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The CIA Has a Vast Database of International Money Transfers

The Central Intelligence Agency has been busy aggregating a huge database of international money transfers, according to the Wall Street Journal—and it includes millions of Americans’ financial and personal data. The initiative apparently collects data from US money-transfer companies like Western Union, and is able to run because of the Patriot Act—the same act that…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

FCC Chairman: I Want Carriers to Allow Phone Unlocking

The newly crowned chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, is clearly an ambitious man: he’s on a crusade to get carriers to allow phone unlocking. Despite having been in post for less than a month, he’s written a letter—that’s, oddly, how these things still work—to the CTIA explaining that he thinks that it’s…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Watch people get pranked into thinking they’re trapped in an IKEA room

This is hilarious. Imagine shopping inside IKEA and hopping inside one of those strategically decorated rooms where every single thing has a price tag and playing with the faucet and looking at all the weird Swedish names and then… realizing you have no idea how to get out. That’s because you’ve just been pranked. There’s…

Sploid Casey Chan

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Are You Confused?

I know I am.

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

Google is Jesus in the only good plot development on Revolution

At this point, the post-apocalyptic American politics on Revolution have become the “torture and sadism” subplot. So now all we have left to enjoy is the nanotech plot – and luckily, last night’s episode delivered in that department. Here’s the best scene. We got a little back story on the Patriots’ chief scientist, whose father…

Television Annalee Newitz

Robot deers catch illegal hunters who shoot at them

Though it may look like a deer, though it may move like a deer and though it may even smell like a deer… it still might just be a robotic deer that officials use to catch illegal deer hunters. Like the robot deer above, who totally looks like a normal deer but actually got a…

Sploid Casey Chan

Everything you didn’t notice about Back to the Future

Usually, CinemaSins makes a hilarious video pointing out all the goofy errors and everything wrong with a popular movie and we all get a good laugh out of it. But when it comes to a classic like Back to the Future, well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that masterpiece of cinema! Not Doc Brown’s…

Sploid Casey Chan

Erupting volcano blows unbelievably perfect smoke rings

Think you’re cool cause you can blow o’s when you smoke? Mother Nature has still got you beat. Mount Etna in Sicily, Italy took a little break from erupting to blow O-shaped smoke rings hundreds of feet in diameter to make every smoker and pot head in the world jealous. Just look at it. It’s…

Sploid Casey Chan

Being a paratrooper looks way more fun than any other job

If you’re sitting at a cubicle or inside one of those new age open offices or stuck in a dorm room or in class or anywhere there’s a computer on a table and you’re sitting in a chair, sorry. Because this is what Air Force paratroopers get to do at their job. My God it…

Sploid Casey Chan

Did a UFO cause this plane to crash in Argentina?

A mysterious crop duster crash in Argentina has yielded bizarre evidence of a UFO! See it there, in the upper right corner of the picture? Could aliens be trying to send us a message about the problems of factory farming? Reports Inexplicata: An unidentified flying object – presumably a “flying saucer” – was photographed by…

io9 Annalee Newitz

What if the Bayeux Tapestry told the history of Doctor Who?

We only just saw the prequel minisode to the Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, which turned our while idea of the Doctor’s history on its head. So this is a great time to have a refresher course in all things Doctor-related, with a Doctor Who-themed Bayeux Tapestry. This tapestry is the work of Bill Mudron, whose…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

How the hell did they cram an aircraft engine inside this van?

