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When it comes to exoplanets, science fiction lags way behind science

Sometimes scientific reality surpasses science fiction. That’s especially the case today, given all the planets we’ve discovered beyond our solar system. Now that we know how common exoplanets are, says SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, most of our alien invasion stories no longer make sense. https://gizmodo.com/astronomers-confirm-there-are-two-potentially-habitable-5927779 Over at NBC’s Cosmic Log, Alan Boyle asked SETI astronomer…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jun 6 '13

Get Out of the Way: A History of How Ambulance Lights Save Lives

For as ear-piercing as ambulance sirens are, you’d think they’d be better alert systems. Truth is: they’re shockingly ineffective. Drivers register the sound only at close proximity and at very low speeds. Guessing from which direction the ambulance will appear is always tricky, too—especially when the new Daft Punk is turned up really loud. In…

Tech News Rachel Swaby Jun 6 '13

Hollywood wants an Archie Comics Zombie Movie Mashup — no, really

Earlier this year Archie Comics revealed that the people of Riverdale would be overrun with flesh eating zombies. For fun! And now Warner Bros. wants to adapt the comics into a movie. BUT WAIT, it might actually be good. Deadline broke the news that Warner Bros. has hired Pitch Perfect director Jason Moore to lead…

Movies Meredith Woerner Jun 6 '13

Crumpler Cut of Horror Bag: A Terrifying Amount of Storage Space

The days of carrying your cell phone in its own suitcase are over. As our gadgets continue to shrink (most of them, at least), the modern mobile workforce has little need for the oversized backpacks and messenger bags of the 2000’s. Especially not when you can pack an entire office worth of gear into Crumpler’s…

Reviews Andrew Tarantola Jun 6 '13

10 Sources That Inspired Game of Thrones‘ Dark Storytelling

At last, fans of the Game of Thrones TV series fully understand the anguish that readers of George R.R. Martin’s novels have long since suffered. Why? Why do these terrible things happen? One reason is that Martin’s source material is equally brutal and horrific. Here are 10 sources that Martin drew on for his epic…

Television Katharine Trendacosta and Charlie Jane Anders Jun 6 '13

Give Your Propane Tank an Ultrasound to Find Out If It’s Low

Like when trying to choose a ripe melon at the grocery store, there are countless questionable ways to determine how much propane is left in your barbecue’s tank. But if you don’t want to drag a bathroom scale out to your deck, try Truma’s LevelChecker which uses an ultrasonic signal to determine how full, or…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski Jun 6 '13

The Supermaterial That Could Make Plastic Obsolete Is… Mushrooms?

Fungus is, almost universally, not a good thing to have in your walls or personal belongings. And normally, selling certain strains could lead to federal charges. But a company called Ecovative is violating both of those rules, creating packaging and building materials from fungus—and they’re being lauded as visionaries for it. Ecovative was founded by…

Tech News Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan Jun 6 '13

Yes! A Real Play-Doh 3D Printer Sounds Like the Best Fun Factory Ever

3D-printing useful widgets and dohickeys is great and all, but sometimes you just want to mess around. And what could be better for that than good, old-fashioned Play-Doh? What was once a ThinkGeek April Fool’s prank is now a reality from another company altogether: Meet the 3D PlayDoh printer. https://gizmodo.com/5-genius-april-fools-products-we-hope-become-real-5993121 Hyrel 3D, maker of 3D…

Tech News Eric Limer Jun 6 '13

Car Dealerships Make Tesla’s Elon Musk Cry In Frustration

America’s powerful car dealership lobby continues to block Tesla’s plans for direct-to-consumer purchase of automobiles. It’s starting to get to Elon Musk, the electric car company’s CEO. Musk is nearly driven to tears in this video. https://jalopnik.com/change-the-anti-tesla-law-argues-long-time-texas-car-485851184 [Photo by Bloomberg via Getty Images.]

Sploid Ken Layne Jun 6 '13

Finally, something to do with those nasty modern pennies

There are plenty of ways that pennies made before 1982 are superior to ones made afterwards: The pennies themselves are worth more, as they’re made with solid copper. When flicked or dropped, they have a pleasing ring to them, while modern pennies thud. Finally, early pennies can be used in a bunch of fun science…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jun 6 '13

There’s a Fire-Fighting Mini-Segway That Might Save Your Life Someday

Firefighters are brave. But they’re humans and they get hurt. So scientists at the University of California at San Diego have created a Segway-like robot that uses thermal imaging to help people fight fires better. Think of these agile robots as scouts fitted with all kinds of fire-stomping tech. They have a pair of RGB…

Tech News Leslie Horn Jun 6 '13

Ask a Physicist … And Win a Book!

