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1950s San Francisco, as seen through a submarine periscope

In 1951, the U.S.S. Catfish, a WWII-era diesel submarine, cruised into San Francisco Bay. The crew snapped a handful of pictures through the periscope, showing what the city and Alcatraz looked like from the submariners’ perspective. It’s a bit eerie to see the city through the periscope’s reticles, almost as if it were a target.…

io9 Lauren Davis

Kim Dotcom Wrote a Dance Track and Apparently Has a Whole Album

Not content to just launch an encrypted file-sharing site, get stranded in the middle of nowhere, or claim to have the patent for two-step authentication, Internet dude Kim Dotcom is also apparently coming out with an album of dance music? Yeah. https://gizmodo.com/kim-dotcom-is-stranded-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-and-liv-5979406 It’s not Dotcom’s first foray into music. You might remember that star-studded MegaUpload…

Tech News Eric Limer

This Black and White Video Can (Sorta) Predict Your IQ

OK, you want to try it? Then watch the video above—the whole thing, preferably full-screen—before you read any further. Got it? Good. Let’s see how smart you (maybe) are. In a study run by researchers at the University at Rochester and published in Biology, researchers had subjects watch that same video you just did. They…

Tech News Eric Limer

Engineering students design a shoe that harnesses energy from walking

Could your shoes someday help power your devices? A team of Rice University engineering students think so, thanks to a prototype sneaker that captures pedestrian power. As their engineering capstone project, Rice University seniors Carlos Armada, Julian Castro, David Morilla, and Tyler Wiest created PediPower shoes. Houston-based company Cameron, which sponsored the team, challenged the…

io9 Lauren Davis

Let Your Walls Light Up the Room With LED Wallpaper

Who needs lamps when you can make your walls literally light up on their own? They can if you cover them with a coating of LED wallpaper. Wallpaper might be a little past its prime, but with a little infusion of tech and some neat geometric designs, maybe it’s time to reconsider. Made by Mestyle…

Tech News Eric Limer

13 Unlucky Inventors Killed by Their Own Inventions

While some inventors enjoy fame and fortune thanks to their inventions, for a handful of inventors, their devices proved their own worst enemies. Here are 13 unlucky (and in some cases, foolhardy) inventors who perished thanks to their own creations. Franz Reichelt or François Reichelt, the Flying Tailor (1879-1912) This Austrian-born French tailor is remembered…

io9 Vincze Miklós

Before the Swiss Army Knife, Victorian women wore ornate multitools

Here’s a device to add to your steampunk fiction: the chatelaine, a popular accessory from the 19th century. Part practicality, part fashion accessory, the chatelaine was the perfect way for women on the go to carry all of their tools. Collectors Weekly has a fascinating interview with Genevieve Cummins, who co-authored a book about this…

io9 Lauren Davis

Hackers That Were Barely Even Trying Stole 44 Million Records Last Year

When you think of hackers, your mind might jump to something like a Boris Grishenko (aka “that dude from Goldeneye”) typing away on a keyboard one-handedly with virtuosic skill. A criminal mastermind. Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) paints a bit of a different picture, for last year at least; most of these guys…

Tech News Eric Limer

What’s the First Thing You Can Remember Doing on the Internet?

There’s no denying the global connectivity literally changed the world, and most of are lucky enough to have been alive and conscious when that paradigm shift was rolling out. You might not remember your first real interaction with the digital behemoth, but you have to have a first recollection. What is it? It’s worth noting…

Tech News Eric Limer

Stunning artwork from the Dune collectible card game

In 1997, Last Unicorn Games released Dune: Eye of the Storm, the first installment of a Dune collectible card game. These paintings for the game, by artist Mark Zug, offer a gorgeous return to Frank Herbert’s world. Zug explains that when he first began these paintings for Last Unicorn, he was told that the design…

io9 Lauren Davis

A 625 Pinhole Camera Rig Is the Craziest Way to Shoot Bullet Time Video

We’ve seen a few crazy bullet time rigs in our day, but this one might take the cake both for “coolest” and “most over the top.” For the music video of London Grammar’s “Wasting My Young Years” photographers put together a setup that used a whopping 625 pinhole cameras to awesomely stop time. It’s ridiculous.…

Tech News Eric Limer

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Aliens Encounter the Cavepeople

