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First footage reactions for Maleficent and Tomorrowland from D23

Ditching Star Wars for fairy tales, the D23 live-action panel just wrapped up without saying a damn thing about Episode 7. Which, wow. Sorry if you were looking forward to that. But on the plus side, the very first footage from the live-action Cinderella and Maleficent were screened, and they sound fantastic. Plus Damon Lindelof…

See NYC From a New Angle With These Awesomely Nerdy Maps

On July 25, data fans rejoiced when New York City government opened up a gigantic amount geospatial data to the public. The dataset, PLUTO, is “a real-world version of SIm City” based on tax lot data (it sounds less interesting than it is). Now, maps based on PLUTP are hitting the web—and these are some…

The Amazing, Colorful Flip Card Propaganda Mosaics of North Korea

Mass flip card mosaics are created by having large groups of people in stadium seating hold up cards that, together, form a complete image. In North Korea, these colorful images often serve as propaganda, celebrating the nation’s leaders, prescribed lifestyle, and even its nuclear weapons. The photo above was taken by Elizabeth Dalziel/AP. A flip…

The story of the world’s most popular phone sound—and the rejected ones

There are hundreds of phones out there, but the iPhone’s Tri-Tone is, without a doubt, the most iconic phone sound in the world. As its creator Kelly Jacklin says, it shows up in every TV show and movie—”it became international short-hand for you have a text message.” In 1999, Jacklin sold Tri-Tone to the makers…

Nobody knew how the clitoris really worked until four years ago

The clitoris. For thousands of years, humans (some of them, anyway) have known that you can give pleasure to its owner if you play with it in the right way. But it wasn’t until 2009 that science understood how it actually worked. Discover… the Mystery of the Clit! https://gizmodo.com/until-2009-the-human-clitoris-was-an-absolute-mystery-5876335

Johnny Depp will seduce a 10-year-old girl in Disney’s Into the Woods

Johnny Depp has been officially cast in Disney’s big-screen adaptation of Into the Woods as the Big Bad Wolf. That means he’s going to be singing sexually charged songs opposite…a ten-year-old girl. At the D23 Expo in Anaheim, Disney’s Sean Bailey announced that Depp would be playing the Big Bad Wolf, Meryl Streep as the…

The Creator of the iPhone’s Text Message Noise Explains Its Origins

You hear it every time you get a text message or alert. It’s arguably the most iconic noise associated with the iPhone: The default “Boo-Dah-Ling” that plays when you get a text message or alert. But who designed it? A fascinating post from the audio designer behind the legendary tone explains all. According to Kelly…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Laundromat of Horrors

Spooky things go on late at night at the coin-operated laundry. Write your own tale of something scarier than mixing your whites and your colors. This week’s piece is titled “Coin Laundry of Horrors,” by Uetsuji Shotaro, via the Art of Animation. As always, we ask you to come up with a story inspired by…

Do China’s New Skyscrapers Really Signal an Economic Downturn?

Skyscrapers have been symbols of economic plentitude since Daniel Burnham, the architect behind some of the earliest tall buildings, said “Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood.” But is it possible that tall buildings also precipitate crashes? According to one analyst, yes—and China, in particular, is heading for a bust.…

A Map of the World, with Each Name Listed in that Country’s Language

Maps of the world are typically written with the language of the viewer in mind. But the zoomable Endonym Map takes a different approach, writing each country’s name in one of that country’s own languages. Here’s the official description: An endonym is the name for a place, site or location in the language of the…

These spiky runway dresses are created from iron filings and magnets

These dresses by designer Iris van Herpen have a magnetic quality—literally. Van Herpen pulled a mixture of iron filings over fabric with magnets, creating fashions with a spiky texture. Product designer Jólan van der Wiel suggested that van Herpen try her hand at creating dresses using magnetic fields. The created a material out of iron…

NASA Predicts How Common Forest Fires Will Be By 2100

It’s been a terrible few years for fires, with thousands of homes lost every summer. NASA is using its two earth-monitoring satellites, Terra and Aqua, to help monitor forest fires from space—and to find out how much worse it’s going to get. There are plenty of reasons fires have gotten worse. For one thing, more…

A girl enacts her own rescue by psychically controlling her boyfriend

The self-rescuing damsel trope takes a sinister turn in Saman Kesh‘s action-packed short Controller. A young woman is being held captive, so she takes control of her boyfriend’s body in order to rescue herself. Kesh wrote and directed this Taiwanese film, which feels in many places like a scifi anime brought to life. But the…

This morning Apple announced the full return of the Developer Center, which had been shuttered for three weeks after a July 18 security breach. By way of apology for the long delay, developer memberships are being extended an extra month.

Pokémayans: Pokémon Redesigned as Mayan Monsters

Pokémon get a new, Maya-inspired look in the hands of artist Monarobot. These modern monsters look majestic with their ornate, Mesoamerican makeovers. If you don’t see your favorite Pokémon redesigned on the Monarobot Tumblr, you can hire Monarobot for a commission. The Gyarados is also currently up for voting at Threadless. Pokémayans [Monarobot via Laughing…

Dinosaur CAT Scan Shows 3 Different Species Are Actually The Same

Cutting edge imaging technology isn’t just helping us tiny humans — it’s helping solve a dinosaur identity crisis. Researchers have developed a brand-new imaging technique that builds a 3D image of a dinosaur skull, creating a CAT scan-style readout. They say this technique proves that what we thought were three separate species of dinosaur are…

Percy Jackson 2 director draws comics about the making of the film

We may not have loved Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, but director Thor Freudenthal’s comics about the making of the film are perfectly delightful. He reveals what it was like to film the movie’s effects-driven scenes and what Nathan Fillion was like on-set. https://gizmodo.com/percy-jackson-2-could-make-you-stop-believing-in-the-he-1051225823 EW has all three of Freudenthal’s Percy Jackson comics. You can…

Zardoz director John Boorman almost made a Lord of the Rings movie

John Boorman is the director behind Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, and Excalibur, but his CV nearly included a Lord of the Rings movie. It would have been a pretty bonkers interpretation, with Aragorn wielding double blades and Frodo and Galadriel getting it on. Boorman has said in his autobiography Money Into Light, and more recently…

For three 12-year-old ghost hunters, family can be scarier than ghosts

In 1958 Pineville, Kentucky, young Chopper Sweeney sees a ghost in his bedroom, kicking off a summer of supernatural investigations. But while Chopper and his friends root through haunted houses and chase down mysterious dogs, they’re dealing with their own losses and pain. After the death of his police officer father, Chopper, the narrator of…

The Pirate Bay Celebrates 10 Years With a New Blockade-Busting Browser

File sharing site The Pirate Bay set sail ten years ago. While the site and its founders have had plenty of legal trouble along the way, like Keith Richards, they refuse to abandon ship. They’re marking a decade of file plundering with a typically typo-laden decree and a new way to circumnavigate torrent blockades. https://gizmodo.com/pirate-bay-co-founder-charged-with-hacking-and-fraud-in-5994854…