Google's Android accessories dev kit is a sensor lover's paradise

Google took the wraps off a lot of new hardware this week, but one thing it didn't show off was its Android Accessory Development Kit — an angular box that resembles an alarm clock you'd find in a modern art museum.

The AADK is for developers who are interested in building their own Android accessories. As Engadget notes, it's useless on its own, but when you hook the device up to an Android smartphone (via Bluetooth or Micro USB), you can manipulate its many sensors in a number of ways.

Why Primeval spinoff is gonna have a 'harder edge' than original

We haven't heard an awful lot since it was announced that the dino- and anomalies-filled U.K. sci-fi series Primeval was getting a North-American spinoff titled Primeval: New World. Sure, we got some awesome casting news a few months back, but now we're finally hearing from two of its main stars, who say that the show will have a "harder edge" than the original. Heck, yeah!

10 most promising up and coming inventions inspired by sci-fi

We previously explored how science fiction movies, books, games and more inspire the technology we use today. So, what about the future? What great inventions from science fiction are lurking around the corner? For example, what if you could ride around town in your very own landspeeder, or travel the world by simply standing on your very own teleporter pad and telling it where to send you?

Here's a list of the top 10 most promising up and coming technological inventions inspired by the pages, scenes and sounds of science fiction.

Vin Diesel looks badass with skull and bones in new Riddick pic

Considering Pitch Black was one of his first—and arguably coolest—breakout roles, it's nice to see Vin Diesel is really treating the upcoming Riddick sequel with some care. The film is still about a year away, but Diesel can't help but leak some awesome set pics—and the latest is all the proof we need that the baddest Furyan of all is back in action.

Watch skydivers jump from a helicopter with Google Glasses on

What's it feel like to leap out a helicopter and land on the roof of the Moscone Center in San Francisco for Google's I/O conference? Google just released a video of a practice jump showing skydivers fully loaded with Project Glass glasses falling out of the sky.

Cracking an egg 60 feet underwater

Cracking an egg or two for breakfast is a familiar activity for many of us. Who knew cracking an egg 60 feet underwater would be so much more awesome?

Dark Knight Rises press release reveals a casting rumor was true

We've been hearing that a certain former Dark Knight player would be back for the final installment, and now we know for sure. So who else is signed on for The Dark Knight Rises?

Not too surprisingly, Cillian Murphy (Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow) is officially inThe Dark Knight Rises, though we don't know as to what extent.

Army Battalion Commander Killed in Fort Bragg Shooting

A U.S. Army battalion commander was killed by a fellow soldier on Thursday in a shooting incident at Fort Bragg, N.C. The alleged gunman then shot himself and is in custody; a third soldier was slightly injured in the shooting.

An Army statement said the shooting victim belonged to the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade. A battalion is a subordinate command within a brigade and is commanded by a lieutenant colonel. The battalion involved in today's shooting has not been identified.

A Defense official told ABC News that the shooting occurred this afternoon as the battalion was gathered for a safety briefing in advance of the upcoming July 4 weekend.

Chinese astronauts parachute land after mission

BEIJING (AP) — China's first female astronaut and two other crew members emerged smiling from a capsule that returned safely to Earth on Friday from a 13-day mission to an orbiting module that is a prototype for a future space station.

The Shenzhou 9 parachuted to a landing on the grasslands of the country's sprawling Inner Mongolia region at about 10 a.m. (0200 GMT). China declared the first manned mission to the Tiangong 1 module — the space program's longest and most challenging yet — a major stride ahead for the country's ambitious space program.

"Blade Runner" still subject of scientists' debate

While South African athlete Oscar Pistorius attempts to become the first amputee runner to compete at the Olympic Games, scientists are still arguing whether his artificial limbs give him a critical advantage or not.

Pistorius, born without fibulas and who had his lower legs amputated when a baby, uses carbon fiber prosthetic running blades and is hoping to qualify for the 400 meters at the Games.

