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20% Off the Best GoPro, Fitbit Scale, Home Automation Switch [Deals]

Today at REI, treat yourself to the best GoPro you can buy for a solid 20% discount. Usually, the only GoPro savings we ever see are on previous-generation models, so snap this up while you can. GoPro HERO3+ Black Edition ($320) | REI With Coupon Code 126TAKE20 Odds are, you’ve already started accumulating devices that…

How a Modern Rockwell Crafts Dioramas of Not-So-Idyllic American Life

Norman Rockwell captured idyllic moments of American life using paint and canvas. But Thomas Doyle works in a different medium and sees the world around him in a different light. As the folks at Cool Hunting discovered, he uses tiny figures and scale model buildings, designed to accessorize model trains, to make miniature 3D dioramas…

This mesmerizing sculpture is built of hinging wooden cubes

Great art is often interactive, and captivating design is frequently dynamic. Such is the case with Ghostcube, a beautifully conceived study in topological transfiguration created by Swedish designer Erik Åberg out of interconnected wooden cubes. https://gizmodo.com/i-cant-stop-watching-this-door-open-close-1518382401 Åberg’s cubic creations can be expanded, twisted, shrunk and spun into a variety of configurations. His sculptures are manipulable…

New Yorkers, don’t miss this great event. One of the all-time great small-press magazines, Electric Velocipede, is ceasing publication. Tomorrow in New York, there’s a “funeral” for the magazine, featuring 10 contributors reading their work. Well worth showing up for.

Ask a paleontologist about the mystery behind this whale graveyard!

Over 5 million years ago, a mass stranding of whales created what is now a whale graveyard in modern day Chile. Just why those whales died was a mystery — until now. Nick Pyenson, the paleontologist who led the team that cracked the case, is here to answer your questions! He will be joining us…

8 Vampires Who Make Bloodsuckers Into Badass Monsters Again

Too long have vampires been portrayed as heroes, lovers, fops, and/or glitter-covered emotional disasters. We remember a time when vampires were monsters, and the only reason they were trying to get into your teenage daughter’s bedroom was to drink their blood and murder them. Here are eight vampires who refuse to be defanged by modern…

These Autonomous Drones That Flock Like Birds Sound Horrifying

The thing about mad scientists is that they’re both mad and good at science. It seems obvious, but the outcomes are always unexpected. Case and point: this team of Hungarian physicists who created a bunch of autonomous drones that flock like birds. The invasion begins now. For now, the flying drone army is comprised of…

Telephone wires, morning shadows, garbage truck, Steve Reich.

The 6 Biggest Bitcoin Heists in History

Ever since a single Bitcoin became worth a small fortune, there have been people trying to steal them. Sure, there have some small-time thieves who’ve stolen a few hundred dollars worth of Bitcoin here and there. But there have also been heists. Massive, highly orchestrated attacks that lead to millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency…

Obama says US Army is building a real Iron Man and no, he is not joking

Last Tuesday President Obama met with top engineers and Pentagon people. He publicly said: “Basically, I’m here to announce that we’re building Iron Man […] Not really. Maybe. It’s classified.” People laughed, but the truth is that yes, the US military is building Iron Man, and the first prototypes are coming in this June. First,…

Spacesuit Leak: Why It Took NASA 23 Minutes to Send Astronaut to Safety

It took NASA almost the same amount of time as a sitcom episode to send Luca Parmitano back to the airlock when the Italian astronaut experienced a leak in his spacesuit last summer, a new report reveals. https://gizmodo.com/helmet-leak-forces-iss-astronauts-to-abort-spacewalk-801447474 https://gizmodo.com/heres-what-its-like-to-almost-drown-in-space-1178817340 Above: Self-portrait of Expedition 36/37 European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 2013 spacewalk.…

How a Mass Whale Graveyard Ended Up Beneath a South American Highway

Connecting Alaska to Argentina, the Pan-American Highway runs some 30,000 miles north to south. Construction to widen the highway briefly stopped, however, to make way for dead whales back in 2010, when workers digging through a remote stretch of the Chilean desert found a huge trove of bones millions of years old. Now, scientists think…

Watch the subversive version of spy tech conference RSA

Right now, downtown San Francisco is teeming with people attending RSA, the world’s biggest conference devoted to “cybersecurity.” But up the street, there’s another tech conference. It’s full of computer security analysts who want to stop the surveillance state. It’s called Trustycon, and you can watch it here, live. Trustycon isn’t the only protest that…

Fujifilm X-T1 Review: Feast for the Eyes, Frustration for the Fingers

Fuji’s new top-of-the-line mirrorless camera is packed with functionality, aiming to smash through the shortcomings of i’s popular but imperfect X series line. The X-T1 has plenty of power, but can’t help tripping over its own feet. What Is It? A $1300 (body only) mirrorless camera with Fujifilm’s much-lauded 16 megapixel X-Trans sensor. The X-T1…

Interdimensional portal to hell opens in Norway—or something like that

I guess this “Norefjell 2014-01-05. En stille skitur, plutselig skjer det noe 50 meter fra løypa. Kraftlinje på 132 kV tilhørende EB nett. Overslaget varte i minst 5 minutt” roughly translates to “Norefjell January 5, 2014. Bad news people, an interdimensional portal 50 meters high has opened in the forest. 132 demons have went through…

Massive offshore turbine arrays would help us harness hurricanes

What would happen if a hurricane were to plough through a wind farm consisting of tens of thousands of individual turbines? A Stanford engineer recently ran a computer simulation to find out — and the results were astonishing. Given the often devastating impacts of climate change, the need for effective weather control systems has never…

Moov Might Be the Most Advanced Fitness Wearable Yet

As you may have noticed, there are a million activity trackers out there right now. Most of them are glorified pedometers. The upper tier add altimeters, heart rate monitors, and sleep-tracking to the equation. But what if you don’t just want to be reminded to work out—you want to work out better, safer, and more…

In a future of lab-grown food, could you eat meat made of celebrities?

An alleged startup claims that it wants to make and sell “artisinal salami” made from celebrity tissue samples. Even if it’s a joke, it raises the question: What are the ethics of consuming lab-grown human meat? BiteLabs claims to be a biotech startup focused on cultivating and selling celebrity meat for human consumption. Perhaps taking…

​Boeing’s Bird of Prey: A Prototype Jet Worthy of the Klingon Empire

From the U-2 Dragon Lady and A-12 Oxcart, to the SR-71 Blackbird and D-12 Ramjet Drone, there’s been no shortage of exotic aircraft (and UFO sightings) in the skies over Nevada’s Area 51. But among the most extreme examples of bleeding-edge avionic design tested was the otherworldly Boeing Bird of Prey. https://gizmodo.com/what-its-like-to-fly-a-top-secret-spy-plane-a-live-con-5921228 https://gizmodo.com/the-thrill-of-flying-the-sr-71-blackbird-5511236 One of…

Russian Man Uses Horse Treadmill to Power Log Splitter

You may have seen the video above making the rounds on the old internet box. An anonymous Russian man is using his horse on a treadmill to power a log splitter. It’s a brilliant idea, but far from new. Back in the late 19th century, the horse treadmill (or “endless floor”) was considered the latest…