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Perfect Spacewalk Photos of the Real Luca Skywalker

No doubt: the following spacewalk photos are the best I have seen in a very long time. I just cannot stop staring at the stunning photos captured during the spacewalk of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA’s Chris Cassidy, on the 9th of July, released by the European Space Agency today on its webpage and…

These RPG Campaigns Will Keep You Busy All Summer Long

The best way to spend summer vacation is playing tabletop RPGs with your friends, obviously. Whether you’re into swords and wizards or prefer technomancers and secret agents, here are eight awesome RPG campaigns to occupy those hazy afternoons and summer nights. The eight role-playing systems here run the gamut, from old-school simulationist dice-fests to more…

I dearly love Joss Whedon, but everything Buffy the Vampire Slayer did, Xena: Warrior Princess did first. Read the rest of this epic comment here.

Watch Cities Rise Decade by Decade in These Amazing 3D Animations

It’s hard to imagine that the vast skylines of our major cities were once empty space and unused tracts of land. But the rapid urban growth over the last century is nothing short of astounding, especially when condensed down to simple two minute animations. The 3D flyover renderings were created by a real-estate company called…

Why does this fire keep burning, even after you smother it?

Want to see a fire that’s so determined that it will burn merrily away even though you rob it of oxygen? Then grab a big block of dry ice and some magnesium and prepare for horror! …and cool visual effects. Dry ice, which is carbon dioxide in its frozen form, is generally a great way…

Everything This Electric Bike Needs Is Crammed Into Its Front Left Fork

It’s usually pretty easy to spot an electric bike coming down the road. Besides the lack of pedaling, they also feature over-sized frames packed with batteries, or bulbous hubs on the side of the wheels for the electric motor. But not Electrolyte’s e-bikes. All of the required components—including the battery, electronics, and electric motor—are hidden…

Oh, good, Day of the Dead is getting remade… again

George Romero’s Day of the Dead didn’t exactly burn up the box office when it came outin 1985, but it was a smash compared to the very loosely adapted “remake,” which was released straight-to-DVD in 2008. But someone is remaking it again, so maybe the third time will be the charm (probably not, though). The…

Microsoft’s Corporate Shakeup Further Merges Windows Products

In a move that only further closes the gap between the quickly merging Windows worlds, Microsoft has shuffled itself around in what Steve Ballmer terms “a far-reaching realignment of the company.” More specifically, Terry Myerson—formerly of Windows phone fame specifically—will be heading up the entire OS department, including Windows and Xbox software and systems. Additionally,…

10 Science Fiction TV Spin-offs That Are Great in their Own Right

Soon enough, we’re going to be watching spin-offs of The Vampire Diaries and Once Upon a Time, proving that too much of a good thing is never enough. Spin-offs often seem like pointless cash grabs — but there have been some fantastic exceptions. Here are 10 science fiction and fantasy spin-offs that actually rule. 10.…

9 Vintage Vending Machines From a Time When They’d Sell Anything

Vending machines didn’t always just sling soda and smokes. Did you know the automated peddlers have been around for about two thousand years? In fact, the very first vending machine was invented by first-century mathematician Hero of Alexandria to dispense holy water using a series of valves, pulleys, and weights. And they’ve been stuffed with…

Sophisticated chatbot poses as teenage girl to lure pedophiles

Spanish researchers have developed an advanced — and extremely convincing — chatbot that poses as a 14-year-old girl. Called Negobot, the system will help authorities detect sexual predators in chatrooms and social networks. To sniff out pedophilic behavior, the “conversational agent” utilizes natural language processing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and even game theory — a…

Prepare for a Nerf apocalypse with the new Zombie Strike line!

Who says the zombie apocalypse can’t be fun? io9 is proud to bring you the exclusive reveal of Nerf’s awesome new Zombie Strike line, featuring shotguns, crossbow, swords and more. All aspiring zombie hunters are going to want to get their hands on these ASAP, so check out the entire 2013-14 line-up! Above is the…

Holy crap this waterspout is enormous

A positively massive and downright otherworldy waterspout vortex formed over Tampa Bay, Florida on Tuesday. WDRB meteorologist Jeremy Kappell shared the above photograph to Facebook. Said one commenter: “Thats freakin aliens stealing our water………” In fact, waterspouts are just non-supercell tornados that form over water. Via the American Meteorological Society: Waterspouts occur most frequently in…

This Is (Almost Certainly) What Nokia’s Lumia 1020 Will Look Like (Update: Video too!)

We’ve already seen a leaked set of specs ahead of today’s expected launch of Nokia’s new Lumia 1020. But now the Verge has come across press shots and final specs for the new phone. According to the Verge, the 1020 will pack a 41-megapixel camera with PureView branding, a 4.5-inch AMOLED display, 2GB of RAM,…

The BBC’s Doctor Who docudrama gets the first Doctor exactly right

Shockingly, that’s not an old picture of William Hartnell as the first Doctor. That’s actor David Bradley as Hartnell, in the first promo picture for Mark Gatiss’ An Adventure in Time and Space, the docudrama retelling the creation of Doctor Who. Bradley — who you might recognize as cranky janitorial staffer Argus Filch from the…

A Massive Glacial Crack Just Made an Iceberg as Big as New York City

A massive crack in the Pine Island glacier (PIG) in Antarctica has created a massive iceberg—which is as big as New York City. While cracks in glaciers are common—PIG cracked in 2001 and 2007—this one took longer to propagate, which meant that more ice has accumulated by the time giant iceberg broke away. The German…

What is the evolutionary advantage of death?

Taxes may be inevitable, but death is an evolutionary puzzle. Owl skeleton photographed by mugley, via The Conversation We are all getting older. The average human lifespan has doubled in the past one hundred years, prompting claims that 60 is the new 40 and 50 the new 20. But decade relabelling aside, we are still…

Futurama gets a current event just right

“The Inhuman Torch” shows off how fun Futurama is when it features a great parody of current events. It stumbles, a little, when it comes to the relationships in the show — but at least it has Zapp Brannigan. It starts with Zapp showing off his trademark incompetence as he collapses a mine shaft into…

Rare Egyptian Sphinx discovered in Israel — well, its paws, anyway

Archaeologists working at a site in Tel Hazor National Park in north Israel have unearthed the base of a unique sphinx. It features a hieroglyphic inscription linking it to an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was one of the builders of the Giza pyramids. These adorable little paws date back to 2,500 BCE. It was discovered…

Lumia 1020 Spec Leak: 41 Megapixels, 1.5GHz Chip, 4.5-Inch Screen

A supposed spec sheet for the forthcoming Nokia Lumia 1020 has popped up online, confirming, if it’s to be believed, that the 1020 will indeed be a photography-themed device, powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core Snapdragon chipset on a modest 4.5-inch 1280 x 768 display. As we’ve seen in apparent photos taken with the device, the…