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Tech NewsOS X Yosemite: Everything You Need to Know About the Big Redesign
Apple’s follow up to OS X 10.9 Mavericks, will be OS X Yosemite, following with the theme of naming OS versions after impressive California landmarks. Last year’s WWDC was all about giving iOS an overhaul. This year’s star will be Apple’s desktop operating system. Here’s what you need to know. As we suspected, the new … Continued
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io9
From Metaphysics to Teen Wolf Meta: The Evolution of a Word
If you follow genre television, internet fandom, or literary criticism, you’ve probably heard the word “meta” used to describe everything from a narrative form, to intensive analysis of character backstories in Harry Potter. How did this Greek prefix meaning “beyond” come to mean so much to so many of us? You can probably blame it … Continued
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Tech NewsMIT Created an Extra Set of Shoulder-Mounted Robot Arms
They’re not going to turn you into a Doctor Octopus-like super villain, but the next time you’re trying to open a door with your arms full, you’ll see the value in this extra set of shoulder-worn robot arms being developed at MIT. Just don’t get your hopes up about flipping away speeding cars that are … Continued
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Tech News
World’s First Fully Organic Flexible OLED Will Wrap Around Your Wrist
The idea of truly flexible displays never gets boring, and now Plastic Logic is taking us one step closer. Its latest flexible OLED is the world’s first to be made using fully organic transistors—and it’s surprisingly pleasing display could wrap around your entire wrist. The bendable screen, which features 256 grey levels and full 30fps … Continued
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io9Check Out This Insanely Dangerous Zinc Flamethrower
You may think of zinc as “one of those metals we’re supposed to eat.” It keeps important enzymes functioning, and keeps roofs from rusting. It also makes one hell of a flamethrower, as we can see in this video. It was even used to make a special prototype flamethrower that was never used – because … Continued
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Tech NewsSploidListen to this great story on how this guy discovered he was a coward
In 2008 someone broke into Rob Norman’s house. He had speculated about this situation since he was a kid and thought of different heroic ways of repealing an attack. When it actually happened, he realized that he wasn’t Bruce Willis in Die Hard. He was weak and instantly submissive—like most of us would be if … Continued
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Tech NewsCould A Day On The Internet Be Better Than This?
The answer probably depends on who you ask, but Fox’s Animation Domination High Def nails what looks like a pretty perfect day on the net. It’s got all the social media, Internet culture, and gaming most of us live with, but everything is great. Getting up-votes on Reddit, kills streaks online, and nothing bad happening … Continued
By Jason Krell -
io9MoviesExclusive Coherence Clip Turns The Tunguska Event Into Campfire Story
It’s not every day you have the Tunguska Event name-checked at a dinner party like a spooky story, but the new science-fiction thriller Coherence (which revolves around a comet, a dinner party and horror!) manages to make comets creepy again. Make you want to watch Night of the Comet, right? I would actually be into … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
This Six Minute Satellite Studies Star Nurseries
Not every scientific exploration of the cosmos requires a multi-year, multi-billion dollar effort a la the Hubble Space Telescope Program. In fact, sometimes all it requires is a reusable sounding rocket, an ultraviolet camera, and six minutes in space. Built by a team of researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder and dubbed the … Continued
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Tech NewsSploid
Scientists create a supernova in a lab right here on Earth
Scientists at the Vulcan laser lab in the United Kingdom have used three high powered light beams “focused on a carbon rod target not much thicker than a strand of hair “to create a supernova right here on Earth—a tiny supernova, but a supernova nonetheless. The researchers conducted the experiment to understand the shape of … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Our WWDC 2014 Liveblog Starts Right Here, Right Now
It’s that time of year again! Later today at WWDC 2014, Apple’s going to trot out its latest and greatest offerings developments for all the world to see. iOS 8! OS X 10.10! And very possibly a plan to take over your home in a way that should totally not freak you out. We’ll be … Continued
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Tech News
Even Security Dogs Need Badges to Get Into Apple’s WWDC Keynote
Every tech nerd in the world wants to be at the Apple WWDC keynote that starts in just about one hour. Sadly, uhhh, we don’t all get to go, and security at the event is so tight that even the guard dogs have badges. We first learned about the WWDC guard dog badges from CNET … Continued
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io9
Classic Star Trek on Sale, Every Bond Film, Make Your Own Aereo
They might not dazzle with special effects like J.J. Abrams’ recent films, but the old Star Trek movies have their own charms(well, most of them anyway). Today only, you can get various box sets for all-time low prices. The films have been mastered for Blu-ray, which fortunately didn’t included any stabilization. Star Trek: Original Motion … Continued
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Tech News
Would These Redesigned Cigarettes Help You Quit Smoking?
Quitting smoking cold turkey takes a rare sort of willpower that most of us will, unfortunately, never know. So for the weaker willed masses looking to kick the habit, these new cigarette packaging concepts may be just what the (questionable) doctor ordered. Created by Taiwanese designer Tseng Yi Wen, the simply named Tobacco project looks … Continued
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io9Books & Comics
First Look At Walter Mosley’s Jack Strong, About A Man With 1000 Souls
Plenty of fantasy heroes are divided against themselves, or struggle with a dual nature. But Walter Mosley’s Jack Strong is still something unique. He’s a single person with over 1,000 souls stitched into him — and they each have their own unfinished business. Check out an exclusive first look below. Jack Strong doesn’t come out … Continued
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io9
Cosmos Knows It’s Not Easy Being Green
Last night’s episode of Cosmos was about carbon dioxide, the greenhouse effect, and the hopeful possibilities for humanity’s future on Earth. We begin our journey with our nearest planetary neighbor, Venus, with its famously harsh environment. Venus lost her oceans long ago, and with them her ability to sequester carbon dioxide released by geological processes. … Continued
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io9
Salamanders Act Out a Really Misogynistic Science Fiction Story
Here’s an example of truth being not only stranger than fiction, but more politically questionable as well. Salamanders in the northeastern United States are mating and producing hordes of female hybrid sex parasites that threaten to overwhelm the species. Around this time of year, deep in the woods of Pennsylvania, salamanders are desperately mating in … Continued
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ScienceSpace & SpaceflightHow an Organizational Breakdown at NASA Let the Challenger Lift Off
The “massive malfunction” that killed seven astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1986 also forever changed NASA, an agency that seemed infallible. What breakdown in the decision-making process led to the shuttle lifting off? The organizational structure of NASA itself played a bigger role than you might imagine. In a new 20-minute documentary produced … Continued
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Tech News
“Så Kan Det Gå” (A Glitchy Swedish Puzzle)
“Så kan det gå” by the Swedish musician Alveola Ämting lays a tremulous vocal amid a light shimmer of broken static. Her granular sounds, a gentle if brittle smattering of nano-sonic fissures, give way as time passes to her halting, slow-paced intonation: I was not looking for trouble But I got caught by a siren … Continued