Pistorius beat the Olympic qualifying time of 45.30 in Pretoria in March but must repeat that performance in an international meeting before June 30 to make the team for the London Games which start on July 27.

Pistorius, who has a personal best is 45.07, won the 100, 200 and 400 gold medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games. He also became the first amputee to compete at the athletics world championships when he ran in Daegu, South Korea last year.

Heat wave prompts concerns about Freon shortage, home cooling costs

Mother Nature is showing Atlanta no mercy. Friday's forecast high? 105. Followed by 105, then 104.

Atlanta homeowner Lee Becknell's air conditioner was kaput until a technician arrived a few days ago.

"AC just needed new Freon and does not need to be replaced. Phew." Becknell wrote in a tweet.

Well worth the $250 repair cost, she said.

"Yeah, it would have been awful if it wasn't working this weekend," Becknell told Yahoo News.

She likely got lucky on the service tab too. Across the country, air conditioner repair companies are sounding the alarm about skyrocketing maintenance costs.

"There are some big changes going on in the world of air conditioning," warns Davis Air Conditioning in Lawton, Okla.

World's Most Powerful Rocket Launches New US Spy Satellite

A new spy satellite launched into orbit on a secret mission for the U.S. military Friday (June 29), roaring spaceward atop the world's most powerful rocket in use today.

The NROL-15 reconnaissance satellite blasted off from a launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT) to begin its classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. It rode a towering Delta 4-Heavy boosterequipped with new RS-68A first stage engines — the most powerful liquid hydrogen rocket engines ever built, according to their manufactures.

Built by Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne, the new RS-68A engines are each capable of generating 702,000 pounds of thrust and are more efficient than a previous design, the rocket engine builders said, adding that the engine generates 36,000 more pounds of thrust than its predecessor.Three of the new rocket engines made their space launch debut in Friday's Delta 4-Heavy flight by rocket provider United Launch Alliance.

Can a genetic switch spice up supermarket tomato?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Using genetics, scientists have been able to dig up the dirt on why homegrown tomatoes taste so much sweeter than the ones in the supermarket.

Researchers found a genetic switch responsible for some of the sugar production within a tomato. A new study in Friday's edition of Science found that the common type of tomato bred for firmness and good shipping also inadvertently turns off the sugar-producing switch. That makes it less sweet and blander than garden varieties.

University of California Davis plant scientist Ann Powell said knowing the genetics behind the sugar-making could lead someday to development of sweeter tomatoes that also travel well.

15 years after China takeover, Hong Kong uneasy

HONG KONG (AP) — For thousands of Hong Kongers, this weekend's 15th anniversary of China's takeover of the semiautonomous territory isn't a moment to celebrate but a chance to air grievances from corruption scandals to human rights to a widening gap between rich and poor.

Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived here on Friday to install Hong Kong's new but already unpopular leader, whose swearing-in on Sunday's anniversary is expected to draw large-scale protests. Hu, surrounded by tight security, is unlikely to see them.

China has kept its promise to retain the freewheeling capitalist ways of the former British colony, but residents have grown increasingly uneasy about being ruled by the country's authoritarian leaders. Only 1,200 elites among Hong Kong's 7 million residents had the right to vote for their chief executive.

Secretive, methodical, the so-called 'One Percent'

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Occupy Wall Street went after them and now, too, a mismatched pair of heroes are doing the same.

Whereas the so-called One Percent is blamed for having a majority of wealth at the expense of the other 99 percent, in Valiant Comics' upcoming "Archer & Armstrong," it's a secretive and sinister cabal of money managers and financiers willing to sacrifice more than jobs for profit — human lives, too — to steer the fate of the world for their own gain.

Ellison's island puts Oracle boss in select company

Oracle boss Larry Ellison is now the proud owner of Hawaii’s sixth-largest island. 

Ellison agreed to purchase 98 percent of the Hawaiian island of Lanai and, true to his reputation, he closed the deal quickly. That means 2 percent isn’t his. But he wouldn’t like us exposing his shortcomings. 

