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io9 Newsstand: What’s On Your “At The End Of All Things” Bucket List?

The characters in this week’s stories find themselves at the end of life as they know it, and at least one of them intends to get a bunch of stuff done before everything changes. What would you want to get done in the days, weeks, months before a life-altering upheaval? Bucket List Found in the…

Abandoned Shipyard Halls Look Magical After Heavy Rain

The abandoned halls of the Ganz Danubius Shipyard and Crane Factory in Budapest are the haunting remains of a once-flourishing industry established more than an hundred years ago in the Austro-Hungarian empire. During its long and complicated history, hundreds of boats and ships were designed, built, repaired and modernised here, on a small peninsula in…

All of Toshiba’s new laptops will let you summon Windows 10’s Cortana voice assistant with a dedicated keyboard key. Expect other manufacturers to follow suit. On Xbox One, you’ll need a Kinect to use Cortana.

The World’s Smallest Perplexus Puzzle Looks Like a Nightmare To Solve

The makers of those spherical Perplexus maze puzzles are masters at driving you to the brink of insanity. And now they’ve gone and created an even faster way to frustrate you with a miniature four-inch version of their original maze sphere requiring an even steadier hand to solve. The World’s Smallest Playable Perplexus is actually…

Here Was Erasmus Darwin’s Plan To Destroy The World

Erasmus Darwin was the grandfather of the more famous Charles, a scientist in his own right, and an inadvertent supervillain. In an effort to make afternoon strolls more pleasant, he came up with a terraforming idea that was outlandish, inspiring, and — looking back — nearly apocalyptic. Erasmus Darwin was a member of a society…

The First Man To Ride A Bicycle Up Everest, From His Den

On Sunday, Frank Garcia reached the summit of Mt. Everest after pedaling a total of 165 miles across 17 hours and 18 minutes, averaging a 7% grade and consuming over 18,000 calories of food to make it. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” he told us. Of course, riding a bicycle up Mt. Everest…

Are Any of These Fictional Space Habitats Actually Possible?

Humanity’s future in space is very much in the planning stages. Will we float among the stars in crazy spaceships? Will we set up small camps that sprawl into townships that grow into cities, or is an orbital mothership more human friendly? While scientists, physicists and experts are asking these starbound questions about how we…

The Accidental Detective Who Became A National Hero (And A Movie Star)

In 1966, England was ramping up to host the World Cup — which it would eventually win. But months before any players set foot on the field, the iconic gold Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen from its well-guarded display case. A week later, it was recovered … with a little help from a four-legged Londoner.…

Each Of These Magnicent Cartoons Celebrates A Pioneering Woman Animator

Each day of the Annecy International Festival of Animation opens with a short film made by students at Gobelins School of the Image. This year, each of those very brief and beautiful animated films paid tribute to a woman who had a significant impact on the art of animation. Adrien Calle, Leïla Courtillon, Martin Hurmane,…

Google Finally Takes a Stand on Revenge Porn

It’s about damn time. Now that about half the states in the nation have passed laws banning revenge porn and several people have been convicted under those laws, Google says it will finally give revenge porn victims the option to get said revenge porn removed from searches. The search giant made the announcement today on…

Why Space Is The Scariest Place To Encounter The Supernatural

A wise tagline once said “In Space, no one can hear you scream”. And it’s no surprise that space horror is a popular genre, since space is already kind of terrifying by itself. Space madness! But you know what’s really scary? Encountering a supernatural force in space, where there’s no place to run. Above: The…

Talk to Us About Whatever You Want Right Now

For today’s Open Thread, we thought we’d mix it up and get Gizmodo’s staffers in to answer your questions and rejoice in the impending weekend together. What’s going on, Gizmodo? We’re still celebrating Space Habitats week here at Gizmodo HQ. Some of us are ready to live in an orbital or set up a city…

First Look At Will McIntosh’s New Young-Adult Novel, Burning Midnight!

Will McIntosh has become one of our favorite new authors, thanks to books like Defenders and Love Minus Eighty. Now he’s written a young-adult novel called Burning Midnight, and we’ve got the exclusive first look! In Burning Midnight, mysterious spheres have shown up all over the world, and they have miraculous powers. Burn two spheres…

I Ogled a Schoolgirl in Sony’s Virtual Reality

Yep, it’s creepy. Summer Lesson, a VR experiment for Sony’s Project Morpheus headset produced by Namco Bandai, is a powerful virtual reality experience. It’s also disturbing and awkward and, well, kind of pornographic. No, she doesn’t get naked. It’s not that kind of lesson — at least, not literally. And yet it’s clearly a strong…

How a Jailbird Con Artist Uncovered a Secret FBI Surveillance Tool

A convict lawyer, sitting in jail, obsessed with a wacky theory that the government tracked him by sending secret rays into his house… ends up discovering a secret government cell phone tracking program. Sounds like bizarre noir, right? But it’s true. It happened to Daniel Rigmaiden, who found out that the government had used Stingrays—covert…

How Does A Creature Reproduce When It’s Four Separate Creatures?

Siphonophores are groups of creatures that live, connected, as one animal. And they’re incredibly confusing — they all have the same DNA. They can’t separate. They work together to achieve one goal. So why are we supposed to think of them as “colonies,” rather than a single entity? Siphonophores Roaming The Oceans The most famous…

Cool crystal-clear video of F-15 aerial refueling from the cockpit

Going to the gas station in a car is a chore made to remind you of your own mortality. Going to the (metaphorical) gas station in a F-15 jet? That’s a delightful dessert made to show off our awesomeness. Here’s a video of a NASA F-15 jet taking a pit stop to get refueled while…

What It Will Take for Humans to Live on the Moon

The last time we put a human on the moon was 1972, over four decades ago. Since then we’ve learned a lot about it. Our probes and robots have revealed it’s a harsh, barren space boulder with a nightmarish environment. But, you know what else we’ve learned? In the last 40 years we’ve also learned…

A Giant Lego Brick Toolbox That Transforms Into a Lego-Filled Workshop

Here’s one dad who will probably be getting an extra tie this Father’s Day. When Tez Gelmir saw how much time his kid was wasting searching through his Lego collection instead of actually building, he was inspired to create this rolling storage unit to keep them all sorted and organized. There isn’t a Lego fan…

Watch a 10-engine drone transform from a helicopter into a plane

NASA’s Greased Lightning GL-10 is a beast of a drone (it has 10 engines!) that’s the closest thing we have to a Transformer in real life. It can flip itself into a helicopter and then fly like an airplane and then revert back to helicopter mode. It’s awesome seeing the wings tilt back and forth…