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Cambodian scarecrows keep out malicious spirits using ghost bazookas

If you want to ward off evil spirits, it pays to be wield some serious firepower. Farmers in the Cambodian countryside have thusly armed their scarecrows with spectral munitions. These martial manikins were spotted by the bloggers at Asia Obscura. Here’s how they describe them: Somewhere between Siem Reap and the River of 1000 Lingas,…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 8 '11

A Mother’s Day Note from a Mom in Space

I won’t be able to see my mom today because I’m on the other side of the country. But I sent flowers and mom is happy! What would you do if your mom was in space, like Astronaut Cady Coleman, though? Video chat! Blog entries! Basically, anything to stay connected with your mother, as blasting…

Tech News Casey Chan May 8 '11

Playing Magic: The Gathering as an RPG

We usually approach Magic as a strategic and tactical game with cool flavor, but sometimes it’s fun to let the game’s underlying premise (that you are a wizard with a collection of spells at your disposal) to run free. Could we take that a step further and turn Magic into an RPG? Setting The first…

io9 Ed Grabianowski - Robot Viking May 8 '11

The most important defecation-related scientific study ever

It started with some brave souls daring to ask a simple but all-important question…what’s more important when it comes to pooping, the position a person is in or the shape of the poop? It’s our privilege to share their answer. Researchers at the University of Iowa began their 2006 paper for The American Journal of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 8 '11

Brass Knuckles Made from Fine China

As a kid, I remember always wondering why we never used those blue willow ware dishes we got from China. What’s the point of having dishes you never use!? An Etsy user cooked up a better idea for them: brass knuckles. Or well, Blue Willow Ware China Knuckles. Though I guess if I bought these,…

Tech News Casey Chan May 8 '11

The universe’s very first black holes might be even older than the Big Bang itself

Some black holes may be so ancient that they predate the stars themselves, forming instead in the chaotic first moments after the Big Bang. There might even be some black holes out there from the universe before the Big Bang. This is one of those stories with a ton of “ifs” and some fairly daring…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 8 '11

What Living in an Ikea Would Look Like

Every time I step into an Ikea, I can’t help but imagine myself getting trapped inside and having to live there forever. It ain’t a bad life! And it’d probably look a hell of a lot like this. Christian Gideon, a photographer, wondered the same thing about Ikea as I did. But instead of silly…

Tech News Casey Chan May 8 '11

19th century mechanical French harp player is absolutely unnerving

We recently looked at devilish automata from the 15th century; here’s Gustave Vichy’s mildly terrifying mechanical harpist, which was built in Paris in 1880. Her golden harp is invisible to the living; you can only see it on your deathbed. https://gizmodo.com/in-the-15th-century-satanic-automata-wigged-out-church-5795086 [Via House of Automata]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 8 '11

Japanese TV show pranks unsuspecting victim with a haunted mirror

In this clip from a Japanese candid camera program, a fellow sits down to use a mirror and is immediately harassed by angry ghosts straight out of Ringu (or perhaps Hausu). Shit gets extremely real around the 30-second mark. https://gizmodo.com/in-the-japanese-cult-classic-hausu-schoolgirls-are-eat-5778012 See also: a similar prank for Spanish television, using a creepy kid and a hotel…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 8 '11

A Chicken Vending Machine Isn’t What You Think It Is

Because it’s not a chicken vending machine but an egg vending machine! Live! Fresh! Good! Um, not exactly. The egg vending machine was an installation made by NOAH (think PETA but German) to show the dark side of how farms treat their chickens. Which is to say, not well. NOAH wants people to buy free…

Biology Casey Chan May 8 '11

Read a 250-page preview of zombie kung-fu comic insanity online

In perhaps one of the largest free samples we’ve ever seen, illustrator Kagan McLeod has posted the first 250 pages of his 464-page graphic novel Infinite Kung-Fu on Top Shelf Comix’s website. Here’s the synopsis of the book, which hits stores July 2011: Catastrophe has knocked most of the world back to the middle ages…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 8 '11

The lost adventures of Tintin take us to Tatooine and Mars

We’ve previously featured parodies of globe-trotting Tintin covers, and here are 12 more of his never-was escapades. Watch as Hergé’s boy adventurer, his faithful dog Snowy, and Captain Haddock battle the Teen Titans and enter the Grid. https://gizmodo.com/tintin-meets-h-p-lovecraft-in-this-mind-bending-mash-u-5696372 https://gizmodo.com/is-this-tintins-final-xenomorphic-adventure-5791602 By Luc Jacamont This cover by Joost Verkamp shows what happened if Tintin in Tibet went…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 8 '11

