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A Failed Prototype: The Hamster Ball Spacesuit

Space suits are insanely cool. Except this one. This prototype hamster ball suit was designed by engineers at John Hopkins and actually presented to NASA in 1964. The engineers claimed astronauts would be more mobile with this thing on. I’m not kidding, this bubbleboy thing was real and it was called the Spherical Experiment #1…

Space & Spaceflight Casey Chan Jan 22

Scientists engineer a light-controlled worm

Scientists have engineered a worm with neurons that respond to light, making it a living bio-bot. Scientists at Harvard, The University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School were pleased to announce on January 18th that humanity has begun its long decline into soulless, mindless, miserable flesh-puppetry. A worm has been engineered so…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jan 22

If Gillette Invented the Guillotine It’d Be Much More Effective

Three blades! Triple the effectiveness! And then Schick would come out with their Quattro Guillotine and then Gillette would up the ante to five and then it’d keep going until there would be no more heads to chop off… [Wulffmorgenthaler]

Tech News Casey Chan Jan 22

Batman fan film imagines The Dark Knight Rises with a different villain

The villains of The Dark Knight Rises were announced this week, but director Dale Fabriger’s short film The Rat imagines the Bat-mythos with a new nemesis. In this short, two cops reflect on a Gotham with Batman on the lam. https://gizmodo.com/villains-of-nolans-batman-3-a-crazy-cat-lady-and-a-wre-5737849 [Via Dale Fabriger — thanks Brian!]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

“Earthworm Jim” creator brings rat-powered superhero to webcomics

Earthworm Jim and Ghostopolis creator Doug TenNapel returns to “the dorky hero genre” with webcomic Ratfist, the absurd tale of a non-powered superhero who finds himself suddenly mutating. Oh, and he dresses like a rat. TenNapel explains that he wanted to return to the genre of Earthworm Jim and to hand-drawn comics after creating three…

io9 Lauren Davis Jan 22

This six-story highway through Manhattan is a great lunatic moment in urban planning

As controversial as Robert Moses’ automobile-heavy redesign of New York City was, none of his projects matched the sheer insanity of this skyscraper-sized highway proposed by one-time NYC health commissioner Dr. John A. Harriss in 1930. To be fair, this concept art from Modern Mechanics magazine isn’t the most ridiculous club sandwich-style motorway ever proposed.…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

What Do All the Numbers on Your Credit Card Mean?

I always wondered how credit card companies came up with the digits on my Visa and AmEx. Random chance? Geographical location? Spending habits? Turns out all credit card companies follow the same set of rules. Here’s what the numbers mean: I also didn’t know that there was a simple method to see if a credit…

Tech News Casey Chan Jan 22

Red Dwarf to return for a new series

Actors Craig Charles (Lister) and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) have confirmed that Red Dwarf will be returning for a new, six-part series. The new series will be recorded – again in front of a live studio audience if possible – between November and January and will air in mid-to-late 2012 on the UK satellite/cable channel Dave.…

io9 Adam Whitehead -- The Wertzone Jan 22

Hidden stun guns allow robotic jockeys to cheat at camel racing

A new scandal’s rocking Dubai’s robotic camel racing circuit. Criminals are covertly outfitting the camels’ mechanical jockeys with stun guns that give their mounts an extra charge. In other news, this is one of the stranger headlines I’ve ever written. From the Telegraph UK: […] Dubai police have confirmed they uncovered a gang of dealers…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

Project Iceworm: the nuclear city hidden under Greenland’s glaciers

Camp Century-aka “Project Iceworm”-was a “city under ice,” according to the U.S. Army, a “nuclear-powered research center built by the Army Corps of Engineers under the icy surface of Greenland,” as Frank J. Leskovitz more specifically explains. A fully-functioning “underground city,” Camp Century even had its own mobile nuclear reactor-an “Alco PM-2A”-that kept the whole…

io9 Geoff Manaugh -- BLDGBLOG Jan 22

How to Blow and Pour Liquid Smoke

Smoking is bad for you! But let’s be honest, smoke itself looks sorta cool. Here’s a video of smoke looking like liquid, which makes it even cooler looking. You can even swirl the smoke around and pour it out like water. To get that “liquid smoke” effect, the guy used an unfiltered cigarette (or joint…

Tech News Casey Chan Jan 22

Fringe can’t stop torturing Walter Bishop — and we love it!

