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Meet the people who want to build our first starship

Recently, a group of scientists, engineers, and scifi writers gathered at the Royal Astronomical Society to discuss the latest ideas about how interstellar travel might actually happen. Here’s what they talked about. Top image: Daedalus Class Starship as conceived by Sean Robertson. Indeed, as a new The Economist article points out, starship research is enjoying…

io9 George Dvorsky

Halloween Cocktails + Dry Ice: A Spooky, Drunken Primer

Dry ice is one of the most tried and true Halloween special effects. Simply drop a chunk into a liquid, then it begins to “boil” and emit a dense, creepy fog. Not only that, it’s cheap, simple to use, and way easier to find than you probably thought. It also happens to be fantastic—and fantastically…

Tech News Brent Rose

Just a Couple of Guys Performing Camera Surgery in a Glass Box

Amongst the typical trade-show demo stations and displays at this year’s Photoplus convention in NYC, Sony decided to show off its camera repair process with two dudes poking at DSLRs in a glowing white cube. The repair specialists seemed to be working on actual work orders, complete with paperwork and all. Most of what they…

Tech News Michael Hession

Are these insane photos real or just images from movies and games?

War photographs aren’t grainy or blurry or dark anymore. Now they are so crispy, clean and dramatic that my brain has problems admitting they are real. Or are they? This collection of awesome combat images are a good example of that. They feel like perfect special effects shots taken out of sci-fi movies or video…

Sploid Jesus Diaz

Thank God for Moms on Facebook

We’ve all heard people long for Facebook’s lawless pre-parent days. Back then, it was anything goes—a land filled with photos of keg stands without consequence and all the cussing you could muster. Those people are wrong. Facebook is better with moms. Moms are awesome. Moms on Facebook are even more awesome. Do they embarrass you?…

Social Media Leslie Horn

This Drive-In Theater Uses Junk Cars As Audience Seating

You might miss Empire Drive-In if you don’t know it’s there. This theater looks like the average junkyard, full of old cars and salvaged wood. Yet on nights and weekends, it transforms into a one-of-a-kind movie theater with a twist: The junked cars are the seats. On Saturday I payed a visit to the Empire…

Tech News Nicholas Stango

Amnesty Ads Create a Portal into Real World Violence

Amnesty International hosted a very smart ad campaign on the streets of Zurich, titled “It’s not happening here. But it’s happening now.” We think the images speak for themselves. Images by Walker Werbeagentur. [via Upworthy]

io9 Meredith Woerner

An Indestructible Marker Keeps You Vandalizing Through the Apocalypse

Just because the world as we know it has come to an end doesn’t mean that people won’t want to read an amusing limerick written on a bathroom stall. And for just $8, this Pocket Shark Tactical Marker is guaranteed to survive almost anything—from a Mad Max-style dystopia, to even a zombie uprising. Let’s see…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

The FBI Just Scooped up $28.5 Million in Bitcoin from Silk Road

As of Friday afternoon, the FBI had managed to seize 144,000 bitcoins from Silk Road’s founder. Worth some $28.5 million in current exchange rates, that’s the largest ever seizure of the cryptocurrency. But based on the Bitcoin trail uncovered in recent weeks, over $50 million could still be missing. https://gizmodo.com/silk-road-kingpin-apparently-hid-a-stash-of-80-million-1441291682 To be more specific, the…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

This Week in Time Capsules: Huey Lewis and the Canoes

This week in our time capsule news round-up we have questions about the World Series of 2213, the retro-futuristic death of a monorail in Australia, and a bunch of 1988 music that’s scheduled to be unearthed 75 years from today. Boundary Waters Capsule Filled With Fishing Lures, Greatest Hits of 1988 A time capsule in…

Tech News Matt Novak

Seriously, though – does sex count as exercise?