Indeed, Lanai is far from small. It spans 140 square miles, making it about three times larger than the city of San Francisco. It was once owned by James Dole, the pineapple magnate, who bought it in the 1920s for one of his many pineapple plantations, and it’s the modern incarnation of his Dole Food Company — Castle & Cooke — that’s now selling the land to Ellison.

China: Pilot failed to locate runway before crash

BEIJING (AP) — A commercial airline pilot failed to locate the runway before landing and abandoned the plane after it crashed in northeastern China two years ago, the government said Friday and called for the chief pilot to be prosecuted.

The 2010 crash of a Henan Airlines plane killed 44 people and injured 52 and was China's first major commercial air disaster in nearly six years.

The State Administration of Work Safety also suggested in its investigation report that the airline should be fined 5 million yuan ($795,000) for lax safety management.

The agency's investigation said chief pilot Qi Quanjun violated aviation rules during the descent, did not locate the runway before landing and abandoned the crashed aircraft.

It Only Took the Army 16 Years and 2 Wars to Deploy This Network

In October, the Army will do something it’s wanted to do for more than a decade: send a pair of combat brigades to a warzone equipped with a new data network, and the hardware to operate it. It’ll let more than a thousand troops rapidly send voice, text, imagery and data across a warzone and to a soldier on patrol. It’s a milestone, following years of aspirations, setbacks and adjustments. And it arrives pretty much too late for the wars.

When the 3rd and 4th Brigade Combat Teams of the 10th Mountain Division reach Afghanistan in October, between 1,200 and 1,400 soldiers will take with them a rejiggered Motorola Atrix running Android that’s the heart of a communications program called Nett Warrior. When they go out on patrol, their devices will load mapping applications layered with data about where they are and where their buddies are. When they encounter insurgents, homemade bombs or Afghan civilians, they’ll be able to record that information, which will appear on those digital maps as icons dotting layers of data.

Jamming Grenades, Micro-Missiles: Israel’s Latest War Tech, Uncovered

Paris in June. Some come for the shopping, the museums, the sidewalk cafes, the romantic evening strolls through the city of light. And then there's the crowd that's jonesing for the hangar-and-asphalt vibe of Eurosatory, the massive biannual military bazaar that sprawls over the exhibition grounds near Charles de Gaulle airport. The exhibition is designed to be a showcase for European land systems companies, but it is also the best hands-on venue for the latest technology and innovations in Israel's often-secretive defense industry.

Colorado wildfires: 32,000 evacuated as blaze jumps perimeter near Colorado Springs

A fast-moving wildfire near Colorado Springs forced as many as 32,000 residents to be evacuated on Tuesday, as the blaze--fueled by 65 m.p.h. winds--jumped a perimeter set by firefighters trying desperately to contain it.

The Waldo Canyon Fire--which was first spotted Saturday near Pikes Peak--doubled in size overnight to more than 24 square miles, according to the Associated Press.

Texas ‘stand your ground’ shooter headed to prison

A Texas man convicted of shooting and killing his unarmed neighbor during a dispute over loud music received a 40-year prison sentence on Wednesday.

Raul Rodriguez, 47, faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison.  He claimed he shot schoolteacher Kelly Danaher in self-defense under Texas' version of the "stand your ground" law.

But prosecutors argued Rodriguez provoked the incident by confronting Danaher, 36, and his friends with a handgun and demanding they quiet down at a late-night birthday party in May 2010.

The Houston case captured more attention in the wake of Trayvon Martin's death in Florida. There, George Zimmerman says he was being attacked and cited the state's "stand your ground" law after shooting the unarmed teen. But prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder.

Do women have themselves to blame for work-family imbalances?

TopLine

Even with economic advantages, advanced degrees  and a husband dedicated to sharing the burden, why do some working moms still feel that a high-powered career is not possible?

