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Netflix Will Destroy New Year’s Eve for Children with Fake Countdown

It used to be the only way to trick children into falling asleep before the shiny ball on TV lowered at midnight on New Year’s Eve was to find a ball drop in a different time zone or record one from a previous year and hope no one noticed. But 2015 is a year of…

Tech News Kate Knibbs Dec 29 '14

The Ninth Doctor, Rose And Captain Jack Return In New Doctor Who Comic

Chris Eccleston’s reign as the Ninth Doctor only lasted a season, but Doctor Who fans looking for more adventures of the leather jacket-wearing Time Lord need look no further than Titan’s newest Who comic, which pairs him not just with Rose, but the dashing, omnisexual Jack Harkness as well. Titan will release a five-issue Ninth…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken Dec 29 '14

How ILM Helped Make Winter Soldier One of 2014’s Best Movies

As far as superheroes go, on paper a movie about goody two-shoes Captain America doesn’t sound like it would be all that entertaining. But both of Marvel’s Captain films have been pretty fantastic, and part of the credit goes to the wonderful visual effects done by Industrial Light & Magic, which recently posted a breakdown…

Movies Andrew Liszewski Dec 29 '14

“Garlic Smell” Tours Your Whole Body Before Getting to Your Mouth

Garlic smells delicious when it’s being sautéed in butter, but foul when it’s in someone’s mouth. Why? We’ll tell you about the remarkable tour a garlic compound takes around your body, and why it ends up right back in your mouth. First of all the scent of garlic comprises many compounds, some of which do…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 29 '14

The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True In 2014

As 2014 comes to a close, it’s time to reflect on the most futuristic breakthroughs and developments of the past year. This year’s crop features a slew of incredible technological, scientific, and social achievements, from mind-to-mind communication to self-guiding sniper bullets. Here are 15 predictions that came true in 2014. Technologically-assisted telepathy was successfully demonstrated…

io9 George Dvorsky Dec 29 '14

The Four U.S. Cities That Want to Host the 2024 Olympics

This month, the board of directors of the US Olympic Committee approved America’s bid for the summer Olympics in 2024—the first step in the long process of competing for the right to host the games. And it named four cities as the final bidders: LA, San Francisco, Boston, and D.C. The games are still a…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Dec 29 '14

Honest Trailer For TMNT Makes A Fair Point About The Original Movies

We did not love the reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was just needlessly odd. (“Drain all the turtle blood”? Yeesh.) But were the TMNT ever really that good? Yes, the answer is yes *plugs fingers in ears* let us have our nostalgia lalalalalalala

Movies Meredith Woerner Dec 29 '14

The Pope Plans To Rally The Faithful Against Climate Change

Pope Francis has made an ambitious New Year’s resolution for 2015: the Vatican has announced his intention to push for decisive action against climate change. The Pontiff will issue an encyclical to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, address the UN general assembly and convene an interfaith summit. According to Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the…

io9 Mark Strauss Dec 29 '14

Some Guy Made a Corn Starch Flamethrower But You Definitely Shouldn’t

In the right hands anything can be used as a dangerous weapon. And in this case the anything is a container of corn starch, and the right hands belong to Ivan Owen, who used a leaf blower, an acetylene torch, and a flour sifter to turn the innocuous pantry staple into flamethrower fuel. There are…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Dec 29 '14

An Incredible High-res Gallery Of All the Original Star Wars Toys

As a global phenomenon, Star Wars is as much about the toys as it is about the movies themselves. It was the first film franchise to really capitalize on its merchandising potential, and over on The Man Who Shot Luke Skywalker you’ll find an amazing high-res collection of all the original product shots from Kenner’s…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Dec 29 '14

What Real Historical Figure Is Portrayed The Least Accurately Onscreen?

Sometimes stories like to let their very fictional characters mingle with real historical figures. When that happens, though, the details of that person’s life tend to get blurred or even completely rewritten. Today, we want to know which real historical figure matches up the least with their onscreen portrayals. Tell us in the comments now…

io9 Ria Misra Dec 29 '14

The Nerdiest Way to Play Quake Is Also the Coolest

Forget gaming PCs. Forget Doom on an ATM. Forget Super Smash Bros. on a graphing calculator. The only game worth playing is Quake on an oscilloscope. I mean, holy crap would you look at this thing? It’s as nerdy as it is awesome. Oscilloscopes are typically used to track the variance of an electrical signal.…

