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The 787 Dreamliner Just Took a Completely “Uneventful” Test Flight

No one wants to be on a plane with batteries that are liable to explode, and since Boeing grounded its 787 Dreamliners after such an incident, no one has had to be. Except for the test crew that took one into the yesterday. But don’t worry, it all turned out just fine. The flight was…

Tech News Eric Limer Feb 10 '13

Tron prom dress lights up any dance floor

Somehow, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Tron-inspired outfits that really light up. Cosplayer Victoria Schmidt, also known as Scruffy Rebel, teamed up with fellow cosplayer Jinyo (who helped with the wiring and programing) to create this glowing gown. The Quorra hairdo is perfect, but this dress would still look stunning at a…

io9 Lauren Davis Feb 10 '13

Brilliant short webcomic reveals the romantic side of time paradoxes

One day, Thomas is idly flipping through a photo album when he finds himself abruptly sent back to the time when he is 10 years old. At first, he’s thrilled to return to a time filled with so many simple joys. But unbeknownst to him, his ten-year-old self has taken his place, and is completely…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis Feb 10 '13

Watch Commander Hadfield Have a Space-Chat with Captain Kirk on the ISS

Captain Kirk is probably one of the most iconic spacemen of all time, but there’s that pesky little detail where he doesn’t actually happen to be real. Commander of the ISS, Chris Hadfield on the other hand, is as real as you get. A few days ago, the two crossed paths when Kirk—OK, Shatner—and Hadfield…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer Feb 10 '13

This unnecessarily complicated pancake-making device would do Wallace and Gromit proud

The Happy Egg Company took their cues for their Pancake-omatic from the cracking contraptions of Wallace and Gromit. It took engineers 200 hours to construct and 100 hours to test this pancake making device, which starts when the enthroned hen lays an egg. It’s pretty to look at, but the real question is: are the…

io9 Lauren Davis Feb 10 '13

Sorry, but elephants really want nothing to do with us

Elephants have apparently realized there’s only one predator they really need to worry about, and that would be us humans. Despite the lack of fences marking the boundaries of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, elephants overwhelmingly stay on the safe side. Researchers wanted to figure out the emotional state of elephants both in and out of…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Feb 10 '13

How the Streetlight Effect keeps scientists in the dark

It seems that streetlights make not only a way to be wrong a scientific phenomenon, but a handy metaphor for being wrong about science in general. The Streetlight Effect is a bias in scientific research that costs time, money, and occasionally, lives. The Streetlight Effect got its start as a joke. A police officer is…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Feb 10 '13

Florida Man is the nation’s worst superhero

You know all those stranger-than-fiction news headlines detailing the bizarre exploits of someone identified only as “Florida man”? Imagine that all of those headlines referred to a single person, and that this person is superhero who causes mayhem wherever he goes. Twitter account @_FloridaMan collects the wackiest “Florida man” headlines, creating a chronology of a…

io9 Lauren Davis Feb 10 '13

Webcomic Guide to the Apocalypse: M.P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud

Serialized in 1901, M.P. Shiel’s novel The Purple Cloud is considered one of the great classics of early apocalyptic fiction. Even for its time, it’s considered a bit of a genre-bender, classed as both theological fantasy and scientific romance. It’s also perhaps the first novel to explore the horror of surviving an apocalypse (alone), spending…

Books & Comics Lauren Davis Feb 10 '13

Bury Yourself Under This Avalanche Of Winter Storm Nemo Timelapses

Winter storm Nemo’s triumphant entrance has come and gone by this point, and there’s no shortage of documentation to show for it. After all, any aspiring snowpocalypse worth its (road) salt inspires an army of time timelapses that speed the storm’s once fluttering bounty into a straight-up dump. Here are a couple of the better…

Tech News Eric Limer Feb 9 '13

The Weakerthans: Our Retired Explorer

Some songs just fit some weather, and with a big ol’ snow storm trudging its way across the east coast, there’s no better time to listen to some Weakerthans. Specifically “Our Retired Explorer” which is, fittingly, about the Antarctic. Off the (fantastic) 2003 album Reconstruction Site, “Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris,…

Tech News Eric Limer Feb 9 '13

Google Chrome Is Blocking a Bunch of Major Sites for Malware, Even YouTube

If you were just cruising around the web today and got hit smack in the face with a Google Chrome malware error, you weren’t the only one. A whole number of sites from such as imgur, DeviantArt, The San Francisco Chronicle, and YouTube were blocked for many users citing malware from us.bernerverein.ch. Reports started bubbling…

Tech News Eric Limer Feb 9 '13

Mars Rover Curiosity Has Successfully Drilled for the First Ever Sample of Mars’ Virgin Bedrock