While most stories about alien encounters set our first meeting with extraterrestrials in the future, some plant those early encounters firmly in the distant past. What happens when early humans come face-to-space-helmet with beings from another world? This digital painting by Chris Rallis is titled, simply, “Alien Invasion” (via reddit). Tell us your tale of…

io9 Lauren Davis

A cool and disturbing CG-animated take on A Scanner Darkly

Before Section Eight Productions settled on rotoscoping as the filmmaking technique to bring Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly to the screen, the studio Rustmonkey created this black-and-white, CG test animation for the film. Animator Brian White created this animation, based on paintings by Daniel Thron (in addition to being a visual effects designer, Thron…

io9 Lauren Davis

Tetris-piece micro house is designed to be stacked

Chinese design firm Studio Liu Lubin is exploring the concept of the “micro house,” a structure that offers the minimum necessary indoor living space, with rooms that can be stacked on top of and alongside one another in an architectural game of Tetris. Studio Liu Lubin has just installed its prototype three-room micro house in…

io9 Lauren Davis

DC heroes and villains invade Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon”

Artist Rey Taira updates Georges Seurat’s masterpiece of pointillism “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” by adding DC’s superheroes. Behold, “Saturday Morning in Front of La Salle De Justice.” Taira also created the above piece’s dark reflection, “”Sunday Evening by the Legion of Doom”: Both pieces are part of the “Arch…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis

All About the Xbox One, The World’s Biggest Lego Model, And More

Hey guys. There was a new Xbox revealed this week. Oh you heard? We’ll we’ve got some nice icing to put on that cake. And along with it we’ve got gems like the world’s largest Lego model, the Subway worker who made a massive math innovation, how sunscreen actually works and much much more. A…

Tech News Eric Limer

Decaying Biblical theme park houses the ruins of faux Jerusalem

When John Baptist Greco built Holy Land USA in Waterbury, Connecticut, he envisioned it as a pilgrimage site for American Christians. Closed since 1984 however, the long-neglected park now looks more like a horror movie set than a place for wholesome family fun. Holy Land USA opened in 1958 with replicas of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and…

io9 Lauren Davis

First Iron Man movie retold as an 8-bit video game

Why isn’t this a playable game? CineFix‘s 8-bit Cinema animation reimagines the action sequences of the first Iron Man as a classic side-scroller. [via Laughing Squid]

io9 Lauren Davis

Long before V for Vendetta this newspaper seller wore a mustached mask

Alan Moore’s comic V for Vendetta (and the subsequent film) inspired members of the group known as Anonymous to cover their faces with Guy Fawkes masks. Back in 1929, this newspaper seller hid his identity with a similarly mustached mask. This photo, which was taken in Paris, appeared in the Dutch weekly magazine Het Leven.…

io9 Lauren Davis

How to Control Your Android Without Looking at It

It’s getting dangerous just to walk and text at the same time much less do so behind the wheel of a car. But with Siri being just slightly less helpful than HAL, how are you supposed to surf the web and simultaneously travel safely? All you have to do is ask. https://gizmodo.com/sadly-people-who-walk-and-text-could-actually-use-this-486000701 Become a Dictator:…

Tech News Andrew Tarantola

1950s San Francisco, as seen through a submarine periscope

Kim Dotcom Wrote a Dance Track and Apparently Has a Whole Album

This Black and White Video Can (Sorta) Predict Your IQ

Engineering students design a shoe that harnesses energy from walking

Let Your Walls Light Up the Room With LED Wallpaper

13 Unlucky Inventors Killed by Their Own Inventions

Before the Swiss Army Knife, Victorian women wore ornate multitools

Hackers That Were Barely Even Trying Stole 44 Million Records Last Year

What’s the First Thing You Can Remember Doing on the Internet?

Stunning artwork from the Dune collectible card game

A 625 Pinhole Camera Rig Is the Craziest Way to Shoot Bullet Time Video

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Aliens Encounter the Cavepeople

A cool and disturbing CG-animated take on A Scanner Darkly

Tetris-piece micro house is designed to be stacked

DC heroes and villains invade Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon”

All About the Xbox One, The World’s Biggest Lego Model, And More

Decaying Biblical theme park houses the ruins of faux Jerusalem

First Iron Man movie retold as an 8-bit video game

Long before V for Vendetta this newspaper seller wore a mustached mask

How to Control Your Android Without Looking at It

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