Gizmodo

What Life on Earth Would Look Like If Earth Had Rings Like Saturn

Casey Chan — Fri, 24 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT

Every so often when the Moon is especially ginormous or we can see Venus or Mars from Earth, humans collectively freaks out. So cool three exclamation points, we scream. Look how big with thirty i's, we yell. And it's warranted! Seeing things that don't belong in the sky pop up, well, in the sky is fun. So could you imagine if one day Earth developed rings like Saturn? It would be insane.

Amazing science and space artist Ron Miller imagined what life on Earth would look like if it had rings like Saturn and it's mind blowing. The coolest thing is that different areas of the world would see Earth's rings differently—a streak of light dividing the sky at the Equator, a bending ring that looks brightens the Moon in Guatamela, a permanent rainbow on the east coast of the United States and so forth. I want to live on this make believe planet now. Earth is too ordinary.

[Black Cat Studios via PetaPixel]

In Polynesia, Earth would cast a shadow on the rings creating a warped ring.

Near the equator, the rings would be a streaking light splitting the sky.

Probably the most beautiful looking view of the ring would be in Guatemala.

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Planet Online

Andrew Tarantola — Fri, 24 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Between ads for action figures, micromachines, and sugar-laden cereals, there used to be a time when Saturday morning commercials were just as riveting as the cartoons they interrupted—especially for gullible 8-year-olds. And though the ads themselves no longer deliver that overwhelming sense of excitement and grandeur, Neosignal's newest track adopts the same flashy, hyperactive style but with a modern twist.

Is HTC Coming Out with a HTC One that Runs Stock Android?

Casey Chan — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:47:43 GMT

Please be true, please be true, please be true. After Google announced that it would be selling a pure Android version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Google Play, the entire world screamed joys of Hallelujah Halle Berry. An awesome phone running completely stock Android has always been the dream. Now, HTC might be making real life better than any dream by making the HTC One pure Android too.

Supposedly, according to Geek.com's sources, HTC is considering making a stock variant of the HTC One. That'd mean there would be no HTC Sense to muddle the Android experience. That means we'd use a phone the way Google would want us to use it. What's unclear now is if it happens, how we'll get the pure Android HTC One.

Google's version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 is sold unlocked for $650 on Google Play. Would HTC go down that same route? What should be noted is that Geek.com had initially reported on the stock Android version of the Galaxy S4 before it was announced. They nailed that rumor. Maybe this one will be true too. In any case, I'm crossing my fingers. You should too. [Geek via Phandroid]

This Is What Each Season Looks Like in a Million Pixels

Casey Chan — Fri, 24 May 2013 01:41:51 GMT

If you think you're looking at color palettes of different shades of brownish gray, you're not exactly wrong. I'm sure people would love to paint their bathroom Roman Rotunda Slate or some made up name like that. But it's not that simple. You're actually looking at the seasons—spring, summer, fall and winter—and you just don't know it.

Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun combined one million pictures of each season using photos one million pictures from Flickr tagged spring, summer, fall and winter. Each picture filled up a pixel (with the dominant color of that picture actually filling the pixel) and you have one million pixels showing you what the season looked like.

It's kind of funny how all the colors of the pictures just blend together to create something that doesn't look like what we expect it to look like. I like that. Though fall owns the lovely brown, yellow and decaying hues, every other season looks like static. But that's because when we see a small version of the pixels, everything blends together. Getting up close, it reveals more details like blue streaks, green tint and white backgrounds.

You can see more of the work here. [Shin Seung Back Kim Yong Hun via PetaPixel]

That's Spring above.

This is summer

I love fall

Winter is coming

Jezebel How a Women's Libido Pill Could Actually Save Monogamy | Kotaku Valve Has Crowdsourced Banni

Lauren Bertolini — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:29:38 GMT

Jezebel How a Women's Libido Pill Could Actually Save Monogamy | Kotaku Valve Has Crowdsourced Banning Cheaters In Counter-Strike | Gizmodo Incredible Slo-Mo Footage Of the Pistol Shrimp's Devastating Attack | Gawker Obama Boldly Calls For Basic Sanity and Human Rights

Apparently, Google wants to start a bidding war with Facebook over who gets to buy Waze.

Casey Chan — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:28:25 GMT

Apparently, Google wants to start a bidding war with Facebook over who gets to buy Waze. That sounds like a lot of fun, actually. Who's got more billions? [Bloomberg]

Iran Has Hacked US Energy Companies

Casey Chan — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:18:05 GMT

According to the WSJ, Iran has hacked US oil, gas and power companies. The hackers were able to gain access to control-system software "that could allow them to manipulate oil or gas pipelines". Basically, the hackers are far enough inside that people are starting to get worried.

US officials say that these break ins from Iranian hackers are like reconnaissance missions for Iran. They're gathering information on the operations of energy companies and figuring out how to "disrupt or destroy them in the future". Gaining access to the control-system is serious. The WSJ explains:

Control systems run the operations of critical infrastructure, regulating the flow of oil and gas or electricity, turning systems on and off, and controlling key functions.

In theory, manipulating the software could be used to delete important data or turn off key safety features such as the automatic lubrication of a generator, experts said.

Iran was also accused of launching DDoS attacks on US banks, so this isn't their first time jumping into cyber warfare (of course, the US and Israel launched the Stuxnet virus on Iran first). For what it's worth, Iran denies involvement with the hackings, but hey, that's what China says about hacking us too. The next World War is so going to start because of some hacker. [WSJ]

Image by Aleksandar Mijatovic/Shutterstock and andersphoto/Shutterstock

You Don’t Hate the Xbox One, You’re Just Jealous

Kyle Wagner — Thu, 23 May 2013 23:18:00 GMT

Gamers seem to hate the Xbox One. If you wade into a comments section or ask a man-on-the-street at your local Mountain Dew distributer, you’ll hear a variety of reasons why the Xbox One is not for gamers—why it’s a horrible misstep, presumed dead on arrival. Some of these criticisms will ring a little truer than others, but none really tap into what’s really eating at the gaming elite. They’re mad that they’re not the center of attention.

