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Periscope Wins By a Knockout, and Other News You Missed This Weekend

More mega iPad rumors surface, Grooveshark goes the way of the dinosaur, and Periscope becomes the savior of people who don’t want to spend $100 on PPV boxing. Bitstream is all the news and rumors you missed over the weekend. So there was a big fight this weekend. Did you hear? And supposedly HBO and…

Tech News Darren Orf May 4 '15

iFixit Tears Down the One Gadget We All Really Want: a Lightsaber

To celebrate May the Fourth, the most important date on a Star Wars fan’s calendar, iFixit has set aside its Apple Watches and laptops and instead focused its expertise in disassembling on the one gadget everyone in this galaxy (and those far, far away) really want: a lightsaber. For this teardown they opted for Ob-Wan…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski May 4 '15

Watch The ATRIAS Bipedal Robot Take A Stroll In The Park

Ah, spring has sprung. The weather’s warm, the trees are starting to bud, and robots are frolicking about — including ATRIAS, a two-legged bot developed by researchers at Oregon State University. When we last saw ATRIAS,it was getting pelted in a rather one-sided game of dodgeball. The robot, whose name stands for “assume this robot…

io9 George Dvorsky May 4 '15

Last Night’s Game Of Thrones Was Actually Pretty Hard To Watch

Two different groups of scary fanatics went on a rampage in the latest Game of Thrones episode, and it was pretty upsetting to watch, even by Thrones standards. The Sons of the Harpy and the Sparrows both want to restore old traditions, and they both build on the weaknesses of two very different queens.Spoilers ahead……

io9 Charlie Jane Anders May 4 '15

Police Are Beating Card Skimmers With GPS Trackers

You might think that the best way to fight card skimmers would be hunt them down and destroy them. But in California, at least, police have been leaving the skimmers right where they are—after they’ve fitted GPS trackers to them, that is. Krebs on Security reports that the California police department has been fighting criminals…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 4 '15

What Are You Working On?

To the front of the class, please, commenters! It’s io9 show-and-tell time. Dust off the great side and central projects that you’ve been working on lately (or that you just finished) and let the rest of us take a look. Have you been setting up a rooftop farm? Illustrating the great American robot novel? Making…

io9 Ria Misra May 4 '15

What You Can Learn By Drinking Pig Spit

In 2001, Ajit Varki drank a bunch of pig spit. What does drinking the extraction of pig salivary glands give you? Sialic acid, something every mammal in the world produces except humans. Why are we left out? As it turns out, we humans lost the genes which make the enzyme which modifies the existing sialic…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell May 4 '15

This Is a Ridiculously Perfect Shot of a Chinook Helicopter

Just look at this photo. On the highest mountain in North America, surrounded by stunning snowy scenery and beneath a sun halo, sits a 50-year-old tandem rotor heavy lift helicopter equipped with ski landing gear. An aviator from D Company, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment stands outside a CH-47F Chinook helicopter at the Kahiltna Glacier…

Tech News Attila Nagy May 4 '15

What You Don’t See When You Look at Your Favorite Constellations

You’ve probably gazed at the constellation of Cygnus on a starry night—it’s distinctive and easy to spot on in the Northern hemisphere. But this is the bit of it you can’t see. This image from Japan’s Akari space observatory shows the invisible wavelengths of the far-infrared. You’re looking at the central section of Cygnus, but…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 4 '15

Another Familiar Face Returns In The Next Season Of Doctor Who

See a Mad Max: Fury Road featurette, and discover who’s shooting Star Wars: Episode VIII. Red Dwarf is officially back! Vince Gilligan won’t return for the X-Files revival. The Flash teases even more Grodd action. Plus, what’s to come on Vampire Diaries, Agents of SHIELD and Gotham. Spoilers Get! Top image: Doctor Who. Star Wars:…

io9 James Whitbrook May 4 '15

Germany’s Investigating Claims That It Illegally Spied on Europe for NSA

German prosecutors are rallying to assess whether its BND foreign intelligence agency has broken laws by spying on officials and companies throughout Europe for the National Security Agency. Reuters reportsthat the country’s top public prosecutor has kicked off a preliminary investigation following pressure from politicians. The German magazine Der Spiegel claims that the BND helped…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe May 4 '15

Curiosity Has a Rock Wedged In Its Wheel

Like any vehicle, Curiosity’s wheels have to roll over whatever lies in its path. Sadly, that path isn’t always smooth: now, the rover’s got a chunk of rock wedged in one of the grooves of its wheels. According to New Scientist, NASA scientists aren’t too concerned about the stone. They don’t expect it to affect…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe May 4 '15

