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Why Building the Death Star Is a Bad Investment

I wish to address the most important policy question of the millenium: should we build a Death Star? This debate picked up this year after some Lehigh University students estimated that just the steel for a Death Star would cost $852 quadrillion, or 13,000 times the current GDP of the Earth. Kevin Drum suggests this…

Tech News Gregory Koger May 9 '12

Shooting Challenge: Frame Within a Frame

It’s one of the oldest, bestest tricks in the book. Frame your photo by framing it inside something within the photo. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you’ll do just that. The Challenge Take a photo capturing frame within the frame. The Technique It’s not a hard concept to wrap your head around. Creating a…

Tech News Mark Wilson May 9 '12

F-22 Ground Crews Are Also Having Mysterious Breathing Problems

We knew the F-22 has a mysterious problem that causes breathing problems in pilots. Well, the plot is now thickening. It seems that ground crews are having hypoxia-like symptoms too and, of course, we don’t have a clue about what’s causing this: https://gizmodo.com/f-22-failure-investigation-results-we-have-no-clue-5897951 At least five ground maintainers complained of illness between September and December,…

Tech News Jesus Diaz May 9 '12

Plastic Bags Can Give You the Flu

The plastic sacks you like to use over and over are great for holding your sandwich, but they’re also good for transmitting the stomach flu virus. Research published today in the Journal of Infectious Diseases debunks the myth that you can avoid the illness, known as the norovirus, if you stay away from people who’ve…

Tech News Leslie Horn May 9 '12

No One Would Complain If All Wind Turbines Looked This Beautiful

We’ve yet to discover a perfect source of clean energy, and while wind turbines come close, many people still consider them to be an eyesore. But we don’t think anyone would complain if they all featured the beautiful spinning helix design of the Hercules turbine. With an output of around just 5 kW it’s not…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski May 9 '12

4 Surefire Ways to Make Remote Workers Feel Like They’re Part of the Team

Do you work with an unseen group of developers based in a foreign country? A pod of mystery sales folks in San Fran? A cadre of freelance writers scattered throughout the U.S.? Well, they probably feel left out sometimes. Here are some ways to bring those satellite co-workers into the fold of your company’s day-to-day…

Tech News Sponsored post May 9 '12

Medical predictions for the 21st century from 1955 were equal parts inspiring and gut-busting

It’s fun to reflect on the past’s starry-eyed visions of the future. We all know this. But reviewing retro-futuristic predictions in the field of medicine is always especially entertaining. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-retro-futurism-5908064 Many predictions for the future from the 1900s are positive, but few are as hopeful and confident as those pertaining to medicine. Many are quick…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez May 9 '12

An unapologetically reductionist cartoon about Australian wildlife

In case you’re unaware, Australia bears the mildly unfair reputation as a continent brimming with freaky fauna. And as artist Katie Lisk explains of this webcomic, “My boyfriend has decided he wants to move to Australia. I decided to make some scientific depictions of what life there would be like.” The stonefish in the mailbox…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 9 '12

London Hacked Its Own Traffic Lights to Make Sure It Got the Olympics

London fought tooth and nail for the 2012 Summer Olympics. How bad did it want them? Bad enough, apparently, for the city to hack its own traffic lights to ensure the IOC evaluation committee didn’t get stuck in London gridlock back in 2005: Bid-committee officials knew that London’s transportation system was a weak spot on…

Tech News Kyle Wagner May 9 '12

Texas Surgeons Are Live-Tweeting Brain Surgery Right Now

Dr Dong Kim, the surgeon who treated congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in the head in 2011, is currently removing a brain tumor from one of his patients. That’s fairly normal. However, today, another neurosurgeon happens to live-tweeting events as they unfold. No pressure. It’s perhaps the ballsiest piece of live-tweeting ever, and…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 9 '12

Nerdgasm Alert: Full Size Lego Avengers Props!

