There can be only one—so Ryan Reynolds is the new Highlander

That Highlander reboot has reportedly been circling Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) for a while now, but now it seems to be official—the former comedian will be the one to (hopefully) bring Highlander back into the mainstream.

The news comes via The Tracking Board, who is reporting that Reynolds has officially signed on to headline the new big-screen Highlander. Reynolds will play Connor MacLeod, who was first played by Christopher Lambert in the original film.

Watch George R.R. Martin talk Thrones scenes too expensive for HBO

The creators of HBO's Game of Thrones have managed to do a lot within the limitations of a cable TV series budget, and George R.R. Martin thinks they're doing a great job regardless. But he does have one complaint—in his mind, he imagined the recent Battle of Blackwater to be a lot more epic than what made it to screen.

Why 3D movies are a waste of money

The technology behind the 3D visuals in "The Amazing Spider-Man" promises new advances, but studios have been hesitant to push the limits.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" director Marc Webb with a new kind of 3D camera.

(Credit: Sony)

The current wave of 3D films is a sucker's bet.

You've probably experienced it yourself: After slapping down a significant premium on movie tickets and sliding on your 3D glasses, you're treated not to a visual feast but a feeling of intense dissatisfaction. For many films, the 3D effects are barely there; in others, the post-production conversion actually makes it worse.

Italian guy confuses Spidey stars by interviewing them as Spidey

With just a week until their movie opens, the stars of The Amazing Spider-Man are running a gauntlet of interviews with pretty much every press outlet on the planet, but they probably never saw this coming. Watch what happens when Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Rhys Ifans are interviewed by ...the Italian Spider.

Pentagon’s Zombie Satellite Program Comes to Life

The Pentagon’s intergalactic black-magic plot is getting ready to raise the dead.

Dead satellites, that is. Last year, Darpa, the military’s blue-sky research agency, kicked off a programdesigned to harvest parts from unused communications satellites still orbiting the Earth, and then turn those bits and pieces — antennas in particular — into an array that operates as a low-cost “communications farm” for troops on the ground.

Kickstarter Exposed As Internet Scam!

I knew it all along! 

Jimmy Carter Accuses U.S. of 'Widespread Abuse of Human Rights'

A former U.S. president is accusing the current president of sanctioning the "widespread abuse of human rights" by authorizing drone strikes to kill suspected terrorists.

Jimmy Carter, America's 39 th president, denounced the Obama administration for "clearly violating" 10 of the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writing in a New York Times op-ed on Monday that the "United States is abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights."

"Instead of making the world safer, America's violation of international human rights abets our enemies and alienates our friends," Carter wrote.

Samsung's new Galaxy S III ads: Apple fanboy now owns Samsung

Sometimes, you can tell when a company rather likes the product it's advertising.

It manages to restrain some of the baser impulses of its marketing department and displays the product with a certain understatement.

I have a feeling Samsung rather likes its Galaxy S III phone.

The 30 Richest Internet Entrepreneurs of All Time

We all know the Internet is the place to get filthy rich, just ask the Nigerian Businessman.  There are some really rich active and retired Internet Entrepreneurs out there, but can you name more than a handful of the richest of the rich?

These geeks have literally revolutionized the way business is carried out around the globe, or have changed the way we interact with each other on a daily basis.

Supreme Court upholds key part of Arizona immigration law, strikes down rest

The Supreme Court upheld a key part of Arizona's tough anti-illegal immigration law in a 5-3 decision on Monday that allows police officers to ask about immigration status during stops. That part of the law, which never went into effect because of court challenges, will now immediately be enforced in Arizona.

Colorado fire near Pikes Peak forces 11,000 from homes

DENVER (Reuters) - A fast-growing wildfire in Colorado forced 11,000 people from their homes at least briefly on Sunday and threatened popular summer camping grounds beneath Pikes Peak, whose vistas helped inspire the patriotic tune "America the Beautiful."

