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Saturn’s Great White Spot is a massive storm over a thousand miles wide

Just as the Northeast recovers from its major blizzard, Saturn has to upstage the whole thing with the reemergence of the Great White Spot, a massive storm system in the planet’s southern hemisphere that can be several thousand kilometers across. The Great White Spot is the lesser known, Saturnian equivalent of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 27

Those Annoying Promotional CDs Cost AOL a Ton of Money

Remember those annoying promotional CDs that AOL distributed in the 1990s? It felt like they were everywhere and apparently they weren’t cheap either. In fact, things like those discs may have cost AOL “about $35 per user.” This curious tidbit was revealed when someone inquired about the cost of the CDs on the popular question-and-answer…

Tech News Rosa Golijan Dec 27

Sonic’s Depressing New Gig: Charging Wiimotes

Sonic, that talented hedgehog you might remember for racing around at superhedgehog speeds or flamboyantly collecting golden rings, has a new line of work. Charging Wiimotes. God only knows where Tails has ended up. Yep, that’s Sonic atop Mad Catz’s new inductive Wiimote charger, throwing up the deuces but looking none too thrilled about his…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Dec 27

Carbon nanotubes will lift us to space

The idea of a ‘space elevator’ has been around since the late 1800s. Until now, there wasn’t a material strong enough to build it. Then carbon nanotubes stepped in. It’s official: everyone in the future will be made entirely out of carbon nanotubes. They may be able to cure cancer, they may be able to…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 27

Best and Worst Science Fiction/Fantasy Movies of 2010

This year’s best movies played with genres in ways that changed their audiences’ perceptions. Video-game movies, action movies, heist movies and superhero movies — they all had dazzling reinventions. Here are the 10 best and worst SF/fantasy movies of 2010. Best: 10. The Last Exorcism The “found footage” horror/disaster movie is fast becoming a cliche,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders Dec 27

An iPad App To Help Disabled Kids Speak

Victor Pauca has a genetic disorder that makes his speech development slower than other kids. So his father, Paul Pauca, along with his students at Wake Forest, made an iPhone and iPad app that helps Victor speak. It’s rather inspirational. The VerbalVictor app lets Paul—and other parents/caregivers—record phrases that are played back when Victor presses…

Tech News Jason Chen Dec 27

8mm App Is Basically Hipstamatic for iPhone Video

No need to be sheepish about it: your iPhone shots look cooler after you run them through some scratchy vintage filters. That’s just the way it is! And now, with 8mm, you can do the same thing your iPhone video. Cribbing Hipstamtic’s camera within a camera UI, 8mm lets you shoot clips with a handful…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Dec 27

These Simple Conductive Pins Make Any Winter Gloves Touchscreen-Friendly

Problem: Cold weather necessitates winter gloves, which keep you from fawning your favorite touchscreen gadgets as you numbly stumble to and fro. Solution: Digits. A $14 set of four conductive pins that you can easily attach to any gloves’ fingertips. They’re genius! And they’ll keep you from holding your right glove between your chapped lips…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Dec 27

Behold the awesome power of the snowflake, magnified

The Electron Microscopy Unit has been photographing and studying the structure of snowflakes under an electron microscope. Now you can reap the benefits — check out this amazing gallery of the tiny kingdoms in each falling piece of snow. All of the images come from the Electron Microscopy Unit of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center,…

io9 Meredith Woerner Dec 27

Vargas Llosa: Fiction provides an escape, and makes the impossible possible

Peruvian writer and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in LiteratureMario Vargas Llosa, gave a moving Nobel Prize lecture, “In Praise of Reading and Fiction“, about the importance of fiction to his life and to humanity. Says Vargas Llosa: But thanks to literature, to the consciousness it shapes, the desires and longings it inspires, and…

io9 Biology in Science Fiction Dec 27

Monuments Under Construction Gallery

The Statue of Liberty under construction in France. [Oobject] The Gateway Arch, St. Louis, almost completed. [Oobject] The Disneyland Castle under construction. [Oobject] Mount Rushmore, minus a few famous faces. [Oobject] The Twin Towers under construction in New York City. [Oobject] An image of the now submerged side of the Hoover Dam. [Oobject] The NASA…

