Andrew Tarantola

Originally built as a supersonic strategic bomber for delivering nuclear strikes on Moscow, the B-1B Lancer has played a variety of roles for the Air Force in its nearly 30 years of service. And thanks to a newly upgraded cockpit—including four multi-function color displays and a modernized Fully Integrated Data Link (FIDL)—the B-One “Bones” of…

Four Ways to Winterize Your Bike Before Next Week’s Commute

So what if the East River is iced over and the mercury refuses to climb into the double digits? Commuting on your bike through snow can still be faster and more enjoyable than waiting on an overcrowded subway car. Here’s how make sure your two-wheeler is ready to face Old Man Winter. https://gizmodo.com/new-yorks-frozen-east-river-seen-from-pier-1-playground-1508445224 Clean It,…

The Night Ziggy Stardust Rocketed Back to Mars

David Bowie enjoyed a number of flamboyant Rock-n-Roll personas during his musical career but none as well-known as Ziggy Stardust: the science fictional, androgynous, eyebrowless diva. Here’s Ziggy-Bowie shooting the lights out of Hammersmith Odeon theater in 1973 just before his big announcement See, Bowie had already produced two albums and gone touring using the…

This Transforming Medieval Text Is Actually Six Books in One

With a literacy rate hovering around an estimated 5 to 10 percent of the population during the Middle Ages, only a select few of society’s upper echelons and religious castes had use for books. So who would have use for a sextuplet of stories bound by a single, multi-hinged cover like this? Some seriously busy…

MEMS: The Microscopic Switches That Make the Modern World Possible

We use them every day without realizing it. They’re in our phones, our cars, our cameras, and innumerable electronic devices. They’re called MEMS, and they’re the microscopic switches that allow our gadgets to become smaller, lighter, and faster. Micro-ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) are minuscule mechanical switches that control the flow of electricity. That may not sound…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Beam Me Up

Stupid jerk aliens. It’s bad enough that they turn our cows inside out and do unmentionable things to our buttholes, but stealing joints? Really?

These New Black Ops Radios Are Better Than Some Cell Phones

There is no internet connectivity or cell service in the remote locations frequented by American Special Forces, so they bring their own. Using a new generation of squad-based radio technology known as wideband tactical communications networks, our secret forces can call, text, or video conference from anywhere in the world. US Special Operations Command (SOCOM)…

Why Curved TVs Aren’t Just Another Gimmick

They’ve been a vital aspect of movie theater visuals for years, but curved displays have become increasingly common on small screens—specifically high-end OLED televisions and adventurous smartphones. But are curves in your TV or phone really the wave of the future? Or just another marketing gimmick? Why Curved Works For Movie Theaters Many movie theaters,…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Gumball Machine Weekend

That time Krang dreamed he grew woolly legs and went running through sunlit fields of candy.

Wet Dwarf: Astronomers Spot Water In Our Asteroid Belt

Liquid water is considered the single most important factor in our search for extra terrestrial life, so the recent discovery of vaporous H2O spewing from a dwarf planet here in the solar system has Earthbound astronomers over the moon. “This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other…

The World’s Biggest Hammerhead Crane Can Lift an Entire 747

Many of today’s seafaring megastructures would be nigh on impossible to build without the lifting assistance provided by dockside cranes. And as we continue to build ever-bigger systems we’ll need ever bigger cranes, like the gigantic hammerhead from Kone. Giant cantilever cranes, or hammerheads, were first developed in 19th century Germany—known then as hammerkran—and were…

Sexbots Eating Sausage (Obviously NSFW, Just Read the Headline)

I don’t know about you guys, but there is precisely none chance of me sticking Mr. Wiggly anywhere near that thing.

Israel’s Adding Lasers to Its Iron Dome Defenses

When it comes to national air security, Israel doesn’t mess around; it has not one but four separate levels of “active defenses” alone. And with the introduction of the new Iron Beam system, Israel now has five different ways to shoot down incoming projectiles. Israel’s short-range Iron Dome is currently complemented by batteries of medium-to-long-range…

The Creepiest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Portrait

“Well hello there, nightmare fuel, so nice to see you again. Sleep? No, no, I won’t be doing that that tonight, thanks.”—you, while watching this

What Fight Club looks like if you can’t see Tyler Durden

The revelation at the end of Fight Club that Tyler Durden was merely a figment of the narrator’s imagination blew more minds than that self-inflicted gunshot wound. But what if you could watch the movie without Brad Pitt’s character being there at all? Richard Trammell shows us exactly that in this brilliantly edited fight scene,…

The Navy’s Newest “Pickup Truck of the Sea” Just Launched

The USNS Fall River, the fourth vessel in the US Navy’s new Spearhead-class of high-speed, shallow-draft transport catamarans launched for the first time over the weekend. This multi-function catamaran will transport cargo and up to a battalion of troops between ports. The Fall River measures 338 feet long and weighs just over 1,500 tons. Its…

How to Install Parental Controls on All of Your Gadgets

Let’s face it, the internet is a wicked cesspool of filth and debauchery filled with weirdos, pervs, and foul-mouthed trolls. You can ensure that your kids remain untainted by these corrupting influences while they surf the web simply by activating the integrated Parental Controls of every major OS and gaming system. Here’s how. Windows Windows…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Waiter

A hardworking barrista drinks himself sideways, on mescalin apparently, in this surreal animated short film by Ryoji Yamada.

This Cold War “Mining” Barge Was Really Built to Steal Soviet Subs

When an advanced Soviet submarine sank in the Pacific in 1968, the CIA decided to risk World War III on a daring covert mission, using this massive barge to raise the sunken vessel and pry out its secrets. After Soviet submarine K-129 sank 1,500 miles Northwest of Oahu in March of 1968, few held out…

Santa Deaths and How to Avoid Them

Folks might think St. Nick’s present-delivery service is a pretty cushy gig, seeing as how the man only works one night a year, but they fail to realize the numerous and diverse ways that job can kill.