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Almost Everyone on the National Park System Advisory Board Quits in Protest of Ryan Zinke

Nine out of 12 sitting members of the Department of the Interior’s National Park System Advisory Board resigned on Monday in protest of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who is very fond of having subordinates fly flags in his honor and hang dead animals in his office but apparently not meeting with them. Per the Washington…

Tech News Tom McKay

Pirates of the Caribbean’s VFX Wizards Reveal How They Brought Skeleton Ghost Sharks to Life

With a team of over 700 visual effects artists and other on-set crew working in studios around the world, the Moving Picture Company produced 1,200 shots for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, including bringing to life—or afterlife—ghostly great white sharks. MPC was just one of over 14 different visual effects and…

Movies Andrew Liszewski

If We Can’t Have New Universal Monster Movies, at Least We Can Admire These Posters

As far as we know, the new Universal Monsters movies are in shambles. The Mummy crashed and burned, all others have been delayed, and the future of the franchise has never been more in doubt. Thankfully, we’ll always have the originals, and those films have been captured like never before in this new art show.…

Movies Germain Lussier

The 100 Fan Comic Wants to Give Clexa Fans the Story They Deserve

Almost two years ago, a large contingent of The 100’s fandom swiftly turned on the show and its creators after the sudden death of Lexa, one of its popular queer characters. For many, Lexa’s death was a shocking twist of events that betrayed the show and spat in the face of its fandom. As the…

Books & Comics Charles Pulliam-Moore

Millions of Migrating Baby Crabs Are an Absolutely Bonkers Sight to Behold

Each year, newborn crabs make the perilous trek from the sea shore to the forests of Christmas Island. This year was no exception, as new video taken of the migration makes abundantly clear. Around a week ago, the baby crabs began to emerge from the Indonesian ocean. Numbering in the millions, and seeming more like…

Biology George Dvorsky

J.J. Abrams Is Shopping a New Science Fiction TV Series

If any one of us were currently writing and preparing to direct Star Wars: Episode IX, that would be our main focus. But none of us are J.J Abrams. In addition to prepping one of the biggest movies ever, The Hollywood Reporter says the prolific filmmaker is shopping a new scifi TV show (called Demimonde,…

Television Germain Lussier

VR Porn Company Promises Only Consensual ‘Back Door Intrusions’ After Researchers Discover Security Hole

Thousands of users’ personal information left exposed by a virtual reality porn app prompted the company to do the only appropriate thing: fix the problem and make a joke about butt sex. Researchers at UK-based security firm Digital Interruption found that the app, SinVR, included a buried function called “downloadallcustomers.” After the researchers reverse-engineered the…

Privacy & Security Melanie Ehrenkranz

Bitcoin Falls Below $10,000

Following a meteoric rise to just shy of $20,000 per coin less than two months ago, Bitcoin, the oldest and most valuable cryptocurrency, fell below $10,000 on both the Coinbase and Bittrex exchanges for the first time since early December. It’s far from the only digital token plummeting. Nearly every cryptocurrency is down, most by…

Tech News Avery Ellis

Why CRISPR-Edited Food May Be in Supermarkets Sooner Than You Think

In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave the green light to a version of the plant Camelina sativa, an important oilseed crop that had been genetically engineered using CRISPR to produce enhanced omega-3 oil. What was interesting about this approval was that the USDA did not ask that the inventors of the plant endure…

Biology Kristen V. Brown

The Solo Flash Movie Has Yet Another Director—Two of Them, In Fact

It’s been well over a year since the Flash solo movie has had a director attached—but now, Variety reports that Warner Bros. is in negotiations with John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein to helm the film. Additionally, the trade reports that Warner Bros. previously approached Ben Affleck to potentially direct the film, but he declined.…

Movies Germain Lussier

Melting Glaciers Sound Surprisingly Like Rice Crispies

In Antarctica, you can do more than see the impact climate change is having on the icy landscape. You can hear it, too. And it turns out it that melting glaciers sound like a cross between Rice Crispies and a dissonant tune played on a marimba. Feast your ears on the sounds of our planetary…

Climate Change Brian Kahn

There Are So Many Flu Victims, California Hospitals Are Setting Up Emergency Tents in Their Parking Lots

A flu strain called H3N2 has sent thousands to emergency rooms in California—so many that hospitals are erecting tents to accommodate the all the extra patients, reports the LA Times. Check out this picture from Fox 5 San Diego reporter Jamie Chambers: And this, from LA Times reporter Soumya Karlamangla: But it’s not just California…

Health Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Mark Strong Wants DC Redemption With His Electric Role in Shazam!

