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Should You Check Your Email?

Friend-of-Gizmodo and Amazing Human Being Wendy MacNaughton painted this fantastic new chart that helps you decide whether or not you should check your email. (Spoiler: Email is the literal, biblical Devil.) If all infographics were this good we might actually publish more of them. It showed up on a Forbes blog post on managing distractions…

Tech News Mat Honan

American Horror Story season 2 has a new home, new time, and a new character for Jessica Lange

American Horror Story is starting over from scratch for its second season of horny ghosts and raw organ-eating. The new season will start in a new time period, with a new location and a lot of the original cast playing completely different characters. Like Bruce Willis in North. According to The Hollywood Reporter Murphy recently…

Television Meredith Woerner

This Is Objectively the Worst Default Email Signature

This ridiculous default email signature is the longest, stupidest one we’ve seen yet. Just in case you wanted to be sure friends know exactly what kind of device you’re writing from, it tells them down to the last detail. For the record: Samsung Galaxy S is trademarked. FYI, so is Skyrocket. Oh and by the…

Tech News Leslie Horn

The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

In 1983, a Chinese fast-food restaurant in Pasadena, California hired a curious-looking pair of servers: two robots named Tanbo R-1 and Tanbo R-2. At 4.5 feet tall and 180 pounds, the robots would scoot around; bringing trays of chow mein, spareribs and fortune cookies to customers’ tables. Shayne Hayashi, the owner of Two Panda Deli,…

Tech News Matt Novak

India Just Successfully Test Launched a Missile That Could Blow Up China

Today, India successfully tested the Agni-V, a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The missile has a range of over 3,000 miles and could potentially reach Beijing or Shanghai, China. This is not good. Many defense experts believe that India has developed this long-rage missile for deterrence parity with China, who…

Tech News Casey Chan

You Can Buy Stocks on Facebook Soon

If you’ve been too lazy to figure out the stock market or have been wary of fees and brokers that come with trading, you will love this: coming this summer, you’ll be able to buy a company’s stock directly on Facebook. It’s like Likes but like uh, real. This is pretty wild because Facebook, being…

Social Media Casey Chan

Computer Animation in the 70s Was as Hard as You’d Expect

Wireframe boxes and freehand squiggles might not be as exciting as dinosaurs and terminators, but this 1971 film from the National Research Council of Canada is an important history lesson for anyone who doesn’t appreciate the sophisticated animation software we have at our disposal today. The clip takes a look at a piece of software…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Hollywood’s notes on Crazy Old Man Scientist Incest Freak Show AKA Back to the Future

We’re willing to put down money that this is exactly how the pitch meeting for Back to the Future went. But seriously, the relationship between Marty and Doc is, and forever shall be, slightly odd. [via Topless Robot]

Movies Meredith Woerner

This Amazing Treehouse Is Hidden on Whistler Mountain

The HemLoft is a beautiful egg-shaped treehouse built on Whistler Mountain. It’s magnificent, though because it was built in secret on government land, the fate of the wonderful orb is uncertain. In 2009, after a false start and some financial woes, Joel Allen, a software engineer turned self-taught carpenter, started building the structure on a…

Tech News Leslie Horn

10 Pieces of Evidence That Plants Are Smarter Than You Think

Though plants possess nothing even remotely like brains, they can nevertheless communicate, measure time, and even use camouflage. They may not be thinking in a way that we’d recognize, but our chlorophyll-saturated pals are certainly doing a lot more than sitting around splitting water molecules. Here are ten things plants do that look pretty damn…

io9 Annalee Newitz and Sophie Bushwick

Shooting Challenge: Black & White

In the age of color, black and white photos can be a cliche crutch to scream “I AM AN ARTIST!” But it’s also a powerful way to capture contrast and texture. For this week’s Shooting Challenge… The Challenge …take a black and white photo. (It can—and maybe should—be converted to black and white in post…

Tech News Mark Wilson

The Secret of Perfect Tightrope Walking

Tightrope walking – or tightrope motocross riding, as rather awesomely seen here – may seem like an impossibly complex skill of athletic ability and audacity. But a new mathematical model reveals one trick to mastering this seemingly arcane art. Harvard researchers have developed a model that seeks to put together all the forces, masses, angles,…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins

Will You Call Out Sick To Watch the New Arrested Development Season? (Update: You Will!)

