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Watch the Most Pants-Wetting Moment From the Claustrophobic New Movie Air Right Now

Norman Reedus volunteers to test out a cryogenic suspension chamber—only to find out that it’s not just like going to sleep regularly—in this clip from the new movie Air. This is one of the most terrifying moments in this post-apocalyptic movie, and we’re presenting it exclusively at io9. This moment made me lose my shit…

Alphabet Wants To Start Breeding Experimental GMO Mosquitoes

Google, soon-to-be Alphabet, is in the business of thinking up weird futures. Internet delivered by giant condom-looking balloons? Yep. Phones you can rip apart and piece back together? You betcha. Creating genetically-modified mosquitoes to fight malaria? Of cour—wait, what? Technology is filled with all kinds of rumors and speculation — real and fabricated. BitStream collects…

George R.R. Martin Explains How Game of Thrones‘ Ending Will Be Like Lord of the Rings

The Halo TV show is still happening. Rutina Wesley’s Arrow role is revealed, while Marc Guggenheim discusses the “one time only” deal to bring Constantine to the show. Plus, rumors of a big fight for Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman, and when to expect The Expanse and Childhood’s End. So Many Spoilers! Batman v…

Guess Wu Is a Custom Version of Guess Who Featuring the Wu-Tang Clan

There are more themed versions of Monopoly than stars in the sky, so isn’t it about time for other classic board games to get an upgrade? Vice’s music site Noisey site decided it was, and so turned a copy of Guess Who into Guess Wu featuring 25 members of the Wu-Tang Clan hip-hop group. Illustrated…

The Hateful Eight Trailer Makes for a Surprisingly Perfect Remake of The Thing

Garrison Dean (who, it has to be mentioned, is a longtime io9 contributor) has discovered that the trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s latest works perfectly with The Thing. Like, I’m disappointed that we got the lackluster 2011 remake instead of this version. Contact the author at [email protected].

FCC Hits Asshole Robocallers With $2.94 Million Fine

The FCC has been conducting some major ass-kicking lately, a trend it is continuing with its latest move: slapping a $2.94 million fine, the biggest in FCC history, on a serial robocaller. The robocaller in question is Travel Club Marketing, a Florida company that tries to sell package holidays and timeshares over the phone. The…

How to Change a Blank Account Picture in Android Lollipop

If you’ve made the upgrade to Android Lollipop then one minor annoyance you might have come across is a blank avatar at the top of the quick settings drawer and everywhere else accounts are listed in the mobile OS. You don’t have to settle for this anonymous silhouette, but it’s kind of tricky to change.…

The Death Rays the Victorians Used to Conquer the Moon

Do you remember when the Moon was conquered in 1889 and, to cement their victory, a number of giant dishes were erected? As promised, this is another image from the British Library’s flickr account, loaded with public domain images. This image is taken from The Conquest of the Moon: a story of the Bayouda, and…

Apple has a new version of BootCamp,actually designedto work with Windows 10. If you’re already running it, look for the update in your Windows partition; otherwise, the update should be available soon. You’ll need an Intel-powered Mac running OS X Yosemite to take advantage. [MacRumors] Contact the author at [email protected].

Why Do We Use a Dumbass Unit to Measure Explosions?

There’s been some confusion over the size of today’s explosion in China’s Tianjin province, with some people mistakenly thinking it was the largest non-nuclear explosion of all time. It was not — that honor goes to the Russians — and you can partly blame our stupid system of measurement for the mistake. An explosion is…

Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner Were on TV Together Years Before Star Trek

In researching Man from UNCLE, an interesting bit of trivia kept popping up: Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner’s first appearance together was in UNCLE’s season one episode “The Project Strigas Affair.” You don’t really need a lot of context for the clip, but here’s a synopsis anyway: UNCLE is working to discredit a Balkan diplomat…

Paying For Stuff With Your Heartbeat Is Now A Thing

Apple Pay’s fingerprint authentication is already miles better than the laughable magnetic strip on our credit cards. But to try and create the The Nymi Band is like a contactless credit card, which only works when you (and only you) are wearing it. It uses a sensor to record the electrical activity of the wearer’s…

Even at the Centaur Art School, Students Must Learn Human Anatomy

Special bipedal models are brought in to ensure that advanced students will be able to attract human patrons after graduation. Concept art by Krittachai Srijugawan. Srijugawa is a San Francisco-based illustrator and visual development artist. You can find more of his work on his art blog and ArtStation. “Centaur Art School” is featured with the…

This Flip iPhone Is Crazy and We Want One Now

Gizmodo’s favorite speculative industrial designer Martin Hajek is at it again. This time, he’s created something that could almost be true: an Apple flipphone for the Japanese market. Before doing these beautiful concept designs, Hajek asked himself what would happen if “Apple decided to do an iPhone for the Japanese market.” Speaking to Gizmodo via…

Watch Titano!, A Short Film Blending Pixar’s Tone and Universal Monsters

“I wanted to write a love letter to all those great character actors who’ve touched our lives, if just for a moment.” That’s writer director Ben Chavda whose new short film, Titano!, can be seen above. Starring the late, great Irwin Keyes, the film was inspired by a love of Universal Monsters. “Everybody at school…

The One Big Problem With VR 

At this week’s SIGGRAPH design conference, I spent two days wandering among basketball players wearing Tron-like motion capture suits and CGI-rendered freeways. But I spent most of my time in a place called the VR Village, a dark, throbbing corner where I saw the awkward future. The most interesting part about the VR Village was…

The Best Meteor Shower of the Year Is Tonight, and Here’s How to Watch it

The Perseids is my favorite meteor shower of the year, and this year is likely to be the best one in recent memory. Here’s when, where, and how to watch it—and just what is going to make this year so spectacular. Top image: 2010 Perseids / image courtesy of Michael Menefee. What Are the Perseids?…

These Podcast Awards Have Your Listening Needs Covered to the End of Time

The Parsec Awards for scifi, fantasy, and horror podcats just announced their 2015 finalists. The 13 categories include audio dramas, fiction readings, fandom news, writing roundtables, comedy, and “facts behind the fiction.” With megahits like Serial and Welcome to Night Vale creeping into the mainstream, podcasts have gone from niche entertainment to kind of a…

What Are All Those Weird New Skateboards and Scooters You’re Seeing Everywhere?

The Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution. The Computer Age. Each era of history has produced its own remarkable inventions. What will history remember most clearly about our own epoch? Perhaps the many kooky ways we’ve invented to avoid walking to work. Yes, we’re living an exciting age for people challenging the conventions of traditional skateboards and…

Listen to Elephant Seal Calls and Learn Why Elephant Seals Listen to Each Other

Here’s a short video from UC Santa Cruz that lets you listen to some of the weirdest calls in nature. Elephant seals look like living sand dunes and sound like water in backed-up sewer pipes. Their sounds may be more individualized than we previously thought. I’ve been out to visit elephant seals a couple of…