As you may have heard, North Korea tried to launch a long-range rocket today and the results were not so hot.

But while the truth of what happened is being reported world wide, the question remains, how will North Korea’s famously stringent state-run broadcasters break the bad news to the locals?

Short answer: they won’t.

What you see above is footage broadcast by North Korean state television in 2009 depicting the fate of a rocket launch. The problem? In reality, it was a total failure according to Washington Post East Asia correspondent Chico Harlan on Twitter.

That didn’t stop the DRPK from getting their CGI on and creating this gem to show all the boys and girls back home that Glorious Leader had lead them to the stars. Strike up the band.

[Twitter]

Check out this video from our good buddy Tony Ley. It purports to show a UFO from the point of view of an airplane. Whatever it is seems to be zooming through the sky pretty fast.

What do you think?

The big rock from the sky that crashed into Earth and proved an extinction level event for our dinosaur pals could also seed life on a far off planet. The meteorites launched into space by the impact carrying the ingredients for life itself have since spread across our solar system and far beyond.

A new table estimating the trajectories of the rocks provides many surprises, according to Ray Kurzweil’s blog. For example, it would take a trillion years for the Earth ejecta to spread the size of the Milky Way.

But most awesomely…

The probability is almost 1 (close to certain) that our solar system is visited by microorganisms that originated outside our solar system.

To tie this together with a post yesterday, this means that our ejecta could bring life to other planets and some point there might be a scientist there warning of our fearsome existence. Yes, my friends, WE ARE THE SUPER GENIUS SPACE DINOSAURS!

[KurzweilAI Blog]

We aren’t quite sure how this was the conclusion he reached but Ronald Breslow, Ph.D has a theory. In a new report he tries to shed light on the age-old mystery of why terrestrial amino acids (the very building blocks of life) exist in only one shape.

He posits that the kind of protein brought to earth millions of years ago could be evidence that another forms exists on other planets. The kind of proteins that create…

SUPER GENIUS SPACE DINOSAURS!

Quote Doctor Breslow:

An implication from this work is that elsewhere in the universe there could be life forms based on D-amino acids and L-sugars. Such life forms could well be advanced versions of dinosaurs, if mammals did not have the good fortune to have the dinosaurs wiped out by an asteroidal collision, as on Earth. We would be better off not meeting them.

That is, unless you’re really in the mood to get devoured by a SUPER GENIUS SPACE DINOSAUR. In that case, meet away.

[Science Daily]

The stars at night are big and bright CLICK HERE deep in the heart of Texas. So where better to launch vehicles to get closer to them.

SpaceX has begun preliminary paperwork to establish a launching facility in South Texas, near the Mexican border. The move accomplishes several goals for the ambitious private spaceflight firm.

Price: the facility is closer to the SpaceX testing facility in McGregor, Texas. Also, a launch space they don’t have to share (which will never be the case in Cape Canaveral) would mean they could have more flexibility with schedule and could continue to bring launch prices down to the ultimate goal of $1000 per pound.

Politics: Texas is home of the largest congressional opponents to commercial spaceflight. By putting a massive facility right in their backyard, it could stem some of the animosity.

Innovation: launching the rockets from west of Florida means they could possibly keep their Sunshine State facilities as landing areas for the rockets. This is a key part of founder Elon Musk’s dream of legitimate rocket reusability.

Read the full notice below, or check out what Ars Technica makes of the news.

[SpaceX Filing]

[Ars Technica]

You just got pelted with dark matter. Don’t worry, it’ll happen again in a couple of seconds. Should you be worried? Probably not, it’s been happening your whole life, at least according to a new study by a few theoretical physicists.

A dark matter particle smacks into an average person’s body about once a minute, and careens off oxygen and hydrogen nuclei in your cells, according to theoretical physicists. Dark matter is streaming through you as you read this, most of it unimpeded.

If you’d like to read up on this mysterious (nefariously named) substance the is estimated to comprise 83% of all matter in the universe, check out Wikipedia. I know I had to.

[Popular Science]

There are just some videos that you watch and realize, the future is not coming, it’s here. This is was one of those videos to me. Please, take a look at the Hover Bike. The full model an provide life of up to 10,000 feet.

A prototype will cost you just over $82,000 US dollars.

The video below features an RC Scale Model. It’s absolutely insane.

The best part of the website is that on the right sidebar it lists “applications” for the Hover Bike. They include Aerial Cattle mustering, Search and Rescue, Aerial Survey, Wildlife and Parks and other mundane tasks. As if you need a reason to have a Hover Bike. IT’S A FLIPPIN’ HOVER BIKE! The only applications they should list are: Being Awesome and Amazing Entrance To Random First Dates, Family Reunions & Proms.

[Hover Bike]

At last… Never pay for a drink again! Get the girl’s number and become the center of the party.

Scam School Book 1 is jam-packed with over 80 tricks from the popular web series Scam School. With material spanning over 200 episodes, you’ll learn the very best bar scams and tricks, guaranteed to impress. Packed with exclusive bonus content, including audio commentaries and embedded video demonstrations, Scam School Book 1 is perfect for both new and returning fans of the series.

Buy Now on iBooks, Kindle, and Nook for the low price of $9.99

For more information head to ScamSchoolBook.com

A new study debunks the long held myth that urine is sterile. The results, which appear in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology was conducted at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. If found evidence of bacteria in the bladders of healthy women.

“Doctors have been trained to believe that urine is germ-free,” said Linda Brubaker, MD, MS, dean, SSOM. “However, these findings challenge this notion, so this research may have positive implications for how we treat patients with urinary tract conditions in the future.”

