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The Great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in 2011 damaged over a million buildings in northeastern Japan. A century-old storehouse that barely survived has been redesigned into this gorgeous home— the Rebirth House, a symbol of both great architecture, and resilience. Ryo Matsui Architects, the firm behind the project, finished reconstruction on the Ibaraki prefecture-based home…
Sure, satellites can track storms and precipitation–but they can also measure snowfall on the ground. This amazing satellite image shows snow on the ground after this weekend’s record-breaking blizzard, which hit quite a few Midwestern states. The blueprint-style image above was taken yesterday by a weather satellite, the Suomi NPP, using the satellite’s VIIRS (Visible…
It’s not the most comprehensive look at the history of food but Mode’s video showcasing 100 years of dinner is really enjoyable to watch because it’s just pure fun to find out all the stuff, both delicious and horrific, that we used to put in our bodies. The video captures food trends pretty well—TV dinners,…
There’s a common misconception that tattoos are only a way to express your individuality (just like everyone else does), or only serve as loving tributes to moms. But they have practical medical applications too, especially now that circuit board temporary tattoos exist. Developed by Chaotic Moon Studios, which describes itself as a “creative technology studio,”…
It’s natural to think that outdoor gear is best enjoyed in the great outdoors. Heck, that’s what it’s designed for! But urban living sometimes demands rugged goods with innovative capabilities. You’d be surprised how handsome yet practical they can be, too. These goods also make great gifts. I’m not saying city dwellers should zip themselves…
A stretch of Vasquez Canyon Road in Santa Clarita has inexplicably lifted upwards over the course of just a few hours. Geologists are stumped. As CBS Los Angeles reports, it all started last Thursday, November 19, when motorists starting calling the California Highway Patrol about the road lifting and warping. Over the course of the…
April 1972: The fourth pair of astronauts to visit the moon were the most enthusiastic geologists, bringing home the largest sample ever collected from the moon. Apollo 16 launched on April 16, 1972 as the tenth crewed Apollo mission, and the fifth to attempt landing on the moon. Astronauts John W. Young and Charles M.…
We’ve known for a while that the delightful Steven Universe would be getting some long-awaited merchandise, and now we have our first look at it: four glorious little Pop! Vinyls from Funko. They’re so adorable, we just want to shove as many of them into our Cheeseburger Backpacks as possible. https://gizmodo.com/excellent-news-steven-universe-is-finally-getting-the-1735179421 Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl and…
Lightsabers are dangerous as hell. If I had access to one in this here real life, I’d be legless, armless, headless, and torsoless in less than 5 minutes. Not even kidding. Even people who know how to use lightsabers get their body parts laser chopped off. Check out this compilation of all the amputations in…
The likes of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Dropbox, and Box are falling over themselves to offer you straightforward cloud storage and syncing services. If you’ve signed up for two or three of these apps, then you can easily combine them to create extra online copies of your files, just in case one of them goes down…
When you get a shot of vitamin B12, you’re also getting traces of cyanide in the mix–although it would be equally accurate to say that there’s artificial B12 in your antidote to cyanide. A weird trick of biochemistry causes a chemical to catch and release cyanide, depending on the conditions. So you will probably take…
Plastic injection molding might be a modern manufacturing marvel, but there’s still an undeniable appeal to good old lumber. So if you’re looking to introduce a little one to the joy of transforming robots, these wooden WooBots are a gorgeous alternative to mass-produced plastic. Available in five different models including a car, truck, bus, fighter…
This year’s Galaxy S6 smartphone was a first for Samsung in many ways. It was the first phone to truly take on the iPhone in terms of design, and also the first to ditch two of its most prominent features—a removable battery and microSD card. Now, one of them might be making a comeback on…
Hollywood recycles plots and story lines all the time. The same actors and actresses and directors are put in movies over and over. And the same sets are used to film completely different movies. It’s an incestuous industry. Sometimes when you’re watching a movie and you can’t quite put your finger down on why a…
Last week, NBC and CNNMoney reports described a 24/7 “ISIS Help Desk,” staffed with devoted jihadis providing round-the-clock tech support for wannabe ISIS propagandists. The story was picked up and aggregated by news outlets. Their headlines are wholly inaccurate. While West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center did release a report that described ISIS’s decentralized, multi-platform recruit…
How powerful was the Saturn rocket that boosted the Apollo missions into low Earth orbit? So powerful even the models for the Saturn rocket boosters produced hundreds of pounds of thrust for every engine. This Saturn I booster model was set up for tests in the Supersonic Wind Tunnel in 1960, simulating flight conditions to…
There is no weird dream quite like the one where a tow truck shaped into the visage of Chewbacca hauls away a car version of C-3PO. Wait, sorry, what? That’s real? You can buy an actual toy of that delirious dreamscape? Well. Huh. https://gizmodo.com/sorry-hot-wheels-we-prefer-these-wacky-star-wars-die-1706749565 We loved the first series of Tomica’s bizarre Star Wars die-cast…
There’s a good chance your brain’s already checked out on this shortened work week. But if you can still muster a thought process or two, you won’t be disappointed by Bill Hammack’s—aka engineerguy’s—latest video which explains the brilliant engineering behind the process of plastic injection molding. If you take a quick look around your desk,…
Russian authorities have announced that one of its Su-24 strike jets has “crashed on Syrian territory, having been hit from the ground” while flying at 20,000 feet. In a series of tweets, Russia’s defence ministry explained that “at all times, the SU-24 was exclusively over the territory of Syria … The SU-24 was at 6000…
Electricity doesn’t grow on trees—but it can, perhaps, be generated with their help. A new energy recovery system harnesses electrons from the microorganisms imparted into soil by growing plants, producing enough electricity to power a lamp. The technology, developed by researchers at the Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología (UTEC), uses a metallic grid to capture…
