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A musical piece that’s part long-term sociology experiment

And when I say long-term, I mean most-of-the-coming-millennium kind of long-term. There is a church in Germany that will be performing one musical piece until the year 2640. What will it mean if there’s an applause as the end? John Cage is best known for his piece, 4’33”, or four minutes and thirty-three seconds. It’s…

Netflix Just Made It Harder to Find Out When Movies Expire

Want to find out when Netflix will pull Melancholia so you don’t miss it? Too bad. Netflix just decided to stop providing that information through its API, so third-party services like InstantWatcher.com’s Expiring Soon on Instant are now pretty much useless. So why the change? Netflix says the data isn’t always accurate, so it’s just…

Greatest music video ever about giant robots in anime

This animated music video for MC Frontalot’s “I’ll Form the Head” tells the story of my favorite kind of anime robot. They’re the ones created by color-coded ninja teams who snap their armor together to form one, giant robot — you know, for fighting a malevolent galactic nematode. This is from Frontalot’s new album Solved,…

Of Course a Cheese Store Has a Tiny Grater Business Card

Since printing its address and contact details on a slice of muenster cheese would probably do more harm than good for Bon Vivant, the Brazilian-based cheese shop hired ad agency JWT to come up with something better. And in every way possible, this miniature cheese grater business card is a much better idea. So as…

It’s a pretty good day to be Robocop

Things are looking up for Detroit’s best-known fictional half-robot cop. He’s got a new movie reboot coming out (which admittedly might not be any good); Boom! Studios just announced a new Robocop graphic novel from Frank Miller, titled Last Stand (which will likely be completely insane); and even if both of those suck, his statue…

Hell Yes! You Can Gchat in Outlook Soon

Here’s some good, good news. Microsoft is adding Google Talk (which all of you just call Gchat) support to Outlook.com. Meaning, you can use Google’s chat service right through Microsoft’s beautiful new(ish) webmail page. Awesome. https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-did-the-impossible-the-new-hotmail-is-fantas-5930358 The addition of Google Talk chat (no video or voice) to Outlook is welcome news, since until now, Microsoft…

This Clever Bug Spray Billboard Is Actually a Giant Insect Trap

What better way is there to advertise the effectiveness of your insecticide spray than with a billboard that also happens to double as a gigantic bug trap? Created by Italian ad agency Publicis for a bug spray brand called Orphea, the billboard is partially covered in an invisible non-drying glue so that over time thousands…

Lawrence Krauss answers questions on life, the Universe and everything

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss – author of The Physics of Star Trek and A Universe from Nothing, and producer of The Unbelievers – participated in one of reddit’s Ask Me Anything chats last night. He fielded a slew of fantastic question in the process, offering his thoughts on what it’s like to travel with Richard…

You Can Pre-Order NVIDIA’s Project Shield on May 20 for $350

NVIDIA says Project Shield will be available for pre-order starting May 20 for $350. The open platform portable gaming console will begin shipping in June. https://gizmodo.com/nvidia-project-shield-hands-on-a-little-less-weird-tha-5974239 The device is a little bit of everything at once—phone, tablet, and console. Shield runs Android Jelly Bean and has high-fidelity audio, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash storage, and 720p…

Physics Technician Busted For Preparing Cocaine In University Lab

Hmm, this plot sounds somewhat familiar: A physics technician from the University of Bristol has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after using equipment in the university’s lab to prepare more than $15,000 worth of cocaine for sale on the city’s streets. As the Bristol Post is reporting, Timothy Newbury, along with former solider…

When Will Computers Be as Powerful as the Human Brain?

We all know that computing power roughly doubles every 18 months—but at that rate, how long will it take for computers to be as powerful as the human brain? As this animation from Mother Jones shows, not long. It might have been slow going at first, but we’re soon about to witness a growth spurt…

The BlackBerry Live gala keynote jamboree is about to start; you can watch the livestream here, and we’ll be updating with news as it breaks.

10 Japanese Micro Homes That Redefine Living Small

If you listen to the architect Kengo Kuma, the craze for kyosho jutaku, that distinctly Japanese variant of the micro home, started in the thirteenth century, when the poet Kamo no Chomei penned an essay about the joys of living in a shack called An Account of My Hut. Contemporaneously speaking, though, micro homes became…

Has Marvel already picked someone to play Scarlet Witch in Avengers 2?

Mark Ruffalo addresses the latest rumors of tense Avengers contract negotiations. Zoe Saldana talks Guardians of the Galaxy while John Cho previews Sulu’s role in Star Trek Into Darkness. Jenna-Louise Coleman and Steven Moffat drop cryptic Doctor Who hints. Plus Robocop set videos and a new After Earth clip. Spoilers! Top image from Man of…

Aereo has announced that its streaming TV service will land in Atlanta on June 17th—and it still hopes to be in 22 new cities by the end of the year, too.

These Stamps Hail The Skylab Missions In 13 Awesome Ways

NASA launched the unmanned Skylab-1 into orbit by a Saturn V booster 40 years ago today, on May 14, 1973, from Kennedy Space Center. It was the United States’s first foray into significant scientific research in microgravity. The following three Skylab crews proved humans could live and work effectively for long durations in space, and…

Your Philips Hue Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smarter

The luminescent chameleon that is the Philips Hue lighting system is pretty sweet as it is but, starting today, it’s going to gain a swath of new functions demanded by its users. Here’s what’s in store for version 1.1. https://gizmodo.com/philips-hue-lightning-review-your-lamps-not-worthy-up-5994183 First off, the timer feature is finally being ported to Android devices. This previously iOS-exclusive…

Can a Number Be Illegal?

You might not think too much about numbers as you sit and use your computer, but the underpinnings of software and images are based on them—and that means, in theory, a string of numerical characters can in fact be illegal. Imagine a piece of dodgy software or an illegal image: they’re all characterized, at their…

Nokia Lumia 925 Hands-On: The Windows Phone You’ll Want (Updated)

Nokia’s just unveiled the Lumia 925—and it’s the Windows phone that you’ll want. Gone is the all-plastic traditional Lumia, subsumed by a much more refined feeling metal-polycarbonate mix. This thing looks and feels great. So, what’s it like? Well, if you take the Lumia 920, remove about 20 to 30 per cent of the weight,…

Every Lumia Will Get Nokia’s New Smart Camera App

Good news Nokia Lumia owners: everyone will be able to use the fancy new camera tech that the new Lumia 925 comes packing, thanks to an “amber” software update that’ll be hitting your phones soon. https://gizmodo.com/this-is-nokia-s-new-lumia-updating-505327540 The new Nokia Smart Camera mode allows the camera to capture ten images at once, and offers the post-processing…