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Asteroid Miners Will Launch World’s First Crowdfunded Space Telescope

Planetary Resources – the people behind the recently announced asteroid-mining venture – has just announced a brand new project: the world’s first crowdfunded space telescope, to be financed with a just-launched Kickstarter campaign. The company’s primary goal has always been, and remains, asteroid mining; and to that end, it’s developing a class of asteroid-surveying space…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez

Can’t Stop Staring at these Trippy Norwegian Book Covers

Science fiction book covers in the 1960s and 1970s were often wild and psychedelic — but these Norwegian book covers, from the science fiction imprint Lanterne, are astounding. Designed by Peter Haars, they are like a wild drug frenzy in book-cover form. These covers were posted on Flickr by user Gojira2012, and then found their…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

Zaha Hadid’s First Storefront Puts a Living Legend Up Close

Even if you don’t get down with her brand of extreme formalism, it’s hard to deny that Zaha Hadid is a living legend. Hadid is one of the only female architects to have ever won the Pritzker Prize (well, unless you count those who were mysteriously excluded by the Pritzker jury) and the force behind…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Jamstar Acoustics: A Guitar Learning App That Won’t Hold You Back

Learn-to-play-guitar apps are a dime a dozen, and to be honest, most of them aren’t worth the data they take to download. Light up fretboards are great—until you try to move over to a real, non-illuminated guitar. JamStar, though, works more like a real live, actual guitar teacher would to help you get better on…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

DARPA’s Using Smartphone Guts to Build Cheaper, Smarter Drones Faster

Just a few weeks after President Obama announced plans to scale back the country’s drone program, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA) announced plans to roll out a program for the rapid development and manufacture of sensors to help power unmanned aerial, land and underwater vehicles. The specific technology, the Defense Department says, will…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Greatest Wedding Photo In the History of the World

The Lowders were trying to take their bridal party pictures, when a most unexpected guest popped into the photo frame. But their terror is our gain, and it has resulted in what is clearly the greatest wedding photo of all time. Update: We talked to the photographer! The photo was taken by J. Quinn Miller…

io9 Meredith Woerner

We wish this was the real After Earth theme song

They may be a little nutty, but this father and son duo can jam. Even as their oxygen supply is swiftly running out trapped in this post apocalyptic After Earth world. This is Big Will and Son in “After Earth, it’s Just The Two of Us.” http://gawker.com/will-and-jaden-smith-give-fucking-insane-interview-abou-510087159 It works, because that’s the premise of the…

Movies Meredith Woerner

Which classic science fiction novel still holds up today?

Sometimes you revisit a classic science fiction book that rocked your world years ago… and the letdown is like falling off a space elevator. Some beloved books just don’t hold up. But sometimes? You read an old favorite, and it’s even better than you remember. Which novels are just as great today as when they…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

A Tiny Grill That Looks as Lovely as Your Beautifully Marbled Meats

Ikea is typically the go-to furniture store for apartment dwellers with minimal space, students on a budget, or do-it-yourselfers with a hex wrench fetish. The Swedish chain doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, particularly furniture snobs, but it’s hard to not see the charm in this sleek Lillon BBQ. Looking something like the awkward spawn of…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Google’s Rad Skee-Ball Game Turns Your Phone Into a Wii Remote

God bless the whimsical programmers over at Google who are forever finding fun ways for us to waste our days. Click this link to check out the Chrome team’s latest experiment, which pairs your computer and your phone so that you can play an awesome game of Skee-Ball. It’s called Roll It, and it’s wonderful.…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

Uh, DC just randomly killed the hell out of a major character

SPOILERS, PEOPLE. SPOILERS FOR THIS WEEK’S COMICS, WHICH JUST CAME OUT TODAY. Spoilers for Justice League of America #4, specifically, if you’re trying to gauge how much this spoiler-ness affects you personally. If you’re cool, here’s who bit the big one in the New 52: Catwoman, at behest of the JLA, was trying to infiltrate…

Books & Comics Rob Bricken

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

Every quarter-aged hipster wants to be a DJ at one point or another. The only problem is that DJing is actually a really expensive hobby, if you do it right. (And by right, I mean legally.) It used to be that you needed turntables, a mixer, an audio interface, crates of records, a controller and…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