That is one of the central questions buzzing about the internet, our offices and dinner conversations since the Atlantic's current cover story "Women Still Can't Have It All," hit a few days ago.  Penned by a former chief policy adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the article explains her own struggles with work/life balance, as well as suggestions for how the American workplace should adjust and be more accommodating to working moms.

Weird laws to know before you travel

You better bite your tongue when you visit Middleboro, Mass. Last week, residents voted in a town meeting to impose a $20 fine on any publicly uttered swear words. 

While this may catch some travelers to the community by surprise, it’s not the only place the uttering of curse words is illegal. Here are some of the wackiest local laws that visitors should be aware of before venturing out.

1. Be careful what you wear

Laws governing clothing are common and should always be checked before traveling abroad. Qatar forbids indecent or revealing clothes, defined as “not covering shoulders and knees, tight or transparent clothes.” The Vatican City requires shoulder coverings and skirts or shorts to the knee in order to enter museums and churches. And, Castellammare di Stabia, south of Naples, has outlawed mini-skirts, low-cut jeans and too much cleavage, with violators risking a 300-euro fine.

Heat wave: 1,000+ records fall in US in a week

Feeling hot? It's not a mirage. Across the United States, hundreds of heat records have fallen in the past week.

From the wildfire-consumed Rocky Mountains to the bacon-fried sidewalks of Oklahoma, the temperatures are creating consequences ranging from catastrophic to comical.

In the past week, 1,011 records have been broken around the country, including 251 new daily high temperature records on Tuesday.

Those numbers might seem big, but they're hard to put into context — the National Climatic Data Center has only been tracking the daily numbers broken for a little more than a year, said Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the center.

Why Microsoft Killed the Windows Start Button

I'm not sure if I'm buying this excuse or not but, since the classic and Metro versions are separated, how hard would it be to just put the damn thing back for people that want it?

"We’d seen the trend in Windows 7," said Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft, referring to the telemetry gathered by the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. "When we evolved the taskbar we saw awesome adoption of pinning [applications] on the taskbar. We are seeing people pin like crazy. And so we saw the Start menu usage dramatically dropping, and that gave us an option. We’re saying 'look, Start menu usage is dropping, what can we do about it? What can we do with the Start menu to revive it, to give it some new identity, give it some new power?'"

Russia Preps Mach 7 Missiles — With India’s Help

Russia and India are already testing a new supersonic cruise missile, which is pretty cool, we guess. But going Mach 2 or thereabouts isn’t all that fast these days. Everything has to go faster. That’s why the two countries are also developing a hypersonic missile capable of traveling more than five times the speed of sound. Problem is even building the engines, let alone missiles, is extremely hard to do.

Nixie chess set gives your game the warm glow of tubes

Plenty of people make artsy-fartsy chess sets, but few have managed to combine the nerdiness of chess with the retro-geekiness of vintage Nixie tubes quite as artfully as this induction powered beauty.

Boeing, Gulfstream and NASA collaborating on Mach 3 jet

The world of aviation took step backwards when the Concorde was withdrawn in 2003, but now we could leap forward again with a new business jet being developed by Boeing, Lockheed-Martin and Gulfstream, with help from NASA.

The X-54 will be able to reach speeds of 2,500-mph, or nearly double what the Concorde was capable of achieving. That will let you fly half way around the world from London to Sydney in just four hours, or about 16 hours less than the same route on a regular subsonic passenger jet.

A look at how Google’s new device compares with iPad, Kindle Fire, other rivals

Google Inc. said Wednesday that it will sell its own tablet computer, the Nexus 7, based on its Android operating system.

Google is the latest challenger to Apple, maker of the popular iPad. The new tablet will also compete directly with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire.

Texas ‘stand your ground’ shooter headed to prison

A Texas man convicted of shooting and killing his unarmed neighbor during a dispute over loud music received a 40-year prison sentence on Wednesday.

Raul Rodriguez, 47, faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison.  He claimed he shot schoolteacher Kelly Danaher in self-defense under Texas' version of the "stand your ground" law.

