airlock feet first. Getting in the wrong way meant he had to turn himself around in the cramped space to make sure the umbilical cord was inside and the hatch was locked.

He says: “It was the most difficult thing: I’m in this suit and I had to turn around in the airlock. But with the perspiration, I couldn’t see anything.”

"I don’t normally sweat much, but on that day I lost 6kg in weight.”

After curling around in his bulky suit, in such a narrow space, Leonov finally made it back inside the craft.

(BBC)

Jesus Christ that’s most of my phobia list right there.

<a href=/bands/band.php?band_id=495&bandname=Tool>Tool</a> guitarist Adam Jones has recently given some new updates about the new album's progress and the legal issues the band faced. He was interviewed by <a href="http://www.yahoo.com/music/exclusive-with-legal-obstacles-out-of-the-way-113603374956.html">Yahoo! Music</a> and announced that the <a href="/events/news_comments.php?news_id=23961">lawsuit</a> that dragged on for eight years has been settled in the band's favor. For now, Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor, and drummer Danny Carey have finished one yet-untitled track and have more than 10 songs in various stages of completion. The next step is making plans for vocalist Maynard James Keenan to come in and start tracking vocals. <a href="/events/news_comments.php?news_id=25986>Read more...</a>