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Almost all early sawmills utilized water power to drive their sawblades, and were therefore located on riverbanks. This made delivering wood a breeze—just chop down a patch of timber upriver, push the felled logs into the water, and float them down to the mill. In narrow stretches of water, the logs could be pushed down…
In medieval times tapestries were used to commemorate epic battles, document family histories, and even immortalize heroes. These days, artists like Phillip Stearns use them as a physical representations of the digital bits and bytes flowing through our electronic hardware. The last time we checked in with Stearns he had created a series of Glitch…
Just the other day we saw a beautiful budget iPhone backing that we’re hoping is real, and now we’re catching a glimpse of its colorful twin. Same sweet design, same heap of skepticism, but we just love imagining an incoming family of these colored bad boys. https://gizmodo.com/oh-man-i-want-these-budget-iphone-photos-to-be-real-1054208244 Just like last time, the photos come from…
To be a dog and do nothing all day but eat, sleep, pee and poop anywhere you want to, get scratched, and listen to music. The next best thing: Enjoying these photographs of old school dogs rocking at Paleofuture. https://gizmodo.com/dogs-listening-to-the-radio-will-cure-your-case-of-the-1107119470
In June, Mayor Bloomberg presented a 438-page proposal that laid out hundreds of ways in which New York needs to adapt to survive storms like Sandy, which hit the city almost a year ago. Some of his recommendations were sensible, others were intriguing. Most of them seeemed like long-term investments. But the city is actually…
Using a normal hose connected to a firetruck to put out a small fire is too boring. In Newfoundland, Canada, they know how to have fun—which is why they drop a ton of water from a giant firefighting airplane instead. https://jalopnik.com/watch-a-water-bomber-dump-hundreds-of-gallons-on-a-fl-1107626415
North Korea is known for a lot of things: propaganda, prison camps, starving citizens. Manufacturing high-end electronics is not one of them. But who says a scrappy little country Dennis Rodman-loving totalitarian dictator can’t dream? https://gizmodo.com/the-most-insane-north-korean-propaganda-5821434 North Korea is apparently busy “manufacturing” its very own smartphone, the “Arirang.” Kim Jong-Un visited the Pyongyang factory, where…
When the craving for Ramen noodles hits, no one wants to have to wait for minutes on end before they can enjoy a bowl of salty goodness. So Tiger, maker of some of the most advanced rice cookers on the planet, has used its expertise in heating things up to create a steam-free kettle that…
You don’t have to follow miracle diets or kill yourself with crazy physical exercise to stay lean and healthy. Over at Lifehacker Dion Almaer details how he lost 100 pounds since last September. It doesn’t seem that hard. https://lifehacker.com/how-i-experimented-my-way-to-losing-100-pounds-1107324670
As quickly as it began, the UK’s long national nightmare of spying trash cans is over. Within days of reporting that the city’s “smart bins” would be equipped with smartphone-tracking software, Quartz has confirmed that city officials are shutting the whole thing down. Renew, the company that makes and maintains the LCD-equipped trash cans that…
Not to go all Garfield on you, but the only thing worse than morning is a Monday morning. You wake up and for three blissful seconds you’re not sure what’s in store. The world is your oyster. For one fantastic, fleeting moment you think that maybe you’ll take a walk in the park or go…
20 people were injured at what was supposed to be a delightful if dopey promotional event for the new LG G2 in Korea. The plan had LG release balloons filled with 100 vouchers for free phones. Apparently no one thought it out any further than that. When LG released the balloons into the sky, what…
Shoveling your vehicle out of a mountain of fresh snow in the morning is not only a terrible way to start your day, it could be downright dangerous if you’re not in the best of shape. A snowblower is a far better alternative, but who wants to drop all that money when there’s the risk…
When the government came knocking becayse Edward Snowden used Lavabit’s encrypted email service, it did the sensible thing and, uh, shut itself down. Other similar services have followed suit—and now Kim Doctcom plans to capture the market that’s being left wide open. https://gizmodo.com/somebody-read-government-goons-shut-down-edward-snow-1070103469 According to RT, the man behind Mega plans to start running a…
Paper and extreme heat are never a good combination. Yet the following eight designers have made it work, creating lamps that are light, inexpensive, and less wasteful than traditional versions. Cardboard design has popped up (so to speak) quite a bit recently, in everything from chairs to architecture. Lamps are a less intuitive match (the…
The quality and style of this short film is so exquisitely beautiful that it makes me want to live in the post-apocalyptic underwater city it portrays. https://gizmodo.com/in-a-gorgeous-flooded-city-a-scavenger-discovers-that-1100908754
After its previous look at strategic alternatives yielded little fruit, BlackBerry is once again going back to the blackboard. Its board is currently considering “possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions” to help boost the performance of BlackBerry 10. So… any takers?
It looks like rumors of a new BlackBerry handset, the Z30 (once referred to as the A10), could carry some weight: this hands-on video purports to show off the new device, and it seems convincing. https://gizmodo.com/leaked-images-of-blackberrys-new-a10-this-actually-lo-893159147 The footage give a pretty thorough walk-through with the device—in Vietnamese, sorry—conducted by Cellphone S. If the video’s to…
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the next generation of Apple’s iPad will use the same display technology which make the iPad mini so thin and light. According to “people with knowledge of the matter” the screens for the larger device are already being made by Asian suppliers. The current iPad uses a glass-based…
If you’re in the market for a replacement ear, how about one of these wonderful little 3D printed ones? While researchers at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, have demonstrated a hydrogel gel-based 3D printed ear before, these little things from Hangzhou Dianzi University in China are made up living tissue. Created using the Regenovo…
