Latest

The real explanation for this “Bat Toad” picture is even freakier

At first glance, this appears to be a cane toad cosplaying as the Caped Crusader. Or maybe Darth Vader. This “Bat Toad” image, snapped at a remote guard station in Peru, has been making the rounds for the past couple days. But what’s really happening here? According to Phil Torres at Peru Nature, the original…

A Counting Pop-up Book That Appeals To Toddlers and Designers Alike

Even if you already boast a mastery of counting to ten, a refresher course is never a bad idea—particularly when it’s this beautiful. Marion Bataille’s Numero is a pop-up counting book, chronicling the numbers one to ten with simplistic layered shapes that are sure to entertain and educate kids, while also inspiring designers. Available mid-October…

Listening to Richard Feynman explain rubber bands will make your week

Need a pick-me-up? A little Feynman ought to do the trick. A couple days ago, Jason Kottke posted this video of Richard Feynman explaining rubber bands in the ridiculously engaging way that Feynman explains thing, and now it’s making the rounds online. We wanted to take the opportunity to remind everyone that the clip is…

NASA has just made an incredible discovery about water on Mars

A recent analysis of Martian surface soil samples shows that it contains about 2% water by weight. This is fantastic news for future colonists of the Red Planet. According to a series of NASA papers just published in the journal Science, each cubic foot of the fine Martian soil contains about two pints of liquid…

Listen to what our ancestors’ language sounded like 6,000 years ago

Linguists have recently reconstructed what a 6,000 year-old-language called Proto-Indo-European might have sounded like. This language was the forerunner of many European and Asian languages, and now you can listen to what it may have sounded like. Photo by Horus Neo Ikon Epifanes Over at Archaeology magazine, Kentucky linguist Andrew Byrd does a dramatic reading…

The only four rules needed to make the next Star Wars awesome again

Watch Prescott Harvey’s pitch perfect video letter for JJ Abrams, the next Star Wars trilogy director/producer/emperor. It contains four simple rules to make Humanity’s favorite galactic saga wonderful once again. https://gizmodo.com/a-beautifully-animated-open-letter-to-j-j-abrams-about-1397273170

Apparently Robert Downey Jr. Has His Own (Insane) 6-Foot Flying Iron Man

Apparently, to commemorate the wrapping of The Avengers, Robert Downey Jr.’s staff pitched in and got the Hollywood star a little something. Well, it’s not exactly little, but it certainly is something. And it flies. It is, in fact, a flying RC Iron Man built by master model plane maker and proprietor of RC Superhero,…

Habitable moons beyond our solar system? Astronomers say it’s possible.

Astronomers believe that hidden deep within the wealth of data collected by NASA’s Kepler mission are minuscule signatures confirming the presence of exomoons. With such a promising discovery on the horizon, researchers are beginning to address the factors that may deem these alien moons habitable. Above: Artist’s conception of an Earth-like exomoon orbiting a gaseous…

Godborn author Paul S. Kemp discusses antiheroes and whiskey

The Godborn is the second novel in the Sundering series, which is reshaping the Forgotten Realms and bringing back a number of classic Realms characters. Author Paul S. Kemp revealed antihero Erevis Cale’s true origin and favorite bourbon. When we last saw Erevis Cale, he was trapped in a hell dimension. The Godborn, which will…

Pepsi Wants Scent Capsules So Its Bottles Don’t Smell Like Plastic

Cracking open a cold bottle of Pepsi, only to be hit by the smells of the chemicals in the plastic container instead of the cola, can ruin the experience. And for a company that’s perpetually been a runner up in the Cola Wars, finding new ways to gain traction with consumers is vitally important. So…

No Third-Party App Support for You: How Apple iOS 7 Hoards Playlists

iOS users are delighted by the new iOS 7 rollout, available not only on the new iPhones, but on previous models as well. And unlike Android users, most of whom fail to upgrade to the latest operating system, iOS users tend to upgrade en masse, which means many, many people already have iOS 7 or…

The official atomic weights of 19 elements have just been changed

Time to update all your periodic tables. https://gizmodo.com/minimalist-periodic-table-brings-simplicity-to-the-elem-1108039094 https://gizmodo.com/damn-this-periodic-table-is-beautiful-510648468 In their ongoing effort to keep things as mind-numbingly precise as possible, The International Union of Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the U.S. Geological Survey announced yesterday that the atomic weights of 19 elements have been officially and oh-so-incrementally changed. Via USGS: The standard atomic weights of…

Facebook Is Finally Letting You Edit Your Posts

In a long overdue move, Facebook is finally allowing users to edit their posts after they’ve already posted them. For now, the update has only appeared on Android and (presumably) some web users—but an iOS version can’t be too far behind. Facebook has already allowed comment editing for over a year, but actual posts editing…

The Most Absurd Courtroom Scenes from Science Fiction and Fantasy TV

There’s a reason so many science fiction and fantasy shows feature trials. Legal battles can be used as an allegory, or a way to expose important issues. But sometimes, these stories just go off the deep end. Here are the most ridiculous trials from science fiction and fantasy television. Both writers and viewers love a…

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Just Found Water in Martian Soil

Just when you thought ol’ Curiosity was digging in for the winter, the little discovery machine came up with a doozy: It discovered water in Martian soil. NASA scientists just published five papers in Science detailing the experiments that led to the discovery. That’s right. There’s water on Mars. Impressive as it is, though, the…

Try googling “Google in 1998” and see what happens. Yep, Google becomes a time machine. Nifty! [via Ben Greenman]

The Original Floor Plans From The Very First Doctor Who Episode

Exactly 50 years ago, television history was being made — the BBC managed to create an alien time machine inside the cramped confines of Lime Grove studio, for Doctor Who. And now, you can see the floor plans of that challenging set, thanks to director Waris Hussein. It’s kind of a miracle that Hussein, who…

Does This Buckling Bridge Hint at Larger US Infrastructural Woes?

Green Bay drivers were treated to an unwelcome surprise yesterday, when the discovery of a dramatically sagging pier on the heavily trafficked Leo Frigo bridge (named after a cheese magnate, because Wisconsin) forced its indefinite closure. The incident coincided with a new AP report about the deteriorating state of American bridges, which seems like a…

Deals: Really Cheap Sony 7.1 Receiver, Nikon S1, Shiatsu Massage Chair

If you want a good A/V receiver for very, very little, today is your lucky day. Newegg has this Sony 7.1ch 3D Receiver marked all the way down to $120 on their eBay storefront, which I’m pretty sure is the lowest price we’ve ever seen on a 7.1ch. Sure it’s manufacturer refurb., but you’re saving…

First trailer for Disney’s Frozen is funnier than we expected

Disney’s next animated movie, Frozen, is half an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen story — and half a running gag show, thanks to a CG snowman. Not sure how to feel about this one. Thank goodness, some of the jokes are funny. Unfortunately we do not understand the story whatsoever. But this is…