See, for as long as they have existed, brand new consoles have been the provenance of the hardcore gamer. They are the only ones dedicated enough, enthused enough, to drop (or convince their parents to drop) a wad of cash on a new gaming system for the privilege of buying new and more expensive games. Gamers loved consoles, and consoles loved them right back. Except now, Microsoft’s eye is wandering, and gamers do not like it one bit.

The Other Guys

As far as Microsoft is concerned, the Xbox’s manifest destiny is for it to ascend beyond a gaming console and become a standard home appliance—a refrigerator, basically. TV is central to the initial launch, but soon Xbox will expand into the broader home landscape, interacting with a variety of your devices. That’s the idea that took center stage at the Xbox One keynote. Tuesday was not a gaming console launch, it was the unveiling of a home entertainment platform. Like it or not, the Xbox is going mainstream. And to a lot of gamers, mainstream means casual means awful means this Xbox sucks. And that just makes no sense at all.

There is absolutely no downside to a gaming console widening its berth and bringing in a larger audience. Creating content for a console, or any platform, is not, despite whatever alarmist fears circulate, a zero sum proposition. A team spending time on the Kinect’s voice commands does not mean the controller gets shortchanged. Adding a whole side of the OS dedicated to apps and non-game content does not necessarily mean your games are being shortchanged—especially with all the lengths Microsoft has gone to ensure performance. (The static RAM on the CPU/GPU SoC is a bigger deal than it’s being given credit for, and should close a good portion of the GPU gap.) Microsoft is a very large company. There are seven thousand people on the Xbox team alone. It can work on more than one thing at once.

That doesn’t mean a true console launch isn’t coming, not that it helps much in the moment. We know that all of the games will be announced at this summer’s E3. Gamers know this, logically, but it doesn’t exactly feel that way. They also know, on every level, that the multi-billion-dollar console gaming industry will not retool its teams to go into TV streaming overnight—yet many gamers can’t stop expressing how afraid they are that it will.

But consider: when you think back to each console launch you’ve been geeked about, you might remember Emotion Engines and goofy Nintendo controllers, but what you really remember in the leadup to a new console are the games. Soulcalibur and Super Mario 64, Resistance: Fall of Man and that first time you saw Halo. We haven’t seen any of that yet. Call of Duty and EA Sports do not count as big unveils.

For all the decrying and defecating about how the hardcore gamer is not being served, well, you get the sense that if a few killer titles are announced in LA this June, all will be forgiven.

The Little Big Things

In the absence of games to talk about, though, the only attention that gamers really received at the keynote dealt with the broader infrastructure of gaming. And while a lot of it is very cool—installing games from the cloud, cloud-based workloads, a smart multitasking OS—these are benefits that come at a cost. It’s a modest price tag, to be sure, but people—especially people on the internet—inherently dislike things being taken away from them. Even things they don’t especially want or use all that often. The long and short? The new stuff costs you some control over your stuff, or at least the carefully maintained facade of control you had before.

An undetermined system to transfer used games, instead of just swapping out discs; required connection to the internet once a day (we are pretty sure); mandatory Kinect; the internet being central to core features like cloud gaming; and backwards compatibility. These are the big complaints, and looking at them, it’s hard to explain the furor they’ve stirred up.

Truthfully, answer this: Have you been without internet for more than 24 hours while trying to play a console game recently? Is that a regular occurrence? Have you lent a game on a disc to a friend that you needed back in a timely fashion? Have you closed your laptop or turned off your cell phone when having private conversations? Have you spent any seriously any time considering, celebrating, or lamenting the size of the consoles or other entertainment devices in your home?

For many of reading this, the answer to at least one of those questions might well be a Yes. But that does not matter. Increasingly, and for a long time now, the world has been moving forward. For a great many people—the vast majority even, probably—things have progressed to the point that these simply aren’t concerns with enough impact, however vocal, to warrant holding up the pack. That sucks. It does. (My family is still, insanely, on dial-up.) But the needs of the many, and all that.

Even the most insidious accusation, that Microsoft now has the ability to Morgan-Freeman-in-The-Dark-Knight everyone who owns an Xbox One, is almost passingly absurd. A scandal from something like that might literally shutter the whole damn Xbox project. These are not no-warrant spy devices. They are game consoles. And further, if the Xbox team wants to see me in my damn underwear, go ahead, get an eyefull boys and girls. If it wants to listen to me sing along to rap songs I don’t actually know the lyrics to, or watch me mouth the words to every scene in Never Been Kissed, it can go right ahead. I am not trafficking in State secrets, and it seems deeply paranoid (and more than slightly conceited) that anyone has much interest at all in watching me sit on my ass being awful at Halo.

Let’s also be clear: Dismissing many of the above is not to dismiss their more virulent but ultimately fictional counterparts. An always-on connection with a 3-minute window to reconnect would be ludicrous for a variety of reasons. Zero used games ever would be nuts. Coming to your apartment and smashing all of your Xbox 360 DVDs and HDDs and sawing your 360 in half would be unfortunate. But that’s not how this went. These are a bunch of low-impact changes that could have and were rumored to have been much worse, but which sting doubly because they were basically the only news that was aimed specifically at gamers.

Being Good, Not New

Sure, maybe the Wii blew everyone away with its uniqueness, and the original Kinect was a Whoa moment. But anyone disappointed that the One doesn’t have some truly “innovative” new way to play games is nuts. (It seems at times, even, that the pushback against the Kinect is less about its feature set than it is about outside media encroaching into gaming’s territory.) Interface reboots don’t happen in a single generation. Not in a truly meaningful way, at least. Microsoft is far enough down the Kinect rabbit hole that the only correct path available to it was to fix what it was already working with. The original Kinect was a tech demo shelled in a dancing game, occasionally used as an HBO voice remote.

The new Kinect isn’t like that. It appears to be everything we ever asked for from the original, and then some. The controller has seen a wonderful facelift. The OS tweaks make sense at a time when the sustainability of a single-purpose console is under scrutiny. This is what we praise other companies, like Apple, for doing. We love refinement, revision, recalculation. We applaud when products take risks, and then give standing ovations when they slow down to perfect those risks that worked out. Sometimes. Other times, when we think the holding pattern has lasted long enough, we skewer Apple, too. And when a holding pattern might last a whole console cycle—the better part of a decade—that’s going to piss some people off.

