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Left 4 Dead fan film goes from zero to crazy in the last act

When it comes to fan films, people love making movies A.) based on Valve properties; and B.) fairly nonsensical character mash-ups. This movie by Adrian Picardi and Northern Five Entertainment slaps these two flavors together. You can watch a making-of video here. [Benito via Super Punch]

Movies Cyriaque Lamar

On Saturday Morning Cartoons, Professor X waxes romantic and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos!

Generator Rex and company head to Egypt, Professor X’s past is picked through, a stalwart of the edutainment industry meets her death, and Gandalf makes a stellar appearance on Robot Chicken this week. Young Justice, Clone Wars, Ben 10, and Thundercats are in re-runs due to the holidays, but we’ve got some nice clips to…

Television Keith Veronese

Chemical dumping turns Chinese waterway into river of blood

No, this wasn’t the work of Vigo the Carpathian or a bunch of overzealous Slayer fans. In the city of Luoyang, illegal manufacturing workshops dumped chemical dye in the Jian River. The dye turned the river an unpleasant shade of hemoglobin crimson. It’s not clear what the health ramifications of this unholy mess will be,…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Sweet Calvin & Hobbes tribute recreates Calvin’s deranged snowman torture

For many of us, the Calvin and Hobbes newspaper strip was a gateway drug to comics and fantasy pop culture in general. And there was nothing greater than all of Calvin’s twisted snowman torture scenes. This video Christmas card plays homage to each of Calvin’s snowpocalypses. Do you remember them all?

Books & Comics Meredith Woerner

What does it take to become an astronaut?

NASA recently began accepting applications for its 21st class of astronauts, and while you can certainly read about what it takes to become one on NASA’s website, there’s something about hearing it from someone who’s actually been through the whole process of becoming an astronaut, and later training as one, that an Astronaut Selection and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Victorian Hugos: 1889

The Hugo Awards are given to the best science fiction or fantasy works of the previous year. Unfortunately, they’ve only been awarded since 1953. That’s where this column comes in — Jess Nevins will be awarding honorary Hugo Awards to the best novels of the Victorian era… and beyond. Top image: Illustrations from The Last…

Books & Comics Jess Nevins

NASA has launched its own internet radio station!

The aerospace agency is calling its new music and news outlet Third Rock Radio — a “space station” that NASA is hoping will register with tech-savvy young adults. According to a statement issued by NASA, the station will feature regular updates on NASA’s latest missions and discoveries, along with “a healthy dose of great New…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Great Trainwrecks of Science Fiction: Movies Where the Director Was Fired in the Middle

Everybody knows that the movies can be a messy business — oftentimes, what reaches the big screen is the result of a process akin to sticking your fingers in a Cuisinart. And sometimes the original director of a project gets dropped just before filming starts — as happened with The Wolfman. Or sometimes the director…

Movies MaryKate Jasper and Charlie Jane Anders

Amazing New Images from Spider-Man, Avengers and More

Get a fresh glimpse at all the movies we can’t wait to see in 2012, via Empire Magazine. Check out an Avengers battle scene, a few Spider-Man pics with a very wet Dr. Connors, a new look at Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, and Michael Fassbender in Prometheus. The entire collection of images come from the…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Mysterious “white web” found growing on nuclear waste

This is as fascinating as it is unsettling. Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site — a nuclear reservation in South Carolina — have identified a strange, cob-web like “growth” (their word, not ours) on the racks of the facility’s spent nuclear fuel assemblies. According to a report filed by the Defense Nuclear…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Ewan McGregor attempts a crime against nature, in the first Salmon Fishing trailer

Paul Torday’s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was one of our favorite examples of a book that’s secretly science fiction — about a fisheries scientist who undertakes the mad, ambitious project of introducing salmon to the Yemen. Including all of the bioengineering (and regular engineering) that goes into that. Now it’s been made into a…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders

Use Math to Cheat People out of Holiday Treats!

