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If there’s one thing on Earth we don’t know enough about, it’s the ocean. We’ve only mapped around five percent of the seafloor, and two-thirds of the ocean’s animal species might remain undiscovered. It shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re only now able to create detailed maps of the seafloor—but that doesn’t stop each new…
Tesla is bringing in a new leader for its human resources unit. Although the company hasn’t given a specific reason for the change, it comes amidst a flurry of complaints about workplace culture at Tesla’s California factory. Over the past few months, workers have reported an unusually high rate of injuries and incidents at the…
The best part of high school biology was the movies. Some of them basically amounted to weird close-up fetish porn, sure. Other high school biology videos were actually educational, including the only one that ever taught me anything about the human cell, Inner Life of a Cell. But a new video puts them all to…
In a splashy reveal at Grand Central Station on Wednesday, DJI announced the Spark, a pint-sized camera drone that’s been rumored for weeks. The company says it’s about the size and weight of a soda can. You can also control it with the wave of a hand. This is an interesting—albeit unoriginal—promise. A new suite…
Do you ever get sad? I mean, like, really sad about the state of the world? Earth can be a pretty depressing place to live these days. But if you ever need a pick-me-up, might I suggest watching some videos of whales blowing rainbows? Whales blowing rainbows ain’t so bad, is it? Look at that…
There’s an evolutionary arms race going on in the insect world. Except rather than fighting over weapons and weapons defenses, these beetles are evolving the craziest dicks and dick-defenses. Some male beetles are traumatic mates—like lions and some snakes, they’ve got spiky genitals meant to hurt females while boning. An international team of researchers wanted…
Despite the fact that he has become a meme several times over the course of his miserable life, Paul Ryan is apparently new to one of the most basic forms of internet expression: GIFs. During an interview today with detritus collector Mike Allen, Ryan talked about a lot of things that I did not bother…
Everybody flipped out last year when Lego Technic released a gorgeous Porsche 911 GT3 RS. But who would’ve guessed that an even more beautiful spectacle would be watching the 2,700-piece work of art participate in a crash test. Thanks to the German auto safety group ADAC and c’t magazine, you can behold said spectacle in…
Nutrition science rarely involves feeding people anything. It’s usually based on looking for correlations between questionnaire answers and people’s health. But somehow, it seems near impossible for folks to accurately report on what these (usually very easy to understand) scientific studies say without taking things that might be little more than coincidences as gospel. Gizmodo’s…
“Do not buy maps, buy stock in companies that print maps,” Dr. Paul Goble told a group at Los Alamos National Laboratory in November of 1992. Predictions are hard. And few people know that better than Dr. Goble, who worked for the US State Department during the 1980s. Goble was warning people that the end…
No, Hollywood isn’t planning a reboot of The Addams Family. This is a photo from earlier today when President Trump met Pope Francis at the Vatican. Needless to say, the pope doesn’t look too happy about the situation. But it’s nothing technology can’t fix. Twitter user Space Archaeology found a genius solution that the White…
On Tuesday, security research firm Checkpoint announced that its team had discovered a new vulnerability in numerous media players that allows a hacker to take full control of any device when a malicious subtitle file is used. The firm estimates 200 million people are potentially at risk. https://gizmodo.com/in-wannacrys-wake-a-new-rapidly-spreading-ransomware-a-1795385418 From Checkpoint’s alert: Our research reveals a…
This Tesla coil goes to 11. https://gizmodo.com/nanotubes-self-assemble-into-wires-that-absorb-power-wi-1771156028 A YouTuber going by the name nabzim has uploaded a video of himself playing a pretty gnarly little DIY Tesla coil amp and I have to say the results are not exactly what I expected. I guess they’re what I should’ve expected—the buzzing sound of electricity shifting between…
A couple of weeks ago, it was discovered that a significant number of anti-net neutrality comments on the FCC’s website were being fraudulently attributed to real people. The pro-net neutrality advocacy group Fight for the Future proceeded to set up a website to raise awareness of the problem and collect more evidence of the obvious…
Baleen whales (Mysticeti) are vacuums of the sea. The blue whale, which is one of 12 species of baleen whales, is the largest animal in the world—AKA the biggest sea vacuum. It fuels its 200-ton body by eating tiny crustaceans called krill, which get filtered through the blue whales’ baleen. New research suggests that over…
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has repurposed cellphone tracking technology typically used in criminal investigations to track down at least one immigrant for deportation, The Detroit News revealed last week. ICE’s controversial use of the surveillance technology has caught the eye of Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat who is now demanding answers from ICE…
Trump’s 2018 budget proposal is out, and unsurprisingly, the cuts are huge. Some anticipated crazy cuts to the United States Department of Agriculture’s social program. Those cuts still exist, of course—this is President Donald Trump, after all. But what the new budget really shows as far as agriculture goes is that the current administration wants…
Uber screwed up—big time—and now it has to pay. On Tuesday, the company copped to owing New York City drivers tens of millions of dollars due to miscalculated payments, according to a Wall Street Journal report. It’s the second time Uber has admitted to shortchanging drivers this year. According to Uber’s agreement with drivers, the…
When signing his March executive order to revise the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era policy measure to limit power plant carbon emissions, President Trump promised coal miners in attendance, “My administration is putting an end to the war on coal. We’re going to have clean coal, really clean coal.” Released Tuesday, Trump’s 2018 budget proposal…
Sean Hannity has hit a new low, but grasping the depths the Fox host is willing to go will take some explaining. On July 10 of last year a DNC staffer named Seth Rich was shot and killed near his home in Washington, DC, in an as-yet unsolved incident that police speculate was a botched…