Even if Microsoft improves the Kinect, SmartGlass, its native apps, and everything else, there’s a nagging feeling that Microsoft has only fortified the ground it was already standing on instead of walking forward. And for game consoles, that’s a letdown in a way that’s hard to explain to anyone who’s never been geeked up wondering how much better FMV cutscenes could be on DVDs instead of CD-ROMs, or how much better controls will be with a dual analog controller, or even how fun a console with a handle that looks like a toaster might be. Consoles are supposed to be where crazy new ideas happen.

Look closer, though, and the Xbox One has something even more unique than feeling “new”. It has the capacity for growth. Its hardware is solid enough to go toe-to-toe with its competition, but the ability to throw some of its workload onto one of the 300,000 Xbox Live servers Microsoft will be running means it can scale in a way that previous generations could not. The same goes for the Kinect, which has tremendous room to grow as its software becomes more and more accurate. There are massive banks of Kinects gathering data, improving recognition, and fine-tuning motion sensing. The One’s Kinect will almost certainly be far more accurate three years from now than it is at launch.

Developers have always been more skilled at squeezing performance out of consoles at the end of their life cycles, but the hardware itself adapting over that time is something totally new. And necessary in a world where we turn over technology at a rate of a new iPhone every year, or a new laptop every two.

Is it possible that games will not run as well on the Xbox as they do on the PS4? Sure, of course that’s conceivable given the specs. And could the quality of gaming experience suffer if Microsoft’s bid to expand console gaming’s technological horizons with cloud computing falls flat? With those titles that use it before it flops (in that scenario), yeah, that a big possibility. But let’s see some games first, and how they play. Let’s see if the Xbox really can make the gaming-console-as-a-home-automation-system something more than a gimmick. Let’s see if these ideas work.

Man builds induction-powered LED engagement ring, wins at everything

Robert T. Gonzalez — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:10:00 GMT

Here's how to turn a bar of titanium into a ring with LED-illuminated jewels that light up when they're near a power source. One: fall in love. Two: a bunch of other stuff. Three: boom, magic-ring.

Ben Kokes did all three of these things. The result was a ring with an inductive loop – a copper coil assembly, hidden inside – that causes the stones lining the outside of the band to light up when the ring comes within close proximity of an induced alternating magnetic field. Probably the coolest ring-related craftsmanship we've seen since that guy who forged his own wedding band out of a meteorite.

Over on his website, Kokes has put together an awesome photo essay documenting the ring's creation:

I started this idea in January 2013, and presented the ring to my fiance on May 2013. From the start, I had to learn AutoCAD, design and develop a circuit that would inductively couple power to the ring, and also how to understand the nuances of working with titanium. In that time, I made several test models and explored several options before coming to this design. The presented ring represents version 10 of the cut metal rings. The previous 9 models were stepping stones to understand behaviors, or test out theories of how to perform an operation. A good scientist knows to do qualitative tests! The most recently made ring (ver 10) is on the left. The top bar is titanium rod that was used as the ring base. The smaller rod is the aluminum that was used for initial drilling and sizing tests.

Tons more photos and details over on Kokes' website.

[Spotted on boingboing]

Google Glass Will Make Amateur Photographers Even More Annoying

Andrew Liszewski — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:53:04 GMT

As excitement over Google Glass builds, we all really need to take a step back and seriously think about how the new technology will impact our lives. Sure, having directions and face recognition always accessible could be kind of neat. But if you're already annoyed with people using smartphones and tablets as cameras, imagine a world where everyone's filming everything with their glasses.

As this parody/probably incredibly accurate vision of the future illustrates, amateur photographers are going to get even more insufferable with access to Google Glass. From sticking their faces in plates of food to Instagram their meals, to staring at a skyline for hours like braindead zombies to capture a timelapse, to generally making us all hope that Glass ends up failing and going away very quickly.

Sebastian Vettel's Monaco Helmet Reveals A Naked Pinup When Heated

Travis Okulski — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:14:00 GMT

It's the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, which means all the teams do something a little special. Lotus has Daft Punk on their side pods. But Sebastian Vettel wins, because his helmet reveals a (mostly) naked woman as it gets warmer.

Vettel's helmet is meant as a tribute to Monaco Grands Prix past, with moments from some of the greatest races that the event has ever seen on top of his lid.

But around back is a pinup girl in a dainty black swimsuit. That's kind of risque, but still pretty normal for F1, especially for Monaco. What makes it change is the use of heat activated paint.

When it gets warm, her black outfit disappears to reveal her body, as well as two stars where her, ahem, 'lady buttons' would show. His over-the-shoulder on-board camera should be a hoot to watch Sunday morning.

And in other, less exciting custom Monaco helmet news, Lewis Hamilton painted Nicole Scherzinger and his dog Roscoe on the back of his helmet.

The back of @lewishamilton's Monaco crash helmet... Very cool! #F1 #Monaco twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/…
— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) May 22, 2013

I think Vettel wins this battle.

Forget Barcodes, 1961's Cash Register of the Future Understood Speech

Matt Novak — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:29:47 GMT

Okay Glass, pay for Tang.

Barcodes revolutionized commerce with their increased adoption in the early 1980s. Suddenly, accurately ringing up items in stores became much less dependent on the competence of the cashier. The shift from price tag to barcode meant that products simply needed a quick scan rather than a manual key-driven input. But before the barcode became affixed to virtually every product under the sun, how would you have proposed speeding up something like the supermarket checkout line?

Well, in 1961, the answer of the future was quite simple: voice recognition.

Voice recognition technology has been a promise of the future for decades. Countless sci-fi movies and futurist tracts assured the public that machines would soon understand us — or at least act semi-intelligently when given verbal instructions. But obviously it wasn't until recently that voice recognition started working in a way that the average person would deem acceptable. Today, Siri does her best to find us tomato soup delivery, and the magic of Google Glass lets me record video of my... (skydiving excursions?) without touching a button.

If you were reading the Sunday comics on August 27, 1961 you got a peek into this futuristic world of commerce, driven by engineer-perfected voice recognition. Arthur Radebaugh's "Closer Than We Think" illustrated how the supermarket checkout of the future would be made much more efficient with a microphone and "speech transcoder."

