io9 Roundup: May 27, 2012

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THE TRAGEDY OF SCIENCE FICTION | Cartoonist Tom Gauld launched a new blog this week filled with his funny pictures. While we know science fiction is proper literature, it never hurts to remember that we get the coolest toys. [via CBR]


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Watch cartoon voice actors read the Star Wars Trilogy as Bubbles, Bender, and Captain Kirk

Now here's a revamping of the original trilogy we can get behind! At this year's Emerald City Comic Con, cartoon voice actors read scenes from the original three Star Wars movies. More »

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How the zombie apocalypse starts: Naked attacker found eating man's face

A scary bit of news is coming out of Miami this weekend after the city police shot a naked man found eating another man's face. And several circumstances of the story have some people crying zombie. More »

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What is the shiniest thing in the solar system?

A New Moon is rising in the next few days, giving us a chance to bathe in the Earthshine, the light from the Earth that illuminates the Moon. Earth shines bright for the Moon, and the Moon shines for the Earth, but what's the shiniest thing in the solar system? More »

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Abandoned Ships Stranded in the Desert

Mo'ynoq was once a thriving port city on the Aral Sea in western Uzbekistan, famed for its fishing and canning industries. Today, most of Mo'ynoq's visitors come to view its haunting graveyard of ships, lying in the sands where the waters once flowed. More »

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This colossal prehistoric turtle could snap other turtles in half

For a brief period after the dinosaurs vanished, truly gigantic reptiles like the 50-foot snake Titanoboa and twenty-foot crocodiles dominated the swamps of ancient Colombia. More »

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50 years later, the coal fire beneath Pennsylvania still burns

Fifty years ago today, a coal seam caught fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania, causing the mines beneath the town to catch fire. While the decades-old fire has caused most residents to abandon the town, a few holdouts remain. More »

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The Super Best Friends can't decide on a name and Red Lanterns attack Oa!

This week, Super Best Friends Forever returns, Red Lanterns attack the Green Lantern homeworld of Oa, and the Iacon City relic hunt comes to an end on Transformers. More »

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The earliest known panda-like fossils have been found – in Spain!?

This little feller is Agriarctos beatrix, which roamed the forests of Spain some eleven million years ago. It represents the earliest known member of the giant panda's evolutionary subfamily, and it was pretty much just ridiculously adorable. More »

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Detroit plans to shrink by leaving half the city in the dark

Detroit's population is shrinking. The city boasts 60% fewer residents today than it did in 1950, and, as we've seen, many of its grand buildings have been left to rot. More »

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How I Stopped Worrying (About Science) and Learned to Love the Story

When I was a kid – and who am I kidding; when I was an adult too – I made fun of the science in movies. "That's so fakey!" I would cry out loud when a spaceship roared past, or a slimy alien stalked our heroes. More »

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What are the tax implications of the zombie apocalypse?

The only certainties in life are death and taxes, but how do you handle the taxes when death doesn't go quite as planned? Law professor Adam Chodorow takes a stab at estate planning for the undead in perhaps the only legal paper to cite both the Internal Revenue Code and Weekend at Bernie's. More »

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These retrofuturistic magazine covers sat in the background of Blade Runner

Ridley Scott's incredible attention to detail in Blade Runner stretched all the way to the newsstands sitting in the background. He asked concept artist Tom Southwell to create these magazine covers for his dystopian Los Angeles. More »

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Douglas Adams' animated history of the book, from rocks to e-readers

In the early 1990s, the Voyager Company looked into creating "Expanded Books," digital books that would offer an enhanced onscreen reading experience. More »

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