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Learn Everything About the Solar System with This Awesome Animation

Now this is fun. Kurzgesagt made a fantastic animation video detailing our solar system. Perfect for anyone who’s space curious (and that should be everyone), perfect to sit down and show your kid, perfect to learn everything about astronomy that you probably forgotten by now. It’s like taking a trip through a beautiful minimalist solar…

Space & Spaceflight Casey Chan Aug 23 '13

Most Beautiful Items: August 17 – 23, 2013

You’re in the homestretch. The weekend, my friends, is at hand. But before you disembark, check out some of our favorite finds from the worlds of art, architecture, and design over the past week. It’s plenty to tide you over before you hit happy hour. This Artist Paints With Pigments Made From Toxic Sludge Nature…

Tech News Leslie Horn Aug 23 '13

Last shift on Friday at the orbital habitat factory

Another week, another giant ring that we spin up in orbit. The geoengineers always claim that their job is the hardest because they have to build a climate up from the metal substrate. But we know that infrastructure construction is the worst. We start with nothing, and make a world. This illustration of a futuristic…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 23 '13

My Weird Tale About a Man Who Wants to Fall Back in Love With His Wife

What if you could take a pill to make yourself fall madly in love with someone, forever? That’s sort of part of the premise of my story “Complicated and Stupid,” which is up at Strange Horizons now. Plus there’s a pornstar who headbutts her partners during sex, and the pornstar’s pet gerbil. And yes, this…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Aug 23 '13

Here’s what it’s like to almost drown in space

A spacewalk outside the ISS was scrapped last month when flight engineer Luca Parmitano noticed a water leak inside his helmet. “My head is really wet and I have a feeling it’s increasing,” the Italian astronaut first told Johnson Space Center in Houston. Then things got much, much worse. https://gizmodo.com/helmet-leak-forces-iss-astronauts-to-abort-spacewalk-801447474 In a story that’s chilling…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Aug 23 '13

The best way to get a $3 million book deal is to be famous first

Even though very few people read books, lots of people would love to get rich writing books. How hard can it be? But the best way to make money from writing a book is to already be a famous TV celebrity, because then you can get an insane advance. http://defamer.gawker.com/what-makes-a-3-000-000-book-how-to-land-a-celebrity-b-1189810122

Sploid Ken Layne Aug 23 '13

This cheap technology could bring clean water to parched cities

Technology Review has released its annual “35 Innovators Under 35” list, which honors young visionaries in science and engineering. One fascinating project comes from a Mexico City urban designer, Enrique Lomnitz, who created a cheap technology that could solve his city’s problem with water resources. Writes Lomnitz: About 70 percent of Mexico City’s water comes…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 23 '13

Realistic game gets you right inside Gitmo to torture prisoners

One of the biggest games of the year—Tom Clancy’s new Splinter Cell: Blacklist—takes players right into Guantanamo Bay prison camp to torture an inmate—and then lets them “decide to spare or kill their interrogated target.” In the game you play Sam Fisher, a “U.S. government super-spy and needed savior of the free world.” In this…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Aug 23 '13

Scifi and Fantasy Weapons as Minimalist Posters

We love this new series of minimalist posters from Etsy seller Harshness. Each depicts a famous science fiction or fantasy weapon, transformed into a retro-cool icon. Pick up one of these posters for yourself over at the Harshness Etsy store.

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 23 '13

First Divergent teaser makes it look like dystopian fun

This first teaser trailer for Divergent, the movie based on Veronica Roth’s hit dystopian young-adult novel, is barely long enough to get much of an impression. Just a dozen seconds. But it looks like good rib-cracking fun. [via Den of Geek]

Trailers Charlie Jane Anders Aug 23 '13

Android Apps of the Week: SwiftKey Cloud, Minuum, and More

Happy Friday, friends! What better way to celebrate the week’s ceremonial end than by bestowing your phone with a brand new keyboard? Ok. So maybe there are a few better ways than that, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some fun to be had in sending text messages to organize the real celebrating faster than…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Aug 23 '13

iPad Apps of the Week: YouTube, Quick Graph, and More

It’s been a long week, you deserve to take it easy for the next few days. Which is why we’ve rounded up the iPad apps that will do all the dirty work (e.g. “thinking”) for you, leaving you free to kick back and let your mind wander. Quick Graph: Even the most liberal of liberal…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Aug 23 '13

