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Google Search Can Now Answer Questions About Your Specific Life

Between the always-listening Moto X and the promise of conversational search, it’s pretty clear that Google’s ultimate goal is to become your very own, sci-fi, voice controlled personal assistant. And the new features Google’s adding to search are bringing us even closer. https://gizmodo.com/moto-x-hands-on-forget-specs-this-thing-is-awesome-991536492 Google has slowly been incorporating more and more of your personal information…

Keep everyone (except the NSA) from reading your email

Since the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden brought electronic surveillance back to the headlines, lots of people are creeped out about the government illegally watching everything we do online. At least there’s an easy way to keep bosses and spouses from reading your secret emails. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-encrypt-your-email-and-keep-your-conversations-p-1133495744

An Amazingly Simple Way To Test If a Battery Is Dead

It turns out that when the alkaline in a battery wears down, it produces a gas that fills the inside. So if you’ve got a box of random batteries you want to test, and don’t have access to a voltmeter or any other device, you can simply drop them vertically a short distance onto a…

Here’s the ultimate science fiction size comparison chart

DeviantArtist lexinator117 claims this is chart is the “Size Comparison of EVERYTHING.” While we won’t go that far, we will happily agree that is is a size comparison of many of scifi’s greatest monsters, robots spaceships, and even if it’s incomplete, it’s still completely awesome. PopSci happily broke down the extremely horizontal picture into manageable…

Leaked Pics Reveal North Korea’s New-Old Military Cargo Plane

Nukes aren’t the only military implement North Korea’s been tinkering with over the last few years. During a recent air force parade, the Hermit Kingdom reminded the world of its deadly, deadly fleet of 30-year-old attack choppers. Today, new images have surfaced of a mysterious, camouflaged cargo jet. As with most news out of North…

Shooting Challenge: Monochrome

The world is alive with a myriad of vibrant colors. Let’s forget about that this week and just focus on the simple elegance of just one. Show us what you can do with the timeless techniques of monochrome photography. The Challenge Take the best photo you can using any variation on black and white or…

Mouse heart repaired with human heart cells

For the first time ever, scientists have re-built the beating heart of an animal with human cells. This means “regenerative medicine”—replacing diseased body parts with custom grown living replacements—is one step closer to being a very expensive procedure at your local hospital. https://gizmodo.com/researchers-have-re-built-a-beating-mouse-heart-from-hu-1134672119

This Map of NYC Is Based on Directions Drawn By Complete Strangers

Have you given a dude in a blue hat directions around Manhattan recently? Did he have a Century 21 shopping bag? If so, there’s a good chance you’ve unwittingly participated in the art (gasp!) of Nobutaka Aozaki, who is building a map of Manhattan based on directions drawn by strangers. Aozaki lives in New York,…

The most insane transport systems that never happened

Is Hyperloop destined to be the pipe dream of Elon Musk, another failed futuristic transport like these crazy futuristic transports of yesteryear? Hopefully not. But I wish some of these ten awesome inventions existed today. https://jalopnik.com/the-ten-most-ambitious-failed-utopian-mass-transit-syst-1135019271

Breathtaking Concept Art of Elysium‘s Spaceship Hangar and Robot Deck

The coolest thing about Neill Blomkamp’s Elysium was the drop-dead-gorgeous visuals. And the movie could have featured even more eye-popping vistas of the space station. We’ve got an exclusive look at some early concept art from designer George Hull, showcasing the spaceship hangar and other areas. Last week, we brought you some exclusive concept art…

Forget Jobs, Here’s the Movie Trailer for the Epic Gates Biopic

Unless you’ve been locked in a basement rooting your Android device for the past three months, you’re probably aware that Ashton Kutcher’s big, blockbuster debut as Steve Jobs is, for better or worse, just around the corner. But Steve isn’t the only great media mogul of yore—Bill Gates played just as big of a role…

How Your Birth Order Can Influence Who You Are

As many parents can attest, siblings tend to be more different than alike. Some of this may be the result of our birth order, and how we’re subsequently raised. What’s more, birth order may influence our health and sexuality too. Here’s what you need to know about how your birth rank affects your life. Birth…

This year’s World Fantasy Award finalists are an especially strong list, including N.K. Jemisin, Graham Joyce, G. Willow Wilson, Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kij Johnson. Seriously excited to see who wins this one.

These Avengers vibrators would sell like hot cakes if they were real

Slap any superhero logo on any piece of merchandise and it will sell more. But these Avengers vibrators are mightier than that. Too bad they are just concepts, because I’m sure they would get tens of thousands of clients at next year’s Comic-Con. https://gizmodo.com/these-avengers-dildos-are-presumably-earths-mightiest-1111237515

Human test flights begin on extraordinary jetpack, on sale in 2015

Remember how we all thrilled to see this test flight of the Martin jetpack a few years ago? It remained aloft, with a dummy in the driver’s seat, for over 7 minutes. Now humans are going to start testing this jetpack, which the manufacturer says could be on the market as early as 2015. According…

JFK’s Retro-Futuristic Pan Am Terminal Is Slowly Being Demolished

Despite some last ditch efforts to save it, the JFK airport’s 1960 Googie-style Pan Am terminal is currently being destroyed. Once an important symbol of tomorrowism, this iconic Worldport™ will soon find itself a pile of retro-futuristic rubble. https://gizmodo.com/googie-architecture-of-the-space-age-512620908 First opened to the public on May 24, 1960, Terminal 3 was designed by the firm…

Mysterious video shows new iPhone that’s shockingly yellow

Apple fans have recently enjoyed the two color choices offered in the iPhone models: black, or white. Maybe it didn’t matter because few people want to carry a $600 phone without a protective case. But today, iPhone lovers are in a state of shock because this video shows what might be a new, yellow iPhone.…

A Rare Glimpse Inside a Magnificent, Abandoned Shrine to Electricity

At the dawn of the electrical age, power plants were more than just utilitarian buildings. They were grand, soaring temples to a near-magical substance that was changing the world. Most of these buildings are now abandoned or demolished. But I recently visited one of the few that remain: the 99-year-old Kelenföld Power Plant, one of…

Mathematician Designs a Time Cloak That Uses Just Light and Mirrors

You know what the futurists are always saying: Time cloaks are so cool but they’re so complicated. And it’s true! What were you expecting from a device that literally hides moments in time? A Northwestern mathematician has just shown, though, it doesn’t have to be quite so hard after all. Miguel Lerma just published a…

Breakthrough: Scientists build a beating mouse heart with human tissue

In a major scientific first, a team of developmental biologists has built a functional mouse heart from human tissues. The results herald a future where specific patches of heart muscle – or even the whole organ – could be grown for transplantation. Top image of mouse heart by Wellcome Images via flickr. The work, which…