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No, the space-based Solar Dynamics Observatory isn’t on the fritz—it was actually instructed to make this flip while snapping pics of the Sun. It might sound like NASA took this thing out for a joy ride, but there’s a very good reason for the evasive maneuver. Since 2010, the SDO has been dutifully studying the…
A conservation biologist has come up with a novel method for protecting cattle from being hunted by African lions: paint eyes on their butts. The lions will think their intended prey has seen them and will move on, since they’ve lost the element of surprise. This bit of psychological trickery has been dubbed “iCow” by…
The latest addition to Astonishing Studio’s line of “sets Lego should really be making” is a miniature Pizza Hut that dispenses personal pan pizzas after you feed it five dollars using a working currency slot. Imagine having pizza on-demand at your desk at all times, suddenly you’ll look forward to going to work. Because it’s…
Watch the cityscape of Hong Kong mirror itself in this short time lapse, The Allegory of the Cave by Visual Suspect. It’s break-your-eye-balls stunning as you try to track the movement of what you’re looking at. Hong Kong is famous for its densely packed buildings so seeing the city and its reflection in the same…
Members of Congress are looking to create an encryption commission that would “get the answers we need” on the issue of encryption and digital security. This is a farce. In an act of bipartisan showmanship, Senator Mark Warner and Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul are seeking to create a commission that…
Smartphones and tablets are being used more frequently in the battlefield, and that means that battery power is more important than ever. Soldiers often carry spare battery chargers in the 90-pound combat packs they carry into war zones, but the batteries are often lost or broken. BAE Systems wants to help lighten the load with…
Now its fourth installment, Randall Munroe’s XKCD Phone series is superb satire on the ludicrous world of smartphone rumors. Following One, Two, and Three, the XKCD Phone Four gives fans what they’ve been craving—headphone jacks, lots of headphones jacks. Oh, and wings because wings are cool. [XKCD]
Even the most die-hard Nintendo fanboys could be forgiven for not knowing about the 64DD. The 64DD was a magnetic drive that snapped onto the bottom of the Nintendo 64, slated to run bigger, rewritable games, and give the massively popular console internet connectivity. After four years of development delays the 64DD finally launched in…
Ever wonder what a hot journalistic exclusive looked like in 1919? Well, you’re looking at it. Not just a pair of hands—it’s the only authentic photograph of Mr. [Thomas] Edison’s hands ever taken publisht here for the first time. At least that’s what the December 1919 issue of Electrical Experimenter magazine said. Why was a…
I’ll take an unagi roll, some tuna nigiri, and a side of lies, please. The dab of spicy green paste that accompanies your sushi may go by the name wasabi, but it’s actually something else entirely. What we call wasabi is almost always just a mix of horseradish, mustard, and a bit of green dye.…
There you are, just trying to get some alone time, watching your favorite fleshy, cinematic masterpiece, when BLAMMO! Someone walks in and catches you with your pants around your ankles and your face slobbered into slack-jawed oblivion. We’ve all been there. (Right?) One dude, however—Mike, the CEO of the Useless Duck Company, which also brought…
We finally got our hands on Motorola’s Moto Z Droid, the company’s take on the modular smartphone. Compared to most phones, this guy is weird—for several reasons. So let’s walk through them one by one. 1. No headphone jack Because this phone is so thin, Motorola had to do away with the headphone jack and…
Models produced by researchers at Imperial College London indicate that the ongoing Zika epidemic in parts of Latin American will likely burn itself out within three years. Finally, we have some good news to share about this dreadful disease. A new report published in Science concludes that the Zika epidemic will largely come to an…
UK design shop Dorothy has a new cutaway schematic print that reveals the inner working of the Minimoog analog synthesizer that’s been a distinctive part of electronic music for decades. But you won’t find transistors or electronic components inside—just 28 electronic music pioneers hidden like a Where’s Waldo book. https://gizmodo.com/can-you-spot-all-the-apple-gags-in-this-poster-of-a-198-1774953505 The three-color $40 lithograph print…
Earlier this week, Taiwanese hackers tricked ATMs into unloading piles of cash—more than $2 million dollars, in fact—without using a credit card. Instead of using a stolen credit card like most ATM thieves, these masked robbers used a computer program and walked away with piles of cash in a backpack. The hackers attacked 30 ATMs…
You probably have a second email address you use for blocking spam and other junk that you don’t want in your primary inbox—but that’s not the only reason you should set up an alternative address for yourself. Here are three more ways you can put a second email account to good use. 1) Save your…
Matthew Davis’ Arcus is officially the most impressive thing we’ve ever seen come out of a 3D printer. Sure, cheap prosthetics and replacement body parts are important uses of the technology, but this spinning rubber band blaster is what finally makes us want to put a 3D printer on our desks. Unlike most rubber band…
Dry Tortugas National Park is one of the darkest places on the east coast of the United States. So if you’re going to make a timelapse video of the night sky, that’s an ideal place to do so. Located around 70 miles west of Key West, this set of islands is home to a fort…
Hordes of gypsy moth caterpillars are currently ravaging parts of the Northeastern United States. Newly released images from space show the alarming damage being done to New England forests by these leaf-munching insects. Incredible as it may seem, insects and disease damage 45 times more forest area annually than wildfires. A single caterpillar or bug…
The saying “opposites attract” is a little too simple for my liking when it comes to relationships, but if two new studies are any indication, there might be some science behind that theory. Researchers at Charles University in the Czech Republic published a paper last month in Frontiers in Psychology that proposes single people are…
