Bob Sorokanich

BatKid saves San Francisco and our collective souls

By now you’ve probably heard of BatKid—the alter-ego of five-year-old Miles, a super kid fighting leukemia. He’s on a mission today, courtesy of Make-A-Wish, saving San Francisco from the Riddler and Penguin. Watch it unfold live, right here. The plan to transform San Francisco into Gotham has been unfolding since October, with San Francisco’s police…

How Dodge Makes LED Taillights Glow Like TRON Suits

LED taillights are everywhere, but most are pixellated eyesores. The 2014 Dodge Durango’s LEDs don’t suffer that problem. They give off a uniform electroluminescent glow, like someone wrapped Clu around the back of an SUV. It’s a neat look with some cool light trickery involved. https://jalopnik.com/heres-how-chrysler-crams-a-ton-of-leds-in-the-back-of-1464314493

Plenty of Moto X price cuts lately, and here’s one more: Verizon will give you a white or black X for free with a two-year contract. Just punch in the coupon code vzwdeal on checkout. Color customization still costs $50 though. [Verizon via TalkAndroid]

12 Years of Deforestation in One Sobering Animation

What do you get when Google, the University of Maryland, and NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite team up? A very sobering view of man’s impact on the earth. It only took us 12 years to destroy all that forest. https://gizmodo.com/the-landsat-program-is-the-closest-well-ever-get-to-cap-5982702 If the findings are disheartening, the method involved is at least fascinating. Using data from the…

Rumor has it Comcast will start selling downloadable and streaming movies via set-top box and the Xfinity TV website. According to Reuters, the service could start by the end of the year. [Reuters via Mediagazer]

“Nasal Ranger” Smelloscope Will Save Denver From Stinky Pot

Colorado’s newly legalized marijuana industry has had an unforeseen dark side: pungent dankness running wild on the noses of innocent citizens. Only a mechanical hero could save them. Call in the Nasal Ranger. Yes, in order to better investigate odor complaints, Denver Police are using a bizarre-looking nose telescope that quantifies the stinkiness of stinky…

The First Carrier-Backed Mobile Wallet Is Now Out For Real

Isis, the NFC-powered mobile payment app backed by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, has finally broken out of regional testing and is now available across the U.S. For certain customers, at least. https://gizmodo.com/what-is-isis-mobile-payment-5953825 First off, you need a compatible Android smartphone — no iPhones allowed because you need NFC, duh. Then you’ll need to get an…

24 Accidental Scientific Discoveries That Changed the World

Gentle-voiced paint yogi Bob Ross used to say “we don’t make mistakes, we just have happy accidents.” What’s true in six-minute landscape painting is also true in the science world, as the glorious nerds at Mental Floss explain. https://gizmodo.com/how-a-total-accident-saved-the-french-wine-industry-1411793066 Some of these accidental discoveries are pretty well-known, at least among the type of folks who…

Scientists Have Made Bullets Out of Light

Light beams can be super powerful, but they tend to scatter and lose focus over distance. Bullets are great for aiming at a far-off target, but tend to do a bit more damage than photons. What if you combined the two? You’d have light bullets, which sound like science fiction, but are very recently real.…

Roku just added more live programming options to its set-top box. Cable customers can now view WatchESPN and three different Watch Disney channels, with both live and on-demand content. [TechCrunch]

Apartment Hunting in NYC Is So Bad, I’m Considering This $8,000 Bus

I’ve been on a grand tour of wacky apartment sublets since moving to NYC this past summer. For a guy who grew up in the Pennsylvania suburbs, it’s an eye-opener. Things that would once have seemed completely unreasonable are starting to look promising—like this $8,000 four-bedroom schoolbus. It’s got its own toilet. It’s got a…

Shining Spires and Jimi Hendrix’s Ode to the Night Sky

Last night, One World Trade’s spire lit up Manhattan’s night sky for the very first time. Up close, it was impressive, but perhaps a little lost amid the city’s bright lights. From a distance though, it looked like a lightning bolt frozen in the midnight sky. A theme perfectly captured by the Voodoo Child himself.…

Report: The Next NSA Chief May Be a Civilian

The Hill reports today that the White House is considering appointing a civilian leader to run the NSA when current director Keith Alexander, who has led the agency since 2005, steps down in the spring. This could signal a changing view of the agency’s role, and is seen by some as a promising if small…

How Will We Find Out What Our Friends Are Eating?!

Even The Sunrise Is Out Of This World On the ISS

Astronaut Karen Nyberg just tweeted this breathtaking photo of a sunrise, taken from humanity’s most awesome scenic overlook — the International Space Station. Nyberg has been keeping busy up there, including knitting the world’s coolest stuffed space dinosaur. Her mission is winding down, but she’s snapped enough phenomenal photos to keep us dreaming of space…

Super Sad Guy Watches Hindenburg Show, Tries To Blow His House Up

Gotta feel bad for this guy: a Pennsylvania man who’d hit some very hard times wanted to end it all in a fiery blaze after watching a TV show about the Hindenburg crash. He’s still alive, but the explosion he set off leveled his house. According to police in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh,…

Moments Lost: A Blade Runner Tribute That’s More Than a Replicant

Blade Runner is more than a cult classic: it’s an icon, the modern definition of dystopian future-noir. Its visual, auditory and narrative complexity remain striking more than 30 years after its debut. Now, a Swedish group of artists, musicians and writers seeks to create an entire experience inspired by the seminal movie, with help from…

How Long Does That “New Gadget Feeling” Last For You?

After last week’s hillbilly-rigged two-machine solution, I’m finally working today with my brand-new laptop. It’s mesmerizing. But how long will this feeling last? https://gizmodo.com/does-switching-between-two-different-gadgets-mess-you-u-1457387648 Turns out, laptops got pretty dang slick while I was languishing with a well-worn beater. This bright new scratch-free screen, the non-worn-out trackpad, the distinct lack of mystery splotches . .…

1 World Trade Center Lit Up For The First Time Last Night

One World Trade Center’s towering spire was light-tested last night. Wow is it pretty — and bright. https://gizmodo.com/watch-the-world-trade-centers-spire-rise-104-stories-i-487249511 New York Port Authority says the 300 red, white and blue LEDs illuminating the spire are visible up to 50 miles away. While it’s yet to be determined if One World Trade is, in fact, the tallest…

Mass Graves, Jar Jar’s Demise, Coffee Science and More

Death was heavy on our minds this week — we explored the US’s largest mass grave and watched Jar Jar’s life end in a never-before-seen twist. Oh, and there’s a Pandora for pornography now. Thanks, internet! iPad Air Review: Bigger Gets So Much Better It’s hard to imagine that it’s been only three years since…