Tech News Eric Limer Dec 29 '14

These Are the 20 Most Pirated Movies of 2014

As 2014 draws to a close, it’s time for us to look back on another year’s worth of gratuitous movie pirating. And surprisingly enough, this year’s most torrented movies weren’t actually all that terrible. You’ve got taste, ya thieves. Of course, that’s not to say that all 20 were winners. But according to Variety’s data…

Movies Ashley Feinberg Dec 29 '14

I Think Vin Diesel May Just Be In The Inhumans Movie

Why? Well, because he keeps posting shit like this on Facebook: Of course, he could just be campaigning for a part in the movie. Or he could be trolling fans again — remember how hard he hinted he would be playing the Vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron? But let me put forth another theory:…

io9 Rob Bricken Dec 29 '14

The Black Plague Came To Norway In The Creepiest Way Possible

In the 1300s, the Black Death sprang up in central Asia, and marched steadily over the Old World. As it claimed Europe from the south, people in the northern countries thought they might be safe from it. Then it came, in the form of a classic horror movie trope. We know of a few of…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 29 '14

The Encryption Tools the NSA Still Can’t Crack Revealed in New Leaks

Most of us—at least the cynical ones—assume that the NSA has probably beaten most of the encryption technologies out there. But a new report from Der Spiegel that draws on documents from Edward Snowden’s archive shows that this simply isn’t true. There are some tools that the NSA, as recently as two years ago, couldn’t…

Privacy & Security Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Dec 29 '14

This Lego Version Of The Force Awakens Trailer Is Amazingly Well Done

As we come to the end of 2014, year of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, we head into 2015… year of the mashups of said Star Wars trailer. We’ve featured some good ones here on io9, but this Lego-ified take might be one of the best. Youtuber Zach Machias over at Mind Game…

Trailers James Whitbrook Dec 29 '14

Do We Finally Know What The Star Wars Spin-Off Movie Will Be About?

Plus, read a possible description of Max van Sydow’s Force Awakens character. Roberto Orci talks clears up some Star Trek rumors, Mark Ruffalo hints at a big mistake from Bruce Banner in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Robert Kirkman trolls us with a possible huge death in The Walking Dead. Spoilers now! Top image: Star…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta Dec 29 '14

Tim Burton-era Batmobile Model Features Pop-up RC Machine Guns

At first you’ll probably be a little disappointed to learn that this incredibly-detailed 29-inch long model of the Batmobile used in the Tim Burton-era Batman films isn’t fully remote control—you can’t drive or steer it. But while it sits there looking beautiful, you can remotely deploy its pop-up machine guns, blast smoke from its afterburner,…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Dec 29 '14

Glorious video shows how chocolate and vanilla ice cream bars are made

Sploid reader Alden Gleason saw this beautiful GIF last week and decided that we should all see the full source video, which he made at Julie’s Organic Ice Cream in Eugene, Oregon. So he uploaded it to YouTube in high definition for all of you to enjoy. It’s a glorious film of cream dreams. Hey…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Dec 29 '14

Netflix Will Destroy New Year’s Eve for Children with Fake Countdown

The Ninth Doctor, Rose And Captain Jack Return In New Doctor Who Comic

How ILM Helped Make Winter Soldier One of 2014’s Best Movies

“Garlic Smell” Tours Your Whole Body Before Getting to Your Mouth

The Most Futuristic Predictions That Came True In 2014

The Four U.S. Cities That Want to Host the 2024 Olympics

Honest Trailer For TMNT Makes A Fair Point About The Original Movies

The Pope Plans To Rally The Faithful Against Climate Change

Some Guy Made a Corn Starch Flamethrower But You Definitely Shouldn’t

An Incredible High-res Gallery Of All the Original Star Wars Toys

What Real Historical Figure Is Portrayed The Least Accurately Onscreen?

The Nerdiest Way to Play Quake Is Also the Coolest

These Are the 20 Most Pirated Movies of 2014

I Think Vin Diesel May Just Be In The Inhumans Movie

The Black Plague Came To Norway In The Creepiest Way Possible

The Encryption Tools the NSA Still Can’t Crack Revealed in New Leaks

This Lego Version Of The Force Awakens Trailer Is Amazingly Well Done

Do We Finally Know What The Star Wars Spin-Off Movie Will Be About?

Tim Burton-era Batmobile Model Features Pop-up RC Machine Guns

Glorious video shows how chocolate and vanilla ice cream bars are made

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