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Knock for iPhone Is the Most Fun You’ll Ever Have Unlocking Your Mac

Passwords are obnoxious, but until desktops start coming with a fingerprint/retina/any other type of body part scanner, they’re stuck dealing with the passcode security of yesteryear—or so it would seem. The new Knock app for iPhone, though, takes a more fun approach. If you’re an iPhone owner that uses a Mac in any capacity, you’ve…

French Archaeologists Discover Beautifully Preserved Deformed Skull

Normally, intentionally elongated or flattened skulls are associated with ancient Mesoamerican cultures. But this exquisite specimen, which dates back some 1,500 years, was recently found at a dig in Alsace, France. https://gizmodo.com/deformed-skulls-discovered-in-1-000-year-old-mexican-ce-5969345 There’s an industrial park in Pays de Sainte Odile, France, that’s about to be developed, prompting archaeologists to perform a major search over…

The 200-year-old mystery of Mercury’s orbit — solved!

It wasn’t too long after Newton published his laws of motion that people noticed something was off about them. To be specific, they were off by the orbit of an entire planet. And they remained off until Einstein, and general relativity, explained why Mercury moves the way it does. The laws of motion were, and…

Japanese fast-food chain invents a mask for women to eat burgers

A fast food restaurant chain discovered that Japanese women don’t like to eat big burgers because they are ashamed of opening their mouths wide. So they invented this clever paper holder to hide their mouths while stuffing their face like piggy men. Surprisingly, the invention was a huge success. The company claims that consumption of…

Fox News Just Had a Wonderful Homepage Malfunction

Whether Fox News got hacked (unlikely) or their giant new iPads are causing something to go haywire, the stars seem to have aligned in our favor today. And the result, friends, is glorious. Wherever this gift from god and/or Rupert Murdoch above came from, time-wise, it’s all over the place. World Zombie Day was back…

Sleepy Hollow’s “Sin Eater” is an Everytrope Gift Basket

You’re probably familiar by now with the madcap trope-deployment rate of the magic-cop show Sleepy Hollow. Turns out if you leave the show unattended for three weeks, those tropes back up — and when you turn the TV back on, it’s a cross-dimensional guest-star-heavy hyper-flashback Masonic suicide pact with sin-eater assist. (“You’re welcome.” – Sleepy…

Meet the new Ms. Marvel, a shapeshifting Muslim teenager

Ms. Marvel is returning to the Marvel universe, but it won’t be Carol Danvers in the suit. The New York Times revealed the brand-new superheroine taking the moniker will be a teenager, a New Jerseyite, a shapeshifter, and a Muslim. The new Ms. Marvel is Kamala Khan, a fervent fan of Carol Danvers who decides…

Impossibly Thin Charging Cables No Thicker Than a Pair of Credit Cards

Boosting the battery life on a mobile device is easy; they just need to get a lot thicker. But since none of us are willing to give up our svelte smartphones or tablets, we’ve bought into a life that involves bringing charging cables wherever we go. A hassle that’s now slightly less annoying with these…

One of the most fascinating museums on Earth is in a fetid LA warehouse

Inside an unassuming L.A. warehouse, a bearded man in rubber gloves and a bloodstained t-shirt is pulling bodies apart. The stench is powerful, but conveniently masked by the fleshy funk of a nearby meatpacking plant. He removes a glistening lump of muscle and plops it on a table. “There’s the heart” he says cooly. “It’s…

“[Evolution by natural selection] was a theory that was discovered by two people, and we’ve blithely forgotten one of them.” This fantastic paper-puppet animation celebrates the life of Alfred Russel Wallace, the massively overlooked (and massively modest) scientist co-credited with Darwin for the theory of natural selection. [NYT Op-Docs]

8 Skeletal Celebrations Of Día De Muertos

The Day of the Dead celebrates, not only those who’ve passed, but our own mortality. And for this week’s Shooting Challenge, you adopted its powerful symbol: The human skull. Winner: Ciana In the spirit of Dia de Los Muertos, my friends and I did a photoshoot in an old graveyard with our faces all painted…

3D-Printed Chains of Ice and the Robot-Assisted Igloos of the Future

While we’re on the subject of ice and architecture, it’s worth taking a quick look back at the incredible body of architectural research produced at McGill University exploring how designers and engineers can build full-scale, elaborate structures using nothing but frozen water. They call this “computer assisted ice construction,” or the “robot-assisted rapid prototyping” of…

The Lost Computer Games of Timothy Leary

Who knew counter-cultural icon and Harvard-exiled LSD aficionado Timothy Leary was also a video game designer? Kotaku recently paid a visit to the seemingly endless, labyrinthine collections of the New York Public Library to see Leary’s lost games in action, sitting down for an interview with archivist Don Mennerich about their design history and curatorial…

We’ve seen 20 minutes of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Yesterday ,Peter Jackson and the rest of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug cast held an international “fan experience” where Jackson screened 20 minutes of new footage. Here’s everything we saw, including a video of Gandalf swearing in a production reel. Enjoy! The first thing we saw was Ed Sheeran’s behind-the-scenes music video for “I…

Panasonic Smart LED, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Dexter, [Deals]

We recently recommended you buy the Panasonic ST60 Plasma, because it’s the best TV. However, if that’s way out of your price range, or you don’t like Plasma, then this 50″ Smart LED, also from Panasonic, which is selling for $1300 elsewhere, is only 750 bucks today on Amazon. Ballerina not included. [Amazon] Panasonic 50″…

These maps show U.S. migration patterns for the past six decades

Millions of Americans move to different counties each year. Tracking who is moving and where they’re going can be difficult to quantify and visualize, but these gloriously detailed interactive maps from the University of Wisconsin manage the task with ease. Top map: Total Net Migration Rate during the 2000s. Legend for all maps: Quite incredibly,…

Researchers Are Finally Teaching Robots To Be Less Stabby

Most of the news coming out of robotics research has us really worried about mankind’s future, but Cornell University finally brings us a glimmer of hope. Researchers there are working on developing an algorithm through physical feedback that will teach robots to be more careful with certain objects—like say when handling a sharp knife around…

Guess which of these identical twins is the smoker

Smoking: It’ll wreck your face. Recently, researchers at Case Western University’s Departments of Plastic Surgery and Otolaryngology set out to identify the effects of cigarette smoking on facial aging. To do so, they compared standardized photos of identical twins with different smoking histories. Their results reveal subtle but noticeable differences in the faces of smoking…

Student Invents Smart Foam That Measures Helmet Impacts

In an effort to more accurately diagnose player concussions in the middle of a football game, a Brigham Young University student has developed a nano particle-embedded foam that’s able to detect and measure impacts, providing real-time feedback about the severity of a hit or tackle. What’s particularly great about Jake Merrell’s creation is that the…

Harman’s New Wireless Speakers Look Like Twin Turbines

From the shop that brought you the iconic SoundSticks that are a staple of dorm rooms everywhere, come a new set of semi-transparent speakers with design reminiscent of a fan—or the cutest jet engine in the world. https://gizmodo.com/harman-kardons-iconic-soundsticks-go-wireless-5940359 The new Nova wireless speakers system comes in a $300 pair that’s ideal for your desk, or…