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WTF: A Steven Spielberg Show Where The Cute Kid is the Best Character

Seriously, Falling Skies is defying all your explanations for a show made by Steven Spielberg. For one thing, when it manages to get back to its original wheelhouse of being a gritty war show, it’s powerful. But also, the cute little kid is actually the best character on the show. Last night’s episode really showcased…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Scientist Drinks Billion-Year-Old Water Just to See What It’s Like

So remember about a month ago when scientists in Canada found the oldest undisturbed water cache ever? The one that had been stagnant beneath a rock for roughly 1.5 billion years? And that might hold the remains of prehistoric life? Yeah, don’t drink that; it tastes like crap. Or so says Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar.…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Your Fix of Sexy Japanese Cyborgs With Weaponized Breasts

Check out the first trailer for 009ノ1: The End of the Beginning, the live-action version of the classic 1960s-1970s manga. This looks like the next great low-budget Japansploitation film, along the lines of Robo-Geisha and Machine Girl — complete with machine-gun breasts (not shown.) 009ノ1 was created by Shotaro Ishinomori, and it’s the more “adult”…

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders

The Coolest Flags in Human History

A flag embodies the hopes and aspirations of a country or state. It’s more than just an emblem — it’s a grand statement. So it’s too bad so many flags are kind of boring. Here are some flags from throughout history (plus a few current ones) that bring some serious pizzazz. Above: the flag of…

io9 Vincze Miklós

The List: U.S. Releases Names of Gitmo Prisoners

Thanks to a New York Times freedom of information request, we can now see (almost) all the names of the prisoners still held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, a dozen years into the War On Terror. “Continued detention” is the future for most of them. http://gawker.com/here-is-a-list-of-everyone-currently-rotting-in-guantan-513892845

Sploid Ken Layne

Nothing is more mysterious and terrifying than . . . The Coffee Table!

What happens when your quirky new coffee table turns out to be an alien artifact that can transcend space and time? Find out, in this goofy new web series. Yep, it’s another scifi comedy series from Seattle geek auteur Scotto Moore. It took 60 people three years to make this series, from the first script…

Television Annalee Newitz

Zeta Primes – Doors

The Riemann Hypothesis, which deals with the distribution of prime numbers, was first put forth by mathematician Bernhard Reimann in 1859. It has yet to be fully proven and remains one of the most important unproven theories in mathematics. It’s so important that the Cray Mathematics Institute is even offering a $1 million purse to…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

20 Ways to Hack a Classic Eames Side Chair

When Ray and Charles Eames’ classic molded side chair was first produced, in 1951, it was one of the first industrially-manufactured plastic chairs on the market. The wonder of technology went on to become a much-loved classic—today, it’s enjoying a renewed popularity thanks to the popularity of Mid-Century modernism. The side chair may be a…

Tech News Leslie Horn

The one crucial takeaway from the Supreme Court ruling on DNA patents

Last week, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on patenting “natural” DNA. It was a ruling so confusing that even Justice Scalia admitted he didn’t feel qualified to understand it. Luckily, science journalist Maggie Koerth-Baker has spelled it all out (literally) for you. What’s at stake in the ruling is whether companies can patent “natural”…

io9 Annalee Newitz

Six Surprising Myths About Jules Verne

Did you know that there never was a balloon in Around the World in 80 Days? And that the Nautilus wasn’t powered by atomic energy? You can blame Disney for establishing those lies as “fact”—but not for the other four big misconceptions about Jules Verne, one of the best writers of the 19th century.

Sploid Jesus Diaz

You Won’t Believe How Amazing the Kids From This Metal Band Are

12-year-old Malcolm Brickhouse, Jarad Dawkins and Alec Atkins are Unlocking the Truth, the Brooklyn-based metal band that’s taking over New York and everyone on the internet except the dumb kids who taunt them at school because they don’t like hip hop like the rest of the hive. I don’t like metal, but they rock.

