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Scientists Do a Simple Camera Hack And Reveal “Black” Leopards’ Spots

In Africa and Asia, leopards and black panthers are the same animal. Black panthers’ spots blend in with the rest of their coat. But when a team of researchers used a simple hack to modify field cameras, the spots on black panthers were suddenly revealed. Leopards don’t get the press lions do, even though they…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jul 17 '15

We Just Tried Cortana on Android, And You Can Too

Right now you can download and install a leaked version of Microsoft’s Cortana voice assistant for Android. Suffice it to say, I am whelmed. With the launch of Windows 10 at the end of this month, we’ve been expecting a beta of Cortana on Android, and it seems like this is the real deal. We…

Tech News Mario Aguilar Jul 17 '15

Warcraft‘s Duncan Jones Explains Why This Videogame Movie Won’t Suck

Almost every single video game movie ever has sucked. It’s just inevitable when you take a medium that’s so personal and expand it into a less engaging experience. Duncan Jones, director of probably the biggest video game movie of all time Warcraft, knows this and thinks he’s fixed it. “As soon as I saw David…

io9 Germain Lussier Jul 17 '15

In Case You Needed Proof That Wood Frogs Will Screw Anything

Here are some very horny, very confused male wood frogs. They have ignored every vocal and chemical signal available, and they think they’ve found a female frog. Unfortunately, they are attempting to make sweet sweet amplexus with a tiger salamander. The herpetologists who captured the photo suggest that since wood frogs have an incredibly short…

Biology Diane Kelly Jul 17 '15

6 Apps and Sites to Help You Relax into the Weekend

Life can take its toll, that much is certain, but the same technology contributing to the stress of modern day living—namely the web and the smartphone—can also provide some sweet relief when required. In honor of the upcoming weekend we present a few of our favorite apps and sites for chilling out. Noisli Noisli is…

Gadgets David Nield Jul 17 '15

Pluto’s Atmosphere is Billowing Away into Space

Pluto just can’t stop blowing our minds. Not only is it a geologically active world with ice mountains the size of the Rockies and frozen plains of methane and nitrogen, we’ve just learned that Pluto’s atmosphere is pouring away into space. It’s leaving a massive tail of charged plasma in its wake. That’s one of…

Space & Spaceflight Maddie Stone Jul 17 '15

Wayward Pines Will Continue to Blow Your Mind Until the Very End

Holy crap, there are only two episodes left in this nutty show. This week’s episode “A Reckoning” contains bullets, betrayals, and yet another jaw-dropping last act bit of insanity. We gotta wonder: Is anyone going to make it out of Wayward Pines alive? Spoilers follow! An eerie flash-forward prologue, in which Ethan drags Kate to…

Television Cheryl Eddy Jul 17 '15

Soar Over Pluto’s Heart at 77,000 Kilometers in This New Animation

This animated flyover of the Norgay mountains and Sputnik plains on Pluto are based on the freshly-delivered close-approach images from the New Horizons flyby. See features just a single kilometre big as you experience what it would be like to hitch a ride on the spacecraft as it skimmed past the dwarf planet. This flyby…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jul 17 '15

io9 Newsstand: Why Do Aliens Love The Number 8?

This week’s stories feature some brave, brilliant women who aren’t afraid to communicate with aliens—or face their own mortality. By the Numbers by Lynn Kilmore | Crossed Genres Magazine Mel liked it that the new mathematics building on campus had three steps up to the main doors. She liked how it squatted rectangular under the…

io9 K. Tempest Bradford Jul 17 '15

CVS Shuts Down Its Photo Site After Suspected Hacker Break-In

CVS has shut down its online photo service, warning its customers that there may have been a data theft and to call their banks if they get suspicious credit card charges. The drugstore alerted people with a warning on its CVSPhoto.com website: We have been made aware that customer credit card information collected by the…

Privacy & Security Kate Knibbs Jul 17 '15

This downhill bike race on a glacier is so insane that everyone crashes

You know you’re in some deep sludge of brown goo when a bike race starts and pretty much everyone around you immediately loses control and crashes. That’s what happens when you ride a bike downhill on a glacier. That’s what happens when you ride the Megavalanche race. It’s so ridiculous to see everyone crash that…

