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What Is The Best Spooky Story To Tell Around The Campfire?

It’s Memorial Day weekend in the US, a time when many folks head out into nature to camp — and enjoy scary stories around a campfire. What story is even creepier when it’s told out in the woods, far from electric lights and civilization? Gif from the intro to Are You Afraid of the Dark?…

This Gorgeous Batman Figure Looks Like A 3-D Sketch

I’m a big fan of DC’s “Designer Series” figures, where the artstyle of a particular DC artist is painstakingly recreated on a poseable action figure. But this latest figure, based on the art of Batman: Hush artist Jim Lee, takes that design ethos to its most incredible extreme. The beautiful figure is one of DC’s…

The Most Popular Candidates for President, According to Social Media

Which of the current presidential hopefuls have the strongest social media base? You might be surprised. Rand Paul blows Hilary Clinton away on Facebook, while Clinton creams Paul on Twitter. No one likes Jeb Bush. Since there are many candidates, I’m only including those with social media followings above 10k on the major platforms, and…

See How SpaceX Astronauts Could Survive a Failed Launch

Two weeks ago, SpaceX successfully tested the launch abort system for its new commercial crew capsule, which is designed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017. The company has just released a first-person view video recorded by cameras mounted on the Dragon capsule, so you can take a virtual ride on the…

io9 Book Club Reminder: Meet 6/2 to Discuss Station Eleven!

This month, the io9 Book Club is reading Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. We’ll meet on June 2 to discuss it. Join us! What is this io9 Book Club all about? We meet once a month to discuss a book we’ve all read together, and then we have an online chat with the…

See The New Fantastic Four’s Powers And How @#$%ing Huge The Thing Is

MovieTickets.com scored the best look at the new Fantastic Four movie cast displaying their super-powers in their new commercial. It doesn’t have a particularly good look at the Thing, but don’t worry, you can see him after the jump. Just be ready for a shock. This new banner reveals that Ben Grimm’s Thing form isn’t…

Meet the Robots Who Will Steal Bartenders’ Jobs (or Not)

So, they say robots are supposed to be stealing all our jobs. Soon. And service jobs at especially at risk. Included in that group? Those who usher us through the magical portal of happy hour: bartenders. It’s Friday afternoon, you’ve made it through the long week, and it’s time for Happy Hour, Gizmodo’s weekly booze…

See The JLA In Action In This Incredible “Widevision” Comic Cover

We’re heading into a long weekend. Sometimes you don’t need anything to celebrate other than to gawp at a glorious, gorgeous piece of comic book art that shows the Justice League’s finest superheroes locked in an all out brawl with some evil aliens. Sit back, relax, and be amazed. The beautiful “widevision” cover is actually…

These Insects Compete Using Their Spiked Penises

Insects with nightmarish spiky penises that can harm their mates are really nothing new. But a new study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology has determined that given the right conditions, wielding a nightmarish spiky penis could also harm a different species. Image: Kyogoku, D. and Sota, T. 2015 The study, led by Daisuke Kyogoku…

Here Are 40,000 Photos Of Old New York Plotted on a City Map

Hope you’ve already checked out of work on this pre-Memorial Day Friday because this site might eat your long weekend for breakfast. Over 40,000 vintage photos of New York City from the New York Public Library archives have been geotagged to a Google Map, letting you click right through history on every street corner. OldNYC…

Remembering Britain’s Worst Rail Disaster Of The First World War

It’s the 100th anniversary of the Quintinshill Rail Disaster — a horrific three-train collision that resulted in hundreds of casualties, the vast majority of them soldiers en route to the war. Here’s what happened on that tragic day. Credit: War/Topham Picturepoint/PA Images. The First World War was dominated by railways. The ability to rapidly transport…

This Prehistoric Pocket Deer Has Fewer Chromosomes Than A Fruit Fly

Meet the muntjac — the most interesting deer in the world. It’s the size of a dog, it’s the oldest deer around, it has antlers but fights with tusks, and it even barks loudly at things that threaten it. But its most interesting quality is this — it gets by with fewer chromosomes than any…

Two Hours of Thunderstorm Siege Made Budapest an Electrifying City

Hungarian photographer Zoltán Vanik captured this stunning panoramic image of Budapest, lit by dozens of lightning bolts during a severe thunderstorm a few days ago. I asked Zoltán how he managed to create this captivating scene. He used the following gear and settings: Nikon D800, Nikkor 24-70 f 2.8 lens, ISO 200, f:9, 13sec exposures–except…

How To Survive A Car Crash

Driving is the most dangerous thing most people do. It’s also something for which they likely have no or minimal training. Before you hit the road for Memorial Day weekend, let’s look at how to make it more survivable. The Best Way To Survive A Crash Driving is a skill like any other. And, to…

Even if Pebble is truly having financial difficulties, the show will go on. The company writes that the first batch of Pebble Time smartwatches will ship to backers on May 27th, and that every backer should receive a shipment tracking number by mid-June. [Pebble]

Michael Fassbender Is The Traitor King In The First Clips From Macbeth

The Scottish Play is headed for the big screen once again in Snowtown director Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth adaptation, starring Michael Fassbender as the treacherous lord-turned-king and Marion Cotillard as his scheming wife. These clips introduce the deadly pair and tease a big, beautiful battle scene. Macbeth premieres this weekend at the Cannes Film Festival and…

Genetic Engineers Are Building a Biological Kill Switch

The fear of genetically-modified creatures escaping from the lab is the basis for a thousand sci-fi stories, but it’s also a legitimate concern. That’s why genetic engineers are inventing kill switches, or genetically-encoded suicide triggers, for GMOs they want to keep contained. Here’s how they work. Why we need kill switches When we talk about…

Wayward Pines‘ Second Episode Builds To A Jaw-Dropping Twist 

Secret Service Agent Ethan Burke (Matt Dillon) continues to be baffled by the surreal pace of life in Wayward Pines, but he’s no longer completely clueless. That said, he’s still fully capable of putting disastrous events in motion, which he does in episode two: “Do Not Discuss Your Life Before.” Spoilers follow! The episode’s title,…

Why Does Weather Cause Air Traffic Delays?

The effect that weather has on air traffic delays is probably one of the most misunderstood aspects of aviation. The conditions that typically can cause delays are low cloud ceilings, low visibility, convective activity (thunderstorms), icing conditions, high winds and runway conditions. There are essentially two set of regulations that relate to flying in weather.…

What Changed First When You Went Through Puberty?

Everybody goes through puberty differently. For me, height came first: I shot up 5-inches during the summer before high school – and there was definitely some mental whiplash when I could suddenly see over a lot of my classmates’ heads. Tell us how your body first let you know there were some changes on the…