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Skitch Founder Admits That Skitch 2.0 Is a Catastrophe

When Evernote pushed out Skitch version 2.0, a lot of users were pissed that some of the screenshot app’s popular features had been pared down. Two months later, many old-school Skitch users are refusing to come back, so Skitch co-founder and chief designer Keith Lang has posted an admission that Skitch really screwed up. When…

Amazing, Experimental Science Gifts that You Can Make or Buy

Giving science gifts is relatively hard. There are some gifts which are fun enough, but have no educational or scientific value whatsoever. Other gifts are so soaked in pure education that they’re as joyless as study guides. Here, we’ve got the best of both worlds — the most awesomely fun and educational science gifts to…

This Delicious Lego Turkey Platter Will Feed No One on Thanksgiving

Tomorrow, you could spend six hours cooking a stuffed 18-pound turkey for a bunch of ungrateful family members. Ugh but so much waiting—not to mention the tedious preparation. Instead, spend considerably less time on following the step-by-step instructions for this 102-piece Lego build just posted by international man of bricks Chris McVeigh. Just, you know,…

Facebook Is About To Send One Billion Emails

Billion, with a B. An email to every single one of its users—so actually a little over a billion at this point. In other words, one seventh of the entire Earth’s population is getting hit with one message. The blast—the largest email dispatch Facebook has ever sent out in its history, and certainly one of…

San Francisco Approves Tiny Apartments For Normal-Sized People With Tinier Budgets

In a triumphant victory for the producers of Hoarders, the city of San Francisco gave developers the go-ahead on Tuesday to enter a trial run of 375 “micro-apartments.” At 220-square-feet, these Lilliputian dream homes were planned with the utmost efficiency in mind — space-saving hydraulic furniture, included — in order to follow the Board’s stipulations:…

Your kids will probably be better people if you take them to see Rise of the Guardians

Rise of the Guardians isn’t the best kids’ movie of the year. It might or might not be in the top five. But it’s a really neat, uplifting film that actually radiates sincerity about its messages of imagination and heroism. And that sincerity counts for a lot: Your kids will probably grow up to be…

Sparrow for iPhone just got iPhone 5 support and can send Passbook files right to the Passbook app. [Sparrow]

Every Ship’s Stateroom Should Have a Quarterdeck Striker

This fascinating timepiece, dubbed the Quarderdeck Striker, is an electromechanical marvel designed and hand-built by John Hilgenberg, inventor of the air-driven Pneumachron. It is a mechanical clock at heart—just look at all the wooden gears—but its functionality is supplemented with electric servos that drive the rolling odometer time display, the power-maintaining winding mechanism (which Hilgenberg…

Sony to Most People With DSLRs: You Are a Bunch of Imbeciles

Sony is trying to sell their new Nex e-mount camera by telling most DSLR users that they are dumb and stupid and clueless. According to their data, two thirds of all DSLRs users never take their camera out of the full-auto mode. And almost three quarters admit they purchased it “for fun” and “family snapshots.”…

The Best Gifts for Action Figure Addicts and Collectors of Collectibles

Buying gifts for toy collectors is always hard. Even if you can decipher what they want – never easy when the tiniest of variations can turn one toy into trash, and another into treasure – their choices are sometimes impossible to find. Still, there is hope! Here are 20 toys that will make awesome gifts…

A children’s anime series with rainbow-colored, gut-wrenching lessons in ethical philosophy

One of the classic kids’ anime shows that made its way across the Pacific was Monkey Magic, and it was full of fighting, jokes . . . and very deep lessons about philosophy and ethics. I love this one in particular, where Monkey meets Buddha, and learns that he is but a puny dot in…

Spill-Proof Sippy Cup Wine Glasses Solve Your Drinking Problem

Are you tired of getting drunk on wine during dinner and then spending the rest of the evening trying to keep your balance and not spilling your libations everywhere? Well there’s now a simple solution to that problem that doesn’t require 12 time-consuming steps. These $15 Vino2Go wine glasses look like sophisticated stemwear, but are…

Is this what students in Louisiana are learning about evolution?

Earlier this week, The New Star published an article questioning the way Louisiana goes about its funding of nonpublic schools. According to the state’s constitution, all nonpublic schools must certify that it has “curriculum or specialized course of study of quality at least equal to that prescribed for similar public schools.” This has prompted some…

How Long Does it Take to Cook a Turkey With the Most Powerful Flashlights in the World?

Wicked Lasers’ $200 torch beams out 4100 lumens of blinding light. That’s very intense light! From the video above, it would appear six of the flashlights can cook a whole turkey in about 2.5 hours. Considering a turkey takes 20-minutes a pound in the oven, that’s incredible! In fact, it’s actually kind of unbelievable, so…

Thanksgiving Onion Rings Get More Mouth Watering With Math

There’s no better topping for a green bean casserole than crispy fried onions. But when you’re serving up a matherole, you need something more cerebral as a garnish. And Vihart has just the thing with a recipe for borromean onion rings. https://gizmodo.com/a-green-bean-matherole-sounds-deliciously-educational-5962105 Each serving is like three onion rings in one, but the mathematical magic…

The Onion Explains Social Media More Accurately Than Anyone Has Before

The Onion’s TED parody series rolls on, with what may be the best—and most scathing—round yet. The target this time? Social media, a joyous place where ideas are a waste of time, and talent is irrelevant. https://gizmodo.com/the-onion-s-ted-talk-parodies-keep-getting-better-and-5956248 Sounds about right to us. Oh by the way, could you be a doll and share this on…

Science Fiction and Fantasy Books That Make Great Holiday Gifts

There’s nothing better than spending the holidays buried in a fantastic new book. Want to help your friends and family escape for the holidays using nothing more than their minds? We’ve got some terrific suggestions for gift books and sets that will light your loved ones’ imaginations on fire. We’ve focused here on books published…

Vacuum Bots Just Got Way Smarter Than Your Roomba

The Roomba’s autonomous cleaning routines changed vacuuming forever since it could be just left to run and eventually would clean almost every inch of your home. But its pseudo-random approach takes a while to be effective, so Sharp’s new Cocorobo line lets you map out a room and plan a custom route for more efficient…

Video shows how Blood and Chrome recreated BSG sets using “90 percent greenscreen”

Check out a behind-the-scenes look at the Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood & Chrome, exclusively on io9. Syfy’s BSG series included a hefty amount of FX work — but now, Blood & Chrome is almost entirely green screen. It’s completely insane to watch them putting this together. Check out how they built future world ski resorts…

“If It Hadn’t Been for Those Kids”: Red Dawn, Rebooted

All apocalyptic stories are about wish fulfillment to some extent. But Red Dawn, opening today, is the purest jolt of wish-fulfillment I’ve seen in ages, about the fall of America and the rise of some plucky kids who Suck It Up and Do What Must Be Done. This is an action movie so ridiculous, it…