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VH1’s Behind the Music + Dungeons & Dragons = Most Awesome Music Video Ever

MC Frontalot’s latest single, “Critical Hit,” is one of the best genre mashups I’ve seen in a while. Only the feverish mind of Frontalot could conceive of a way to turn pop music stardom into a D&D campaign. You can get this song and more awesomeness on the new Frontalot album, Solved.

io9 Annalee Newitz Oct 19 '11

Gadgets Will Not Make You Thin

Motorola released a pretty interesting new fitness device yesterday. It’s called the MotoACTV, and it tracks your workouts, calories burned, and heart rate. It looks fantastic! But it’s not going to shave any pounds off that jiggling frame of yours. https://gizmodo.com/motoactv-motorolas-fitness-focused-nano-twin-update-5850919/ If you look back, just ten years ago, heart rate monitors were still relatively…

Tech News Mat Honan Oct 19 '11

Underground Fires and Fiber-Optic Cables Don’t Mix

Earlier this month an underground fire knocked out cable for a big chunk of the East Village in NYC. Remember that whole #fixcable thing from this summer? Well this is what it looks like when they literally fix cable. Basically, what happened on October 6th was a steam pipe sprang a leak, which shorted out…

Tech News Brent Rose Oct 19 '11

Logitech’s New Mouse Lasts Three Years on One Charge

It may not be the best performing mouse if you’re looking to frag all night, but the Logitech M525 does have one big thing going for it: longevity. Pop in two AA batteries, and you’re set for years. Like any battery claim, you can’t take it as concrete—it’ll be more than three years if you…

Gadgets Sam Biddle Oct 19 '11

OS X 10.7.2 Sneakily Fixed One of Our Biggest Pet Peeves in Lion

With all the hubbub over iOS 5, iCloud, and the iPhone last week, a pretty big change to OS X (for power-using dweebs like me) slipped by unnoticed: You can now rearrange Spaces and Full Screen apps from Mission Control. Not being able to rearrange Spaces and Full Screen apps (which were stuck on the…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Oct 19 '11

A Show About a Family and their Humanoid Robot, from the Makers of Big Love?

First the creators of Nip/Tuck and Glee bring us the weirdtastic supernatural show American Horror Story, and now the men behind Big Love are bringing us a show about a mixed-race family and their humanoid robot. This is a great time to own a television set. Top image: Associated Press (Sure, creators Mark V. Olsen…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Oct 19 '11

Scientists at MIT have developed a device that allows you to see through concrete walls

Believe it or not, radar systems that can see through walls (aka “wall-through” radar systems) aren’t exactly unheard of, it’s just that most of them are burdened by limitations that make their use in real world settings pretty impractical. But if the video up top is any indication, that could soon change in a big…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Oct 19 '11

Windows 8 Finally Does Search Right

Searching within Windows, much like tackling the Task Manager, has always one of the most nightmarish components. It was ugly, disorganized, and slow. Not anymore. Part of Microsoft’s “now Windows is actually pretty great” initiative means making search un-horrible. Finally. To be fair, the new search looks (and operates) a lot like OS X’s Spotlight:…

Tech News Sam Biddle Oct 19 '11

The 10 geekiest moments of Community

Last week’s episode of Community, “Remedial Chaos Theory,” delved into the notion of parallel universes, complete with dystopian realities and evil goatees. This was yet another fantastically weird science fiction tribute the NBC comedy has treated audiences to over the past three seasons. Here are 10 times Community’s worn its nerdiness on its sleeve. Honorable…

Television Cyriaque Lamar Oct 19 '11

Archaeologists Unearth Intact Viking Burial Site, Swords and All

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking in Scotland, along with his boat, ax, sword and lots of other nifty Viking stuff. Univeristy of Manchester and Ardnamurchan Transitions Project archaeologists found the remains on a remote Scottish peninsula called Ardnamurchan. They say 5-meter-long grave was the resting place of a high-status Viking. He…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Oct 19 '11

Audyssey’s LES Dock Is Affordable AirPlay Awesome

We love AirPlay. Audyssey’s consistently put out some really solid compact speakers. But the former was frustratingly absent from the latter. Not anymore! The LES dock sounds as great as we’d expect, with the (overdue) bonus of AirPlay wireless. The thing even looks pretty damn good too, with a minimalist form, understated coloring, and a…

Gadgets Sam Biddle Oct 19 '11

Why the Barometer Is Android’s New Trump Card

Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus is the most high-profile device to date to feature a barometer amongst its guts. Seems strange that a atmospheric pressure measurement would be crammed in a device where space is supremely valuable, right? Except it’s actually wonderful. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-the-samsung-galaxy-nexus-googles-new-official-5851133 Traditionally, barometers have been used to detect—and predict—short term changes in weather. Measured drops…

