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This week in Tech Reads: tracking down hackers, peering inside a marketing “war room,” examining gender on Facebook, and more. Nicole Perlroth profiles Brian Krebs, the security blogger who first uncovered numerous hacking events, including the recent Target credit card hack. [The New York Times] Brendan Farrington shows how federal prisoners are using smuggled cell…

Witness the Birth of a Snowflake

One of the more technically creative time lapses we’ve seen in a long while, Snowtime is a 2-minute “microscopic time-lapse” by Vyacheslav Ivanov that captures the mesmerizing bloom of budding ice crystals in all their hexagonal glory. The ice crystal(s) in snowflakes owe their six-fold rotational symmetry to the hydrogen bonds in water molecules. As…

The Inside Story of How Olympic Timekeeping Is So Amazingly Precise

Three one-thousandths of a second is less than 1/10th of a blink, less than 1/100th of a heartbeat. But if you’re a speedskater, 0.003 seconds can be the difference between gold and silver. So how are Olympics timekeepers able to get such ridiculous precision and accuracy? For the inside scoop, we talked to Omega’s Peter…

Men such as IBM Economist Joseph Froomkin feel that automation will eventually bring about a 20-hour work week, perhaps within a century, thus creating a mass leisure class. Some of the more radical prophets foresee the time when as little as 2% of the work force will be employed, warn that the whole concept of…

Ikea Shelves, More Viral Fakes, How to Choose a Smartphone, And More

Strange week, huh? Ikea killed the shelf everyone had in their first apartment, Fitbit recalled its fitness tracker over some nasty rashes, and DHL punked UPS with some clever advertising. Let’s take a look back at this week’s best stories! DHL Pranked UPS Into Advertising For Them The dramatic increase of online shopping has fanned…

How will we retrieve dead satellites in the future?

Hint: It probably won’t involve astronauts. I’ll admit it: I’m too young to remember 1984. I wish I did, however, because it was a banner year for the Manned Maneuvering Unit. NASA astronaut Dale Gardner, for example, used this jet backpack to retrieve malfunctioning satellites, as you can see above. (FYI, Gardner died Wednesday (Feb.…

Insane Lego collector spends $15,000 on a single piece

According to the Press Democrat, 20-year old auto glass repairman, and parkour instructor, Andre Hurley paid Caleb Raff, owner of The Brick Hutt Lego store, $15,000 for a one-of-kind, platinum Avohkii Mask of Light. The piece is from the discontinued Lego Bionicle line. This is believed to be the most expensive Lego piece ever sold.…

This Centuries-Old Musical Instrument Sounds Exactly Like Super Mario

Listen to this young girl playing her sheng, a Chinese instrument invented thousands of years ago. The woodwind may be ancient, but the sound is pure 1980s nostalgia—it’s the Super Mario Brothers theme, right down to the sounds of Mario collecting coins and mushrooms. Amazing! Music was a big part of the old school Nintendo…

How wrong is your time zone?

In an ideal world, everyone’s clocks would strike 12 noon just as the Sun reached the highest point in its path across the sky. But clock- (aka “standard-“) time and solar time rarely overlap, with one generally leading or lagging behind the other – a fact this map by math blogger and Google engineer Stefano…

Become a Master of the Secret Menu

You may already be familiar with In-N-Out’s fabled secret menu, but it’s just one of several popular food chains whose order options aren’t limited to what’s on display. In fact, there’s a menagerie of exotic items and flavor combinations just waiting to be uncovered, if you know what to ask for. Here are five of…

Moschino’s Fall 2014 Collection is SpongeBob-tastic, Hilarious

Jeremy Scott, the new head designer of Italian fashion house Moschino, debuted his Fall 2014 runway collection Thursday night at Milan Fashion week. Critics praised the line as “absorbent, yellow and porous.”* *I don’t think anybody actually said this. What critics did call Scott’s collection was “ingenious,” “garish” and “tongue-in-cheek” – a brash embrace of…

How Olympic Ice Skates Are Designed for Speed, Spins, and Swerves

Watching the world-class ice athletes of the Winter Olympics, whether it’s in speed skating, figure skating or hockey, is a jaw-dropping affair. The speed, control, and dexterity they exhibit while somehow balancing on a metal blade is simply amazing. But what exactly is going on with those blades? Smarter Every Day’s Destin Sandlin shows us…

Donatello debuts a refurbished Robo-Turtle on TMNT

This week in the world of cartoons, we bring you a hard hitting look at the realities of video game addition on Steven Universe, TMNT features the return of an old Ninja Turtles “frenemy”, and we catch a belated, but much awaited, episode of Hulk. If you are a fan of Korra, don’t forget to…

Rumor: Samsung’s 2nd-Gen Smartwatch Might Come in Two Flavors (Updated)

Noted leaker Evleaks tweeted an image this morning purportedly showing two versions of the new Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The image indicates Samsung might add a “Neo” version, possibly a budget model along the lines of the iPhone 5C. That’s not a guarantee (this is, after all, merely a leak), but perhaps this is what…

9 Great GIFs That Turn Your Favorite Movies Into 8-Bit Masterpieces

Digital artist Dusan Cezek has a great collection of 8-bit style GIFs inspired by some of the greatest movies ever made. We’re talking The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Clerks, and more. You should really check out the whole series, but here are our absolute favorites. Can you name them all? All images: Dusan Cezek

New Zealand is a magical land with or without elves

Shawn Reeder made this impressive time-lapse of New Zealand after he decided to leave his home to become a film maker travelling around the world. His first stop was the country he always wanted to travel to “for as long as [he] can remember.” Looking at this video, it was a good decision. In the…

Rare photo of two F-16 landing simultaneously in perfect sync

This is something you don’t see every day: Two fighter jets landing simultaneously in perfect synchronization on the same runway. Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 35th Fighter Squadron land in sync after a training sortie Feb. 13, 2014, at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The pilots faced different training scenarios to…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: It’s Called “Moon”

The newest work from Ubermensch creator, Emanuele Kabu, It’s Called “Moon” illustrates the unintended side effects of melatonin ingestion as a sleeping aid. Kabu should have stuck with the red wine. https://gizmodo.com/the-weirdest-thing-on-the-internet-tonight-ubermensch-5995286

Whole milk may actually be best for you

Two recent studies (here, here) support the paradoxical idea that consumption of full-fat dairy products is correlated with a lower risk of developing central obesity. Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images | A customer shops for milk at a Safeway in Livermore, California | Via NPR Over at New Scientist, Jon White spoke with Walter Willett…

Behind the scenes pictures of a NSFW Playboy photoshoot are so awkward

NSFW. This is NSFW guys. If you don’t want to see body parts typical of a Playboy photo shoot, do not click. Anyway. NSFW. Here’s a collection of images from photographer Patrick Van Dam’s book Playboy Behind The Scenes. It shows how those iconic centerfold sausages are made and how hilariously awkward and unsexy it…