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A 1785 Guide to Making Your Own Fireworks

Looking for a pyrotechnic project today? How about learning how to build your own fireworks from scratch, based on this beautifully handwritten guide from 1785. The book, called Artificial Fireworks, was written by John Maskall over 20o years ago. Dense with instructions, diagrams and data, the illustrated treatise on firework design explains how to make…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Come On In, Your GIF Party Is Here!

Hello, GIF-partiers! What’s the news on your end? Tell us about the upcoming cookouts, fireworks, sparklers, flag-patterned deserts, or whatever else is in your present or very near future. GIFs or it didn’t happen!

io9 Ria Misra

Scientists Accidentally Discover The Brain’s Consciousness “Off Switch”

While performing deep brain surgery on a woman with epilepsy, neuroscientists from George Washington University stimulated an area of her brain that unexpectedly — and temporarily — caused her to lose awareness. It’s a discovery that could shed light on the very nature of consciousness itself. “We describe a region in the human brain where…

io9 George Dvorsky

Facebook Messenger Finally Comes to the iPad

It’s taken its time getting it out to us, but Facebook has finally pulled its socks up and pushed out a universal build of its Messenger app for iOS devices—letting iPad users chat and send silly stickers to their pals just like they can on an iPhone. The updated app also makes it easier to…

Tech News Gerald Lynch Gizmodo UK

This is the worst Star Wars exhibition ever

The city of Wolfsburg—in Germany—is currently hosting the worst Star Warsexhibitionever.Everything looks wrong and creepy. From the horrible lighting and staging to the actual objects. I thought people wouldn’t have to pay to visit such a dodgy exhibition, but I was wrong, tickets cost around $14. Here is a guided tour (German language without English…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi

Hurricane Arthur Looks Even More Ominous When Seen From Space

Hurricane Arthur is currently ravaging the coast of North Carolina. The Category 2 storm is packing winds over 100 mph as it makes its way north. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station snapped this stunning pic of the hurricane yesterday while flying over the Bahamas. Here’s what the storm looked like on July 2nd: This…

io9 George Dvorsky

Does a Set Photo Reveal a Walking Dead Reunion?

Rumors add more villains to Batman v. Superman. Guillermo del Toro gives a timeline for Pacific Rim 2 and the chances for his adaptation of At the Mountains of Madness. Arrow’s season premiere casts its villain and heralds the return of Vertigo. Plus, Once Upon a Time gets its Elsa! Spoilers now! Top image: The…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta

This Is the Internal Dilemma Every Selfie-Taker Goes Through

As your finger hovers over the “share” button, there’s (hopefully) an overwhelming sense of self doubt: do other people really want to see this picture of me in their feeds? This video, by College Humor, is a vocalization of the inner torture that presumably most selfie-posters struggle through. It’s equal parts biting, cringeworthy and hilarious—and…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

This Is an Airfix Kit Good Enough to Eat

Remember the trials and tribulations of assembling your Airfix planes as a kid? Wouldn’t it have been better if there was a more tangible reward at the end of it all, like, I don’t know, chocolate? Well, soon there might be. Dreamt up by Robert Cooper as a design school project , this is effectively…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Was Facebook’s Research Ever Really Ethical?

It’s not a question of whether it publishes its results or not—it has to do research to evolve for its users—it’s question of whether what it’s doing is ethical in the first place. Because, as Randall Munroe muses in the mouse over of today’s XKCD ,”it’s not like we could just demand to see the…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

BBC Institutes Changes to Prevent “False Balance” in Science Reporting

The BBC Trust published an update on an years-old report questioning the “over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality” in science reporting. Or, as the Telegraph put it, they were told to “stop inviting cranks onto science programmes.” Which seems slightly harsh. The original 2011 report (which is fascinating) mentions examples in three areas where…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta

An Exclusive Look at the New Fan Art From One of Our Favorites

We’ve covered artist Clementine Campardou and her watercolor art before, and now we’ve got a preview of her newest series of Star Wars prints. They are as beautiful as ever. As usual, Clementine’s work has a great sense of color and motion. And she does it with a only a few colors, making great use…

