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An Idiot Counterfeiter Returned His Printer with a Sheet of Fake Hundreds Inside

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the book; if you can’t earn money, why not make it? With your printer. Now that doesn’t actually work. Making counterfeit cash is really hard. But that won’t keep idiots from trying it, apparently. A Wisconsin man took it a step further though, by trying to return his…

Massive sandcastle Minas Tirith awaits the approaching onslaught of waves

Artist Joseph Alvernaz created this 10-foot-tall by 12-foot-wide replica of Gondor’s capital city without adhesives, using only sand, water, and a single brace to reinforce the top tower. (Birds kept hitting it.) He says this was his first major sand sculpture, but it’s impressive enough that we can almost believe it’s real at sunset: He…

“The Trouble with Tribbles” retold to the tune of Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble”

Josh Millard wrote and performed this musical retelling of the classic Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” with a little help from Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble.” Let “I Knew You Were Tribbles” serve as a warning to anyone who brings furry little breeders home without getting their full backstory. [via Neatorama]

China’s Internet Architecture Gives the Rest of Us a Run for Our Money

In a lot of ways, China’s Internet isn’t the sort of Internet you want to be using. It’s ridiculously censored, for example. But in other ways, it’s way better than the stuff we have over here. According to a recent report from the New England Complex Systems Institute, China’s ‘net infrastructure is head and shoulders…

Check out the astonishing artwork from Mondo’s Game of Thrones gallery show

Earlier this week, we showed you the two posters Mondo released as part of their SXSW Game of Thrones gallery show. Now Mondo has opened the show to the public, giving us a peek at how their favorite artists interpret Game of Thrones. https://gizmodo.com/mondos-first-two-game-of-thrones-posters-are-brilliant-5989535 Jason Edmiston‘s holy “Mother of Dragons” seems to be the scene-stealer…

What’s the Most Important App on Your Phone Right Now?

Everyone has at least one. Stock apps and don’t count; you get those for free. You are given a brand new phone of your choice running its stock OS, and you are allowed to install one and only one app on it. What do you pick? Image by Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock

You can now pre-order the Piston Steam Box for $900. That’s $100 off its (eventual) retail price.

Octopus chandeliers add the right touch of tentacle to any decor

Cephalopod aficionados looking to spice up their lighting should look to Adam Wallacavage’s Octopus Chandeliers. His unusual light fixtures hold up their bulbs with sucker-bearing tentacles that come in a variety of colors and levels of kitsch. What’s especially interesting about looking through Wallacavage’s collection of chandeliers is how he achieves such different effects by…

Which Encryption Apps Are Strong Enough to Help You Take Down a Government?

It seems like these days I can’t eat breakfast without reading about some new encryption app that will (supposedly) revolutionize our communications — while making tyrannical regimes fall like cheap confetti. This is exciting stuff, and I want to believe. After all, I’ve spent a lot of my professional life working on crypto, and it’s…

Crowdfund an energy-harnessing soccer ball and a series based on the fantasy short The Reward

We went gaga for the short fantasy buddy film The Reward, and now the creators are looking to turn it into a full series, with a little crowdfunding help. You can also help fund a soccer ball generator that’s helping bring light to people in resource-poor regions, and a fantasy adventure comic about adventurers searching…

Marvel Project Gamma: Comic Books Just Got Their Own Soundtracks

Marvel’s new Project Gamma is the answer to a pretty simple question: What if comics had their own soundtracks? Simply, Project Gamma adds music to comics. But not like a standard soundtrack (Marvel calls it “adaptive audio” and compares it to a score, actually). It adds musical elements and occasionally sound effects as you turn…

Ain’t no Firefox coming back to iOS anytime soon. Sorry! [CNET]

Joss Whedon explains why he brought Agent Coulson back to life for S.H.I.E.L.D.

We’re amped that Clark Gregg will be reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson on Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D.. But why, after the events of The Avengers, did Whedon decide to bring back a character who was busy being dead? It’s because Whedon felt Gregg was the perfect guy to represent the Marvel Universe’s non-superpowered heroes.…

Striking paintings combine Japanese watercolor with the structures of the brain

After receiving his Phd in neuroscience at University of Pennsylvania, Greg Dunn decided to explore the structures of the brain and the rest of the nervous system through the medium of paint. Informed by Japanese sumi-e ink wash painting, Dunn paints meditative scenes of neurons the way many artists have painted twisting trees. Dunn’s paintings…

Of Course Some Bar Is Already Banning Google Glass

There have been plenty of parodies exploring the creepier possibilities of Google Glass, so it should come as no surprise that it’s already been banned in a Seattle bar, even though it’s not even out yet. The 5 Point Cafe posted on its Facebook wall earlier this week saying that it’d have no tolerance for…

In this comedic short, the ultimate music fan travels back in time to meet his favorite rock star

Benjamin Hewson is a wealthy genius who wants just one thing in life: to meet his idol, rock god Jonny Murtagh. So he travels back from the year 2330 to meet Jonny before he was famous and witness his meteoric rise. But the past—and Jonny—aren’t quite what Benjamin expected, and he wonders, could his presence…

Go Get Your 7.39 GB of Free SXSW Music

There’s a lot of tech stuff going down at SXSW between the talking shoes and the projection-effect pool tables and whathaveyou, but at the end of the day, music is still a huge part. A 7.39 GB part. And you can go grab it all for free right now. https://gizmodo.com/googles-got-a-talking-shoe-because-wearable-computing-5989725 For the ninth year running,…

Bees love caffeine just as much as we do

Countless people — myself very much included — can’t get through the day without regular intake of coffee, soda, and other caffeinated drinks. Now it turns out bees love the stuff too… and it’s actually good for them. Plants typically use caffeine as a defense mechanism. In high enough quantities, caffeine is toxic to some…

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar has a release date

We still don’t know much about Christopher Nolan’s wormhole traveling film Interstellar, but the movie already has a release date. According to a press releas from Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, which are co-producing and jointly distributing the film, Interstellar will hit theaters and IMAX on November 7, 2014. The press release adds, “The…

Rare binary stars help astronomers measure our place in the universe

We know that the Milky Way is surrounded by an array of satellite galaxies, the largest of which is the rather aptly named Large Magellanic Cloud. But figuring out exactly how far away our cosmic neighbor is has proved fiendishly difficult. This isn’t simply an accounting problem — fixing a precise measurement of the distance…