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This LEGO Avengers Quinjet Is Your Homemade-Spoiler-Alert Deal of the Day

LEGO is swamping my life. They have invaded all facets of every hobby, book or movie that I find interesting by designing a set around it. But I have no problems with that. Except for this Quinjet Aerial Battle Set maybe. You see, I haven’t seen the movie yet, and the aerial battle scene has…

Tech News Andrew James

Whales have a sensory organ unlike anything we’ve ever seen

It’s possible that whales can sense things that no other living creatures can. Scientists have discovered a grapefruit-sized mass of vessels and nervous tissues located in whales’ chins, and they believe it’s an entirely new kind of sensory organ. It’s possible the organ is what allows these massive creatures to eat using a lightning-fast mouth…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Elizabeth Moon: Everyone should be barcoded or chipped at birth [Updated]

Military science fiction author Elizabeth Moon has raised some eyebrows with her argument that everybody should have a unique identifier such as a barcode or chip, which would be “permanently attached” and “imprinted on everybody at birth.” Top image: Shutterstock.com Perhaps because of her military SF background, all of her examples of the usefulness of…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Meth Labs and Dead Dogs: How the Founder of McAfee Antivirus Went on the Run in Belize

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. “I’ve been busy” is everyone’s excuse for laziness, but I can’t come up with a better one. For those of you who follow the news in Central America, you will know that I am in hiding in an undisclosed location in Belize. Hiding out is no fun.…

Tech News Mat Honan

DEA Illegally GPS-Tracked a Drug Runner, Now It Can’t Enter 150 Pounds of Found Weed Into Evidence

The one thing you can’t fault the US Drug Enforcement Agency for is not trying hard enough. These dedicated civil servants won’t let trivialities like “laws” and “warrants” hinder their efforts to enforce other laws and warrants. The latest DEA boondoggle involves one Robert Dale Lee, an ex-con truck driver travelling from Chicago through Kentucky.…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

NASA’s Environment Simulation Lab Recreates Space on Earth

During the Apollo years, NASA basically made up spaceflight as it went along. Nobody was really sure what would happen to spacecraft and astronauts in the cold embrace of space. So, before exposing these multi-million dollar investments into real space, NASA subjected them to the same harsh climates—except, in Houston. NASA completed construction of the…

Space & Spaceflight Andrew Tarantola

Marvel Creates Deaf Superhero So Little Boy Will Wear His Hearing Aid

Marvel Comics has a new character with a unique inspiration—a little boy. Four-year-old comic book fan Anthony Smith was born without a right ear and only partial hearing in his left. He needs the help of a hearing aid. But one morning he woke up and told his mom he didn’t want to wear it…

Books & Comics Leslie Horn

The Gazebo Gets a 21st Century Update

Summers right around the corner and, for a lot of us, that means BBQ and outdoor eating. But, rather than get one of those schlocky extendable awnings they sell on late-night TV, shelter your guests in a stylish sphere. What’s a G-Pod? This is a G-Pod. Sure it looks like something 007 would escape from…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Could your next hard drive be made with DNA?

Okay, so maybe not your next one, but in a few year’s time? Maybe your storage will be writ across DNA itself. Researchers at Stanford have developed a method to store binary code on DNA. Dubbed the “recombinase addressable data (RAD) module,” the method controls the synthesis and degradation of two proteins, integrase and excisionase.…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Facebook’s New Camera App Is Pretty Much Instagram

Facebook today dropped a new photo-sharing app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Facebook Camera. And it looks pretty familiar! So why did Facebook just spend a billion dollars on Instagram? Its new offering is curiously similar to the recent acquisition. Pegged as a tool to upload and share pictures on the social network,…

Social Media Leslie Horn

Every one of Dean Pelton’s costumes from Community on a single poster

As a tribute to cosplay-loving community college administrator Dean Craig Pelton, cartoonist Dennis Culver has aggregated all 34 of the character’s costumes on a single poster. This print is part of PixelDrip Gallery’s Six Seasons and a Movie art show (which will run June 23-24 in Los Angeles). If you’re the kind of soul who…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

A Single Strap Can Turn Your Bike’s Frame Into a Basket

If you’ve ever wished for some more storage space on your bike without resorting to adding a hipster basket on your handlebars, you’ll appreciate this alternative solution from designer Yeongkeun Jeong. It’s a simple strap system that turns the bike’s own frame into extra storage. A long elastic strap is strategically woven around the inner…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