Walter Bishop got rooked last night. Of course, to be fair, he was dealing with the greatest poker face in the universe. In fact, it’s official: Sawyer is no longer the greatest con artist in the J.J. Abrams-verse. Spoilers ahead! So for all their shy, non-interfering schtick, it turns out the Observers are incredibly manipulative…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Jan 22

Kaiju anatomical charts reveal organs that allow monsters to shoot ninja stars out of their eyes

You’re probably familiar with the anatomical illustrations of Godzilla and his pals, but have you ever seen these cross-sections of Gamera and his buddies? Check out eyelids that eject shurikens and dorsal spikes that shoot rainbows. https://gizmodo.com/internal-organs-that-allow-giant-monsters-to-breathe-fi-5069058 Over at Pink Tentacle, there’s a great round-up of Daiei Motion Picture’s kaiju anatomy. For example, Barugon’s (above)…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

Apple Says We’ve Downloaded 10 Billion Apps From the App Store

Apple just announced that 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store. Ten frickin’ bill-ee-on. That’s a lot of a lot of apps that have been downloaded. Our list of the best iPhone apps is right here. [Apple] https://gizmodo.com/the-best-iphone-apps-5676549

Tech News Casey Chan Jan 22

Dragontrail vs. Gorilla: The Super Tough Glass Game Is On

The touchscreen mobile device business is getting tougher—in more ways than one. Japan’s Asahi glass has a new super-tough material called Dragontrail that’s aiming to be better and stronger than Gorilla Glass. Ashai is Japan’s biggest glassmaker, and it just launched the new Dragontrail material with a fair amount of pomp and circumstance in Japan.…

Tech News Kit Eaton - Fast Company Jan 22

Suffering Sappho! Wonder Woman TV show to air on NBC

A mere two weeks after every network passed on it, David E. Kelley’s Wonder Woman has been lassoed in by NBC. The pilot features Diana Prince as a harried crime fighter/corporate executive saving Los Angeles from itself. Said Deadline of NBC’s pilot season pick-up of the show: The project is described as a reinvention of…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jan 22

Do Nothing For Two Minutes

It’s Saturday. You should be doing nothing. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably engaged win a marathon session with your RSS reader. That’s why you need to rest, if only for two minutes. Just click this link. Do Nothing For 2 Minutes is the brainchild of Alex Tew, the same man responsible for the…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jan 22

Night of the Living Androids: New Botnet will Zombify Your Smartphones

If there are two things that nerds fear the most, it’s the impending zombie apocalypse and the threat of viruses and malware on their smartphones. Well it looks like the latter is one step closer to reality. Researcher Georgia Weidman developed the Android-based malware in her lab, which is believed to the the first botnet…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jan 22

Harnessing the Suns Rays to Light Your Home

Okay, maybe this sun ray reflector isn’t the world’s most practical way to light your home. But if it actually worked well enough even once, I could live with that, because visually speaking, it looks awesome. In theory, you keep this thing next to a big window that catches sun rays. Then you use the…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jan 22

20 Things Happened on the Internet Last Year and Someone Drew a Picture of It

Do you know stuff happens on the internet? I mean, A LOT of stuff. And people who don’t “surf the web” are clueless about it. Well here are 20 of those things that happened in 2010. Recognize any? Because I’m a huge moron who doesn’t know his head from his ass, I could only name…

Tech News Adrian Covert Jan 22

A Failed Prototype: The Hamster Ball Spacesuit

Scientists engineer a light-controlled worm

If Gillette Invented the Guillotine It’d Be Much More Effective

Batman fan film imagines The Dark Knight Rises with a different villain

“Earthworm Jim” creator brings rat-powered superhero to webcomics

This six-story highway through Manhattan is a great lunatic moment in urban planning

What Do All the Numbers on Your Credit Card Mean?

Red Dwarf to return for a new series

Hidden stun guns allow robotic jockeys to cheat at camel racing

Project Iceworm: the nuclear city hidden under Greenland’s glaciers

How to Blow and Pour Liquid Smoke

Fringe can’t stop torturing Walter Bishop — and we love it!

Kaiju anatomical charts reveal organs that allow monsters to shoot ninja stars out of their eyes

Apple Says We’ve Downloaded 10 Billion Apps From the App Store

Dragontrail vs. Gorilla: The Super Tough Glass Game Is On

Suffering Sappho! Wonder Woman TV show to air on NBC

Do Nothing For Two Minutes

Night of the Living Androids: New Botnet will Zombify Your Smartphones

Harnessing the Suns Rays to Light Your Home

20 Things Happened on the Internet Last Year and Someone Drew a Picture of It

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