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The only thing worse than getting on a full subway car where there’s no place to sit, is getting on an even fuller subway car where there’s no place to brace yourself. But here’s a brilliant hack that not only guarantees you’ve always got something secure to hold onto, but also something no one else…
There’s plenty of precedent for echolocation in the natural world: bats can navigate based on the echo of their chirrups; and blind humans, at least anecdotally, sometimes develop remarkable sound-based spatial skills. But using sound to accurately map a space in three dimensions? That’s new. This week, scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale, in Lausanne,…
Gross? Perhaps. But you know you want to try this grilled cheese chocolate chip cookie sandwich from hell. A hell populated with heart attack victims.
New York City’s Metro Transit Authority is still plugging away on its giant project to bring the 7 train into far west Manhattan, and the scope of the construction is just as awe-inspiring as ever. The MTA just put out a crop of new pictures on Flickr, and we just can’t help but see a…
You don’t need a timepiece because your phone has a clock, but if you’re going to wear one anyway, you should have it make a statement. Here’s what this Casio Databank calculator watch says: I’m retro, I’m nerdy, and I think math is really important. Casio’s CA53W watch manages to be both retro and futuristic…
Albert Burneko at Foodspin: “I want to be able to tell you that the worst thing I ever ate was, like, a wriggling cupful of live centipedes or a bucket of sand or, like, my own tongue.” Actually, it was a durian fruit. What was yours?
Today’s restaurants love automation. Whether it’s conveyor belt sushi, iPad ordering or drones that bring your food right to the table, restaurant owners are always looking for a gimmick that attracts customers and might just save them some money. But back in the 1920s, an inventor in Michigan had his own idea for automating the…
It looks like all our Graph Search privacy concerns weren’t just the ravings of a paranoid, tinfoil-hat-wearing lunatic. Using Facebook’s new comprehensive search tool, a tricksy little dev was able to compile a database holding thousands of Facebook users’ personal phone numbers. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-lock-down-your-facebook-privacy-now-that-graph-s-5986399 While the number of usable, identifiable phone numbers reached the thousands, Brandon…
Created by Japanese artist Rie Hosokai, this wedding dress made entirely out of Lego bricks is as beautiful as it is impractical and uncomfortable.
Shapeways seller OliveBird is slowly becoming the single best endorsement for 3D printers. First, they brilliantly upgraded the lowly button with an improved design that allows it to wrangle your headphone cords, and now they’ve created a similarly genius attachment that turns empty milk jugs into watering cans. https://gizmodo.com/the-lowly-button-gets-a-brilliant-upgrade-5954425 Before the Sprout became available on…
Apple has released beta 2 of its mobile OS for developers just two weeks after WWDC where the company showed off iOS 7. This release also supports iPads and iPad minis. Other than that, there’s a new Voice Memos app, which seems to have been inspired by the Flip camera. Siri can now yammer at…
What’s that coming after you at the Robot Zoo? Oh, just a brand-new robotic ape that walks on all fours just like the real apes we’ve very nearly annihilated from the Earth. This latest terrifying machine-beast is made by the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and the goal is to meld the computer brain…
A supposed vegetable born of something called “Flavr Savr” seeds does not sound like anything that could possibly be good to put in your body. But back in 1994, a longer-lasting, better-tasting, and all around more aesthetically appealing tomato hit grocery shelves as the Flavr Savr food of tomorrow: the very first genetically engineered vegetable.…
An adorable red panda has vanished from Washington’s National Zoo, with helpless zookeepers taking to Twitter to plead for help in finding the little friend. Have you seen Rusty? He’s about the size of a raccoon, and he’s still a baby. UPDATE: The red panda has been found, zoo officials said this afternoon. https://jezebel.com/emergency-alert-very-adorable-red-panda-missing-from-n-559146640 Red…
Last night, the moon came as close to the Earth as its elliptical orbit will take it. That means we didn’t get just any old moon—we got a ginormous, glowing supermoon that was about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter than normal. Did you get pictures of the bright, shining orb? We want to…
Gambling might be risky, but not if you know you’re going to win. Then it’s just free money. If that sounds up your alley, conman extraordinaire Richard Wiseman has yet another set of “bets” for you to try out on your friends. The ones that won’t assault when they get wise to what you’re up…
Greasy fingers are the bane of touchscreens, obscuring the display behind snail trails of oil and streaks of grime. Forget that mess. Leap Motion has promised hands-free PC navigation for months now, and after some hands-on time we can confirm that the future is here, and it’s amazing. https://gizmodo.com/is-this-the-best-gesture-control-system-ever-5911894 As a brief refresher, the Leap…
Perfect for those of us lacking the confidence to write in pen the first time, this pencil features a miniature broom head eraser on the end so you can just sweep away incorrect crossword puzzle answers, and poorly solved Sudoku puzzles. At almost $9 for a single pencil you’re going to only want to sharpen…
One of the wonderful things about getting your first iPhone was the sheer self-sufficient simplicity of the thing—here was a device that served as a map, mp3 player, notebook, phone, and anything else you might need, all crunched into a beautiful little package. But if this year’s WWDC was any indication, that era of autonomous…
An ancient statue of the Egyptian god Nebsenu has begun spinning inside its glass case at the Manchester Museum. This time-lapse video shows the small statue seemingly rotating as oblivious museum visitors walk past—it even moves at night, when the museum is closed. https://gizmodo.com/why-is-this-ancient-egyptian-statue-slowly-turning-by-i-555160231 @ProfBrianCox Here’s that spinning Egyptian statuette you saw @McrMuseum http://t.co/M5rowvT1iY Still…