Tech News Adrian Covert Oct 19 '11

Shooting Challenge: Leading Lines

Your eyes…feel funny. They’re slowly pulling from their sockets, a pair of grapes that will soon squish their juices against a simple, 2D photograph. This is the power of leading lines. For this week’s Shooting Challenge, use it wisely. The Challenge Capture a photo that features prominent, leading line. The Technique Let’s start with a…

Tech News Mark Wilson Oct 19 '11

Songbirds have to adjust their hormone levels to deal with their children

Many animals sacrifice for the sake of their children, but red crossbills are on another level entirely. Crossbills with kids have dangerously low stress hormone levels compared to their childless couples…all to make sure they don’t suddenly abandon their nest. Red crossbills, who rather confusingly are a type of yellow-breasted songbird, are found throughout the…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Oct 19 '11

AOL Radio Gets an Awesome New Interface and Slacker-Curated Stations

The newly revamped AOL Radio is live now online and in the app store—it’s actually pretty good! Consider switching if you want a human—and not an algorithm—to pick what you listen to. The new AOL Radio is actually a dressed up version of Slacker Radio, which boasts 20 million subscribers and 400,000 app downloads. You…

Tech News Mario Aguilar Oct 19 '11

The scariest deaths you’ve watched on screen, and how they would really happen

Whenever we watch the Saw movies, or a particularly gruesome episode of The Tudors, people bite the big one in extremely awful ways. Although the sight is repulsive, we still want to take a peek because we’re a little bit curious. What would the scariest kinds of death be like, and how long would they…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Oct 19 '11

First clip from Ghost Rider shows off Nic Cage’s new “hellified” ride

Now that we know that everything Nic Cage rides as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider 2 becomes hellified (even, er, ladies) let’s take a look at his hellified motorcycle in this first-ever clip form Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, which premiered last night at the Scream Awards. https://gizmodo.com/why-there-arent-flaming-hookers-in-ghost-rider-2-5850432 Yes, that is Johnny Whitworth playing Blackout.…

Movies Meredith Woerner Oct 19 '11

Paranoid Millionaires Spending Giant Cash on James Bond Security

When you’re among the reviled 1 percent, it’s probably more difficult than ever to sleep at night knowing there’s a protest movement growing against you. And although it poses no threat, Occupy Wall Street is spurring a security shopping spree. The NYT’s Kevin Roose reports firms like Risk Control Strategies, which caters to trembling Wall…

Privacy & Security Sam Biddle Oct 19 '11

More Proof That the Book World’s Literary/SF Division is Increasingly Meaningless

This week sees the release of Colson Whitehead’s zombie novel Zone One, and he’s been doing a slew of interviews in which he affirms that reading science fiction and comic books (especially H.P. Lovecraft) made him want to be a writer. Talking to the Atlantic, he says the distinctions between science fiction and “literary” books…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders Oct 19 '11

The Gordon Supercomputer Is a Solid State Powerhouse

The Gordon supercomputer, currently being built here at the San Diego Supercomputer Center by Appro International, is the first of its kind. Utilizing a quarter-petabyte of flash memory, Gordon will power through data-heavy applications way faster than vanilla parallel-processing supercomputers. With 200 teraflops of total computing power, 64 terabytes of DRAM, 256 terabytes of flash…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Oct 19 '11

VH1’s Behind the Music + Dungeons & Dragons = Most Awesome Music Video Ever

Gadgets Will Not Make You Thin

Underground Fires and Fiber-Optic Cables Don’t Mix

Logitech’s New Mouse Lasts Three Years on One Charge

OS X 10.7.2 Sneakily Fixed One of Our Biggest Pet Peeves in Lion

A Show About a Family and their Humanoid Robot, from the Makers of Big Love?

Scientists at MIT have developed a device that allows you to see through concrete walls

Windows 8 Finally Does Search Right

The 10 geekiest moments of Community

Archaeologists Unearth Intact Viking Burial Site, Swords and All

Audyssey’s LES Dock Is Affordable AirPlay Awesome

Why the Barometer Is Android’s New Trump Card

Shooting Challenge: Leading Lines

Songbirds have to adjust their hormone levels to deal with their children

AOL Radio Gets an Awesome New Interface and Slacker-Curated Stations

The scariest deaths you’ve watched on screen, and how they would really happen

First clip from Ghost Rider shows off Nic Cage’s new “hellified” ride

Paranoid Millionaires Spending Giant Cash on James Bond Security

More Proof That the Book World’s Literary/SF Division is Increasingly Meaningless

The Gordon Supercomputer Is a Solid State Powerhouse

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