Latest

Just a Couple Dudes Building Sauron’s Mace From Lord of the Rings

With the final (supposedly) Hobbit movie on its way, a few modern day blacksmiths have decided celebrate by forging some good, old fashioned Middle Earth weaponry. This is how you build a mace worthy of the second Dark Lord himself. The AWE Me dudes‘ methods are a little more high-tech than they were in Sauron’s…

Field Notes: Sony’s A7 Mark II Is a Solid Upgrade, But Video’s a Bummer

We recently did a quick preview of Sony’s new A7 Mark II, the brand new revision to last year’s full-frame mirrorless camera. Since then I’ve had a chance to spend significantly more quality time with the Mark II, and am ready to ruminate on what’s better and worse on version two. In my last post,…

Amazon Echo Teardown: A Dark Tower of Voice Control

Amazon’s Echo speaker promises to make your life better by being a Siri for your kitchen, an always-listening assistant you can ask for help when your hands are covered in batter. The folks at iFixit got one, and naturally started ripping it apart. Once you dive in, it looks like spare parts for the Death…

A Retro Analog Voltmeter Clock Perfect For a Mad Scientist’s Lab

With a delivery date of sometime in April of 2015, this extra-analog clock unfortunately isn’t going to arrive in time to be the perfect Christmas gift for the mad scientist on your list. But for those with patience and a soft spot for vintage machinery, the AWK-105 Analog Voltmeter Clock seems like it could be…

Top 20 popular sites since 1996

Not long ago sites like Netscape or Altavista were the kings of that new thing called the internet. That thing has evolved to the point that I can’t believe there was a time when Facebook and Goolgle didn’t even exist. This infographic shows that evolution listing the 20 most popular sites from 1996 to 2013.…

This Giant Rainbow Was Made With Tech That’s Used To Study Exoplanets

It’s not very often that the fields of advanced photonics and installation art meet. But in Amsterdam this week, visitors to the city’s Central Station are getting a look at what happens when liquid crystal optic technology is used to something completely unscientific: Make public art. The installation celebrates Central Station’s 125th birthday, and it’s…

2014’s Batgirl In New Batman Adventures Colours Makes For Great Cosplay

Well, this is just about a perfect case of two great tastes tasting great together – Cosplayer Emberphantom mashed up the smart new style of the latest Batgirl design by Babs Tarr with the colour scheme of her outfit from The New Batman Adventures animated series into one brilliant Cosplay! Image Credit: Shannon Vetack Photography…

Could We Be Getting Two Ghostbusters Movies In The Near Future?

We may know who’s directing the Aquaman movie. Amy Adams describes Lois Lane’s role in Batman v. Superman. Tom Hanks may star in the movie of Dave Eggers’ The Circle. The King Kong movie Kong: Skull Island adds one of our favorite actors to its cast. Plus Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Once Upon a…

Why Is Peanut Butter So Damn Sticky?

Arachibutyrophobia is a proposed humorous name for the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the top of your mouth, coined by Charles M. Schulz in a 1982 edition of his famed Peanuts comic strip. But why does peanut butter have such a tendency to get stuck in your palate when so many other foods…

These beautiful paintings feel like 1980s sci-fi film concept art

I’m so in love with the amazing paintings of Simon Stålenhag. So much that I’m posting about him again. There’s something about his aesthetics that remind me of the sci-fi movies from the 1980s—the combination of color, everyday suburbia scenes, and the kids wandering around his world. Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish illustrator who lives…

Photographer stretches skin to freaky limits without Photoshop

Dutch photographer Juuke Schoorl explores the limits of human skin in this series of pictures called Rek—stretch in Dutch. To create such patterns and shapes she doesn’t use Photoshop but cheep household materials like nylon fishing rope or tape. The artist writes: With ‘Rek’ (stretch in Dutch) I explore the aesthetic possibilities of the human…

A Little Lead Can Make Graphene Magnetic

Graphene has very many strengths, but there is one thing it isn’t and that is magnetic. Now, a team of researchers has found that the insertion of a little lead into the planar graphene structure can change that. https://gizmodo.com/this-video-explains-what-graphene-is-and-why-its-a-magi-1605110399 The team—from from IMDEA Nanoscience, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Madrid Institute of Materials Science…

Spectacular photo of airplane flying by volcano’s molten lava eruption

I don’t know if I would be happy to fly so close of an active volcano that is ejecting lava like in this photo featured on National Geographic’s Your Shot. I know the plane is not flying over the lava, but you never know when Earth is going to get mad. For photographer Baldur Sveinsson,…

Report: Roku Is Getting HBO Go and Showtime for Comcast Subscribers

Comcast subscribers will soon be able to access HBO Go and Showtime on their Roku according to a new FCC filing. We just don’t know when. In a document uncovered by Re/code, it’s revealed that Comcast saw fit to “authenticate” the two apps on its networks in a deal made on November 25th. That will…

All of 2014 Conan O’Brien show in one insane supercut

I’m a big fan of Conan O’Brien (and Andy Richter) and this supercut of his show at TBS is a great sample of their particular brand of hilarious absurd humor. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

While the spiral pastel colors of this image are evocative of a painting, they are in fact a visualization of data from ESA’s Planck satellite showing the interaction between interstellar dust and the Milky Way’s magnetic field. Scientists are studying how the dust’s alignment with that field influenced our galaxy’s formation.

A New British Show Will Feature a Space Ark Piloted by an Android Bear

Britain’s Channel 4 has ordered a pilot for a half-hour science fiction comedy that follows 200 hundred humans on a mission to find a new home after the destruction of Earth. So far, that’s a pretty standard sci fi set up. And then there’s the ship’s pilot, which is described as an android bear. Suddenly,…

What Your Favorite App Says About You

Harsh, but perhaps ultimately fair. What does Endomondo do again? [Truth Facts] http://kindofnormal.com/truthfacts/2014/12/15

Excellent short on relationship problems and interdimensional physics

BAFTA-winning animator Jonathan Hodgson said Rabbit and Deer—a short film by Péter Vácz and Attila Bertóti—”is a stunningly directed and beautifully crafted play on the universal conflict of emotional incompatibility.” He’s completely right. Some of the best 15 minutes I’ve spend in front a screen this year. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on…

The Flu Shot Isn’t a Good Match This Year. Is It Ever?

The CDC announced recently that this year’s flu vaccine is missing a key strain, one that accounts for 48% of what’s circulating. That strain, a “drifted” version of H3N2, was discovered in March 2014, but the vaccine strains for the Northern hemisphere, including the US, had been decided a month earlier. (The Southern hemisphere vaccine…