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Build Your Own Society By Auditioning for the New Reality Show Utopia

Has civilization got you down, man? Ever wanted to leave this culture behind and start over? Now you can. Producers have issued a casting call for Utopia, a new reality show that’s pretty much exactly what you think it is—15 strangers, picked to live on a farm and build their own society from scratch. “This…

Planets Don’t Need A Stabilizing Moon To Be Habitable

There’s a long-held view among astrobiologists that planets need the stabilizing influence of a large moon to foster life. But a new study suggests that a stable tilt isn’t a prerequisite for habitability — and that off-kilter planets may be more hospitable to life than stable ones. Top image: ESO. Unlike Earth and its highly…

According to Recode, Yahoo is trying to persuade Apple to drop Google and make Yahoo its default iOS search engine. Because that would mean more money for Yahoo and less money for Google. The free market works!

If I Stay Trailer Forces A Teenage Ghost to Choose Life or Death

Young love, sad pop songs, and horrible death scenarios — the movie If I Stay is putting in a strong effort to be your big cry movie of 2014. Thankfully the lead ghost is played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Check out the first trailer. Based on Gayle Forman’s book, If I Stay focuses on a…

Electric Lights Are Too Expensive—Why Not Brighten The Moon?

Think of all the power it takes to light up empty parking lots at night. Think of how annoying it can be when the sun goes down, yet you didn’t finish all your work for the day. Think of how great it would be if we could just extend daytime, reduce the cost of lighting…

Who’s The Most Annoying “Funny” Side Character Of All Time?

Almost every TV, movie or book series has to have them — the comic relief characters. The silly nerd who sits in the corner and makes in-jokes. The bumbling weirdo. But who’s the most annoying “funny” supporting character in all of science fiction or fantasy? Please include a picture or clip, or book cover, showcasing…

Qatar is so fantastically shiny that it looks like a 3D render

Time bender Michael Shainblum works his time lapse magic on a place where I would totally believe magic still exists: Doha, Qatar. He shows the bustling new city of skyscrapers and constant construction next to the old world and its ancient culture. Just going around the city will feel like time traveling. “Welcome To Doha,”…

How San Francisco Sacrificed a Valley in Yosemite for Water and Power

The electricity that powers San Francisco’s streetlights, schools, and international airport begins as a torrent of water inside—of all places—the supposed natural sanctuary that is Yosemite National Park. A century ago, a pristine valley was sacrificed so that San Francisco could continue to exist. The Hetch Hetchy Power System is still responsible for San Francisco’s…

A remote-controlled machine gun riot dispersal tool installed on a wall near Bethlehem, just near the border of Palestine and Jerusalem. Spotted by several Palestinian news outlets, the weapon—which is equipped with cameras and is located very close to a mosque—was reportedly installed by Israeli forces on Sunday. Update: Pictured above is a non-lethal riot…

This Desk Keeps Your Cords In Order and Has a Built-In Whiteboard

Man it feels good to sit down at a desk where everything is in order—or so I’ve heard. Mine is always a disaster, what with the cords and cables and scattered reminder notes I’ve scrawled on bits of paper that will undoubtedly get lost in the shuffle. But this lovely specimen from Artifox looks like…

Newest Insane Cop Procedural To Star A Crime-Solving Sigmund Freud

I… he… what?! Further proving there is literally nothing American TV networks won’t turn into a crime procedural (or a hospital procedural), the father of modern psychoanalysis will use his knowledge of the oedipal complex to catch bad guys in the new series Freud: The Secret Casebook. From Deadline: Carnival Films will produce with Big…

Here’s a Map of the 47 Percent of America Where No One Lives

As anyone who’s driven through Middle America knows, it feels like there’s very few places in the U.S. that don’t have at least a few inhabitants. But as a map by cartographer Nik Freeman proves, there are still some amber waves of grain and fruited plains that remain. Emphasis on some. Highlighted on the Washington…

This Isn’t Stained Glass, It’s A Miracle Of Optics

The contrasting colors of dusking day combine with optics to great effect in Broken Mirror/Evening Sky, a captivating series of images by New York photographer Bing Wright. All images featured by kind permission of Bing Wright “The mirror is a rich metaphor,” Wright tells io9. “One could surmise all kinds of things,” he says, with…

What Happens If A Psychiatric Patient’s Madness Proves Contagious?

When a psychologist sees a patient who stabbed her mother, he assumes that she is suffering from some sort of mental illness. But as his grip on reality begins to slip, it becomes clear that something more nefarious is at work. Spira is Jon James Smith’s directorial debut, shot with a zero budget over two…

Shooting Challenge: Photo Mosaics

You’ve all seen the effect. There’s a picture, but inside that picture lives a thousand little pictures that create the pigment. The effect is called a photo mosaic. And it’s easier to make than you think. The Challenge Create a photo mosaic completely from your own photographs. They need not be taken this week. The…

Tiny Magnetic Robots Might One Day Work On Equally Tiny Assembly Lines

We’ve successfully engineered giant robot arms for building cars on an assembly line. But smaller mass-produced items—like electronics—still mostly rely on the nimble hands and fingers of a human. Building and controlling robots on a very small scale is still very difficult, but a company called SRI International may have found a clever solution using…

Curiosity Is Going To Drill Mars, Looking For Signs Of Past Life

Curiosity is going to peer beneath the red surface of Mars by drilling into it — and scientists are hoping to find signs of ancient life. The Mars HiRISE camera returned this snapshot of Curiosity having arrived at its drilling destination in the Kimberly. So just what are they hoping to find below, that they…

Can Los Angeles Become A “No Kill” City For Pets?

Here’s the thing about euthanizing animals in pet shelters: nobody wants to do it. It’s simply a consequence of an imbalance between supply and demand. More unwanted animals wind up in increasingly overcrowded shelters than are adopted out. The root of the problem is a welfare tradeoff. Is it better to house fewer animals at…

Awesome guy does awesome hand stands in awesome places on awesome trip

The biggest question when you travel the world isn’t what countries you’ll visit or what foods you’ll eat or what new things you’ll try, it’s figuring out the best way to document the whole damn thing. You can squeeze it all down to a minute, you can plan out a world tour for less than…

What Is Tizen?

This year, Samsung will sell (at least) two phones and a watch that don’t run Android. Instead, they’ll run something called Tizen. That’s a major departure for such an important player in the smartphone game. But what is Tizen? And will you actually want to use it? Tizen is a new(ish) operating system… Tizen is…