But prosecutors argued Rodriguez provoked the incident by confronting Danaher, 36, and his friends with a handgun and demanding they quiet down at a late-night birthday party in May 2010.

The Houston case captured more attention in the wake of Trayvon Martin's death in Florida. There, George Zimmerman says he was being attacked and cited the state's "stand your ground" law after shooting the unarmed teen. But prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder.

Go behind the scenes with Kate Beckinsale for a Total Recall rumble

The soundstage on which a big science fiction movie is being filmed feels ... like science fiction. There are a bunch of different sets scrunched together in one mixed metaphor of a space, and these disparate environments are connected by umbilicals of heavy cable that look like they're strung around the engine room of the Nostromo in Ridley Scott'sAlien.

The way onto this Dadaist landscape is through a totally mundane corridor of college-dorm-boring painted cinderblock, so it's especially jarring to step from a place of total sensory deprivation into a situation of blaring lights and sounds that make you feel like you need to grab Newt and get the hell out of there before the reactor blows.

Why new Starship Troopers is gonna be less violent than original

Based on Robert Heinlein's novel of the same name, the 1997 film Starship Troopers is revered by fans as one of the most cheesily awesome, and wildly violent sci-fi films ever made. With a reboot now in the works, it seems the new version will apparently be missing some of that violent, bug-killing charm. But why?

The original Troopers was directed by Paul Verhoeven, who also masterminded sci-fi classics RoboCop and Total Recall. Toby Jaffe, the man bringing both Starship Troopersand Total Recall back to the big screen, said the world is a very different place now—and violent, camp-tinged sci-fi just doesn't fit the big-budget mold anymore.

Rumor of the Day: Is this Iron Man 3's post-credits cameo hero?

With production on Iron Man 3 officially underway, we're all wondering just where the official start to Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will take us. What new heroes and villains will we meet? What new setups might we see? Well, according to one theory, we'll run into at least one comic book Avenger in the flick's traditional post-credits teaser.

This theory spins out of some information dropped by The Playlist writer Gabe Toro during that site's recent podcast.

A Conversation With Bill Gates

The Chronicle of Higher Education has posted a "conversation with Bill Gates" about the future of higher education.

His approach is not simply to drop in tablet computers or other gadgets and hope change happens—a model he said has a "really horrible track record." Instead, the foundation awards grants to reformers working to fix "inefficiencies" in the current model of higher education that keep many students from graduating on time, or at all. And he argues for radical reform of college teaching, advocating a move toward a "flipped" classroom, where students watch videos from superstar professors as homework and use class time for group projects and other interactive activities. As he put it, "having a lot of kids sit in the lecture class will be viewed at some point as an antiquated thing."

Introducing the Source Filmmaker

Valve has just introduced the Source Filmaker and is currently taking sign-ups for the beta. Just FYI, you'll need to have Steam installed to get in on the beta.

Rogue Dolphin, Alone After Katrina, Menaces Lake Area

A menacing animal is terrorizing residents of an upscale waterfront community just outside New Orleans. But it's not your run-of-the-mill beastly wild animal. Instead, it's a sweet-faced bottle-nosed dolphin and hospital officials say he's already taken a bite out of three people who have entered the waters of Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell, La.

Second in size to the great Salt Lake in Utah, Lake Pontchartrain is home to many wild animals. The Slidell Dolphin, as the juvenile male is known, made the body of water his home just after Katrina when a small pod made their way into the lake. The pod eventually left--leaving the lone dolphin to fend for himself.

Despite Asia Talk, Navy Will Send Newest Ships to Mideast

The Navy is eager to build up its presence in Asia and the Pacific. But the so-called “Asia Pivot” doesn’t tell the full story. Over the next four years, the Navy will conduct a greater ship surge in the Middle East — which is also where it’ll send its newest, latest kinds of surface ships.

That’s what Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s top officer, told Pentagon reporters on Wednesday. The Pacific “rebalancing” — the Pentagon doesn’t call it a “pivot” anymore — is still on. But in order to move its traditional aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers to the far East, the Navy’s going to put its newer kinds of surface ships in the Persian Gulf.

