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An emotionally-intense short film about scavengers in a space elevator town

When we first saw Stuart Willis’ short film Payload earlier this year, we were blown away. It’s a fully-realized tale of tough frontier life in a space elevator town, which is sort of a cross between Deadwood and Tatooine. I loved the effects, and we’ve got concept art for the incredible space elevator. But more…

Movies Annalee Newitz

Top Model does Steampunk, thinks Steampunk means “Owl”

This week on the reality TV show Top Model the newbie models competing for a chance to stand next to Tyra Banks on television tried to incorporate a little Steampunk into this weeks photo fashion shoot. Apparently the Top Model folks think Steampunk means “clock and owl.” Where are the gears, the elaborate external mechanisms,…

Television Meredith Woerner

How did this game bot score higher than humans on a Turing Test?

Anyone who plays video games knows that game bots, artificially intelligent virtual gamers, can be spotted a mile away on account of their mindless predictability and utter lack of behavioral realism. Looking to change this, 2K Games recently launched the BotPrize competition, a kind of Turing Test for nonplayer characters (NPCs). And remarkably, this year’s…

io9 George Dvorsky

Watch the autobiography of a guy who turned himself into a lizard

Over the course of his life, Eric Sprague has tattooed and modified his body such to give himself the appearance of a human lizard. What inspires a dude to file down his teeth into fangs and ink scales on his epidermis? Allow Sprague to explain in his own words. This fascinating short film by William…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Earth’s magnetic field is singing. This is what it sounds like.

It sounds like the call of an extraterrestrial bird species, but the recording featured in the video up top (and the player, down below) is actually made by our very own planet. Scientists call the eerie sequence of quavering whooping sounds “chorus” — and this is one of the clearest examples of the phenomena NASA…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Awful Time Travel Trope That Both Looper and Doctor Who Embraced

The latest Doctor Who episode and Looper took very, very different approaches to time travel. But they both included one temporal cliche that needs to be taken to the time-machine scrapyard. It’s an idea that’s been done to death, and it needs to stop. Seriously. Click through for maximum spoilers for Looper and “The Angels…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Check out 96 bloody new images from the new season of Walking Dead

The third season premiere of the Walking Dead is rapidly approaching — and with it comes this massive gallery of gory images of the post-apocalyptic hellscape. Looks like the cast is starting to get a little gamey, plus Daryl in a poncho. Get a look inside their new home (the prison) and the inmates they’ll…

Television Meredith Woerner

What if you could get Robert A. Heinlein to send you story ideas?

Even the greats get Writer’s Block. But when you’re Theodore Sturgeon, you can get some advice directly from Robert A. Heinlein. At the 1962 Worldcon, Sturgeon explained: I went into a horrible dry spell one time. It was a desperate dry spell and an awful lot depended on me getting writing again. Finally, I wrote…

io9 Michael Ann Dobbs

What if Disney villains all won their respective movies?

What if the evil stepsisters had perfectly sized feet? What if Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was ten minutes long? What if Cruella de Vil evaded the authorities and those animal hoarding charges? Such scenarios have been realized by Justin McTwisp in this series of portraits of Disney films gone tremendously awry. Will there…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

The Ultimate Guide to October’s Science Fiction and Fantasy!

October is set to overwhelm you with science fictional greatness. Walking Dead and American Horror Story are back! There’s a brand new Culture novel by Iain M. Banks, and the start of a new series by Jacqueline Carey. Plus Larry Niven and Gregory Benford, together at last! Movies include Cloud Atlas and Paranormal Activity 4.…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

The Next James Bond Movie Has Some Serious Underwater Kickass

Skyfall, the next James Bond movie, is going to have some serious underwater fights. They have been filmed in the only underwater stage in the planet, a 20-by-10-meter pool that is almost 20 feet deep and contains 317,006 gallons (1.2 million liters) of water. The whole mechanics on how they prepare and film theses scenes—using…

Movies Jesus Diaz

Why Prout’s Hypothesis Is One of the Greatest Near-Misses in Science

Ever hear the terms “fat,” “protein,” and “carbohydrate”? That’s because of William Prout. Born in 1785, he was the first person in history to figure out the basic components of foodstuffs. A brilliant chemist, he’s still best known for having one of the nearest misses in all of science. Probably he shouldn’t have named the…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Victorian Lost imagines a mutton-chopped Ben Linus

What if instead of traveling back in time to 1977, the cast of Lost traveled back to the 1800s? What if Ben had mutton chops, Evil Locke started the Civil War, and the smoke monster is actually Queen Victoria? And then they all died of cholera. Best ending Lost ending ever! Neil Richards over at…