FBI worker sues DOJ, says co-workers jealous of her beauty

A FBI employee is suing the Department of Justice for harassment and discrimination, claiming co-workers were jealous of her good looks and music career. VIDEO

Putin Wants a Darpa of His Own

In recent years, the US government has created research agencies for homeland security, intelligence, and energy — all modeled on the Pentagon’s mad-scientist arm, Darpa. Now Russia has gotten the bug, too.

Russian industry and defense leaders announced plans last week to bankroll the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects in the Defense Industry. Russia’s newly re-coronated president, Vladimir Putin, has already sent a bill to parliament to authorize the agency, which will be tasked with keeping track of projects that “can ensure Russian superiority in defense technology,” according to news service RIA Novosti.

What Woz Thinks About Kim DotCom

It looks like Kim DotCom has a new cheerleader. This is kinda funny considering anyone that has ever used Megaupload (except Woz) knows exactly how and why it was used but hey, you can't blame DotCom for wanting a little celebrity support. 

"I scratch my head wondering why the studios went after the guy doing more than can be imagined to remove the links the studios wanted removed," Wozniak wrote. "Heck, I use my iDisk (MobileMe) and dropbox to share files by sending links to friends. They might even be copyrighted materials. I might even send a song in an e-mail to my son, although if I think he'll keep it I will use the 'Buy gift' feature in iTunes. But there are so many legitimate uses to peer-to-peer file sharing and cloud storage."

How I Accidentally Kickstarted the Domestic Drone Boom

At last year’s Paris Air Show, some of the hottest aircraft were the autonomous unmanned helicopters—a few of them small enough to carry in one hand—that would allow military buyers to put a camera in the sky anywhere, anytime. Manufactured by major defense contractors, and ranging in design from a single-bladed camcopter to four-bladed multicopters, these drones were being sold as the future of warfare at prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Obama invokes executive privilege as Holder faces contempt vote

President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege on Wednesday for the first time since taking office to withhold certain Justice Department documents tied to the flawed "Operation Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling investigation from lawmakers demanding them. Obama's 11th-hour decision, revealed in a letter from the Justice Department to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, did not derail the California Republican's plans to hold a vote declaring Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress.

"I write now to inform you that the President has asserted executive privilege" over the documents, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told Issa in a letter released by the White House.

DynaRig cargo ships bring back sails, trade fossil fuels for wind

Sails have been relied on for about 5,000 years to move ships without using any fuel. It's probably safe to say that anything that's been in use for 5,000 years straight is a halfway decent idea, and a U.K. company called B9 shipping is bring back the sail with a new cargo ship design that doesn't need any fossil fuels at all.

More than you wanted to know about the physics of the Slinky

In his research paper titled "The Falling Slinky," Canadian physicist W. G. Unruh observed something strange about the venerable Lazy Spring: "The bottom stays at rest until a wave hits it from above." This high-speed video demonstrates just that, and it's pretty insane to watch.

Army Dumps All-Seeing Chopper Drone

This month, the Army planned to deploy to Afghanistan an unusual new drone: an unmanned eye-in-the-sky helicopter programmed to use high-tech cameras to monitor vast amounts of territory. But now the drone might be lucky to be deployed at all, as the Army has moved to shut down production — possibly ending the program forever.

That drone would be the A160 Hummingbird, which the Army planned to equip with the powerful Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System, or Argus. But earlier this month, the Army issued a stop-work order — one step away from termination — to the drone’s developer Boeing. The reason? A high “probability of continued technical and schedule delays,” costs and risks that have “increased so significantly that program continuation is no longer in the best interest of the government,” said Donna Hightower, the Army’s acting product manager for unmanned aerial systems modernization.

Turn boring office meetings into child's play with the Swing Table

Office meetings can be really boring, especially if they're in the middle of summer when you would rather be outside having fun. The Swing Table brings some of that childlike playfulness into the office, allowing you to swing your way through metings.