The myth has long been a contributing factor to the survival strategy of drinking one’s own liquid waste. The idea being that 95% of urine is water and sterile so to combat loss of water in the body it would help to recycle the excrement.

Somebody please inform Bear Grylls.

[Science Daily]

It’s very rare that I like to use this space for anything other than what you came here for: news of the weird and the occasional genre pop culture breakdown. However, I need to ask a favor of you.

You see, I also do a few podcasts outside of Weird Things. One of them was Game On, a video game show I wrote and was hosted by the supernova that is Veronica Belmont and Weird Things podcast host Brian Brushwood. It was very silly and despite some early episode woes, we really found our feet.

Unfortunately, due to low download numbers over the first 10 episodes, our network announced they were canceling the show. Sunday was our last episode.

Which is when something amazing happened. Our viewers went berserk.

In fact, they protested so loudly that the head of our network, Leo Laporte, said that if the last episode got 50,000 views and downloads than he’d bring it back.

Which brings me back to that favor.

Every YouTube view or download counts to the total. If you dig video games, you’ll like it. If you are more of a casual player on you iPad or iPhone, you’ll like it too. If you wouldn’t mind giving this episode a chance, we would all greatly appreciate it.

SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES HERE

SUBSCRIBE ON YOUTUBE HERE

We got a gander of World Scott over at io9 today where he blew up a firecracker inside of a balloon with a laser. Digging through the rest of his YouTube channel, here are two other videos will worth seeing that demonstrate the supreme awesomeness of lasers.

Above, watch in awe as the majestic blue laser creates the savory champion of movie treats: popcorn. Each kernel exploding with the knowledge that it was born thanks to an awesome beam of awesomeness.

Below, start your morning off right with a cup of joe… headed by GD laser! The best part of waking up is knowing a powerful ray of light brought this brew to an appropriate temperature in your cup.

Check out the rest of his channel here.

[YouTube]

A man has lost his valiant fight to keep the government out of his front yard… where he buried his wife. James E. Davis buried his wife Patsy there after she died in 2009. What followed was a three year battle with the city after his permit to legally declare his front yard a private cemetery was rejected.

…the Stevenson City Council voted to deny Davis’ application, citing concerns of the perpetual care of the cemetery, location and size of the small lot, impact of the cemetery on property values and citizens’ complaints with the location of the cemetery. There were also concerns about future liability of the city to maintain the cemetery.

Davis has 30 days to appeal and was ordered to pay court costs.

[The Daily Sentinel] via Tony Ley

We were alerted by a reader to this Kickstarter for The Remee, a sleep mask that claims to trigger lucid dreaming. It’s already far past full funding, netting over $91k at this time of this writing. The initial ask was for $35k.

An $80 pledge (plus $15 shipping and handling) earns you a Remee when they are completed.

But, is the concept of triggering lucid dreaming real? Or does the difficult to verify nature of the concept obscure the fact that it might be impossible?

On the Kickstarter page, the men behind the mask at Brooklyn’s Bitbanger Labs link to a Radiolab episode about lucid dreaming and a link to a book by Stanford researcher Dr. Stephen LaBerge detailing his work on the subject.

If real, it’s an intriguing concept. We spend so much time asleep or dreaming, why not get the most out of it?

[Kickstarter] via Zach Scott

Boeing tested it’s CST-100 capsule by dropping it from 11,000 feet in the air from a helicopter into the desert.

According to reports, the test seemed to go fine, but what’s interesting is who footed part of the bill for the testing:

Bigelow Aerospace paid for some of the testing, according to Boeing, punctuating the space destination company’s interest in using the CST-100 to get to orbit. Bigelow, the brainchild of hotelier/motelier Robert Bigelow, envisions using inflatable space stations as orbiting labs or other destinations, but the company doesn’t have a rocket, so it will need a partner like Boeing.

Robert Bigelow is the owner of Budget Suites of America. Just think, children born now could be gossiping with each other in 18 years about who got a room in an inflatable space structure for after prom.

[PopSci]

A shockingly well preserved Wooly Mammoth has been found in the far flung regions of Siberia and it could lead to the future resurrection of the species. The six-month old animal died over 10,000 years ago. It’s eyes and trunk are were found preserved in the permafrost.

But back to the main question, how does this lead to us bringing back the fuzzy beasts of yore?

Some scientists hold out hope that well preserved sperm or other cells containing viable DNA could be used to resurrect the mammoth lineage.

Despite the inherent difficulties, Dr Agenbroad remains optimistic about the potential for cloning.

“When we got the Jarkov mammoth [found frozen in Taimyr, Siberia, in 1997], the geneticists told me: ‘if you can get us good DNA, we’ll have a baby mammoth for you in 22 months’,” he told BBC News.

The beast did not initially yield a sufficient DNA sample but is being sent to Japan for further study. Meanwhile, scientists fret that further finds could be tainted by a burgeoning new black market trade. Siberian scavengers, who used to simply sell the recovered from the ice have since begun selling mammoth parts found in the permafrost online. For example, mammoth hair sells for $50 an inch.

In other news, does anyone have $50.

[BBC]

What is there not to love about this report from KSAX-TV News? A reporter is dispatched to take a look at a mysterious bit of road kill found by a local woman. Pictures of the hairless creature sparked an intense Facebook debate as to what the creature could be.

The local who found the questionable carrion pointed out what looked like human features on the beast and wondered aloud about secret government testing on animals.

Our favorite moment of the clip? A little girl who is shown a photo of the beast during a “man on the street” segment. He answers, “I think it’s a dog.” When pressed for reasons why? “Because it is.”

From the mouth of babes…

[KSAX] via Scott Johnson