Joss Whedon Explains What Happened to Loki’s Age of Ultron Cameo

Late last year, Idris Elba let slip the names of some of the major Thor characters that would make brief appearances in Avengers: Age of Ultron. And yet, when the movie actually arrived, no Loki. What happened? Tom Hiddleston was noticeably — if you were aware he’d filmed scenes for Age of Ultron — absent…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta May 4 '15

Blackboard Chalk Isn’t Really Chalk at All

Ubiquitous in many classrooms since the 19th century, chalk and chalkboards are familiar to most of us. White, powdery and prone to sticking to those surfaces where it is put (and just as easy to wipe away), chalk and its accompanying board are excellent instructional aids. Notably, however, most chalk today isn’t technically chalk at…

Tech News Melissa - TodayIFoundOut.com May 4 '15

RIP Grace Lee Whitney, Star Trek‘s Yeoman Janice Rand

Grace Lee Whitney, instantly recognizable as Yeoman Janice Rand from the original Star Trek, has passed away at the age of 85. Whitney died in her home in Coarsegold, California, her son, Jonathan Dweck, confirmed on Sunday. Despite only appearing in eight episodes of the original series, Whitney officially reprised her role in Star Trek:…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta May 4 '15

Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler Consulted on Mad Max: Fury Road

In an Esquire interview, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley gave a few fairly amazing details about the band of escaped women traveling with Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Mad Max himself (Tom Hardy). The first: the girls made their own costumes out of bandages. The second: Eve Ensler flew out to spend a week letting the girls pick…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta May 4 '15

Pilot Season Round-Up: Minority Report and The Muppets Are Done Deals

It’s that time of year where we get a good look at what’s going to be on TV come fall. And we’ve got some things rising from the dead, some obvious done deals, and some things wavering on the bubble. It’s a good time to be a superhero or a Muppet, though. Deadline’s got a…

Television Katharine Trendacosta May 4 '15

Everything Is Organized In This Architect’s Lego Basement

On the surface, owning 250,000 Lego pieces sounds awesome. But then you start to think about it: the late-night encounters with carpets in the brick; trying to find that one particular head; trying to explain things to your insurance broker. Clearly, you’re going to need one hell of a storage system. That’s exactly what’s been…

Tech News Chris Mills May 4 '15

The Detail That Goes Into Making Orion’s Windows Is Incredible

Given how high-tech spacecraft tend to be, I was surprised to learn that existing space vehicles tend to use good old-fashioned glass (albeit a rather expensive kind). But for the next-gen Orion spacecraft, NASA has been working overtime to find something stronger, lighter, and just a little less fragile. The historical preference for glass is…

Space & Spaceflight Chris Mills May 4 '15

How Good Design Can Make Or Break A Product

Slack, a humble workplace messaging service, has become something of an internet phenomenon: a chat program worth $2.8 billion, which has otherwise well-educated humans foaming at the mouth, salivating over how much fun talking to coworkers can be. And, as one of its architects explains, a lot of that is down to the sassy design.…

Tech News Chris Mills May 3 '15

Periscope Wins By a Knockout, and Other News You Missed This Weekend

iFixit Tears Down the One Gadget We All Really Want: a Lightsaber

Watch The ATRIAS Bipedal Robot Take A Stroll In The Park

Last Night’s Game Of Thrones Was Actually Pretty Hard To Watch

Police Are Beating Card Skimmers With GPS Trackers

What Are You Working On?

What You Can Learn By Drinking Pig Spit

This Is a Ridiculously Perfect Shot of a Chinook Helicopter

What You Don’t See When You Look at Your Favorite Constellations

Another Familiar Face Returns In The Next Season Of Doctor Who

Germany’s Investigating Claims That It Illegally Spied on Europe for NSA

Curiosity Has a Rock Wedged In Its Wheel

Joss Whedon Explains What Happened to Loki’s Age of Ultron Cameo

Blackboard Chalk Isn’t Really Chalk at All

RIP Grace Lee Whitney, Star Trek‘s Yeoman Janice Rand

Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler Consulted on Mad Max: Fury Road

Pilot Season Round-Up: Minority Report and The Muppets Are Done Deals

Everything Is Organized In This Architect’s Lego Basement

The Detail That Goes Into Making Orion’s Windows Is Incredible

How Good Design Can Make Or Break A Product

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