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Tech NewsA Giant Kinetic Installation Made From 48,000 Pieces of K’NEX
If an upcoming flight stopover has you visiting Philadelphia’s International Airport, you might want to head over to Terminal A-West before the end of October this year. Because instead of killing time reading a magazine, you can stare in awe at this impressive 48,000-piece animated art installation made from K’NEX. The building toy never quite … Continued
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Tech NewsHalf of the US is in Drought
I don’t like it when the drought map turns into an optimist/pessimist test. Is the United States half in drought, or half fine? Either way, the numbers are ugly. California is still in 100% drought, joined in that unhappy condition by Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas. Vegetation anomaly in California compared to normal, where … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
Want to Write Great Science Fiction? Read Classic Literature
Worldbuildingis a major challenge for science fiction creators — building a plausible world from scratch involves thinking about lots of variables. But sometimes, to imagine the future, the best way is to look to the past. Classic literature can help you build a world more believably alien than anything you’ve yet imagined. I’m currently making … Continued
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Tech NewsSome Guy Created a Holodeck with an Oculus Rift and 3 Kinects
With no shortage of ingenuity, 3D video expert Oliver Kreylos managed to transplant his entire body into a virtual reality environment using three Microsoft Kinects and an Oculus Rift. It’s a little fuzzy, but it’s easy to recognize what he’s really done. He’s created a Holodeck—or something close to it. It makes perfect sense. Video … Continued
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io9
Vicious-Looking “Alien” Fish Defies Classification
Researchers have compared the mouth of Kryptoglanis shajii to the jaws of H.R. Giger’s xenomorphs, and with good reason: K. shajii is technically a catfish, but scientists say the bones of its face are so alien that they’ve “had a hard time fitting it into the family tree of catfishes.” Photo Credit: Mark L. Riccio, … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
This Cold War Test Bed Irradiated Satellites Before the Soviets Could
How do you ensure that fancy new military satellite is tough enough to withstand an orbital EMP attack by the Soviets? By shooting it with your own nuclear bomb using this massive, movable test chamber, obviously. During the Cold War, players on both sides of the Iron Curtain worked just as hard devising ways to … Continued
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io9This Live-Action Batman: The Animated Series Opening Is Bat-Tastic
Watch out, living, three-dimensional criminals of Gotham City! Vengeance is also three-dimensional and coming for you thanks to this excellent live-acton remake of the Batman: TAS opening credits. Hey, if Gotham tanks, Fox should just consider making a live-action shot-for-shot remake of TAS. I’d watch it. [Via IGN]
By Rob Bricken -
Tech NewsSploid
John Berkey’s space art makes me nostalgic for a future that never was
John Berkey is one of the classic painters of the golden era of science fiction. He did some of the original Star Wars posters, but this is for me his best work: Gigantic deep space exploration ships, beautiful white galactic liners, and huge space posts orbiting Earth and other planets—all of them mixing elegant biological … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Apple Just Put Its App Design Bible On iBooks For Free
Apple’s iOS Human Interface Guidelines, a set of tips and rules for designers that was previously only available through the developer portal, is free on iBooks as of today. It’s a little glimpse into how Apple hopes app developers will follow its lead when it comes to design. The “book,” which is more of a … Continued
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io9
The Evolution Of The TARDIS Key!
Sure, sure—the TARDIS is always evolving along with the ever-regenerating Doctor, but what of the TARDIS key? One clever artist plotted out the evolution of the TARDIS key from Doctor Who. And it is delightful. Created by Terrasolo Pictures, this is really just a wonderful collection of TARDIS keys. And I would probably wear the … Continued
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Tech News
Beautiful Landscapes Far, Far Away
The annual National Geographic Traveler photography contest is accepting entries until June 30th. The outdoor spaces category is of particular interest to me, with peeks at landscapes far away. These are a few of my favourites: Basalt in Iceland A stream cuts through dark black rocks in Iceland. Iceland is rich in basaltic rocks, rich … Continued
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io9
The Astronomer Who Wanted to Rearrange the Solar System, Using Nukes
CalTech astronomer Fritz Zwicky was the first to conceive of dark matter, supernovas and neutron stars. He also had a theory about colonizing the solar system using nuclear bombs. We could terraform other planets, he argued, by pulverizing them and then moving them closer or further from the sun. If you’ve never heard of Zwicky, … Continued
By Mark Strauss -
Tech NewsThe Algorithms at the Heart of the New September 11 Memorial Museum
The National September 11 Memorial Museum opens to the public tomorrow here in New York City after more than a decade of complications, and amidst not always civil disagreements over what the museum should be in the first place—what its narrative intentions might be and whether or not it could ever be possible to achieve … Continued
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Tech NewsArtificial IntelligenceA Wall-Mounted Computer Chess Game Is Playable Art
Staring at the Mona Lisa provides a few minutes of enjoyment and contemplation, but were the famous portrait on the wall of your living room, you’d soon find yourself wishing she did more than just sit there and smirk. Maybe that’s what inspired the Artful Dodger to build this portrait chess set that lets you … Continued
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io9Television
10 Comic Books That Would Make Excellent TV Shows
It’s official: The most exciting new genre shows on network TV are based on comics. iZombie, Constantine, Flash, Gotham… But the networks are just scratching the surface of what’s out there. Here are 10 comics that are crying out to become television shows right now. The comics on this list have a few things in … Continued
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Tech News
Corn Grown in Space Caves Could Be the Future of Farming
Anew discovery could take corn farming to perhaps the last place you’d expect to see it: in underground mines and caves. Perhaps, eventually, even to other planets. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s real, and it could drastically change the future of food production as we know it. It all started when researchers at … Continued
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Tech NewsSeed-Filled Caps Turn Plastic Bottles Into Tiny Gardens
If you’re looking for a more profitable way to recycle your empty plastic water bottles, forget about taking them to the curb every week. As long as your home gets a few drops of sunshine every day, you can turn them into tiny productive gardens with these Petomato bottle caps. Using them is not quite … Continued
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io9
Roberto Orci Will Make His Directing Debut With Star Trek 3
It’s been confirmed; Paramount has given the job of directing the third nu-Trek movie to suddenly single writer Roberto Orci. It will be his first time directing anything, although he did write the scripts for the first two movies with his ex-partner Alex Kurtzman. Can he direct? Also, can he write something better than Star … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
io9A Short About A Color-Stealing Villain In The Style Of A Scanner Darkly
In a black-and-white world, only a few artists possess color. But they live in fear of the Gold Sparrow, a malevolent woman who steals the color of any who dare to perform. Can anyone stop her? Director Daniel Stessen wrote The Gold Sparrow based on the song by the Brothers Lit. The production team assembled … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
Tech News
This Is the World’s Oldest Sperm
You’re looking at the world’s oldest sperm. At 17 million years old, it’s not quite as lively as it once was—but it still took scientists some serious investigation to identify it. The samples in which it resides were discovered at the Riversleigh World Heritage Fossil Site by a team including University of New South Wales … Continued