The supermarket cashier of the future would verbally input the items and their prices, and the machine would understand and tabulate them automatically:

Fascinating new areas of mechanics are opened up by the development of a typewriter which operates in response to the spoken word instead of to tapped keys.

The phonetic typewriter, an RCA invention, writes what it hears. This can lead to any number of startling applications. One may be a market tabulating machine run by the checker's voice — replacing the cash register with its banks of figure keys. The machine would print a tape showing each item and its price, then total the bill quicker than the checker could hand over the merchandise to the wrapping section. This phonetic checker would speed the checkout line to where it could become the fastest part of your visit to the market.

That "phonetic typewriter" struggled to prove itself technologically in any practical way. The methods for analyzing speech were far too primitive in the 1960s to render anything that would've worked in the wild.

But this kind of retail checkout system would be entirely possible today, given voice recognition's tremendous strides in the past decade. Retailers, however, seem to have another idea. The public's familiarity with barcodes has spurred the rise of a new kind of checkout experience that makes things much more efficient for the retailer, if perhaps more frustrating for consumers: the self-checkout.

Please put the Tang in the bagging area... Please put the Tang in the bagging area... Please...

Scientists Found the Itch Molecule—and They Know How to Turn it Off

Ashley Feinberg — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:06:00 GMT

It is not the louse we hate. Nor is it the mosquito, shirt tag, wool sweater, chicken pock, or sudden rash that torments us—the itching itself is what drives us mad. But finally, scientists have been able to identify the molecule that signals our brain to start scratching us raw—and removing it kills itchiness forever. But don't we itch for a reason?

The molecular geneticists in question, Santosh Mishra and Mark Hoon of the National Institutes of Health, began by examining the neurotransmitter chemicals in our spinal column that pass along sensory information such as heat, pain, and yes, itchiness. What they noticed was that, when mice were exposed to a variety of itch-inducing triggers, one particular chemical began releasing in excess: natriuretic polypeptide b (Nppb).

The true test came when the pair created genetically engineered mice that couldn't produce the Nppb transmitter. First they tested to see if the super-mice were still able to feel other sensations such as heat and pain, to which they all responded normally. So the removal didn't affect their response to other stimuli. Then, out came the itch-triggers (such as histamine) again. While the normal mice immediately started scratching themselves raw, the engineered mice remained calm and undoubtedly itch free. According to Mishra:

It was amazing to watch. Nothing happened. The mice wouldn’t scratch.

Until the scientists re-injected them with Nppb, that is, at which point all bets were off and their claws went to town.

Next, they were able to identify a specific type of neuron in the mice's spines with receptors called natriuretic peptide receptor A (Npra), which seemed like a likely candidate to accept Nppb. And sure enough, once the Npra was removed from normal mice, they appeared totally impervious to any itching whatsoever. What's more, they were still able to feel other sensations, so lacking this neuron wouldn't affect their sense of pain or touch.

And even though these tests were performed on mice instead of humans, we share incredibly similar nervous systems with our more rodent-oriented friends. So at the very least, this gives us a far greater understanding of our own itch reflex. But it could also very likely lead to solutions for people who produce an excess of Nppb and help make stronger, more effective itch treatments—or perhaps even total cures.

It's not going to be totally smooth sailing, though. Nppb is significant not just for the sensory nuisance it causes but also for its ability to help regulate blood circulation and pressure. Which means shutting it off entirely might present a bit of a problem. In general, there's still a lot that we don't understand about itching and its evolutionary benefits, but our potential newfound ability to turn it on and off is certainly an incredible first step. [Science via Smithsonian Mag]

Image: Shutterstock/Anton Gvozdikov

Architecturally-Inspired Forms Have a Place on Your Dessert Plate

Leslie Horn — Thu, 23 May 2013 21:00:00 GMT

The shapes you see in architecture can be reflected in the things you eat with these silicon food molds made by the Italian kitchen company Alessi.

The molds come in six different designs, each of which looks like a tiny foam concept model—the sort you might see on the desk of an architecture student. And you've got room to be as creative as you want, because they're made of silicon, which means you could use them for cakes, desserts, jello or whatever you're craving. Though the morsels you make might look like reinforced steel or concrete, they're likely to taste a lot better. (Hopefully). [Alessi]

Through a Submarine Periscope Is the Best Way to View San Francisco

Michael Hession — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:40:00 GMT

San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, but there's one unique perspective you probably haven't seen its vistas from—the periscope of a 1950's World War II-era submarine.

In 1951, the U.S.S. Catfish (best sub name ever), a Balao class diesel-electric submarine, took a detour through San Francisco Bay on its way north from San Diego. Apparently the crew had enough time to see the sites and fire off some photos of Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, and good ol' Alcatraz, which was still in operation as a federal prison.

SFGate discovered the images, belonging to the US Navy, and posted a full gallery on their blog, The Big Event.

Sadly, the U.S.S. Catfish met an unceremonious end. The vessel was sold to Argentina in 1971, after which the British captured it in the Falklands War and sunk it because it was too costly to repair. Bummer. [SFGate]

Photos courtesy U.S. Navy

Baku Rendering Redux: An Investigation Into Insane Architecture Images

Steven Thomson — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:41:00 GMT

Rendering Redux is a weekly examination of architectural rendering practices on Architizer. While many architects evaluate these images based on sheer effect, we take a more humorous approach, documenting the inconsistencies and incongruous scale figures that populate the architectural imagination. Each week, we take a look at a different project, decoding its renderings so you don’t have to.

This week takes us to Baku White City, a proposed master plan for the capital of Azerbaijan. Baku White City gets its name from an aspired-to reversal of destiny; the development is slated to replace a district formerly known as the “Black City” due to its industrial buildings.

While at first glance the proposed buildings look adventurous, a lot of its forms come directly out of the new-hyper-capitalist-development playbook. Baku White City has some pretty hefty firms as partners, including Atkins, Foster + Partners, and F+A Architects, which certainly helps add some seriousness to the proposal. Nonetheless, renderings found on BWC’s website betray a bit more shakiness. In the image above, it is a feat to get such reflectivity in a rendering, yet the glare off of that surface will be intense. Maybe that’s why that couple on the bench in the foreground is not having a good time.

