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The 10 Biggest Misconceptions About the First World War

This year marks the centenary of the start of the First World War, a conflict that still rouses considerable debate and controversy. It’s also a war that’s shrouded in many myths and misconceptions — and these ten are among the worst. Above: Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks at the Battle of Somme. 1.…

Russia to NASA: “Try Jumping To ISS On A Trampoline.”

After NASA imposed sanctions on cooperating with Russia, a Russian official joked that these sanctions would strand astronauts on the International Space Station. The taunts escalated to instructing NASA to teach its astronauts to use a trampoline to reach orbit. Could it work? Things are getting sticky between the United States and Russia, and its…

A Timelapse of All the Earthquakes From This Record-Breaking April

Didn’t it seem to you that the ground was exceptionally shaky last month? That there were reports on big earthquakes happening somewhere pretty much every week? It wasn’t just your imagination: April produced a higher-than-normal number of moderate-to-large earthquakes, and you can see it for yourself. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) which…

$5 Dashboard Mount, Camping Supplies, Super Cheap Macbooks, SmartWool

If you own a car, and you don’t have have a smartphone dash mount yet, then this should be a no-brainer at $5. Just be sure to only use it for GPS and music or podcast playback. No texting. Gmatrix Windshield Dashboard Car Mount Holder | $5 You’d be forgiven for overlooking this little camera,…

A Cool Staircase Turned This Abandoned Tower Into a Nature Observatory

The stark concrete inside of an out-of-service water tower might not spring to mind as a place to take in beautiful views. But Netherlands architecture firm Zecc created just that, using a naked wood stairway to draw viewers to the 150-foot-high observation deck overlooking De Wieden National Park. Check out photographer Stijn Poelstra’s gorgeous images—they…

Claire North Unmasked! Why 1 Life Isn’t Enough For Harry August Author

There’s been a lot of speculation about the identity of Claire North, the pseudonymous author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Some thought she might be Clive Barker. But now, her true identity is revealed, and Catherine Webb tells us why she needed more than one life. Claire North is actually Catherine Webb,…

The British Museum Is Crowdsourcing The Bronze Age

If you’ve ever wanted to be an archaeologist or a museum curator, now is your chance. A new open source crowdsourcing platform, called Micropasts, is asking the public to help catalogue more than 30,000 prehistoric artifacts discovered over the past two centuries. The project—a joint initiative of the British Museum and the UCL Institute of…

DreamWorks Animation Is Heading To YouTube For Extra Revenue

DreamWorks has been having a really rough time lately. Their latest film, Mr. Peadbody and Sherman did quite poorly at the box office despite being a good movie. In fact, three of their four most recent movies resulted in a financial loss, and they’re basically banking on How To Train Your Dragon 2 to be…

The Most Fantastic Little Moments From Last Night’s Arrow

Last night’s Arrow was a connector episode. There was some downtime to absorb last week’s shocker, and a lot of set up for the final two episodes. But we didn’t need big changes, because there were seven truly great little moments. 7. Bad Decisions Finally Catch Up to Thea Queen We open with the funeral…

Could a Simple Design Tweak End Airplane Armrest Battles for Good?

Airplane seats are already cramped enough without having to fight off some stranger literally elbowing in on your turf. One Hong Kong-based design outfit, though, thinks it may have found the answer to your armrest woes. Paperclip Design Limited has heard the flying masses’ cries and given us the double-decker Paperclip Armrest, a two-tiered bar…

Twitter for Mobile Now Lets You Mute Individual Users

Twitter appears to be quietly rolling out a long-awaited, extra sneaky feature on its mobile app. Now, users have been reporting a new option that lets you “mute” certain users. In other words, a totally undetectable unfollow. You can already mute certain users (along with keywords and hashtags) in the Twitter-acquired desktop app, Tweetdeck, but…

Ann Leckie’s novel Ancillary Justice has won the UK’s prestigious Clarke Award! We read the novel for io9’s book club, and Leckie came to chat with io9 readers about it.

Villains of Amazing Spider-Man 2: “This is OUR Origin Story!”

One thing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has going for it is villains. It’s got heaps and heaps of villains. So many villains. And we spoke exclusively to both Electro and the Green Goblin on why this movie is really all about them. io9: My first question is for Jamie. Was there ever any chance that…

The Fastest Animal (Relative to its Size) Is Really, Really Fast

The world’s fastest land animal (again: relative to its size) is Paratarsotomus macropalpis, a sesame-seed-sized mite native to southern California. Scientists recently clocked P. micropalpis traveling 322 body lengths per second – which, to scale, would be like a person running 1,300 miles per hour. Photo Credit: Samuel Rubin (W. M. Keck Science Center, Pitzer…

Here’s Exactly How Much Time You’ve Spent Binge Watching Your Fave Shows

We are, all of us, unrepentant, instant-gratification-obsessed binge TV-watchers. Fact. And while it somehow doesn’t seem so bad to settle in for a weekend with the Underwoods or Bluths or the gang from TGS, seeing the actual breakdown of time it takes to watch popular series from start to finish is… Yiiiiikes. Neilsen Top Ten…

The Next Version of OS X Might Be a Radical Change Like iOS 7

Last year at WWDC, we got a huge overhaul of Apple’s mobile operating system. And this year, it looks like OS X could be in for the same treatment. According to 9to5Mac, the upcoming OS X 10.10 is going to be a major overhaul, maybe the biggest in OS X history. 9to5Mac reports that OS…

Duration Of An Exoplanetary Day Measured For The First Time

A distant Jupiter-like world has been shown to feature the fastest rotational speed ever observed in a planet. Called Beta Pictoris b, it’s a gas giant that’s located 63 light-years from Earth and about 10 times more massive than Jupiter. Observations from the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) determined its rotation rate — a blistering…

Millions of these robotic bees may roam the world in the near future

This science-fiction infomercial was made to raise awareness of the fact that bees—which are crucial for the survival of all species, including ours*—are dying all around the world. The fact is that this video isn’t too far from the truth: bees may go extinct if we don’t act promptly and scientists are already working on…

This Hair Tie Is For Lunatics Who Need a Case For Their Fitness Tracker

Maybe you were unaware that your fitness tracker needed any accessories, but Griffin just launched a new line of these called Ribbon that are basically hair ties that cover your gym-friendly arm candy. Like a beer cozy for your Fitbit! Griffin, at least, owns up to the fact that Ribbon’s design was directly informed by…

Plush Toy Vigilantes Battle Their Greatest Foes—The Evil Sock Monkeys

In a city run by corrupt sock monkeys, the forces of Mega Plush patrol the streets, knocking the literal stuffing out of any toy that stands in their way. Matt Burniston directs the Mega Plush series of short films, introducing us to four stuffed animal vigilantes. The first film gives us the leader Mega Bear:…