Movies Katharine Trendacosta

Beautiful time-lapse is proof that nature is the greatest architect

Time does a breathtaking thing on nature. If you let it run its course the face of the Earth changes into beautiful things that don’t even look like their from this world. Enrique Pacheco made this time lapse, “Shaped By Time”, showing the natural beauty in landscapes. Pacheco writes: “Shaped by Time” is a time-lapse…

Sploid Casey Chan

You Will Not Believe How Many Times Hollywood Has Hit People With a Bus

It’s a classic device: Person stands still in middle of street and suddenly a bus comes out of nowhere, knocking them out of frame. But, my god, this supercut is almost 12 and half minutes long. Just how funny is hitting people with buses? Okay, really funny. It’s really funny. It’s one of those things…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta

How many gigabytes does it take to make a human?

How much information is stored inside a human? Not as much as you think. All you need is a mere 1.5 gigabytes to fit your entire genetic code. Veritasium did the math in his latest brain tapping video and cooked up that number using bits to understand the molecules that make up a person’s genetic…

Sploid Casey Chan

Happy 4th of July From the Apes

The latest Dawn of the Planet of the Apes promo is themed around Independence Day as a reminder that, basically, we’ll lose it all to the apes. And while the audio they use is cool and all, I really want to see this same video set to the speech from the end of Independence Day.

Trailers Katharine Trendacosta

Toys are even more fun when you can use them as weapons in warfare

Nerf guns, toy light sabers, shooting Spiderman webs, being a kid is awesome. But then kids grow up and foolishly lose their enjoyment for toys even though they’re getting paid to pretend to be an adult. Build an arsenal of toy weapons people! You never know when you’ll be able to use them as weapons…

Sploid Casey Chan

The complicated truth behind the empire of the United States of America

Let’s celebrate the USA on July 4th! How big does the celebration go across America? Across the 50 states, duh. The 48 contiguous, Alaska and Hawaii. But what about Washington DC? And the Indian territories? Puerto Rico? Guam? The Virgin Islands? And let’s not get into places you’ve never heard of like Johnston Atoll and…

Sploid Casey Chan

Magic Mike Should Stick to Stripping, His Furniture Designs Are Terrible

It is an indisputable fact that Mike Lane—known in professional circles as Magic Mike—knows how to strip. He’s the headliner at Xquisite, a fine Florida club highlighting the clothes-taking-off talents of the Cock Rocking Kings of Tampa. But exotic dancing is a money-making stopgap before he can pursue his true passion: Design. First off—whether you’ve…

Tech News Jordan Kushins

What Is The Meaning Of These Strange Glowing Shapes In The Wilderness?

Photographer Barry Underwood places LEDs, glowsticks and other luminous shapes into the middle of nature, and then photographs them. It’s a meditation on the ways that humans have changed our environment, and it’s startlingly beautiful. As Underwood explained in an interview with Weather.com last week: The light-emitting sculptures in the landscape use a variety of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

A 1785 Guide to Making Your Own Fireworks

Come On In, Your GIF Party Is Here!

Scientists Accidentally Discover The Brain’s Consciousness “Off Switch”

Facebook Messenger Finally Comes to the iPad

This is the worst Star Wars exhibition ever

Hurricane Arthur Looks Even More Ominous When Seen From Space

Does a Set Photo Reveal a Walking Dead Reunion?

This Is the Internal Dilemma Every Selfie-Taker Goes Through

This Is an Airfix Kit Good Enough to Eat

Was Facebook’s Research Ever Really Ethical?

BBC Institutes Changes to Prevent “False Balance” in Science Reporting

An Exclusive Look at the New Fan Art From One of Our Favorites

Beautiful time-lapse is proof that nature is the greatest architect

You Will Not Believe How Many Times Hollywood Has Hit People With a Bus

How many gigabytes does it take to make a human?

Happy 4th of July From the Apes

Toys are even more fun when you can use them as weapons in warfare

The complicated truth behind the empire of the United States of America

Magic Mike Should Stick to Stripping, His Furniture Designs Are Terrible

What Is The Meaning Of These Strange Glowing Shapes In The Wilderness?

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