Scientists to capture black hole destruction in real time

Scientists believe that super massive black holes lie at the center of most galaxies, and our own Milky Way doesn't seem to be any different. As it turns out, our black hole even has a name: Sagittarius A* (or Sgr A* for short; that last bit is pronounced "A-star"). And it might treat us to an unparalleled showcase of mass destruction over the next year.

While researchers are not able to directly observe black holes, as they emit no light or matter, scientists can observe the behavior of the celestial bodies around the massive space suckatrons.

Here's a video comprised of images taken of Sgr A* over the past 10 years by the European Southern Obervatory's "Very Large Telescope" (VLT) based in northern Chile.

More evidence points to fast-growing, warm-blooded dinosaurs

Most people think of dinosaurs as slow creatures that lumbered through the world like the stoic cold-blooded lizards we know today. However, there is an increasing body of evidence that dinosaurs had more in common with dynamic warm-blooded mammals — like us!

Specifically, researchers are looking at the "growth lines" found in dinosaur bones. Growth lines are similar to growth rings found in trees: they are darker and thinner in "slow growing" times like winter, and lighter and wider in more active times.

Military Wives Strip Down to Raise Awareness About PTSD: Battling Bare

Ashley Wise's husband Rob is about as tough as they come. The career soldier spent 8 years in the Marines before joining the Army after 9/11 and serving on two tours of duty in Iraq, but in April this year, he hit a wall. He locked himself in a hotel room with guns and alcohol and told his wife "he might do something stupid."

Thankfully, he came back home alive. Ashley reached out to the Family Advocacy Service at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where they are currently stationed, and discovered that, like many other soldiers who are suffering from mental anguish or who might have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), finding the help he needed without putting his career in jeopardy would be a struggle. When Wise, believing her conversation to be confidential, divulged to a counselor that Rob had once become physical with her, an MP was immediately brought in. Husband and wife were not allowed contact for 72-hours and Rob now faces domestic assault charges (which Wise is trying to have dropped).

Google unveils tablet to take on Apple, Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc took the wraps off its first tablet computer on Wednesday, looking to replicate its smartphone success in the tablet market despite tough competition from Apple Inc, Microsoft and Amazon.

The "Nexus 7" tablet, built by and co-branded with Taiwan's Asus, will begin selling for as low as $199 on the Google Play website and apps store from around mid-July.

Janet Evans' return to the Olympic Trials at age 40 is a huge hit with appreciative fans in Omaha

OMAHA, Neb. – In honor of Janet Evans' greatness and her willingness to battle the undefeated Father Time, the crowd at CenturyLink Center rose in applause Tuesday when she reached the starting blocks.

At age 40, the greatest of all female American distance swimmers was back at the U.S. Olympic Trials for the first time since 1996. Now a mother of two, she was competing in unfamiliar territory: a mid-pack heat of the 400-meter freestyle. She was surrounded by swimmers less than half her age – seven teenagers were in the field.

Janet Evans after competing in a 400m prelim heat. (AFP Photo/Al Bello)"They're closer in age to my children," Evans said afterward, her trademark toothy grin and giggle still part of the package.

To the surprise of no one, the kids cleaned her clock. Evans finished 80th in the event and seventh in her heat, nearly seven seconds behind 19-year-old heat winner Danielle Siverling. Evans' time of 4 minutes, 21.49 seconds, is a distant echo of the world-record 4:03.85 she swam 24 years ago. That mark stood for 18 years – an eternity in swimming time – and she still holds the American 800 free record she set in 1989.

Rise in Kids Eating Laundry Detergent "Pods" That Look Like Candy

Sweet-smelling and colorful, but toxic, single-use laundry detergent packs or “pods” are causing a rising rate of poisoning in kids who confuse them for candy. In the past 72 hours alone, nine childhood poisonings of toddlers (typical age 23 months) have been reported to the California Poison Control System (CPCS).

