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Tech News
Continuing our inadvertent Snøhetta theme today, the Norwegian architecture firm has also proposed this fuselage-like metro station for downtown Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The outer skin of the building—a long tube enclosing a station on the city’s Metro-C line—would be surfaced with ceramic tiles “developed in cooperation with local artists.” This joins other large-scale rail projects … Continued
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ScienceSpace
The Earth Was Almost Fried Back in 2012
A massive solar storm in July 2012 was more intense than thought—and it blasted right through the Earth’s orbit. Luckily for us, we were on the other side of the sun, thus missing the chaos completely. But if that storm had hit this beautiful little blue marble in space? “The solar bursts would have enveloped … Continued
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Tech News
The Woods Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying
Like a landscape of the undead, the woods outside Chernobyl are having trouble decomposing. The catastrophic meltdown and ensuing radiation blast of April 1986 has had long-term effects on the very soil and ground cover of the forested region, essentially leaving the dead trees and leaf litter unable to decompose. The result is a forest … Continued
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Tech News
Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II Turns 20
Bay Area sound critic Marc Weidenbaum—acoustic historian, noise futurist, music instructor, and writer of a brand new book about Aphex Twin—has been blogging about music, electronics, and everyday sounds at his blog Disquiet here at Gizmodo for the last few months. But his writing and music career both go back nearly two decades, and can … Continued
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Tech News
These lumpy, interconnected tubes of concrete, like wet rolls of old newspaper, are from a series of speculative architectural images by artist Dionisio Gonzalez, on display at Gallery Yusto in Malaga, Spain, until March 20th. Gonzalez claims the designs offer “disaster-resistance,” something that—with no structural testing, no wind-load assessment, and an awful lot of plate … Continued
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Tech News
Why Self-Portraits Aren’t A Good Idea When You’re a Burglar
Taking a photo of yourself while inside someone else’s house illegally might not be the first, second, or even third thing you’d think to do—especially when using your victim’s own camera or cell phone—but, hey, you’re probably not a burglar. Taking pics of yourself while holding your victim’s property is probably also not something you’d … Continued
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Tech News
New Group Chats and Comment Threads Come to Gizmodo
You’ve probably noticed a change in the structure of Gizmodo—not just the design of the homepage, although that’s been updated, but in the way our comment threads now work. To be honest, it’s pretty confusing at first—and it’s still undergoing substantial tweaks—but bear with us! It’s all for the greater good. For now, let us … Continued
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Tech News
New Interactive Map Explores State of U.S. Solar Power
The Center for Land Use Interpretation, in Culver City, Los Angeles, opened a new exhibition on Friday exploring the contemporary state of solar power in the United States. The show includes extensive photographs of all existing solar power plants in the U.S. southwest, many of which were taken “from the air, using aircraft and remote … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Off-Kilter Cube Houses Creatively Renovated Into Homes for Ex-Cons
Parts of the famously off-kilter “cube houses” project constructed back in 1984 to a design by architect Piet Blom in Rotterdam, Holland, have been transformed into new homes for 21 former prison inmates by Personal Architecture. The old, oddly angled complex has been updated with skylights and internal light-wells to allow more natural illumination, offering … Continued
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Tech News
The NYC Subway Was Another World In 1980
The annual Armory Show has kicked off here in New York City, showcasing art from around the world, though perhaps still most widely known for its controversial 1917 show, when Marcel Duchamp displayed a repurposed urinal as art and the minds and morals of the art world collectively exploded. This year, nearly a century later, … Continued
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Tech News
The Navy’s New Underwater Internet
You use Wi-Fi everyday, but have you heard of its cousin, Li-Fi? Devices that use blinking lights to transmit data could provide the wireless Internet of the future. U.S. Navy-funded researchers are developing a form of visible light-based communication that transmits data using fast-blinking LEDs rather than Wi-Fi’s familiar radio waves. A paper published earlier … Continued
Kate Yandell -
Tech News
Plants Engineered To Produce Insect Perfume Could Act As Pesticides
Swedish and American researchers have successfully engineered plants to produce chemical attractants like those released by insects to find mates. They say their plant factories could be used to lure and trap nuisance bugs as an environmentally friendly alternative to pesticides and synthetically produced attractants. Using a multistep process to genetically modify a close relative … Continued
Michael Keller -
Tech NewsDesign
The Soaring and Nearly Forgotten Arches of New York City
Beautiful arches, like the art deco skeletal system of a lost urban era, can be found throughout New York City, from Grand Central Terminal to bars and restaurants. Created with tiles by the Spanish father-and-son duo, Rafael Guastavino and his junior namesake, these structures were also marvels of artistic engineering, combining intricate brickwork with functional … Continued
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Tech News
California at the End of the World
Touring around California, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re living in the future, and not just because of the Silicon Valley wizardry that surrounds us all. We also have to thank Hollywood’s movie magic, which has turned the state into a backdrop for countless science fiction films presenting futures both terrible and wondrous. It’s … Continued
Kristin Miller -
Tech NewsDesign
Vote for Kick-Ass Design Projects Over at Architizer
The Architizer A+ Awards are open for public voting, and it’s well worth the time to click through and choose your favorites. There are some really great projects—and a few duds—but certainly a wide range of spaces, materials, and building types for just about anyone, from strangely gorgeous parking garages to Romantic and fantastical towers … Continued
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Tech News
Explore More Than 3,000 Miles of Tunnels Beneath Montreal
Andrew Emond, a Montreal-based photographer, amateur geographer, and DIY gonzo spelunker of the city’s sewers and lost rivers, has just re-launched his excellent website, Under Montreal. The revamped site now comes complete with a fascinating, interactive map of the city’s subterranean streams, documenting Montreal’s invisible rivers for all to see. “Beneath Montreal, Canada,” Emond’s site … Continued
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Tech News
Rise of the Intestinal Selfie
Londoners! The luckiest amongst you will be treated to a bizarre new public event next week, hosted by culinary wunderkinder Bompas & Parr. On Friday, March 14th, before a live, paying audience, “food writer, pop-up chef and Sunday Times columnist Gizzi Erskine” will “swallow a medical grade pill-cam which will broadcast its footage live to … Continued
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Tech NewsDesign
Insane New Tower Might Rise Above the Hills in Western Turkey
This stunning new design for an antenna tower outside the Turkish city of Çanakkale has just won an international competition, beating out such big-name firms as Snohetta, Fernando Romero, and Sou Fujimoto. Designed by IND and Powerhouse Company—who worked with structural engineers ABT to make sure it’d all work as planned—the antenna is a racetrack-like … Continued