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io9TelevisionMorning Spoilers
Earth’s mightiest heroes are fighting Loki and each other in The Avengers!
New Man of Steel set photos reveal a truly disheveled Superman. Andrew Niccol explains In Time’s hidden commercial appeal. Ender’s Game gets a release date, and Tintin’s sequel gets a storyline. Plus good news for two sci-fi shows! Spoilers from here on out! Top image from The Dark Knight Rises. The Avengers Marvel Studios head … Continued
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io9
Disembodied Japanese robot arms applaud your growing fear
These Ondz clapping robots were built by Masato Takahashi of Keio University, who modeled them on his own arms and designed them to sound like authentic human applause. These aluminum and urethane “multipurpose hand-clapping machines” were showcased at the 2011 Tokyo Digital Content Expo. Takahashi readily acknowledges that these arms are weird as hell and … Continued
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io9
Ancient humans only gradually warmed up to agriculture
For better or worse, agriculture is quite possibly humanity’s defining development, allowing people to settle down in one place and build the complex civilizations that we live in today. But ancient humans weren’t totally sure about this whole agriculture thing. That’s the finding of new research by archaeologists from the University of York and the … Continued
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io9
Watch some vibrating nails do their best imitation of melting crystals
These nails start out perfectly arranged, the hardware store equivalent of a perfect crystalline structure. But as their bed begins to vibrate and they start moving around, they become increasingly disordered, actually imitating all the stages of a melting crystal. Basically, this is a great representation of the thermodynamic processes that a crystal experiences as … Continued
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io9
Duck Sauce’s mutant crotch-faces = the most horrifying music video of 2011?
Incredibly, here’s a music video that gives that anime swimming pool of horror we showed you last week a run for its money. For the music video for their single “Big Bad Wolf,” Duck Sauce — a.k.a. DJ supergroup A-Trak and Armand Van Helden — transformed themselves into a duo of groin-visages. Probably not safe … Continued
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io9
What would an Earthlike exoplanet look like up close?
Once upon a time it was big news when any planet outside our solar system was discovered. Now the search is on to find Earth-like exoplanets… and such planets are being discovered on a regular basis. Of course, this does depend somewhat on how one defines “Earth-like”. It doesn’t always mean a pleasant little blue … Continued
By Ron Miller -
io9
The best video makeup tutorials to turn you into a gorgeous freak this Halloween
One easy way to save money on a Halloween costume is to try your hand at a little fancy make-up art. It’s much cheaper than buying some over-priced store-bought monstrosity. Plus, they’re sick as hell. Here are the best of the “how-to” videos that can turn you into the Black Swan, Mystique, and even Jadzia … Continued
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io9Comics
Jonah Hex, Crab Women, And Kickstarter: A Conversation With Comic Scribe Jimmy Palmiotti
At the New York Comic-Con, io9 caught up with prolific comic book writer Jimmy Palmiotti, who told us all about his new projects — such as DC Comics’ new weird cowpoke series All-Star Western — and what it’s like to self-fund graphic novels using Kickstarter. You’ve been writing Jonah Hex for a while, and Jonah … Continued
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io9
NASA solves an 1,800 year old supernova mystery
In 185 CE, Chinese astronomers reported the presence of an incredibly bright “guest star” that appeared suddenly in the sky and stayed there for months. This was the first recorded supernova…and astronomers are only now understanding what it really is. By the 1960s, astronomers were pretty much certain that their ancient counterparts had seen a … Continued
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io9Books
The Masters of Weird: New Story Collections by Tim Powers, Geoff Ryman and Caitlín R. Kiernan
If you’ve been needing more weirdness in your life, then you owe it to yourself to check out new story collections by Geoff Ryman, Caitlín R. Kiernan and Tim Powers. The New York Times has published a terrific review roundup of new collections by these three present-day masters of the “creeps that keep on creeping.” … Continued
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io9
Women suffer from premature orgasm, too
When we hear news about human sexual dysfunction, it often tends to revolve around men. And when female sexual dysfunction does receive attention, it’s often brought up in reference to the difficulty they face achieving sexual climax. But a new study shows that jumping the orgasmic gun is likely a problem that is faced by … Continued
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io9Movies
Life in the Air Force is one big Michael Bay movie, according to the latest recruiting commercial
The Air Force’s recruiting ads have been like little science fiction movies for years now, despite the slogans promising that this isn’t science fiction, but “what we do every day.” The latest ad, which aired during the Panthers-Redskins game on Sunday, is full-blown Michael Bay insanity. As Wired’s Spencer Ackerman points out, a C-17 plane … Continued
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io9Movies
io9’s 50 Scariest Movies Of All Time
What is the scariest science fiction or fantasy film of all time? Which movies stand above the rest off all horror flicks as the most terrifying? The staff at io9 has painstakingly selected the best of the best, and compiled our ultimate list of the scariest movies of all time. Over the next few days … Continued
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io9
What was the world’s population when you were born?
The Guardian is currently featuring a great interactive applet that pumps out population metrics (including the total number of Earth’s human residents) for the year you were born. The app really throws humanity’s explosive population growth (which is set to break the 7-billion-person mark this month) into perspective — even if it doesn’t work for … Continued
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io9Movies
Amazing Real-Life Reproduction of Arkham City‘s Batsuit
This is probably the best Batman costume you’ll ever see. A group of artists over at the Effects Lab forums created a real-life reproduction of the Batsuit from the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City games, taking painstaking care to match the textures and colors in the game. Check out more pics below… Writes Effects Lab … Continued
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io9
The era of non-invasive prenatal genetic screening has officially begun
For years, mothers wanting to screen for genetic abnormalities in their unborn children have had few options, the most common being an invasive procedure known as amniocentesis, which requires the mother’s womb to be tapped with a needle. That test is very accurate, but also carries with it a small risk of miscarriage. Now, a … Continued
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io9
More Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy Movies that Hollywood Could Totally Whitewash
The Last Airbender wasn’t punishment enough. Whatever we did to deserve Hollywood’s “racebending” shenanigans, we’ve still earned more suffering. Tron Legacy’s Garrett Hedlund is reportedly starring in Akira. And there’s still the Americanized Cowboy Bebop in the pipeline too. And an Americanized Space Battleship Yamato. https://gizmodo.com/an-american-live-action-star-blazers-why-not-just-rele-5768540 But things could always get worse! To help prepare … Continued
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io9
The difference between humans and chimps is all in the junk DNA
Humans and chimpanzees share up to 99% of the same DNA, which is particularly remarkable considering we don’t look anything like each other. The reason behind our vast difference in appearance is all thanks to our seemingly useless so-called “junk” DNA. These days, junk DNA is more accurately referred to as noncoding DNA. These sequences … Continued
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io9Trailer Frenzy
Watch the English-dubbed trailer for Studio Ghibli’s The Secret World of Arrietty
Disney has released the first ever English-dubbed trailer for The Secret World of Arrietty from Studio Ghibli (of Spirited Away and Ponyo fame.) It features the voices of Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett and Will Arnett. Based on Mary Norton’s Borrowers book series (which you may also remember from the lovely Borrowers … Continued
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io9
Is your surgeon a gamer? He probably should be.
For years, the US Department of Health and Human Services has distributed brochures like this one to people who are considering surgery. The packets are full of things you need to know and questions you should ask your surgeon before going under the knife. And while these pamphlets are certainly thorough and informative, you’ll notice … Continued