We’ve lost another one of the greats: R.I.P. Jack Vance, 1916-2013

Jack Vance’s impact on science fiction can’t be overestimated. His Dying Earth series alone would be enough to make him one of the genre’s most important figures. But he also gave us the Demon Princes series and several others, and he helped revitalize the planetary romance genre with Big Planet. He died over the weekend…

Books & Comics Charlie Jane Anders

The Retrofuture of Outdoor Advertising Was Even Worse Than What We Got

Outdoor advertising is at least 5,000 years old (the ancient Egyptians used to hang papyrus notices advertising rewards for runaway slaves), and fears about how invasive it could be have been around nearly as long. For every glitzy video billboard you curse at today, know that your forbearers dreamed up much, much worse. Drive through…

Tech News Matt Novak

The Golden Gate Bridge Looked Even More Stunning Before It Had a Road

The Golden Gate Bridge is almost certainly the world’s most iconic bridge, and one of the country’s most-photographed landmarks. But here, you see it in a state only a handful of people ever witnessed: reaching across the San Francisco Bay for the very first time. When this photo was taken from the San Francisco side…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

Sears Plans To Retrofit 2,500 “Ghostbox” Stores As Data Centers

There are over a billion square feet of vacant commercial space in the US right now, most of it in the form of big box stores. This being America, we’ve come up with plenty of intelligent ways to reuse the department stores at which we can no longer afford to shop: Churches. Parks. Clinics. And…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Cosmic Mystery: Why did this spinning star suddenly slow down?

Why would a spinning star suddenly slow down? Even after writing a scientific paper about the phenomenon, astronomers still appear to be in shock-and-awe mode about what they saw. Top image: Artist’s conception of a neutron star flare. Credit: University of California Santa Cruz “I looked at the data and was shocked — the ……

io9 Elizabeth Howell - Universe Today

The Most Batshit Insane Performances in the Eurovision Song Contest

As an American outsider looking in, Eurovision looks like a demented alien celebration. In a competition where normal pop numbers have WTF backup dancers and over-the-top melodrama, it takes a truly special performance to stand out. Here are a few of the most jaw-dropping insane acts from Eurovision Song Contest history. For anyone unfamiliar with…

io9 Amanda Yesilbas

This BASE Jump Off of Mount Everest Is Absolutely Insane

Earlier this month, 48-year-old Russian BASE jumper Valery Rozov took a leap off of Mount Everest from an elevation of 23,687 feet, the highest ever BASE jump to date. Thank goodness other people are this crazy so that you don’t have to be. On May 5 at 2:30 PM local time in -1 degrees °F…

Tech News Peter ha

Museum to Sell Replicas of Golden Phallus in its Gift Shop

A penis-shaped gold pendant from ancient Rome has become so popular at Norfolk’s Lynn Museum that visitors will soon be able to purchase replicas of it at the gift shop. The tiny 2-inch gold Hillington Phallus was discovered in 2011 by Kevin Hillier on a farmer’s field with his metal detector. After experts at the…

io9 George Dvorsky

Asteroid Miners Will Launch World’s First Crowdfunded Space Telescope

Can’t Stop Staring at these Trippy Norwegian Book Covers

Zaha Hadid’s First Storefront Puts a Living Legend Up Close

Jamstar Acoustics: A Guitar Learning App That Won’t Hold You Back

DARPA’s Using Smartphone Guts to Build Cheaper, Smarter Drones Faster

Greatest Wedding Photo In the History of the World

We wish this was the real After Earth theme song

Which classic science fiction novel still holds up today?

A Tiny Grill That Looks as Lovely as Your Beautifully Marbled Meats

Google’s Rad Skee-Ball Game Turns Your Phone Into a Wii Remote

Uh, DC just randomly killed the hell out of a major character

How to DJ a Dance Party Without Knowing How to DJ

We’ve lost another one of the greats: R.I.P. Jack Vance, 1916-2013

The Retrofuture of Outdoor Advertising Was Even Worse Than What We Got

The Golden Gate Bridge Looked Even More Stunning Before It Had a Road

Sears Plans To Retrofit 2,500 “Ghostbox” Stores As Data Centers

Cosmic Mystery: Why did this spinning star suddenly slow down?

The Most Batshit Insane Performances in the Eurovision Song Contest

This BASE Jump Off of Mount Everest Is Absolutely Insane

Museum to Sell Replicas of Golden Phallus in its Gift Shop

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