Television Meredith Woerner

9 Historical Figures Who May Have Predicted Our Future

We like to think that many of our fantastic dreams of the future — from space colonization to artificial intelligence and human enhancement — are fairly recent conceptions. But nothing could be further from the truth. Futurist visionaries have been speculating about these possibilities for centuries. And now, as we head into an era of…

io9 George Dvorsky

This student film feels like a Moebius comic come to life

This is Eclipse, a short film from students at Paris’ Gobelins School of Image, which previously brought us that lovely short about a magical, geography-jumping house. https://gizmodo.com/a-sweet-animated-short-about-a-man-whose-house-teleport-5943577 This concept piece by Théo Guignard, Noé Lecombre and Hugo Moreno reminds us of the comic work of Moebius, right down to the stippling, stark cosmic landscapes, and…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

This Easter, celebrate with face-hugger-impregnated bunnies

If mixing monsters from the mind of H.R. Giger with a beloved Christian holiday is wrong, WE DON’T WANT TO BE RIGHT. Oh, and if you find the image up top offensive, you definitely, definitely don’t want to click this. Seriously. You’ve been warned. Do you know the artist behind this unholy mashup? Let us…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This Week’s TV: The One Show You Absolutely Must Watch This Fall

What does television have in store for you this week? The season premiere of Supernatural, with a brand new direction! The 100th episode of Adventure Time! MythBusters fact-checks James Cameron! Bullying in space and nudity at the mall! The Anti-Monitor and Red Hulk! Disco Medusa! But most of all, we’re calling it — one show…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

How to make friends and eat people (and win some Walking Dead swag)

As you’re probably well aware, The Walking Dead is crawling out of its summer grave and back onto TV for a new skin-peeling, shotgun-blasting, mind-blowing season. In celebration, we’re hosting a little contest on Instagram. Basically, we’re asking you, our lovely, gore-loving readers, to don your best zombie drag, hit the streets, and harass your…

io9 Sponsored post

The internet, according to Playboy magazine, in 1996

Back in the mid-1990s, everyone was exceedingly jazzed about the internet. In fact, people were so darn excited that it was impossible to leave the house without being smacked upside the head by such jargon as “electronic mail,” “mouse,” or “CD-ROM drive!” And nobody was more enamored of the promise of the cyber-frontier than Playboy…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Meet the hexaflexagon. It’s about to blow your mind.

Remember the first time you saw a Möbius strip (the ring-shaped surface with only one side) and it felt like your world had been turned upside down? The hexaflexagon tends to have a similar effect. Only more so. In this, her latest video, fast-thinking, faster-talking YouTube-maths-wizard Vi Hart presents us with the topologically fascinating hexaflexagon.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

An emotionally-intense short film about scavengers in a space elevator town

Top Model does Steampunk, thinks Steampunk means “Owl”

How did this game bot score higher than humans on a Turing Test?

Watch the autobiography of a guy who turned himself into a lizard

Earth’s magnetic field is singing. This is what it sounds like.

The Awful Time Travel Trope That Both Looper and Doctor Who Embraced

Check out 96 bloody new images from the new season of Walking Dead

What if you could get Robert A. Heinlein to send you story ideas?

What if Disney villains all won their respective movies?

The Ultimate Guide to October’s Science Fiction and Fantasy!

The Next James Bond Movie Has Some Serious Underwater Kickass

Why Prout’s Hypothesis Is One of the Greatest Near-Misses in Science

Victorian Lost imagines a mutton-chopped Ben Linus

9 Historical Figures Who May Have Predicted Our Future

This student film feels like a Moebius comic come to life

This Easter, celebrate with face-hugger-impregnated bunnies

This Week’s TV: The One Show You Absolutely Must Watch This Fall

How to make friends and eat people (and win some Walking Dead swag)

The internet, according to Playboy magazine, in 1996

Meet the hexaflexagon. It’s about to blow your mind.

Feds Sniffing Around Polymarket After Suspicious Bets

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Don’t Get Too Attached to Any AI App

‘Paradise’ Writer Teases What’s Coming in Season 3 After That Huge Twist

Trump’s New White House App Is Mildly Concerning and Weird for a Lot of Reasons

Bloodsucking Ticks Can Survive Inside Your Home Longer Than You Might Think

The Best New Toys of March 2026

Judge Denies Liking LinkedIn Post Critical of Elon Musk But Reassigns His Cases Anyway

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

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