Biographies and documentaries about actors tend to focus on scandalous stuff—their tumultuous family life, tragedies, addiction problems...whatever personal turmoil helped (or hindered) them as they built their career. Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story has none of that. Instead, it offers a thoroughly…
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X-Rays Reveal Censored Messages Between Marie Antoinette and Her 'Tender Friend'
A team of conservation scientists recently went through 230-year-old correspondence between Marie Antoinette and her close friend (and rumored lover) Axel von Fersen, a Swedish count, and were able to reveal redacted portions of eight letters exchanged between the two.

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Boats, Ranked
Boats: They are vessels of ancient Solomon Islanders who charted a now-fantastical journey 2,000 miles into the unknown. They contain drunk people while idling with the engine running on the East River as the toilet floods the lower deck, penetrating nauseated passengers’ nostrils with sewage, an event which I can…
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Blue Origin Employees Claim Jeff Bezos’s Rocket Company Is Sexist, Toxic, and Lax About Flight Safety
A scathing essay written by nearly two dozen current and former Blue Origin employees paints a grim picture of work conditions at the company and how the burgeoning space race among billionaires is compromising flight safety.

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In This Year's Snifter of Death, Breakfast Is Saved by a Man of Oats
For the past several years, we’ve been delighted to share a preview of Mark Russell and Peter Snejbjerg’s “Monster Serials,” their ongoing tale of the Marquis du Cocoa and other copyright-infringement-free icons of breakfast cereal. Last year, the Marquis and his wife hosted the ousted king of the Leprechauns. The…
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The ABCs of Big Oil: The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Century-Long Quest to Invade Elementary Schools
Research shows that kids under the age of 7 can’t recognize that advertisements are trying to sell them something. One analysis found that even middle school kids can’t distinguish between news stories and advertorials.
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The FCC Is Still Trying to Stop Spam Calls and SIM Swap Scams
We’ve all been spammed by robocalls and faced the threat of SIM swap attacks for years, and now the FCC is finally planning to do something about it.
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Toss a Coin at These Witcher Toys, Until They Go Away
McFarlane Toys has been releasing The Witcher action figures for a little while now, but they’ve all been based on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt video game. It was a smash hit, but let’s be honest with ourselves—all we’ve really been waiting for are toys based on Netflix’s wonderful live-action adaptation of The Witcher,…
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Oil Starts Flowing Through Line 3 on Friday, But Water Protectors Will Keep Fighting It
Oil will begin flowing through the controversial Line 3 pipeline on Friday, after years of legal challenges and resistance that saw more than 900 arrests since construction began in November.
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South Korean ISP Is Suing Netflix Because Too Many People Are Watching Squid Game
There’s at least one player who’s not particularly happy about the success of the Netflix hit Squid Game—and that’s SK Broadband, a South Korean internet provider. According to Reuters, the ISP is suing Netflix to pay up for using so much bandwidth and the maintenance costs due to traffic surges stemming from the…
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Merck and Ridgeback Say Their Covid-19 Pill Cuts Chance of Hospitalization and Death by Half
A pill that can effectively prevent the worst outcomes of covid-19 may finally be on the way.
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Encanto's Most Magical Character Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight
In Disney’s upcoming animated feature Encanto—from co-directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush—almost every member of the Madrigal family is blessed with a unique ability that comes from the powerful connection to the magic that their family tree as a whole has always had. So growing up without powers is hard for Mirabel…
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YouTube TV and NBCUniversal Have Agreed to Make Nice—for Now
After a drawn-out public showdown over a contract dispute that could have resulted in 14 NBC Universal channels being yanked from YouTube TV, the two services announced in a Thursday night statement that they’ve worked out a short-term fix.

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There's a New 'World's Biggest Nerf Gun' That Can Blast Darts at Over 50 MPH
In 2016, Mark Rober created what was easily the world’s largest dart blaster capable of launching foam projectiles at speeds of up to 40 MPH. Five years later, Michael Pick has come along to steal that record from Rober with a monstrously massive dart rifle powerful enough to tear soda cans to shreds.
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This Saildrone Footage Inside a Category 4 Storm Will Make You Seasick
There are few places I’d rather be less than the eye of a Category 4 storm in the middle of the ocean. But I have always been curious to know what it would be like, what with monster waves, squalls of rain, and whipping winds turning the ocean into a frothy mess.
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Rick & Morty Anime Will Return Very Soon, in Spooktacular Fashion
An interesting result in the long-running Friday the 13th lawsuit has emerged. Chris Columbus will no longer direct Five Nights at Freddy’s. Rob Zombie teases The Munsters’ haunted abode. Plus, Doom Patrol takes on Dada, and a new look at R.L. Stine’s Disney+ horror anthology. Spoilers get!

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Flying Foam Case Promises to Protect Your Smartphone While Capturing Aerial Footage
Many of us experience a moment of sheer terror when we accidentally drop our phones, even when it’s wrapped in a protective case. But the makers of the AER TYP want us to deliberately throw our smartphones like a football, and promise they’ll survive the flight, even in the event of a crash landing.

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Why Are UK Gas Prices So High, and Could It Affect the U.S.?
Europe’s energy market has descended into chaos. A gas shortage has sent prices spiraling to shocking highs with knock-on impacts on everything from electricity to meat production.
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Show Me Your Nerd: Meet Tau's Puppet Pals
When Tau Bennett was a child, he started as a puppet builder, making one monstrously hilarious Frankenstein after the next, he got to explore his imagination in a way many kids don’t get to. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when at the ripe age of 16, he got to learn from some of the top puppeteers in the…
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The TCL 20 Pro 5G Is the Most Underappreciated Phone for the Money
Try as it might, TCL is having a hard time expanding its presence outside of TVs, despite owning notable phone brands like Alcatel, Blackberry, and Palm. It’s tough to be a major player in a smartphone market dominated by Apple and Samsung. Even LG got out of the game. But TCL is still trying, and for the second year…
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10 Absolutely Cursed Gadgets That Live in My Head Rent-Free
Spooky Season is upon us! Growing up, I was terrified of scary movies. These days, the stuff of my nightmares is mundane by comparison, though no less disconcerting. Namely, those off-the-wall, bizarre products that seem to exist for no other reason than to leave you wondering, “Why is this a thing?”

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Kino Lorber Launches Free Movie Streaming Service With Dozens of Cult Classics
Film distributor Kino Lorber is launching a movie streaming service today called Kino Cult, with dozens of genre movies just in time for the spooky season. The service is completely free and supported by ads, with new titles promised each month.

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