Darpa Starts Up-Armoring Android Phones, Tablets

For the Army, using Android smartphones now would be the equivalent of driving a soft-skinned Humvee through the mountains of Afghanistan. That’s why the Pentagon wants to strengthen its soldiers’ mobile devices security with a program called “Mobile Armour,” which will protect against cyber-threats like enemy breaches, virus infections, spear-phishing attempts or malicious apps. It’s the new step in the Army’s star-crossed two-decade-long quest to provide its soldiers with better tools to communicate in the battlefield.

st trailer for heartwarming pic about old man and his robot thief

Think your iPhone's SIRI is a cool companion? Then how about a walking domestic android to help brighten your day and plan robberies with? Frank Langella stars in Robot and Frank, a bizarre indie buddy flick with a futuristic slant that may tug at your cardio-receptors.

Latest way to deal with space junk: huge clouds of tungsten dust

Space junk is becoming a more and more of a problem as nation after nation haphazardly chucks stuff up into orbit, and a variety of schemes have been proposed to deal with it, including lasers, explosions and janitor satellites. The latest idea comes from the Naval Research Lab, and it involves giant clouds of dust.

By 2050, washing machines will levitate

We've made an executive decision that it's not The Future™ until everything, everything can fly. Flying cars? Sure. Flying people? Totally. Flying washing machines? It simply won't be the The Future™ without them.

See how HBO fixed that Thrones episode featuring George Bush's head

Two weeks ago, the revelation that George Bush's severed head appears briefly in an episode of Game of Thrones prompted HBO execs to apologize, strongly condemn the image and then yank the episode from distribution until they could find a way to fix the problem. And now they have.

The network yanked the season-one finale "Fire and Blood" from its HBOGO digital streaming service and halted shipments on all DVD and Blu-ray box sets on June 14 after issuing a public statement both apologizing for the appearance of Bush's head and condemning the use of it in the episode as "disrespectful" and a "careless mistake."Game of Thrones executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss issued an apology the same day, and noted (for the second time) that the use of Bush's head was never intended as a political statement. They just use whatever heads they get when they order bulk body parts for some of the show's more gruesome sequences.

Why'd Battleship fail? Director says you can blame The Avengers

It's been well over a month since Battleship hit U.S. theaters. But the Peter Berg-directed feature's been given the cold shoulder by audiences. The film's earned a mere $63 million stateside, while scoring $235 million overseas. What happened? According to Berg, The Avengers happened.

While speaking to MTV, Berg was asked if he had plans for a Battleship sequel. The director revealed that he'd love to make a follow-up, but he's not sure how likely it is to happen.

Cheaper OLED TVs the goal for Sony-Panasonic effort

The companies expect to have mass-production technology for OLED panels ready to go in 2013, cutting costs to help improve sales.

Sony and Panasonic have announced a partnership designed to mass-produce OLED panels for large displays and televisions.

According to the companies, they will jointly develop OLED panels with help from their respective technologies. That will result in reducing the total costs of production, potentially making OLED panels more affordable to vendors looking to bring the technology to future sets, the companies say. Mass production should begin at some point next year.

Microsoft Buying Yammer for $1.2B

Damn, it sure seems like the new trend these days is to drop a billion or two on an unproven internet startup. 

Yammer specializes in creating private social networks so employees within the same company can keep tabs on what colleagues are working on. That's similar to how Facebook's online social network allows friends and families to track what's happening in each other's personal lives.

Best Buy To Combat "Showrooming"

Best Buy plans to combat showrooming by providing more "training" to 50,000 employees. Umm, what?? The last thing anyone wants is to be pestered by BB employees. I have an idea to combat showrooming, offer competitive prices compared to online retailers, axe the Geek Squad and quit making your employees bug your customers. 

Best buy will provide new intensive induction to 50,000 U.S. employees beginning in August. The company also will focus on return on investments, leaving no sacred cows, reducing the retail footprint and relying on alliances with outside groups to drive sales, he said. He referred to Best Buy as a "personalized technology solutions" company.

Hacking Car Parts Into Game Controllers

This game controller hack is pure awesomeness. Hit the link for a video of the controller in action. 

