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Colorful Desert Ruins Consumed by Waves of Sand

Photographer Romain Veillon recently traveled to the deserts of Namibia, where he photographed the abandoned village of Kolmanskop, an extraordinarily evocative collection of old wooden houses now filled with waves of sand. The village, abandoned now for nearly a century, was once home to German diamond miners—entrepreneurs and engineers who moved here intent on exploring…

Who Says Prosthetic Hands Have To Look Like Human Hands?

Conventional wisdom says that if you’re trying to replicate a part of the human body with robotics, it should look and function like the real thing. But the creators of this prosthesis have taken a different approach, simplifying the human hand to just three digits. Jointly developed by a number of research agencies across Japan—including…

From its utilitarian exterior, you’d never guess Germany’s new Ergolding secondary school, designed by behnisch architektenin, could be so eye-popping inside. The “color-coded central hub allows students to intuitively find their way around the building.” [designboom]

Good news, Kindle Fire friends. Starting today,you can head on over to Amazon and download Fire OS 3.1. The new Goodreads integration is great if you’re a Goodreads user. But for everyone else, the new Second Screen is just as exciting, letting you control video on your TV with your Fire HDX.

12 Funny Ads For Products Mutated Into Something Totally Different

Ideas in advertising sometimes go crazy. This was the case way back in time, and it always will be. One possibility is when an ad shows us the product as something completely different—like in these twelve vintage ads. The result can be funny or weird (you decide). And don’t hesitate to add your own favorites…

The Governor returns in the first crappy Walking Dead of the season

Hoo, boy. Last week I wondered if the all-new, all-pretty-good Scott Gimple-run Walking Dead could pull off a miracle and make the Governor threatening. As it turns out, The Walking Dead still can’t even make the Governor interesting. The episode picks up right after the season 3 finale, in which the Governor mows down virtually…

Details from the Making of Game of Thrones‘ Next Massive Set Piece!

Doctor Who’s reveals a huge number of hi-res photos, Samuel L. Jackson wants in on the next Star Wars movie, and Kevin Feige says we may have to wait a while to see Loki again. Plus, there’s a ton of rumors from Batman vs. Superman, including a possible new female cast member and a possible…

Nokia 1520 Review: A Burden in My Hand

Is a device with a 6-inch display even a smartphone anymore? The Lumia 1520 is so comically large that doing ordinary smartphone things with it feels like you’re making a joke. At its best, the 1520 is a funny party trick. At its worst, it’s absurd. What Is It? A Windows Phone with a 6-inch…

In perhaps the most counter-intuitive scientific finding of recent time, researchers have discovered a volcano lurking beneath Antarctica. [Nature Geoscience]

The First Airless-Tire Vehicle You Can Own Is a Wicked ATV

Airless—or non-pneumatic tires—have popped up from time to time over the past few years, and while they offer many advantages over traditional air-filled tires, they haven’t been available outside of research labs—until now. Polaris is officially the first company to offer a vehicle with non-pneumatic tires on its new Sportsman WV850 H.O. all-terrain vehicle. Military…

National Geographic’s Mary Bates has compiled a fascinating list of five unexpectedly creative ways that animals “repurpose” their genitals. Conspicuously absent from the list: this rather enterprising dolphin. (Then again, it wasn’t exactly his genitals that were being used creatively.)

Qualcomm’s Toq Smartwatch: $350, Available December 2nd

Qualcomm’s rather lovely looking Toq Smartwatch—which seems miles better than Samsung’s Galaxy Gear—will be available from December 2nd, and it’ll cost a princely $35o. https://gizmodo.com/qualcomm-has-a-smartwatch-too-and-its-the-anti-galaxy-1248201854 The watch—which packs a Mirasol display, wireless charging and stereo Bluetooth audio—was originally a proof-of-concept to be shown off to OEMs. But now Qualcomm has decided that it’s time to…

The Red Planet’s Deep Valleys in Kaleidoscopic Color

Do not adjust your monitor: Mars hasn’t really been given a rainbow paint job. In fact, this image is a color-coded topography showing the heights and depths of the planet’s Ismeniae Fossae region. In the image, white and red show the highest terrains, while blue and purple show the deepest. Imaged by the High Resolution…

How Historic Moments Would Have Been Shared on Instagram

Many of history’s most iconic memories endure in written form, as paintings or, perhaps at best, as cringe-worthy photographs. But what if those historic moments had been cheekily snapped and posted on Instagram? Histagrams answer that very question, by providing a funny and flippant slant on some of history’s most memorable moments as if they’d…

The Complex Relationships Between Bourbons, Visualized

As any good drinker knows, there’s a an awful lot to know about Bourbon. But if you’re sometimes confused about the providence of your tipple, then this family tree should help. https://gizmodo.com/the-book-of-bourbon-how-the-worlds-best-whiskey-got-i-1443181721 Put together by Colin Spoelman for GQ, this chart shows the origins of some of the most famous bourbons. He explains: This chart…

The CIA Is Trying to Stop Russia Building Monitoring Stations in the US

The CIA is quietly trying to stop Russia building a series of monitoring stations—devices that form part of Moscow’s version of the Global Positioning System—on US soil. The New York Times reports that Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, is trying to build around half a dozen of these structures—which it describes as “seemingly innocuous dome-topped…

How YouTube Works

You’re about to watch a video via YouTube. Hell, you watch dozens of videos every day on YouTube. But do you have any idea how it works? If not, it’s worth watching this video. Where does all that video live? How does it get to you? And why the hell do you have to put…

Rumor has it that Apple is deep into talks to buy PrimeSense, which produces—and licenses—the gesture-based technology behind Microsoft’s Kinect. Which could prove… interesting.

Google Announces Massive New Restrictions on Child Abuse Search Terms

Following no small amount of pressure from the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron, Google has announced a new initiative which will see it clean up search results for queries relating to underage sexual abuse. https://gizmodo.com/the-uk-moves-to-block-all-internet-porn-by-default-866811082 Taking to the pages of the UK’s Daily Mail, Eric Schmidt announced that Google has put together a team of…

A Quick (Crazy Quick) Explanation of Negative Temperature

With Minute Physics videos we pretty much expect to have the universe explained to us in . . . a minute. Or maybe a few minutes. But this rundown of temperature and how to achieve “negative temperature” only takes 10 seconds. Impressive. If we’re talking about temperature measured in Kelvin (you can experience negative Fahrenheit…