Tech news, analysis, culture, business, security, and more
OpenSLL is screwed, and as a result we’ve got Heartbleed. But now a team of developers working to overhaul the code have deemed it beyond repair—and are instead creating an alternative, forked version. Ars Technica reports that Theo de Raadt and his team have been probing OpenSSL and found it in an absolute mess. In…
It’s like watching a ballerina dance. It’s like seeing an invisible hold never let go. It’s a multi-axis laser cutter with such pinpoint accuracy that it never moves from the spot it’s set at. It’s impossible. If these are our future robot overlords, it makes complete sense. Take me now. SPLOID is a new blog…
Hold tight. This new video shows Vince Reffet and Fred Fugen break a new World Record: by climbing to the very top of Burj Khalifa—the world’s tallest building—and then BASE jumping off it. The Burj Khalifa stands 2,722 ft tall above the Dubai cityscape it dominates, providing a tantalizing—and terrifying—challenge for BASE jumpers. Now, for…
The U.S. is unusual for all kinds of reasons, but one of the most perplexing is probably the way that phones acquired through carriers are locked to their specific network. Not for much longer, if Sprint is anything to go by. Tucked away in Sprint’s unlocking FAQs is a gem that we’ve been waiting for…
If reading The Giving Tree as a kid didn’t convince you that trees have feelings, just watch this unbelievable clip of a magical tree rising from the dead. Seriously! After getting chopped to pieces by a man with a chainsaw, the tree stands straight up as if it were never knocked down in the first…
You ever have that dream where your highschool football coach comes out on the field for a prep rally, looks you dead in the eye, and starts singing a dream pop melody from Baltimore-based indie rock duo Beach House—except he’s actually Ray Wise, star of Twin Peaks and Robocop? You will tonight. Beach House formed…
The toughest problems mankind has ever faced? The problems that late night infomercials promise to solve. Life has never been harder than it is in those clips. Everyday tasks become so frustrating that you need to pay 5 installments of $19.95 to get one—no, wait for a limited time only we’ll throw in an extra…
This picture—taken by airplane photographer Luigi Sani—shows a weird smooth hump on the central fuselage of an Eurofighter Typhoon. It’s one of its two new top Conformal Fuel Tanks, designed to further extend its range. They are now being tested by BAE Systems in wind tunnels. The Typhoon can already carry traditional CFTs under its…
Natural Bridges National Monument is the first national monument in Utah. In 2007, it also became the first recognized Dark Sky Park, earning a gold-star rating for extremely good visibility including air glow, the Milky Way, and faint meteors. Best of all, it’s only $3 per week to visit. Milky Way behind the Owachomo Bridge…
Anarchy. That’s what it’s like to drive on the streets of Ethiopia. There are no traffic lights, no painted lanes, no rules on who has the right of way, no fear of hitting the car in front of you, and basically no driver has any idea what the other driver is going to do until…
When it comes to the Northern countries, spring can be quite dangerous. Look at what happened when the frozen river started to melt in Sainte-Marie de Kent, New-Brunswick, Canada. They were lucky the bridge wasn’t completely obliterated—it just moved it about three or six feet. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…
NASA is concentrating on collecting photos for #GlobalSelfie this Earth Day, leaving the Earth Observatory solo to provide this cool shot of our Earth. Back in 2013, a space weather telescope caught a glimpse of home while tracking a passing comet. The Earth is, on average, one astronomical unit (AU) away from the sun. When…
The man who does double duty as frontman for both Blur and Gorillaz, Damon Albarn, is releasing a solo album called Everyday Robots next week. This is the beautiful video for his collaboration with Brian Eno, Heavy Seas of Love. It was shot entirely on an iPad by Albarn himself, in a totally lovely and…
Join us tomorrow at 2pm EST to chat about the fantastic book, Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson. The author will even be there to take your questions! https://gizmodo.com/introducing-the-paleofuture-book-club-1545042478
These microscopic photos of butterfly eggs by National Geographic, Prüftechnik Uri, and the University Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland are truly fascinating. I find them even more beautiful than the adult insects. Same goes for their incredible caterpillars. Above, a Dryas iulia butterfly egg. Below, the caterpillar and the adult butterfly. This is an Adonis blue…
The only downside to that giant web of plastic Hot Wheels tracks criss-crossing your child’s playroom is that they’re essentially a permanent installation. So if you find yourself visiting family and need some place for die-cast cars to cruise, this 164-foot roll of instant drag strip should fit the bill. The roll itself—made of paper…
Public transportation was slow to arrive in Los Angeles, a city whose farthest reaches were still accessible by foot in the 1870s. But as the city began to stretch out over the surrounding landscape, some form of regular, wheeled transportation around town became a practical necessity. And in the beginning, horses provided the power for…
Last month, we told you about Vulfpeck’s ironic Spotify record, Sleepify, which was completely silent and designed to raise money for the funk band’s tour. Well, Spotify finally got around to responding to the band’s attempted scam. They’re not happy about it! Vulfpeck received an email asking them to take down their Sleepify record. The…
All over the world, we’re seeing cities add bike lanes, bike paths, bike parking, bike sharing—but the way you know cities are really getting serious is when they start reprogramming their signals for cyclists instead of cars. In Berlin, a new pilot project is doing exactly that. Die grüne Welle or “The Green Wave” is…
This is what GoPros were invented to do: take you along for the ride as completely insane adrenaline junkies launch vehicles off of precipices. Like Brett Turcotte jumping off a cliff riding his snowmobile—and landing perfectly. This footage is even more dramatic thanks to the GoPro’s fast frame rate. Lots of frames during recording means…