Good News for Consumers: SSD Prices are Dropping

We all knew it was just a matter of time for the prices to begin to fall for SSD’s. The fall was just delayed a bit by those pesky floods in Thailand that pushed standard HDD’s higher, stabilizing the fall of the SSD’s.Solid State Drive prices are falling just as standard hard drive prices remain stable, making the Solid State Drives a viable alternative solution for storage.

As with most technology, SDDs have gotten cheaper as they’ve gotten more commonplace.

You'll see why this creepy sci-fi short is gonna be a feature film

Seriously, one look at this eight-minute short from British filmmaker Matt Westrup and you'll understand why it's getting promoted into a feature film: The Gate features genetic malfeasance, robotic power armor, swell CG beasts and a couple of terrific scares.

The Gate opens with a seemingly routine inquest, with a bunch of stuffy suits sitting around a table, dryly relating a horrific sequence of events that hint at a larger world, one that Westrup will develop for the full-length feature that U.K. company Wayfare will produce.

Bankruptcy forces sale of world's most valuable sci-fi poster

Comic books aren't the only sci-fi collectibles selling at record highs these days. Rare movie posters are also getting in on the action, and the bankruptcy case of a well-known collector means the rarest poster of them all is about to head to auction. So what's it worth?

The poster in question is an art deco piece promoting Fritz Lang's 1927 silent sci-fi classic Metropolis. It's one of only four believed to survive from the film's original run, and the combination of its rarity, the film's status and the design led one expert to call it "the crown jewel of the poster world."

Alan Moore hates films based on his comics so he's making his own

It seems comic legend Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta) doesn't hate movies exclusively, just the ones based on his works. The acclaimed comics writer is actually working on his first film now, and we now have the first inklings of what it's about.

Join the robo-hunt in 1st trailer for sci-fi flick The Prototype

The first teaser trailer for the new sci-fi action flick The Prototype has been released—showing off a humanoid cyborg you do not want to mess with. So what happens when it goes rogue?

Former Apple UI designer Joins Facebook

When I first read this headline, I thought they meant the guy finally got a Facebook account. 

It remains to be seen exactly what he'll be involved with, but Facebook's new Product Design Manager brings quite a background with him to the job. Until just a few months ago, Chris Weeldreyer was a UI Design Manager at Apple (a role held for over eight years).

Drones’ Future: Supersonic Swarms of Robot Bugs

Robotic Flies

What A micro-aviary of drones that look—and fly—like ladybugs, dragonflies, and other insects. Since 2008, George Huang, professor of engineering at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, has managed to produce a butterfly model with a 5-inch wingspan. “We haven’t done a final version where we declare victory,” Huang says. “I’ll be happy once it’s fly-sized.”

When Darpa and the Air Force have already invested in similarly tiny craft, though with no firm time horizon for deployment. Regardless, micro-drones’ potential goes beyond the military. “Police could use them to fly into a drug trafficker’s house,” Huang says. “Or in a nuclear or mining accident, you can send a fly inside to find victims.”

Flying-Robot Cops, Farmers, and Oil Riggers Get to Work

In the oil-rich fields of Alaska's North Slope, gas flares burn constantly, occasionally bursting into fireballs two stories tall. It's a safety feature of BP's operation: burning off excess gas from drilling. Unless the facility is shut down—which costs BP millions—carrying out a detailed examination of those nozzles is out of the question. Which explains why the operation is inspected only once a year at the most.

Personal Drone’s Secret Ingredient: iPhone

Today’s personal drones have benefited from the same advances in technology that have made the iPhone so powerful.

No, You Can’t Use a Drone to Spy on Your Sexy Neighbor

What are the laws against drones—and their masters—behaving badly? Turns out, there are few that explicitly address a future where people, companies, and police all command tiny aircraft. But many of our anxieties about that future should be assuaged by existing regulations. We asked Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, to weigh in on some of the issues.

Bullied Bus Monitor Gets Last Laugh

Dear parents of the kids that bullied this poor woman, thanks to the internet, justice has been served! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Finally, a skateboard that can ride smoothly down stairs

We've all seen those videos of kids trying, and usually failing, to jump big flights of stairs on their skateboards. But why jump the stairs when you can ride down them smoothly on the Stair Rover skateboard?

