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Watch NASA’s Cygnus Spacecraft Launch to the Space Station Live Right Here [UPDATED]

After a long wait, NASA’s Orbital ATK Cygnus is headed up to the space station today, carting 7,000 pounds of gear along with it. Count down with us and watch the whole thing happen right here. UPDATE 6:25 p.m. EST: The launch has been rescheduled due to weather. The new date is tomorrow, Friday December…

Into the Badlands Exclusive Sneak Peek: M.K. Is Ready to Kick Sunny’s Ass

Last week on Into the Badlands, M.K. put his foot down with Sunny: He wants Sunny to teach him to fight. (Fight better, that is. The kid’s already pretty lethal.) Sunny agrees, but based on this minute-long exclusive preview of Sunday’s episode, he might regret taking on a new deadly pupil… The next episode of…

The Fascinating Reason Why the Coldest Days of the Year Vary So Wildly In the US

Statistically, the coldest days of the year should be a pretty simple thing to map. So why does this map look so splotchy? The NOAA recentlyresurfaced this map first published last year, explaining a bit more about its idiosyncrasies. It represents the average date of the coldest day of the year based on 29 years…

Maddy Myers has an excellent take on the resulting—if small—fandom for Kilgrave following Jessica Jones. “Although I may not fully understand the fandom surrounding Kilgrave, I do understand the general desire to reclaim a bad experience or experiment within a fictional or virtual space.” Read the whole thing here.

All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Afford To Miss In December!

Some of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2015 still haven’t come out yet. There’s a whole month of galaxy-shattering tales ahead of us. Including Star Wars! Dean Koontz! And thrilling tales from A.M. Dellamonica, Adam Roberts and Brian Staveley! Here are this month’s most essential science fiction and fantasy reads! Star Wars:…

Elon Musk Is Probably Our Best Hope Yet For Moving Beyond Fossil Fuels

As the leaders of 196 countries negotiate a carbon emissions goal for the planet to prevent an environmental apocalypse, the real work will fall to the companies that will need to deliver change to consumers. And no single person is doing as much to help change our energy consumption as one Elon Musk. In a…

Look what happens when magma touches water

Fire bubbles! That’s what happens when burning hot liquid magma hits water. National Geographic writes that, “Scientists are trying to determine the potential dangerous effects of introducing water into a pressurized pocket of magma underground.” SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Bloodiest Christmas Massacres #2: The Killer Who Was Blinded By Hate

It was Christmas Eve, 1985. Seattle attorney Charles Goldmark was at home with his wife, Annie, and their two children, 10-year-old Colin and 12-year-old Derek; all were eagerly anticipating the festive holiday dinner to come. But a murderous, hate-filled stranger would put an end to all of their plans. David Lewis Rice knocked on the…

The Vision’s New Family Life Is Falling To Pieces In The Most Fascinating Way

Last month, I was completely blindsided by the creepy, compelling opening to The Vision. Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta crafted an incredible first issue that explored the Avenging Android’s new family, and how coldly inhuman they were—but the second issue gives them some dark, fascinatingly human problems. Spoilers ahead for The Vision #2, by…

Like Jon Snow We Know Nothing, In The First Teaser For Game of Thrones Season 6

Okay, so, if you’re worried about spoilers, this first teaser for the next season of Game of Thrones doesn’t actually have any new footage in it—but it’s got one hell of an awesomely portentous bit of dialogue over it that has some spoilery connotations. So consider this your warning! There’s actually two narrators—Max Von Sydow,…

The 13th Friday the 13th Movie is Having A Lot of Bad Luck

Jason Voorhees may have met his match. It’s the number 13. It’s been six years since the twelfth Friday the 13th film came out—and the forthcoming 13th sequel just got hit with another string of setbacks. The Wrap reports director David Bruckner, who’d been on the project for over a year, has left. The reason?…

American Horror Story‘s Ten Commandments Killer Is Finally Out in the Open

Of course, most viewers guessed weeks ago who’s been killing sinners and posing the crime scenes with Hannibal-like attention to detail. But for anyone still wondering, “The Ten Commandments Killer” left no stone unturned in explaining every detail of who did it, how he did it, and why he did it. Spoilers! Duh, it’s fallen…

Google’s Cardboard Camera App Takes VR-Ready 360 Photos In Seconds

The future promise of VR headsets is immense, but perhaps the biggest impediment to their wider adoption is the lack of actual content you can watch on them. To its credit, Google’s really pushing hard to solve the problem. It’s latest effort is Cardboard Camera, which makes taking a 360 degree snapshot a breeze. Using…

Science and Nature Get a Retro-Modern Make Over In This New Art Show

“I wanted to create something that would visually represent the way science is derived from nature,” said artist Kevin Dart. “I feel like you can’t deny scientific ideas if you believe in the world around you, because all science is based on observations made in that world.” “Plus,” he continued, “I wanted to celebrate the…

There Are Still 4,000 Cold War Nuclear Test Films That Remain Classified

Sarah Zhang has a fascinating post over at Wired about the systematic study of Cold War-era nuclear test films that’s currently being undertaken by nuclear physicist Gregg Spriggs. One of the most interesting elements to the story is the fact that of the 7,000 films discovered so far, 4,000 are still classified. From Wired: While…

Novelists Are Working Hard To Create Apps That Are Deliberately User-Unfriendly

A decade ago, cutting-edge writers/publishers were crafting books that were physically works of art, in response to the rise of ebooks. Now, those same people are making apps. Miranda July, creator of the instant-messaging app Somebody, talks to Russell Quinn, co-creator (with Eli Horowitz) of The Pickle Index and The Silent History, about making apps…

A Fender Stratocaster Made From Cardboard Still Sounds Incredible

Best known for their experimental snowboard creations, the folks at Signal Snowboards have now teamed up with an LA-based company called Ernest Packaging to use cardboard to recreate things you’d never expect to be made from paper, staring with a recyclable Fender Stratocaster. Many of the cardbocaster’s (our name, not theirs) components are the same…

The Building Industry Could Cut Our Global Emissions By One Third–So Why Hasn’t It?

The building and construction industry is a massive source of global CO2 emissions—but it could easily reduce its impact with existing technology. At today’s climate talks in Paris, 18 countries and 60 organizations formed a new alliance aimed at doing just that. Just how widely does the construction and building industry affect emissions? The numbers…

This Episode of Arrow is the Craziest Fricking Thing I’ve Ever Seen

“Legends of Yesterday” is the second part of the Arrow/Flash crossover, or a way of transmitting the effects of LSD through a television screen, or both. This is the nuttiest bit of entertainment I’ve seen in a while, but my god does it entertain. The Wigless Report Everyone who has complained about the flashbacks this…

Buy a Set of Star Wars Glassware and Then Fight Over Who Drinks From the Death Star

Who’s to say if a cocktail tastes better sipped from an Endor or a Tatooine glass? What’s for certain is that you can spend $40 on this six-piece set of Star Wars Planetary Glassware from ThinkGeek, and then fight over who gets to drink from the Death Star glass, and who has to settle for…