Horses Need Gas Masks Too

Horse gas masks first came about around World War I to protect them from chemical agents. Amazing that we still used horses during warfare then! I do love how fitting them up with these crazy masks makes the little horsey look a lot more intimidating and apocalyptic. Gas masks have that effect. [Industrial Anatomy via…

Biology Casey Chan May 8 '11

The leading man plays a killer whale in Berlin’s underwater opera

What links a scientific research station in Antarctica with a unique opera performance in Germany’s capital? The answer, unlikely as it seems, is underwater sounds. Since 2005, a remote acoustic observatory has been recording the sounds of the deep sea using underwater microphones placed below the ice shelf. These otherworldly sounds provided the inspiration for…

io9 Natalie Holmes - New Scientist May 8 '11

Enjoy the sunrise in the company of four planets

This photo shows four of the five planets visible to the naked eye, all lined up one on top of the other in the morning sky to create the most impressive planetary configuration in over a decade. This is just a part of the full image, which was taken on May 5 on a beach…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins May 8 '11

Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain

Those who are easily distracted from the task in hand may have “too much brain”. So says Ryota Kanai and his colleagues at University College London, who found larger than average volumes of grey matter in certain brain regions in those whose attention is readily diverted. To investigate distractibility, the team compared the brains of…

Tech News Jessica Hamzelou - New Scientist May 8 '11

Is this the first time this has happened on Doctor Who?

After the twisted, creepy darkness of Doctor Who’s opening two-parter, you’d expect the show to follow up with a lighthearted episode, but instead “Curse of the Black Spot” was the most horrifying, intricate… just kidding! It was a fun episode. And I’m wondering if last night’s pirate episode of Doctor Who features the first time…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 8 '11

Johnny Depp Can’t Watch 3D Movies

It seems Johnny Depp won’t be enjoying his new movie, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” like most audiences on May 20th. Like a very small portion of the population, he simply can’t see 3D movie effects. “I’m unable to see in 3D. My eyes don’t see in 3D. I have a weird eye……

Movies Kwame Opam May 7 '11

Weekly Roundup

WEEKLY ROUNDUP: 5/1 -5/7 | Jack Kirby’s Galactic Arsenal from Captain Victory (via Grantbridge Street). Ask Iain M. Banks anything you want about “Surface Detail” https://gizmodo.com/ask-iain-m-banks-anything-you-want-about-surface-deta-5799662 In April, the io9 Book Club read Iain M. Banks’ Surface Detail. Now Banks is coming to answer your questions about the book on Monday, May 9. He’ll be…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar May 7 '11

A 3-Year Old Boy Armed With a Blowtorch Burnt Down His Neighborhood

Yesterday, a 3-year-old boy and his dog decided to go for a morning stroll through the neighborhood. Only this walk involved a blowtorch and some $5,000 in property damage. Kids today really know how to have fun. It’s a miracle, of course, that the kid came out unhurt. But this will definitely be a story…

Tech News Kwame Opam May 7 '11

Cambodian scarecrows keep out malicious spirits using ghost bazookas

A Mother’s Day Note from a Mom in Space

Playing Magic: The Gathering as an RPG

The most important defecation-related scientific study ever

Brass Knuckles Made from Fine China

The universe’s very first black holes might be even older than the Big Bang itself

What Living in an Ikea Would Look Like

19th century mechanical French harp player is absolutely unnerving

Japanese TV show pranks unsuspecting victim with a haunted mirror

A Chicken Vending Machine Isn’t What You Think It Is

Read a 250-page preview of zombie kung-fu comic insanity online

The lost adventures of Tintin take us to Tatooine and Mars

Horses Need Gas Masks Too

The leading man plays a killer whale in Berlin’s underwater opera

Enjoy the sunrise in the company of four planets

Easily Distracted People May Have Too Much Brain

Is this the first time this has happened on Doctor Who?

Johnny Depp Can’t Watch 3D Movies

Weekly Roundup

A 3-Year Old Boy Armed With a Blowtorch Burnt Down His Neighborhood

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