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The Red Planet’s Tiny South Pole

Our neighbor planet has a south pole like we do…with perhaps a slightly less impressive ice cap. Here’s the full image and one with the landmarks labeled: Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO Contact the author at [email protected].

io9 Katharine Trendacosta

The Dapper Killer Who Took Gruesome Revenge On His Romantic Rival

His colorful name—Mandeville Zenge—was memorable, but the lurid horror of his 1935 crime eclipsed all other details in the newspaper articles that eagerly chronicled it. He was the jilted corner of a love triangle, and he exacted revenge on his rival’s manhood … using a pen-knife. The victim, Dr. Walter Bauer, wasn’t found until hours…

Tech News Cheryl Eddy

A Buyer’s Guide to Emoji Jewelry

Do you love emoji? Do you love emoji so much that you want to wear gold-plated versions of it on your body? Does somebody you love love emoji that much? Then, this is the buyer’s guide for you. Emoji fashion in general is not a new concept. For years, it’s been a fixture on Etsy…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Watch the scary power of a microwave oven make plasma and burn things

Yowza. Here’s a crazy rigged contraption that uses microwave energy from cavity magnetron to generate plasma and burn the heck out of things faster than you can warm a Hot Pocket. We can see it squeeze out plasma in a lightbulb, shatter glass and make basically anything burn. It’s a neat exercise to show how…

Sploid Casey Chan

A New Genre of Super-Strong Origami Is Being Invented By These Engineers

A new generation of meta-materials are emerging from a 17th century source. That’s the gist of a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, where a trio of engineers describe an entirely new form of origami that they say turns a simple piece of paper into a structure more than two…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Humanity’s Fate Is Left in the Hands of Morons on The Strain

Good news, everyone! Something happened on last night’s The Strain. Actually, a few things happened, even though they uniformly proved our heroes are mind-bogglingly incompetent, it’s still a significant improvement over the previous waste of an episode. “The Assassin” is mainly about Eph finally trying to kill Eldritch Palmer, after deciding to kill him a…

Television Rob Bricken

This Is Some of the Best Cosplay We’ve Seen in Ages

Long Beach Comic Con and Space Expo invaded southern California for a weekend of costumes, spaceflight, and science. From superheroes with a twist to fuzzy stormtroopers in tutus to gorgeous original creations, this is some seriously impressive cosplay! Thanks to photographer Davann Srey, who was there taking photos for us! It wasn’t all costumes and…

io9 Mika McKinnon

What Have You Been Binge-Watching Lately?

The start of the new TV season is upon us. But we no longer have to abide by the whims of network scheduling; these days we’re the masters of our own television programming. What’re you watching? With thousands of shows and movies at our disposal, we are not known for our moderation. Binge-watching, or “watch[ing]…

Television Kaila Hale-Stern

These Excellent Figuarts Star Wars Toys Are All About The Awesome Villains

Sure, here in the West we had Force Friday for the new The Force Awakens merchandise, and got some cool action figures of the movie’s bad guys. But Bandai are knocking it out of the park with their Star Wars Figuarts, and the First Order has never looked better! Figuarts have been doing all kinds…

Tech News James Whitbrook

Take Disney’s Green Light Away: A New Mary Poppins Movie Is On the Way

I will give Disney this: at least there are actually other books to base this on. I will give them literally nothing else. Right, let’s get right down to the details: Disney is making a sequel to Mary Poppins because, why the fuck not at this point. It’ll take place twenty years after the original…

Movies Katharine Trendacosta

Why I’m Still Obsessed With Survivor After Watching All 450 Episodes

For the 30th season of Survivor, my friends and I started a fantasy league. A Survivor fantasy league, where points are awarded based on characters’ actions on the hit TV show. And as stupid as that sounds, I’ll gladly look like an idiot to pay tribute to one of my favorite TV shows. In case…

Television Germain Lussier

Pouring molten aluminum into different melons casts a bad ass hand grenade

When you mix molten aluminum with a watermelon, you get something truly awesome. So what about other melons? Here the Backyard Scientist tries pouring molten aluminum into honey dew and cantaloupes to see what happens. Cantaloupes don’t really offer much but honey dews capture the liquid metal and turn it into a hand grenade-looking sculpture.…

Sploid Casey Chan

Cower In Fear Before the Experimental, Self-Driving “Hedgehog Rover” NASA Wants to Send to an Asteroid

