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An Injured Nebula Fingers The Nefarious Star Gang

When stars team up, they can do a lot more damage. Scientists had been wondering how one particularly bright star had managed to erode so much gas in the Carina Nebula, until they rumbled the secret of Tr16-244: it’s actually three stars, working together. Two stars orbit so closely together that they appear to be…

NBC: Happy New Year, But We’re Taking Away Your Television

Fans of NBC’s Monday night line-up of Chuck, Heroes and My Own Worst Enemy aren’t going to have the best start to 2009; the network is putting the first two shows on hiatus for the entirety of January (and, as we already knew, pulling Worst Enemy altogether). NBC announced its January line-up today, and the…

Honda Speedometer Changes Color When You Drive Crazy

As part of the Honda Ecological Drive System (HDAS) that will be included with the 2009 Honda Insight, drivers will be alerted to their driving habits by a color coded speedometer. When driving with a fuel efficient style, the speedometer goes green, indicating that you love the Earth etc. When some prick cuts you off…

Thanksgiving Dinner is Sadder in Space

Today, millions of Americans are traveling to spend Thanksgiving Day with their loved ones. But for the astronauts currently aboard the International Space Station, going home for the holiday isn’t an option. The station will host a Thanksgiving meal of its own, but while we’ve come a long way from the powders and edible goo…

Introducing Gizmine: A Store For Weird Japan Gadgets

Doug Krone is my friend who started the dependable Japan importer Dynamism in the 90’s and he’s just launched Gizmine. Gizmine is different from Dynamism, a high end gadget site, by measure of its content type and breadth. I’d most summarily explain it as a collection of weird stuff on gadget blogs from Japan, but…

Pop-Up Porn Teacher Cops a Plea to Escape Jail Time

You may recall a case last year involving Julie Amero, a substitute junior high school teacher in Connecticut that was arrested and threatened with a 40 year prison sentence after the computer in her classroom began to display pornographic pop-ups in front of her students. Any one with even the slightest knowledge of computers could…

What to Get Your Favorite Mad Scientist for the Holidays

Wondering what to get that mad scientist in your life for the holidays? We’ve got some ideas that will keep an evil mastermind occupied in the lab for days on end – and will of course result in world domination. Or at least living room domination. Though being a mad scientist can get spendy, we’ve…

Optima Prime T-Shirt, Font Transformed

Fact: Optimus Prime would be a badass no matter what he transformed from or to. It’s the soul of a Transformer that makes him great. Optimus Prime could save the world if he assembled from macaroni, puff paints, stringed popcorn or used baby diapers into a giant dinner, tacky sweater, festive Christmas tree thing or…

Our Economy Needs A Miracle… Like In Science Fiction

Click to view Don’t panic! Sure, our economy is crappier than a crap-monster attacking a crap factory. But that’s the time when you should look to the future. Our economy could be transformed at any moment, by developments like new technology – or first contact with an alien species. And you can prepare for this…

Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition Is $150 in February

Traditionally, the name “Madcatz” implies generic, a peripheral that’s cheaper than those manufactured by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. But the Madcatz Street Fighter IV FightStick Tournament Edition is an ultrapremium controller that will go for an ultrapremium price when it’s released on February 20th. $150. But it might be worth every penny.You see, the FightStick…

The Cylons’ Origins May Remain A Mystery

Remember Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel that Ron Moore was working on? Moore and co. shot a pilot months ago, and we were supposed to hear by September whether it would become a series. Sci Fi had planned to air the pilot as a TV movie in December, but scrapped the idea. Now the pilot…

16 Examples of Turkey Fryer-Fueled Mayhem

Frying up a turkey poses two health hazards—one from clogged arteries and another from the fryer itself. The folks at OObject have put together a list of 16 videos involving everything from proper use of a turkey fryer, to elaborate turkey fryer contraptions to deep fryin’ hillbillies holdin’ guns. And oh yes, there are several…

Gadget Deals of the Day

With just two days until Black Friday, we just wanted to take a moment to remind you that on the web, every day makes a great day to drop too much cash on crap that cannot stop you from hating your life. Today we have our standard array of deals along with some a-bit-too-late-for-Thanksgiving-sucker specials…

Baz Luhrmann Wants To Give The Future A Makeover

Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann is tinkering with the idea of filming a classic futuristic tale, he told io9. We caught up with Baz at his Australia premiere, and he admitted he’d thought about switching from movies set in the past to creating stories set in the future. Baz thinks the future has gotten a…

Question of the Day: How Long are You Willing to Wait in Line For Black Friday Deals?

Based on an earlier poll, we already know that plenty of you will be heading out to shop on Black Friday. Major polls listed in our Black Friday survival guide indicate that the number of people heading out overall could be higher than in previous years. That having been said, I’m curious to know about…

Apollo Doesn’t Want Brit TV’s Top Job

It was only yesterday that I wondered whether the stars of Battlestar Galactica were cursed to a post-BSG life of bad roles in minor shows, or whether it was their choice to slum it for awhile and recuperate. And now I may have my answer, courtesy of Galactica’s Jamie Bamber, explaining why he wouldn’t want…

Samsung BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 Blu-Ray Players Getting Netflix HD

We’re liking the trend. Not only did the Xbox 360 debut Netflix HD streaming, other Netflix supporters like Roku are slated to receive same update. Now Samsung has announced that their $400 BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 will both receive firmware upgrades in early December to support Netflix HD streams as well. That’s good news, as Netflix…

CompUSA’s Black Friday Deals Include $5,999 Sony Vaio TT for $999, Tons of Giveaways

Not only are CompUSA and TigerDirect doing discounted deals for Black Friday-they call it Pink Friday because they are supporting the fight against breast cancer-but they are also giving away free desktop computers in store. You’ll also get some insane discounts online on limited-quantity goodies. Two crazy examples: A $5,999 Sony Vaio TT with a…

My new favorite web page is “Stories I’m Glad I Never Wrote,” by some guy named Geoff. It ranges from the story about a psychic cat he came up with in sixth grade, to his weird apocalyptic story that he thought up over a beer recently. Along the way, it takes in the story of…

Micron Demos Super-Fast Solid-State Drives Running At 1GB Per Second

Micron touted its super-fast RealSSD drives with 250MBps speed a few months back, but now its demonstrated a tech that’ll blow them out of the water: 1GBps transfer rates. It’s a bit cheaty since it uses two SSDs for a total of 16 data channels to access the flash memory, but that does give it…