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This is why I am not an artist. When I see pencil shavings, I scoop them up and throw them in the trash. UK artist and designer Kyle Bean, though, keeps them as raw material for a new creation. The artist collected shavings from different colored pencils and used them to create a series of…
We can all breathe a sigh of relief as those macaque monkey pictures may belong in the public domain. Neither the photographer nor the news agency that published the images can claim a copyright because they did not create them. https://gizmodo.com/vain-monkey-steals-cam-to-take-these-adorable-self-port-5818115 According to some research by TechDirt, only works created by a human author are…
Check out this UK video of a row house explosion. Taken by the Engine cam, it’s frightening and amazing at the same time. Right before the explosion, a group of firefighters just rescued a bunch of people from their houses after a report of a kitchen fire. While they were still cleaning up, the house…
According to “people with proven track records who would be in a position to know”, Mac OS X Lion and new MacBook Airs will arrive on Wednesday. Both AppleInsider and 9to5 Mac claim that Mac OS X Lion will debut Wednesday after an overnight marketing fiesta in Apple retail stores. AppleInsider sweetens the pot by…
A giant thermometer is on display in the Turpan Prefecture of China. I don’t know what’s more ominous. The giant rod standing tall in the sky or the rising red level that measures the local temperature. When this image was taken on July 15, the air temperature was a whopping 46C (114F) and the ground…
If your little brother loses a tooth, what’s in it for you? The little dope gets sweet Tooth Fairy scratch and you’re left holding the bag. Unless you decide to play dentist with a long string and a mini-motorcycle. This is what having a sibling is all about, right? Companionship, helpfulness, tooth extraction. And a…
Phillip Mendonça-Vieira made a mistake, a wonderful mistake. For over a year, he accidentally ran a cron task that captured a screenshot of the NY Times’ front page twice an hour, 24 hours a day. By the time he realized what he had done, the freelance Canadian developer had accumulated over 12,000 images. He compiled…
My first thought was: “Washing machine”. Fortunately, NASA Goddard has the correct answer: With his feet secured on a restraint on the space station remote manipulator system’s robotic arm or Canadarm2, NASA astronaut Mike Fossum (frame center) holds the Robotics Refueling Mission payload, which was the focus of one of the primary chores accomplished on…
Wind turbines are big on power and marvels to look at. They’re also rather inefficient. So some scientists thought about it, talked, and figured out a way to increase their power output tenfold. All by staring at fish! John Dabiri, professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at Caltech, and his colleagues set out to test the…
Alfred will soon be your next BFF. He is a know-it-all that will tell you what you want before you want it. And he will live with you always on your iPhone. Alfred, as you may have figured out, is a personal concierge app for the iPhone. The app will read your Facebook status, record…
Although it’s still far, far away from the mainstream, 4K displays do exist! Will they ever take off? It’s too soon to tell, but if so, don’t try to run XP with one—it’s like a UI-crushing black hole. https://gizmodo.com/want-a-4k-tv-sony-has-a-76-000-set-with-your-name-on-5375522 The ludicrous resolution (that’s 4096 x 3072, mind you) stretches the XP desktop to a scale…
Drinking is great! Drinking too much can also be great! But drinking way too much really sucks—and a lot of the time, we do it by accident. But these Alcohol by Volume glasses will help you drink responsibly. Each side corresponds to beer, wine, or liquor, displaying how much of each constitutes a “drink”—so pick…
Greatly Exaggerated | LulzSec infiltrated The Sun’s site and planted a bizarre account of Rupert Murdoch’s supposed death. https://gizmodo.com/lulzsec-hacks-the-times-with-brutal-murdoch-death-notic-5822392 #AntiSec Hackers Spill News of the World Chief Rebekah Brooks’ Email Login to Entire Internet (Updated) The fruits of today’s Sun UK hack are starting to dangle down: LulzSec (out of retirement?) and Anon are tweeting…
Whoa, all those scandals and that hacking incident must have taken their toll on Rupert Murdoch. CNBC suggests the News Corp CEO may resign his postion and turn over control of the company to COO Chase Carey. [Twitter and Reuters] https://gizmodo.com/if-the-news-corp-phone-hacking-scandal-were-made-into-a-5822114
End of Life is a robot band that makes Marilyn Manson’s Beautiful People song sound … beautiful. The robot trio uses a cello, yep a classical instrument, a guitar and drum set to make short work of this Industrial rock ballad. Though the band has perfectly choreographed movement and flawless technique, they do lack the…
America is officially uninhabitable this week. Airborne magma is raping my body every time I step outside of my air conditioned apartment, and the Atlantic makes a convincing argument that the history of AC mirrors the history of modern America. Huge slices of life used to be centered around the fact that our jerk planet…
We know your pain. You loved R2D2 as a kid but were born in the wrong generation to rock an authentic Star Wars lunchbox. Poor soul, you were probably stuck with some lame Saved By the Bell embarrassment. Fear the lunch box no more, as your Star Wars dream has come true with this R2D2…
If I were caught in an earthquake, I’d be pretty shell-shocked. But Sebastian Alegria, a 14-year-old Chilean high school student, decided to hack together a twitter alert system that’s already a year ahead of the Chilean government’s own planned project. Alegria’s rudimentary yet effective system comes from having survived Chile’s own earthquakes last year and…
The fruits of today’s Sun UK hack are starting to dangle down: LulzSec (out of retirement?) and Anon are tweeting logins of some serious British media brass. Foremost? Rebekah Brooks, the epicenter of England’s voicemail hacking scandal. Update: phone numbers! https://gizmodo.com/lulzsec-hacks-the-times-with-brutal-murdoch-death-notic-5822392 The tweet divulged the email and password info for one Rebekah Wade—Brooks’ maiden name—along…
KDDI has a prototype Android app that can monitor your brainwaves. You have to wear a silly headband sensor and play an even dumber video game but the app graphs your brain’s neural activity and concentration levels after you’re done. It’s definitely cool to see how how engaged or brain-dead you are when doing a…