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You Might Have Free Amazon Money Waiting in Your Inbox

If you’re a regular buyer of Kindle ebooks, you want to go check your email; inside, there might just be a little present from Amazon waiting for you. And by “present” I mean “legally mandated compensation to make up for years of price-fixing.” Just like Christmas! Here’s the note going around to Amazon customers this…

The World’s First 3D-Printed Kayak Is Adorably Colorful

The first ever entirely 3D-printed kayak isn’t just an impressive feat of engineering—it’s adorably child-like in its rainbow color scheme, too. Made up of 28, 3D printed sections, each has brass threaded inserts so neighboring sections can be screwed together. A little silicone caulk is used to keep things watertight, and the result is a…

How Testosterone Makes You Hairy

Male or female, most of us have body hair—some far, far more than others. This video explains how testosterone fuels the growth of hair all over your body. Whether you want more of it or less of it—and wherever that may be—the key driver in hair production is the male sex hormone. This video explains…

Quantum Research Shows D-Wave’s Computers Are (Probably) the Real Deal

D-Wave’s quantum computers have certainly demonstrated that they’re capable, but they’ve also received much criticism from scientists. Now, new results show that their technology could be even more solid than they’d claimed in the past. https://gizmodo.com/the-quantum-d-wave-2-is-3-600-times-faster-than-a-super-1532199369 D-Wave takes a different tack to quantum computing than most academics and researchers, favoring an applied approach which makes…

Apple has begun testing a new “related search suggestion” in the App Store, which may actually help make finding things easier. Because, damn, it couldn’t be much worse right now.

Google Deal With Ray-Ban and Oakley Could (Possibly) Make Glass Cool

Google has just signed a deal with Luxottica. You may never had heard of ’em, but they’re the eyewear manufacturer behind the likes of Oakley and Ray-Ban—and they could, maybe, possibly, make Glass cool. Perhaps. The deal will see Luxottica bring “bring design and manufacturing expertise” to Google’s Glass project. Initially focussed on Ray-Ban and…

NYT: Obama Wants to End NSA Bulk Phone Data Collection

The New York Times reports that President Obama is planning to reveal a legislative proposal that will overhaul the NSA’s practices—and put an end to its bulk collection of phone records. The reports suggests that instead of allowing the NSA to gather and store call data, it would remain with phone companies. Further, carriers wouldn’t…

Malaysia Air Officials: MH370 Is Lost Because Nothing Else Makes Sense

In two separate press conferences early this morning, the Australian Defense Minister and the CEO of Malaysia Airlines reiterated that flight MH370 is lost with no survivors, mirroring the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razik’s announcement not 24 hours earlier. But both added one troubling addition: They’ve come to this conclusion because there’s no evidence to…

On March 31, visit your local U.S. theaters for an evening of science!

At the end of this month, 17 independent U.S. theaters will celebrate the connection between movies and science with “Science on Screen.” Science-themed movies will be paired with a related lecture from a scientist. Check the schedule to see if there’s an event in your town! The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation describes the events: With…

Poetry-into-Sound

Another track from the same poetry-into-sound series that yielded Saturday’s Downstream entry (Vernal Drone” by Larry Johnson): Mike J Dayton’s “The Crumbling Ice Temple” takes as its subject a haiku, part of the Naviar Haiku Project. The poem is by Kristjaan Panneman. Dayton’s rendering is all gentle clatter and echoing resonance. Deep Silence In this…

I can’t believe this twisting plane managed to land in such bad weather

The pilot in this twisting and turning plane must be ridiculously disciplined, have palms that never sweat, a personality that never stresses and big brass ones because that’s what it takes to land a plane in such shit weather. The propeller plane landed on the island of Flores in the Azores. Seeing things like this…

Stunning photo of lightning illuminating Earth

Photos of lightning taken from space may be a dime a dozen, but sometimes there are images that are truly extraordinary. Like this one, taken by the Expedition 26 crew with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 180 millimeter lens. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Ice Cream Crush

SugarSweet Ax‘s Ice Cream Crush is equally confounding to both the eyes and the ears. Like Rebecca Black’s Friday but without any discernable form of melodic structure or progression.

We Saw The First Ninja Turtles Footage — And It Changes Their Origin

Paramount just revealed the first ever footage from Michael Bay’s live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. We’ve seen the Turtles in action — and they look like GIGANTIC GREEN BABIES. Tonight at CinemaCon 2014 Paramount let Will Arnett (who plays Vernon Fenwick in the movie) introduce the first ever teaser for TMNT. Thus revealing what…

Watch Two Crazy People BASE Jump From One World Trade Center

Brace yourselves. This newly-uploaded video shows two people walking to the edge of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere—One World Trade—and jumping off. And here we were, thinking that a 16-year-old was all that for sneaking past a guard or two. https://gizmodo.com/teen-climbs-to-the-top-of-1-wtc-after-sneaking-past-sle-1547968068 Though the jump took place on September 30, 2013, it was just…

Would people be able to live and work in the world’s tallest skyscraper?

At one kilometer, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower will be the tallest skyscraper in the world. A new construction date has been announced, but there’s still a lot of questions around this structure. https://gizmodo.com/theyre-finally-building-the-worlds-new-tallest-tower-1550515846

Here are 10 things that could wipe out life on Earth as we know it

A super volcano that creates a toxic ash cloud covering Earth. Gamma ray explosions. Shifting of magnetic fields. The robots. The bees. And even ourselves. If you want to give yourself a little scare, watch this video on the 10 things that could wipe out life on Earth. The idea of mass extinctions is riveting…

A magic pancake stacking robot machine is why technology exists

You can have your iPhones and iPads and Androids and laptops and smart watches and Google Glass and fitness trackers and wearables. Have it. Take it all away. I only want this magic pancake stacking robot in my life. It’s the only reason we invented technology. The coolest tech is always the stuff that builds…

Cosmos episode 3

Last night was an exploration of how knowledge conquers fear, and the power of scientific prediction over superstition. NASA pulled together stories of how their missions overlapped with this week’s theme. Read on for the episode recap. https://gizmodo.com/when-knowledge-conquered-fear-the-nasa-version-1550106469 https://gizmodo.com/cosmos-chronicles-how-knowledge-conquers-fear-1550158286

This ridiculous badminton rally shows how impossibly quick humans are

Badminton is silly and soft and dainty and not tennis, right? I don’t know anymore! This impossibly fast rally makes it seem like an impossibly fast sport played by humans who have impossibly fast reaction times. Even robots couldn’t see the ball and hit the ball so fast. It’s incredible. SPLOID is a new blog…