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When some people find themselves gifted with powers beyond those of mere mortals, they often ditch the wage slave life and turn to a life of crime. But what are some of the legal ways you can use those awesome powers to get rich quick? More »
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Have you ever met a guy who embodies darkness? A man whose shirt is always half unbuttoned, whose disheveled hair blows in the nonexistent wind, and who is accompanied by a melodramatic caption box? A fellow whose vampire-esque brooding has women flinging themselves at him from halfway across the block? Jonas is just such a person — and his roommate is sick of it. More »
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As with pyrokinetics and human magnets, a heaping dose of skepticism is requisite when one hears that a little boy possesses superhuman night vision. According to this news report posted by the Alien Disclosure Group UK — promisingly titled "Alien Hybrid Or Starchild Discovered In China?" — Nong Youhui of southern China has the eyes of a fresh-faced morlock. Real deal or not, this kid is extremely lucky in that he can now easily purloin Paul Stanley's awesome nickname. More »
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An inhibitor in your body might be sapping your strength, taking away your endurance, making you feel cold, and giving you diabetes. When scientists eliminated it, they unlocked the key to super strength in both mice and worms. Find out what's in your body that's making you weak. More »
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In this clip from the documentary series Ring of Fire: An Indonesian Odyssey, the filmmakers visit qi master John Chang a.k.a. the "Magus of Java" a.k.a. the man whose nickname I want on my business cards. More »
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Until laser pistols are invented — or trebuchets come back in fashion — bullets will remain the uncreative weapon of choice for individuals in regrettable situations everywhere. More »
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In comics, superheroes often have "scientific" origin stories involving radiation or strange chemicals. But what would actually happen if you experienced one of these origin stories in real life? Let's take a look at six classic superhero tales and find out. More »
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Biotechnology now outpaces the bodies we were born with. Today, we can give ourselves additional senses or improve the ones we've got, and we can heighten our strength while also building limbs better than the breakable ones most of us have. Here's a gallery of all the human enhancements that will be improving lives - or just making life more interesting - in the next few decades. More »
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Need to know which superhumans excel in shapeshifting? What superpower does Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man possess? Pop Chart Lab's Illustrated Omnibus of Superpowers answers all your superpower queries rather concisely, and they're selling copies you can mount on your wall. More »
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It's been known for some time that certain people are physically unable to feel pain. A new test shows that those people are also unable to smell any scents. More »
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According to rumors the Syfy channel is hell-bent on making a single camera comedy series. We've got a list of the three possible pilots Syfy could order up — vote for the one you'd like to see! More »
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Marti Noxon was a producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and now she's coming back to superpowered teenagers with the movie I Am Number Four, coming next month. She talked to us about aliens, super-violence, and dealing with internet haters. More »
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No more will soldiers' vision be limited to the socket-embedded spheres that God intended. The Pentagon wants troops to see dangers behind them, as well as figure out whether an object a kilometer away is a walking stick or AK-47. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5716080&view=rss&microfeed=true Action-heavy video games can dramatically improve your ability to pick and choose relevant visual information from a chaotic field - a skill known as "visual attention". When compared to their non-gaming peers, gamers excelled at tests designed to quantify their visual attention. More »
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Invisibility cloaks are taking baby steps from science fiction to science fact. But there's an even stranger and more incredible possibility - an invisibility cloak that works in both space and time, shielding whole events from history itself. More »
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Have you ever wanted to be able to codify any particular hero's abilities in a short-but-mystifying series of letters? What luck! Mad genius Chris Sims has made it all possible with this Rosetta Stone of superpowers. [ComicsAlliance] More »
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A new study reveals that harboring beneficial intentions — or, conversely, the desire to do evil — results in an increased threshold for strength and endurance. In other words, you can be super if you really want to. More »
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Caprica saw another dip in the ratings on Friday, but Syfy is standing by it. Plus the network is considering a second Battlestar Galactica spin-off show. Syfy's also jumping on the superhero bandwagon, with two super-powered shows in the pipeline. More »
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Superman is one of those superheroes who has a whole constellation of abilities rather than a discrete superpower. But one fan theory suggests that all these abilities — from superstrength to heat vision — stem from a single superpower. More »
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There are two basic things you need if you are going to be superpowered: Mega strength and a giant brain. Two new university lab inventions - superfast robot hands and injectable brain tissue - could give you both. More »
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Timur Bekmambetov will be revisiting superpowered assassins with his sequel to Wanted, but he's already looking to his next project, a contemporary adaptation of Moby Dick. But this being Bekmambetov, his whales and whale hunters will have their own superpowers. More »
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Syfy has picked up the pilot for Alphas, a show about a team of superpowered people whose enhanced neurological abilities come at a crippling price. But can a great show come from the man who wrote X-Men: The Last Stand? More »
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We may not all have pointy ears and sharp teeth, but Spanish scientists are convinced that inside every human lurks the best bat-power: echolocation, or navigating by sound. And they're determined to show us all how to unlock it! More »
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With his first novel, David J. Schwartz attempts to imagine ordinary people, in a realistic setting, who gain Superpowers. It's one of the finalists for the Nebula Award. More »
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Somehow I'd gotten it into my head that last night's Kyle XY finale would answer our questions and wrap up most of the show's loose ends. Instead, it just... ended. Spoilers and ranting below. More »
