How many Star Wars films did George Lucas plan? According to Dan Golding in his recent book Star Wars After Lucas, this depends on when Lucas was asked.

The often-quoted number is nine, but it might wind up being as many as 12. How ever many he planned, we know he planned them in threes.

For the second year in a row, January 1 brings thousands of classic copyrighted works into the public domain. Under U.S. law, works published any time in 1924 will enter the public domain on January 1, 2020. This includes books, films, artworks, sheet music, and other concrete creative works—but unfortunately not audio recordings. Below are some of the most important works losing their copyright.

In the wake of the El Paso shooting on Aug. 3 that left 22 dead and dozens injured, a familiar trope has reemerged: Often, when a young man is the shooter, people try to blame the tragedy on violent video games and other forms of media. However, there is currently no credible evidence to support any of these claims.

Everyone has a museum-going style. Maybe you’re the type who needs time to stand in front of each artwork, taking it in, reading the description, taking it in some more, discussing your thoughts and feelings with museum-goers around you, backing up a little and murmuring “Mmm, yes.”

Before my recent visit to Japan, I did the same obsessive research I always do before things like doctor visits or job interviews. Unfortunately, this usually means I walk into every doctor visit and job interview convinced I have a disease that affects one per cent of the population.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's often easy to see why people leave a job. Sometimes that's by thinking back and recognising the signs of dissatisfaction after they leave, through exit interviews, or by examining performance reviews and seeing long-term changes that you've missed in the day-to-day hubbub.

But what if you could predict when people are planning to move on? That could help you change things to retain the person or perhaps help you plan for an orderly exit. Culture Amp has been looking at this and has added some new predictive analytics capability to its platform and boasts it can predict who is going to leave a job and when with 80% accuracy.

For a certain breed of car owner, "doing a doughie" is a quintessential rite of passage. Unfortunately, the rise of electric cars and gentrified teenagers is forcing this bogan artform into terminal decline. When there are no V8 engines left, who will teach the next generation of be-mulleted revheads?

Fortunately, the guys at Engineering Explained have preserved this important knowledge for the parking lots of our future. Sick, bro.

This is not a story about your religious obligations! Even my Bible-thumping parents never dragged the family to church if our vacation overlapped with Sunday morning. But there are two great reasons to attend a religious service while you travel, regardless of your personal beliefs.

While American shopping holiday Black Friday has spread across the world (just look at the Lifehacker front page right now!) Thanksgiving is one event that is, and always has been, quintessential USA. You might be surprised to find out, then, that one of the few places you can celebrate Thanksgiving outside of North America is on a tiny island that's part of Australia.

"You don't look like a Magic player," a familiar comment to women in the Magic: The Gathering gaming community, is also the title of a Metafilter post (by user Fizz) compiling six pieces on gender and sexism among the game's players and creators. The quoted pieces address issues of in-person sexism, gender and identity representation, and the gender gap in fantasy art.

You may have noticed the historic-artwork-selfie craze sweeping the web right now, comparing faces to famous paintings and art from around the world. You might be wondering "what historic piece of work does my face resemble?" and "how do I find out?"

Well, both of those questions can be answered simply - by using Google's Arts and Culture app.

Many companies want to do things better but are hit with obstacles and blockers. ServiceNow's VP of innovation, Chris Pope, is visiting Australia this week and I spoke with home about how Australia differs from other markets when it comes to trying new technology and what he sees as the blockers to process improvement.

In tragically familiar news, a powerful man in entertainment was recently revealed to be a scumbag. Harvey Weinstein, who spent millions paying off women who accused him of sexual assault, was involved in hundreds of great works including Project Runway, Pulp Fiction, The English Patient and Air Bud. Weinstein, of course, is terrible, and none of his work redeems this. The question, for some, is how to deal with a beloved work once it bears the taint of Weinstein's involvement.

America has experienced yet another mass shooting, this time at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is reportedly the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

As a criminologist, I have reviewed recent research in hopes of debunking some of the common misconceptions I hear creeping into discussions that spring up whenever a mass shooting occurs. Here’s some recent scholarship about mass shootings that should help you identify misinformation when you hear it.

"I like what I like," you tell yourself as you eat the same meals over and over. Now, there's nothing wrong with having preferences, but you could be doing yourself a serious disservice. Being an adventurous eater comes with some great benefits.

One of the best things about visiting art museums is being able to see work that touches and inspires you, and it makes sense that you might want to snap a photo. But many museums have rules restricting photography, and the last thing you want to do is be kicked out or damage artwork for the sake of a photo.

Over the last couple of days, we've seen an interesting game played out at Google. An unnamed employee has said, in a 10-page memo that was widely circulated at the company, that the reason women are under-represented in IT is because they are psychologically different to men and, therefore, aren't as well suited to the jobs in the tech sector as men.

Now, that man has been fired according to reports today. I want to discuss a few things before coming back to the specific situation at Google.

We all have an invisible bubble around us we like to call our "personal space". If someone hovers inside it for too long, you feel uncomfortable. But everyone's bubble size is different from culture to culture. Here's what those bubbles look like around the world.

This week Uber president Jeff Jones quit because his "beliefs and approach to leadership" were incompatible with what he "saw and experienced at Uber." Uber has been in the news for all the wrong reasons recently and this is yet another PR snafu for the former darling of the start-up circuit.