Good news, everyone! On July 11, Dutton will be releasing my new book, The Universe in the Rearview Mirror: How Hidden Symmetries Shape Reality. But do you need to wait that long? Maybe not! Your “Ask a Physicist” questions have been so awesome over the last couple of years that they’ve served as an inspiration…

io9 Dr. Dave Goldberg Jun 6 '13

The MacBook’s Most Underrated Feature

Next week, it’s very likely we’ll see a fresh round of MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. They’ll be a little faster, and maybe a little prettier. But it’s unlikely that any new addition to Apple’s laptops will be as awesome as MagSafe. Seven years after Apple made the best laptop charger on the planet, no…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Jun 6 '13

Legal Gay Marriage “Inevitable,” 72% of Americans Say In New Poll

Even people who swear that gay marriage will somehow cause the collapse of society realize it’s “inevitable,” a new Pew study says. With 72% of Americans acknowledging the change in marriage reality, 42% of those questioned still say it’s wrong.

Sploid Ken Layne Jun 6 '13

“Game of Thrones” Author Laughs At Audience Horror Over Red Wedding

George R. R. Martin appeared on Conan last night to enjoy the pain and horror of Game of Thrones viewers, after home video of their shocked reactions became a YouTube hit. The bloody wedding scene has also led to child-safe GIF versions and alternate endings. http://gawker.com/george-rr-martin-reacts-to-people-reacting-to-game-of-t-511614463

Sploid Ken Layne Jun 6 '13

How AT&T Collects Call Records, According to an Employee

While we figure out what exactly the NSA is doing with Verizon customer’s phone records, a supposed AT&T employee explains to TPM how his/her/its employer collects call records. https://gizmodo.com/the-nsa-is-collecting-phone-records-of-millions-of-amer-511565570 Verizon’s network is a little different than ours, despite this, they can probably see most of the same data we can. I can pull call records…

Privacy & Security Peter ha Jun 6 '13

How two dumb kids with an axe almost destroyed She-Ra

Contrary to popular belief, He-Man’s biggest foe wasn’t Skeletor, and She-Ra’s wasn’t Hordak. What they both fought more than anything was the incredible stupidity of their friends, teammates, and general populaces of Eternia and Etheria. Case in point: “The Missing Axe,” in which She-Ra and her friend Bow risk it all for a tool you…

io9 Rob Bricken Jun 6 '13

Intel’s Prototype Thunderbolt Flash Drive Is the World’s Fastest

You can officially stop bragging about how fast your fancy new USB 3.0 flash drive is. At the Computex show in Taipei Intel was showing off this hacked together prototype of a dedicated Thunderbolt 128GB flash drive boasting data transfer speeds of 10 Gbit/s, or about twice as fast as USB 3.0’s max. And now…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski Jun 6 '13

Human Centipede Where’s Waldo is way easier than regular Where’s Waldo

Finding Waldo in a Human Centipede is much easier than we expected. Also, we’re disturbed by how perfectly this whole thing works. Created by the demented mind of artist Alex Pardee, we really hope he’s selling posters of this at Comic-Con. Now, FIND WALDO!

Movies Meredith Woerner Jun 6 '13

A year’s worth of solar activity in one mindblowing image

Here is the Sun as you’ve never seen it before: wreathed in 365 days’ worth of dazzling solar storms. Via NASA: Our solar system’s miasma of incandescent plasma, the Sun may look a little scary here. The picture is a composite of 25 images recorded in extreme ultraviolet light by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Jun 6 '13

When it comes to exoplanets, science fiction lags way behind science

Get Out of the Way: A History of How Ambulance Lights Save Lives

Hollywood wants an Archie Comics Zombie Movie Mashup — no, really

Crumpler Cut of Horror Bag: A Terrifying Amount of Storage Space

10 Sources That Inspired Game of Thrones‘ Dark Storytelling

Give Your Propane Tank an Ultrasound to Find Out If It’s Low

The Supermaterial That Could Make Plastic Obsolete Is… Mushrooms?

Yes! A Real Play-Doh 3D Printer Sounds Like the Best Fun Factory Ever

Car Dealerships Make Tesla’s Elon Musk Cry In Frustration

Finally, something to do with those nasty modern pennies

There’s a Fire-Fighting Mini-Segway That Might Save Your Life Someday

Ask a Physicist … And Win a Book!

The MacBook’s Most Underrated Feature

Legal Gay Marriage “Inevitable,” 72% of Americans Say In New Poll

“Game of Thrones” Author Laughs At Audience Horror Over Red Wedding

How AT&T Collects Call Records, According to an Employee

How two dumb kids with an axe almost destroyed She-Ra

Intel’s Prototype Thunderbolt Flash Drive Is the World’s Fastest

Human Centipede Where’s Waldo is way easier than regular Where’s Waldo

A year’s worth of solar activity in one mindblowing image

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