Tech News

SpY, the same street artist who brought us this matrix of CCTV cameras, recently finished a new piece in Lausanne, Switzerland. By hanging a giant glowing moon in the first quarter—a waxing crescent—from an industrial crane, he gave a construction site its own celestial body. [SpY]

Meanest wife ever forces husband to sell his 661-lb Lego collection

The Local reports that a Swedish Lego enthusiast recently put up an advertisement selling his entire 300 kg Lego collection for $11,500. He claims he’s selling his massive cache of bricks to save his marriage. Allegedly his “old bag” of a wife gave him an ultimatum: “Get this shit out” or it’s over. In the…

EuroScience, the Science in the EuroVision Song Contest

Since 1956, European nations have been participating in EuroVision, a live, televised competition for the best musical performance. Yesterday’s competition in Copenhagen was a surprisingly science-heavy lineup of music, for a sufficiently arm-waving definition of science. If you’re willing to indulge in some exuberant hand-waving along to the music, read on for the most science-reliant…

Retweet Your Mom Today

It’s Mothers Day! You should call the woman who gave birth to you! But don’t stop there, give her the gift that will warm her heart and everyone else’s: a retweet. Image by NotarYES/Shutterstock https://gizmodo.com/what-are-moms-up-to-on-twitter-1574189758

Parrot’s New Bebop Drone Wants to Be Your Eyes in the Skies

Thanks to the the FAA’s recent decision to allow civilian drones into public airspace, the skies above us could soon be swarming with helpful robo-fliers. To that end, Parrot’s newest model acts as a personal aerial surveillance system—albeit for only 12 minutes at a time. The new Bebop Drone is all sorts of awesome. Designed…

In 1989, the Car of the Future Was Equipped With a Fax Machine

Job got you checking work emails even on your day off? Nostalgic for the pre-smartphone era? “When you left the office, you left work behind,” you muse, wistfully. Quit fooling yourself: 25 years ago, the sportscar-driving business boss couldn’t afford to be out of touch—as evidenced by this fax-machine-equipped Isuzu 4200R concept car from 1989.…

Cruise Ship Plays the Loudest Seven Nation Army You’ve Ever Heard

The 964-foot-long MSC Magnifica isn’t just a luxurious, $550 million cruise ship. It’s the world’s first 4,500 passenger musical instrument, and it rocked a slow, loooouuud rendition of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” at this weekend’s 825th Hamburg Port Anniversary in Germany. Talk about rocking the boat. With 300 ships and over a million…

SNL Hilariously Nails Mom Chain Emails

In honor of the women from whence we came, SNL aired an absolutely perfect Mother’s Day Game Show skit last night. But of all the mom-related jokes, none hit quite as close to home as ‘Which of These Emails Did I Send You?’. The winning answer? Fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd: all of them. Whether it’s…

Make Like Wile E. Coyote With These Adorable Firecracker Lamps

Wile E. Coyote never had much luck with the ACME Corporation’s seemingly infinite supply of wacky wares; poor guy couldn’t catch a break. If you are and always have been on Team Road Runner, these Firecracker Lamps are like a cheery, fully-functional update on this ol’ classic clunker. https://gizmodo.com/the-untold-legal-drama-of-coyote-v-acme-1498433624 Siberian designer Vladimir Ivanov was clearly…

The Futuristic Superhighways of 1964 Had Glow-in-the-Dark Roads

Glow-in-the-dark roads are finally a reality; at least in the Netherlands. But we’ve been waiting on this particular vision of the future for quite a while now — for over 50 years, in fact. https://gizmodo.com/glow-in-the-dark-roads-finally-exist-outside-of-hot-whe-1562937639 RCA ran this stunning illustration in a 1964 print ad touting its transistors. Companies have always loved positioning themselves alongside…

How to Calculate Pi with a Shotgun

We all know pi, at least the first three digits of it. If for some reason you forgot them though, there’s good news. All you need to get that knowledge back is some aluminum foil, ingenuity, and a shotgun. https://medium.com/p/c1eb776193ef Calculating pi with a shotgun is far from efficient, but what it lacks in practicality…

The UN Will Debate the Ethics of Killer Robots This Week

This week the United Nations will debate the role of so-called “killer robots” on the battlefield — so called, because robots are currently killing humans on the battlefield, and the next steps in their robo-evolution will have serious consequences for the future of war. The meeting is taking place as part of the UN Convention…

The Easy Trick to Drastically Increase the Life of Your Razor Blades

Today I found out how to drastically increase the life of your shaver razor blades, such as Gillette or Schick brand razors. This trick is incredibly simple and just as incredibly effective. It will also save you a nice chunk of change over time and make all your dreams come true. For instance, Gillette Fusion…

Today marks the first day of service for Denver’s brand new downtown bus and rail concourse built in front of the old Beaux Arts Union Station. The concourse officially opened to public view on Friday in a ceremony featuring U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. Designed by SOM, the station is part of a much…

How Underground Fires Helped Shape the Landscape of the American West

The most famous coal seam fire smolders underneath Centralia, Pennsylvania, but thousands of such underground fires burn all over the world. In the American West, where subterranean coal still burn, ancient conflagrations created the red-inflected landscape we see today. Gizmodo took a look at the striking phenomenon of underground fires a few months ago, highlighting…

What Mystery Creature Left These 190-Million-Year-Old Footprints?

190 million years ago, something scampered across the desert sands that today straddle Colorado and Utah. The footprints were fossilized, recording the trace motions of a creature long gone by. What left these footprints? The scale bar is in centimeters (2.54 cm = 1 inch). Image credit: National Park Service This is a photograph from…

We’ve Thrown Microscopic Plastic Confetti Into Every Last Inch of Ocean

The guys from One Minute Science are back with a particularly grim explainer this weekend: Why just about every cubic foot of ocean is embedded with tiny bits of plastic. You’ve heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, right? This is on a different scale—it’s even less visible, and just as insidious. https://gizmodo.com/theres-garbage-in-the-deepest-most-remote-parts-of-the-1570303385 As the…

A Glimpse Of How We’ll Use Our Land In 2051

It’s the year 2051. Welcome to a view of the American landscape. Urban areas have swollen with people. Range and pasturelands have shrunk. There’s a bit more forest than there was back in 2014, a result of economic incentives driving more timber production. These are a few of the predictions of a new study on…

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: The Stuff

Did you bring the stuff? Check out the rest of this week’s top comedy videos over on SplitSider. In case you missed it, here’s all the big comedy stuff that happened this week: The major networks started putting together their fall schedules, and in the process, canceled a whole ton of comedies. ABC got rid…

Geeking Out on the 20th Anniversary of Weezer’s The Blue Album

Buckle that nostalgia-seatbelt: Weezer’s debut, The Blue Album, came out 20 years ago today. And in the two decades since, being geeky has gone from socially crippling to almost cool. Listening back through this album, it’s easy to understand why Weezer boomed when they did. The songs are so damned catchy and energetic, you can’t…