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Slow-motion beatboxing is hypnotizing

German beatboxer Flula Borg wanted to film his craft at 1,500 frames per second. So he did. The result is mesmerizing (as slow-mo footage is wont to be). It’s also… weirdly explicit (due in no small part to Borg’s own reference to sauropod genitalia). https://gizmodo.com/if-this-video-doesnt-make-you-grin-like-an-idiot-there-5903530 https://gizmodo.com/nyc-commuters-are-suspended-in-time-in-stainless-1499713100 https://gizmodo.com/high-speed-video-reveals-the-bizarre-physics-of-an-ordi-5849356 Complement this video with the latest installment of…

GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition, Anker, 4KTVs, Game of Thrones [Deals]

Today you can pick up a top of the line GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition Wi-Fi camera for $50 off retail. This model is rarely discounted, so grab it while you can. GoPro Black Edition Hero3+ | $350 Early adopters can pick up the well-received Seiki 4K 39″ and 50″ TVs today from Amazon for all…

This is not a lost Space Marines’ prop from an Aliens movie

It’s a new gun industry invention: a “NY legal” 50-round five-magazine part for the AR-15 semi-auomatic air cooled rifle. I can’t understand how can this be legal in NY or anywhere else*. Just look at the description from The Truth About Guns—you can’t miss it: The concept is solid and well established on Ruger 10/22…

This Table Isn’t Complete Until You Decorate It With—Staples?

As the number of documents you actually need to print diminishes year by year, you’re probably finding that you don’t use office accessories as quickly. Like staples, which are all but useless without stacks of paper to bind. But designer Nilly Mozer has come up with another way to use them up: A lovely clear…

Taxpayers, the federal government just announced a new online tool that makes filing a wee bit easier: now you can download your past tax return documents directly from the IRS website. One small step. [WhiteHouse.gov via TheVerge]

Scientific evidence that booth babes don’t sell products

There’s been a raging debate over “booth babes” in the tech community for years. Should companies hire sexy models to work in their sales booths at events like CES, or is this an outdated, degrading practice? But nobody had ever asked whether booth babes were good for sales. So Frontback head of marketing Spencer Chen…

Manholes In D.C. Are So Full of Methane They’re Ready to Explode

Washington, DC may not really have been built on a swamp, but it can’t escape the swamp gas. Scientists just published a survey that maps a whopping 5,893 natural gas leaks in the city’s aging pipelines. But the most explosive news? They found a dozen manholes with enough methane in them to explode. A small…

30 Weird, Ridiculous, and/or Crappy Scifi Album Covers

We all know that science fiction novels can have crappy art on their covers — there are entire websites devoted to chronicling them. But what about album covers? Oh yes. Here are 30 album covers of full of shoddy scifi, bizarre dreamscapes, and just plain bad choices. Rock stars love scifi more than most people,…

Google Now Just Took Its First Steps Onto the Desktop

Google Now is great, but it’s only on your mobile devices. We’ve been waiting on a desktop version for what feels like forever. Now, finally, it’s just starting to poke its head out in the beta-est of Chrome’s beta builds. So far, the Now integration is a far cry from the redesigned Google homepage you…

Why Is There a US Naval Cruiser in the Middle of This Cornfield?

If you’re driving along the New Jersey turnpike just outside of Moorsetown and think you see the top of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer peeking above endless rows of corn, miles from the nearest ocean, don’t worry—it’s supposed to be there. It’s just a full-size mock up that Lockheed uses to develop its AEGIS Combat System.…

Animated classical paintings make me want to escape into other worlds

I really love these 2.5D animations of classical paintings by Rino Stefano Tagliafierro. He says that they are “a tribute to the art and her disarming beauty.” Some are more inviting and evocative than the actual painting. I want to keep getting into the scene. And a few are quite disturbing. Warning: the video includes…

Facebook Now Shows You Personalized Trending Topics In Your News Feed

Facebook will start showing you trending stories to the right of your News Feed, just under where you’re used to seeing notifications about your friends’ birthdays and upcoming events. Twitter has been showing trending topics for years, but Facebook’s trends promise to be personalized to your interests, so maybe they’ll be better? Not everyone on…

The urn containing Freud’s ashes has been smashed by robbers

Back on New Year’s Eve, some assholes broke into a crematorium in London and, in a botched attempt to steal the antique Greek vase containing the ashes of Sigmund Freud and his wife Martha, smashed the urn instead. As the Guardian reports, staff at the Golders Green discovered pieces of the urn on New Year’s…

Our brain can process and identify images that the eye sees for as little as 13 milliseconds. That’s much faster than the 100 milliseconds suggested by previous studies. This rapid-fire processing helps us direct our eyes — which can shift gaze three times per second — to the next visual target. [ Gif: Christine Daniloff/MIT…

Dyson’s New Vacuum Cleaners Make You Feel Like a Superhero

There’s something strangely throttling about a Dyson device. The curves feel futuristic, and the transparent plastic shows you what’s under the hood. And the latest generation runs faster than a Formula 1 race car. You almost have to pinch yourself to remember that it’s just a vacuum cleaner. But it’s really not. Dyson’s new cordless…

Rumored Nokia Android Phone Gets a Rumored Windows Phone UI

We’ve been hearing for months about “Normandy”, the rumored Android phone that Nokia’s supposedly got in the works. @evleaks, the source of many of those rumors, has a fresh one for us: A UI that looks a lot like Windows Phone. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-supposedly-nokias-rumored-android-phone-1480728910 On Monday, @evleaks posted a photo of the phone showing a homescreen complete…

Westeros meets WWII in these Game of Thrones propaganda posters

Classic propaganda posters get a Westerosi makeover in the hands of Olivia Desianti. Which one would convince you to pick up arms for the Iron Throne? If you want Arya the Needler or the Lannisters’ visual roar on your wall, you can pick up these posters (and other geeky propaganda posters) from Desianti’s Etsy and…

Would You Have Sex with a Robot?

Ads for the computer love story Her are everywhere, and it makes me wonder about the ethics of sex robots. Would I ever have sex with one? Or would I find it ooky and gross — in a moral sense, but also aesthetically and erotically? Here’s what I decided. I certainly don’t have any objections…

Evangelical Urbanism: A Review of the Downtown Project’s Vegas Revival

As the story goes, Las Vegas was built by Mormons and mobsters. This unlikely team worked together to bring gambling to a place almost exclusively populated by men constructing the Hoover Dam. Their work turned a tiny sun-baked town into a global phenomenon. As the other story goes, downtown Vegas is not a once-glorious place…

Fascinating murals show the funky anatomy of animals

Austrian urban art and graffiti illustrator Nychos is the animal anatomy Leonardo to Jason Freeny’s toys and animation characters Michelangelo. His mural designs are exquisitely made, with enough detail to both fascinate and gross you out. https://gizmodo.com/these-toys-and-characters-anatomies-will-ruin-your-chi-1500923545 They may not be accurate in many cases, but obviously that’s not the point. This is how he…