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Peter Capaldi’s first Doctor Who episode could have a surprising cameo

Check out the set photo of a very awkward hug between the latest Doctor, Peter Capaldi, and his companion Clara (via Ryan Farrell). What’s going on in this scene? We have the first hint, and it involves a huge, spoilery cameo by the absolute last person you’d expect. One of Bleeding Cool‘s readers was on…

The Godfather Trilogy, Cards Against Humanity, Game Of Thrones [Deals]

We’re going to make you an offer you can’t refuse. All three Godfather films, on blu-ray, with a ton of extras, for $17, today only. I’ve always found the picture quality of the Godfather DVD set to be lacking, so this is a particularly great blu-ray trio to own. [Amazon] The Godfather Collection [Blu-ray] |…

Loki isn’t the only mischief-maker in the Thor 2 gag reel

Even gods can fall on their divine asses, as this gag reel from Thor: The Dark World reveals. Actually, since it’s short and it doesn’t include any flubbed lines, I’m betting it’s just a small snippet of a larger gag reel, designed to make us want to buy the Blu-ray on February 25th. Guys, you…

Today, NASA pays homage to its fallen astronauts with an Agency-wide “Day of Remembrance.” This week marks the anniversaries of three NASA tragedies: the Apollo 1 fire of 1967, the Challenger disaster of 1986 and the Columbia disaster of 2003. Read more about the ceremony on SPACE.com.

The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base… in Alaska?

An absolutely fascinating but little-known story—described as a “forgotten theater” by the U.S. Navy itself—is the tale of Kiska and Attu, Alaska: two remote Aleutian islands where the Japanese military established a submarine base during World War II. The islands—surprisingly close to the outer edge of the Japanese archipelago—were to serve as a landing point…

How Drug Trafficking Worsens the Problem of Deforestation

The rainforests of the world are rapidly disappearing due to a range of issues, including illegal logging and cattle ranching. Now, researchers have pinpointed another surprising factor in the destruction of the rainforests in Central America: Drug trafficking. Kendra McSweeney is a geographer at the Ohio State University, who is trained in human environment relations.…

The Government’s Secret Research into Climate Change as a Security Risk

Plenty of people still doubt that climate change is a real thing, or that it was engineered by humans and accelerating. But national security hawks agree with the scientific consensus that climate change is a real and growing problem. And they’ve done tons of research predicting the wars and disasters it could cause. Image: NASA…

A Walk Though NYC’s Insane Super Bowl Boulevard

The stretch of Broadway that runs through Midtown Manhattan is always an overwhelming sensory experience—but, this week, it’s even more intense. A thirteen-block stretch of the street has been transformed into a crazy Super Bowl mega-event. We checked it out so you wouldn’t have to. The converted Super Bowl version of Broadway begins right outside…

Director Neil Marshall goes from Game of Thrones to Constantine

Neil Marshall, the director that pulled off the most insane episode of Game Of Thrones, “Blackwater,” and the best horror movie ever made, The Descent, will direct the pilot of the Constantine TV series. Could this show actually be good? Deadline is reporting that Marshall has signed on to direct the pilot episode of this…

The Mob Is Secretly Dumping Nuclear Waste Across Italy and Africa

Organized crime is famously good at exploiting time-sensitive industries like construction, fishing, and—of course—garbage removal. But revelations about millions of tons of toxic waste buried haphazardly and illegally by the mob are causing an uproar in southern Italy, where cancer rates are nearly 50 percent higher than the average in certain areas. It all began…

Craving a new military science fiction thrillride? Pick up these books

Terms of Enlistment and Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos are entertaining military SF fare, hitting all the same chords as John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. Author Marko Kloos introduces a stagnant human population on Earth, a powerful military apparatus and a formidable alien threat that pushes his central protagonist, Andrew Greyson, to his limits.…

Roku 3 for $70, Surface Pro, iMacs and MacBooks Galore [Deals]

If you don’t mind buying refurbished, you can get a Roku 3 today from Newegg for less than the price of a Roku 2, complete with a motion sensing remote, USB and ethernet ports, and the fastest processor in the Roku line. https://gizmodo.com/roku-3-review-the-new-best-streaming-box-5991159 Refurb Roku 3 | $70 with Promo Code EMCPWGW37 Welcome to io9…

Can Portland Fix a Building That Pretty Much Everyone Despises?

It’s basically a Portlandia sketch: What if a city held a rally to save a building in trouble and no one came? As part of our series Preservation Battle, we look at significant structures at a crossroads, and today we’re examining Portland, Oregon’s very-endangered—yet almost-universally-hated—Portland Building. Designed in 1982 by Target teapot-designing architect Michael Graves,…

This GPS Lightning Adapter Makes Cheap iPads Location-Aware

If you decided to save a few bucks and opt for an iPad without cellular hardware, it also means you bought yourself a tablet without GPS. Wi-Fi hotspot locations help it guesstimate your locations, but if you want better results, you’ll have to spring $130 for Bad Elf’s tiny GPS module. Ironically, $130 is the…

Meet your new Lex Luthor: Jesse Eisenberg

Jesse Eisenberg is going to bring all the creepy affectless hostility he cultivated in the Social Network to the role of Lex Luthor in Batman Vs. Superman, the sequel to last summer’s Man of Steel. And you’ll never guess who’s the new Alfred. Jeremy Irons, star of Dead Ringers and The Lion King, will be…

It’s Hard to Believe These Majestic Light Pillars Are Actually On Earth

Winter does all kinds of weird things to the sky, including make it look like we live on an exotic alien planet circling Vega. NASA just posted this mind-bending 360º view of light pillars in Finland. The agency describes the spectacle: The spherical panoramic image mosaic maps a view from Siilinjärvi in eastern Finland. Flat…

The 14 Ridiculously Bizarre Origins, Lives, and Retcons of Wonder Girl

We’ve previously discussed how Hawkman is a supremely confusing comic book character, thanks to his cluttered character history. But he’s a marvel of concise storytelling compared to Wonder Girl, arguably the most fucked-up character in all comics. Here a list of all the different ways DC tried to make the junior Wonder Woman make sense.…

The Most Popular Tech Words in Porn Titles

Where there’s new technology, there’s porn. Always. Always. But which consumer electronics feature most prominently in pornography? Researchers at Sexualitics have developed Porngram, an interactive graph of the most popular terms in porn titles, that helped us find out. https://gizmodo.com/google-glass-is-getting-a-porn-app-510232293 In their recent paper, Sexualitics performed a “quantitative analysis of online pornography,” combing through nearly…

What It’s Like To Drive Infiniti’s Crazy Drive-By-Wire Steering Tech

Living in New York City, I don’t drive very much these days. I still like a hot car and I love driving, especially on the vast and sometimes 80 mph speed limit Texas highways I grew up on. Is it fast? I’m in. Does it look cool? Done. Does it make me look even cooler?…

Real Madrid’s new space age stadium is fully covered in titanium

There are very few stadiums in the world that leave you truly speechless when you walk in. Maracanã is one of them. The other one is Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu, the best club of the 20th century. The famous coliseum is getting a major remake. It looks like a spaceship about to start abducting people.…