Sploid Jesus Diaz

President Obama: NSA Spying Keeps America Safe, So Get Over It

President Obama will be on Charlie Rose tonight to chat about all the NSA spying that came to light last week. But ahead of the broadcast, PBS has released a portion of the transcript to Buzzfeed. Below is a portion of said transcript: Barack Obama: Well, in the end, and what I’ve said, and I…

Tech News Peter ha

Instapuzzle: Your Friends’ Boring Instagrams Are Better as Puzzles

Your endless stream of photos on Instagram is fun—for a while. But there’s only so many times you can see a sepia-toned sunset before even the mere thought starts to induce nausea. Instapuzzle for iOS, though, puts a fun new twist on how you interact with your friends’ filtered pics. What does it do? Lets…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Visit The Forbidden Moonshine Caverns of the Appalachians

A series of caverns in the Smokey Mountains provided a perfect lair for bootleggers looking to make some illicit liquor during Prohibition. The government eventually cracked down on these subterranean “moonshiners,” but you can still visit their secret underground distilleries today. You have to admire the bravery of the moonshiners taking over these maze-like caverns,…

io9 Keith Veronese

Screaming Kids Won’t Stop Screaming, Says Deadened Dad

Parents tell kids to “shush” all the time, even though this has never worked because children are just intolerably loud. Ignore them, Deadspin’s Drew Magary writes. “Children are like the homeless: you cannot engage.”

Sploid Ken Layne

Henchman 21 destroys SPHINX while Venture Bros. skewers G.I.Joe

I have decided that recapping The Venture Bros. is impossible. Well, for me, at least. Now I’m going to try to do it anyways. The main characters are so rich and fully formed it’s almost impossible to describe them; the newest characters are so brilliantly inspired by nerd culture that it would take pages to…

io9 Rob Bricken

Get ready for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4!

We have no idea if The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will be good — but we do know that there will be at least two more movies before Peter Parker is too old to pull off “angsty teen.” That’s right Sony has announced that they are making Amazing 3 and 4. Today’s press announcement from Sony…

Books & Comics Meredith Woerner

These Stash Coins Are a Fantastic Way to Lose Your SD Card

The Man has his hand in your inbox, cops are intimidating citizens who film them beating other citizens, it’s only logical to want to keep the private contents of your SD card, well, private. The Covert Coin from CCS Spy Gear is a precision-machined piece of retired US currency that are nearly indistinguishable from the…

Privacy & Security Andrew Tarantola

The Rise of the Surveillance State (As Predicted in 1967)

Uncle Sam might soon be spying on you with a vast, computerized network. At least that was the eerie prophecy of The Atlantic in 1967. In an article by Arthur Miller (a law professor at the University of Michigan, not the playwright) readers were introduced to the rise of centralized data collection, and how a…

Privacy & Security Matt Novak

Which of These Ugly Dogs Will Win the Ugly Dog Beauty Contest?

For a quarter century, owners of delightfully weird-looking dogs have brought these monstrosities to the World’s Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marine Fairgrounds. For the 25th annual pageant, expect lots of strange canines—and remember that humans caused the dogs to look this way, through selective breeding. https://dogs.kinja.com/hairless-dogs-flock-to-yearly-ugly-dog-competition-513837561

Sploid Ken Layne

WTF: A Steven Spielberg Show Where The Cute Kid is the Best Character

Scientist Drinks Billion-Year-Old Water Just to See What It’s Like

Your Fix of Sexy Japanese Cyborgs With Weaponized Breasts

The Coolest Flags in Human History

The List: U.S. Releases Names of Gitmo Prisoners

Nothing is more mysterious and terrifying than . . . The Coffee Table!

Zeta Primes – Doors

20 Ways to Hack a Classic Eames Side Chair

The one crucial takeaway from the Supreme Court ruling on DNA patents

Six Surprising Myths About Jules Verne

You Won’t Believe How Amazing the Kids From This Metal Band Are

President Obama: NSA Spying Keeps America Safe, So Get Over It

Instapuzzle: Your Friends’ Boring Instagrams Are Better as Puzzles

Visit The Forbidden Moonshine Caverns of the Appalachians

Screaming Kids Won’t Stop Screaming, Says Deadened Dad

Henchman 21 destroys SPHINX while Venture Bros. skewers G.I.Joe

Get ready for The Amazing Spider-Man 3 and 4!

These Stash Coins Are a Fantastic Way to Lose Your SD Card

The Rise of the Surveillance State (As Predicted in 1967)

Which of These Ugly Dogs Will Win the Ugly Dog Beauty Contest?

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