Latest

What if San Francisco and Los Angeles faced each other in a civil war?

San Francisco and Los Angeles’ rivalry turns into an all-out war in Sandow Birk’s satirical art series In Smog and Thunder: The Great War of the Californias. Birk created grand paintings and wry propaganda posters imagining the bloody battles between Northern California and South. The entire series consists of 120 works of art, including paintings,…

Glorious video game cosplay from this weekend’s BlizzCon

This past weekend was BlizzCon, when Blizzard gamers gather to celebrate all things Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo. And the cosplayers were out at the Anaheim Convention Center in full force, showing off their beautifully crafted costumes. Huge thanks to Davann Srey for letting us share his cosplay photos from the weekend. You can see his…

These LEGO minifigs are ready for their very own episode of Community

The entire cast of Community has gone yellow and plastic. The fun Tumblr blog Community LEGO is devoted to recreating the Community costumes and sets in brick and minifig form. Community LEGO is a wonderful bit of Internet fun, giving us a plastic peek at the Study Room: Most of the blog, though, is dedicated…

Bill Gates Unveiled Windows 30 Years Ago Today

No matter what you think of Windows 8, it’s certain that Windows is both iconic and significant in the evolution of personal computing. It’s a series of operating systems, of course, but it’s also been a concept, a way of thinking, an influencer, and a touchstone for 30 years since Bill Gates introduced it on…

Matt Smith jumps back into the TARDIS for The Science of Doctor Who

The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special airs on November 23rd, but we’ll be seeing Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor again a little bit early. On November 14th, Smith will appear with Professor Brian Cox in the special The Science of Doctor Who. Cox will devote the one-hour BBC Two special the science behind time travel, extraterrestrial…

The Phones Worth Your Money

This content is brought to you by the Commerce Team, the same group of writers and product enthusiasts that put together your daily daily roundups: Gizmodo Deals, Kotaku Deals, and Lifehacker Deals. We work independently of Gizmodo Editorial Staff to bring you the best deals and tell you about our own favorite products. – Shane…

Psychic test cards were actually invented to make psychic tests easier

Earlier this week we did a post on survivorship bias, and how it could trick people into believing in psychic ability. It turns out that the most famous test of psychic ability was made expressly to allow for this kind of bias. https://gizmodo.com/the-survivorship-bias-is-what-convinces-people-that-psy-1459801136 One of the most famous tests of psychic ability was made by…

People Should Really Stop Trying To Sell Their Kids Online

We all know that there’s some seedy stuff on Craigslist. This is the internet, after all. But it’s so sad that desperate parents keep trying to sell their kids through Craigslist posts and connections. Just don’t do that. https://gizmodo.com/chinese-couple-sells-baby-for-cellphone-money-5424748 The latest incident comes from Mississippi, where 23-year-old Bobbie Stojic tried to sell her 4-month-old boy…

Mitten-shaped brand marked the hands of army deserters

It looks like an iron maiden for your palms, and this painful looking device was meant to leave the hands of criminals with a mark no one would forget. This object is part of the Science Museum collection in London, whose curators explain that the brand was made by the British Army during the English…

Zack Snyder commissioned these Batman vs. Superman paintings

The Man of Steel sequel may not be officially titled Batman vs. Superman, but that’s certainly the tone of artwork director Zack Snyder commissioned for the charity We Can Be Heroes. Snyder unveiled this trio of paintings during yesterday’s Man of Steel live fan event, streamed by Yahoo! Movies. Below is a crop from “We…

Report: Apple Working on Two Big iPhones, For Whatever That’s Worth

There is a long, proud lineage of Apple product rumors, reaching back to before the original iPhone. Some come true, most do not. The latest, from Bloomberg, seems likely to split the difference: Two new, bigass iPhones being developed in some Cupertino subbasement, ready for release next fall. Let’s start with the details of Bloomberg’s…

Enjoy the delicious eye candy in this cool sci-fi short

Azarkant—a 3D short by Andrey Klimov—doesn’t have much of a plot, but it’s delicious computer generated eye candy for lovers of spaceships, robots, dead cosmonauts and Haloesque things in general.

Apartment Hunting in NYC Is So Bad, I’m Considering This $8,000 Bus

I’ve been on a grand tour of wacky apartment sublets since moving to NYC this past summer. For a guy who grew up in the Pennsylvania suburbs, it’s an eye-opener. Things that would once have seemed completely unreasonable are starting to look promising—like this $8,000 four-bedroom schoolbus. It’s got its own toilet. It’s got a…

Shining Spires and Jimi Hendrix’s Ode to the Night Sky

Last night, One World Trade’s spire lit up Manhattan’s night sky for the very first time. Up close, it was impressive, but perhaps a little lost amid the city’s bright lights. From a distance though, it looked like a lightning bolt frozen in the midnight sky. A theme perfectly captured by the Voodoo Child himself.…

A Serene Morning on the Ice Fields of Europa

A classic painting by science fiction and fantasy illustrator Donato Giancola.

Report: The Next NSA Chief May Be a Civilian

The Hill reports today that the White House is considering appointing a civilian leader to run the NSA when current director Keith Alexander, who has led the agency since 2005, steps down in the spring. This could signal a changing view of the agency’s role, and is seen by some as a promising if small…

Haven reveals this season’s big bad—and teases a major Audrey reveal

The rulebook for Haven’s Troubles is being rewritten, and this week’s episode revealed the nefarious editor. It appears that we are about to enter a game of supernatural cat and mouse, one that may reveal the ultimate secret behind Audrey’s identity. So last week’s gunshot proved a fake-out. I can’t say that I’m surprised, but…

How Will We Find Out What Our Friends Are Eating?!

Even The Sunrise Is Out Of This World On the ISS

Astronaut Karen Nyberg just tweeted this breathtaking photo of a sunrise, taken from humanity’s most awesome scenic overlook — the International Space Station. Nyberg has been keeping busy up there, including knitting the world’s coolest stuffed space dinosaur. Her mission is winding down, but she’s snapped enough phenomenal photos to keep us dreaming of space…

Travel posters advertise literature’s most fantastical vacation spots

Autun Purser’s brightly colored travel posters invite us to the usual science fiction and fantasy destinations like Arrakis and Barsoom, but he also reaches farther into the fantastical canon, dreaming of otherworldly vacations great and terrible. You can see all 40 Fantastic Travel Destinations on Purser’s website, where you can also purchase prints, mugs, postcards,…