The coolest things we saw at Gen Con 2013

This year’s Gen Con gaming convention featured a murder mystery, a demonic siege, record attendance and a truckload of exciting new releases that had gamers buzzing. Here are some of the coolest things from Gen Con. Image via Gen Con Facebook Gen Con is North America’s largest tabletop gaming convention, and almost 50,000 unique attendees…

io9 Ed Grabianowski Aug 23 '13

iPhone Apps of the Week: Human Body, KeWe, and More

Welcome to the weekend. The sun may or may not be shining, but you’ll always have the warm glow of your mobile applications to keep you company. And that’s all that matters after all, right? Here’s a few more friends to add to your ever-loyal gang. Human Body: While most educational apps are generally intended…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg Aug 23 '13

Teleportation just got easier – but not for you, unfortunately

Thanks to two studies published in Nature last Thursday, the chance of successful teleportation has considerably increased. Which is a good thing, right? Top image by Photon™ via flickr Whether or not you’ve ever been on a long-haul flight, you’ve probably fantasised about being able to magically disappear from one place and reappear in another.…

io9 Ben Buchler, Australian National University – The Conversation Aug 23 '13

Why the science behind the number 2.9013 completely sucks

The best pseudoscience debunkery you’ll read this week comes from a group of angry physicists. Their target is a much-cited paper on the nature of optimism, which has been accepted wholeheartedly by the positive psychology community. And it’s wrong, wrong, wrong. At issue is a paper, “Positive Affect and the Complex Dynamics of Human Flourishing,”…

io9 Annalee Newitz Aug 23 '13

Glow-in-the-Dark Snails Make Boring Research Beautiful

A group of researchers from the ecology department at the U.K.’s University of Exeter have been spending time studying how snails transmit a parasite called lungworm to dogs in Great Britain. Ah, my god, how boring. But they made something beautiful out of the project when they attached LEDs to the slow-moving slugs to track…

Tech News Leslie Horn Aug 23 '13

Throwback Gloves That Take You Out To the Ballgames of Yesterday

Some would argue that professional baseball of past eras was a simpler and purer version of the game, free from controversies like player strikes or steroid use. And this line of Shoeless Joe throwback gloves, that recreate designs from as far back as 1910, could help you relive those times—even if they’re named after a…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Aug 23 '13

Who’s the most absurdly competent character in all fiction?

We love competence porn — but some characters are just too competent for their own good. I’m talking about people who have planned for every contingency, even the universe imploding. And who have an answer to every problem. Who’s the most ridiculously prepared fictional character? https://gizmodo.com/the-moment-when-science-fiction-split-off-from-competen-1112227008 Please include a picture or clip of this paragon,…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders Aug 23 '13

Yikes: Riding a bike in New York City is dangerous and scary

Bikes are the new fad in rich cities such as New York. Everyone wants to look cool and get exercise and be “green,” but actually riding a bike through Manhattan is a terrifying ordeal that one New Yorker very barely survived. [Photo via Shutterstock.] https://jalopnik.com/my-first-bike-ride-across-manhattan-nearly-made-me-ruin-1189072351

Sploid Ken Layne Aug 23 '13

Learn Everything About the Solar System with This Awesome Animation

Most Beautiful Items: August 17 – 23, 2013

Last shift on Friday at the orbital habitat factory

My Weird Tale About a Man Who Wants to Fall Back in Love With His Wife

Here’s what it’s like to almost drown in space

The best way to get a $3 million book deal is to be famous first

This cheap technology could bring clean water to parched cities

Realistic game gets you right inside Gitmo to torture prisoners

Scifi and Fantasy Weapons as Minimalist Posters

First Divergent teaser makes it look like dystopian fun

Android Apps of the Week: SwiftKey Cloud, Minuum, and More

iPad Apps of the Week: YouTube, Quick Graph, and More

The coolest things we saw at Gen Con 2013

iPhone Apps of the Week: Human Body, KeWe, and More

Teleportation just got easier – but not for you, unfortunately

Why the science behind the number 2.9013 completely sucks

Glow-in-the-Dark Snails Make Boring Research Beautiful

Throwback Gloves That Take You Out To the Ballgames of Yesterday

Who’s the most absurdly competent character in all fiction?

Yikes: Riding a bike in New York City is dangerous and scary

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