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The Most Unusual Alternate History Novels Ever Published

Tired of alternate history books where the Axis won World War II, or the South won the Civil War? Luckily for you, there are a ton of allohistories that pick more obscure and interesting points of divergence. Here are 15 alt-history books (or series) that break the mold. Top image: Matthew Buchholz Just this month,…

The Most Unusual Sports in Winter Olympics History

Everybody gets the gist of the Winter Olympics. Skiing, hockey, figure skating, various sled races—we’re all familiar with the classics. But did you know that dogs once competed in the Winter Olympics? Have you heard of the sport that’s a cross between hockey and soccer? The Olympics used to be weird, man. Over the decades,…

Science Finally Figures Out How Pruney Fingers Work

The science world’s understanding of pruney bathtub fingers is shockingly thin, especially considering every great mind the world over has probably experienced it firsthand. Finally, German physicists have uncovered the mechanism that lets your fingers go all shriveled, then bounce right back to normal. And that understanding could revolutionize the materials we make. It turns…

Phillip Seymour Hoffman will be digital in his final Hunger Games scene

When Phillip Seymour Hoffman died last weekend, he apparently only had one scene left in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II left to shoot — but it was a major one. So major, it seems, that Lionsgate will be forced to digitally recreate the actor for it. FromThe Hollywood Reporter: A source with ties to…

These 1.5 Billion Pixel/Sec Buses Will Power the World’s Fastest Camera

It’s being billed as the widest-looking, fastest-shooting, deepest peering telescope on Earth. Or at least it will be when the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope comes online atop a remote Chilean mountain top in 2032. The LSST, combining cutting-edge optics and massive computing power, will scan huge swaths of the heavens and peer deeper into cosmic…

Anime Super Sale, Humble Sid Meier Bundle, The Walking Dead [Deals]

Once Amazon put up a ton of discounted anime, it wasn’t too difficult to decide what we’d headline io9 Deals with today. Evangelion, Akira, Miyazaki, Yamato… so much to choose from here, including movies, television, box sets, and lots of pre-order discounts that include pre-order price guarantee. We’ll drop a few picks below, but we…

Your skin looks really awful (and kind of beautiful) under UV lighting

I wish photographer Cara Phillips took a picture of my face like these. There’s something intriguing and beautiful about our “awful” skin imperfections. But then again, I always loved freckles. They are my favorite thing ever. Cara takes her black and white photos with UV lighting, a technique used by dermatologists to examine your skin’s…

11 Alarming Weather Flukes That Happen When it Gets Really Cold

It’s been a bit nippy out lately. And by “a bit nippy,” I mean the world we once knew has been replaced by an ice-bound hellscape. On the plus side, this means we get to see some of nature’s weirder responses to extreme cold. Here are 11 strange things that happen when the temperature gets…

Hands Down the Easiest Way To Make Ice Spheres

Have you seen some of the contraptions needed to make those sphere-shaped ice cubes that are all the rage? They look like they belong in a factory stamping out auto parts from sheet metal. This silicone Frozen Peas mould looks infinitely easier—and so much more adorable. An open seam running down one side of the…

In Brooklyn’s Sunset Park a 2,579,789 gallon storage tank stands tall amongst the rest of the neighborhood’s buildings. It’s part of US Power Generating Company‘s “Narrows” Gas Turbine Facility; overall the company is capable of powering 20% of New York City. [Image – Nicholas Stango]

Comic shows how to turn your winter Hell into a fantasy quest

Tired of piling on the layers, ordering delivery, and living your life as prisoner to the weather? Well then CHANGE THE GAME. Getting milk isn’t a bastard cold chore, it’s a challenge. Behold how you can turn your wintery nightmare into an epic RPG quest. Created by Julia Lepetit AND Andrew Bridgman for Dorkly, this…

Human and dolphin surfing together—and other beautiful images from Oz

Matt Hutton fell in love with photography at age seven in his native Australia. He’s also in love with his country, which he travels working for Rio Tinto Rail, a railroad company that transports ore across the big Oz. I don’t blame him. Just look at the beautiful photos he sent us. You can follow…

5 Reasons SoundCloud With Major Label Music Could Be Amazing

Most of the music services available today have more or less the same music, so they distinguish themselves with third-party apps, free versions, improved designs, mixtape-style playlists, and other attractive features. On-demand music services have the same music (more or less) because the same copyright holders decide which songs to put on subscription services, and…

Silent raw footage of the bombing of Nagasaki is absolutely chilling

This 11-minute video takes us from the preparations of the Fat Man nuclear weapon, its loading onto the plane Bockscar, and the explosion of the bomb in Nagasaki. It’s a sobering look at this catastrophically destructive technology and a reminder of the toll it took in human lives. YouTube user RestrictedData uploaded this video and…

Myke Cole’s Breach Zone is like The Dark Knight Rises with sorcery

The final volume of Myke Cole’s Shadow Ops trilogy, Breach Zone, has a distinct Dark Knight Rises vibe to it — appropriate, given that Cole worked on the film as an fighting extra in one of the film’s battle scenes. It’s all about a city in chaos, and what happens when people are pushed to…

The Most Unfortunate Design Flaws in the Human Body

Sometimes evolution is stupid, and the human body is proof. Here are the most problematic physical and behavioral “scars of evolution” we humans have to deal with. The human body is, in many respects, a resounding tribute to the adaptive powers of natural selection. We’ve evolved gloriously large, complex brains capable of abstract thought and…

Toilet Seats Should Have Come With Built-In Nightlights From Day One

Outside of cartoonish decals there hasn’t been much innovation in the toilet seat industry for a few decades. So it’s nice to see Kohler finally bringing something new to the table (err, toilet). A built-in LED nightlight means you’ll never have to squint your way through an overnight bathroom break again. Available on Kohler’s Cachet…

The Real-Life Monument Men: How American Scholars Went to War For Art

They came from the best museums and universities in the country: Art historians, curators, artists and architects who probably never dreamed of joining the army. This band of unlikely soldiers was tasked with the uniquely challenging job of finding—and saving—Europe’s great masterpieces before the Nazis could steal or destroy them. They were called “Monument Men.”…

Insane people walk a line between hot air balloons above the clouds

Tight rope walking is terrifying on its own. If the tightrope is between hot air balloons, itgets mind-bendingly nuts. Just watch The Skyliners do it and you’ll see what I mean. This is totally safe because everyone involved is wearing a parachute, but whenever you see one of these well-balanced badasses fall despite their best…

Hackers Have Stolen $40,000 From Bitcoin’s Biggest Wallet Service

If you’re looking to dive into the exciting world of Bitcoin, chances are you’re going to get your start with Coinbase, one of the more reputable of wallet services that boasts about $15 million in Bitcoin transactions per month. As one TechCrunch editorsaid, “It’s the one I would tell my mom to use.” But even…