Does Baku, a truly great world city, deserve more? See our full analysis of the bizarre images.

The Only Thing Better Than a Fireworks Show Is a Fireworks Competition

Leslie Horn — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:24:00 GMT

There's something wonderful about watching things blow up in sparkly, colorful explosions. You might even have your own little display over the holiday weekend. But this explosive timelapse video of the massive annual International Fireworks Competition in Da Nang, Vietnam will make your backyard show look puny by comparison.

Over two nights, five firework shows from the top manufacturers from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Italy, and Vietnam light up the Han River. The winner takes home a prestigious trophy, but really, everyone wins at a fireworks competition. [Vimeo via PetaPixel]

This Weber Charcoal Kettle Grill Is Your Deal of the Day

Kif Leswing — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Grilling season has officially started, which is why it's a bit unusual to see discounts on grills that you might actually want. But the sweet spot in Weber's somewhat iconic charcoal grilling lineup is on sale today.

Slickdeals is running a promotion with BuyDig to discount a whole slew of gas grills, but there's one charcoal grill that's worth highlighting. It's Weber's One-Touch Gold Grill, which is an update of the Weber Kettle with a couple of features that make it more convenient. For instance: a hinged cooking grate, so it's a bit easier to add more charcoal. Also: an ash catcher on the bottom and a "one-touch" cleaning feature that I can't vouch for. Usually it's $150, but the code SDSPRING knocks it down to $131 with free shipping—which is probably the best price we'll see until grilling season has come to a close. [Buydig via Wirecutter Deals via Slickdeals]

Thirty (30) lbs of charcoal for $7. The downside is you'll have to go to a Walmart walmart.com/ip/Kingsford-O…
— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) May 23, 2013

Top Deals

• Weber One-Touch Gold Grill | Buydig via Wirecutter Deals | Use coupon code SDSPRING

Accessories

Dyson makes some of the most beautiful home goods, and right now one of its most interesting products is on sale at Amazon. The AM04 is a "bladeless" fan and a space heater and a piece of great design, all in one. Of course, cutting-edge industrial design doesn't usually come cheap, but Woot's clearing 'em out for $200—which is $100 less than everywhere else. [Woot on Amazon]

Miscellaneous

• Lego Star Wars Elite Clone Trooper + Droid ($8.55) | Target via Ben's Bargains | Originally $15

• Gigabyte GeForce GTX660 ($190) | Amazon | Originally $230 | MIR on page

• Dyson AM04 Hot+Cool Table Fan ($200) | Woot via Amazon via Deals Kinja | Originally $300

• Intel Core i7-4770 ($313) | Rakuten via Hard Forum | Originally $400 | On second glance, this part number corresponds to an OEM Haswell chip, which isn't even out yet. Unless you're sure you know what's up with this sale you probably shouldn't buy it.

• 50% off Pather Martin Lures | Panther Martin via Fatwallet | Free shipping over $25

• 25% off Thermos | Thermos via Facebook

Gaming

• Alan Wake + American Nightmare [Steam] (Pay what you want) | Humble

• Pre-order Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn ($24) | Green Man Gaming via Dealzon | Use code GMG20-LLASD-D8WBQ

• Payday: The Heist ($5) | Steam

• Torchlight II [Steam] ($10) | GamersGate via Reddit

• Magic: The Gathering 2013 ($3) | Steam

PS3

• Bioshock Infinite ($40) | Amazon via 9to5Toys | Back down to lowest ever.

• Red Dead Redemption GOTY ($20) | Amazon via Daily Game Deals

• Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate ($15) | Newegg via TechBargains

Xbox

• Bioshock Infinite ($40) | Amazon via 9to5Toys | Back down to lowest ever.

• Red Dead Redemption GOTY ($20) | Amazon via Daily Game Deals

Audio

• Logitch Mini Boombox ($80) | Verizon via, 9to5Toys | Originally $100

• Sennheiser HD 558 ($140) | Amazon via, Fatwallet | Originally $170

• Beats Studio ($200) | Rakuten via, Fatwallet | Originally $300 | Only the black color

Clothing

• All T-shirts At Threadless are $15 | Threadless via Fatwallet

• 20% off L.L. Bean Signtaure Tote | L. L. Bean via Fatwallet

• Burberry Spring Sale | Burberry

Dumb TV → Smart TV

• Netgear GTV100 Google TV Box ($100) | Amazon via Ben's Bargains | Originally $150

Physical Media

• Basically $6 off Ice Age Blu-rays | Amazon via Fatwallet | Use coupon code 6OFFBLRY

• 12 Free Issues of Bloomberg Businessweek for Shiftless Millenials | Bloomberg via Fishbowl NY

Digital Media

• 50% off NYT Digital Subscription | NYTimes

Laptops

• Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon ($1126) | Lenovo via Dealzon | Originally $1300 | Use coupon code MEMORIALSALE

Desktops

Nah.

Tablets

There's a $250 refurb iPad Mini over at Walmart. Details over at 9to5Toys.

Screens

• 24" Viewsonic 1080p LED Monitor ($130) | MacMall via, 9to5Toys | Originally $150

• 32" 1080p LED Samsung HDTV ($323) | Buydig via, Fatwallet | Originally $400 | Use coupon code DIG5

• 50" 1080p Toshiba HDTV ($450) | Woot via, Dealzon | It's a refurb

Portables

• Refurbed Galaxy Note 2 with 2-Year AT&T Contract ($10) | At&T via Ben's Bargains | Originally $200

• HTC One With 2-Year AT&T or Sprint Contract ($129) | Amazon via Fatwallet | Originally $200

• Samsung Galaxy S4 w/ 2-Yr Sprint Contract ($150) | Sprint via Buyvia | Originally $200

Camera

Nah.

