When Google released the Pixel last year, it was taking a stand. No longer would Google hardware be tainted with the brands and logos of other companies, even if behind the scenes, Google still needed help from those same companies to actually build its phones. And despite designs that were almost offensively ugly, a lack of standard flagship features such as water-resistance and expandable storage, and massive supply chain problems that made it hard to actually buy one months after its initial release, there were bright spots like the Pixel's excellent HDR photo mode and an untainted Android experience.

In its five years of existence, Arrow has slowly indulged in the Batman-ification of the Emerald Archer, bringing in a wealth of characters and villains more closely connected to the Dark Knight as it's taken Oliver Queen down paths more aligned with Bruce Wayne. But finally, it gets to make an explicit reference.

One of the writers behind Batman vs. Two-Face claims Warner Bros. briefly considered turning Tim Burton's ill-fated Superman Lives into an animated film. But if Nicolas Cage's Superman became a reality, would it no longer exist only in our minds? I don't know if I want to live in a world where I can no longer imagine the greatest superhero film never made.

Remember the last time you fell asleep on the couch and your TV remote left an imprint on your face? Taking inspiration from that, DBLG, a UK-based ad agency, produced an amusing series of animations by imprinting characters and objects directly onto human skin.

This may come as a surprise to you: with its 10 seasons and 161 episodes that have aired over the past 16 years, The Fairly OddParents is the longest-running fantasy television show in American history. Naturally, when a show's been running for that long, you've gotta spice things up to keep them interesting.

Their screen time in The Shining is quite brief, but the ghostly Grady twins instantly became one of the 1980 movie's most iconic images. Former child actors Lisa and Leslie Burns are forever (and ever) linked with the classic Stanley Kubrick film, and they don't seem to mind one bit.

The first major legislative effort to rein in foreign interference in US elections will kick off Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill, where Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Amy Klobuchar will field questions from reporters over a new bill crafted, they said, to "improve transparency of online political ads."

The Flash has been an endless cycle of its lead character making mistakes, learning from them, and then promptly forgetting those lessons to make the same mistakes all over again. But the latest episode might finally have been a new turning point for Barry that will change him for the better... if the show will let him.

Here's to the fools who dream... of electric sheep. YouTuber William Yates (under the name The Doctor of Will) released a short fan teaser trailer for La La Land 2049, a futuristic sequel for the 2016 movie musical that explores love in a vacuum of endless time instead of making it yet another example of Ryan Gosling explaining jazz.

A landmark investigation from Russian news outlet RBC uncovered a Kremlin-sponsored scheme that used Facebook to recruit black activists in the US as part of Russia's election interference campaign, reportedly paying them to organise Black Lives Matter rallies, self-defence classes and produce content for Russian-owned sites decrying police brutality. Contacted by Buzzfeed News, the activists had no idea they were part of any Russian plot, recalling odd, but not alarming, phone calls with a man with an "African" accent. Racial division, subsequent reports have uncovered, was key to Russia's interference campaign.

Back in February, Lego revealed it would be turning Maia Weinstock's Women of NASA Lego Ideas submission into an official set, and this morning we have our first look at the production versions of the tiny dioramas and minifigures that will be available starting on November 1 for $US25. You may notice one rather major heroine is missing.

Venom has lived many different lives since it was first introduced as Spidey's new suit in The Amazing Spider-Man #252. Nowadays, the alien symbiote is coming to grips with its emotional demons with the help of one of the first true loves of its life. Eddie Brock and Venom are back together, doing a sort of supervillain couples therapy.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 tells the story of a dystopian future where books have been outlawed and are destroyed by firemen who set them ablaze. But in an ironic twist, Super Terrain, a publisher in France, has created a new edition of Bradbury's classic that actually requires extreme heat in order to be read.

In a troubling series of tweets with more emotional intensity than an entire season of Homeland, the CIA's official Twitter account told the story of Lulu, an adorable bomb-sniffing dog who refused sniff bombs.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is known for many fabulous talents, but acting isn't exactly one of them. Nevertheless, that didn't stop director Bill Condon from trying to cast the cultural icon in his live-action Beauty and the Beast film. Spoiler: Beyoncé said no.

Hindsight is 20/20. It's easy now to say, "Of course an actor should be in a Harry Potter movie" after eight films and billions of dollars. But in the moment, almost two decades ago, there must have been actors who passed. In fact, one big name that's in the films almost did just that.

Last year, Snapchat became a "camera company," changed its name to Snap, and unveiled its first piece of hardware: camera sunglasses called Spectacles. Today, Snap is evolving yet again. That AR dancing hot dog, the star of its last earnings call, is now officially an $US80 halloween costume available on Amazon.

If you thought people accidentally socking each other in genre shows and movies was a distinctly 2017 phenomenon, well, turns out stars have been actually smacking each other around on screen instead of pretending for a while. But in The Dark Knight's case, it wasn't accidental: it was at the request of Heath Ledger.

We're inching closer and closer to the release of Thor: Ragnarok, where we'll be treated to hours of Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, and the eternally delightful Jeff Goldblum -- who even in smaller doses, like this adorable 10-second synopsis of his upcoming film, is still the grandest of masters.