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Google Reader Data Will Be Permanently Deleted on July 15th

You’d have to be in serious denial not to know that Google Reader is officially dead as of this morning. But there has been a certain ambiguity about how long your data would be available after the rapture. No longer. July 15th is the end. In a post overnight, Google was totally clear about the…

New Elysium trailer breaks out the bonesaw on Matt Damon

The third trailer for Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium is out, showcasing the dusty, dystopian world we’ve grown to love from this director. Even when it’s covered in dirt, Blomkamp’s movie is still gorgeous. Watch as Matt Damon is beaten, sliced, revamped into a superhuman and shot into space. Is it August 9th yet?

There Are 60 Billion Habitable Planets Littering the Milky Way

A new study suggests that there are as many as 60 billion habitable planets orbiting red dwarf stars in the Milky Way alone—twice the number previously thought and strong evidence to hint that we may not be alone. A team of scientists has been reassessing the limits of the habitable zones around red dwarf stars,…

Everything You Thought Was Real in The Great Gatsby Was Visual Effects

At this point even the most gullible of filmgoers must realize that nearly every movie has been digitally enhanced in one way or another. Long gone are the days when talented VFX artists were only called on to bring spaceships and dinosaurs to life; these days directors like Baz Luhrmann spend millions on effects to…

6 Radical Infrastructure Schemes That Almost Changed NYC Forever

The East River? Oh, we dammed that thing up and threw a new City Hall on top. The Hudson? Filled it with traffic years ago. New Yorkers have never been shy about changing the natural landscape of their city, but if you dig into the archives, you’ll find dozens of ideas so radical, they make…

Red Dwarfs Could Host 60 billion Habitable Planets in the Milky Way

A new study has effectively doubled the estimated number of life-friendly planets in orbit around red dwarfs. And remarkably, the astronomers attribute the revised figure to the presence of clouds. Top illustration by Lynette Cook. We know there’s a crap-ton of terrestrial planets in the Milky Way, many of them spinning around red dwarfs —…

Hollywood making a sexier version of The Girl Who Owned a City

A big, fat movie deal for an unpublished book just broke in Hollywood. And while we know Hollywood is a giant recycling tube of unoriginal ideas, this one kind strikes close to home. The Hollywood Reporteris reporting that Warner Bros. won a big time bidding war for the rights to the unpublished YA trilogy The…

The exclusive debut of Adam Warrock’s new BSG music video “Galactica”

Nerdcore rapper Adam Warrock has sung about everything from Firefly to Marvel’s West Coast Avengers comics, and now we can add the new Battlestar Galactica series to his oeuvre. He’s just released an 8-song EP inspired by the original miniseries, and io9 is proud to debut the first track and music video, “Galactica.” You can…

An engineer has found references to 1080p Windows Phone support in Microsoft’s new Visual Studio 2013 preview—which suggests the next rash of Windows phone will offer up screens with 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The most beautiful images of Mars you’ve ever seen

Using two high-resolution photographs of the same surface, geologists can produce Digital Terrain Models (DTMs). DTMs are hugely useful to researchers looking to measure and model geological processes on other worlds. These DTMs of Mars are also absolutely gorgeous to look at. Above: Layering in Galle Crater (The “happy face crater” featured in Watchmen) |…

The shtako completely hits the fan in another game-changing Defiance

Can I tell you that I was on the edge of my seat for like 75% of last night’s Defiance? There were so many surprises, problems and changes to the status quo I have no goddamn clue what they’re going to do in next week’s finale — and I can’t wait to see it. With…

This Is Google’s New $1 Billion London HQ

Google’s about to invest a staggering amount of money in building a new UK head office, with the company applying to create an enormous, 11-storey HQ in the renovated King’s Cross area of London. The building’s multi-levelled, ranging from seven stories high at one end to 11 at the other, with Google’s architect claiming the…

The plot to kill Einstein

Let’s say that you found out that someone was conspiring to kill the most celebrated scientist of the twentieth century. What exactly would the penalty for that be? Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. It’s already been decided. And it’s not good. Einstein got his United States citizenship in 1940. At the time, he’d been in…

Watch as this Russian rocket takes a fateful nosedive [Updated!]

Earlier today, a Russian Proton-M rocket failed less than a minute after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, returning to the Earth completely aflame. A Russian newsfeed captured the entire ill-fated journey — including the massive fireball explosion. No casualties were reported, but a toxic cloud is moving towards the nearby city of Baikonur.…

New names of Pluto’s smallest known moons to be announced this morning

This morning at 9:00 am PT, the SETI Institute will announce the new names of Pluto’s smallest known moons. “Vulcan” and “Cerberus” were the public’s choices earlier this year, following a SETI-sponsored naming poll, but the International Astronomical Union – the organizing body responsible for naming planetary bodies – had final say over whether the…

What Tech Do You Use to Navigate a New City?

We’ve all been there: finding yourself in a new place—or even one you’ve visited but never lived in—there’s always bound to be the occasional wrong turn. So what tech do you use to make sure you find your way? Google Maps, natch. But are there any other apps or pieces of kit that have helped…

Christian Bale confirms he won’t play Batman in Justice League

Did Stan Lee just confirm a Black Panther movie? Del Toro says Crimson Peak will be “kinky.” Ron Perlman says Hellboy 3 could kill him. Adam Canto might be Sunspot in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The Walking Dead reveals its season premier title and a mysterious S.H.I.E.L.D. billboard appears. Spoilers ahead! Justice League It…

Apple’s Back to School Offer Nets You up to $100 of App Store Credit

Apple’s just launched its Back to School promotion, which will get people in education a $100 App Store gift card when they purchase a Mac or $50 with an iPad or iPhone. That’s a similar deal to last year, though the inclusion of the iPhone offer is new—and welome. The App Store gift card can…

If you’re a die-hard Reeder fan but are struggling now Google Reader’s dead, good news: the iOS app now supports Feedly and Feed Wrangler. Go update.

Another Russian Proton-M Rocket Crashes to Earth

The video above is showing a Proton-M rocket crashing into the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday night. This was the sixth Proton-M failure since 2011. The rocket was supposed to carry three Russian navigation satellites into Earth’s orbit, but immediately after launch some strange dark smoke leaked from one of its boosters, and…