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Some surprising names top the shortlist for Episode VII‘s Jedi hero

Girls star Adam Driver is the rumored villain in the next Star Wars, but who will play the Jedi to his possible Sith? Word is that the starring role in Episode VII is down to a handful of names, and we’re pleasantly surprised to see who’s on the list. Variety is reporting that there are…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 12 '14

A Whole Year of Taxi Rides in New York City Mapped

New York’s fleet of iconic yellow taxis are still the city’s reliable, non-surge priced transportation backbone. Its 13,500 medallion taxis make 170 million trips a year, every single one of them mapped in this beautiful new visualization from the folks at the MIT Senseable City Lab. The interactive map isn’t just here to be pretty—it’s…

Tech News Sarah Zhang Mar 12 '14

Watch This Supercut of Empty Seinfeld Scenes In Which Nothing Happens

Bless you, LJ Frezza, whomever you are, for piecing together this glorious supercut of building exteriors and empty living rooms from Seinfeld. It’s amazing how much time we spend looking at empty shots in which nothing is happening. Just a building and the sound of a couple of plunky notes played on a bass. The…

Tech News Mario Aguilar Mar 12 '14

Behold the Scough, the miraculous germ filtering scarf

Tired of the disgusting masses hacking their lung butter all over your face? Sick of inhaling poisonous chemicals during your daily commute? Then you need the Scough — part scarf, part medical filter mask. Now you can say “away germs” discreetly, while maintaining your keen fashion sense. First, check out this video collection of the…

io9 Meredith Woerner Mar 12 '14

The truth about geeks and cats

Cats have ruled the internet since its earliest days, just the way they already ruled musty bookstores and comic book shops. It’s true that many people love cats, but there are a few basic reasons why these small, furry mammals are especially relevant to geek interests. I realize that cats are not the only geek…

io9 Annalee Newitz Mar 12 '14

Scientists Can Now Herd Cells Like Cattle Using Electrical Fields

We’ve known that flesh wounds create disturbances in the skin’s bioelectric field since Emil du Bois-Reymond first placed an injured hand in a galvanometer in 1843. Thanks to a new discovery from a team at the University of Berkeley, we might soon be able to harness those currents to heal ourselves with electricity. As Bois-Reymond…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola Mar 12 '14

I can’t believe this fantastic island is real

When I first came across this photo of an impossibly sharp and tall island rising alone in the ocean I instantly thought it was fake. It’s real. Its name is Ball’s Pyramid—”the tallest volcanic stack in the world”—and it’s located just south of Lord Howe Island, off the east coast of Australia. Ball’s Pyramid is…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Mar 12 '14

Welcome to The World’s Largest Ghost City: Ordos, China

Built for over a million people, the city of Ordos was designed to be the crowning glory of Inner Mongolia. Doomed to incompletion however, this futuristic metropolis now rises empty out of the deserts of northern China. Only 2% of its buildings were ever filled; the rest has largely been left to decay, abandoned mid-construction,…

Tech News Darmon Richter Mar 12 '14

Retina iPad Minis, Aeroponics Starter Kit, Lord of the Rings [Deals]

If you’ve been lusting for a Retina iPad Mini, Best Buy is taking $50 off of 32GB and larger Wi-Fi models across the board, and $80 off the same LTE models. This is one of the best sales we’ve seen on Apple’s smaller tablet offering, and it’s only valid today. Retina iPad Mini Sale |…

Tech News Shep McAllister Mar 12 '14

2014: The year we programmed a robot to pole-dance… badly

This is a great time for the field of robotics. We’ve created robots that can traverse different worlds, made tanks controllable by goldfish, and even invented cyborg sperm. But nothing quite matches the beauty, the pure magnificence, of seeing a humanoid robot grind awkwardly on a stripper pole. In days past, men would have to…

io9 Rob Bricken Mar 12 '14

A Gorgeous NES Clone Made From a Solid Block of Aluminum

Running an emulator with a few ROMs on your laptop or smartphone is a great way to scratch a nostalgic itch for a long lost console. But for the full experience, you need a TV to crowd around with friends, real controllers, and of course the hardware. Which is where the Analogue Nt—a gorgeous aluminum…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Mar 12 '14

The Epic Tale of the Hero who Fixed his Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ Wifi

