NFL Sunday Ticket Will Be Available Without Satellite Next Season (Updated)

Looks like DirecTV is poised to offer cord-cutters a big bucket of NFL, no satellite contract required: AppleInsider just found this unannounced promotional page promising all the out-of-market live games you can watch, every Sunday, starting at $200. Update: We reached out to DirecTV, and found out that this offer has been available for some…

First Trailer For Syfy’s 12 Monkeys Shows How It Differs From The Film

Here’s our longest look yet at Syfy’s TV adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s classic time travel film 12 Monkeys, and it gives us a sense of where the show will line up with its inspiration—and where it veers away. The basic premise is still very much the same: James Cole (played by Bruce Willis in the…

Mysterious 500 Million-Year-Old Predators Are the Ancestors of Spiders

Anomalocarids are one of the oldest families of animals on Earth, and they looked like nightmarish sea scorpions. But a new fossil discovery actually contains traces of their brain structure — and amazingly, their half-billion-year-old brains look a lot like an arthropod’s. Anomalocarid illustration by John Meszaros Though some anomalocarids may have been as big…

This Social Robot Is Designed to Become Part of Your Family

Meet Jibo, a robotic device designed for people to use at home. Developed by MIT’s Cynthia Breazeal, the robot can turn toward whoever’s speaking to it and interact with them in a fun and engaging way. Remarkably, Jibo is expected to cost as little as a tablet computer. Breazeal designed Jibo to be an interactive…

Ouija Movie Trailer Tricks Kids Into Playing A Board Game

OK, hear me out: I’m actually pretty excited about the horror movie Ouija, because it reminds me of glut of ’90s and ’00s horror movies centered around a problem that could easily be avoided by leaving said problem alone. Also, I’m just surprised these younglings know what a Ouija board is! The premise is simple:…

Can Network Theory Help Explain Epic Mythology?

It sounds like a crazy question. But two physicists took some time off from studying particles to study ancient epics, trying to answer classical humanities questions using network theory. In the chart above, enemies linked by red and allies by green. In a terrific story onThe Verge today, Veronique Greenwood talks to the physicists and…

Which J.R.R. Tolkien Movie Will Be The Docudrama To Rule Them All?

Not one but two movies are being made about the true Lord of the Rings, author J.R.R. Tolkien. Fox Searchlight announced one last year, expansively titled Tolkien; now a smaller independent company is making Tolkien & Lewis, about his relationship with his friend and fellow author C.S. Lewis. Both movies sound like they’re focusing on…

An Alarming Short Film That Will Change The Way You Think About Plastic

Plastic has become a ubiquitous part of life, though we rarely think about its impact on the environment and our health. This beautifully crafted four-minute film shows the various problems associated with plastic, along with possible solutions. The film, titled “It’s a Plastic World”, was directed and produced by Andreas Tanner. At his project website…

Which Change To A Character Did Purists Overreact To The Most?

We all get attached to certain versions of characters, and when they get changed or updated, it can be annoying. So we end up debating whether Constantine needs to be bisexual, or whether Thor can be a woman. But sometimes, it just gets silly. Which update to a character were purists most needlessly upset by?…

In BitTorrent’s TV Show, People In The Dystopian Future Use BitTorrent

Even as Netflix, Yahoo and YouTube are creating original science fiction series, BitTorrent is trying a new model: crowdfunding a futuristic miniseries by asking 250,000 people to pay $9.95 each. Children of the Machine takes place in a future dystopia, where people still use BitTorrent. Here’s the official synopsis for Children of the Machine, from…

It’s the midday tips forum! What news stories should we be covering? What projects and developments are you excited (or upset) about? Share them below! Top image: Concept art by David Correa for Is This Heaven, via ConceptRobots

Save the Internet! There’s no time to waste — Congress is trying to sneak a provision into law that would restrict broadband competition into a budget bill, and you need to call your Representative now. The EFF has more info. Update: Too late. It passed the House.

The Great Beer Flood Of 1814

London has been beset by many tragedies: Viking invasion, plague, fire, V-2 rocket attacks…and a tsunami of beer that claimed the lives of eight people in the early 19th century. The location of the incident is familiar to anyone who has visited London: the famed Dominion Theatre at the crossroads of Tottenham Court Road and…

A Dramatic 260 Foot Crater Has Mysteriously Appeared In Siberia

Russian geologists are on their way to a remote region of Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula to investigate the mysterious appearance of what looks like a gigantic Sarlac Pit. Opinions are divided as to what caused the apparent crater. As the Siberian Times is reporting, the unexplained hole was spotted by a helicopter flying over the gas-rich…

This Animal Is Almost Impossible to Kill

Hydras are tentacled, freshwater animals that vaguely resemble tiny sea anemones. They’re rather unremarkable except for one trait: if they’re torn into tiny pieces, they can reassemble themselves. At the Conversation blog, Rebecca Helm, who studies jellyfish and other sea life at Brown University, has instantly won my admiration by describing the Hydra as the…

Usagi Sounds Perfectly Annoying In The New English Dub Of Sailor Moon

This is not a bad thing. If you’re a Sailor Moon fan, you know Usagi — at least early on in her career as a Sailor Scout — sounds like an immature girl who’s on the verge of crying at any given moment. Voice actress Stephanie Sheh nails it in Viz’s new English dub of…

Victorian Naturalist Dissects A Robot, And The Results Are Creepylovely

The Victorians sure loved to dissect and categorize. What if one of their famed naturalists got his or her hands on a robot? That’s the fanciful idea behind this art by Oliver-Quellette, called “Victorian Robot Autopsy; Rose, Wax and Creosote.” This artwork is appearing in a group show in Santa Fe, NM called “Hard &…

​If You Want a Glimpse of the Future Food Wars, Look to Hawaii

After Hawaii banned GMO crops, local farmers say they have no idea whether their plants are illegal or not. Plus, it’s unclear whether the state even has the right to enforce this ban in the first place. The Aloha State is about to become ground zero for the U.S. food wars. Hawaii might seem an…

Here’s the Shiny Cover of William Gibson’s New Novel!

With this exclusive io9 reveal, at last we’ve got a solid glimpse of William Gibson’s long-awaited novel,The Peripheral, coming out October 28. This is the first time in two decades that the author of Neuromancer has written a book set in the far future. Gibson himself is ecstatic about the cover, and explained why to…

New Big Hero 6 Trailer Is Surprisingly Dark

Whoa, we did not see this dark reveal coming in the new Japanese international trailer for Marvel’s Big Hero 6. Spoilers ahead. Turns out the little boy is an orphan? Or maybe that’s his brother, or dad? I don’t know. But it looks like whoever appeared in the video is the original inventor of Baymax…