This rather nondescript van is being powered by something much more beastly than your usual pistons: an actual airplane turbine engine. Seriously, over in Russia they crammed a real gas turbine engine inside this van (it fills up the whole van, basically) with gigantic hoses, an humongous fuel tank and a sweet control panel. It’s…

Sploid Casey Chan

Comment of the Day: JJ Abrams and the Case of the Disappearing Words

Today, we compared cliff notes on the classic novels we just can’t make it through, asked when we would finally be able to 3D print a wooly mammoth skeleton of our very own (today!), and weighed the truth of J.J. Abrams’ number one pet peeve about futuristic fiction. In this post, we looked at a…

io9 Ria Misra

12 Years of Deforestation in One Sobering Animation

What do you get when Google, the University of Maryland, and NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite team up? A very sobering view of man’s impact on the earth. It only took us 12 years to destroy all that forest. https://gizmodo.com/the-landsat-program-is-the-closest-well-ever-get-to-cap-5982702 If the findings are disheartening, the method involved is at least fascinating. Using data from the…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich

Here’s what it’s like to live with an invisible disability

What happens when you have a disability that’s so embarrassing that sufferers are afraid to talk about it? Tessa Miller has written an incredible essay about life with irritable bowel disease, shedding light on what it means to live with an invisible disability. Miller, who writes for io9’s sister site Lifehacker, posted her article on…

io9 Annalee Newitz

It’s hard to believe that this is in our planet

The ferocious teeth of the Earth dragon—the sand seas of the Namibia desert as captured by South Korea’s Kompsat-2 satellite. The complete photo at high definition and its description from the European Space Agency follows: The blue and white area is the dry river bed of the Tsauchab. Black dots of vegetation are concentrated close…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

American Horror Story resurrects a bitchy witch

Last night’s American Horror Story had all sorts of bitchy witching. So “Witch Up,” ladies, and bust out the “We don’t have the rights to Quija” board, because it’s time to fuck with some ghosts. Probably literally, knowing this show. Spoilers ahead… Last night’s historical witch flashback focused on a coven of suffragettes. And these…

io9 Meredith Woerner

These Pencils Eventually Sharpen Into Spinning Tops

What do you normally do when you’ve sharpened a pencil down to a nub—just throw it away? That’s the most likely outcome, but if you opt for these wonderful Spincils, you’re instead left with a spinning top to add to your collection of desktop distractions. But the Spincils are beyond just recycled toys; they’re individual…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

What Finally Makes Train Travel Bearable Might Be… Starbucks?

Trains are awesome. Their serpentine strings of steel cars travel hundreds of miles an hour, yet give passengers enough stability to sip a tasty beverage. On the other hand, trains are awful. Have you ever seen the sickly cafe cars that serve those drinks? That’s all about to change, however, at least for anyone riding…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

The Greatest Soviet Propaganda Posters Ever

We’ve seen some space propaganda, anti-alcohol posters, and even anti-Communist political propaganda. And now, we present the very best, in high resolution, ready for your desktop. The revolution marches on, comrades! https://gizmodo.com/inspiring-and-intense-soviet-space-propaganda-posters-1213553199 https://gizmodo.com/these-soviet-anti-alcohol-posters-offer-a-lurid-view-of-451625435 https://gizmodo.com/anti-communist-propaganda-is-more-awesome-than-any-horr-1460028336 Freedom, American Style Pictured above. Top-left: “Freedom of Press” (with the words lies and slander on the ducks) Top-right: Freedom of…

io9 Vincze Miklós

The CIA Has a Vast Database of International Money Transfers

FCC Chairman: I Want Carriers to Allow Phone Unlocking

Watch people get pranked into thinking they’re trapped in an IKEA room

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Are You Confused?

Google is Jesus in the only good plot development on Revolution

Robot deers catch illegal hunters who shoot at them

Everything you didn’t notice about Back to the Future

Erupting volcano blows unbelievably perfect smoke rings

Being a paratrooper looks way more fun than any other job

Did a UFO cause this plane to crash in Argentina?

What if the Bayeux Tapestry told the history of Doctor Who?

How the hell did they cram an aircraft engine inside this van?

Comment of the Day: JJ Abrams and the Case of the Disappearing Words

12 Years of Deforestation in One Sobering Animation

Here’s what it’s like to live with an invisible disability

It’s hard to believe that this is in our planet

American Horror Story resurrects a bitchy witch

These Pencils Eventually Sharpen Into Spinning Tops

What Finally Makes Train Travel Bearable Might Be… Starbucks?

The Greatest Soviet Propaganda Posters Ever

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