Sploid Casey Chan Jul 17 '15

How the Science of Smell is Changing Modern Warfare

The sensory chaos of battle has always posed a challenge to armies hoping to prepare for—and recover from—war. And while it’s clear to most people how sight and sound factor into a soldier’s experience and memory of battle, the smells of combat were, for most of history, largely ignored. But by the eve of the…

io9 Levi Gadye Jul 17 '15

The World’s First Waffle Cone Machine Is Still in Operation

There’s no better way to top off a meal of Carolina-style barbecue than plunging your face into a big, dripping scoop of ice cream in a fresh, warm waffle cone. America knows this pleasure thanks to Abe Doumar who unveiled the first waffle cone machine at the 1904 World’s Fair. And thanks to Doumar’s family,…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes Jul 17 '15

Peter Capaldi Says The Doctor Knows He Made The Daleks Worse

Peter Capaldi’s first year on Doctor Who was layered with a lot of questions about the morality of the Doctor’s adventures. And one idea that came up was the notion that the Doctor had made the Daleks stronger in the course of fighting them. Capaldi tells io9 that the Doctor absolutely believes he made the…

Television Charlie Jane Anders Jul 17 '15

Nibble Away a Sweet Haircut With This Adorable Cookie Cutter

You don’t really need a clever trick to get kids to eat cookies, but with this new cookie cutter from Monkey Business, they at least won’t wolf them down in one bite. Every nibble they take gives Sam a unique hairdo, until all that’s left is his bald head, and then nothing at all. Designed…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Jul 17 '15

A Stunning Late-Era Viking Sword is Now on Display For the First Time

For the first time since its discovery in 2011, this ornate 1,000-year-old Viking sword is being shown to the public. Dating back to the final days of the Vikings, it has been linked to battles in England. The sword was found alongside a corpse in a Langeid grave in the Setesdal Valley four years ago.…

io9 George Dvorsky Jul 17 '15

The Death of the SIM Card Is Nigh

SIM cards are dead; Long live e-SIMs. A report from the Financial Times yesterday afternoon brought news that both Samsung and Apple are close to agreeing on a common architecture standard for an electronic SIM card that would replace physical SIMs completely. It would allow you to change your carrier without having to switch cards…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Jul 17 '15

Ellen Pao Says the Trolls Are Winning

Reddit’s former CEO Ellen Pao wrote a melancholy op-ed about the harassment she faced and the overall state of Internet communities. Her outlook is pretty bleak. In the piece, Pao connects the treatment she received by Reddit mobs with overall statistics on internet bullying: Fully 40 percent of online users have experienced bullying, harassment and…

Tech News Kaila Hale-Stern Jul 17 '15

Pluto’s Moon Nix is a Perfect Little World in Latest New Horizons Photos

Nix is one of the smaller moons of Pluto, paired with Hydra after the massive Charon. Until this morning, the most detailed view we’d ever had was only a few pixels large. Now we’re seeing this elongated rock from just half a million kilometers away in the highest resolution photo we’re getting from New Horizons.…

Space & Spaceflight Mika McKinnon Jul 17 '15

Japan Just Cancelled Its Outrageously Expensive Olympic Stadium Design

And in doing so, made itself a poster child for rethinking the insane costs of major sporting events like the Olympics, explaining that it would start over with a new design. Could the tide be turning against the idea that cities have to spend billions to host the Games? Early this morning, the Guardian reported…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Jul 17 '15

Scientists Do a Simple Camera Hack And Reveal “Black” Leopards’ Spots

We Just Tried Cortana on Android, And You Can Too

Warcraft‘s Duncan Jones Explains Why This Videogame Movie Won’t Suck

In Case You Needed Proof That Wood Frogs Will Screw Anything

6 Apps and Sites to Help You Relax into the Weekend

Pluto’s Atmosphere is Billowing Away into Space

Wayward Pines Will Continue to Blow Your Mind Until the Very End

Soar Over Pluto’s Heart at 77,000 Kilometers in This New Animation

io9 Newsstand: Why Do Aliens Love The Number 8?

CVS Shuts Down Its Photo Site After Suspected Hacker Break-In

This downhill bike race on a glacier is so insane that everyone crashes

How the Science of Smell is Changing Modern Warfare

The World’s First Waffle Cone Machine Is Still in Operation

Peter Capaldi Says The Doctor Knows He Made The Daleks Worse

Nibble Away a Sweet Haircut With This Adorable Cookie Cutter

A Stunning Late-Era Viking Sword is Now on Display For the First Time

The Death of the SIM Card Is Nigh

Ellen Pao Says the Trolls Are Winning

Pluto’s Moon Nix is a Perfect Little World in Latest New Horizons Photos

Japan Just Cancelled Its Outrageously Expensive Olympic Stadium Design

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