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Incredible photo of a supernova at peak brightness captured by Hubble

Even if Hubble had been a total disaster spewing one crappy image after the other for more than two decades, it would have been worth it just for this single image: a supernova explosion in the galaxy M82, taken on January 31, as it approached peak brightness. From NASA Goddard: This is a Hubble Space…

​How to Comprehend Incomprehensibly Large Numbers

We humans are a smart bunch, but we really suck when it comes to understanding and handling excessively large numbers. Here’s why we’re so bad at it — and what you can do to make sense of concepts and figures that are unreasonably huge. To learn more about grasping and processing large numbers, I spoke…

29 Epic Panoramas From Around The World

Humans can see an impressive 120-degree arc, but we’re not capable of focusing on all of that vision at once. Panoramic photographs stretch that sight to 180 or 360 degrees, and even better, 100% of that image is in attention-grabbing focus. Here are the 29 panoramas from this week’s Shooting Challenge. WINNER: Exit Shots were…

Bluetooth Ear Warmers, 700 Blu-rays On Sale, 128GB MicroSD [Deals]

Normally $48, you can pick up these stereo Bluetooth ear warmers today for just $37 with free shipping from Amazon. They probably don’t sound quite as good as your Audio-Technicas, but I guarantee they’ll keep you warmer. Bluetooth Stereo Unisex Ear Warmer | $37 Refurb Dyson DC24 Upright Vacuum | $200 Earlier this week in…

Jack Burton returns in the new Big Trouble in Little China comic!

You know what ol’ Jack Burton always says at a time like this? HELL YEAH. Boom Studios has — very cryptically — announced they’re making a comic based on John Carpenter’s 1986 masterpiece Big Trouble in Little China with this awesome image of Jack Burton by The Goon’s Eric Powell. That’s literally all we know.…

Scientists: Beijing’s Air Pollution Is Like Being in Nuclear Winter

The alarmingly thick cloud of smog often found floating over China’s capital city is nothing new at this point. But as the situation continues to worsen, Chinese scientists are warning that the city’s toxic air pollution has become so dire that it now resembles a nuclear winter. https://gizmodo.com/beijing-is-choking-on-smog-5976356 This has been a particularly bad week…

It’s Ridiculously Easy to Troll Google Maps With Fake Listings

Trust the listings you find on Google Maps? You shouldn’t, because it’s dumb easy to fake them. That’s what Google Maps exploiter Bryan Seely demonstrated for me this morning. And while trolling politicians with dick jokes is never not funny, there’s also a whole sub-community of scammers turning Google Map’s little bugs into cold, hard…

How NASA might have been able to rescue the Columbia crew from orbit

On February 1st, 2003, the seven crew members of the Space Shuttle Columbia perished when the shuttle disintegrated upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. But is there a way that NASA could have rescued the crew while the shuttle was still in orbit? Mere seconds after Columbia’s launch on January 16th, 2003, a block of foam…

American regulators are considering a controversial procedure known as three-parent in vitro fertilization. The technique, which recently became legal in Britain, prevents horrible genetic defects. But critics warn that it could lead to designer babies.

The giant Helmcken Falls must be the biggest ice machine in the world

These extraordinary photos by Viktoria Haack and Jaclyn Tanemura show the 463-foot (141-meter) Helmcken Falls. That’s almost three times the height of the Niagara Falls—half the size of the Chrysler Building! It’s like a giant ice machine pouring cubes into an ice bucket. Top image by Viktoria Haack. Just look at the size of that…

Watch One of History’s Greatest Photographers at Work on the Streets

Garry Winogrand is known for being one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers. This video clip from a 1982 documentary is a wonderful peek at Winogrand roaming the streets with his camera and ruminating on photography. Winogrand’s documentation of everyday life in mid-century America, mostly in the form of candid shots of people on the…

12 Most Codependent Supervillains of All Time

Some villains strive for wealth and power. Some villains strive for glory. But a surprising number of villains are motivated solely by their tangled relationships with the hero. These are love-hate relationships, in which the villain just wants to impress the hero or spend quality time together. Here are the 12 most codependent supervillains, in…

One graph explaining why you should always order a larger pizza

Good news! Mathematics has confirmed what we already suspected: You should most definitely be ordering a larger pizza. But “I’m not hungry for that much pizza”, you say? Allow me to refute your argument with two simple words: Cold. Pizza. But if you’re still not convinced, check out this graph that Quoctrung Bui over at…

A Contagious Computer Virus That Spreads via Wi-Fi

It’s sort of your worst nightmare: a computer virus as contagious as the common cold that avoids detection and infects every computer on a given wi-fi network. You just pop into your local coffee shop for a latte and a little internet surfing, and you leave with a virus. This is scary! Unfortunately, we now…

Despite Harold Ramis’ death, Ghostbusters 3 is still moving forward

Hollywood has refused to give up on the idea of a new Ghostbusters sequel for decades now. But even the recent passing of original star and screenwriter Harold Ramis hasn’t derailed the project, as director Ivan Reitman is reportedly meeting with Sony to discuss how to adapt the script following Ramis’ death. https://gizmodo.com/r-i-p-harold-ramis-the-man-who-gave-us-ghostbusters-a-1529839951 According to…

Comcast-TWC Would Be a Monopoly, But That Probably Won’t Stop It

The proposed $45.2 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Comcast—the nation’s two largest cable and home Internet providers—has once again raised the specter of monopoly control over yet another American utility. Are these fears overblown? Nope! It’s really that bad. https://gizmodo.com/why-the-comcast-time-warner-cable-merger-is-even-worse-1522096469 Would Comcast-TWC Count as a Monopoly? Monopolies aren’t like porn; you can’t just…

Astonishing images of a diver swimming on top of great white sharks

Ocean Ramsey doesn’t ride on top of great white sharks for fun or frivolous show. She does it to dispel their image of cruel killing machines, to call attention to the fact that sharks are seriously endangered. Which really sucks, because they’re crucial for the sustainability of the oceans and, therefore, our own species. Like…

What Cold War nuclear weapons can tell us about art fraud

The identification of fakes and forgeries is a basic issue that has always raised controversy. This is unsurprising, of course – the enormous sums garnered by top paintings would turn to dust as soon as a question as to their authenticity arose. To determine whether a painting is original or not, the expertise of critics…

Nike’s Aggressive New Cleats Help Football Players Turn On a Dime

The use of 3D printers has allowed Nike’s designers to prototype and test new footwear designs with a remarkably quick turnaround. And the latest shoe born from that new process is the Vapor HyperAgility cleat featuring re-engineered studs that Nike claims will give football players the necessary grip to explode off the line, but also…

This Battlefield Heads-Up Display Turns US Troops Into Cyborg Soldiers

From self-aiming sniper rifles to bionic power suits, U.S. troops are rapidly gaining access to tools and technology that were the realm of science fiction just a few years ago. While PDA’s and tablets currently connect our warfighters, this Heads-Up Display (HUD) from BAE Systems is the future of wearable battlefield computing. https://gizmodo.com/how-close-are-we-to-elysium-style-exosuits-993706204 Known as…