Bare Drives

• ~~250GB Samsung 840 Pro ($187.49) | Dell via Deals Kinja | Originally $250 | Use coupon code K2Z88R?9V0PT4C~~

• 500GB Samsung 840 SSD ($285) | Dell via Slickdeals | Originally $350 | Use coupon code K2Z88R?9V0PT4C

Apps

iOS

• Angry Birds Space ($0) | iTunes via, Deals Kinja | Originally $3

• Fifa 13 ($1) | iTunes via, Appshopper | Originally $5

• Need for Speed Most Wanted ($1) | iTunes via, Appshopper | Originally $5

• AVP: Evolution ($1) | iTunes via Appshopper | Originally $3

• Reiner Knizia's Kingdoms ($1) | iTunes via Appshopper | Originally $4

iPad Only

• Angry Birds Space HD ($0) | iTunes via Deals Kinja | Originally $5

• Bejeweled HD ($1) | iTuens via Appshopper | Originally $4

Android

• Fruit Ninja ($0) | Amazon Appstore via Deals Kinja | Originally $1

• Fieldrunners 2 ($1) | Google Play via App-sales | Originally $3

• AVP: Evolution ($1) | Google Play via App-sales | Originally $5

Hobomodo

• Free Waffle House Hashbrowns ($0) | Waffle House via, Reddit | Originally $1

Keep up with Kif Leswing on Kinja and Twitter. Check out The Moneysaver for more great tech deals, and deals.kinja.com for even more discounts.

A note on Dealzmodo: We're professional shoppers. Yes, we make money if you end up buying. That's capitalism, but we're absolutely looking out for your best interest. Read this if you want to know more.

Tomorrow's Galactic Explorers Could Use Pulsars as Interstellar GPS

Andrew Tarantola — Thu, 23 May 2013 19:00:00 GMT

Space is so ludicrously vast that keeping a precise fix on our spacecraft—even within the solar system—is really tough. So rather than track them from afar, a team of researchers want spacecraft to govern themselves—using pulsars.

For every astronomical unit (AU) between the Earth and the craft, ground control loses 4km of tracking accuracy. That means we can only guess a satellite's location orbiting around Pluto, about 50 AU, within a radius of 200km. You're not going to catch an asteroid with that level of inaccuracy.

Instead, Werner Becker and his team at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy have devised a method for spacecraft to triangulate their own positioning in space based on the relative locations of known pulsars—rapidly spinning neutron stars that emit blasts of high energy radiation in precise intervals. By measuring how long it takes for the emissions of at least three pulsars to reach the craft, compared against their predicted values, the spacecraft should be able to determine its location to within 5 km. This is essentially the same method used by cell towers and the global positioning system, but over massive distances.

There are many technical hurdles that must be overcome before this concept is actually feasible. For one, different pulsars emit radiation at different wavelengths, which can only be received by collecting dishes of a specific size. The 21cm waves that Becker's team is investigating would require an array measuring 150 square meters. This of course leads to the problem of designing and packing a sufficiently large—and, more importantly, sufficiently light—dish into the craft and successfully launching it into space.

This technology is still many years away yet but Becker is confident that future generations of astronauts will use the stars themselves as twinkling guide posts.

[Archiv via Tech Review - Image: NASA]

Ride Along As a Madman Drives a Snowmobile Off the Edge Of a Mountain

Andrew Liszewski — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:45:00 GMT

If there's one thing the popularity of GoPro cameras have given mankind, it's the ability to enjoy near-death experiences from a safe and comfortable remote vantage point. Like Erik Roner, who was kind enough to strap a couple of GoPros on as he drove a snowmobile off the edge of a cliff so we can all experience what it's like to almost end our lives prematurely.

Thankfully Eric, an experienced base jumper, was wearing a parachute and safely survived the plunge. His ride, of course, didn't.

But that's ok. The stunt actually had a bittersweet side to it, since the snowmobile Roner was riding belonged to his late friend and fellow extreme athlete, Shane McConkey, who died in a skiing accident in 2009. And while McConkey's snowmobile will never be ridden again, the snowmobile's extreme retirement party was a particularly apropos way to further memorialize a legend of extreme sports.

io9 Christopher Nolan explains how Watchmen paved the way for Man of Steel | Lifehacker The Post-Col

Lauren Bertolini — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:51:08 GMT

io9 Christopher Nolan explains how Watchmen paved the way for Man of Steel | Lifehacker The Post-College Survival Guide | Jalopnik Did The McLaren P1 Just Obliterate The Lap Record At The Nurburgring? | Deadspin ESPN Is Now Hiring. Young And Cheap May Apply.

A Tactical Apron For Chefs Who Take Their BBQ Very Seriously

Andrew Liszewski — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:32:40 GMT

For some, barbecuing is simply a means to heat food that involves the opportunity to play with fire. For others, it's as serious an operation as open heart surgery. And if the act of grilling a steak is far more important to you than actually eating one, you won't ever want to go near a BBQ again without this tactical apron backing you up.

Is it over the top and ridiculous? Absolutely. Is that what makes it so awesome? Most definitely. It of course won't protect you from bullets or other combat-related risks, but splattered grease and hot popping coals won't bother you when wrapped up in this all-cotton outer layer. The $35 apron, which debuted on ThinkGeek today, also includes two large pouches and three smaller ones that can be arranged and attached anywhere for maximum convenience. And in case someone forgets their place and tries to intervene at the grill, the apron is emblazoned with 'Chef' on the front and back to remind everyone who's in charge of the situation.

[ThinkGeek]

Hisense Sero 7 Pro Hands On: A Promising Nexus 7 Clone

Eric Limer — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:19:00 GMT

Contrary to some rumors, Google didn't announce a refreshed Nexus 7 at I/O a little while back, but up-and-comers Hisense just announced a pretty good alternative to the aging tab. Its new Sero 7 Pro—the companies first foray into the tablet space—is basically a Nexus 7, but at only $150.

The Sero 7 Pro has all the Nexus 7-y features you want. A 1200 x 800 resolution screen, a Tegra 3 quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, and stock Android 4.2.2. All for $150. The compromise is that storage is capped at a meager 8GB, but to ease the blow, the Sero 7 Pro comes with an MicroSD expansion slot. And, it even has the Nexus 7 beat by including a 5MP rear-facing camera, and HDMI output. HP's Slate 7 has been pushing in on the Nexus 7 a bit too, but it's a shade more expensive at $170, and doesn't pack in some of the perks that the Sero 7 Pro has.