Richard Geller, MD, MPH—Medical Director, California Poison Control System, Children’s Hospital, Madera—reports that accidental poisonings linked to detergent pods are becoming increasingly frequent, with 82 cases in California through the end of May. Nationally, at least 250 cases have been reported to poison control centers this year, most of them since March when the products began to hit grocery store shelves.

All of the latest childhood poisonings required emergency evaluation and treatment, with six of them linked to Tide Pods, two to Purex Ultra Packs, and one to All Mighty Paks. So far, no deaths have been reported, but nationally, a number of kids have required hospitalization—sometimes on ventilators—for several days after eating detergent pods.

A Dunk That Would Make Blake Griffin Blush

He's the best dunker you've never heard of. Justin Darlington, A.K.A. "Jus Fly," is a Canadian baller with crazy hops. Last Friday he recorded a perfect score at the Nike+ Slam Dunk Contest in L.A. with an insane dunk.

Darlington starts around the three-point line with the ball in the middle of the paint. He runs toward the ball, stops at the free-throw line to do a cartwheel, and on his way up he picks up the ball. As if that's not enough, he throws the ball between his legs before stuffing it. His vertical is 42.3 inches, which is roughly the height of an average five-year-old child. Blake Griffin, meanwhile, is comparatively weak with his still world class 37-inch vertical.

Enough description. See the dunk below:

Not bad for someone whose main sport is track and field. Darlington, if you couldn't have guessed, is a world class high jumper.

16 Quadrotor Light Show

 I guarantee this is the coolest quadrotor video you will see all day. 

'Spartacus' star Andy Whitfield's battle with cancer captured in new documentary

Fans of Starz's sword-and-sandals drama "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" were devastated to learn last September that original series star Andy Whitfield had passed away from non-Hodgkin lymphoma at the tragically young age of 39. But now there's a way for fans to help memorialize the late actor: A new documentary chronicling Whitfield's battle with the disease, "Be Here Now," is in post-production now, and the filmmakers are seeking fan donations to help complete the project.

Entertainment Weekly first reported on the documentary from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lilibet Foster, in which Whitfield invited a camera crew to follow him as he traveled the world with his wife Vashti, seeking alternative treatment from the best doctors in the world in hopes of beating his grim cancer diagnosis. "Be Here Now" also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at Whitfield filming his lead role as Spartacus, along with heartwarming footage of his home life with Vashti and their two young children. Andy's manager Sam Maydew says of the film, "We want to bring awareness to cancer treatment so others who go through it feel they’re not alone."  

Preserved Cold War Bomb Shelter Discovered At Placer High School

A bomb shelter at Placer High School in Auburn was loaded with items designed to keep students alive in the event of a nuclear attack. VIDEO

Top CIA Spy Accused of Being a Mafia Hitman

Enrique “Ricky” Prado’s resume reads like the ultimate CIA officer: a candidate for the CIA’s most senior post in South Korea, a top spy in America’s espionage programs against China, and deputy to Cofer Black, a chief strategist in America’s war on terror. But he’s also alleged to have started out a career as a hitman for a notorious Miami mobster, and kept working for the mob even after joining the CIA. Finally, he went on to serve as the head of the CIA’s secret assassination squad against Al-Qaida.

That’s according to journalist Evan Wright’s blockbuster story How to Get Away With Murder in America, distributed by Byliner. In it, Wright — who authored Generation Kill, the seminal story of the Iraq invasion — compiles lengthy, years-long investigations by state and federal police into a sector of Miami’s criminal underworld that ended nowhere, were sidelined by higher-ups, or cut short by light sentences. It tracks the history of Prado’s alleged Miami patron and notorious cocaine trafficker, Alberto San Pedro, and suspicions that Prado moved from asecret death squad from the CIA to notorious mercenary firm Blackwater.