Tech News Christina Bonnington Dec 27

And the Winners of Our Holiday Photo Contest Are…

Recently we asked you to help us choose the winners for our Holiday Photo Contest and now we want to share the results of your votes. The winning photos are by Jonathan Meyers and Logan Edwards. Congratulations and enjoy your new Chrome OS notebooks, folks! https://gizmodo.com/we-need-you-to-help-us-decide-who-should-win-a-chrome-o-5717245 The winning photos are above, but if you want…

Social Media Rosa Golijan Dec 27

Neanderthals ate their fruits and vegetables

One explanation for the extinction of our hominid cousins is that Neanderthals weren’t as smart about what foods they ate as our ancestors. But newly discovered Neanderthal teeth reveal a complex diet, mixing in fruits and vegetables with their meat. It’s easy to think of Neanderthals as pure hunters, only eating whatever they managed to…

io9 Alasdair Wilkins Dec 27

App of the Day: 360 Panorama for iPhone

360 Panorama’s a nifty app for shooting 360-degree images with your iPhone wherever you happen to be. It just got better with an update that lets friends view those panoramas by spinning their own gyroscopically-capable iPhones around wherever they are. What is it? 360 Panorama, iPhone, $1. A panorama photography app for the iPhone with…

Tech News Kyle VanHemert Dec 27

This Is China’s Secret Stealth Strike Fighter

Unlike their Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark—a copy of the Russian Sukhoi Su-33—the new Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter seems to be a copy of the American stealth fighters, with some lambda wings attached. It was secret. Not anymore. https://gizmodo.com/this-new-combat-jet-is-actually-a-cheapo-chinese-copy-5590796 The 70-feet Chengdu J-20 seems to use Russian 32,000-pound thrust 117S engines with vectoring abilities. It looks…

Tech News Jesus Diaz Dec 27

Time-lapse video condenses last night’s blizzard into 40 seconds

Last night’s blizzard was by no means the worst the East Coast’s ever weathered, but it’s definitely hypnotic to watch 20 hours of snow smushed into under a minute. [Michael Black]

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Dec 27

The Best of the Year in Space

It’s been a big year for the space sciences. The first privately-held spacecraft orbited our world, the blackest material in history was created, researchers expanded the list of possible sources of life threefold; and that was just in December. 1. Hubble Detects Mysterious Spaceship-Shaped Object Traveling at 11,000MPH – February 2nd Hubble has discovered a…

Space & Spaceflight Gizmodo Staff Dec 27

Solar-powered pants are now on the market

Is that a solar panel in your pants, or are you just happy to see . . . oh. It is a solar panel. Why do you need one? It’s a good question. Solar panels are generally used to heat, electrify, or move something. Pants are best if they don’t run off on their own.…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Dec 27

10 Classic Sci-Fi Toys

If you grew up in the 60s or 70s, you grew up with the futuristic creations of Gerry Anderson on the TV. These toy replicas of his designs are screaming to be zoomed across the kitchen table and into the air. It’s toy time! Check out toy robot commercials from the past to the present,…

Tech News Christina Bonnington Dec 27

Need Corporate-Level Security on Your Smartphone?

Don’t let your business flounder in insecurity—check out the business-optimized features of the DROID PRO by Motorola, and get to know the smartphone that meets employers’ and employees’ needs with corporate-level connectivity and security. The built-in security features of the DROID PRO from Motorola include AuthenTec IPSec multi-headed VPN integration, remote wipe of device and…

Tech News Gawkercreative Dec 27

Saturn’s Great White Spot is a massive storm over a thousand miles wide

Those Annoying Promotional CDs Cost AOL a Ton of Money

Sonic’s Depressing New Gig: Charging Wiimotes

Carbon nanotubes will lift us to space

Best and Worst Science Fiction/Fantasy Movies of 2010

An iPad App To Help Disabled Kids Speak

8mm App Is Basically Hipstamatic for iPhone Video

These Simple Conductive Pins Make Any Winter Gloves Touchscreen-Friendly

Behold the awesome power of the snowflake, magnified

Vargas Llosa: Fiction provides an escape, and makes the impossible possible

Monuments Under Construction Gallery

And the Winners of Our Holiday Photo Contest Are…

Neanderthals ate their fruits and vegetables

App of the Day: 360 Panorama for iPhone

This Is China’s Secret Stealth Strike Fighter

Time-lapse video condenses last night’s blizzard into 40 seconds

The Best of the Year in Space

Solar-powered pants are now on the market

10 Classic Sci-Fi Toys

Need Corporate-Level Security on Your Smartphone?

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