In an alternate universe, maybe fans are talking about Mark Strong’s Sinestro as one of the best villains in comic book movie history. That was the idea, at least, by casting the actor in Martin Campbell’s 2011 Green Lantern movie. It was a smaller role, but he was intended to be a full-blown evil mastermind…

Movies Germain Lussier

Why Google’s Half-Assed Fact-Checking Widget Was Destined to Piss Off Conservatives

Last week, conservatives cried foul over Google’s latest attempt to provide past examples of fact-checking for news outlets. Right-wing pundits at The Daily Caller insisted that Google was targeting conservative outlets and giving left-leaning publications a pass. The answer is, expectedly, a bit more complicated than that. Google calls the feature that raised the ire…

Tech News Rhett Jones

Jodie Whittaker Shot Her Doctor Who Debut Just a Day After Her Public Reveal

The casting of a new Doctor on the BBC’s Doctor Who is pretty much a top-secret operation—especially so when, as was the case with the latest incarnation of the Time Lord, the casting was a major upheaval to over half a century of the show. How secret? So secret that new Who star Jodie Whittaker…

Television James Whitbrook

Scientists Create Miniature Gamma Ray Bursts to Study Black Holes

Sometimes, if you want to understand the amazing things that happen in space, you have to make sense of them in a lab on Earth, first. Scientists are attempting to model some of the most powerful explosions in the universe by miniaturizing them into lab experiments. An international team of researchers made beams from a…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Archie Comics’ New Dick Tracy Series Has Been Abruptly Cancelled

Little more than a month ago, Archie Comics unveiled Dick Tracy’s triumphant return to comic book stores with a new series from Alex Segura, Michael Moreci, and Thomas Pitilli. Fans were excited at the prospect of new stories featuring the yellow-coated detective. Today, the series is suddenly no more. The abrupt cancellation of the series,…

Books & Comics James Whitbrook

A First Look at the Incredible Future of 8K TVs

Do you remember back in the 90s, when high-definition TVs first started to become popular? Seeing that HD for the first time, the sharpness seemed almost impossible compared to existing technology. But this year, several top tech companies showed off 8K screens with 16-times as many pixels as those old 1080p HD TVs. For me,…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Win a Ticket to io9’s Tenth Anniversary Party, This Thursday in New York City! (Update: It’s Over)

Update: Sorry, all spots have been claimed and Golden Tickets have been found. We’re still celebrating io9’s Big 1-0, but now you can, too. If you live in the New York City area, are of drinking age, and want to come party with us this Thursday evening, January 18, email us at [email protected]—and give us…

io9 Rob Bricken

Should the FDA Ban People From Genetically Engineering Themselves?

In the past few months, the possibility of do-it-yourself genetic engineering has exited the realm of the purely hypothetical. At a conference last fall, a well-known biohacker injected himself with a gene to promote muscle growth. Not long after, a 27-year-old software engineer injected himself with an unproven gene therapy for HIV while streaming on…

Biology Kristen V. Brown

Almost Everyone on the National Park System Advisory Board Quits in Protest of Ryan Zinke

Pirates of the Caribbean’s VFX Wizards Reveal How They Brought Skeleton Ghost Sharks to Life

If We Can’t Have New Universal Monster Movies, at Least We Can Admire These Posters

The 100 Fan Comic Wants to Give Clexa Fans the Story They Deserve

Millions of Migrating Baby Crabs Are an Absolutely Bonkers Sight to Behold

J.J. Abrams Is Shopping a New Science Fiction TV Series

VR Porn Company Promises Only Consensual ‘Back Door Intrusions’ After Researchers Discover Security Hole

Bitcoin Falls Below $10,000

Why CRISPR-Edited Food May Be in Supermarkets Sooner Than You Think

The Solo Flash Movie Has Yet Another Director—Two of Them, In Fact

Melting Glaciers Sound Surprisingly Like Rice Crispies

There Are So Many Flu Victims, California Hospitals Are Setting Up Emergency Tents in Their Parking Lots

Mark Strong Wants DC Redemption With His Electric Role in Shazam!

Why Google’s Half-Assed Fact-Checking Widget Was Destined to Piss Off Conservatives

Jodie Whittaker Shot Her Doctor Who Debut Just a Day After Her Public Reveal

Scientists Create Miniature Gamma Ray Bursts to Study Black Holes

Archie Comics’ New Dick Tracy Series Has Been Abruptly Cancelled

A First Look at the Incredible Future of 8K TVs

Win a Ticket to io9’s Tenth Anniversary Party, This Thursday in New York City! (Update: It’s Over)

Should the FDA Ban People From Genetically Engineering Themselves?

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