This U.S. Map Shows the Millions of Streets That Have No Name

Cartographer Kenneth Field is making a series of maps inspired by song lyrics about geography. Taking a cue from U2’s song “Where the Streets Have No Name,” he created this visualization of the 15 million unnamed street segments in the U.S. As he explains at his blog, Cartonerd: First, start with a nice healthy dataset…

Is Nathan Fillion Finally Getting Cast As A Marvel Movie Superhero?

Was a brand new Star Wars character gender-swapped? Kevin Feige gives details on the futures of Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, and Doctor Strange. Dean Devlin explains why they’re rebooting Stargate. And details about the new villains in Orphan Black and Teen Wolf. Spoilers now! Top image: Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy…

Privacy advocates are concerned that the U.S. Army is planning to launch two blimps over Maryland to watch for incoming cruise missiles. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has sued the Army for details of the equipment, noting that “a system that can survey a large area… could have profound implications.”

All Grown Up, And This One Still Thinks He’s A Puppy

Lucius used to be a lap dog. Then he got bigger. Of course, he was never a “dog,” as such – it’s just… well… nobody had the heart to tell him otherwise. Above: “best friends” by Khoa Le. See more at her website and DeviantART page.

Pearl Jam Confirms: We Have Reached Peak “Let It Go”

Friday night, at a performance in Milan, Italy, Pearl Jam cut in on a performance of “Daughter” to play a few licks from Frozen’s “Let it Go.” This is it, folks. The end of the line. The shark has been jumped, cleared, and bludgeoned to death by a water-ski-wielding Fonz. Thanks to everyone for playing…

Holy Crap, Orphan Black‘s Season Finale Changes Everything

Orphan Black promised to open up a new chapter in the cloning conspiracy—and boy, did it pay off on that promise. We’re more excited than ever to see what’s ahead for Clone Club, and a brand-new faction in the Orphan Black world. We open in Siobhan’s home, with Felix still drugged and feeling guilty about…

Star Wars Recut Like Guardians Of The Galaxy Is All Kinds of Wonderful

Some mashups just work. A few of them really, really work. This is an example of the latter. YouTuber The Unusual Suspect took footage from the original Star Wars trilogy and repackaged it in the style of the first few GotG trailers. It’s a little unreal how mimicking the latter’s action-packed visual comedy while applying…

This Reaction Makes an Explosive Chemical Snake

We’ve all seen test-tube reactions that overflow in long snakes, but this one is so quick it’s like someone used a jump-cut on a film. The resulting foam has been studied by NASA for its fire-resistant properties. Too bad it takes sulfuric acid to make the stuff. Welcome to io9’s Word of the Day. Today’s…

This Weekend In 1984 Was An Incredible One For Movies

1984 was a great year for movies in general, but this weekend thirty years ago was especially noteworthy. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man’s facts check out. Other big years for cinema? 1977. 1994. 1999. Personally, 1993 has always stood out in my mind; I used to think it was a microgenerational thing, but it looks…

A Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes/Celine Dion Fanvid For The Ages

If you watch one video today about the long, anguished relationship between Steve Rogers and James “Bucky” Barnes set to Celine Dion’s sweeping soft-rock power ballad “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now,” by the gods, let it be this one. Trust us on this one. Press play. Shhhhhhhhhhhh… Shhhhh… Just press play. [MeFi]

A New Mantra, ‘Follow the Methane,’ May Advance Search For Alien Life

Astronomers have developed a powerful new tool that could boost the search for extraterrestrial life. Above: Extrasolar planet HD189733b rises from behind its star in this artist’s concept. The new work presented here shows this planet has 20 times more methane than previously thought. Image Credit: ESA To date, that search has been largely limited…

This 360° Panoramic Time-lapse Of The Night Sky Is Incredible

Astrophotographer Vincent Brady rigged up four – four – DSLR cameras, each equipped with a fish-eye lens, into a filming contraption of his own design so he could capture the footage required for this gobstopping 360° panoramic time-lapse of the night sky. “Beautiful” doesn’t begin to describe it. Brady’s four-minute time-lapse reminds us a lot…

The Making of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey

What’s most notable about Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is that the epic science fiction adventure was made using old-school practical special effects, well before computer graphics became a staple of the film industry. So when someone like Taschen releases a four-volume book set detailing the film’s production, you just know it will be…

Spiders Are Adorable And You Know It

Here for spreading far and wide is entomologist-cum-photographer Alex Wild‘s answer to all those arachnophobic “nopenopenopenopenope” spider memes. Because let’s face it, spiders can be pretty adorable (even when you least expect them to be). https://gizmodo.com/dear-science-please-please-name-this-dancing-spider-a-5942321 https://gizmodo.com/holy-crap-this-molting-tarantula-video-is-completely-b-1548190386 [Alex Wild]

Here’s Why You Should Be Excited About The James Webb Space Telescope

Peter Cullen, voice of Optimus Prime, recently lent his legendary voice to a slick animated introduction to the successor of the ridiculously prolific Hubble Telescope, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. But Cullen’s velvety voice is far from the only reason to be excited about JWST. https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-have-discovered-a-blue-planet-beyond-our-so-742682770 https://gizmodo.com/here-are-10-000-reasons-to-be-excited-about-deep-space-5865535 Above: Six of JWST’s beryllium mirror segments undergo…

Scientist Ejected From Classical Music Concert For Trying To Crowd Surf

A recent attempt to provide an “accessible and informal” alternative to traditional classical music performances by encouraging audience members to “clap and whoop” to the music misfired this week, when an overly enthusiastic audience member attempted to crowd surf on his fellow concertgoers. Above: The Bristol Old Vic, site of the incident | Some rights…

Grab Pre-apocalyptic Anthology The End is Nigh Today For Just $1.99!

The End Is Nigh – a pre-apocalyptic anthology of never-before-published short stories by some seriously awesome authors (including io9’s own Charlie Jane Anders) – is Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deal for Science Fiction and Fantasy! Edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howley, The End is Nigh is the first installment in the Apocalypse Tryptich, a…

Is Continuum Preparing To Hit Another Reset Button?

Towards the end of last season, Continuum started rolling out lots of crazy plot twists — Carlos joins the Freelancers! Travis and Sonia die! — only to undo them when Alec went back in time. After last night’s frenetic episode, I’m wondering if we’re in store for the same trick a second time. Spoilers ahead……

Here’s What Earth Looks Like From Space On The Summer Solstice

It’s the summer solstice! Today the Northern Hemisphere experiences its longest period of daylight of the year, marking the beginning of summer and an extreme point in Earth’s seasonality. The photo above, captured from Earth orbit by EUMETSTAT’s Meteosat-9, gives us a clue as to why this, but Ron Miller has the full details after…

Intruders Gets A Release Date And A Creep-tastic New Trailer

Our first couple glimpses of Intruders, BBC America’s new series about a secret society that seeks to attain immortality by possessing other people’s bodies, were seriously spooky. This new, extended trailer continues the trend. Oh – and the show now has an official release date! The show, which is based on Michael Marshall Smith’s novel…