It’s the skeeball prize wall of adulthood – a jar filled with candy, coins, or some other tiny trinket. A person at the front of the room compels you to guess the amount in the jar for free, or for a small donation to charity. You could throw a number out off the top of…

io9 Keith Veronese

The Rejected Green Goblin Make-Up Tests from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man

What if Sam Raimi wanted his Green Goblin to look more like an actual monster, and less a man in a mask? Then Willem Dafoe would have looked a lot like this. These clips of the rejected make-up tests for Raimi’s Spider-Man are scary… but not necessarily in a good way. Released by Amalgamated Dynamics,…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Make a penny disappear with water

Wanna watch a pyrex dish and some water make a penny disappear? How about a little more water (in an unusual place) making it come back? Take a look at a confusing physics demonstration that you can do at home, whenever you want to frustrate your guests. Light knows that the vast majority of the…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The world’s tiniest steam engine uses lasers instead of coal

Steam engines run because of statistics — the particles in the machine have a predictable overall behavior, which drives the engine’s piston up and down. But if you shrink the engine down to micrometer size, it’ll contain far fewer particles, few enough that the behavior of each individual particle could potentially throw the entire apparatus…

io9 Sophie Bushwick

The naked mole rat can’t feel pain from acid burns. Now we know why.

The naked mole rat is quickly becoming one of my favorite mammals ever. The glabrous little buggers live decades longer than most other rodents, never develop cancer, and have mastered the enviable skill of being able to run backwards as quickly as they do forwards. They are also, as it turns out, completely impervious to…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

The Unconscious Mind: Total Nonsense, or What?

Remember the naked lady in the ice cube that was supposed to sell us soda? How about all the pranks that Tyler Durden pulls in Fight Club? Both are equally fictional — and people have pretty much given up on trying to influence our subconscious minds via subliminal imagery. Is there really such a thing…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Mission Impossible IV: Pure Crazy Candy

By all rights, a fourth Mission Impossible film should be a disaster. A played-out film series, a leading man who’s pushing 50 and a tired Cold War premise should add up to total boredom. But somehow, instead, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is a splashy festival of crazy. What happened? A few things: 1) Everyone involved…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The debate over basketball’s “hot hand” phenomenon rages on

Back in October we told you about an in-depth study of a phenomenon known as “hot hands” — the term sometimes used to describe basketball players who appear to have transcended the limits of their normal hoop-shooting abilities. And after examining free-throw statistics from 6,150 games, the researchers concluded that there is strong evidence for…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

10 Pieces of Nasty Ancient Graffitti – Now Translated!

People have been making graffiti since there was writing — everywhere we go we find messages lost in time. Some of these ancient writings give us priceless insight into lost civilizations. Other pieces, though, just give us big lumps of awesome. Here are 10 pieces of ancient graffiti that show that people really haven’t gotten…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Left 4 Dead fan film goes from zero to crazy in the last act

On Saturday Morning Cartoons, Professor X waxes romantic and Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos!

Chemical dumping turns Chinese waterway into river of blood

Sweet Calvin & Hobbes tribute recreates Calvin’s deranged snowman torture

What does it take to become an astronaut?

The Victorian Hugos: 1889

NASA has launched its own internet radio station!

Great Trainwrecks of Science Fiction: Movies Where the Director Was Fired in the Middle

Amazing New Images from Spider-Man, Avengers and More

Mysterious “white web” found growing on nuclear waste

Ewan McGregor attempts a crime against nature, in the first Salmon Fishing trailer

Use Math to Cheat People out of Holiday Treats!

The Rejected Green Goblin Make-Up Tests from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man

Make a penny disappear with water

The world’s tiniest steam engine uses lasers instead of coal

The naked mole rat can’t feel pain from acid burns. Now we know why.

The Unconscious Mind: Total Nonsense, or What?

Mission Impossible IV: Pure Crazy Candy

The debate over basketball’s “hot hand” phenomenon rages on

10 Pieces of Nasty Ancient Graffitti – Now Translated!

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

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

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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