Well we’re just pleased as pudding that all of the new Arrested Development season will be available on the same day on Netlix—just as with other Netflix-produced series. Will you watch it all at once or will you hold off and savor it? http://gawker.com/5903127/netflix-plans-to-make-entire-new-season-of-arrested-development-available-for-streaming-on-same-day In the office, we’re already arguing about who gets to take…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

Collecting Water from Thin Air in the Desert, and More from TreeHugger

This week on TreeHugger, an awesome arcade built in an auto parts shop, learn how to make your own self-balancing scooter, a great electricity-free iPad speaker design, and more! 1. Nine-Year-Old Creates Entire Arcade From Cardboard Boxes and Tape Check out what this 9-year-old has built — an entire functioning arcade, complete with “fun passes”…

Tech News Jaymi Heimbuch - Treehugger

Artificially evolved enzyme could protect us against nerve gas attacks

Evolution is generally regarded as pretty good at specializing species for certain ecological niches, but with a glacial pace of adaptation, sometimes it needs a helping hand. Meet the team of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, who decided they wanted to beef up the paraoxonase 1 (PON1) to the point it could combat…

io9 Tim Barribeau

Plane With Unconscious Pilot Is Circling Out of Control Off the Gulf Coast (Update: It’s Down)

The FAA lost contact with a Cessna 421 shortly before 9AM this morning. The pilot, it turns out, was unconscious, and the plane ultimately slammed into the Gulf of Mexico 135 miles off the coast of Florida. The pilot has been identified as Dr. Peter Hertzak. https://gizmodo.com/this-could-be-the-unconscious-pilot-who-crashed-into-th-5903527 The plane departed, as planned, at 6:43 AM…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

Foot for Foot, Apple Stores Rake in 17x More Cash Than Other Retail Outlets

We all know Apple stores are wildly successful. But how successful? When comparing the revenue-per-square-foot of Apple’s retail hub to any other business, Apple generates more cash from sales by an average factor of 17. According to Asymco, $300 per square foot is considered good. The average retailer brings in $341 per square foot. Apple?…

Tech News Adrian Covert

Hacked Frogger Arcade Now Has You Dodging the Real Traffic On Fifth Avenue

Believe it or not, Frogger has been skipping his way across busy highways for thirty years now. And to celebrate his anniversary, Tyler DeAngelo created this updated version of the arcade classic that now has the frog dodging the realtime traffic on New York’s Fifth Avenue. But don’t worry, this version of the game doesn’t…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

What truths does “truth serum” sodium pentothal actually reveal?

The famed chemical sodium pentothal, which is commonly known as truth serum, has been a mainstay of spy flicks for decades. In real life, scientists have tested it on spies, psychiatric patients, pregnant women, and suspected criminals. They all talked, but did they say something meaningful? Or was it just what the people around them…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Can you tell what’s going on in these bizarre patent illustrations?

When you file a patent application, you need to include enough information so that a person with expertise in that particular field could replicate your invention. Many inventors include illustrations to better explain their ideas, and without context some of those illustrations are a bit…odd. Context-Free Patent Art is a brilliant new Tumblr that highlights…

io9 Lauren Davis

Should You Check Your Email?

American Horror Story season 2 has a new home, new time, and a new character for Jessica Lange

This Is Objectively the Worst Default Email Signature

The Disco-Blasting Robot Waiters of 1980s Pasadena

India Just Successfully Test Launched a Missile That Could Blow Up China

You Can Buy Stocks on Facebook Soon

Computer Animation in the 70s Was as Hard as You’d Expect

Hollywood’s notes on Crazy Old Man Scientist Incest Freak Show AKA Back to the Future

This Amazing Treehouse Is Hidden on Whistler Mountain

10 Pieces of Evidence That Plants Are Smarter Than You Think

Shooting Challenge: Black & White

The Secret of Perfect Tightrope Walking

Will You Call Out Sick To Watch the New Arrested Development Season? (Update: You Will!)

Collecting Water from Thin Air in the Desert, and More from TreeHugger

Artificially evolved enzyme could protect us against nerve gas attacks

Plane With Unconscious Pilot Is Circling Out of Control Off the Gulf Coast (Update: It’s Down)

Foot for Foot, Apple Stores Rake in 17x More Cash Than Other Retail Outlets

Hacked Frogger Arcade Now Has You Dodging the Real Traffic On Fifth Avenue

What truths does “truth serum” sodium pentothal actually reveal?

Can you tell what’s going on in these bizarre patent illustrations?

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