Did A Medieval Mathematician Predict The Discovery Of America?

One thousand years ago, Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a Central Asian scholar, conceived the concept of specific gravity, rejected creationism and argued that the Earth revolved around the sun. And now, according to one prominent academic, he also deserves to be remembered for discovering America. At a recent conference held in Washington, DC, Professor S. Frederick…

See For Yourself Why Sarah Lotz’s The Three Is Our New Crack

Yesterday, we told you that The Three by Sarah Lotz is a thriller that sucks you in and won’t let you stop reading. Now you can see for yourself: We’ve got an extended excerpt from the start of the book, exclusively at io9. Here’s the official synopsis for The Three, which is out now: Four…

Kristin Chenoweth Looks Delightfully Campy As Descendants‘ Maleficent

Angelina Jolie has gotten her turn as Sleeping Beauty’s nemesis Maleficent; now it’s Kristin Chenoweth’s time to shine as the dark fairy in Disney TV movie Descendants. And she gets a witchy wardrobe for her less than statuesque figure. Disney is clearly going full camp for Descendants, the movie about the children of Disney villains;…

This Simple Story About A Sheepherder And A UFO Will Stay With You

There’s a good reason why we’re obsessed with the fiction of Molly Gloss. Her mastery of language is unparalleled, and she tells deceptively simple stories that conceal layers of meaning. See for yourself: Her acclaimed 2002 story “Lambing Season” is now online. https://gizmodo.com/proof-that-molly-gloss-deserves-to-be-one-of-your-favor-5966424 In “Lambing Season,” a woman named Delia takes two dogs and a…

I Think I Just Saw the Future, in This House

The future is always weirder than what you imagine. What you’re seeing is an off-the-grid house made entirely from specially-treated fabric that can withstand 100-mile-an-hour tornado winds, store energy, recycle water, and maintain comfortable temperatures year-round. Called Techstyle Haus, it’s made with rapid prototyping, and can be rebuilt to handle rapidly-changing climates. It’s powered by…

Concept Art Gives Us Our First Look At Ron Howard’s Troubled Dark Tower

Last we heard, Ron Howard was still hoping to make his ambitious adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. But even if the project never gets off the ground, we now have some idea of how Howard’s sets might have looked. Gregory Hill, who worked with on The Dark Tower before Universal suspended production on…

The FDA is considering changing marijuana’s status, so that it would no longer be classified as a drug with the highest risk for dependency and no medical benefits whatsoever. Instead, restrictions would be loosened to allow further study of its medical uses.

​The 20 Most WTF Magical Items in Dungeons & Dragons

Every Dungeons & Dragons character seeks magical items for their abilities. But some wizards aren’t interested in making powerful relics; they’re interested in making nonsense, because they’re crazy, or things that will screw your character over, because they’re jerks. The result? These ridiculous artifacts from D&D’s golden days. 1) Ring of Contrariness The first of…

Behold The Many Chapped Lips Of Mad Max: Fury Road’s Mutant Army

Yesterday we saw the premiere of both Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron in their full Mad Max: Fury Road gear. Today we get to see them interact with their dusty, mutant survivors, and in the future, there is no ChapStick. Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we now have a bunch of stills from George Miller’s next…

Now This Is How Characters From a Live-Action Avatar Movie Should Look

These portraits of the Avatar and Legend of Korra characters imagine how the characters might actually look in real life.

Captain Blackadder And Private Baldrick Actually Served In WWI

One of the all-time great British comedy series, Blackadder, featured Rowan Atkinson and a cast of goofball characters set in different historical periods. And now a military genealogy website has tracked down the real-life counterparts of the characters who appeared in the series’ WWI finale, Blackadder Goes Forth. Since the start of the WWI centenary,…

Discovery Of Oldest Human Poop Exposes The Original Paleo Diet

The recent discovery of 50,000-year-old human faecal remains in a Spanish cave shows that Neanderthals, in addition to consuming meat, ate lots of vegetables. It’s the best proof yet that Neanderthals were omnivores — a diet that modern paleo-eaters will find very familiar. Anthropologists have had great difficulty trying to figure out what Neanderthals ate.…

The Beautifully Grotesque World Of Guillermo Del Toro’s The Strain

My favorite part of reading The Strain was the yuck factor. These vampires are disgusting — pieces of their body fall off and they leave trails of feces behind them. Needless to say, I’m excited to see how the TV series will handle it — but these two featurettes are quite promising. These two new…

A Field Guide To Understanding The Many Possible Colors Of Your Urine

We’re accustomed to seeing urine as yellow, or, if we’re extremely hydrated, clear. That doesn’t mean that pee can’t have all kinds of colors. Let’s explore the biochemistry of making one’s pee all the colors of the rainbow. Red Well, this is an easy one. It might be blood reddening your urine, in which case…

Find Out Which Country Your State’s Quality Of Life Is Closest To

Alabama and Florida may border one another, but according to this calculator that shows which countries your state’s quality of life resembles most closely, they are a world apart. While Florida most strongly resembles Canada, Alabama is closer to Estonia. The calculator, which was put together by the OECD, takes eight factors into account: income,…

Bear Falls Through Skylight Into Party, Then Eats All The Cupcakes

A 180-pound black bear crashed through an Alaska couple’s skylight while they were getting ready to celebrate their child’s birthday. The unexpected visitor proceeded to feast on the cupcakes after the panicked parents fled the room. Definitely not your average birthday party. But as Ryan Scott of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game points…

Japan’s Live-Action Lupin the 3rd Movie Is Just Perfect

If you’re any kind of fan of Japan’s beloved gentleman-thief, you probably had your doubts that the long-lived character (he’s approaching 50!) could translate from anime to live-action. But thanks to Godzilla: Final Wars’ Ryuhei Kitamura as the director, and a fabulous cast, the upcoming movie looks like it nailed it. Seriously. Goemon the samurai…

Is Shredder Hiding A Huge Secret In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

New set photos give a huge clue to Doctor Who’s season finale. Don’t believe that rumor about how Star Wars will handle Harrison Ford’s injury. Ridley Scott’s next film is The Martian, which could be bad for Prometheus 2. And we now know who Michael Chiklis is playing in American Horror Story: Freak Show. Spoilers…

Gremlins Nearly Had Monkeys in Costumes

An excerpt from Empire’s Gremlins reunion is up on the magazine’s website, and it includes the story about how they first tried using a monkey dressed as a Mogwai before settling on puppets. There was a lot of poop involved. The whole article is in this week’s magazine, but here’s the bit about designing the…

When Villains Sing the 80s

Artist Rocky Davies only made four of these single covers for 80s songs and villains, and it really leaves you wanting more. And also to spend an hour trying to imagine Shredder singing “I Want to Know What Love Is.” The possibilities Davies inspires here are endless. Skeletor singing “Owner of a Lonely Heart”? Optimus…