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Who perpetrated the Great Duck Egg Scare of 1895?

Today, while we have an ongoing debate over environmental issues, it might be informative to look at a past environmental debate – and a past environmental hoax. Who orchestrated the hoax, and why? You decide. In the late 1800s, sport hunting went into vogue in the United States. It was the pastime of the rich…

This Split-View Mountain Lodge Is the Ultimate Ski Shack

Somewhere hiding on a hillside northwest of Oslo, there’s a magical little lodge. Well, at 1,400 square feet, this house designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter is actually a pretty decent-sized lodge. And, boy, is it pretty. With four bedrooms already and plans in place for a fifth, this split view mountain lodge is perfect for…

A long lost space opera classic is finally seeing print

Edmond Hamilton was one of space opera’s great early writers, along with E.E. “Doc” Smith and Hamilton’s wife, Leigh Brackett. And his great opus was the Star Kings saga, which never had an ending. Until now. A small press, Futures Past Editions, has found the makings of a final Star Kings book, The Last of…

Facebook is finally giving up on its email service, which is a great opportunity to remind you that Facebook has had an email service this whole time.

I really wish Harold Ramis would come back like in Groundhog Day

Harold Ramis is dead. He directed and co-wrote Groundhog Day, one of my favorite movies. I’ve seen it so many times that I know most of the dialogs by heart. Rest in peace. https://gizmodo.com/r-i-p-harold-ramis-the-man-who-gave-us-ghostbusters-a-1529839951

Finally, a novel about weird science that’s genuinely weird

Jeff VanderMeer’s new novel Annihilation lures you in with a seriously intriguing mystery, then leaves you filled with incredible, delicious dread. It’s the tale of an ill-fated scientific expedition to piece of coastline that has developed strange new physical properties that defy explanation. And it will make you believe in the power of science mysteries…

Samsung Galaxy S5 Hands On: A Tiny Dimpled Step Into the Future

The new Samsung Galaxy S5 may not seem like a huge leap forward on paper. But between the zippy camera, the fingerprint sensor, the heart rate monitor, and a new dimpled body that almost feels like a throwback, it’s worth a closer look. We got one. Here are our first impressions. https://gizmodo.com/samsung-galaxy-s5-new-design-and-a-weird-fingerprint-s-1529781654 Hardware The first…

Watch Benedict Cumberbatch on all fours in his mo-cap suit as Smaug

Benedict Cumberbatch has said that he felt like a “boobie” in his motion capture suit for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, but how did he actually look? This video shows us how Weta translated Cumberbatch’s performance into the CG-animated Smaug. https://gizmodo.com/watch-benedict-cumberbatchs-spot-on-peter-jackson-impe-1524297301 We don’t get to see a lot of Cumberbatch in this video, but…

Jeopardy “Hacker” Method Is Used By Other Players—Including Watson

Arthur Chu returns to television today, the Jeopardy champion with the unconventional playing style who’s either hacking or ruining one of America’s most popular game shows. But Chu’s supposedly unorthodox methods are not all that radical: IBM’s Watson uses those same tactics to beat humans. https://kotaku.com/meet-the-man-who-hacked-jeopardy-1516792430 Chu’s been able to amass a small fortune by…

The “electronic teacher console,” dreamt up by legendary design firm Sundberg-Ferar for the American Seating Company in 1967. The desk drew inspiration from other futuristic school desks of the 1950s and 60s. It’s unclear if a version of this desk was ever produced and sold to consumers. [Google Patents]

Selfies Have Led to a Head Lice Epidemic

Selfies are so fun. You’ve got your cool background—ideally, a sun-soaked beach or a compelling urban environment—and you’ve got your cool friends. Ideally lots of them. Just flip that phone around, put your heads together, smile, and watch those Instagram likes roll in for hours. But it’s too good to be true, folks. Selfies are…

Watching flowers blooming is never not beautiful

Unless you’re living it up in California right now—full disclosure: I am—this winter has been particularly relentless. Is there hope beyond the cold and snow and slush? Yes indeedy. But it might take a minute, so in the meantime here are some beautiful GIFs of flowers blooming. Yeah yeah, watching petals unfold is a little…

A Pillow With a Secret Pocket Is the Perfect Place To Stash Your Phone

If you and your bedmate wake up at different times in the morning, the Privacy Pillow’s leather-lined secret compartment will let the earlier riser use their smartphone as an inaudible vibrating alarm that’s impossible to miss when it’s time to get out of bed. Besides a conspicuous opening on one side—which can be easily hidden…

These sausages made with baby poop taste great and they’re superhealthy

The cured pork meat and fat sausages above—a type of thin salchichón called fuet in Catalonia, Spain—are truly delicious, with a wonderfully intense umami flavor. They are also excellent for your health, as good as having a yogurt, because they are full of probiotics. Oh, they are also made with poop. Baby poop. I know,…

This awesome intersection design is a dream come true for cyclists

A number of North American and European cities are introducing protected bike lanes, but they do little to help cyclists navigate through dangerous intersections. A proposal for a “protected intersection” could change that. No doubt, protected bike lanes are great. But their buffers disappear at intersections, significantly reducing the comfort and safety of cyclists. To…

The Samsung Galaxy S5’s Killer Camera Feature: Speed

Samsung has never been a leader when it comes to smartphone cameras but with the Galaxy S5, it’s taken a step forward. It has nothing to do with megapixels—instead it’s all about that weird-sounding feature called “phase-detect” autofocus, which allows the camera to focus in just .3 seconds. Samsung claims that’s the fastest in the…

A Landfill Park Is Leaking Toxic Waste Thanks to Burrowing Gophers

Let this be your cautionary tale against building a pretty waterfront park on a landfill. At Cesar Chavez Park on the Berkeley Marina, squirrels and gophers are burrowing through old trash, turning the ground into toxin-leaching swiss cheese. Poison from the estimated 1.9 million tons of residential, commercial, and industrial waste is now leaching into…

The Clone Wars’ final season may finally tie all the prequels together!

The first real trailer for Star Wars: Clone Wars — The Lost Missions has arrived, and holy womprats does it look amazing. So amazing, in fact, I think maybe we should throw out all the prequels and let this be the only pre-New Hope material. Look at all the stuff from the prequels it’s meshing…

16 Space Heroes Who Deserve To Star in Their Own Movies Right Now

Between Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, wild and frenetic space opera is making a comeback. But the genre contains plenty more amazing, largely untapped material. Here are 16 other space heroes who could rock their own movies. Top image: Adam Strange, art by Carmine Infantino. Flash Gordon The archetypal space…

40% of Americans say astrology is science. Or did they mean astronomy?

In a survey by the National Science Foundation, 40% of Americans said that they believed astrology was a science. But, is the issue not that Americans believe that horoscopes are scientifically defined, but that they simply misheard “astrology” as “astronomy”? Unfortunately, probably not. A small survey, as detailed below, posits that the problem was simply…