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This Synthetic ‘Tongue’ Is an Insufferable Whiskey Snob

Whiskey tastes like warm poison. To be fair, if you add an ice cube to the mix, it tastes like chilly poison. Even my very nice mom, in her infinite wisdom, once described whiskey as “horrible shit.” Nevertheless, those who insist there is a difference between good and bad whiskey will be happy to know…

Tech News Rae Paoletta

Spectacular New Figures From Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Overwatch, and Even More Great Toys of the Week

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9’s weekly reminder to hide your life savings somewhere safe, because there are so many goddamn awesome toys coming out. This week: Hot Toys finally unleashes the Homecoming figure we really want, Overwatch gets an amazing action figure, Anki’s adorable robot gets a new coat of paint, and more! Hot…

io9 James Whitbrook and Andrew Liszewski

Ravens Remember If You Were a Dick to Them

You do not mess with ravens. Because if you dupe them, they’ll remember. Or so says a team of Austrian and Swedish scientists. In a small study on captive-bred ravens, they found that the birds remembered when scientists tricked them out of getting a good treat. Such a study has important implications for understanding the…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

I Have Concerns About Tony Stark’s Role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, in That I Hate It So Much

I love Spider-Man. He’s forever been my favorite superhero, so the thought of a new movie being out in less than a month, under the creative influence of Marvel itself, should have my excitement levels through the roof. But they’re not, and that’s mainly because of the presence of a particular billionaire playboy genius. My…

Movies James Whitbrook

Neill Blomkamp Explains the Major Problems With His Film Chappie (Updated)

It’s rare for filmmakers to admit that a movie they directed didn’t work. But that’s what Neill Blomkamp just did in a fascinating interview with Den of Geek, in which the director admits that although he still loves his film Chappie, it had a variety of problems, including its inability to connect with an audience.…

Movies Germain Lussier

Chelsea Manning Talks About Her Decision to Leak in Upcoming ‘Nightline’ Interview

Winter was setting in and some of Chelsea Manning’s most devoted followers began showing all the signs of doubt. Days before the 2016 election, the 28-year-old had tried for a second time in only a few months to end her own life. Manning’s supporters openly wondered whether she would survive the remainder of her sentence…

Tech News Dell Cameron

These Ninjak Vs. the Valiant Universe Variant Covers Offer a Glimpse Into Valiant’s Cinematic Universe

Shared cinematic universes are, as the kids say, the new hotness among comics publishers, and Valiant has every intention of getting in on the live-action game with its upcoming web series Ninjak vs. the Valiant Universe. In the upcoming six-part series set to launch later this year, Ninjak (Michael Rowe) is a master ninja who…

Books & Comics Charles Pulliam-Moore

California Vows ‘Any and All Legal Action Necessary’ to Stop Trump From Touching Its National Monuments

The Attorney General of California sent an 11-page letter to the Interior Department, vowing to fight an April executive order from Trump that could potentially resize or even revoke the protected status of six different monuments in the state. The executive order cleared Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, to review 26 national monuments across…

Tech News Sidney Fussell

Appeals Court Says Chimps Are Not Legal Persons—Here’s Why They’re Wrong

Yesterday, a New York state appeals court rejected an appeal filed by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) seeking legal rights for a pair of captive chimpanzees. It’s a major setback for the group, but the battle to secure human-like legal protections for highly intelligent and self-aware animals is far from over. Tommy and Kiko will…

Tech News George Dvorsky

Postal Apocalypse: Special Mostly Wonder Woman Edition

Bonjour, my beloved bubble-wrapped envelopes. Shockingly, the advent of the first good, feminist superhero movie inspired a lot of questions this week. Go figure! Plus: Should you wear Marvel merchandise with the Hydra logo? What should the next Matrix movies be about? And did I mention Wonder Woman? Note: If you haven’t seen Wonder Woman,…

Movies Rob Bricken

NASA Astronaut Explains How to Drink Space Coffee: ‘Suck the Balls’

In space, it is crucial for even the most basic of human tasks to be carried out with a high degree of skill and for astronauts to remain alert. That is why Air Force Colonel and ISS crewmember Jack Fischer sucks the balls. “I love coffee on Earth, it’s pretty much my favorite thing,” explained…

Space & Spaceflight Avery Ellis

Netflix to Sense8 Fans: Nope, We Aren’t Bringing It Back

You’ve heard this one before. A show with a passionate fanbase gets abruptly cancelled, so fans respond with floods of letters, props, and Twitter pleas. Sometimes they get what they want. Star Trek, Quantum Leap, and just recently Timeless were all brought back from the brink thanks to fan campaigns. But Sense8, Netflix’s recently cancelled orgy…