Since Curiousity has landed on Mars, it’s been roving around finding all manner of…curiosities. Today, it’s pulled off an intergalactic first and drilled 2.5 inches deep into the red planet’s bedrock to obtain a sample. No one—no robot, as ever managed to pull that off before. 2.5 inches deep and 0.63 inches wide, the hole…

Space & Spaceflight Eric Limer Feb 9 '13

“Lady Data” cosplay photos feature a gorgeous latex Star Fleet uniform

Cosplayer extraordinaire Constantine in Tokyo has won our hearts and shut down our positronic brains with these ultra-sultry shots of herself dressed as “Lady Data.” Thanks to this photo shoot, we now have ample evidence that latex is the perfect material for making Star Trek: TNG uniforms. This costume was designed by Kayla Lael of…

io9 Annalee Newitz Feb 9 '13

Disabled goldfish gets around with the underwater equivalent of a wheelchair

YouTube user synirr had one goldfish who just couldn’t maintain her buoyancy. So she outfitted the fish with a special buoyant sling that let Goldie swim around her tank, paddling about with her front fins. However, even with the sling, competition for food was still an issue, and so synirr would feed her sling-bound fish…

io9 Lauren Davis Feb 9 '13

The Origin of Darth Vader: The New Star Wars Figures at Toy Fair

For all the Star Wars news lately, there hasn’t been much that affects what action figures we’ll be seeing for the next few years. For now? We’re getting new recreations of classic outfits from the movies. The Star Wars Black Series is an effort to pore over reference images from the old films, some still…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Feb 9 '13

Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man & The Avengers: All the New Marvel Action Figures

Last year was basically the biggest year ever for Marvel, with the Avengers movie blowing everyone’s expectations out of the water. So what do you make action figures of this year? Plenty, actually. There’s the new Iron Man 3 movie to start, and the Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble cartoons. And Wolverine has his own…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Feb 9 '13

The Biggest Transformer Ever Made: Metroplex, and All the New Transformers from Toy Fair

If you’re not a Transformers fan, you’d be excused if you didn’t know exactly who Metroplex is. After some comprehensive research, we’ve figured out he’s really tall and holds Optimus in his hand a lot. Oh, also, he’s a new gigantic 24-inch transformer—the biggest ever made. Metroplex is gigantic and turns into a freaking CITY.…

Tech News Kyle Wagner Feb 9 '13

An Alternate History of Doctor Who, in which the Doctor has always been played by women

We’ve wondered if one of the Doctor’s future incarnations might be female, but what would Doctor Who have been like if the Doctor had always been played by a woman? Alasdair Stuart of SciFind has cooked up an alternate history of Doctor Who, positing which actresses might be a match for each of the eleven…

Television Lauren Davis Feb 9 '13

These Are the FBI’s Favorite Things to Pirate

Everybody’s got their grand plans to put an end to piracy. Cable providers are instituting 6-strikes policies against alleged infringers, and the FBI, they like to take down sites like MegaUpload. But that doesn’t mean they don’t torrent, themselves. TorrentFreak dug up a little list of what’s been being pirated from FBI IPs. With the…

Tech News Eric Limer Feb 9 '13

The 787 Dreamliner Just Took a Completely “Uneventful” Test Flight

Tron prom dress lights up any dance floor

Brilliant short webcomic reveals the romantic side of time paradoxes

Watch Commander Hadfield Have a Space-Chat with Captain Kirk on the ISS

This unnecessarily complicated pancake-making device would do Wallace and Gromit proud

Sorry, but elephants really want nothing to do with us

How the Streetlight Effect keeps scientists in the dark

Florida Man is the nation’s worst superhero

Webcomic Guide to the Apocalypse: M.P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud

Bury Yourself Under This Avalanche Of Winter Storm Nemo Timelapses

The Weakerthans: Our Retired Explorer

Google Chrome Is Blocking a Bunch of Major Sites for Malware, Even YouTube

Mars Rover Curiosity Has Successfully Drilled for the First Ever Sample of Mars’ Virgin Bedrock

“Lady Data” cosplay photos feature a gorgeous latex Star Fleet uniform

Disabled goldfish gets around with the underwater equivalent of a wheelchair

The Origin of Darth Vader: The New Star Wars Figures at Toy Fair

Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man & The Avengers: All the New Marvel Action Figures

The Biggest Transformer Ever Made: Metroplex, and All the New Transformers from Toy Fair

An Alternate History of Doctor Who, in which the Doctor has always been played by women

These Are the FBI’s Favorite Things to Pirate

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