io9

Interior Design That Looks Like an Alien Nest is Covering Your Wall

Click to viewIf you’ve always wanted to decorate your house to look like a shinier, cleaner version of the queen’s knobby, textured nest in Aliens, here is a template for you. Architect Zaha Hadid has created artistic interpretations of several buildings she’s designed, and they all look like beautiful monsters and spaceship interiors. See more … Continued

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Nobody Expects the Cyber-Inquisition

It’s a scary glimpse of the cyber-Inquisition future, with red-draped emissaries of a future church seemingly about to torment a spiny cyborg. This alien but familiar image by Simon Fellah, a freelance concept designer in Denmark, is just one of many creepy portraits of alien (and human) life he’s painted. We’ve got a few more … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

New Technology Helps Ground Telescopes Outdo Hubble

A new technology called nulling interferometry will give some of the world’s biggest telescopes the power to detect Earth-like planets outside our solar system—something even the Hubble has not accomplished. Basically, nulling interferometry chains together the light captured by several large telescopes to create a single “super telescope” that has enough power to detect a … Continued

io9Movies

Under Siege 3: Alien Invasion?

With the recent success of movies and shows about superheroes, space travel and alien invasions, it seems like everyone is poised to jump on the science fiction bandwagon. And we’ve mentioned before that some TV shows could benefit from a little scifi boost. But can the magic touch of science fiction reignite a flagging franchise? … Continued

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The Art of Cowboys and Killer Robots

In 2003, artist Sunny Buick conceived and curated SCI-FI Western, an exhibition of art inspired by both science fiction and the American frontier. Taking the analogy of space as the new Old West to the next level, the participating artists juxtaposed B-movie imagery from westerns and science fiction with bizarre and surprisingly poignant results.Buick’s inspiration … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

UK’s Overwhelming CCTV Presence Captures Everything, Including an 8-Foot-Tall Alien

Britain is absolutely covered in closed-circuit TV cameras, ensuring that anyone walking through London is easily tracked by a shadowy group of law enforcement officials in some dark room somewhere. How unsettling and Orwellian! Well, one enterprising Brit decided to see just how long it would take for the cops to show up after parading … Continued

io9Movies

When the Nerds Beat Up on the Poor Jock

The 1977 movie Laserblast is one for the ages — it possesses a timeless B-movie quality, as if it might have been made anywhere between the 1950s and 2010s. You’ve got your basic teen-finds-alien-artifact plot (which we’ve seen before in the mind-blowing Demons in My Head). This time, the artifact is a laser gun that … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Steampunk Predator Stands Guard Over Junk Shop

Officially we are sick to death of steampunk, but we are willing to make an exception for a Predator with the skull of his alien adversary stuck to his spear. Currently the 8-foot statue stands guard outside of a London junk shop as a means of luring customers in to buy useless old crap. Whether … Continued

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McCain Acknowledges the “Lights Over Arizona” Were UFOs

In February 2000, John McCain admitted that the famous “lights over Arizona” were in fact UFOs during a press conference broadcast over Fox News. Specifically, he was asked about the lawsuit from Peter Gersten to open UFO records from the military, and replied that it was a matter that concerned him before mentioning the Arizona … Continued

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What’s the Real Explanation for the Roswell Incident?

It’s been over 50 years since something many called a UFO landed near a military base in Roswell, New Mexico, and the mysterious incident continues to capture our imagination. Although some people still aren’t sure exactly what landed in Roswell, science fiction knows the extraterrestrial truth. In scifi, the crash site has become the scene … Continued

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12 Weakest Deaths In Science Fiction History

The greatest science fiction heroes live on the edge, skimming the jagged maw of death every day. “Scifi hero” is a high-risk profession, so you shouldn’t expect your idols to live forever. But at the very least, you can hope your hero gets a good death – a hero’s death – instead of going out … Continued

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A Collection of UFO Photographs from 1870 to 2008

A UFO enthusiast has put together an 8-minute video featuring about a zillion UFO photographs culled from approximately the last century and a half. You’ll see familiar favorites — like this saucer-shaped one — and bizarro images of floaty blobs and streaking lights. The video is set to music, most of which is pretty good, … Continued

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“Bechdel Rule” Should Really Be Called “Ripley Rule,” Bechdel Tells io9

Everybody’s talking about the “Bechdel Rule” all of a sudden, especially as it relates to science fiction. National Public Radio did a story on it the other day. Novelist Charles Stross dissected his own books to see if they passed the test. (Two of them failed.) This guy rigorously applies it to tons of science … Continued

Tech NewsGadgets

Space Invaders Invade New Space: Bendy Keyboard’s Keys

This Bendiboard Retroboard Invaders is a flexible roll-up rubber keyboard adorned with those famous pixellated alien Space Invaders. It’s bendy, it’s got aliens, it’s got a space key depicting a laser gun-base. You can spill coffee on it safely if you get a little energetic in your gaming, and it’s $40. Enough said, because I … Continued

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Space Pirates And Sex Mechas: The Best Scifi Hentai Without Tentacles [NSFW]

This green-haired alien girl can rip your clothes off AND make you super-horny with just a strobe-flash of her eyes. Some people think science fiction hentai porn is all about tentacle monsters, but they’re dead wrong. There are mad scientists who transform women into super-evolved sex-monsters, androids who need human sperm to upgrade their firmware, … Continued

io9Movies

Viking/Alien Smackdown Now Direct To DVD?

When will we get to see the Viking clan face battle with the evil alien creature with the big scary teeth? New rumors are suggesting that Outlander, may be released in the United States only on DVD. Which is a dreadful injustice. Despite a few negative early reviews, Outlander deserves a wide-screen release, followed by … Continued

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Northern Hemisphere Gets Ready for End of UFO Season

The holidays are nearly over, and it’s time to start going back to school or return to work after a summer vacation. What you probably didn’t know is that it’s also the end of UFO season for the Northern Hemisphere. So if you’re looking for ET, it’s time to hightail it down to New Zealand. … Continued

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UFO Lobbyist Offers to Brief Obama on Extraterrestrials

Jeff Peckman, who came to national attention earlier this year when he launched a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver and later announced that he possessed actual footage of a live ET, continues his campaign to thrust alien life into the political limelight. This week, he invited Barack Obama to hear … Continued

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Is the Earth Quarantined???

Click to view Why haven’t we met aliens yet? And why aren’t we sending rockets all over the solar system? There is only one plausible explanation. Earth is being quarantined! A combination of higher alien civilizations and our own Earth-based military forces are working together to keep the Earth contained and neutralized. The reasons why … Continued

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When The Abyss Aliens Left, These Were Their Sea Spawn

Artist Michael Brown has an eye for sea aliens. In my mind after the alien left the mighty depths of the ocean, these creatures are what was left over. Of course, they mated with sea life because that’s what aliens do. Click through for an entire gallery of crazy alien/fish hybrids that want to eat … Continued