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Low-budget recreations of movie trailers are nothing new. We've seen plenty on YouTube, but one Star Trek Into Darkness fan this week leveraged Twitter's six-second video service, Vine, in a crafty way to imitate the new film's trailer Frank Danna of Texas spent three hours storyboarding scenes, cutting craft paper and filming his stop-motion Vine trailer, he told Mashable. "My focus was to make an incredibly simple, minimalist presentation of the trailer, wrapped up in a six-second loop," he said. "It wasn't intended to be a shot-for-shot comparison for obvious reasons, but I did want to highlight the main crux of the trailer in a simple way using lower-budget means." Read moreMore about Social Media, Crafts, Trailers, Star Trek, and Vine

Not too long ago, Patton Oswalt riffed on his idea for a great plot for the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII film on Parks and Recreation. Now, it's got a whole bunch of"digital effects" that turn it into the film we all deserve. It's alright JJ, we've got this one on lock. But thanks for throwing your hat in the ring! [iZacLess via Patton Oswalt]Read more    

The New York Police Department say that the fatal shooting of a man in Manhattan's West Village late last night is being classified as a hate crime, NY1 reports. The shooting took place shortly after midnight at West 8th Street and 6th Avenue near Gray's Papaya. The 32-year-old victim was shot in the face at point blank range and pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital. “This fully looks to be a hate crime; a bias crime,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today. “There were no words that would aggravate the situation that were spoken by the victims. They did not know the confronter. There was no previous relationship.” According to the New York Post, the victim and a friend were walking on Sixth Avenue when they were approached by three Hispanic men. These men apparently asked the victim and his friend if they were "gay wrestlers" and made other homophobic slurs. The victim and his friend were followed by two of these men, before one pulled out a gun and shot the victim in the cheek. The shooter then ran downtown before being caught by police at MacDougal and West Third streets, the Post reports. The gunman has not been identified yet as he had phony ID on him. The Post also reports that the shooter had earlier go into a confrontation after urinating outside a bar on Barrow and West Fourth streets. In that confrontation, the shooter had allegedly told a member of staff at the bar that he would shoot him, and that he was behind last year's school shooting in Sandy Hook. There have been a spate of attacks on homosexuals in New York in recent weeks — Gothamist reports that there have been four such hate crimes in the past two weeks. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters today that there had been 22 bias attacks in the city so far this year, significantly higher than the 13 that had occurred at this point last year. In a sad coincidence, Friday was the International Day Against Homophobia. Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

This week has seen the most active solar flares in this sun cycle, which began in 2008 and will last until 2019. Four high-strength flares occurred May 13 into May 14. "Basically, this is as busy as the Sun has been in a 24-36 hour period since 2004," said AccuWeather.com Astronomer Mark Paquette. Paquette used information researched by Daniel Vogler, co-director of the AccuWeather Astronomy Facebook page. Using data dating back to 1992, Paquette found only one other instance with as much sunspot activity in such a short amount of time. "Sunspot AR649, July 15-17, 2004, unleashed five X[-strength] flares," he said. "So what we are witnessing with sunspot AR1748 is pretty rare." Solar flares are measured on a scale of intensity ranging from A, B, M, C to X. The X-strength flares, the level the recent solar activity has been categorized as, are the highest strength. AccuWeather astronomer Hunter Outten said that these impressive flares have been responsible for disrupting a variety of satellite communications, even causing some blackouts that have lasted from nine to 25 minutes. Cell phones, radios and GPS devices can all be affected by solar flare radiation. The flares earlier this week have not been Earth directed, so only fringe affects have been making their way to the planet. When a solar flare occurs, radiation effects can be felt on Earth in as little as an hour with disruptions to communication technology. Earth-directed flares can cause charged particles in the atmosphere that can create auroras 24 to 36 hours after the blast. Outten said that as the Earth revolves around the Sun it could move into a better position to face the sun spot. If a flare directed at Earth occurs while the planet is in the right path, "one heck of an aurora" could be seen. Billions of protons have slammed into the planet as a result of the solar storms. A mid-range flare with a long duration occurred the morning of May 17, adding to the impacts on Earth from the activity. Outten is still going through data to see what kind of impact this could have on Earth. Paquette said that the Sun could be increasingly active throughout the summer, as the peak of this sun cycle is likely nearing. While it may not be as active as the peaks of previous sun cycles, it will certainly be an increase in the activity that has occurred over the past few years. Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.Join the conversation about this story »    

Two commuter trains packed with rush-hour commuters collided in an accident that sent about 70 people to the hospital, severely damaged the tracks and threatened to snarl travel in the congested Northeast Corridor.