‘Student loans have basically ruined my life’: Yahoo News readers talk about their experiences with educational debt

Ah, the summer after graduation. With rented caps and gowns returned, most graduates are hitting the pavement to look for work, or trying to ace that final internship in the hopes that they'll be hired on. But even for those who find employment, there likely remains one nagging bit of unfinished business: student loans.

According to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 37 million Americans hold student loan debt. The total amount of student loan debt in the United States is estimated to be between $867 billion and $1 trillion dollars, and default rates for student loans continue to rise. In 2012, the majority of unemployed Americans had at least some college education—the first time in our nation's history this has occurred. On Tuesday, Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate announcedthey had reached an agreement on a bill to continue subsidizing student loans, keeping interest rates at 3.4 percent rather than letting them rise to 6.8 percent.

Barclays to pay $400M-plus to settle LIBOR charges

Barclays agrees to pay $400M-plus to settle charges it attempt to manipulate key lending rates

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barclays PLC and its subsidiaries have agreed to pay more than $400 million to settle charges that it attempted to manipulate and made false reports related to setting key global interest rates.

The rates affect the costs of hundreds of trillions of dollars in loans and investments such as bonds, auto loans and derivatives.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said Wednesday that the incidents occurred between 2005 and 2009 and sometimes took place daily.

Gunmen Ram Van Into Microsoft Headquarters

Although any situation involving gunmen and flaming vans is a very serious subject, you can't help butlaugh at these idiots. Seriously, who attacks Microsoft's HQ?

Gunmen rammed a van packed with gas canisters into Microsoft's Greek headquarters in Athens and then set the vehicle on fire, causing damage but no injuries, police said on Wednesday. At least two people wielding pistols and a machine gun kept security guards away as they carried out the attack at about 3:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday (9:45 p.m. ET Tuesday), police said.

Pirate Bay Founder Fined For ‘Continued Involvement’ In The Site

It seems the courts just keep piling the fines on The Pirate Bay founders. This guy seems pretty laid back considering he will never be able to own anything nice, you know, like...ever.

Although the amount levied by the District Court is significant, Neij appears unfazed. "I don’t mind civil cases," he told us. "I don’t live in Sweden, and it’s not like an extra $71,000 would hurt the $10,606,000 I already owe." Along with the other founders of The Pirate Bay, Neij does indeed owe millions of dollars in damages and fines so his predicament and attitude is perhaps best summed up by paraphrasing the earlier words of fellow site founder Peter Sunde. "Why stay at just a few million dollars?" Sunde said. "Why not make it a billion dollars instead?"

How twisted light transmits data faster than ever

Want to know why your cellphone service sucks all the time? Phone companies will tell you: it's bandwidth, man. The wireless spectrum is getting crowded and there's just not enough room. What's needed is a new way to cram more data into the same amount of space, and the solution might be to twist multiple light beams together into a vortex.

Whether we're talking about lasers or radio waves (which includes Wi-Fi), it's all just different wavelengths of light.

Tiny autonomous boat prepares to cross the Atlantic Ocean

Remember that bare bones $35 Raspberry Pi computer that went on sale earlier this year? A guy called Greg Holloway has found a use for his, guiding a tiny unmanned boat across the Atlantic Ocean with no outside assistance.

The boat will be powered by a 130 watt solar panel, driving an electric rudder and propeller. A GPS connected to the Raspberry Pi will keep the vessel on course, while a webcam will record the adventure for prosperity.

Read this book fast, or the words will fade from its pages

Most of us have books that we've never read. We buy them, then put them away for a rainy day. The problem is that by doing that, we usually avoid buying that author's next book until we actually get around to reading the first one. To force us to get cracking, an Argentinean publisher is printing books using disappearing ink that starts to fade after just a couple of months.

Video: Robot hand can't lose a game of rocks-paper-scissors

Oddly enough, one of the few similarities between children in the U.S. and Japan is the game of rock-paper-scissors, known in Japan as Janken. Now a research lab has used that simple kid's game to offer a glimpse at the inexorable perfection curve of robots versus humans.