Ken Robichaud has created these awesome, full-sized Avengers props in Lego: Thor’s Mjölnir, Captain America’s shield, Hawkeye’s bow and arrows and the Black Widow’s thingamajigs. They are perfectly made. The arch even bends like the real thing! (nerdy scream). My favorite is that Captain America’s shield. I’d love to hang it in my apartment. [Flickr]

Movies Jesus Diaz May 9 '12

Kiddie Porn Is Now Legal in New York

If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, baby! The Empire State is now the home of a whole new kind of dreamer, after a judge ruled merely looking at child pornography online is no crime. What. The case, which centered around a professor who had viewed “hundred” of child porn pics,…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 9 '12

You Can Get Your Face Frozen In Carbonite Now

You no longer have to be a smuggler who drops his shipments at the first sign of an Imperial cruiser to be frozen in carbonite. As part of its Star Wars-themed weekends, Disney World is now offering that service to all of its guests. But you don’t have to worry about how you’re going to…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski May 9 '12

Why Space: 1999 is Still Retro Cool

People sometimes dismiss Space: 1999 as a fatally kitschy space adventure, full of unconvincing aliens and wah-wah guitar histrionics. But many of the design elements of Space: 1999 still look incredibly cool today. Like the above lamp, the Sorella Lamp created by Studio Tecnico Harvey, which is now considered a prime example of 1970s retro…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 9 '12

Pink Slime Is Close to Complete Destruction

Great news for people who don’t like eating disgusting liquified cow slurry: the company behind our country’s pink slime nightmare is shutting down its crap factories. Three down, one to go. Will our nation ever be free from the slime? The Detroit Free Press reports the closing of the majority of BPI’s shit-meat empire, which…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 9 '12

Low-Tech Water-Powered Alarm Clock, Flatpack Papercraft Gramophone, and More from TreeHugger

This week on TreeHugger, build a solar-powered cigar box amp, giant lilypads take over waterways, our favorite Star Wars-themed posts, and more! Build a Robot! Arduino-Based Four-Legged Robot Your Can Make Yourself We love biomimicry in robots, especially those that look and move like animals and insects. Now here’s an opportunity to build your own!…

Tech News Jaymi Heimbuch - Treehugger May 9 '12

Everything you need to know about crapping at the opera before 1830

In case you were wondering how people evacuated their bowels at the London theater in the 19th century, Dr. Michael Burden of the University of Oxford has you covered with his new paper, “Pots, privies and WCs; crapping at the opera in London before 1830.” In this edifying study of sanitation in a more fragrant…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 9 '12

A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read

If you’re going to read just one Soviet-era Russian science fiction novel, it should be Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s dark, ambiguous Roadside Picnic. Originally written in the early 1970s, it’s back in print in English after 30 years, with a brand-new translation by Olena Bormashenko and a riveting afterword by Boris Strugatsky about how the…

io9 Annalee Newitz May 9 '12

Download Flipboard for Android Right Now

The Android iteration of the social reading app Flipboard was supposed to be a Samsung Galaxy S III exclusive. As it turns out, not so much. The app has popped up for download on the XDA-Developers forum, and appears to be installing on a handful of current and previous generation Android devices, handsets and tablets…

Tech News Adrian Covert May 9 '12

Behold a Batman helmet right out of the 1920s

If Batman hung out in the Jazz Age, his headgear might look like this helmet built by the Ukrainian costume crafters at Bob Basset. This Dark Knight reminds me of Paul Pope’s “Batman of Berlin.” I imagine this Batman spends his time punching out bootleggers moving barrels of rectitude-poisoning Jokerbräu to Gotham’s Tin Pan Alley,…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 9 '12

Why Building the Death Star Is a Bad Investment

Shooting Challenge: Frame Within a Frame

F-22 Ground Crews Are Also Having Mysterious Breathing Problems

Plastic Bags Can Give You the Flu

No One Would Complain If All Wind Turbines Looked This Beautiful

4 Surefire Ways to Make Remote Workers Feel Like They’re Part of the Team

Medical predictions for the 21st century from 1955 were equal parts inspiring and gut-busting

An unapologetically reductionist cartoon about Australian wildlife

London Hacked Its Own Traffic Lights to Make Sure It Got the Olympics

Texas Surgeons Are Live-Tweeting Brain Surgery Right Now

Nerdgasm Alert: Full Size Lego Avengers Props!

Kiddie Porn Is Now Legal in New York

You Can Get Your Face Frozen In Carbonite Now

Why Space: 1999 is Still Retro Cool

Pink Slime Is Close to Complete Destruction

Low-Tech Water-Powered Alarm Clock, Flatpack Papercraft Gramophone, and More from TreeHugger

Everything you need to know about crapping at the opera before 1830

A New Translation of The One Russian Science Fiction Novel You Absolutely Must Read

Download Flipboard for Android Right Now

Behold a Batman helmet right out of the 1920s

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