10 Surprising Things That Bacteria Like to Eat

You’ve probably heard of necrotizing fasciitis, also known as flesh-eating bacteria. But bacteria do not actually eat human flesh. They’re actually trying to gobble up something a lot weirder. Here are ten of the stranger things bacteria naturally (and unnaturally) eat. You’ll never look at dirty underwear the same way again. https://gizmodo.com/does-flesh-eating-bacteria-really-make-a-meal-out-of-yo-5900416 10. Nuclear Waste…

io9 Keith Veronese

Stay Off Your Boss’s Radar With This Stealth-Inspired Desk

Some days you want your boss to be aware of all the great work you’re doing. But other days you just want to slip beneath the radar, do what you gotta do, and get home. And we assume that’s exacly what David Hsu’s angled stealth desk is for. Inspired by the U.S. Air Force’s retired…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Trippy First Trailer for Kylie Minogue’s Reality-Warping New Movie

Australian pop diva and former soap star Kylie Minogue has already guest-starred on Doctor Who — and now she’s appearing in a French movie about a man who lives multiple parallel lives. (And sometimes, he turns into a monster and kidnaps Eva Mendes.) Holy Motors just premiered at Cannes, and here is the demented first…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders

Shooting Challenge: Memorial Day

Every day, the 7 billion people on earth all do something different. For this week’s Shooting Challenge, I want you to capture that idea for one day. You’ll photograph Memorial Day. The Challenge Take a photo on Memorial Day. It can be of anything you do or anywhere you go. Just capture the day. The…

Tech News Mark Wilson

Blair Witch Project writer/director’s new film takes exploitation to the next level

After making the genre-changing Blair Witch Project for a tiny budget, filmmaker Eduardo Sánchez spent over a decade recovering. He worked on a string of unsuccessful movies, but now he’s trying for a comeback with his first feature in a while, Lovely Molly. Like Blair, this indie horror flick incorporates found footage into a nerve-jangling…

Movies Annalee Newitz

In 1916, a circus in Tennessee sentenced an elephant to death by hanging

In the early 1900s, it wasn’t uncommon for humans to use their waxing technological prowess for the express purpose of torturing the hell out of animals. In one particularly mind-boggling incident, a five-ton circus elephant named Mary was condemned to death by hanging after her owners nixed executions by firearms, dismemberment, and electrocution. https://gizmodo.com/a-brief-history-of-nikola-tesla-a-k-a-thomas-edison-w-5584831 https://gizmodo.com/one-of-the-earliest-films-was-a-boxing-match-between-ca-5912272…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar

Are You a True Cyberpunk? Consult This 90s Guide to Find Out

The 90s! The dawn of a hybrid of pop/counter-cultural archetype: the Cyberpunk. Many strived to include themselves in the ranks of these rebels. If only they’d had this graphical rubric guiding them. The guide comes from the pages of Mondo 2000, a cyber-culture magazine that ran in the 80s and 90s. We are deducing the…

Tech News Michael Hession

16-week-old cheetah cubs will turn your stone-cold heart to mush

Two cheetah cubs delivered by emergency cesarean section last month looked healthy and painfully cute last week when they were transported to Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian National Zoo. The pair will spend the summer being hand-raised by zoo staff, being bottle-fed every few hours in an effort to keep them in fine fettle and generally adorable.…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

This LEGO Avengers Quinjet Is Your Homemade-Spoiler-Alert Deal of the Day

Whales have a sensory organ unlike anything we’ve ever seen

Elizabeth Moon: Everyone should be barcoded or chipped at birth [Updated]

Meth Labs and Dead Dogs: How the Founder of McAfee Antivirus Went on the Run in Belize

DEA Illegally GPS-Tracked a Drug Runner, Now It Can’t Enter 150 Pounds of Found Weed Into Evidence

NASA’s Environment Simulation Lab Recreates Space on Earth

Marvel Creates Deaf Superhero So Little Boy Will Wear His Hearing Aid

The Gazebo Gets a 21st Century Update

Could your next hard drive be made with DNA?

Facebook’s New Camera App Is Pretty Much Instagram

Every one of Dean Pelton’s costumes from Community on a single poster

A Single Strap Can Turn Your Bike’s Frame Into a Basket

10 Surprising Things That Bacteria Like to Eat

Stay Off Your Boss’s Radar With This Stealth-Inspired Desk

Trippy First Trailer for Kylie Minogue’s Reality-Warping New Movie

Shooting Challenge: Memorial Day

Blair Witch Project writer/director’s new film takes exploitation to the next level

In 1916, a circus in Tennessee sentenced an elephant to death by hanging

Are You a True Cyberpunk? Consult This 90s Guide to Find Out

16-week-old cheetah cubs will turn your stone-cold heart to mush

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