Diamond Bonus Bling: Woman Gets More Than Just Jeans at Goodwill

The old saying goes, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." But after Deb Thompson's Monday trip to a Coon Rapids, Minn., Goodwill store, she's proving that's not always the case.

Thompson, 53, went to the store to pick up a pair of $3.99 jean capris her daughter suggested she might like because of all the "bling" on them.

But when she returned home to try them on, she discovered way more "bling" than she had bargained for. There was a diamond ring in the right pocket.

"I took the ring out of my pocket and I sat on the floor with my daughter and her fiancé. I put my arm out in the center, and I opened it in my palm and we all just went, 'Wow. Oh my God," Thompson told ABC News.

Why the Microsoft Surface probably won't be an iPad killer

Microsoft Surface, the tablet running Windows 8 or Windows RT with the nifty keyboard cover, sure looks like it's gunning for Apple's iPad. But the more we hear about it, the more it seems Ballmer and company's new hardware play may be packing a BB gun rather than a bazooka.

Granted, there's a lot to like about the Surface -- the new Windows OS is intriguing, Gorilla Glass is great and that integrated stand is the kind of design ingenuity we'd expect from a company located a little further south on the Pacific coast.

Bullets are flying in 1st action-packed footage from Dredd

We finally have our first look at the new Judge Dredd reboot, and it is definitely not Sylvester Stallone's cheesy 1995 effort. This Dredd looks dark and awesome—just see for yourself.

The full, official trailer won't be released until tomorrow—but some early footage is in the wild now, and we can see Karl Urban in full Judge mode, as bullets fly in this gritty imagining of Mega City One. Plus we get to hear the gravelly voice Urban will be using, and it definitely fits the character's origins.

Samsung Galaxy S III review: The phone that would be king?

Samsung's goal for the Samsung Galaxy S III is clear: set in more hands around the world than any other phone.

The electronics giant knows you can't do that without a favorable price tag and handsets onalmost every carrier. More importantly, Samsung understands that it can only reach great heights with a smartphone worthy of the hype.

Apple's request for ban on Motorola phones could have 'catastrophic effects,' judge says

A U.S. judge on Wednesday strongly questioned Apple's (AAPL) bid for an injunction against Google's (GOOG) Motorola Mobility unit, as the iPhone maker tries to salvage its position on a key front in the smartphone patent wars.

Federal Judge Richard Posner in Chicago did not make any formal rulings from the bench during the hearing, which was a chance for Apple to plead its case for an injunction against 

Motorola phones that allegedly use its technology. But Posner called the U.S. patent system "chaos" and said an order barring the sale of Motorola phones could have "catastrophic effects."

Posner earlier this month tentatively canceled an impending trial between the two technology companies, but scheduled the Wednesday hearing so Apple could argue for the injunction.

Apple copied Microsoft with iPad, not the other way around

I’m guilty. When I read the reports of Microsoft’s Surface tablet this week, I did a big internal eye roll and thought, “Microsoft copies Apple again.”

Then today, I saw a very funny post and it reminded me that Microsoft actually came out with the Tablet PC in 2002; it’s just that no one cared at the time.

It’s a little like that great scene in the movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” when Steve Wozniak in the early 1970s pitches the Apple I prototype to an HP exec and the suit replies, “What on earth would ordinary people want with computers?” Well, OK. Maybe it’s not that similar, but you get the picture; the Tablet PC was an idea ahead of its time. It wasn't a touch pad, it relied on a pen, but it was small, flat and ran Windows XP.

One Shot, One Kill, No Skill: Diary of a Cheater

What kind of pathetic bastard pays good money to cheat in video games? Well, apparently this guy doesand now he has an entire article dedicated to telling his tale.

"I was running around the map. I see a guy, press my key, instantly snap on, killed him, then snapped to a few other guys and killed them. I'm like, ‘I love this hack.' His clan noticed that his scores were suddenly a lot better and they figured out what was going on. He was angry about being caught, hopped onto his team's server and killed his teammates 13-0. They banned him.