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Superteen Kyle XY is snooping in mad-science land, in this new exclusive clip from Monday's episode. And I'm glad to see his sidekick Declan is being useful for a change. More »
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Kyle XY discovers the inner sanctum of Latnok's amoral scientists of the future - and it's full of air-hockey and cute Mary-Janes, in this exclusive clip from Monday's new episode. Will he fall for it? More »
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This exclusive clip from Monday's Kyle XY episode showcases a situation where Kyle's amazing powers may not do him any good. The way Josh snaps at Lori felt totally real and moving. Spoilers below. More »
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Flying, controlling the weather, and turning invisible are officially out. A new blog gives us the goods on the true superpowers of the future. More »
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With the increasingly bloated cast of NBC’s Heroes and a pub full of powers in No Heroics, it might seem like there’s hardly room for another set of caped characters on TV. But BBC1 has given Joe Ahearne the go-ahead to pen Superpowers, a show inspired by his love of Marvel comics. And the one-time Doctor Who director assures the viewing public that his isn’t going to be like all the other superhero shows. More »
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Given the curve-ballish nature of reality, it makes perfect sense to me that the people who finally develop superpowers will live in Madison, Wisconsin. They won't have a Gotham City or Metropolis packed with a high per-capita rate of supervillains to fight. They'll just be regular people, struggling with ordinary things. That's the premise of David J. Schwartz's forthcoming novel Superpowers, about five college students who develop superhuman abilities from a strange alcoholic concoction at a party. Suddenly, they have to switch out of party mode into great justice mode. And it's not easy. The book has already gotten advance praise from speculative fiction greats Karen Joy Fowler and Kelly Link. Below we've got a teaser for you. More »
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If you've been browsing the cable airwaves, you might have noticed the 1993 film The Meteor Man has been playing on Showtime, usually as late-night filler material. Although it's 15 years old, it didn't even stand up for 15 minutes at the box office, grossing only $8 million dollars despite a wealth of talented actors. If you really want to torture yourself, strap yourself in Clockwork Orange-style and try watching it. We dare you. Or just check out the full story behind the movie that makes Blankman seem bearable by comparison. More »
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In Japanese, the word urawaza means "secret tricks," like knowing that Superman is vulnerable to kryptonite or that certain moves will lead you to the song at the end of the game Portal. Now io9's Lisa Katayama has a whole book of Japanese tricks to turn your everyday life into science fiction, just like in William Gibson novels. The book is called Urawaza, and aside from some practical stuff like how to keep your elbows clean, it also contains obscure Japanese wisdom on a few superpowers. More »
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Human sleep patterns were once controlled by circadian rhythms governed by day and night. But now, according to a new study, almost everyone in the United States has a sleep pattern that's controlled by when they watch TV. A massive survey on time management conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics shows that most people watch TV between 11 - 11:15, dropping off to sleep when they switch the tube off. The hour when nighttime falls affects this pattern very little. Human sleep patterns are therefore more malleable than believed, and it's possible people could change them as easily as changing channels. More »
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Meet the first (semi) invisible warship: it's painted in "low reflectivity" materials that make it hard to see on radar. While not invisible to the naked eye, this Swedish ship, called the Visby Corvette, is for all intents and purposes invisible to many of the instruments Navies would use to pick it up. Researchers say the next generation of high-stealth ships like this might be invisible to the naked eye, too. Want to see more of this invisible ship? More »
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Science fiction and comics are full of mutants and aliens whose superpowers defy various laws of physics. Shape-changers who can alter their mass, people who can fly — in space, even! — and guys who can produce extreme cold or heat on cue. But in real life, the ability to negate just one of the laws of physics, whenever you felt like it, could turn you into a god. Which law of physics would you like to have a personal on/off switch for? More »
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The Weinstein Company released the final movie poster for Superhero Movie today, and it features Pamela Anderson's boobs, Leslie Nielsen wearing a "With Great Power Comes Hot Bitches" sweater, and not one but two penis jokes (check out Storm's lightning and Dragonfly's popcorn). We're all for parodying superheroes and science fiction, but when it devolves into beer hat jokes and shots of people being embarrassed that their underwear is on display, we doth protest. It would be easy to discount this film if Meet The Spartans hadn't just made $18 million in its opening weekend. If this one grosses anywhere near that, we fear for the fate of our species. More »
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How exactly do Superman's kryptonian powers work? I mean, how do you account for the super-speed, the way he gets his abilities from the yellow sun, his super-breath, and even how he shaves in the morning? Now you can have the answers to these crucial questions and more at your fingertips. Philipp Lenssen gives you a quick lesson in stick figures (via Sketchcast) on how all these powers work, in a very no-nonsense fashion. Sit your non-Superman converts down and see if they come away enlightened, confused, or wanting those few minutes of their life back. Check it out. More »
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Are Leslie Nielsen and David Zucker funny anymore? Maybe you'll have an answer after watching the trailer for Superhero Movie, an attempt to make Scary Movie for comic book flicks. High school student Rick Riker gets bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, and develops powers similar to Spidey's, along with an apparent love for tighty-whitey underpants. The movie represents real a step down the ladder for director Craig Mazin, who directed The Specials in 2000. Skip this, and rent that. Find out why below. More »
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Hayden Panettiere let it leak that Heroes won't be back for the rest of the season, even though the strike is coming to an end. Maybe this will allow the writers to focus on Season Three (Season 2.0 Redux?) and come out of the gate with a bang instead of a whimper. After all, we know they've filmed part of Volume Three: Villains and that it's all about the bad guys, so how can they screw that up? Plus Zachary Quinto will be done with Spock duty, so they can cram more Sylar in there for extra brain-munching action. [Ain't It Cool News] More »
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