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The Least Crossable Streets in America

In the Boston suburb of Burlington, Massachusetts, the AMC movie theater is right across the street from the Burlington Mall. But if you’re planning to travel between these two destinations on foot, you’re in for quite a hike. The closest crosswalk is more than half a mile down the Middlesex Turnpike. That means crossing the…

A Map Of Where El Niño Will Strike Around The World

It’s looking more and more likely that we’re going to have another El Niño year starting this summer — one that could possibly rival 1997’s infamously bad event. But just what does that mean? As this map demonstrates, it can mean very different things around the globe. https://gizmodo.com/this-could-be-a-horrific-year-for-el-nino-1576307459 The map is the work of NOAA…

Yes I Unfriended You. Don’t Take It Personally.

Facebook is boring, it used to be great now it’s boring. I used to have 200 friends now I have 1500. There is no way I know 1500 people. Draconian measures must be taken to save my relationship with the social network. The unfriend button is my path to making Facebook an enjoyable experience once…

Bowie Reveals The Secret Origin Of Ziggy Stardust In This Great Cartoon

The man responsible for the greatest scifi album of all time is Ziggy Stardust. And the man responsible for that man is of course David Bowie, who explains his creation of his iconic 1970s glam rock character in this 1998 interview with Joe Smith, now animated by PBS’s Blank on Blank. The interview covers —…

Wake-Up Lights, Cheap Car Upgrades, 3D Printer, Smartphone Accessories

If you still haven’t picked up a wake-up light, Amazon has a couple coupons today. The tried-and-true HF3500 can be yours for $60 after clipping the $10 coupon, or the step-up HF3510, featuring more wake-up sounds, is only $85 after a $15 coupon. These things will change your life. [Philips HF3500 Wake-Up Light, $60 After…

​Has Honda Finally Aced The Adventure Bike?

Next year, Honda will take the wraps off its new, large-capacity adventure motorcycle. Will it be any good? To find out, we talked top-secret details with a company insider. “The first round of prototype bikes are built and the second iteration are being put together now,” our insider tells us. “By the looks of it,…

Minnesota Just Became the First State to Ban Anti-Bacterial Soap

If you’ve ever washed your hands with anti-bacterial soap, there’s a good chance you were rubbing yourself down with a chemical called triclosan—a chemical that’s been proven to be harmful in humans in recent years. Now, Minnesota has become the first state to officially ban it. And yours could be next. The Minnesota ban, which…

I Can’t Figure Out Whether This College Study is Sexist or Not

It was the 1930s, and America was changing. Women were going to college and communists were marching in the streets. But people really didn’t want those two things to combine. And thus was born a study that had its heart in the right place and its head in the wrong one. Here is the tale…

The Little Mermaid Isn’t The Only Fish That Wants To Live On Land

Ok, maybe mermaids aren’t fish, but that’s beside the point. What matters is this shark has needs and that need is to eat everything. Other fish aren’t enough. Swimmers aren’t enough. He needs to eat things like fire, and police cars. If only there was an octopus witch who could grant him his wish (and…

The Ten Most Bizarre Ideas For Using Nuclear Weapons

When you’re a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. And if you have several thousand nuclear warheads just lying around, it seems a shame not to put them to good use. Here are ten of the most bizarre proposals for nuclear bomb use over the decades. 1) “Pillars of Fire in the Valley of…

Microsoft Finally Surrendered To the iPad. Good!

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 is many things. It’s thinner, it’s faster; it’s all of the superlatives that come when you out a New and Improved version of anything tech. It, along with the absence of a Surface Mini, is also a white flag. Microsoft has finally accepted that Surface can’t take on the iPad. But…

Are the Spokes in Saturn’s Rings Merely an Optical Illusion?

Among all the strange things about Saturn’s rings one of the strangest are the mysterious radial “spokes” in its B Ring. At first thought to be caused by the same sort of gravitational interactions between Saturn, its moons and the ring material that create the myriad divisions in the rings, information gathered by the Cassini…

The Mysterious Disease Traveling Across the Pacific in the Wind

For decades, doctors have been unable to answer the most basic question about Kawasaki disease: what causes it—a virus, a chemical, a fungus? Whatever it is, it provokes mysterious swelling and rashes in infants. Doctors now think they have finally figured out what causes Kawasaki—thanks to an analysis of the wind. Kawasaki disease is most…

This bridge over the San Gabriel River outside of L.A. was built in 1936 but devastating floods washed out the canyon and the road to it was never completed. The popular “Bridge to Nowhere” hike is nine miles round-trip and on weekends, hikers are greeted by the screams of bungee-jumpers. [@ZachBehrens, KCET]

Why Did Thousands of California Fish Suddenly Turn Up Dead?

This photo might look like a bit of abstract art, but it’s actually a shot of thousands of fish – anchovies and sardines – that turned up dead en masse in Marina del Rey, near Los Angeles. What could explain the sudden death? Researchers are still investigating, but the most plausible explanation is a sudden,…

Thought crimes could prevent you from getting help to cover your medical bills. A woman who needed money to help pay for a dangerous skin condition found that her online fundraising site was demolished, and her money taken away, after she tweeted about pornography.

Playing Pranks With Robots: A Real-Time Update From the Future

This is a look at what’s happening right now at the Home of the Future: our very own Jesus Diaz has taken control of the telepresence robot and is (unsurprisingly) screwing with people. Come visit, and you, too, can play robot tag with your Gizmodo pals. https://gizmodo.com/exploring-the-great-outdoors-from-a-remote-control-ipad-1577985867 Dates: 05/17/2014–05/21/2014 Location: 268 Mulberry Street, near Houston…

An Adjustable Wrench Keychain Puts a Toolbox In Your Pocket

It can provide everything from weather forecasts to stock quotes, but can that smartphone in your pocket help you unscrew a nut and bolt? Certainly not as well as this $25 HandSpan keychain that manages to squeeze an adjustable wrench into your other pocket. Small enough to hang off your keys without being cumbersome, the…

All the Robotic Space Explorers since 1958

The astonishing chart of all uncrewed space exploration just got an update with more recent missions. Wandering around the chart is an asking to get lost in memories of past exploration, and dreams of future visits to distant worlds. We’ve had a lot of robotic explorers investigating space! Once again, the chart is commissioned by…

A Noob’s Tale: Fiddling with My First Modular Synth Rack

I’m just getting started fiddling with modular synthesis. Everything I know up to this point is pure book-learning. I’m like the Prioress in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. She has no firsthand experience of the culture (“And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly, / After the scole of Stratford-atte-Bowe, / For Frenssh of Parys was…