Sunday, June 5, 2016

Gizmodo Australia


Sydney Weather Is Kind Of Bonkers Right Now 

We’re having a small spot of rain over in Sydney at the moment, and I hear it’s not too nice pretty much all the way around the east coast. Here’s the story according to the Twitterverse.

Hold The Door With Your Very Own Hodor Doorstop 

Well, this was inevitable: a team is paying tribute to our favourite Game of Thrones character with a doorstop in his likeness. Hodor!

Did You Notice All The Foreshadowing In The World's End? 

Video: Like all Edgar Wright films, The World’s End is a good movie to start with, and it gets even better on subsequent viewings. A lot of that is because of the care the director puts into setting up things that pay off subtly later in the movie.

A 3D Tour Of The International Space Station For All Of Us Wannabe Astronauts 

Video: There’s no shortage of footage showing what life aboard the International Space Station is like, but unless you’ve had a chance to spend some time there, the ISS’ sprawling and ever-expanding layout can be confusing. To help make better sense of it, the European Space Agency has created a narrated video tour of the space station — and it’s in 3D.

Everything You Need To Know About Warcraft Before You See The Movie  

The Warcraft movie is nearly here, and if you don’t know your Gul’dans from your Garonas, everything in the trailers probably looks monstrously confusing. Don’t worry, we’re here to help! Here’s what you need to know about the weird world of Azeroth before you start your journey (into a movie theatre).

Putting A Piñata On A Flying Drone Seemed Like A Good Idea At First 

Video: Piñatas are already notoriously difficult to hit while wearing a blindfold and dizzy from spinning. But trying to hit a piñata perched atop a flying drone, and not hanging from a tree, is a even greater challenge.

Hackers Are Using Infected USB Drives To Attack Critical Infrastructure  

Government-sponsored hackers are using a clever trick to attack critical infrastructure like nuclear power plants, dams and oil refineries. According to Eric Knapp, chief cybersecurity engineer at Honeywell, one third of malware found in critical infrastructure came from USB drives plugged in by users.

Young Fish Get Hooked On Plastic Microbeads 

European researchers have discovered that larval fish love to gobble up plastic microbeads, which stunts their growth and makes them more vulnerable to predators. It’s yet another reason to ban these awful materials and to limit the amount of plastic entering into our lakes and oceans.

Are We Overthinking The Dangers Of Artificial Intelligence? 

Futurists and science fiction authors often give us overly grim visions of the future, especially when it comes to the Singularity and the risks of artificial superintelligence. Scifi novelist David Brin talked to us about why these dire predictions are often simplistic and unreasonable.

Watch How Every Game Of Thrones Episode Was Discussed On Twitter 

Each Game of Thrones episode generates its fair share of internet chatter. This new Twitter #interactive visualisation takes this tremendous amount of information and translates it into something surprisingly meaningful.

Princess Leia Has Received Her Own Political Attack Ad 

Video: Election mania is sweeping both the US and Australia, and not even fictitious politicians can escape the vicious cycle of attack ads.

A Camera Lens Breakthrough Could See Smartphones Outperforming DSLRs 

If you’ve ever held a high-quality camera lens, the first thing you notice is the weight. Thanks to layers and layers of thick glass hunks inside, they end up being very heavy. However, thanks to research being done at Harvard on something called metalenses, one day those giant glass-filled lenses might be obsolete.

Sydney Weather Is Kind Of Bonkers Right Now 

We’re having a small spot of rain over in Sydney at the moment, and I hear it’s not too nice pretty much all the way around the east coast. Here’s the story according to the Twitterverse.

8 Found Footage Horror Movies That Are Genuinely Scary 

One of the biggest complaints about found footage horror films is that they rely too heavily on boring, cheap jump scares to get audience reactions. But these eight examples actually dig deeper — and bring genuine terror to the screen as a result.

Facebook Has Taken Away The Mobile Messenger Workaround 

There was previously a great way for you to check your Facebook messages without actually using Facebook messenger on your phone. It’s not completely dead, but that method has just intentionally been made super inconvenient.

How To Listen To And Delete Everything You've Ever Said To Google 

Here’s a fun fact: Every time you do a voice search, Google records it. And if you’re an Android user, every time you say “OK Google,” the company records that, too. Don’t freak out, though, because Google lets you hear (and delete) these recordings. Here’s how.

The US Navy's Futuristic New Diving Helmet Turns Sailors Into Minions 

The US Navy is developing a new diving helmet fitted with something called Divers Augmented Vision Display (DAVD). It’s essentially a fancy underwater HUD. But really, the whole setup basically looks like a high tech Minion costume.

Oh Man, Someone Is Finally Going Inside NASA's Inflatable Space House 

No need to panic, just because a frail human body — made up of eminently breakable bone, skin and sinew — is about to step into the vacuum of space, protected only by a reinforced bouncy castle. EVERYTHING IS FINE.

Working At Facebook Sounds Like Joining A Cult 

Vanity Fair got its hands on a kind of insane first-hand account of working at Facebook, adapted from a book by a former employee. It makes working at Facebook sound a lot like a messianic sect circle-jerk.

Microsoft Won't Build Your Self-Driving Car 

Microsoft won’t build its own self-driving car, but wants to make the operating system that runs in one and lead the move to turn the car into an office.

Submerged 'Lost City' Is Actually A Naturally Occurring Phenomenon 

A few years ago, divers discovered an apparent underwater “lost city” off the coast of Zakynthos in Greece. New research reveals that the site, which was thought to be the ruins of a long-forgotten civilisation that perished when tsunamis hit the shore, is in actuality a geological formation — and a bizarre one at that.

Tony Fadell Quits Nest After A Load Of Problems 

When Google bought Nest in 2014, it seemed like a good bet. After all, the company put out an amazingly successful smart thermostat and followed up that with the awesomely designed Nest Protect smoke alarm. Though they never made it to Australia, they were hits in the US. But after months of reports of shoddy leadership, Fadell is saying goodbye.

Watch A Cruise Ship Crash Into The Side Of The Dock 

Video: When you’re as big as this cruise ship — and it’s really big at 294m long, 32m wide and 91,000 tonnes — it can be hard to stop. So you have to make sure you slow down in time or you’ll destroy things because once again, you’re a really big ship. This cruise ship, the Celebrity Infinity, didn’t stop in time and slammed into the side of a dock at Ketchikan Harbour in Alaska, downing part of the barge and busting up a few mooring dolphins.

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