We got a little hands on time and the Sero 7 Pro doesn't feel like a cheap tablet. It's got a solid build, remeniscient of the Nexus 7 it's trying so hard to app. The back is hard, textured plastic that feels less than premium, but not all out bad. The performance is smooth, thanks to Nvidia's Tegra 3, and running stock on pretty much the exact specs of a Nexus 7 delivers a pretty comparable experience. The OS does come with slight modifications via a customized launcher, with a few pack-in apps (like Walmart) but those are all easily removed. It's better than you'd expect for a $150 tablet.

We're due for a Nexus 7 refresh here sometime soon, and chances are it'll be a pretty nice overhaul of the existing model, but things like a MicroSD slot are very very unlikely to ever show up in a Nexus device. HiSense may not be the biggest name, but it's first tablet offering seems pretty damn good for the low end of the spectrum. It's rolling out to a Walmart (ugh) near you tomorrow.

14 Selfies Taken By All Of You

Mark Wilson — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:00:00 GMT

We used to call them "self-portraits," and they were one of the best known tropes of fine art. Now we call 'em "selfies" and people get super judgmental. Either way, here are your selfies portraits.

WINNER: Viking Flip
I took this selfie during a backflip on my trampoline... while wearing a viking helmet! The setup took a little bit of time because I was using my dad's old 16 mm fisheye lense, that didn't have auto focus. Once I had the focus set for the arm length distance, I had to flip while holding the camera at the correct distance from my face. Equipment: Nikon D3200 (F13, 200 ISO, 1/320 shutter speed, white balance preset to "direct sunlight") Nikkor 16mm 1:2.8 D Fisheye lense viking helmet trampoline mad gymnastics skills Nikon D5100, 18mm-55mm Lens, f/5.6, 1/6 sec, ISO 100.

- Nicholas Shirley

Unicorns Are Timeless

Shot on a Canon 6D, 24mm, f4, 1/160s, ISO 2000. I just recently got some speed lights, a wireless system, and a couple of softboxes and gels, so I was messing around with it all this morning, teaching myself the hard way about using white balance creatively. This shot was taken with two softboxes on either side of me with blue gels. My kitchen has a chalkboard wall that we painted for my kid, and it adds a cool texture to the background.

- Dave Bunting

Abduction

I regularly document myself being abducted by UFO's. This one was taken on my iPhone 4S in the alley behind where I work.

- Kevin Cross

RB67

Shooting summary: Camera - Mamiya RB67 Lens - 127mm f/3.5 (62mm equivalent in 35mm terms) Film - Portra 400 Aperture - f.3.5 Shutter Speed - 1/500th Story behind the shot: While a classic "looking through the camera" selfie, this image is one of my favorite random self-portraits I've ever taken. I was just walking around my parent's back yard at the time and noticed my reflection in the garage door window. Once I looked through the waist-level viewfinder, I noticed how it captured my reflection, the junk in the garage (they had just moved), as well as what was behind me. I composed the shot carefully, as I've come accustomed to doing as a film photographer, I metered for my skin (with a handheld meter), and snapped the photo. The roll sat in my desk drawer for quite some time before I had it developed, but once I received the scans back from Richard Photo Lab, I was amazed at how incredible this shot turned out. When you combine the reflections, the junk in the garage, and the subtle light leak (from myself accidentally dropping it taking it out of the RB67), it looks as though it was a multiple exposure shot, when it was just one shot as a reflection.

- Gannon Burgett

Anniversary

This is from the anniversary of my mom kicking cancer's ass. I love this picture because it reminds me that our family will always have hope, just on the horizon.

- Jack Staples

Best Guess Focusing

I shot this more as a test to see if the automatic setting on my Pentax Spotmatic ES-II (from 1975) was metering properly and selecting the correct shutter speed. I set it up on a tripod and did my best guessing on the focusing. The lighting was provided by an old LCD monitor with the LCD part removed. (Asahi) Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic ES-II SMC Takumar 1:1.4/50mm lens Automatic Setting (Shutter Priority) Ilford HP5+ iso400 film Developed with Ilfosol3

- Rob Lennox

Unemployment

I was sitting in my living room watching TV and browsing Gizmodo (Another day unemployed as a Performer in New York City) when I noticed the sun setting over the city and I decided to run up on the roof and try my luck at a self portrait. I set up my Nikon D5100 with a Nikon DX AF-S NIKKOR 18-70mm lens on a tripod with the interval timer set to take a picture every second. This equaled dozens of pictures of me running to and from the camera and mistimed dance moves. I finally got the hang of the timing and got this picture. Dance is a huge part of who I am and a huge part of my career so it only seemed natural to include it in my self portrait. Exposure 1/250, f/8.

- Alex Pepper

Disneyland, Paris

Equipment- Canon Rebel t3i with Stock 18-55 Lens f/4 - 1/8th Sec - 25mm - ISO3200. Self Shot accomplished via placing the camera on the curb and angling it via some scarves under the barrel. Myself and my Fiancee wanted one last awesome shot of our trip to Disneyland Paris. Waiting until we were the last people in the park I had a Cast Member (Disney Employee) take a photo and I just wasn't happy with it. Her photo was great, just not what I was looking for. I tried placing the camera on a banister but it just wasn't working for me balance-wise. I thought to myself "The curb is way too low, but then an idea struck, a couple of scarves later and we had a nice angled shot lined up. Took about 3 tries to get what I wanted but here is the end result, no post processing done so its got some rough patches, but i feel that a selfie should be rough.

- Ben Adler

Gaze

I bought myself a new camera (and, at a friend's suggestion, a copy of Lightroom) for my birthday and I've decided to attempt a 52-week project to improve my photography. I image there will be more than a few self-portraits involved, and when I saw the Giz challenge this week, I figured why not start with myself. I've fairly familiar with Photoshop, but I know next to nothing of Lightroom. I hope to learn quite a bit from this. The picture was taken on a Nikon D7100, 24mm, f/3.8, ISO 100. I shot in RAW and applied a slight exposure adjustment, a couple of skin touch-ups, and cropped the image in Lightroom. I used Photoshop only to resize the image for submission.

- Robert Lee

Wood Grain

I kinda liked how it turned out. What with all the low light noise and the accidental sepia. I felt like one of those wooden face things on the Game of Thrones opening sequence. Camera: HTC Incredible S front camera (1.3MP) Focal length: 2mm? Photoshop: Only for size. Next challenge I wanna sign up for: Duck Face.