Somewhere near the top of every single one of the the roughly forty-kajillion internet listicles dedicated to the “surprising,” “hidden,” and “unexpected” health benefits of sex is the not-all-that-surprising-sounding factoid that bumping fuzzies basically doubles as exercise. In reality, however, there has been very little research done to support this claim. Above: Olivia Newton John…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Why the U.S. Government Needs a “Digital Core”

If you’ve been watching C-SPAN—and who hasn’t?—you’ll know the House Energy and Commerce Committee started hearings yesterday with the government contractors for HealthCare.gov, the maybe-not-quite-ready-for-prime-time website for the Affordable Care Act. Ostensibly, these hearings are a way for opponents to poke more holes in Obamacare, but it’s also a bleak reminder of the true role…

Tech News Alissa Walker

Gail Carriger’s new music video will have you dancing in your airship

Here’s an exclusive first look at a new music video promoting Gail Carriger’s book Curtsies & Conspiracies. It’s the cutest thing we’ve seen in days — but be warned: Major earworm. You will be singing this one in the shower on Monday. Gotta love any song that rhymes “irritable” and “dirigible.” And the animation, mixing…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

How Combat Medicine is Fighting to Keep More Troops Alive

When a nation sends its citizens to war, there are few things more important than providing the best treatment possible after they get injured in the line of duty. Thankfully, combat medicine has responded and evolved, steadily improving the survival chances of those injured on the battlefield. Top Image: Capt. Billie Matthews, Spc. Lauren Bentley…

io9 Michael Keller — Txchnologist

This Graphene-Coated Silicon Power Cell Signals a Battery-Free Future

Imagine a future without batteries. But in the same future, your cell phone charges in minutes and stays charged for weeks. Thanks to the world’s first silicon power cell, this future might not be so far away—and graphene is helping us get there. A team of engineers at Vanderbilt just built such a device. Their…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Once Upon A Time in Wonderland just dropped a big old Star Wars bomb

Once Upon A Time’s Wonderland is really more like Candyland — if all the pieces were sleeping together and sometimes talked about Star Wars. So apparently Star Wars IS another realm these characters can hop into. Mother of God. In the clip above, Jafar (dressed as David Chappelle dressed up as Prince) and a tiny…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Kim Stanley Robinson brings the Neolithic to life in Shaman

Kim Stanley Robinson is known for his meticulous worldbuilding. So when Robinson heads to neolithic Europe for his newest novel Shaman, Robinson creates a world that has familiar outlines — but resists both clichés and lazy assumptions about prehistoric life. Spoilers ahead… First, it must be pointed out, Shaman is not a science fiction book.…

Books & Comics Michael Ann Dobbs

The Captain America 2 trailer already has its “F*ck Yeah!” remix

And it is predictably, patriotically glorious. Warning: Besides NSFW language, watching this video may cause nearby eagles to cry tears of joy while passing overhead.

io9 Rob Bricken

A Brief History of Painkillers (And Why They Work)

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without pain relief. We depend on these drugs to an unspeakable degree, yet few of us know what’s available or how they even work. Here’s a quick primer on painkillers and why they’re so good at easing the pain. We deal with pain on an almost daily basis.…

io9 George Dvorsky

Tokyo Is Rethinking Its Gargantuan Olympic Stadium

A coalition of Japanese architects have said what everyone else was too polite to say: That Zaha Hadid-designed stadium is just too big, too expensive, and too impractical. Japanese officials have announced plans to scale back the design, which would cost $3.1 billion to build according to a recent budget update. For reference, that’s more…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Meet the people who want to build our first starship

Halloween Cocktails + Dry Ice: A Spooky, Drunken Primer

Just a Couple of Guys Performing Camera Surgery in a Glass Box

Are these insane photos real or just images from movies and games?

Thank God for Moms on Facebook

This Drive-In Theater Uses Junk Cars As Audience Seating

Amnesty Ads Create a Portal into Real World Violence

An Indestructible Marker Keeps You Vandalizing Through the Apocalypse

The FBI Just Scooped up $28.5 Million in Bitcoin from Silk Road

This Week in Time Capsules: Huey Lewis and the Canoes

Seriously, though – does sex count as exercise?

Why the U.S. Government Needs a “Digital Core”

Gail Carriger’s new music video will have you dancing in your airship

How Combat Medicine is Fighting to Keep More Troops Alive

This Graphene-Coated Silicon Power Cell Signals a Battery-Free Future

Once Upon A Time in Wonderland just dropped a big old Star Wars bomb

Kim Stanley Robinson brings the Neolithic to life in Shaman

The Captain America 2 trailer already has its “F*ck Yeah!” remix

A Brief History of Painkillers (And Why They Work)

Tokyo Is Rethinking Its Gargantuan Olympic Stadium

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