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Blackberry Sold One Million Handsets To Unnamed “Partner”

Blackberry’s demise, much talked about and somewhat goaded, is on hold while the world reacts to the Blackberry 10 OS and two handsets launching on March 22. And already someone has come forward to buy a million units. So that’s…unexpected. https://gizmodo.com/blackberry-z10-review-not-good-enough-5984411 The purchase is the biggest single order in Blackberry history. It’s not clear who…

On their day off, DC superheroines play Dungeons & Dragons

Even superheroes like to pretend to be someone else from time to time and imagine going on different adventures. Artist Kyle Latino gives us this cheerful image of DC’s all-girl gaming group. Latino also creates the weekly webcomic Sinktown Slink, and has tons of spectacular art on deviantART. In an earlier play on DC Comics,…

Create An Endless Photo Stream So You Can Stalk Your Own Life

If you lived to be 80 you would have lived for more than 41 million minutes. And if you wore a Memoto for your whole life you would have more than 82 million photos to show for it. Which is pretty scary. Memoto is a lifelogging camera that clips to your shirt and takes two…

RSS Inventor Couldn’t Care Less About Google Reader’s Death

The impending death of Google Reader has sparked much wailing and gnashing of teeth, petition-signing, alternative-seeking, and rending of garments. But what about the people who made RSS? Dave Winer, one of the fathers of the both RSS and the blog, couldn’t give less of a shit. https://gizmodo.com/10-google-reader-alternatives-that-will-ease-your-rss-p-5990540 He posts on his blog: I won’t…

Does the new Pope believe in evolution?

The answer is actually yes. And in fact, the Roman Catholic Church has recognized Darwinian evolution for the past 60 years. It openly rejects Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism saying that it “pretends to be science.” But the Church’s unique take on the theory, what it calls theistic evolution, still shows that Catholics have…

A big change hits the patent system today. Now it’s all about “first to file” instead of “first to invent.” [Wired]

How Long Do You Keep Your Laptop On?

My laptop isn’t administrated on a network that runs night updates, and I don’t use it as any type of server, but for some reason I leave it on for days at a time. Okay weeks. Okay it’s been like two months. My SSD makes startup really fast so that’s not an issue, and I…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: Potions that let you relive life’s most bittersweet moments

If we could experience our favorite or most distressing emotions and memories by drinking a potion, what would the consequences be? Would we lose ourselves in a fog of our past? Or would this ability prove comforting and even useful? Would you want to live someone else’s emotional memories? Tell us your tale of these…

Graphite Alien chestburster explodes from an unsuspecting pencil

Apparently humans aren’t the only ones who have something to fear from Alien xenomorphs. deviantART user cerkahegyzo shows us what happens after a pencil has gestated an Alien to its bursting stage. In addition to this wonderfully intricate carving, cerkahegyzo has several other inspired pencil sculptures, including a few that reimagine pencils as medieval weapons.…

The Galaxy S IV’s New Oldness, Making Power from Nuclear Waste, Nerd Jokes, And More

This week we finally got a glimpse of the long-awaited Samsung Galaxy S IV in all its glory(?), and salivated all over its competitor, the HTC One. On top of that, we learned all about how the future of nuclear power is nuclear waste, saw mind-bending water-bending tricks, collected some incredible home theaters and one-man…

Sculptures of dying people double as wondrous star projectors

Mihoko Ogaki‘s sculpture installations are a poetic interpretation of Carl Sagan’s assertion that we’re all made of star stuff. She sculpts dead and dying figures that beam pinpoints of light from the inside, turning them into the origins of glorious galaxies at the moment of death. Ogaki’s work often reflects a fascination with both the…

Sheesh! Kermit the Frog finds himself trapped in Carbonite

When Frog Solo joined the Rebellion against the Empire and the evil Animal Vader, he had to know there would be consequences. James Hance, the artist behind so many sweet and expected Star Wars mashups, created a life-sized sculpture of our favorite froggy stage manager as the trapped Han Solo. It’s worth checking out the…

Grimm reveals the many, many reasons psychotic werewolves shouldn’t rob banks

Last night’s episode of Grimm wasn’t as strong as last week’s mid season premiere, but I don’t mean that as a criticism. Premieres and finales always get the good stuff; it’s the in-between episodes where a show proves its worth. And while I may have a nitpick or two, I have no real complaints about…

Thieves Steal Entire Bridge, The Whole Bridge, For Scrap Metal

The days of casually crossing a creek are over if you live in the Gölçük district of Kocaeli province in western Turkey. Which maybe you don’t. But the point is that someone stole a 22-ton, 82-foot-long bridge from there. It’s just gone. Police suspect that the bridge was cut into sections and removed on a…

What futurists in 1988 imagined Los Angeles would be like in 2013

With the year 2013 a quarter of a century away, the Los Angeles Times in 1988 asked 30 futurists and other experts what they thought life in their city would look like in 2013. They may have overshot the sophistication of our robots, but many of those predictions for 2013 have come true—or at least…

What if Fred Savage’s grandpa read him A Game of Thrones instead of The Princess Bride?

In The Princess Bride, Fred Savage’s grandfather cheers him up by reading a humorous tale of adventure and romance with a happy ending. But what if instead, Grandpa read him the much darker story of the battle for the Iron Throne? Season/Book One spoilers. [via Tor]

The Human Cells We Use For Research Are Kind of A Genetic Disaster

It turns out that the human cells scientists have studied the most and used in research for more than 60 years have some unexpected and pretty intense genetic mutations. Good thing they weren’t used as part of 60,000 published papers. They were? Oh geez. The cells, known as HeLa cells (pictured above), come from a…

Saturday Webcomic: Plume is a rollicking tale of supernatural revenge in the Old West

“My father once told me that revenge was like a plume of black smoke,” says Vesper Grey at the beginning of K. Lynn Smith’s Plume. “It seems tangible, but when you reach for it, you’re grasping nothing but air.” But that doesn’t stop Vesper from seeking revenge against a crew of artifact thieves who attack…

How to Not Get Ripped Off by Your Mechanic

Even if it doesn’t come with 470 HP and Wi-Fi connectivity, your car is the biggest and most expensive gadget you own. And unless you trade your vehicle in as often as your MacBook, keeping that ride in peak operating condition is absolutely vital to keeping repair costs down over its lifespan. https://gizmodo.com/hey-atlanta-let-us-buy-you-some-beer-and-give-you-a-s-5988876 That’s not…

Aperture R&D is like Better Off Ted set in the Portal universe

What went into designing all of those guilt-inducing turrets and malevolent AIs lurking in the Portal games? Wayside Creations‘ new web series Aperture R&D takes us deep into the bowels of the premiere mad science corporation and shows us what it takes to become Lab Team of the Month. Work is certainly more interesting—and more…