Watch An Out-Of-Control Elevator Climb 31 Floors In 15 Seconds

This is horrifying: A Chilean man was seriously injured when the elevator he was riding malfunctioned and shot up 31 floors in just 15 seconds, smashing right through the ceiling. The man, José Vergara Acevedo, was seriously injured by the incident. He reportedly suffered head and leg injuries. It’s not known what caused the malfunction,…

Did Somebody Just Explain Magic in a Way That Actually Made Sense?

A lot of fantasy and horror tales contain magic, or at least supernatural creatures, and never explain how they got there. But once in a while, we get an explanation for how magic entered our rational world — and it just works. What’s your favorite example of a story that actually explains magic well? Illustration…

What If Disney Made An Animated Doctor Who Movie With All 13 Doctors?

Would the House of Mouse be able to squeeze every Doctor into a single animated film? Artist Stephen Byrne imagines what that movie poster might look like. You can see the full-sized image at Byrne’s Facebook page. He also has a rather cheeky response for folks complaining about the inaccuracies in his illustration. [The Artwork…

Rising Pacific Sea Levels Unearth Remains Of WW2 Soliders

The bodies of at least 26 Japanese soldiers from the Second World War have been washed from their graves by rising sea levels in the Pacific. This is not the first time that climate change has been implicated in the re-emergence of buried soldiers. Earlier this year, melting ice exposed the frozen remains of World…

The Climate Prediction Center’s latest prediction for whether this year will be an El Niño one is out and it’s likely than ever that it will be, with an 80% by this fall. But there’s surprisingly good news: it may also be a weaker event than previously thought, especially compared to the similar conditions in…

At East Texas University, Demon Hunting is On the Curriculum

In the Texas town of Pinebox, football is king and something with tentacles is lurking in the local swimming hole. In this variant for the Savage Worlds RPG system, you might battle chupacabras or zombies, but you still have to ace your anthro final tomorrow. East Texas University positions the players as students at the…

Did Male Faces Evolve To Take A Punch?

A controversial new theory claims that many features of the human face are the result of evolved defensive measures against fist fights. This is not the first time that fist-fighting has been implicated in the development of our physiologies. Back in 2012, scientists made the claim that fists changed the course of human evolution, arguing…

This Anime Short Looks Like Something Straight Out Of Studio Ghibli

Hiroyasu Ishida is an animator to watch, and this short fantasy film is a perfect example of why. By the end, you’ll be feeling warm and fuzzy feelings toward a chair—that’s right, a wooden chair. Ishida, who is best known for his fast-paced viral short Fumiko’s Confession, directed Poulette’s Chair, but one of the reasons…

Deals: Friday Night Lights, $5 Alien Movies, Playstation 4

The complete series of Friday Night Lights is down to a low $42. It’s an excellent, well-directed, surprisingly consistent show, even if you don’t care about football. Highly recommended. [Friday Night Lights, $42] New Deal Times, Same Deal Channels In an effort to bring you the deals faster and with fewer expirations and price changes,…

Meet The Sentinels Who Almost Appeared In X-Men 2

In one of the earliest drafts of X2: X-Men United, the X-Men’s terrifying robotic foes the Sentinels were part of the action. It was eventually determined they were just too expensive even to animate in CG, and by the time movie was finally finished, only one Sentinel head made a small cameo on the Danger…

The Scientist Who Inspired the Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas’ famous story, The Count of Monte Cristo, was a fictional story based on real events. One of its characters, a mad-genius of a scientist who writes his greatest work in prison, was based on a real person. Learn of the imprisonment of Déodat de Dolomieu. As adventure stories go, The Count of Monte…

Dear Diary: Penny Dreadful Pens TV’s Most Victorian Letter

Last night, Penny Dreadful made a play for being the most Victorian thing ever on TV with an epistolary flashback episode. It didn’t progress the plot much, but it did Penny Dreadful-ize everything that happened, so we’re still unsure of specifics but definitely creeped out by whatever it is. Spoilers ahead! “Demimonde,” an episode titled…

The Chinese Tea Study that the Tea Party Wants to Suppress

Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) just cut funding to a science program that he says “didn’t pass the laugh test” — a long-term study on how climate change is affecting Chinese tea crops. But this study isn’t funny. Instead, it offers the darkest picture yet of how our crops will change in the years ahead. The…

I Don’t Think The Leprechaun Reboot Has Any Idea What A Leprechaun Is

The first trailer for the WWE-produced Leprechaun: Origins has dropped. You’ll first notice that the movie appears to be taking itself very seriously. Then you’ll probably notice that it also seemingly has nothing to do with leprechauns. Turning the classic Irish faerie into a monster was always kind of a stretch in the first place,…

Why The Turing Test Is Bullshit

As many reported yesterday, a chatbot has passed the Turing Test, though under some very convenient conditions. The announcement has led some to declare that the age of AI is finally here, but that’s nonsense. Here’s why the Turing Test is a very poor way of measuring machine intelligence. A quick recap of yesterday’s announcement:…

The io9 Book Club Is in Session! Let’s Talk About Leviathan Wakes!

Welcome to the monthly meeting of the io9 Book Club. In May, we read Leviathan Wakes, by James S.E. Corey. Jump into comments to get started talking about it! For those unfamiliar with the io9 book club, here’s how it works: You read the book. We create a special book club post on io9 when…

The Time Luke Skywalker Met The Joker, Narrated By Mark Hamill

The once and future Luke Skywalker, Mark Hamill, is also a crazy talented voice actor best known as the Joker in many Batman cartoons. At a recent Star Wars Weekend, some brave, wonderful person asked Mr. Hamill to narrate a meeting between the Jedi Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime. In related news, watching…

A Lunar Discovery Reveals The Secret To Building Deflector Shields

Radiation in space is one of the major obstacles to human exploration of the solar system. Astronauts on a round-trip to Mars could be exposed to radiation doses 66,000 times higher than on Earth. But recent research into magnetic fields on the Moon could help us design effective radiation shields. A new study written by…

The 10 Cutest Animal Flash Mobs in the World

Come with me to a world where huge swarms of animals don’t have to be terrifying! Some animals get exponentially cuter as they get together in bigger and bigger groups. Here’s the science behind the most adorable animal flash mobs you could ever hope to be caught in. Top Image: Hagerty Ryan, U.S. Fish and…

Cosmos: Even While Darkness Surrounds Us, The Light Is Winning

We begin (and end) in one of Carl Sagan’s favorite virtual environments from the original series: the Library of Alexandria. Sagan used the Library as a cautionary tale about what can be lost when a civilization is careless with its knowledge, but Tyson uses it as an inspirational story. Tyson views the Library as a…