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From the bright minds that (briefly) brought you Qwikster comes FLIXPAC, Netflix’s very own political action committee. What’s this mean? Netflix starts handing out cash to candidates. https://gizmodo.com/qwikster-is-a-terrible-name-so-netflix-bought-dvd-com-5897867 In what is sure to be a Gritty, Upbeat, Cerebral, Political Thriller of a PAC, Politico reports the fund will be able to sling $5,000 to any…
Ballistics testing for the military is an expensive proposition. A potato cannon, popular in at-home ballistics testing, is cheap. A new testing device developed by the Navy—a super-sized version of the spud gun—provides a low-cost alternative by simply shooting stuff out of a few pipes. Developed at the Naval Air Warfare Center in China Lake,…
REMINDER: Don’t put yourself behind a jetplane powering up for take off unless you want to be blown away and eat some cement. That’s exactly what happened to this woman at Maho Beach, Saint Maarten, famous for being right next to an airport runway. Fast forward to 0:27 if you’re too impatient. She just couldn’t…
Owners of the new iPad have been reporting Wi-Fi issues for weeks. Well they can breathe (a little) easier because a new report suggests that the issue is a fixable software problem—not a hardware issue. https://gizmodo.com/does-the-new-ipad-have-wi-fi-reception-problems-updat-5895145 Computerworld consulted repair expert Aaron Vronko about the new iPad’s weak Wi-Fi connectivity. Vronko says that Apple Support has…
After publishing a photo last month, Lockheed Martin has published this video of the F-35 Lightning refueling at night. It’s very cool, as you would expect. And I love the smell of kerosene in the morning. https://gizmodo.com/the-f-35-looks-like-a-stealth-spaceship-at-night-5897068
NMA, the Dadaist absurdo-animation studio responsible for all those ridiculous interpretations of current events, is broke. So broke it’s looking to sell itself to cover huge losses it’s been taking—Next Media as a whole is actually a massive media company. Bottom line: it’s possible we’ve seen the last glorious bit of NMA weirdness. To help…
RIM is killing the option to sideload apps in a future build of the PlayBook OS in an attempt to curb piracy. This means that they’ll have to be added directly through BlackBerry App World, similar to Apple’s M.O. with the App Store. This is bad news if you own a PlayBook, because it’s a…
If you find yourself too self-conscious to even entertain the thought of getting a shoe shine in public, this wall-mountable kit makes it easy to keep the polish on your wing-tips when you’re buffing them at home. Instead of trying to prop your shoes on a table or your lap that’s going to inevitably get…
The US Navy has published photos of the aftermath of the F/A-18D crash. They clearly show the damage on the apartments that got hit, along with the foam-covered grounds. It’s amazing how lucky the residents and the pilots were. https://gizmodo.com/f-18-crashes-into-apartment-building-and-explodes-upda-5899790 The Navy is meeting with the residents at the Virginia Beach apartment complex affected by…
In an internal memo sent out this morning, AOL informed employees that it will sell 800 patents for $1 billion to Microsoft. Translation: AOL is severing organs and handing them over to Microsoft for badly needed cash. Microsoft, in turn, walks away with an arsenal of patents it can use to fight critical battles with…
If you thought Purdue’s previous Rube Goldberg machine was impressive, a 156-step burger making contraption, you’ll be ‘blown away’ with its latest creation. A 300-step machine whose sole purpose is to blow up and pop balloons, and set world records. https://gizmodo.com/purdues-156-step-burger-maker-wins-rube-goldberg-contes-376561 And that’s exactly what the school’s Society of Professional Engineers did with this tribute…
If you are ok with taking a 45-minute intravenous treatment to eliminate your hangover, rejoice: a new service in Las Vegas will do exactly that. You can hop into one of their buses or call them to your hotel room. 45 minute hangover treatment, receive IV hydration, and IV vitamins in a proprietary blend to…
Shopping for makeup should be fun. And it should not happen at Amazon. It’s unnatural to buy your mascara at the same place where you lock in low prices for monthly toilet paper delivery. Happily, Sephora’s website makeover ensures that you won’t be tempted to mix eyeshadow with MP3 downloads. The revamp has been three…
Watch this trippy video of microscopic creatures to make up for all those times you’ve looked through a microscope and been disappointed. Austrian filmmaker Clemens Wirth and Radium Audio make tiny life forms come alive with the film Micro Empire, which was filmed using a 5D Mark II adapted to shoot through a monocular microscope.…
Easter is one of those magical days in the year when diets don’t exist. So today, in addition to a mountain of other sweet confections, you can enjoy Raphael Volkmer’s chocolate ‘Calories Bomb’ grenade that explodes with even more delicious shrapnel. Just think of it as an uneasy truce with your diet, although when you…
What is a bottle of wine, really? Four glasses of the good stuff. But unless you’re drinking wine in your house or at a fancy restaurant, chances are you don’t have a corkscrew or stemware on you. Stacked wine eliminates the need for both. Each 750 mL “bottle” of Stacked wine consists of four individually-sealed,…
The creators of what will be one of the first commercially available 3D chocolate printers had hoped their device would hit the market well before Easter, letting consumers print their own cheap bunnies and eggs at home. But sadly the British-based Choc Edge won’t get its printer into the hands of the chocaholic masses until…
What’s better than a tranquil tea party? How’s about a tranquil tea party being utterly destroyed in spectacular fashion by a slingshot? Great, now put that in slow motion. What you are about to see is the pornography of exquisite destruction. [Zach King via Laughing Squid]
It’s Easter, so you’ve probably got a day of egg hunts and bunnies and pies that don’t really make sense. But take a moment to soak in this UNBELIEVABLY ADORABLE video that basically distills the essence of Easter down to its core: cute bunnies, chicks, and puppies for no gosh darn reason at all. Enjoy!…
Pitcher plants are so large that they can digest entire rats without thinking twice—that is, if they had brains or a nervous system. And at California Carnivores outside of Sebastopol, California, they have an entire nursery full of them. Venus fly traps too, and a whole collection of plants that have a taste for flesh.…
