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Is Amazon’s 8.9-Inch Kindle Fire HD a Flop?

You’ve probably heard by now that Amazon’s offering fifty bucks off every 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. But while that’s great news for you, it hints at disappointing early days for Amazon’s big-boy tablet. Is the 8.9-inch Fire HD dying on the vine? https://gizmodo.com/amazons-got-50-off-every-8-9-inch-kindle-fire-hd-today-5967084 It would seem unlikely at first; Amazon recently crowed that it had…

8 Incredible Nanotechnologies that Actually Exist Today

The trouble with the word “nanotechnology” is that it refers mostly to an idea from science fiction and futurism: nanoscopic, self-replicating machines that can turn any piece of matter into another piece of matter in seconds. These do not exist. In the real world, materials scientists, physicists, and biology researchers are working at the nanoscale…

Here’s a Map of All the Places London Got Bombed During the Blitz (Spoiler: Everywhere)

Previously only available for viewing at England’s National Archives, the 1940 census which documented every single bomb dropped on London from October 7th 1940 to June 6th 1941 is now accessible via an interactive website called Bomb Sight. And for those of us who’ve only ever read about the Blitz in history books, it’s a…

Google is offering $99 Chromebooks to public schools in the U.S. and you can help buy them as a gift. [Slashgear]

A Depressingly Accurate Portrayal of Your Home’s Wi-Fi Signal Strength

It seems like unless you’ve assembled a giant broadcast antenna in the middle of your house, or filled every room with a repeater, your Wi-Fi signal strength always sucks. Oh, except for that bizarre sweet spot in your backyard. But your neighbor’s router? It apparently has no trouble broadcasting halfway around the world at full…

This Custom Datacenter Rack Has 160 Mac Minis Crammed Inside of It

If you’re hankering for an Xserve, you’ve been out of luck since 2011. But there’s always an alternative. You can make your own by squeezing a whole 160 Mac Minis into a custom rack, for instance. That’s what a fellow named Steve did, and the results are staggering. Working with a vendor to get some…

Is the Pentagon developing a stealth drone?

The U.S. Air Force’s use of unmanned aerial drones is typically regarded as one of the more futuristic ways in which the Pentagon goes about its business in the 21st century. But as a recent article in Wired suggests, the era of the combat drone has only just begun. According to reports, Lockheed Martin and…

You Can Scavenge the Parts You Need To Build This Modular Bike

Even with the most expensive racing bikes there’s some assembly required. So taking that idea one step further, Tristan Kopp’s prodUSER cycle doesn’t even come with all the parts you need to build it. In order to fully assemble the bike, you’ll need to scavenge whatever you can find for the sections that make up…

I Want this Lego M&M Sorting Machine Right Now

People, I don’t know about you, but I always wanted a quick way to separate the blue M&Ms from the rest. This is perfect for that: a Lego Mindstorms machine that uses its color sensors to sort M&Ms by color. Reader Jan “Nxe1engineer” Gerritsen just sent me this message with the video above: Here is…

GMAIL APPEARS TO BE BACK EVERYBODY STOP PANICKING.

This Week’s TV: How do you feel about 20 years of Syfy?

Science fiction fans love to complain about Syfy’s mix of wrestling and paranormal reality TV — while obsessively watching shows like Warehouse 13 and Haven. But now at last, there’s a chance to get some perspective, by watching a two-hour celebration of Syfy’s 20th anniversary. But that’s not all this week’s TV offers — there…

10 Insults Hidden on Restaurant Receipts

Did you know that (approximately, maybe) one in three overweight women who walk into a restaurant get an electronic receipt with the words “FAT GIRLS” on it? Sadly, you probably do, because this sort of thing happens all the time these days. The most recent victims were these three women in Stockton, California. And the…

GMAIL APPEARS TO BE DOWN EVERYBODY PANIC.

Ex-Rad, the drug that takes all of your radiation worries away

You’re out wandering the wasteland when suddenly your Geiger counter stars going berserk. Oh no, you’ve been irradiated! No worries, the Department of Defense has you covered. Just pop some Ex-Rad pills and you’ll be fine. There have been decades of research on ways to protect humans from radiation, like lead and concrete shielding or…

This Mega-Password Cracker Laughs at Your Puny Old Algorithms

It doesn’t matter what your super-unguessable password is. The arms race between the security and hacker communities has produced a devastating new device capable of tearing through lesser password encryption protocols in as little as six minutes. In the days before the AES and SHA-256 security protocols, Microsoft systems relied on the LM (LAN Manager)…

Green Gifts for the Urban Gardener

It doesn’t matter whether the gardener on your holiday shopping list has a green thumb or black, works a quarter-acre plot or a windowsill herb planter, these tools will help make their victory garden a winner. Hey there! You might notice our gift guides look a little different this year. That’s because we’re hoping to…

More evidence that volcanoes killed the dinosaurs

Geologists and paleontologists have been kicking around an idea for the past several decades which threatens to overturn the scientific canon surrounding the demise of the dinosaurs. Rather than an asteroid impact, say a growing number of researchers, it was extreme volcanic activity that drove the dinosaurs to extinction. Critics complain that there isn’t enough…

Here’s a New Yorker Cover Made With Nothing But Emoji

When you think of The New Yorker, chances are that legions of emoji aren’t the first thing that come to mind. They will be after you’ve seen this full rendition of the magazine’s entire cover composed of nothing but. Dubbed “Eustace Emoji” after the magazine’s signature dandy, the cover cover was whipped up for a…

How Napster Brought the Recording Industry to Its Knees

Just over thirteen years ago, a novel file sharing service called Napster sent the recording industry into a tizzy. Suddenly nobody had to pay for music anymore thanks to the Internet. Napster co-founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker pretty much single-handedly spearheaded the file-sharing revolution that the recording and motion picture industries are only just…

Bane explains the importance of fiber in these Dark Knight Rises “outtakes”

There are two reasons why you should watch this Dark Knight Rises comedy video, despite the likelihood that you overdosed on them months ago: 1) it’s about Bane, but isn’t about Bane being unintelligible, and 2) hearing this guy’s uncanny impression of Tom Hardy’s weirdly genial supervillain worry about his henchmens’ dietary habits is hilariously…