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Other-Korean Company LG is Getting Into Android Tablets Too

LG is working on an Android tablet due out by the end of the year, which will come up next to Samsung’s Galaxy Tab which has already seen a bunch of leaked photos and info hit the web. https://gizmodo.com/is-this-the-samsung-galaxy-tab-tablet-caught-on-video-5564760 LG’s will launch later than Samsung’s tablet, sometime in the fourth quarter compared to their mate-up-the-road’s…

LCD Pinball Machine Can Play Any Table You Want

Can a digital pinball machine capture the charm of the classic game? Nike’s machine, which uses a giant LCD screen as the playfield, a soccer ball-style pinball and virtual Nike shoes as flippers, comes pretty darn close. https://gizmodo.com/a-look-inside-the-last-pinball-factory-in-the-world-384020 Nike’s digital pinball machine, located in Spain, is part of their ‘Write the Future’ campaign for the…

Forest In a Box

In a public plaza in Oosterdokskade, Amsterdam, DUS Architects installed the Unlimited Urban Woods. On the outside: a non-descript white box with a few square meter footprint. On the inside: a forest as far as the eye can see. Using a series of strategically angled mirrors, DUS made the illusory forest from just a single…

Costs of an interstellar probe

In the following analysis, Centauri Dreams discusses an oft forgotten factor that could hinder future space travel: price. When does it make sense to build a starship? Back in the late 1960s, Freeman Dyson went to work on the question of how much an interstellar probe might cost. Extrapolating from nuclear pulse propulsion and the…

Get a little peek at Hayao Miyazaki’s next movie, The Borrowers Arrietty

Check out the latest trailer for the Miyazaki-produced and written film — The Borrowers Arrietty — which was inspired by Mary Norton’s fantasy book filled with tiny people. The Borrower Arrietty Mary Norton’s fantasy novel has inspired Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli to bring the little world of The Borrowers to life. Although Miyazaki isn’t directing,…

The Worst Fireworks Safety Advice You’ll Ever Get

Happy Independence Day! Before doing your constitutionally mandated duty of blowing things up—or watching things get blown up by professionals, if you live in a boring state—make sure you’re caught up on these finer points of fireworks safety. https://jalopnik.com/the-fireworks-laws-of-every-state-5578637 Thank you Back of the Class! You have reaffirmed my love of America and mayhem. [YouTube…

Indiana Jones’ Disneyland ride becomes a digital diorama using Left 4 Dead

A modder has painstakingly recreated Disneyland’s Indiana Jones: Temple of the Forbidden Eye ride using Valve’s undead shooter videogame Left 4 Dead. It’s extremely cool, but sadly there are no zombies to be bullwhipped. And here’s the real thing for comparison. It’s footage of a shaky amusement park ride, so the quality goes in and…

Could extraterrestrial life be hiding out on red dwarf planets?

In the next two or three years, advances in NASA’s Kepler telescope will allow astronomers to determine which planets outside our solar system could potentially sustain life. Exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars are likely candidates for having Earth-like environments. Over at Discovery, Ray Villard notes both A.) the optimal environmental conditions that red dwarf exoplanets…

Sorry, Comic Con memberships no longer available. Drat!

Comic Con 2010 sold out months ago. But if you missed out, it’s not too late. The Con is selling some “returned” memberships at regular price, for a short time only. Update: We were too late in posting this. They’re already gone.

Why did Comedy Central try to remove an Apple “EyePhone” joke from Futurama clips?

Just how much did Comedy Central fear the wrath of MomSteve Jobs? First they posted a clip from Tuesday’s Futurama, with an “EyePhone” joke conspicuously removed. And after Maclife blew the whistle, they took the clip down altogether. [Thanks John!]

Great moments in alternate history: World War II

It’s finally here — the biggest alternate timeline of all alternate timelines, the alternate history trope to top all alternate history tropes. Today we look at some alternate histories of the Second World War. Let’s start with one of the most respected works in science fiction, Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award-winning The Man in the…

The greatest moment in the history of human oratory

Remember the time Roland Emmerich saved the planet using an old-timey Macintosh computer virus and a drunk Randy Quaid? In honor of that monumental day, here’s a word from President Pullman. Also, this:

Starfish Hitler may take our sanity, but he’ll never take our freedom

In this documentary footage, insectoid gymnast par excellence Kamen Rider totally disassembles a Nazi Asteroidea. Stick around for the ending as it makes no sense whatsoever. Who needs fireworks when this clip will make your brain explode? Thanks for the tip, WatchingPreacher!

How do scientists use light to move matter?

Scientists can now use optical tweezers, optical traps, and optical levitation to conduct delicate experiments. Optical. The problem with modern biological science is that it deals with things that are unreasonably small. Gone are the days when being a biologist meant having a brush to cross-pollinate peas with, or a sketchbook to doodle pictures of…

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Looking for cute nerds? Why not try io9’s dating service?

We love you, but not in that way. So go find real love (or lust, or omox) with one of your fellow io9ers, just by visiting io9’s dating service. Post a personal ad, or send a direct message to somebody else who posted one! Yes, it’s just that simple. io9’s dating service – it’s even…

When science narratives go bad

In the following essay, Jennifer Ouellette explores what happens when otherwise normal science documentaries attempt to give their topics dramatic flourish…and fail hard. So, the Spousal Unit and I clicked on the Science Channel last week for a bit of Monday evening viewing to unwind after a long day’s work. Being of a macabre bent,…

The first novel of Riverworld covers deep waters, but it’s a rough ride

There’s a lot going on in 1972’s Hugo-winning novel, Philip José Farmer’s To Your Scattered Bodies Go. But in this introduction to his legendary Riverworld, the waters can get a bit choppy and muddy. Scattered Bodies’ story in a nutshell is that every single person who’s ever lived on Earth, from prehistoric times up through…

Lance Armstrong’s $15,000 Bike Helmet

First, Giro Helmets spent $15,000 to build a lifelike replica of Lance Armstrong. Only then did they start to develop his helmet. Hundreds of prototypes and wind tunnel tests later, they ended up with the most aerodynamic helmet ever. As tough as real Lance Armstrong is, testing out helmets in wind tunnels can’t be any…

Scenes from a drowned London, 2030 A.D.

These illustrations by Anthony Lau depict a floating London made of refurbished oil rigs and recycled ship hulls. Lau designed this maritime city at London’s Bartlett School of Architecture as a potential solution to rising sea levels. Lau had this to say about his Thames floodplain city: “[The] Thames Estuary Aquatic Urbanism […] gives new…