universal

The blockbuster "Jurassic Park" gets another chance to shine -- this time in the third dimension -- as it makes a big 20th anniversary comeback to 3D and IMAX 3D movie screens on April 5, 2013.

To mark the occasion, Universal Pictures whipped up a fresh trailer and captivating poster for the movie. We heartily recommend that you share these with any "Jurassic Park" fans so they can perfect their Velociraptor impersonations and get the movie's premiere on their calendars in advance. Jurassic Park" might be 65 million years in the making, but we think the 3D release is a guaranteed sick day months in the making. … Read more

Mental discomfort often has irrational roots.

There are those who walk into art galleries and feel intimidated by all the serious faces. There are those who stare at menus written in a foreign language and wish they weren't on vacation.

And there are those who look at math problems and wish they had some Xanax.

If you're one of those who is pained by your mathophobia, please let me mop your brow. For the discomfort you feel is, scientifically speaking, little different from physical pain.… Read more

Some screams come from the gut.

Yes, just like that horrible monster thing in "Alien."

Now scientists with only extreme discovery in their locker of ambition have decided to learn, once and for all, whether a scream in outer space can awaken alien ears.

The Cambridge University Spaceflight team behind this experiment are truly committed explorers.

They have created a video featuring Albert Einstein -- or at least a posh-speaking version of him.

The idea is very simple. They want you to go to YouTube and record your best and most frightening, piercing scream. Indeed, the scientists want you to scream "in a creative way." … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Anthropologist says Apple is definitely a religion.

- Google brings Street View to the Grand Canyon.

- Apple now owns the trademark to The Beatles' Apple Corps Logo.

- What I learned while live-tweeting a friend's funeral.

Video voice mail: Mossimo has a positive update on a previous video voice mail.… Read more

Computer software programmed to detect and report illicit behavior could eventually replace the fallible humans who monitor surveillance cameras.

The U.S. government has funded the development of so-called automatic video surveillance technology by a pair of Carnegie Mellon University researchers who disclosed details about their work this week -- including that it has an ultimate goal of predicting what people will do in the future.

"The main applications are in video surveillance, both civil and military," Alessandro Oltramari, a postdoctoral researcher at Carnegie Mellon who has a Ph.D. from Italy's University of Trento, told CNET … Read more

Universal Translator is an app for the Mac that offers word and sentence translation into more than 50 languages. The Universal Translator installs in a second or two, and the interface is a model of simplicity with two panes, one for typing a word, sentence or phrase and the other for the translation. Two selectors at the top control which languages are used. Icons allow the phrases to be spoken. The software supports non-Roman alphabets and where necessary there's both the textual translation and a phonetic translation as well. There's a long list of supported languages, although not … Read more

Since the late 1800s, researchers and the curious have been trying to use photography to capture images of animals in the wild. Over the decades, the technology behind these camera traps has gone from trip-wire film cameras to sophisticated digital rigs. And these days, with the accessibility of digital video, the footage being collected is absolutely arresting. Check out the World Wildlife Fund or the Wildlife Conservation Society to see some of their videos of tigers, gorillas, and rhinos in their natural habitats.

Closer to home, we caught up with a technology specialist who works at Jasper Ridge, Stanford University'… Read more

Restricting access to Web sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents has been a long-standing practice for universities in both the U.S. and United Kingdom.

Suffering under the strain of heavy traffic due to students streaming films and downloading gigabytes of data via torrents, academic institutions have attempted -- often in vain -- to curb the trend.

But when the next episode of "Game of Thrones" isn't out for another week and has been broadcast already in another country, the temptation is no doubt difficult to resist.

Universities are not unaware of this and have … Read more

There's a "Battle of the Bay" going on tonight at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, and it's happening in a haze of Chinese food, juggling, music, and coding. And maybe some unicycling, if you're lucky.

The social network holds its second Stanford versus Cal (University of California at Berkeley) hackathon for budding coders to try their hands at creating new products. Nearly 200 students from both campuses sat in front of their laptops at around 5 p.m. with no intention of stopping until 3 p.m. tomorrow. That's what Facebook hackathons are … Read more