A number of early episodes of Doctor Who, which were believed to have been permanently lost, have been returned to the BBC.

BBC Worldwide is expected to confirm the find at a press screening in London later this week.

It follows weeks of speculation that some lost episodes had been located.

A total of 106 episodes featuring the first two actors to play the Doctor, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are currently missing.

The BBC destroyed many of the sci-fi drama's original transmission tapes in the 1960s and 1970s.

However, the majority of the episodes had been transferred on to film for foreign broadcasters. It is often these prints found in other countries that are the source of retrieved episodes.

BBC to reveal a number of missing Doctor Who episodes

Use Chromecast to Play Local Movie Files on Your TV

Chromecast sounds good and all, but not everything you want to watch is on Netflix and Youtube. This won't work for all files by default (notably .avi or .mov, at least on Windows), however Chrome does have the ability to play local H.264 encoded and .mp4 movies and some other formats.

To do this, you can either

1. Ctrl+O > select the file.

2. Drag the movie into a new tab at the top of Chrome.

3. Use the following urls to access your usual Windows or Mac file structure.

For Windows (tested on Windows 8):

For Mac (tested on Lion):

Note: I'm still waiting on my Chromecast; but in theory, this should work...

Also, I'm not a video filetype/codec expert, but I know a few things and I'm having trouble getting .avi movies that I think should play (using the Divx Web Player plugin for Chrome). I look forward to seeing what you fine commenters have to offer as solutions to get Chrome to play your favorite movie filetypes/codecs.

Via: http://hackerspace.lifehacker.com

Trailer for 'Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey', Carl Sagan's legacy with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey is an upcoming American documentary television series. It is a follow-up to Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which was presented by Carl Sagan. The new series' presenter will be Neil deGrasse Tyson. The executive producers are Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow. It was originally announced that it would premiere in the 2012–13 United States network television schedule, but a Twitter update from Neil deGrasse Tyson in June 2012 indicates a Q2 2014 release. Episodes will premiere on Fox and also air on National Geographic Channel on the same night.

Doctor Who Renewed for Season 8

It's not exactly a surprise, but the BBC has officially confirmed that its hit series Doctor Who will continue for an eighth season next year, thereby entering its second half-century.

The focus for everyone is, of course, on the Nov. 23 fiftieth anniversary, which will boast a special 3D anniversary episode featuring Matt Smith, David Tennant, John Hurt, Billie Piper, Jemma Redgrave, Joanna Page... and the Zygons (of all things--though they'll look great in 3D), surrounded by the movie about Who's origins, the 2013 Christmas special, vats of hoopla from the BBC and sundry people connected with the series past and present, and surprises yet to come, or so they say. 

But showrunner and head writer Steven Moffat "is already plotting a brand new run of adventures for the Doctor," the network announced on their blog. As there was some tenuous (and very baseless) fan debate about whether Moffat would--or should--be back following the anniversary festivities, this in itself is news. But Moffat, like his predecessor Russell T. Davies famous for being a dyed-in-the-wool Who fan for decades before joining the series, seems to be having the time of his life in a job where he gets to write the silliest plots he can think up and make people take them seriously. He may have to have his hands pried off the franchise.

When asked by BuzzFeed whether season 8 was already mapped out, Moffat said, "Yes, I'm afraid we have to work quite a long way in advance. The next season is plotted out. I always end up complaining about it, but it's quite fun. I'm just making up nonsensical adventures, what's wrong with that?"

What about Matt Smith? Despite an increasingly busy schedule--he's currently wedging a movie called (appropriately) How to Catch a Monster for writer-director Ryan Gosling into his Who commitments--Smith has confirmed to DigitalSpy that he'll be back for season 8. "We come back and shoot the Christmas special over the summer," he explained, "then we go on to the next series, which will either start filming at the end of this year or at the start of 2014."

Idle speculation has turned to the future status of the character played by John Hurt, who figures both in the resolution of season 7.5 and the anniversary special; but as usual you won't get a straight answer out of anyone at the Doctor Who office. But as River Song has reminded us on more than one occasion, who needs spoilers anyway? Just knowing that Who will resume in 2014 is contentment itself.