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Anthropomorphized paperbacks act out the stories between their pages

A few pieces of wire and a couple props turn these old paperbacks into whimsical sculptures, giving them the opportunity to play characters from their own stories. The Hobbit grabs the One Ring; 1984 is spying on us; and the works of Sigmund Freud are ready to analyze your dreams. Wiry Limbs, Paper Backs is…

Why A Trompe L’Oeil Tech Bus Is Upsetting San Franciscans

Any mention of tech buses in San Francisco should come with a trigger warning, because pretty much every discussion surrounding the massive, much-maligned vehicles comes fully equipped with deep contention. Now, the winners of an unofficial competition to rebrand the behemoths—which are often partially bright white and completely unmarked—has sparked a new debate over art,…

Real life Spider-Man climbs 1500-foot wall with no equipment whatsoever

I can’t imagine climbing 10 feet and this guy did 1500 with no equipment. He’s basically Spider-Man. Rock climber Alex Honnold used no equipment to scale the 1500-foot limestone wall of El Sendero Luminoso in El Potrero Chico, Mexico. It’s the first ever free solo ascent of the wall. Honnold, who climbs Yosemite’s Half Dome…

This Week’s Best Photo-Related Posts on Reframe

Did you guys know there is a Gizmodo subdomain where you can go for all things photographic? Yep! It’s called Reframe, and it’s where you’ll find additional coverage of gear, techniques, news, and all kinds of great stuff related to the crafts of photography and videography. Here are this week’s best posts: All the Gear…

Meet the scientifically accurate Flintstones, and how awful they are

ADHD continues its scientifically accurate rampage across the animation world, this time intent on destroying everything you enjoyed about Bedrock’s most beloved inhabitants, the Flintstones. Please, no one tell the Creationists — they’ve had a rough enough week already.

The Dangers of Dating a Butterphone

We’ve all been there before. You’re out at a bar with friends when—suddenly—you find yourself talking the man and/or woman of your dreams. You exchange numbers, and the next morning, after carefully crafting your first sober communication, you await his or her response with bated breath. Your phone vibrates. You look down, eyes opened wide.…

Artist Ray G. Scarfo’s illustration of a semi-permanent moon base in the future. Published in the May 1969 issue of Science Journal, just two months before humans would first set foot on the moon.

3D Scanning Saved These Ancient Footprints Just Before They Washed Away

In May 2013, a storm uncovered these ancient footprints on an English beach. At over 800,000 years old, they’re the oldest human ancestor footprints ever found outside of Africa. The storm that revealed them soon washed them away too, but scientists have been studying the footprints for months after the fact, thanks to 3D imaging.…

Video: Massive avalanche seems to be alive

A massive avalanche violently invaded the Passeier Valley—in South Tyrol—yesterday. In this video it looks harmless until you get to the 1:30 mark. Then things start to get scary and weird. Instead of spreading through the entire slope and die, the snow actually takes the road onto the bridge that leads into the town, like…

Urbanization, Gentrification, Data: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

The “smart city” might not be so smart, and gentrification might not be so bad. Plus a sad story about how urban development is destroying Chinese villages—300 of them per day. This is our weekly look at What’s Ruining Our Cities. Urbanization is ruining Chinese culture When we talk about China, we’re usually talking about…

How to beat Flappy Bird, a video tutorial

If you have been frustrated with the hugely successfuland extremely difficult game Flappy Bird, here’s a tutorial that will teach you how to beat the hell out of it. It’s actually really easy once you learn this technique. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

HVAC Vendor Confirms Link to the Massive Target Data Breach

While it’s been widely reported since Wednesday that Fazio Mechanical Services was the third party vendor whose login information the Target hackers hijacked, president and owner Ross E. Fazio has finally put out an official statement confirming his company’s role in the attack. In the statement, Fazio denies that his company had performed any sort…

Teledildonics: The Weird, Wonderful World of Social Sex Toys

Sex toys are great, but they still can’t compare to skin-on-skin contact. That may be about to change—kind of—thanks to a new generation of internet-enabled playthings that fall under the awesomely-named umbrella of teledildonics. These toys let long-distance partners “feel” each other in real-time via data-enabled devices. A new company called Kiiroo, wants to break…

This sponge-filled syringe can plug a gunshot wound in just 15 seconds

First responders have to work quickly when treating gun shot wounds. To help them, a U.S. company has developed a syringe that pumps expandable tablet-sized sponges into the wound, blocking it while the patient is being transported to ER. The patent-pending device, called the XStat Rapid Hemostasis System, is meant to seal gun shot wounds…

Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

It’s the end of a long week and the beginning of Winter Olympic madness. Don’t let your smartphone or tablet get left behind—turn it into a gold-medal productivity star, or the olympic village of time-wasting games, with our favorite new apps. Android Beats Music Beats Music is a promising new take on streaming music—it’s curated…

This Week in Time Capsules: Optimistic Girl Scouts Bury 200-Year Tube

This week in our time capsule news round-up we have 100-year-old papers that look like they were printed just yesterday, a Girl Scout capsule that won’t be opened until the year 2214, and some artifacts in Florida from the ancient Age of Videotape. Girl Scouts bury 200-year time capsule at birthplace of founder In 1912,…

Game of Drones: Yes, Quadcopter Fight Clubs Exist

Following the popularity of those battle bots from a few years ago, it only makes sense that someone, somewhere, would pit quadcopters against each other in a battle to the death—or at least first crash. Sure, these events might have been cooked up to promote an extra-tough quadcopter airframe that’s being funded through Kickstarter, but…

These Retro-Cool Posters Let You Put Classic Movie Sets On Your Walls

Have you ever dreamed about living in your favorite movie? Maybe you want to float through space chatting with HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey, or kick it with crazy Jack Nicholson in The Shining. Well, now you can get one step closer with these posters of classic movie interiors. The retro-inspired poster series, dubbed…

When the gate to the next dimension opened, it spread across the Earth

The summoners had expected a glowing crack in the sky, or perhaps a whirlpool swirling in the bay. They did not expect the doorway to the other world to come with roots that would plunge into the foundations of New Atlantis, feeding on the shock and despair of its inhabitants. A landscape concept by Ashok…

Reimagining the Home Bar of the Future

I don’t know about you, but my home bar is a mess. It’s two shelves utterly stuffed with bottles any way they’ll fit, with no rhyme or reason behind it. Rarely do I have any concept of how much I have left of what; I have to check every bottle and hope there’s enough to…