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io9This amazing Back to the Future musical isn’t real but it needs to be
The guys of CineFix have composed a Back to the Future musical — well, a single song, titled “Great Scott!” of course — and Broadway needs to hire these guys immediately. Because the world needs a Back to the Future musical in it ASAP. Here’s a fun behind-the-scenes video if you want to see how … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
io9First look at Transformers 4’s Optimus Prime and more cool toy reveals
Hasbro debuted a bunch of toys at the New York Comic-con last night, and you’re going to want to check them out. Get the first look at the redesigned Optimus Prime from Transformers: Age of Extinction, the debut of the Dungeons & Dragons Kre-O line, upcoming Marvel movie figures and more! Transformers Thanks to the … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
io9
These sexy topographic maps show San Francisco stripped bare
San Francisco is renowned for its winding roads, stunning Victorian architecture, and, of course, its sprawling bridges. But the City by the Bay is also known for its hilly terrain — a geological feature that’s often obscured by its landmarks. These new maps show the city’s sensual contours in all their glory. These maps were … Continued
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Syfy’s new werewolf series starring Supergirl is sexy sex sex
The first trailer for Syfy’s new supernatural werewolf sex show Bitten is having lots and lots of werewolf sex. It’s also got a lot of furry young lads taking their shirts off. We are not complaining. Starring Smallville’s Laura Vandervoort, this first-ever trailer for Bitten actually lead me to believe that this show was called … Continued
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io9
This elegant chart almost became our Periodic Table of Elements
This spiraling structure is the work of Gustavus Hinrichs. It was one of the many contenders for the Periodic Table of Elements. It was actually better than most, but there’s a very good reason why it lost out to the current design. Around the mid-1800s, people started noticing that the elements, when arranged from least … Continued
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Jon Snow may be Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four movie
Jon Snow is about to go from knowing nothing to knowing pretty much everything if Fox has its way. Variety discovered the shortlists for the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, which include Kit Harington as Reed Richards, Saoirse Ronan as Sue Storm, and Chronicle’s Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch. Here’s the full wishlist: Sources … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
io9
What Are the Worst Technological Innovations of All Time?
We think about technological progress as moving us forward, but for every giant leap, there are just as many awkward sidesteps. Today, we want to know about the technological advances that time (justly!) forgets. Whether it’s one we’ve already moved on from, or one we’re still actively trying to forget, tell us all about the … Continued
By Ria Misra -
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The seriously creepy “two-kitten experiment”
Think you’ve seen the worst that mad science has to offer? How about an experiment in which scientists rendered kittens essentially sightless? And that’s not the worst of it. Learn about harnessed kittens, yoked kittens, kittens going over a visual cliff, and researchers fake-punching a kitten. How do you virtually blind someone without doing any … Continued
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This is what a penny looks like after being on Mars for 411 days
There’s an old penny on Curiosity that the robotic probe uses to calibrate the Mars Hand Lens Imager at the end of its arm. The rover recently took a hi-res close-up of the coin, and as you can see, it’s getting a little dusty. As the Planetary Science Institute reports, the image, which was snapped … Continued
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io9Is Larry David really playing a surprising villain in Man of Steel 2?
At last, we know whom Chris O’Dowd is playing in Thor 2… and it’s not whom we thought. Will Harrison Ford join the Blade Runner sequel? Another Star Wars casting rumor gets shot down. Daniel Radcliffe talks Frankenstein. And a Tomorrow People producer warns not to expect a lot of science fiction in the show. … Continued
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io9
It’s arbitrary to call it autumn just because one planet has a festival
They call it Fall Fest on some worlds, and Autumn’s Progress on others. Everybody flocks to the northern hemisphere on our planet and celebrates a new season. Even though most of them come from tidally-locked worlds where they’re on continents that’re always in deep summer. I guess people just want an excuse to party. Sergey … Continued
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The EU on track to meet its 2020 climate goals
A recent report from the European Environment Agency, a watchdog group, confirms that several countries are making good on their promises to reduce emissions and switch over to green energy. The AFP reports: By the end of 2012, the EU had reduced its output of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by nearly 18 percent compared to the … Continued
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io9
Comment of the Day: Hush, Hush Edition
In today’s comments, we tossed around some unorthodox investment solutions, speculated on the whereabouts of lost lab animals (right behind you), and got some key insight into the writing process. Inhis Q&A on writing and his novels, author Max Barry shared his thoughts on the power of strategic silences in writing: The more I write, … Continued
By Ria Misra -
io9
What ever happened to the “advanced civilization gone barbaric” story?
It used to be a mainstay of science fiction: the story where we visit a barbarian society that turns out to have been highly technologically advanced in the past. You saw this story all the time on Doctor Who and Star Trek, and in the pulps. And now, it’s more or less vanished. What happened? … Continued
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Beautiful art celebrates anatomical oddities
As fans of all things medically weird and anatomically odd, we’re all about this eldritch illustration by Chicago-based artist Cloey Zikmund. Equal parts creepy and cute, the piece draws its inspiration from the unique collection of specimens housed at the Museum Vrolik in Amsterdam. Check out more of Zikmund’s work on her tumblr, or do … Continued
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Sympathy for the pickup artist on Person of Interest
Except for some insane action with Root, this episode of Person of Interest was like getting a TMI report from your college-age cousin about his dorm room sexual exploits. Stalking doesn’t have to be bad, OK? Seriously, Person of Interest, we didn’t need to know you felt that way. So the number this week was … Continued
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io9Listen to a brain seizure turned into music
Yikes, this is all kinds of creepy. Stanford scientists recently took the EEG signals from a person experiencing a convulsive seizure and converted them to tones that fell within the acoustic spectrum of the human voice. The results will send chills up your spine. The scientists/artists responsible for this “piece” are Josef Parvizi and Chris … Continued
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io9How did Mark Sheppard steal last night’s Supernatural without appearing?
Seriously, how? See for yourself. This was an entirely Mark Sheppard-less season opener… and still the one standout scene involved Mark Sheppard. Mostly because you can just imagine the look on his face. Spoilers ahead… I do not have much to say about Supernatural’s ninth (!) season opener. I feel like this is the tenth … Continued
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Amazing Hand-Tinted Photos of Egypt from the late 19th century
In the late nineteenth century, Western archaeologists and tourists were fascinated by the ruins of ancient Egypt. Here are some of the incredible photos they took, which were hand-tinted in the fashion of the day. This is like meta-history, where we look back on an historical method of looking back at ancient history. Temple of … Continued