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Test Your Model-Making Skills With This Plywood Lowrider

Designer Jurgen Kuipers’ plywood Sawyer lowrider bike is as awesome to look at as it probably is to cruise around the neighborhood on. So much so that Kuipers has actually created a full-size, 1:1 scale model of the bike that comes packaged just like a plastic model kit. However, this time around a jigsaw is…

Merle decides who lives and who dies in a pretty terrific Walking Dead

Let us understand that “This Sorrowful Life” is Merle’s story, and everyone else is just a supporting character. Although this episode started out with an extremely stupid, contrived decision clearly designed to set up a very specific situation, that situation — and what it led to — was excellent enough that it ended up being…

Your Minifig Magic Could Get a Lego: The Movie Cameo

You’re never going to be a movie star, but with a little luck, maybe your Lego bricks can be. Thanks to a new contest for the upcoming blockbuster, Lego: The Movie, you’ve got a shot at your own 15-30 seconds of vicarious stardom. https://gizmodo.com/a-lego-movie-is-happening-movie-stars-sign-up-to-play-5938720 At some point in the upcoming film, minifigs across the globe…

Evernote 5 for Android is out, finally bringing you a fancy new camera interface to match its iOS counterpart.

This Is a Hot Deal on a Cool Nest Thermostat

The humble thermostat isn’t the hottest gadget category, but the Nest thermostat has the right combination of attractive interface and smartphone integration to actually be lust-worthy. Instead of pokey up and down buttons, the Nest shows you the current temperature on an aluminum dial and glows either blue or red if it’s currently heating or…

Perhaps the funkiest scientific journal cover ever published

Pictured on the left is the cover of this week’s Biophysical Journal. On it, muscle motor proteins known as myosin can be seen translocating (a.k.a. “walking”) across an actin filament. You will surely notice that this particular myosin motor – Myosin-V – appears to be walking with a rather fantastic gait. This is no accident.…

The Skyward House Lives Up to Its Name

The aptly named Skyward House is relatively secluded from some angles. But it actually faces a pretty well-trafficked road, so the architect had to design it with features that make it feel private. For example, it’s lifted up high on the hill to avoid view from the road. It has windows that can be opened…

Sad Jetsons: Depression, Buttonitis and Nostalgia in the World of Tomorrow

This is the 23rd in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The 23rd episode of “The Jetsons” originally aired on March 3, 1963 and was titled “Dude Planet.” In the year 2063, the people in the Jetsons’ universe work just a few hours a…

What’s so bad about extinction, anyway?

With all this talk about de-extinction and the apparent desire to bring back no less than 22 defunct species, a number of commentators are starting to ask if extinction is such a bad thing. It’s a part of nature, they argue, and one that might even be good for us. Such is the sentiment of…

J.J. Abrams has some vague thoughts on Star Wars: Episode VII. Plus, Guy Pearce opens up about his Iron Man 3 villainy!

A bunch of Thor: The Dark World actors reveal what to expect from the sequel, plus Tom Hiddleston hints at Loki’s longer-term future. Director Gavin Hood offers an Ender’s Game update. Ryan Reynolds talks more about what a Deadpool movie would be like, assuming it ever happens. Get to know Doctor Who’s new companion in…

This Coin-Firing Cardboard Pistol Turns Pocket Change into Ammo

Tweaking the design of his bizarre pump-action Oreo gun, Joerg Sprave has built a smaller version designed to take office warfare to the next level (if the next level is a long two-hour talk with human resources). Made only using stuff you’d find around the office—like cardboard, glue, staples, and rubber bands—the pump-gun is able…

Google Shut Down Reader Because It Was Scared of More Screw-Ups

According to a report from AllThingsD, lack of customers wasn’t the only reason Google Reader will meet its untimely end on July 1st. It was also, for Google, a potential source of bungling that it wasn’t worth shoring up. Google has run into so many privacy issues of late—Wi-Fi snooping chief among them, but there…

30 Quadrotors Form a Star Trek Constellation In the London Skyline

It’s supposed to be an hour when everyone conserves energy by turning off the lights and other superfluous power drains. But apparently Paramount is still not up-to-speed on what Earth Hour is all about since over the weekend it celebrated the event by sending 30 quadrotor drones into the air, forming the Starfleet insignia to…

The Aurora Borealis Continues To Be Totally Awe Inspiring Video After Video

Sometimes you just want to rest your eyeballs. So you look out your window and are reminded that you live in a city or a depressing suburb or something. So then you watch nature videos. Solar storms are just so amazing that it’s hard to imagine that they’re real, even if you’ve seen one for…

Crowdfund a feature-length adaptation of Harry Harrison’s Bill, the Galactic Hero

Before his death in 2012, science fiction author Harry Harrison granted Repo Man and Sid and Nancy director Alex Cox permission to adapt his satirical novel Bill, the Galactic Hero as a student-made film. Now Cox has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help him, his colleagues, and his students at the University of Colorado at…

Technotronic: Pump Up The Jam

You know what, tonight we’re gonna rock this. Do you need the Billboard Hot 100 from 1990 to tell you about good music? No. Because you already know that visualizing sound waves in neon colors on a zebra-print backdrop is the only real way to make a music video. Also lyrics can absolutely make cool…

T-Mobile’s Contract-Free Plans Are a Real Thing Now

T-Mobile’s Uncarrier, no-contract pricing is live. You can start at $50/month for talk/text and 500MB of data, or add $20 for unlimited. Now all it needs is some LTE—which is coming soon—and you’ve got yourself a wicked good deal. [T-Mobile]

7 Pieces of Space History That You Can Own This Week

Bonhams auction house is hosting a space history sale tomorrow. They’ve done similar things in the past, but this one is more fun because it’s now and Buzz Aldrin is opposed to it. Controversy and memorabilia! https://gizmodo.com/this-manual-saved-the-power-to-keep-apollo-13-alive-5507848 He told collectSPACE.com: I am not offering any items for sale from my current collection of Apollo 11…

What happens when female fantasy adventurers read comics with skimpily dressed heroines?

In M.K. Reed and Jonathan Hill’s short webcomic The Titular Hero, an adventuring party steps into the local sundry shop, where the owner introduces the female adventurers to Lady Bosoms, his shop’s most popular reading material. But these professional dungeon delvers have a thing or two to say about the barbarian Lady, her fighting stance,…

Pterosaurs have 27-feet wingspans, are named after 9-year-old girls

Dinosaurs usually hog all the prehistoric attention, but their winged cousins the pterosaurs are enjoying some newfound notoriety after big fossil discoveries in places as far afield as Brazil and the UK’s Isle of Wight. The latter discovery gets extra points for adorableness, as the pterosaur fossil’s discover and namesake is a 9-year-old girl. In…