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Review: Lego Friends, City, Star Wars advent calendars–day 22

Day 22 of the 2014 Lego advent calendars gives us another gift, a Christmas tree and a wonderful R2-D2. See images and a review of the 22nd day of mini builds after the jump! Friends Advent Calendar (41040) Today’s build is a nice little gift box with a hair bow inside. Interesting build technique for…

Luke Cage Has Been Officially Cast

Marvel has finally made it official. Mike Colter, who has been long-rumored as the next Luke Cage, will in fact be the Luke Cage for the Netflix Marvel series A.K.A. Jessica Jones. Jessica Jones is a retired superhero turned private detective who meets Cage, “During the course of an investigation in New York… ” And…

Gizmodo’s Ultimate Holiday Shopping Guide

It’s already Hanukkah, it’s almost Christmas, and it’s definitely the general holiday season. That’s great if you like spiked eggnog, but not so good if you haven’t bought gifts yet. Don’t worry. There should be something in one of our many gift guides and Bests collections that your loved ones will like enough not to…

What Fanfiction Do You Re-Read Again And Again?

We all have books that we pull out and thumb through the dog-eared pages of, over and over. But sometimes works created by fans can have just as much sticking power. Which fanfiction do you find yourself returning to over and over again, to revisit your favorite parts? Please include a picture (or piece of…

First Look At LAIKA’s Next Movie, Kubo And The Two Strings 

LAIKA’s next movie Kubo and the Two Strings is centered around Japanese folktales. Already the creators are promising “mystical origami” and that is something I would very much like to see from a LAIKA production. Today, LAIKA announced the title and premise of their new film. In a press release, it stated that LAIKA President…

Hey Good North Korea Internet Joke, Everybody!

Earlier today, reports abounded that North Korea had suffered an unprecedented internet outage. While it remains unclear whether it’s the result of a cyber attack or the country’s longstanding technological woes, one thing is certain: you got jokes! Well, joke, anyway. In fairness, it’s a good joke, except that everyone knows North Korea has Time…

This Orangutan Is Now A Legally Recognized Nonhuman Person In Argentina

History was made this past weekend in Buenos Aires when an appeals court ruled that an orangutan held in a zoo is a nonhuman person unlawfully deprived of its right to bodily autonomy. The legal strategy used in this case is similar to the one recently employed by the Nonhuman Rights Project in the United…

A Lab Glass Decanter to Infuse Alcohol With Things That Aren’t Gross 

Hard alcohol infused with fruit and spices has been around forever, but it’s gotten a bad rap in recent years thanks to the proliferation of objectively nasty products like, oh I don’t know, bubble gum-infused vodka. If you’re willing to give infused alcohol a closer look, there’s this decanter from the glassblowers at Sempli. Its…

When Anaheim’s Flying-Saucer Arena Touched Down Near Disneyland

Had one of Tomorrowland’s flying saucers gone missing? When the Anaheim Convention Center’s arena opened in the summer of 1967, it looked as if a spacecraft from another world had touched down directly opposite Katella Avenue from Disneyland. Designed by Los Angeles-based architects Adrian Wilson and Associates, the Space Age, Googie-style arena cut a striking…

Do We Really Need Remasters Of Old Shows?

Last week we covered the unfortunate awfulness of Buffy’s HD remastering, and it got me thinking – even if Buffy had gotten the treatment it rightly deserves, is it something that needed to be done in the first place? https://gizmodo.com/oh-dear-buffys-hd-makeover-is-a-total-mess-1671812347 Now obviously Buffy’s remastering isn’t your average remaster, in terms of its less than stellar…

California’s Grid May Soon Store Energy in Giant Ice Packs 

California wants better batteries, which is why the electric company Southern California Edison is planning a set of, let’s say, unconventional energy storage solutions, including huge 450-gallon ice packs. Why? It all has to do with a little-known problem with California’s wind-reliant electric grid. Wind turbines, you see, spin merrily into the night, generating surplus…

These Google Doodles That Never Ran Are Perfect 

If you happened to type Google.com into your browser yesterday you saw a wintery doodle by one Eleanor Davis, a illustrator who created four seasonal doodles for the search giant this year. These were all fantastic doodles, but her sketches that Google didn’t run are pure gold. Davis is an Athens, Georgia-based illustrator who’s drawn…

The Real Reason You Shouldn’t Get Drunk And Write Political Comments

We’ve all done it. We’ve gone to the wrong website in the wrong mood — or under the influence— and left angry scrawls in the comments. But we shouldn’t, and not just because it makes us look stupid. This behavior actually strengthens the position of the people we’re arguing against. In fact, some recent experiments…

How Defense Has Shaped Our Cities

So in your spare time you’re looking at an aerial view of London on your favorite online mapping service (as one does), when you notice a street called London Wall. And as you’re looking at your map, you notice other wall-y things, like Old Bailey and Houndsditch. And then you notice that perpendicular to these…

This Starts As A 3D Animation Tutorial—Until The Animation Takes Over

If you’ve ever seen Chuck Jones’ Duck Amuck and Rabbit Rampage, in which Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny battle with their animators, check out this great short, in which a 3D animator deals with a hilariously uncooperative Maya rig. Nathan Hibberd made Animating a Jump Tutorial Part #269, and while it’s definitely on the fanciful…

Don’t Strap a Fat Rabbit to Your New Drone (and Other FAA Tips)

The Federal Aviation Administration has an important message: Merry Christmas, don’t fly your new drone like an idiot! The agency partnered with aviation groups to release a video full of holiday safety tips for first-time fliers, which is basically a refresher of all the things you can do to get fined by the FAA, like…

Why I’m Kind Of Tired Of The “Smartest Man In The Room”

He used to be so cool and unpredictable. He would breeze into a complicated situation and make it simple through the razor-sharp power of his intellect. But lately, he’s gotten dull, performing the same party trick over and over. The “smartest man in the room” is overexposed lately, and he needs a vacation. The “smartest…

The SR-71 Blackbird Took Its First Flight 50 Years Ago Today

No other plane in history has captured the hearts and minds of the American public quite like the SR-71 Blackbird, providing the West with an unprecedented look behind the Iron Curtain during its 33 year operational career. But before it was cracking the skies over Russia at mach 3.3, the Cold War spy plane had…

Today is the ground breaking ceremony for the $50 billion Nicaragua Canal. This despite the fact that no environmental or social assessment has been made available to the public. The 172 mile (278 km) canal will take five years to rebuild, resulting in the displacement of 29,000 people and unknown ecological consequences.

People Getting Too Close to Lions at the Zoo is Not a New Phenomenon

Every few years, we see cases of people going into enclosures at zoos, wanting to “make friends” with animals. It always ends badly. And, as it turns out, this is not a new phenomenon. Even as habitats are shrinking and species are disappearing, the world never goes more than a few years without an attack…