scary
Robots
Computerised Train Runs Over Local Man For “Unknown Reason”
3:45PM Dan Nosowitz | We here at Gizmodo are anything but fearmongering sensationalists. We’re analytical, skeptical, and rational at all costs. That being said, this robot train ran over some dude in Miami and everyone in south Florida should run for their lives. More »
Robots
The Five Most Terrifying Robots I’ve Came Across, Ever
6:20AM Jesus Diaz | The Big Picture has an album on cool real-world robots, but I only care about one type: Robots that scare me, terrifying metal monsters that can tear my guts apart. Here are the top five. More »
Vehicles
What Happens When an Aeroplane Engine Blade Gets Loose
11:00PM Jesus Diaz | Here’s a crystal-clear video showing what happens when an aeroplane engine fan blade gets loose when you fire a chicken at 250 knots into a turbojet using a chicken gun. Result: (Contained) Boom. Update: Corrected. More »
Gadgets
Scary Video: RFID Passports Secretly Copied on a Lovely Sunday Drive
6:20AM Matt Buchanan | If you have an RFID-lojacked passport but don’t keep it in a faraday cage wallet, this video of Chris Paget’s war-driving exploits—plucking information off them from afar—should make you think real hard about it. More »
Press
Knife-Wielding Teen Holds Parents Hostage Over Mobile Phone Punishment
2:40AM Sean Fallon | If you have teenage daughters, you had better think twice about taking away their mobile phone—because you could end up hiding in a bedroom while she frantically stabs at the door with two kitchen knives. More »
Science
If You Thought Drunk Dialing Was Bad, Try Sleep Emailing on Ambien
10:30AM Sean Fallon | Sending emails in your sleep—once thought impossible by neurologists, a case of sleep emailing by a woman has become the first reported example of “complex nonviolent cognitive behavior.” More »
Software
Software Can Duplicate Your Keys Using a Photo Taken From 60 Metres Away
8:00AM Sean Fallon | There are skilled locksmiths out there that can reproduce a key from high-resolution images, but new software developed by computer scientists at UC San Diego has simplified the process to a frightening degree. In fact, their “Sneakey” system can reproduce a key with only a grainy mobile phone image or, in one case, a picture taken from 60 metres away with a five-inch telephoto lens. More »
Robots
NASA Working On a Robotic Space Psychologist, Astronauts in Grave Danger
9:00AM Gizmodo US Edition | NASA is set to begin work next month in Boston on a four-year, $US1.74 million project called the Virtual Space Station. The project is supposed to create a program that can independently counsel depressed astronauts by supplying solutions to their typed insecurities. AP writer Jay Lindsay insists that it’s nothing like HAL 9000, and he’s totally right: that was a movie, and this is terrifyingly real. More »
Gadgets
Electric Surgery Knife Sets Patient’s Throat Ablaze
1:50AM Matt Buchanan | I’m glad I had my tonsils out years ago, or this would make me think twice about it. A 76-year-old man admitted to the hospital in Chiba, Japan, for respiratory failure was about to have a new tube implanted in his trachea when the one already in there caught fire as the doctor cut into his throat with an electrosurgical knife. The flames reached as high as 10 centimeters, and scorched his respiratory passage, mouth and face. More »
Online