This is the hedgehog rover. It operates just as well upside-down as right-side up, is outfitted with spinning spikes on all sides, and can free itself from traps by using a “tornado spin”. There’s only one way to stop it: For the love of God, send it out to an asteroid quickly, NASA! At present,…

io9 Ria Misra

California’s Drought Is Officially The Worst the State Has Seen in 500 Years

After four years of drought, California’s snowpack levels have already been declared the lowest since records began about a century ago. Now with new information gleaned from tree-ring data, scientists think that California’s snowpack is the lowest it’s been in over 500 years—and maybe even 1000. Scientists used a new way to measure centuries-old snowpack…

Climate Change Alissa Walker

This Experiment Made Victorians Believe That Murder Victims’ Eyes Contain an Image of Their Killer

I’m going to show you the last thing a rabbit ever saw. It, in turn, will show you why Victorian-era people believed that a murder victim’s eyes contained a “photograph” of the person who murdered them. In the Victorian era, people began to work with cameras instead of paint brushes. It was common knowledge that…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Fill This Volkswagen Van Cooler With Snapple and Other Hippy Drinks

It was an endearing symbol of the ‘60s, but the iconic Volkswagen Van has since becomes a sought-after and expensive collectible. And while you can’t quit your job and drive across the country in this VW Van cooler, it’s a slightly cheaper way to dodge grown-up responsibilities—at least for a weekend. A two-feet long telescoping…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

RIP HopStop, a Gift to the Directionally Challenged

Apple is shutting down HopStop in October, even though the transit mapping app provides more international coverage and features than Apple Maps’ range. It is a loss to users who still rely on HopStop daily, like me. Apple acquired HopStop in 2013. The mapping service was founded in 2005, and in the early days seemed…

Tech News Kaila Hale-Stern

This Week’s TV: All of Doctor Who‘s Arch-Enemies Are Showing Up At Once!

Doctor Who is back! But also, The Bastard Executioner makes his head-popping debut! And also, the 80s Duran Duran-tastic spoof Moonbeam City premieres! Plus the Triceratons rear their three-pronged heads on Ninja Turtles, and…and there’s just so much. Read about it here, on This Week’s TV! Tonight Jug Face (3PM, CHILLER) This low budget indie…

Television Gordon Jackson

Australia’s Climate Change-Denying Prime Minister Has Been Ousted

He said he was “hugely unconvinced” on the science of climate change and once called wind turbines “awful.” Now the same Australian prime minister who’s been labeled an environmental villain has been removed from office. As we reported back in July, Tony Abbott’s troubled term included undoing lots of the great work that Australia had…

Climate Change Alissa Walker

How many people has Superman killed in his movies?

Superman used to be really, really careful and considerate about the people he killed. In fact, you could probably count all the kills of Christopher Reeves-era Superman on one hand. He’s not like that anymore. Once you get to Man of Steel, you pretty much need every hand of every citizen in Metropolis to count…

Sploid Casey Chan

The Red Planet’s Tiny South Pole

The Dapper Killer Who Took Gruesome Revenge On His Romantic Rival

A Buyer’s Guide to Emoji Jewelry

Watch the scary power of a microwave oven make plasma and burn things

A New Genre of Super-Strong Origami Is Being Invented By These Engineers

Humanity’s Fate Is Left in the Hands of Morons on The Strain

This Is Some of the Best Cosplay We’ve Seen in Ages

What Have You Been Binge-Watching Lately?

These Excellent Figuarts Star Wars Toys Are All About The Awesome Villains

Take Disney’s Green Light Away: A New Mary Poppins Movie Is On the Way

Why I’m Still Obsessed With Survivor After Watching All 450 Episodes

Pouring molten aluminum into different melons casts a bad ass hand grenade

Cower In Fear Before the Experimental, Self-Driving “Hedgehog Rover” NASA Wants to Send to an Asteroid

California’s Drought Is Officially The Worst the State Has Seen in 500 Years

This Experiment Made Victorians Believe That Murder Victims’ Eyes Contain an Image of Their Killer

Fill This Volkswagen Van Cooler With Snapple and Other Hippy Drinks

RIP HopStop, a Gift to the Directionally Challenged

This Week’s TV: All of Doctor Who‘s Arch-Enemies Are Showing Up At Once!

Australia’s Climate Change-Denying Prime Minister Has Been Ousted

How many people has Superman killed in his movies?

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