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How To Fly A Spaceship To The ISS: Orbital Mechanics And A Fancy Stick

How do astronauts get from Earth to the International Space Station? Well, in a Soyuz spacecraft, of course. But do you know what kind of path the Soyuz takes to rendezvous with humanity’s orbital outpost? It’s probably not what you think. On Friday, NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly will launch on a Soyuz spacecraft destined for…

Steven Spielberg Will Direct Ready Player One—Prepare For 1980s Overload

Ernest Cline’s novel Ready Player One is chock full of tributes to the geek culture of the late 20th century, especially its movies and video games. And it turns out that the movie version will be helmed by a man who has inspired incredible amounts 1980s and 1990s nostalgia all on his own: Steven Spielberg.…

No One Wants the Olympics, Part No. 546

Remember a few months back, when Boston proudly threw its tri-cornered hat into the ring to bid for the 2024 Olympics? Well, there are plenty of Bostonians among those who would really rather not with the Olympics. And now, they’re going to get a say. Democracy! https://deadspin.com/nobody-wants-to-host-the-2022-olympics-1582151092 Yesterday, the group organizing Boston’s bid said it…

Man Turns His Birthmark Into A Map Of An Imaginary World

Artistic inspiration can come from all sorts of places, and redditor Mneneon found an interesting worldbuilding idea in his own birthmark. He took a pen to his arms and outlined his birthmark, creating a map of his very own — very personal — world. In a thread about his birthmark map, Mneneon says that he…

The First Brand Manager Was a 1st Century Roman Glassblower

Ennion made me. Those were the words molded on glass vases and jars that survived centuries of dust, change, and trauma all over the classical world. But who was Ennion? And how, in the early years of the world, did his glassware become so famous? We don’t know much about him: He was a craftsman…

How The “Horror Frog” Proves It Wants To Live Way More Than You Do

What do you think of this frog? Kind of cute, you think? Perfectly harmless, you think? Not at all like the living embodiment of the Saw movies, you think? Well, you’re wrong. The “horror frog” more than lives up to its nickname. Officially, this is called the hairy frog, and it’s easy to see why.…

Your First Bite Of This Cheeseburger Beach Ball Will Be Its Last

It doesn’t matter how delicious and tempting a three-foot-wide cheeseburger looks, biting into this inflatable beach ball will bring its immediate demise. But when available come April for about $30 it will be a perfect accessory for a day at the beach, alongside your beach towel napkins, and a giant ocean milkshake. [Perpetual Kid via…

Should We Freak Out That a Common Herbicide Is “Probably Carcinogenic?”

Glyphosate, better known as Roundup, is widely used to kill weeds, especially along with genetically modified crops engineered to be glyphosate-resistant. The World Health Organization today released an assessment calling the weedkiller “probably carcinogenic.” But it’s not as scary as it sounds. The reason is subtle but worth understanding. The WHO’s Agency for Research on…

io9 March Madness Elite 8: Lord of the Rings vs. Star Wars!  

We’re entering the end of this years io9 March Madness: Movies vs. TV. Today, the Here and Now; Other Times, Other Places; Epics; and Episodes regions will all get champions. This means a battle of titans! Images and bracket by Jim Cooke Monday’s competition brought a sad end to this year’s greatest dark horse: Jurassic…

Watching a CD spin so fast that it gets warped and shatters is so fun

The Slow Mo Guys spun a CD (a Spotify playlist shaped like a circle mirror, kids) so fast that it started warping and then eventually shattered into a hundred little pieces. You can see the disc spinning at 23,000 RPM and getting bent out of shape until it just gives out, all at once. So…

Anova Precision Cooker Review: Killer Sous Vide for Everyone

I have a problem. It’s a kitchen gadget addiction. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always wanted to try the latest and greatest cooking appliances—or at least all the As Seen On TV and Sky Mall shit. Well, that addiction just paid off: The Anova Precision Cooker has been bringing me stupid amounts of…

Study Suggests Magnetic Fields Can Control Heat And Sound

More than a hundred years ago, physicists discovered that heat is simply the energy stored in the vibrations of atoms. This meant that heat and sound are related. Now, for the first time ever, scientists have experimentally shown that these atomic vibrations have magnetic properties, too. Above: A lopsided tuning fork, made of the semiconductor…

I Stared Into The Red Eye Of The T-800 On The Terminator: Genisys Set

I’ve been to the Terminator: Genisys set. I witnessed four hot, moderately exciting seconds of walking and talking, touched a time machine, and smelled the T-800 in the flesh. And this involved a lot of emotions balanced with a lot of speculation. Here’s our complete set report. Some spoilers ahead. As we were bussed into…

GM Is Developing Smarter Headlights That Will Follow a Driver’s Gaze

There are already cars on the road with intelligent headlights that can sweep left or right to improve visibility as a vehicle steers into a turn. But Opel/Vauxhall, a European subsidiary of GM, are developing next-generation headlight systems that can keep track of where a driver’s looking, and automatically re-direct the lights in that direction.…

The Emergency Escape Rockets For The Crew Dragon Are Surprisingly Quiet

A pair of SuperDraco engines firing at the same time is far quieter than I thought it would be. The dual firing is part of SpaceX pad abort testing for the rocket engines, ensuring both engines can simultaneously ignite and throttle if they need to carry the Crew Dragon to safety. Top image: SuperDraco engine…

Facebook is gunning hard for YouTube with its new embeddable video feature, which lets people take videos posted to Facebook and put them on other sites. Before, if you decided to put a video on Facebook and wanted to share it elsewhere you basically had to re-upload it to another site or simply link back…

A New Pacific Rim Prequel Comic Will Provide The Jaeger Action You Want

Pacific Rim 2 is still a long way off, but if you’re hankering for some more hot Jaeger/Kaiju battles, you won’t have to wait much longer: a new comic miniseries from Legendary will fill in the gap between the first movie and the previous graphic novel prequel. Update: Now with glorious High-Res art! The new…

Grumpy Americans of the 1970s Wanted to Rewrite the Constitution

The 1970s was a rough time for most Americans. The economy was tanking, inflation was out of control, and thanks to the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, few people had anything good to say about their government. Which is why predictions about the future from this era are so fascinating. No matter what your political…

Barbed Wire’s Dark, Deadly History

In the mid 1800s, not many (non-native) Americans had ever been west of the Mississippi. When Frederick Law Olmstead visited the west in the 1850s, he remarked that the plains looked like a sea of grasses that moved “in swells after a great storm.” Massive herds of buffalo wandered the plains. Cowboys shepherded cattle across…

This Epic Rap Battle Between Hodor And Groot Is Gloriously Silly

The two characters who have the smallest vocabulary have a lot to say in this new “rap battle” video. But who will win: Hodor, Bran’s helpful sidekick on Game of Thrones? Or Groot, the big lovable tree from Guardians of the Galaxy? See for yourself!