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The Most Badass Photos from the SpaceX Rocket Landing

Not only did SpaceX land their Falcon 9 rocket, but they looked damn good while doing it. This is how to do a return-to-flight with style! Launch, reentry, and landing of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Image credit: SpaceX What did the next stage do? Why, deploy 11 Orbcomm relay…

Thanks to conflicts with Google’s own voice recognition, Microsoft has yanked the always-on ‘Hey Cortana’ feature from the Cortana Android app. [WinBeta]

Despite Landing In Once Piece, SpaceX’s Reusable Rocket Won’t Fly Again

Tonight, SpaceX successfully sent a first-stage booster to space, and then landed it vertically minutes later. It’s a proof of concept that is supposed to make space cheaper by reusing components, but this booster is destined to never fly again. On a press call earlier tonight, Musk said “I think we’ll probably keep this one…

Tesla Model S Owners Now Get Free In-Car Spotify

Looking for some way to justify that $70,000 Tesla Model S? Well, how about this: starting today, Model S owners in some countries will have free in-car access to Spotify Premium. At $10 saved per month, that’s only 583 years until you break even! The move to Spotify isn’t random: Tesla previously offered in-car streaming…

Amazing Ash vs Evil Dead Gingerbread House Is the Grooviest Reason for the Season

Huge props to io9 readers Johnny Larocque and Nicole Cooper, who crafted this adorably spooky yet undeniably festive gingerbread house inspired by the TV show Ash vs Evil Dead and the Evil Dead movies. Ash vs Gingerdead? Check out more photos below! Cooper gets the cabin’s porch just right, complete with chocolate wafers serving as…

SpaceX Finally Manages to Land an Orbital Rocket Back on Earth

Right on schedule, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 booster made a beautiful soft landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station moments ago. It’s a huge moment in the history of spaceflight, marking the first time a rocket has ascended into orbit and landed back on Earth. The prospects for the reusable rocket system SpaceX has been chasing…

Obviously There Are a Bunch of Trekkies Designing USA Today

What’s that sound? Like millions of nerds suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced? You had one job, USA Today! But oh no no nononono, this tweet simply does not tell the whole story. The designers at USA Today are much smarter than that. But if you unfold the front page of today’s…

Watch a Drone Violently Chop the Hell Out of Different Kinds of Food

Watching this drone play the part of a blender is loads of fun because you get to see foods explode and get chopped up in beautiful slow motion. The propellers of the drone act as the blades of a blender and all kinds of different foods are dropped in—eggs, bananas, sausages, blackberries, and so on—and…

Tonight, SpaceX Will Attempt to Land a Rocket on Solid Ground

Are you ready to watch SpaceX try to make history with a bold attempt to send its souped-up rocket all the way into space and back to Earth in a spectacular nighttime launch? Of course you are! After several delays, the much-anticipated launch of SpaceX’s new and improved Falcon 9 rocket is set to take…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Robert Hewitt Wolfe Is Writing a Book Trilogy!

Robert Hewitt Wolfe wasn’t just one of the MVPs of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He also was the developer of Andromeda and a writer on a ton of other shows, including Alphas and Elementary. So it’s great news that he’s writing a middle-grade fantasy book trilogy. Wolfe announced on Twitter earlier today: This is…

RIP Gerard Quinn, One of the Pioneers of British Science Fiction Art

Gerard Quinn was one of the great British science fiction artists of the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, working for magazines like New Worlds and Science Fantasy. And even though he left genre art in the mid-60s to go work in advertising, his impact on the genre remained strong. According to the…

Aww, Norway Wants to Gift a Mountain to Finland

This story takes place far inside the Arctic Circle but, no, it’s not about Santa Claus. What it is about is truly embracing the Christmas spirit—the part where you give of yourself. Finland celebrates its centennial on December 6, 2017. 100 years! Such a milestone! How do you possibly commemorate such an event? To properly…

Game of Thrones‘ Season 5 Blu-Ray Will Feature A 20 Minute Animated Movie Packed With Dragons

One of the biggest events in Game of Thrones history before the events of the show is the “Dance of Dragons”—an epic two-year-long battle that saw Daenerys’ ancestors in House Targaryen nearly rip themselves apart in civil war. Scratching your head in confusion? Have no fear, HBO is here! As part of the now-traditional yearly…

Go Phoenixes! Plenty of colleges offer the occasional course on science fiction, but now at UW Green Bay, you can actually major in science fiction studies. Including making your own movie!

Tor.com Is Closing its Doors to Unsolicited Fiction Submissions

Tor.com has been a terrific market for short fiction since it launched in 2008, and it’s been open to over-the-transom stories from new writers that whole time. But starting Jan. 7, that’s going to change. Tor.com announced today that they’re closing their doors to unsolicited submissions of fiction. This is too bad, since new and…

Nursing Home Workers Are Posting Naked Photos of Residents on Snapchat 

Nursing home workers across the country are posting embarrassing and dehumanizing photos of elderly residents on social media networks such as Snapchat, violating their privacy, dignity and, sometimes, the law. This story was co-published with the Washington Post. ProPublica has identified 35 instances since 2012 in which workers at nursing homes and assisted-living centers have…

Suck It, Hippies: Study Shows Material Things Can Bring Happiness

Over the past several years, a number of surveys have come out extolling the benefit of experiential goods versus material goods. But those studies may have missed something crucial, according to a new study by Canadian psychologists. Supposedly, experiential gifts provide people with more happiness than material gifts. A picnic is better than a food…

Go Register Your Drone Right Now (Credit Card Number Required)

Today’s the day, folks. Today, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will let you register your drone on a brand new and surprisingly sharp-looking website. Well, saying the government will “let you register your drone” is putting it lightly. The FAA is forcing you to. New drone rules mean that any aircraft weighing more than 250…

Alton Brown’s Cookbook “For the Instagram Crowd” Will Be Photographed Exclusively With an iPhone

One might argue that perpetually documenting our meals with our handy camera phones has changed our relationship with eating. Now insufferable food personality Alton Brown is working on a new cookbook that will have only iPhone photography, in a crass attempt to capitalize on that trend. Yum? On Eater’s podcast this week, Brown talks about…

The 10 Coolest Time Capsules Opened in 2015

Time capsules can be pretty boring. But time capsule nerds like me live for those rare capsules with something really cool inside. This year we saw time capsules filled with the weird, the rare, and the surprising. One thing that so many of 2015’s time capsules had in common: Lots of booze. So without further…