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NASA’s Humanoid Robot to Receive Legs

NASA’s Robonaut 2, which is currently stationed aboard the International Space Station, could be outfitted with a pair of legs as early as the start of next year. The anatomical upgrade will raise the spacefaring robot’s height to an imposing 8-feet, and increase its potential for mobility considerably. Let’s just hope it hasn’t been infected…

Watch this airplane land vertically on a cargo ship

I’m glad the world is full of insane people so we can see another seemingly-impossible airplane landing and takeoff: Watch this man stop in midair and touching down on top of a moving ship in the English Channel. At one point it seems like the he’s just floating there. https://gizmodo.com/look-at-this-madman-landing-a-plane-on-the-top-of-a-mou-1462485637 In reality, it just seems…

Astronaut Chris Hadfield says Gravity was good but needed more diapers

The amazing Chris Hadfield saw Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity movie and he thought it was extremely well done… except for a certain lack of adult diapers, as he told Conan O’Brien on Conan last night. I’m afraid I’m with Conan on this one; I appreciate any movie’s attempt at accuracy, but I also appreciate not seeing…

Ray-Ban Solar Chargers: Why Don’t All Sunglasses Do This?

Mumbai-based designer Sayalee Kaluskar and Ramiro Ramirez has come up with a wonderful concept that makes sunglasses more than just a way to prevent squinting or hide a hangover. With the addition of a thin solar cell to each arm, suddenly the glasses become a mostly subtle way to top off your gadgets when you’re…

This Slow and Steady Lego Sloth Can Climb Ladders Upside Down

Sloths aren’t the most exciting creatures to inspire a Lego creation, but 222Doc has left us thoroughly impressed with this quadra-ped robot called X-4 that’s able to autonomously climb a ladder—even when inverted. Surprisingly, it’s powered by just a single Mindstorms NXT that controls eight servo motors, four smaller Lego motors, and a set of…

4 Musical Masterpieces Played By Industrial Machines

Ever hear a car alarm blaring outside and, in spite of yourself, find that you’re nodding along to the repetitive rhythm? Maybe stepping along the sidewalk in time? Given the right frame of mind, even the most seemingly annoying or atonal noises can be transformed into something strangely mesmerizing. Even dot matrix printers and sewing…

When will The Walking Dead show us what the Governor’s been up to?

Elizabeth Olson comments on her role in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Jennifer Lawrence explains why Katniss is a frustrating character to play. Check out new footage from The Hobbit and Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary. The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman has a brand new apocalyptic TV show. Spoilers now! Top image: The Hunger Games: Catching…

Apple Patent Supports Rumors of Pressure-Sensitive Touchscreens

Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported that Apple was working on enhanced sensors capable of detecting different levels of pressure. Now, an Apple patent for pressure-sensitive touchscreens could lend that rumor some credence. https://gizmodo.com/report-apple-working-on-two-big-iphones-for-whatever-1461762060 The patent, unearthed by Apple Insider, describes a piece of hardware that can trigger different UI functions depending on how hard the…

Indie Sci-Fi Movie Featuring Awesome Yugo Monuments Is Almost Done

You probably all know about those old Yugoslavian monuments that look like TIE Fighters and scifi fortresses. Berlin based film-production company Molly Aida Film and director Kaleb Wentzel-Fisher are working on a promising-looking science fiction film partly inspired by these unearthly structures. It was successfully crowd funded a year ago, and this is our first…

This Drone Could Actually Save Your Life

Drones may sometimes get a bad press as killing machines, but here’s one that could actually save your life. Put together by researchers in Iran, this autonomous flying machine is designed to help people who are drowning at sea. Developed by the Tehran-based RTS Lab it’s called Pars, and it’s a multi-rotor drone that can…

The Throwable, Panoramic Ball Cam Is Finally Here—and It’s Incredible

When we first got wind of a throwable, 36-lens compound camera that automatically snaps 360-degree panoramas at the height of its toss, we were already impressed—and that was jus the prototype (seen above on the right). Now, the officially named Panono camera is nearly half its former size, just as powerful, and finally ready to…

Twitter Was Almost Called Smssy (and Almost Looked Awful, Too)

If you’ve ever thought Twitter was a silly name, be grateful that’s what they settled on. During the research for a new book about the site, Nick Bilton has unearthed some of the early name and logo ideas, and they… they aren’t pretty. According to a post on Bilton’s blog, the founders of Twitter bounced…

Why School Buses Are Yellow

School buses are the primary mode of student transportation in North America. An estimated twenty-six million students in the United States alone are transported to school every school day via bus—over half the student population in the country. While school buses in countries outside of North America usually look like any other buses, North American…

Five Ways to Get More Instagram Likes (According to Masses of Data)

You might not choose to admit it, but you probably feel a little bit warm and fuzzy inside when people like your Instagram posts. Hey, that’s natural. But if you want to embrace it, then new research suggests that there are a few ways you can improve your chances of getting a like. A study…

Bad luck if you’ve been holding off on purchasing the new Nexus 5: the black 16GB model is sold out.

The Weird Math That Can Make Wheels That Aren’t Circular

If you need something to roll smoothly along the ground, you better strap some of those circular things called wheels to it, right? Well, not quite—because there are actually other shapes that roll smoothly, too. See, if you rotate a square or hexagon or some other geometric shape along the ground, its top moves up…

NYT: Google Glass Is About to Get More Musical

According to a report by the New York Times, Google will today announce a rich new set of musical features for Glass which will provide a better audio experience for those who choose to wear the devices. The paper explains that Glass will soon allow users to search for songs, scan through saved playlists and…

The iPad Mini with Retina Display Is On Sale Now

Apple quietly put the new iPad Mini with Retina display on sale early this morning, with orders set to arrive for US customers from November 20-22. Prices start at $399 for a 16GB Wi-Fi model, and scale up from there. If you’re not caught up, here’s everything you need to know about Apple’s tiny new…

Reports claim that Apple is planning to move a large chunk of its iPhone and iPad chip production to Malta in New York state.

I really hope they build lots of these forest bridges everywhere

“Should London build a forest bridge across the Thames?” asks Geoff Manaugh in Gizmodo. Should bangers and mash come with onion gravy? (But of course.) https://gizmodo.com/should-london-build-a-forest-bridge-across-the-thames-1462235473