When President Trump was elected, many wondered what would happen with Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents attraction in Florida. Back in May, Motherboard reported that the new robo-Trump would break tradition and might not speak at all. But Disney announced yesterday that President Trump will indeed speak when the…
In 1911, a monument was erected in Orlando, Florida in honor of the Confederate traitors who fought to uphold slavery in the South. This week that monument was moved from its prominent position (despite protests from local losers) to a nearby cemetery, but the controversy hasn’t died away yet. A local chapter of the…
Jack Ma, the billionaire businessman and chairman of the Alibaba Group, believes that automation will help workers of the future enjoy more leisure time. In fact, he sees a future where people will be working just 16 hours per week by 2047.
Predictions about driverless cars became incredibly popular in the 1950s and 60s. But the idea is nearly as old as the automobile itself. One example? This short film from 1911, featuring a robot chauffeur.
Federal police in Argentina recently discovered a time capsule of evil, hidden inside a house near Buenos Aires. Roughly 75 Nazi artifacts, including everything from a large knife to Nazi medical devices to a photo negative of Adolph Hitler, were uncovered in a secret room. Police are investigating when and how the…
When the world is descending into chaos, it can be hard to believe that optimistic visions of the future are within our reach. But personally, I think I’ve hit that point where escapist fantasy worlds of tomorrow are the only thing that can ease the stresses of our modern world. This 1923 illustration, for instance,…
“Do not buy maps, buy stock in companies that print maps,” Dr. Paul Goble told a group at Los Alamos National Laboratory in November of 1992.
The world was shocked when Prince died of a prescription drug overdose back in April of 2016 at the age of 57. As I often do after celebrities die, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI for any files it might have on the music legend. After months of delays—we were originally told that it…
Perth, Australia is the most remote major city on the planet. Which is apparently why it appealed to legendary director Stanley Kubrick. New research reveals that Kubrick was so concerned with the possibility of nuclear war that he actually planned to move to Perth in 1962.
As someone who spends every day researching and writing about history, I often think about how our era will be judged by future historians. And I can’t help but think that this particular week will be seen by people of the future as a major turning point in 2017. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the past seven days…
What’s the first thing you think about when you think of NASA’s space shuttle program? Sally Ride? Spinning in microgravity? The Challenger explosion? That episode of the Simpsons? You might not think about the US military and intelligence community launching spy satellites, but you should. NASA’s shuttles were…
Back in August, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for a bunch of films held by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). We looked at one yesterday from 1976 about nuclear extortion, and we’ll explore the others in the coming weeks. But there was one that I requested that the NNSA…
Martin Friedman, the head of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, died last May at the age of 90. At the time, I requested Friedman’s FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and that 93-page file was delivered to me yesterday. While there’s nothing scandalous in it, reading the file made me…
Bomb threats have been a part of American life since at least the 19th century. But in the 1970s the types of threats shifted dramatically. The people making bomb threats in the US started to claim their bombs had nuclear materials. By 1975, the US started a new task force to deal with the threats, and we at Gizmodo…
Do the new McDonald’s uniforms remind you of anything? If you answered “every dystopian sci-fi movie ever,” you’re correct. To me, they invoke a very Logan’s Run future. But mandatory gray-on-gray with a dash of black is pretty much universally recognized as the standard uniform for bleakest of futures.
Blade Runner’s blaster already has a number of expensive replicas. This summer, it’s getting a water gun.
Have you ever seen the 1983 ABC TV-movie The Day After? It’s bleak as hell, to say the least. It was a media event, with untold numbers of American dying in the film after a tit-for-tat nuclear war with the Soviet Union. But curiously, President Ronald Reagan thought that it validated everything about his get-tough…
Back in March of 2015, I wrote a blog post proclaiming that I would “literally eat the sun” if this AeroMobil flying car was released by 2017. Well, today, the company announced a new flying car that will be on display later this month. But I’m not grabbing my knife and fork just yet.
It’s April 10, 2017, and you know what that means. Yes, it’s the 276th anniversary of the Battle of Mollwitz (everybody knows that), but it also happens to be Leon Kowalski’s birthday. Well, Leon’s inception day to be precise. Who’s Leon Kowalski? He’s a replicant from the classic 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner.
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