Tech News

Germany is sending intelligence officials to the U.S. capital today, to discuss this week’s allegations that the NSA hacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone. [CNN]

10 Incredible DIY Castles Built by a Single Person

You know the saying “a man’s home is his castle?” Some folks out there take it very seriously — setting out to build their own medieval fortresses. Carlos Zahumenszky from Gizmodo en Español collected some of the most fascinating castles, all with one thing in common: they were all begun as one-person projects. https://es.gizmodo.com/los-increibles-castillos-de-un-solo-hombre-1451351765 Castillo…

Watch All 13 Saturn V Rocket Launches in One Jaw-Dropping Video

The Saturn V is the tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket humans have ever built. In 13 missions, it took 24 astronauts beyond earth’s orbit, including all 12 who ever set foot on the moon, without a single loss of life. Watch in awe as its entire career launches before you. https://gizmodo.com/watch-all-six-apollo-moon-landings-in-one-glorious-vide-1450824866 Once again, it’s…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: The New America

The beauty of animation is that it isn’t constrained by its medium. And in the case of Nando Costa’s new short film, the medium plays a vital role in the work’s message. The New America utilizes more than 800 uniquely laser-carved maple wood blocks, a few of which are available on Etsy for $50 a…

The infinite pleasure of watching someone writing beautifully

This is strange but, when I watch some people write with a fountain pen, a quill or a brush, I get a pleasant and constant shiver up and down my spine, which is why this video featured by This Is Colossal is better than porn to me. I can watch him doing this for hours.…

7 Things You Do On the Internet That’d Be Creepy to Do in Real Life

You’re a different person online compared to your real life. It’s okay. You don’t have to irrationally like cats just because you’re obsessed with cat videos. You don’t have to literally poke the people you poked on Facebook. You don’t have to like or follow or tag or comment or stalk celebrities like you do…

The NSA Says an ‘Internal Error’ Caused Its Outage Not a DDoS Attack

The completely competent folks of the NSA are saying that its nuked website is a result of an internal error, a glitch, a mistake and not because hackers launched a DDoS attack on it. That’s cool, the NSA didn’t go down because of hackers but because it screwed itself up. https://gizmodo.com/the-nsas-website-is-down-1452393630 In a statement to…

This Week’s Top Comedy Video: Carmen Electra’s C*m Ghosts

The horrible question everyone should never have to ask themselves: what if? What if you studied a little more? What if you worked a little harder? What if you exercised and tried to be more healthy? What if you actually asked that person out on a date? What if you took a vacation? What if…

Blowing Up Pumpkins with C4 and Detonating Cords Seems Way More Fun

What do you call the Halloween equivalent of being a Christmas Grinch? Because whatever it is, that’s what I am now. Gone are the happy days of trick or treating and dressing up in clever costumes and getting the brain blitzed to an unrecognizable shade of matter and carving intricate pumpkins and so on, instead…

Most Beautiful Items: October 19 – 26, 2013

A new week brings new questions. Like, how would one recreate the iOS 7 homescreen in Microsoft Word? Or should spires count toward a building’s total height? If you’ve found yourself pondering these things, you can find your answers within the most beautiful items of the week. This Lexus Paints Your Portrait Based On How…

This Online Archive Collects 19th Century “GIFs” of Yore

Phenakistoscopes, praxinoscopes, and zoetropes, oh my! Richard Balzer, a 69-year-old New York native, has cultivated a remarkable online museum of early animations and optical toys of the 18th and 19th centuries. According to the Verge, the process of transforming a collection of physical ephemera into an online archive was arduous: Balzer worked with an LA…

Bloomberg: DirecTV and TWC Might Create an Aereo-like Service

As cable companies continue to come up with creative ways to sell us TV without hooking us onto traditional cable, Bloomberg is reporting that DirecTV and Time Warner Cable are both thinking about creating an Aereo-type streaming service for customers to use. If it works like Aereo, it means you get to watch TV over…

LUMO Interactive Projector Turns Bedrooms Into Science Centers

Even though they’re mostly designed for kids, it’s impossible to resist those installations where camera-equipped projectors shine an interactive projection on the ground. But there’s no shame in enjoying one in your own home, because the company behind many of those creations is officially launching a consumer version that will all but guarantee your kids…

Now Available: Microsoft Surfaces, Dropcam Pro, Anki DRIVE, More

Another week is in the books. Whether you were hard at work, or busy finding YouTube videos to distract you ’til the weekend, the fine folks of the gizmo and gadget industry were hard at work making sure you’ve got lots of creative ways to blow all that money you earned. Here’s the best of…

DARPA’s Spending $70 Million on a Brain Chip for Mentally Ill Soldiers

Picture this: In the near future, ten percent of our veterans could be walking around with chips implanted in their brains. These aren’t intended for some I, Robot-style takeover, but rather to treat conditions like PTSD and substance abuse. Sound crazy? DARPA only deals in crazy. https://gizmodo.com/darpa-is-building-a-submarine-mothership-to-launch-dron-886014691 The Pentagon’s prodigal R&D lab just announced a…

What if Google is Building WALL-E Robots Under the Name “By And Large”

In one of the weirdest stories of the week, it looks like Google is building something super-secret near Treasure Island, just off the coast of San Francisco. And boy is it big! When CNET reporters went down there to investigate they learned that a company called “By and Large LLC” was the newest tenant. Is…

Our Favorite Android, iOS and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

The apps world brought us redesigns, updates, and brand new offerings this week, none of which are pumpkin spice flavored. Put on your touchscreen gloves and get apping! Multi-Platform Updates BBM for iOS and Android Wow, has it been a rough road for BBM. It’s finally here, and it’s great. It remains to be seen…

The NSA’s Website Is Down

NSA.gov was unresponsive late Friday afternoon due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS), according to packs of Anonymous-types on Twitter. Indeed the website would not load for us when we tried, but it’s hard to know why until we get confirmation from the NSA. If it is indeed a DDoS attack on the NSA,…

Dinosaurs Were Able to Grow So Huge Because of Their Squishy Joints

There’s a reason that towering mammals the likes of King Kong are resigned to fiction. Our aching bones can only take so much weight before they start crumbling under the pressure. But if that’s the case, then why were dinosaurs able to reach such phenomenal heights? According to a new study, the answer isn’t so…

Polaroid Toilet Paper Holder Captures Memories You Don’t Want To Keep

Even though digital cameras provide us the same instant gratification after snapping a photo, Polaroid’s instant snapper still has a cult following. Of course, that also means that instant film is more expensive than ever, so if you’re just a fan of the Polaroid camera’s iconic design, this Pola Roll toilet paper holder is a…