The growing popularity of so-called “vocal fry,” particularly among young women, is either a hot new trend or the bane of cultured discourse, depending on who you ask. But when it comes to popular music, vocal fry actually enhances expressiveness. That’s the conclusion of John Nix, a professor of voice at the University of Texas, … Continued

Is there anything better than the legs on Antony the ant here? Because we submit that there is not. This impeccable cosplay of Ant-Man and Antony was made by Walkin’ & Rollin’, which specializes in costumes like this one. You can see more in its gallery, which includes a truly amazing X-Wing. But today’s accolades … Continued

Back in 2006, Nike introduced the high-performance SUMO 2 golf club driver, specially engineered to help golfers hit straighter shots, even for slightly off-center hits. There was just one problem: the newly designed club made an unpleasantly loud, tinny sound when it struck the ball—so much so, that most players proved unwilling to tolerate it, … Continued

“There’s no clown coming!” a frantic mom realizes during her kid’s birthday party. No problem—Dad to the rescue, grabbing a costume he randomly finds in a dusty trunk. But that’s no clown suit… it’s the skin of a demon, and it can’t be removed. Slowly, it begins to turn the wearer into a rainbow-wigged monster. … Continued

Scientists at the Florida Institute of Technology recently captured a beautiful lightning storm using a new high speed camera. The lightning in this video was recorded at 7,000 frames per second (fps), with the playback speed adjusted to 700 frames per second. Researcher Ningyu Liu from the Geospace Physics Lab captured the footage on May … Continued

From the maker of Minions and the director of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, here comes an animated film in which animals of all shapes and sizes compete in a singing competition like American Idol. Ladies and gentleman, here’s a new trailer for Sing. Sing will be released December 21 and has, potentially, one … Continued

Less than a week after hearing about Google’s voice-controlled home assistant, The Information says that Apple has a similar inclination. The Cupertino company will reportedly open up the Siri API to third-party developers in the near future and will eventually make its own Amazon Echo rival. Like the Echo, Apple’s hardware variant will be equipped … Continued

Recently, a group of forward-looking thinkers compiled a list of catastrophes that could kill off 10 percent or more of the human population within five years. This Gizmodo video explains how it could actually happen. The UK-based Global Priorities Project released its report back in April, and it defined global catastrophic risks as “events or … Continued

Nothing is more closely associated with “upcycling” than the lowly, splintery shipping pallet. You can get them for next to nothing and turn them into sweet boxes, benches, light stands, or put the wood towards hundreds, nay, thousands of other projects. Here’s how to pull one apart without ending up in the ER. Jim Ether’s … Continued

If you’ve ever found your fingers unintentionally bonded together after using an especially strong glue, you’ll appreciate the latest innovation from researchers at the Max Planck Institute. They’ve succeeded in creating an adhesive that can be turned on and off as needed—perfect for wannabe Martha Stewarts who suck at crafts. The glue the researchers created … Continued

For a minute, try to forget the hype you hear about self-driving cars and think about the single-occupant, human-driven vehicle like this: A very inefficient way to use expensive city land. Not only do extra-wide roads take up a lot of space, there’s far too much property allocated to parking—about 20 percent of the land … Continued