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Though the massive 66-antenna ALMA array in Chile’s Atacama desert has been online since last October when the last of its 54, 12-meter radios was installed, the system has only been operating at a fraction of its potential resolution. But with the delicate delivery of 12 additional 7-meter radio dishes—the last of which just reached…
Many of us can sympathize with this fan palm in Pasadena, which in its roller-coaster youth apparently struggled to find its way. Trees of this species (Washingtonia robusta) don’t often have trouble deciding which way is up; they usually grow into the vertically oriented “skyduster palms” that punctuate L.A.’s horizontal skyline. But something disrupted this…
The biggest secret on the internet is that most of the world still doesn’t have access to it. But while a year after launch there’s still the possibility Google’s Project Loon balloons may fall on you, it looks like they could actually be the most viable way to enable the 61 percent of humans without…
A new lighting technology that uses a special blend of LEDs and nanoparticle coatings to recreate the concept of Rayleigh scattering—the process that makes the sky appear blue—is currently being used at the Biennale in Venice to bring the Italian sky indoors. Z! Zingonia, Mon Amour is an exhibition at this year’s architecture-focused La Biennale…
There’s a new weapon in the war on lost—or escaped—charging cables. Nomad Goods, who’ve already come up with a clever way to keep a charging cable on you at all times, has just revealed its new NomadClip which is, in a way, like a handcuff preventing your Lightning or microUSB charging cable from going missing.…
For the special effects nerd in me this was the coolest scene in yesterday’s Game of Thrones’ finale. Not because it was particularly brilliant, but because it reminded me of Ray Harryhausen and his skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts. WARNING: THIS CLIP CONTAINS A MAJOR SPOILER. I found myself cheering and going “wow, this…
Earlier this week, a computer program passed the Turing Test for the first time in a controversial win for chatbots everywhere. Actor Robert Llewellyn was one of the judges for the test, and he gave Gizmodo an inside look at the strange experience of thinking a computer program was a real live boy. https://gizmodo.com/how-big-a-deal-is-that-turing-test-win-1588011992 Llewellyn…
Internet Explorer rolled out a developer version today, and among the goodies hidden inside is support for the Xbox 360 controller (and hopefully also the superior Xbox One one). Controller-based webgames could be a fun reason to pick up IE again. For a little while at least.
Best Buy today is taking $100 off several SKUs from the current generation of MacBook Airs, bringing the cost of a baseline 11″ model all the way down to $800. If you have access to a .edu email address, you can take an additional $150 off as well. $250 off a Mac is pretty much…
In disaster-relief situations, every minute matters—as does every pound and inch. Because when thousands of people have been suddenly left homeless, you can’t just build new houses overnight. You can, however, set up one of these origami-like shelters in less than two minutes. The descriptively named Compact Shelter is due to hit the market this…
I love the design of this tree house created by architectural firm Farrow for an eco resort in the middle of a protected Canadian forest. A floating ship—it is suspended from the tree, not nailed to it—that can fly to space at any given time. Inside it is beautiful too. I’d love my entire house…
If you’re like me, you’ve spent countless hours surfing IkeaHackers, where Ikea fans send in their mods and hacks. You’ve also probably spent money at Ikea thanks to the site, which has inspired a DIY fervor among its fans. Which is why Ikea shutting down IkeaHackers this weekend over trademark claims is beyond boneheaded. IkeaHackers…
Watch extreme athlete Jaws Szczęki tackle this very narrow and difficult mountain bike route in the French Alps. Zero room for error. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
For more than 40 years, the Milan anti-tank missile launcher has been a mainstay of the French army. But in today’s urban combat scenarios, this venerable launcher has become outdated. That’s why, beginning in 2017, French fighting forces will field an entirely new weapon system, one purpose-built for modern warfare. It’s called the MMP (Missile…
Because battery technology still relatively sucks, electric vehicles like buses that have to run all day long usually stay tethered to a spiderweb of overhead cables. But as an alternative to that costly infrastructure, researchers at the EPFL have developed an electric bus that can recharge itself at every stop in as little as 15…
Prometheus and Pandora are a tag-team of moons shaping Saturn’s F-ring. As Prometheus passes through the ring, it gouges a gore in the ring, drawing the material out as a streamer as the moon exits the ring. https://gizmodo.com/glittering-trails-of-giant-snowballs-seen-in-weirdest-r-5905062 Saturn’s sunlit rings as observed by the Cassini spacecraft in visible light on February 11th, 2014. Scale…
Some of the best ideas are also the simplest. And there are few things more simple than SoundCloud, which in its seven year existence has sneakily become one of the best things online. How’d it get there? Slowly, surely, and with a cadre of artists as diverse as the internet itself. SoundCloud is to music…
Do you know how many file types Chrome, Firefox, Safari et al can handle? It’s probably more than you think, and if you need to quickly view a file—be it a PDF, MP3 or photo—then you can use your Web browser for the job. You don’t have to wait for iTunes or Photoshop to kick…
This is truly hilarious: Gal Volinez got Britney Spears’ Work Bitch video and replaced the pop singer with himself doing the same dance moves. Volinez first filmed himself doing the choreography under different backgrounds, then used a video compositing program to crop and map that video over the pop diva’s. SPLOID is a new blog…
Like it or not, most sound systems don’t exactly blend into your home’s decor. You can try buying a pair of speakers in a matching tint, or mount it near the ceiling so it’s less obvious, but they rarely are. Phonon’s Kamone could be your safest bet. It looks like a houseplant, but it actually…