Television Alex Cranz

The Tech Industry’s Rich Cowards Are Still Advising Trump

Once again, Silicon Valley’s oligarchs have been summoned to Donald Trump’s golden table, this time to assist the Jared Kushner-led American Technology Council in “modernizing” the government, a goal which is at once vague and arguably antithetical to every promise the president ran on. The guest list includes the top brass of Facebook, IBM, Google,…

Tech News Avery Ellis

Scientists Think They’ve Solved the Mystery of Our Atmosphere’s Missing Xenon

Xenon is a peculiar element. It certainly has one of the most mysterious names (from the Greek xenos, or “stranger”). As a noble gas, it refuses to bond with other elements except under exotic conditions. And its uses are all about as creepy as its name: Folks use it for its eerie glow, to detect…

Tech News Ryan F. Mandelbaum

Artist Creates Amazing Portrait of Batman and Two-Face Using Gunpowder, Sand, and Fire

Harvey Dent’s fiery passion for justice and the law was what made him such an excellent district attorney before an accident warped his morality transformed him into Two-Face. Norwegian tattoo artist Dino Tomic has created an awesome portrait of Batman and his foe that, when set aflame, also tells a short, but thoughtful story about the…

Books & Comics Charles Pulliam-Moore

Why Did This Company Let Me Fly a $2 Million Aircraft?

Somewhere over the Hamptons, the pilot told me to take the controls. To my left, there was a joystick, roughly the same size and dimension as my favorite ‘90s arcade game, After Burner. I clutched it, pulled back, and felt the jet climb. “Now try to stay inside the boxes,” the pilot said, pointing at…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

The Secret History of the Cat Who Authored a Physics Paper

Regrettably, none of us will get to be cats. Most of us will never write a published physics paper either, let alone a highly respected one. But somehow, in the 1970s, a phenomenal feline named Chester managed to do all of this under the tutelage of his human, physicist Jack H. Hetherington. He even had…

Biology Rae Paoletta

Everything You Need to Know About Lord Buckethead, the Spacelord Star of the UK General Election

The United Kingdom has woken up after going to the polls to a shocking upset for Prime Minister Theresa May, and a hung Parliament—an outcome where no party managed to achieve a singular majority. But if American audiences tuned in, they have been less perplexed by the electoral system than Lord Buckethead. My nation’s finest…

io9 James Whitbrook

Alphabet Just Unloaded Its Crazy Robots on Japanese Telecom Softbank

Three years after acquiring the MIT robotics lab Boston Dynamics, makers of Atlas and other scary bots, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) is selling it off to Softbank, a Japanese telecommunications company already known for its less terrifying robots like Pepper that might soon be getting some impressive upgrades. It turns out that posting YouTube videos…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

The First Black Panther Poster Is Appropriately Badass

We’re still a few months out from Black Panther’s release next February, but Marvel’s just dropped the first poster for the movie featuring something other than stylized text and it’s absolutely glorious. The poster doesn’t really give much detail about the movie itself, of course, but it does provide a sense of what we can…

Movies Charles Pulliam-Moore

This Synthetic ‘Tongue’ Is an Insufferable Whiskey Snob

Spectacular New Figures From Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and Overwatch, and Even More Great Toys of the Week

Ravens Remember If You Were a Dick to Them

I Have Concerns About Tony Stark’s Role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, in That I Hate It So Much

Neill Blomkamp Explains the Major Problems With His Film Chappie (Updated)

Chelsea Manning Talks About Her Decision to Leak in Upcoming ‘Nightline’ Interview

These Ninjak Vs. the Valiant Universe Variant Covers Offer a Glimpse Into Valiant’s Cinematic Universe

California Vows ‘Any and All Legal Action Necessary’ to Stop Trump From Touching Its National Monuments

Appeals Court Says Chimps Are Not Legal Persons—Here’s Why They’re Wrong

Postal Apocalypse: Special Mostly Wonder Woman Edition

NASA Astronaut Explains How to Drink Space Coffee: ‘Suck the Balls’

Netflix to Sense8 Fans: Nope, We Aren’t Bringing It Back

The Tech Industry’s Rich Cowards Are Still Advising Trump

Scientists Think They’ve Solved the Mystery of Our Atmosphere’s Missing Xenon

Artist Creates Amazing Portrait of Batman and Two-Face Using Gunpowder, Sand, and Fire

Why Did This Company Let Me Fly a $2 Million Aircraft?

The Secret History of the Cat Who Authored a Physics Paper

Everything You Need to Know About Lord Buckethead, the Spacelord Star of the UK General Election

Alphabet Just Unloaded Its Crazy Robots on Japanese Telecom Softbank

The First Black Panther Poster Is Appropriately Badass

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