H. Jon Benjamin of Archer and Bob’s Burgers fame narrates this funny animated short, in which the quest to fix a couple’s wifi is turned into mythic video game adventure. Ballad of the Wifi Hero is adapted from Mike Lacher’s prose piece “In Which I Fix My Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ WiFi and Am Hailed as a…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 12 '14

The Secret to Holding Your Breath for 20 Minutes

Illusionist and stunt performer Harry Houdini was famously capable of holding his breath for over three minutes. But today, competitive breath-hold divers can squeeze ten, fifteen, even twenty minutes out of a single lungful of air. How do these divers do it — and how can you train to hold your breath for longer? Above:…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 12 '14

Watch as scientists “herd” cells with blasts of electricity

Researchers at Berkeley have orchestrated the flow of cell groups by using electrical currents. It’s a tissue engineering breakthrough that could eventually lead to “smart bandages” that use electricity to guide cells during the wound healing process. The process is called galvanotaxis — the use of electricity to direct cell movement. Previous studies have shown…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 12 '14

The UN’s Map of Drone Strikes Was Built By Architects

It’s rare to see architects working on security and human rights issues—but that’s exactly what’s happening right now, as a group of designers collaborate with the UN to document drone strikes in the Middle East. Think of it as forensic architecture. In fact, that’s the name of one group behind a new report put out…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Mar 12 '14

At least Lego Movie 2 is keeping one of the first movie’s directors

Good news: The Lego Movie sequel definitely has a shot at maintaining some of the original charm from the first movie, because one of the original directors is sticking around! Deadline just broke the news that while Phil Lord and and Chris Miller were staying on only as producers, the third original director Chris McKay…

io9 Meredith Woerner Mar 12 '14

Iberia from the ISS

This photograph of the Iberian Peninsula includes city lights in Spain and Portugal, and a faint, thin green glow of our atmosphere. The bright mass of lights in the center is Madrid, the Mediterranean Sea blacks out the southern border; to the west, a haze of lights dances from Lisboa to Porto in the west.…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Mar 12 '14

Now You Can Help Search for the Missing Malaysian Airlines Flight

The Boeing 777 that seemed to disappear into thin air last weekend has still not been found after five days of search and rescue. Now a crowdsourcing company has started a campaign where anyone can pore over satellite images to find traces of Flight 370 or its 239 passengers. The Colorado-based company Digital Globe sells…

Tech News Alissa Walker Mar 12 '14

Why our planet is fucked up in one single picture

National Geographic’s Your Shot member John Goodmantook this beautiful—and terrible—image north of Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles, California: “A lone surfer returns from the sea, bathed in the sodium light of an onshore industrial site.” Two ways to understand Earth clashing in one perfect image. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Mar 12 '14

This dark Seinfeld supercut shows a New York without any people

Exactly which post-Apocalyptic tragedy came along to take out Jerry and the gang is left unstated in this dark Seinfeld supercut, but whatever it is must have been pretty bad because it left the whole of New York completely devoid of people. The laugh track and the show’s signature theme song are left in, which…

io9 Ria Misra Mar 12 '14

Some surprising names top the shortlist for Episode VII‘s Jedi hero

A Whole Year of Taxi Rides in New York City Mapped

Watch This Supercut of Empty Seinfeld Scenes In Which Nothing Happens

Behold the Scough, the miraculous germ filtering scarf

The truth about geeks and cats

Scientists Can Now Herd Cells Like Cattle Using Electrical Fields

I can’t believe this fantastic island is real

Welcome to The World’s Largest Ghost City: Ordos, China

Retina iPad Minis, Aeroponics Starter Kit, Lord of the Rings [Deals]

2014: The year we programmed a robot to pole-dance… badly

A Gorgeous NES Clone Made From a Solid Block of Aluminum

The Epic Tale of the Hero who Fixed his Girlfriend’s Grandparents’ Wifi

The Secret to Holding Your Breath for 20 Minutes

Watch as scientists “herd” cells with blasts of electricity

The UN’s Map of Drone Strikes Was Built By Architects

At least Lego Movie 2 is keeping one of the first movie’s directors

Iberia from the ISS

Now You Can Help Search for the Missing Malaysian Airlines Flight

Why our planet is fucked up in one single picture

This dark Seinfeld supercut shows a New York without any people

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