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Stop What You’re Doing And Watch This Insane Fireworks Display

The 2014 Bamboo Rocket Festival in Thailand (one of many such traditional events held annually prior to the rainy season) yielded the absolutely jaw-dropping fireworks display below. No more words even necessary, really … watch and prepare to have your face melted clean off by sheer force of awesome. Image via 9news.

How To Start Your Own Micronation

Have you ever wanted to be king of your own nation? Do you want to test out a political experiment with a few dozen of your closest friends? Consider setting up your own micronation for fun, social experiments, and profit. Photograph: His Excellency President Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia. Photo by J. Stephen…

A Guide To The Most Nutritious Post-Apocalypse Cuisine

If a global catastrophe strikes, chances are that efforts to store food will keep most people fed for only a year. But, before everyone loses their heads and begins reenacting the Donner Party, here are some tips from two researchers who have come up with ways to live off what’s left of the land. Image:…

io9 Newsstand: What Are Your 5 Favorite Stories of 2014?

Every week since the beginning of July I’ve highlighted my favorite stories and authors, and here at the end of the year I have some solid contenders for Best of the Year. And since it’s time to start thinking about what should go on award ballots and in anthologies. So what are your favorite stories…

These “Christmas Trees” Sit on the Bottom of the Ocean

There’s a veritable gold rush going on beneath the world’s oceans as nations and multinational corporations alike vie to discover and exploit a wealth of minerals and energy trapped within. Off the coast of Western Australia, for example, General Electric has tapped into a massive reserve of oil and natural gas, pumping the valuable resources…

The Very Best Toys And Collectibles Released In 2014

They used to say that whoever dies with the most toys win — but that was before we had a toy industry cranking out so much insane quantity that you could fill several buildings with crap in one lifetime. Now, it’s all about quality, not quantity. And here are the most brilliant toys and collectibles…

This Rare Bird Is Half-Male And Half-Female

This bi-colored northern cardinal has female plumage on its right, and male plumage on its left. Called a “gynandromorph,” these animals are rare in nature. Rarer still is the chance to study one for extended periods of time — but researchers recently had such a chance with the bird you see here. Photo Credit: Brian…

Hackers Who Shut Down PSN and Xbox Live Now Attacking Tor 

Uh oh. Lizard Patrol, the hacking group claiming responsibility for the Christmas attacks on PlayStation and Xbox Live, has announced a new target: Tor, the anonymous internet service. The hacker group appears to be attempting to dominate Tor’s relays to the point where it can comprise anonymity. Tor keeps you anonymous by bouncing your communications…

The Eternal Champion rises again: Titan Books has created sometotally gorgeous reissues of Michael Moorcock’s Corum book series, with some striking cover images. [via SFSignal]

The Most Amazing Toys And Collectibles Of 2014

2014 has been an amazing year for Pop Culture – and equally great for fans of all things merchandise. Whether it be vinyl toys, action figures or high end figures and statues, there’s been a lot of lovely toys to buy, much to the chagrin of our wallets! Here’s some of our favourite Toys of…

Samurai Star Wars is 12 parsecs worth of neat

Now that Disney bought Star Wars, I hope they get a little bit riskier and produce new stuff loosely based on the classic trilogy. A Japanese version would look amazing, as these cool action figures demonstrate. It’s only a natural step—as George Lucas’ original saga was directly influenced by Kurosawa’s work. SPLOID is delicious brain…

How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

Your smartphone is a minor miracle, a pocket-sized computer that can fulfill almost every whim. But none of its superpowers matter a bit if it runs out of juice. With removable batteries becoming more and more rare, you’ve got to take good care of the one you got. Fortunately, it’s not to hard keep the…

The 10 Most Notorious Paranormal Hoaxes in History

Some might argue that everything that passes for “paranormal” is a hoax. (There’s no fun in that, but insist if you must.) But even the biggest unexplained-phenomenon junkies have to admit when a fraud’s a fraud … as the 10 cases below will attest. 1) The Amityville Horror The big daddy of paranormal hoaxes, Jay…

Google’s New Self-Driving Cars Will Hit Roads In January

Google’s self-driving cars are getting an upgrade. The latest model trades in the kludgy, rack-mounted, rooftop LIDAR system for a marginally sleeker form factor – a thimble-shaped peduncle that looks like a police siren crossed with a Mac Pro. It’s also getting real headlights! As with the previous model, Google’s newest self-driving car is designed…

Watch the mad skills of this woman cooking rice paper roll sheets

I could spend hours sitting next to this woman, watching her making rice paper roll sheets. And then fill those rice papers with noodles, cilantro, shrimps, hoisin sauce, cook them in a steamer, and eat them with an ice cold beer. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Orion Spacecraft In Photos: Assembly, Flight, Splashdown, And Recovery

This December, Orion left for a 60,000 mile journey through space, to land at sea to be carried 600 miles back to shore, and finally went on a 2,500-mile road trip home. Here’s the whole journey from construction through the flight and back home, in pictures. Top image: Delta IV Heavy blasting off with Orion…

Worst Demolition Team Screws Up Same Explosion Twice

How hard can it be to blow up a building? My childhood experience with knocking over waist-high towers of cardboard blocks leads me to say “not hard,” but this botched job by a demolition team in Sevastopol suggests otherwise. I mean, come on guys. The crack team of demolition “experts” appear to have tried again…

Why Wonder Woman Has Trouble Understanding Mortal Holidays

Religious celebrations on Themyscira must be a lot more interesting. The always delightful Texts from Superheroes has brought us another round of holiday goofiness as superheroes deal with their culture and personality clashes. Head over to Texts from Superheroes to find out what Superman gave his fellow Justice League members and relive some of the…

Watch As A Kangaroo Punches A Drone

Animals are definitely sending us a message that they value their privacy. First we had a hawk smack a drone out of the sky. And now a kangaroo has delivered a knockout punch against a hovering intruder. https://gizmodo.com/watch-as-a-hawk-knocks-a-drone-out-of-the-sky-1644813211 While the footage was rescued, the drone is beyond repair. As The Dodo notes: This laying down…

The NSA Dumped Its Spying Violations While You Were Waiting on Santa

The U.S. government has released proof that it repeatedly spied on American citizens without being allowed to… and you probably missed it. The National Security Administration finally dumped a heap of redacted documents revealing the surveillance violations made over the last decade. Hooray for transparency! Of course, it released them midday on Christmas Eve, when…