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Despite being a great idea, public transit always seems to be fighting an uphill battle for public opinion. Atlanta’s MARTA subway system has been roundly criticized for, among other things, smelling like pee, and the transit line won’t take it sitting down: this month, MARTA began installing first-of-its-kind urination detectors in the subway’s elevators. https://gizmodo.com/this-animated-gif-perfectly-sums-up-why-no-one-should-e-1467819267…
Polar explorers Ben Saunders and Tarka L’Herpiniere of the Scott Expedition have successfully reached the South Pole—on foot. When Gizmodo last saw Saunders, he was here with us in New York City walking us through the expedition’s high-tech gear and looking ahead to where he and L’Herpiniere might be before the New Year. Just in…
I honestly can’t tell if this is a joke or the next Rebecca Black. Please let it be both.
These are the most photographed places in the world according to Google Maps’ Panoramio service, which collects geolocated images uploaded by Google users. Of course, many people take photos and don’t upload them to Google Maps but to other local services. In any case, it’s a very neat map. SPLOID is a new blog about…
Create a 2013 audio diary with a dozen five-second segments. Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.…
Be careful when you go around smelling flowers now, you never know when that pretty pink thing is actually a mantis looking to strangle your nostrils to death. Like this Orchid Mantis. It looks like a perfect pink orchid but is actually a mantis in disguise that strangles the hell out of its prey. Colossal…
Wolf of Wall Street? Meh. American Hustle? Please. Anchorman 2? Tired. The Hobbit? I dare you. None of those movies in theaters right now compare to the epic awesomeness that is Kung Fury. Never heard of it? It’s okay. Just watch the trailer. It combines all the cheesy glory of 80’s cop movies with Kung…
A futuristic stage show at the London Casino on April 27, 1938. [Getty Images]
If you ever thought that Scarlett Johansson looked like Marilyn Monroe or that George Clooney reminded you of Cary Grant or that certain celebrities today make you think of famous people from years past, you’re not crazy. It’s true. Beautiful famous people look like beautiful famous people, no matter the era. And these photographs in…
Electric chainsaws aren’t anywhere near as powerful as the ones with gas engines, but Makita’s X2 LXT comes close—and offers several key advantages if you don’t need a tool capable of clear-cutting a forest. For starters, even with a pair of 18-volt rechargeable lithium-ion batteries hanging off the back, the X2 LXT weighs in at…
If you think the funniest person in the world in 2013 was Louis C.K. or Aziz Ansari or some other genius laugh out loud comedian, you’re probably right. But eventually their shtick will get tiring. It’s going to happen. But do you know what never gets old and always stays funny though? Watching the local…
As soon as mankind fully masters 3D printing, we’ll be able to make anything, in any shape, at any time. We’ll be—for all intents and purposes—gods. But until then, we might as well use the technology to inject even more liquor (in fun shapes!) into Jell-O shots, right? Take that, Alpha Betas. That’s exactly what…
Using a pinhole camera she fashioned from an Assam tea tin, Heather Champ recorded the sun’s path over the past year—from Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice—in what just might be the ultimate form of delayed gratification. The San Francisco-based photographer placed the makeshift device outside her home for the duration, and the resulting ultra-long-exposure solargraph…
Didn’t get your last last last minute gifts from Amazon delivered on time? Neither did a lot of other folks. Between weather and high demand, UPS choked. But there’s good news: $20 Amazon gift cards are on the way to the afflicted. https://gizmodo.com/amazons-amazing-free-overnight-shipping-the-best-gift-1488615931 According to the Wall Street Journal and some of our own readers,…
Thought your Christmas was awesome? Had fun with a little bit of snow? Maybe you made a snowman earlier in the week? Whatever. That’s nothing compared to this magical winter wonderland in China where they have ginormous ice sculptures of horses and women and mammoths and castles and T-Rexes. They’re incredible. The magnificent sculptures are…
Not to be outdone by U.S. military research that inspired men to stare at goats, the Soviets also seem to have poured a nice chunk of change into investigating telekinesis and mind control. A new survey of Soviet “unconventional” research on the server ArXiv has the details. Based on Russian publications and recently declassified documents,…
Didn’t get what you wanted under your tree in shiny paper? We’ll help you be your own personal Santa with these stellar day after Christmas discounts. Store the photos from your new camera on the Toshiba 1TB USB 3 External, stop paying the cable company with the Mohu Leaf Antenna, cut the cord with these…
On highway medians, atop old landfills, in backyards—these are some of the places a monarch butterfly revival could begin. The yearly migration of monarchs from the northern U.S. and Canada to the warmer environs of Mexico was once a spectacular sight, and a now a rare one. Their numbers have dwindled. There’s no single cause,…
Did Nikola Tesla actually work as a swimming instructor? What’s the deal with that famous photo of Albert Einstein and his therapist? Did they actually make radiation-aged bourbon back in the 1960s? Nope! A few weeks ago we looked at nine “fun fact” photos that were totally lying to you. Today, we have seven more…
It was so, so tempting. Order by 8pm for guaranteed delivery by December 24th. It was December 23rd. I was desperate. Online shopping promised stuffed stockings for my last-minute lazy ass. And then, right when I needed it most, expedited shipping failed me. Delayed—expected on December 26th. Curse you, internet! Yes, like the scads of…
