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Your Next Laptop Could Have the Holy Grail of USB Ports

In just a couple years, your MacBook Air or Surface Pro could look obsolete. Denizens of the future won’t understand why you have so many gaping holes in your machine. Why would you need a full-size USB socket, a magnetic charging port, and a video output when you can cram them all into a single…

You Otter Know, It’s Sea Otter Awareness Week!

Happy Sea Otter Awareness Week! If you live in California, check out the events happening near you. Everyone else, get ready for some otter science this week. Also I’m really sorry for that terrible pun. Otterly sorry. For now, marvel at the photogenic majesty of these sea weasels. Above: Sea Otter in Morro Bay, Andrew…

Cyclist miraculously escapes death in spectacular traffic accident

This Russian cyclist miraculously escaped death when he got involved in what could have been a terrible traffic accident. Luckily no one got hurt, but I couldn’t help but to gasp when I saw the debris, resulting from the collision between the car and the truck, passing inches away from him. SPLOID is a new…

Adobe just bought Aviary, a suite of mobile editing tools used by several other companies (Flickr!), as well as in a standalone Aviary app. Given Adobe’s recent push on mobile editing, the move makes a lot of sense.

J.J. Abrams Adapting Stephen King’s Time-Travel Novel 11/22/63 For Hulu

It’s official: Stephen King’s 11/22/63, about a man who is able to travel back in time and attempts to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, is going to become a series. But instead of coming to a TV set near you, the series will stream on Hulu. There have been rumblings for a…

Now You Can Play the Best Character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will let players step into the role of Claptrap the robot, as well as several other non-playable characters from the Borderlands series. We talked to the developers about why we love some robots more than others. The four playable characters in Borderlands: the Pre-Sequel were all NPCs in Borderlands 2, and all…

Report: Apple Is Shutting Down Beats Music (Updated)

TechCrunch reports that Apple plans to shut down Beats Music, the streaming music service that it acquired earlier this year. The blog’s Josh Constine says that he’s confirmed the news with five sources at both Apple and Beats. And to be honest, it makes sense. (Update: Apple told Re/Code that the TechCrunch story is “not…

Looks Like Fox Is Aiming For The Deadpool Movie To Be PG-13

Get it? Aiming? Guns? Enh, whatever. A new rumor claims that the movie will be rated PG-13, which is somewhat depressing, but not particularly surprising. Here’s why you probably shouldn’t lose too much sleep over this. First, let’s begin with where the rumor originated: Deadpool director Tim Miller, albeit produced secondhand by the Schmoes Know…

Physicists Are Backing Away From the Biggest Discovery of This Century

Back in March, a group of physicists announced the first direct evidence of the Big Bang in a splashy press conference followed by Nobel prize forecasts and champagne. But scientists have since questioned the discovery, and a new paper suggests the signal detected was not evidence of the Big Bang but instead largely, if not…

Paris unclogs its sewers with giant balls of iron

Though it’s been around since the Middle Ages, the sewer system beneath Paris won fame in the 19th century, when the city offered boat tours through the tunnels. This is also when an ingenious method for cleaning clogged tunnels was devised. It involves giant balls of iron and a lot of velocity. Put simply, Paris…

Hulu Is Producing a Stephen King/J.J. Abrams Miniseries About JFK

Creators of creep Stephen King and J.J. Abrams were destined to pair up at some point, and now Hulu is going to be one to bring them together. The site scored a huge coup in booking the duo for a new miniseries about the John F. Kennedy assassination, Hulu’s first big original content win. Although…

The Anthropocebo Effect Explains How Our Minds Can Destroy the World

The placebo effect and the nocebo effect demonstrate that our minds have a special kind of control over our bodies. They also might have control over the world. And that’s something to be worried about. The placebo effect is so widespread that any study done on a new medication has to account for it. People…

Scented Duct Tape Review: Why Is the Room Spinning?

When nuclear winter strikes, it’s highly likely that cockroaches and duct tape will be all that survives. But just because our new post-apocalyptic wasteland might appear bleak doesn’t mean it has to smell bleak, too. At least, that seems to be the train of thought behind the Duck Tape brand’s new line of scented tapes.…

7 Weird and Wonderful Japanese adaptations of Western Characters

Over the weekend we took a look at Square-Enix’s take on Darth Vader for its Play Arts Kai figure line – and it was great! In celebration of the awesome silliness that can happen when East meets West, here’s 7 of the times Japan has adapted western franchises in its own weirdly endearing style. https://gizmodo.com/not-even-darth-vader-can-escape-the-madness-of-play-art-1637344431…

Kirk Cameron’s “Crocoduck” Came Back To Bite Him In The Ass

A few years ago, ex-teen heartthrob Kirk Cameron went on Fox News as a pitchman for young-Earth creationism. Claiming there were no transitional fossils, he ridiculed evolution saying that, if it were true, we would have duck-crocodile hybrids. Ha, ha—oh, wait, scientists found a dinosaur that’s half duck, half croc. Cameron appeared as an “expert”…

Touch-Sensitive Outlet Shuts Down Power To Protect Kids From Shocks

Here’s a wonderful mashup of existing technologies that promises to make it all but impossible for little kids to get shocked by a power outlet. The Guardian Angel Shockproof Safety Outlet uses similar technology as your smartphone’s touchscreen to detect when it’s being touched, and then automatically shut down power to eliminate the risk of…

Share Your Home Wi-Fi Easily Using an NFC Tag or QR Code

Get your best buddies around for a movie marathon and before you can hit “play” they’re all going to want access to your Wi-Fi. This is the age of the second screen experience after all. You could simply tell them your network’s name and password, but here are a couple of alternatives that might be…

8 Videos of New iPhones Getting Dropped, Soaked, and Torture Tested

You knew it was coming. Videos of people torturing the newest rash of iPhones are starting to emerge online, including one by SquareTrade, which shows the new iPhones being tortured in every way imaginable. So how did Apple’s latest crop hold up? Surprisingly well, with a few caveats. Though SquareTrade’s video is clearly motivated by…

Do You Want to Help Create a Good Commenter Community on io9?

We’re looking for people who would like to help make the comments on io9 posts more useful. You can do that by volunteering to help bring comments out of the “pending” zone and into the light. Here’s how it works. You post in comments below about why you’d like to help (just a sentence or…

One Of My Favorite “Doctor-ish” Moments On Doctor Who

Classic Doctor Who producer Barry Letts had a very unique spin on the Doctor — one informed by his Buddhism and his environmentalism. And when Letts wrote the extra-long novelization of his own story “The Daemons,” he included one of my favorite moments of the Doctor being kind of magical. Here’s my favorite bit from…