- Theresa Teng

Vertigo

Nikon D3200 Nikon AF-S DX 35mm F/1.8 ISO1600 F/1.8 1/30 Sec. On a night-time open tour of the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, while others used dowsing rods and EMF scanners in search of ghosts, we hunted photos with flashlights, a flash and a camera. I met no apparitions, but seized the opportunity to capture this ghastly reflection of myself in a guards office mirror.

- Matthew Hamilton

"Smile!"

Camera: Canon T3i, Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm (55mm), ISO: 100, Aperture: f/7.1, Shutter Speed: 1/200. I had finally purchased a second flash and thought it would be cool to hold them for the selfie challenge. I used a Canon Speedlite and a Yongnuo for my two flashes in conjunction with my cowboy studio triggers. I set the camera and flashes to manual and adjusted the settings until I was happy with the exposure. Post-processing was done in Lightroom.

- Chris Medlar

From Above

Sony NEX-5N with a Sigma 19mm prime. 1/400th at f/8.0 with ISO at 400. This is a pic of my wife and I while we were on a shoot. We fly a radio controlled hexacopter with a camera and gimbal hanging underneath. Just as we were coming in to land I thought it might be fun to hit up a quick selfie for the contest. She is looking at a video downlink to frame the shots and I'm flying the hex. Here's a link to the video we shot while we were out:

- Thomas Brown

True Selfie

Selfie taken in the outer island of Burano in Venice. Used my trusty G12.

- Nathan Corn

Chupaca-bro

I went to Houston this weekend to run a 5k called El Chupacabra de Houston. The chupacabra is a folklore creature that is found primarily in the Americas. It's rumored to be a small beast that drinks the blood of livestock. (Chupacabra translates roughly to "goat sucker" in Spanish.) As with most legendary creatures, chupacabra are difficult to spot. Before we started getting ready for the race, I decided to channel my inner chupacabra and took this selfie in the woods. This picture was taken using a 5D Mark iii and the Canon 50 f/1.8 II. The shot itself was taken at f/1.8 with a shutter speed of 1/800 second. ISO 2500 was used. I took the shot using the ten-second timer and a tripod.

- Josh Weiss

Little Alice in Wonderland

That title was given to me by a lovely friend whom, by the way, was the one who pursue me to participate in this challenge, so, this is my first time, How exciting!!! I love the way the natural light changes pictures in a magical way. I have a huge window in my bedroom and I have the fortune to see the sunlight everyday. That morning the light was lovely so, in my pijamas and no makeup I started to take self portraits just for fun and ended up having my favorites selfies with no "duckfaces". I hope you like it too. It was so simple, I used my ipod and a filter from the instragram app.

- Holda Medina Ledo

Spiffy

This self-portrait was shot with my Canon T2i and 50mm f/1.8 lens with these settings: f/5.6; ¼ sec; ISO 800. The setup was the camera on a tripod, window light for lighting, and a plain white wall as a back drop. On the editing side, I just did a little touch up in Photoshop. I call this one “Bow Tie and Pencil Mustache.” I had been growing my mustache for the last couple weeks and my wife hates it! I love it of course, and I wanted to document it while I still had it. I came across this contest and I was inspired by the awesome mustache of the guy in the example. So I trimmed mine down to a neat pencil mustache and took this picture. I enjoyed how it turned out and thought I would share.

- Dewey JT

Melons...Wait...Yeah, Melons

Had you announced the challenge one week ago, you would see a "winter me": sketchy, untrimmed beard and longish, not absolutely clean hair. But that is past, the summer is near, time for spring cleaning. So once I took out the t-shirt you see on the picture from the closet I already knew what it's gonna be about. I got onto my motorbike, packed Nikon 5100, 35mm lens, bought some lemons and melons (yes, I did juggle melons too!) and went sight-seeing around Montreal. On this cloudy day there was no problem with high-sun shadows. Still DOF is not too great because I wanted to capture the motion, while keeping the face sharp - f1/9 @ 1/50s proved the best setting. Last but not least, I had enough of sad B&W portraits, so I decided this one will be a happy one, even if a bit autoironic. So, I guess, the motto for this summer is: 'if life gives you lemons, learn to juggle them!' :)

- Kamil Politowicz

Burschenschaft

I used the front came of my htc One. The pic was shot with an exposure of 1/17 and ISO 160. It does fairly nice in dark settings and I must say I really like the distortion by the noise - as long as you can still clearly see the subject. The setting I chose is the place I spend most time - my workdesk. It is surrounded by the things a care for: my bass guitar, games, movies, music and mostly books. On the bass is the traditional cap of a German "Burschenschaft" or fraternity I am part of. The other important things you can't see still play a role in the picture, though: my screens provide the illumination and my PC's power LED the blue drop shadow. You even can get a climpse of the mess of papers I work with while studying. What this picture shows and what I liked in it is the reason I decided to use it in the contest: You can really tell al lot about someone just from one "selfie".

- Ramon Pallaske

Wonderful entries all around. I'd say that you were all brave to show your faces, but you're a good-looking bunch, so it sort of doesn't count! And in case you're a loyal Shooting Challenge fan who imagines putting a stranger's selfie as your desktop wallpaper, find the big shots on flickr.

Incredible Slo-Mo Footage Of the Pistol Shrimp's Devastating Attack

Andrew Liszewski — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:35:00 GMT

Most clawed crustaceans use their pincers like a pair of deadly scissors, either for defense or tearing apart their prey. But the Pistol Shrimp has developed a far more devastating use for it. Its claw is able to open and snap shut with enough force to create a cavitation shockwave that kills fish and even heats the water to an impossible 7,000+ degrees fahrenheit. If any creature was meant to be studied in slow motion, this is it.

The Pistol Shrimp's pincer closes so fast, in fact, that the team at BBC Earth Productions had to crank their high-speed camera to 10,000 frames per second to just barely capture it snapping shut. And while the shockwave it creates is tiny, these shrimp have actually been known to interrupt underwater ship-to-ship sonar communications where they congregate. So maybe there's the potential here for the Navy to breed and deploy a small army of sonar scramblers.