Curry tells magazine she worried about "Today" show performance

"Today" show co-host Ann Curry planned to stay on the NBC morning show for at least five more years and took the ratings war with ABC's "Good Morning America" personally, she told a magazine in a recent interview.

The interview took place with the Ladies' Home Journal magazine on May 9, before NBC executives began negotiating her exit from co-hosting duties on the "Today" show.

"You worry, am I not good enough? Am I not what people need? Am I asking the right questions?, "she said. "When people say negative things or speculate, you can't help but feel hurt."

Doom 3 BFG Edition Release Date Set

Bethesda and id Software announced today the Doom 3 BFG Edition will be ready for your enhanced demon-blasting pleasure on October 16. What I'd like to know is whether John Carmack's brilliant, Nutty Professor-style virtual reality headset will also make the fall release window. Two weeks after its behind-closed-doors reveal, Carmack's homemade headset is still the talk of E3 2012.

Doom 3 BFG looks to solve a number of the issues that plagued the 2004 original, namely the lousy save system and the inability to simultaneously shoot your weapon and illuminate dark corners with your flashlight. But what could really make the Doom 3 replay special is Carmack's virtual reality headset. Everyone who demoed the duct-taped unit at E3 on Doom 3 BFG came away praising it as the most immersive gaming experience they've ever had. Carmack says the head-tracking, 3D enabled unit will cost roughly $500 if and when it's officially released. Sadly, Bethesda is remaining mum on the peripheral for now.

Sandia's brilliant, hyper-efficient CPU cooler

The Sandia Cooler was hands-down one of the cleverest new bits of computer hardware we'd seen when it was introduced a year ago, and according to a new video posted by Sandia National Labs, the design has been refined to the point where it's been licensed out to electronics manufacturers keen to make a 30x more efficient CPU cooler.

Nuclear Plant Scare: Explosives Found in Sweden

Swedish officials have raised security levels at the country's nuclear power plants after a small amount of explosives, without its detonator, was discovered at one of the plants during a routine security check, local authorities said.

The explosive material, believed to be civilian-type explosives used in demolition or excavation, was about the size of a tennis ball and was found in a truck at Sweden's Ringhals nuclear power plant. The truck had been on its way from an industrial park into a secure area, but had never made it inside the facility, according to the Ringhals spokesman Gosta Larsen. Since the explosives lacked the detonator, there was no imminent danger, authorities said.

Texas woman hit with $1.3 million-plus electric bill

We all dread opening an electric bill, especially when air-conditioning drives up costs and maxes out a family budget.

But Kristin Harriger's recent electric bill was beyond shocking. Rather than a bill for $100 or so that the single mom from Abilene, Texas, was expecting, she was billed for $1,381,783.92, according to the Business Insider.

"I opened it. I read it. Then just went, 'Oh, my gosh. That's a lot of money," Harriger told the Abilene Reporter News.

Rumor: Higgs Boson 'God Particle' evidence could come very soon

The nerdosphere is abound with rumors that one of the most ambitious scientific experiments in history may finally have yielded some tangible results. The Higg Boson particle, aka the "God Particle," may have been found, which would not only validate the Large Hadron Collider, but shake up particle physics, too.

SeaOrbiter research vessel gets real, finally

Remember SeaOrbiter? No? Well, you should, 'cause we wrote about it six years ago, when plans were underway to create the ship and set it afloat "in the near future." And the near future is now here! Nearly!

SeaOrbiter has been a concept for going on twelve years now. Usually, things that have been concepts for over a decade have been so for a good reason (like, they're entirely impractical or crazy futuristic or both), but it seems like the time is now right for SeaOrbiter.

Star Wars reimagined as a cyberpunk saga with hacked toys

What would happen if The Matrix, Akira, Ghost In The Shell and Star Wars got together and made a baby? The movie would be a helluva production and its cast would probably look a lot like Sillof's Cyber Wars action figures. This is Star Wars with a '90s sci-fi twist.