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The Best-Selling Music on Amazon This Year Was Somehow Not Taylor Swift

Amazon just released its list of top-selling MP3 songs and albums of the year, and surprisingly Taylor Swift was not at the top slot of either. Shake it off, girl. In the album category, Tswift lost to Pentatonix, whom I had honestly never heard of, but apparently is some sort of a cappella funtime gang?…

A Handy Chart That Shows Which Smartphone You Should Buy

Picking out a new phone involves weighing a lot of different variables, from screen size to storage to price. That’s why so many tech blogs (including Gizmodo!) offer comparison charts to help readers figure out what makes sense for them. We might as well just give up though, because Gnod (“The Global Network of Discovery”)…

Climate Change Could Make It Harder for Airplanes to Get Liftoff

Every once in a while, unlucky passengers get bumped because an overbooked airplane is too heavy. It’s maddening, and it makes you question the airline’s ability to do arithmetic. But there is a method to weight restrictions, and Earth’s rising temperatures could make it increasingly hard for planes to take off without shedding extra weight.…

What Invention Do You Most Hope To See Within Your Lifetime?

We’ve already seen some incredible technical advances roll out in our own not-too-distant pasts and we look to be on the cusp of quite a few more. But let’s face it: The pace of research can be slow, while our lives are really pretty short. So what invention rollout do you still most hope to…

This Cool App Could Help Convince Kids Santa Is Real

Spanish ad agency Shackleton has released a new clever app designed to help convince kids that Santa is real. You only have to place the iPhone behind a closed door and Santapp will play pre-recorded Santa voices, sound effects, and use the flash to make your kid believe something magical is happening at the other…

Hot Toys’ Posable Little Groot Is All We Want For Christmas

It will only dance in your imagination, but otherwise Hot Toys’ new quarter-scale Little Groot figure is just about the most perfect Guardians of the Galaxy collectible you’re going to find. It’s even fully posable thanks to a wire armature inside, like an old Gumby figure, but with a far more detailed sculpt and paint…

A Quadriplegic Woman Used Her Mind To Move This Robotic Limb In ’10D’

For the first time ever, a quadriplegic woman has used her thoughts to move a robotic hand across 10 degrees of freedom. The remarkable system allowed her to pick up a variety of objects, including skinny tubes and oddly shaped rocks. Yet another reminder of the progress being made in not just prosthetics, but in…

Rare World War I Propaganda Shows the Biomech Soldier of 100 Years Ago

One hundred years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century, the first golden age of advertising met humanity’s deadliest conflict: the First World War. The emerging art of graphic design, aided by the invention of lithography and later chromolithography, was suddenly used for propaganda—and the results were terrific: a bold, optimistic, merry and extremely…

This Bleeding Edge Iron Man Figure Looks Awesome

The worst thing about Toy Soul 2014 happening this weekend is all the amazing figures that I can’t buy, because they’re literally 6 thousand miles away from me. Like this fancy new edition of Sentinel’s already lovely Bleeding Edge Iron Man! The normal version was revealed earlier this year, but this version of the 7…

Steven Moffat Says 2 Major Characters Could Still Return To Doctor Who

Joss Whedon hints at some hinky stuff in store for Hawkeye and the Hulk in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Peter Jackson feels like he could always return to Middle Earth, if given the chance. And Jeremy Irons explains why he took the role of Alfred in Batman v. Superman. Spoilers now! Top image: Doctor Who…

Why Dying Your Hair May Not Be as Safe as You Think

The basic chemistry of hair dyes has changed little over the last century, but what do we know about the risks of colouring our hair, and why do we do it? Every two months Barclay Cunningham goes through a process that begins with taking an antihistamine tablet. After a few hours, she smears a thick…

This North Korean Guy Has the Worst Job Ever—and He’s Probably Dead Now

Today, when you are thinking about how much it sucks to work on some boring project in your office’s cubicle, look at this photo of this (sweating) man working while being watched by (an annoyed and tired) Kim Jong Un and rejoice that you are not him. Something bad is going to happen here, folks.…

The best National Geographic readers’ photos of 2014

National Geographic just announced the winners of their 2014 Photo Contest and they are truly amazing. There are plenty more on their website. Places category Winner Photo and caption by Triston Yeo. The thermal spas in Budapest [are] one of the favorite activities of Hungarians, especially in winter. We were fortunate to gain special access…

ICANN Has Been Hacked

ICANN—the organization that looks after the names and domains of the Internet—has suffered a serious phishing attack that’s compromised its data. The attacks were initiated in November 2014, and used emails that appeared to originate from ICANN servers to dupe employees. The attack resulted in email credential being stolen, and now ICANN has also explained…

Amazon Now Offers One-Hour Delivery in New York City

Amazon has announced that a new service called Prime Now will provide one-hour delivery for a range of “daily essentials.” The service launches in Manhattan today. The company says it plans to introduce Prime Now to additional cities in 2015. Prime Now—available just to Prime subscribers—will ship books, toys, and other everyday items to your…

Seven C-17 Globemaster IIIs deploy flares over the Nevada Test and Training Range on Nellis Air Force Base. The photograph was taken during the U.S. Air Force Weapons School’s Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 14B on December 6th 2014. Have you seen a better promise of air power recently? [Senior Airman Thomas Spangler/U.S. Air Force]

A Scientific Defense of Santa’s Weight

“Santa’s behaviour and public image are at odds with contemporary accepted public health messages,” argues a British Medical Journal editorial written by Dr. Scrooge and colleagues. Given Santa’s tremendous popularity, particularly among children, the authors of the editorial argue the public should become aware of some of the less-than-ideal lifestyle practices advocated by jolly St.…

Bloomberg News asked foreign policy analysts, military experts and economists to identify the possible worst-case scenarios in 2015. Potential future crises include armed conflict in the South China Sea, the collapse of Nigeria and political upheaval in Saudi Arabia prompted by the death of 90-year-old King Abdullah.

Famous superheroines wearing suits made of liquid paint look really cool

London-based photographer Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz created this badass 2015 calendar featuring pictures of beautiful superheroines wearing impossible liquid suits, including Captain Marvel, She-Hulk, or Catwoman. [NSFW-ish] Jaroslav Wieczorkiewicz is a London-based photographer shooting under the name Aurum Light Studio. You can follow Jaroslav on Facebook and Twitter, and preorder the calendar here. This is part of…

You Can Now Explore Street View Using Google Cardboard

Google’s Cardboard VR headset is great and getting better. Now, you can tour Street View using its budget virtual reality hardware, too. https://gizmodo.com/googles-cardboard-vr-headset-is-about-to-be-better-than-1669466017 A new feature in Google Maps for Android allows Cardboard users to use a VR mode in Street View. You just have to double-tap the navigation circle in the lower right corner…