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Jumping off the edge of a cliff takes a lot of guts. But jumping off the edge of a cliff when low-lying clouds make it impossible to see what’s beneath you? That requires a whole other level of bravery—and maybe a little insanity. After all, a parachute will get you safely to the ground, but…
Why fight the crowds, wade through mud, and spend the night in an uncomfortable tent when Wicked Lasers has created a compact laser light show that syncs to your music, turning your living room into a music festival with all the comforts of home. Wicked Lasers has a long history of creating handheld, super-powered lasers…
The Swedish dynamite channel is everything you’d expect from the name—a place to watch a wacky Swede destroy things with high explosives. In its three months of existence, the channel has cemented its place in the proud genre of “man with device breaks things,” along with the slingshot guy, the hydraulic press guy, the guy…
Archaeologists working in Serbia have discovered tiny parchments of gold and silver inscribed with what appears to be a series of ancient curses. The curse tablets were found alongside human skeletons at an excavation site at the foot of a coal-fired power station in Kostolac in northeastern Serbia. Archaeologists led by Miomir Korać are currently…
We’ve been waiting four painful years for new MacBook Pros, and if you’ve been holding on to your dying machine in hopes that a refreshed line must be imminent, we’re sorry to inform you that you’re going to have to wait even longer. According to Bloomberg’s Apple sleuth Mark Gurman, the new MacBook Pros are…
The future is going to be genetically modified. That means the future could be disease-free with babies being designed in labs by parents who live in a world where aging has stopped all thanks to genetic engineering. Or the future might be something else entirely with state-mandated genetic engineering to turn citizens into super soldiers.…
You don’t necessarily need Photoshop or a desktop computer to employ eye-catching photo editing techniques. You just need your regular smartphone and a well-chosen app to go with it. Here are some of the best tricks you can do with the gadget in your pocket, with no expert training required. Cut people and objects out…
Professor Kokichi Sugihara is a wizard, but he doesn’t cast spells or pull rabbits out of hands. His brand of sorcery involves creating simple paper objects that look like they’re bending the fabric of space. In reality they’re just incredibly clever optical illusions, but it doesn’t take much to break the human brain. [YouTube via…
Dang. Chris Sacca, tech investor and noted Guy Who Throws Tantrums At Hamilton Shows, made some bad tweets, as tech investors often do. Let’s check em out. Wow! As normal people like you and me understand, being an olympic gold medal winner is a lot more difficult than coding an app. But, you may be…
Ugh. Technology can be stressful, am I right? Even though we’re living in the age of convenience (“internet of things,” et cetera, et cetera) some people want to get analog and abandon their smartphones. I’m totally OK with that! (Depending on my mood, I might even be a little jealous.) But much like “Why I’m…
Isn’t regulation a pain in the ass? Airbnb sure seems to think so. Both houses of the the New York State Legislature passed a bill that would fine New York City residents up to $7,500 for renting out their apartments on Airbnb. Even though it’s been illegal in New York City to rent out your…
Piltdown Man is one of the most famous scientific hoaxes in history. A new paper in Royal Society Open Science provides compelling evidence that there was just one forger, rather than many. Also, the bones used to create the fakes came from a single orang-utan specimen and at least two human skulls. “The people at…
Last week I happened upon a very bad tweet and it’s been haunting me ever since, filling me with a quiet and persistent rage I can only release through the art of the written word. From the deranged mind of Silicon Valley’s Balaji Srinivasan—member of the board of Andreessen Horowitz and CEO of some Bitcoin…
Someday, perhaps we will have a little space house all of our own, over whose white picket fence we can watch the sun(s) set into the red sky over our exoplanet ranch. Until then, these six new prototype deep space habitat designs that NASA just released will have to do. Six deep space habitat projects…
I’ve always thought that as long as no one died, all explosions were cool. Turns out I’m wrong. Very wrong. A sewage truck exploding on the street is a terrible thing because, well, shit flies everywhere. One second you’re waiting for the light to turn green in a pristine white SUV, and the next, you’re…
As the women’s synchronized diving teams took to the pool in Rio de Janeiro today, they were greeted by a strange sight. The diving pool had turned green overnight, while the neighboring water polo pool remained a crystal clear blue. This confused the Olympic organizers, media, and the internet profusely. Long story short: it’s most…
A lot of good and decent people like seltzer water. My friends like seltzer water, people I love dearly enjoy gulping down the fizzy drink that is sometimes flavored. I am here to deliver a devastating truth. Seltzer water is very bad. In fact, I would go as far as to say that seltzer water…
Ugh! Me so stupid! All I had to do was come up with some good ideas for Gizmodo’s Senior Week, and I went and fucked the whole thing up. The task was pretty simple: We were supposed to pitch the stories “we’ve always wanted to write” and spend the whole week “doing whatever the hell…
One of the best accounts to follow on Instagram belongs to the Transport Security Administration. It’s a never-ending list filled with photographic evidence that many people don’t understand basic rules of airline travel. However, over the weekend the TSA documented an atypical and horrifying discovery: a 3D-printed handgun with live rounds. Because they’re made of…
A Christian church in Sweden plans to deploy drones in parts of Iraq that are currently controlled by the Islamic terrorist group ISIS. But unlike the American military, they won’t be dropping bombs. The church plans to drop electronic Bibles. “The Bibles are the size of pill boxes and have a display. They require no…