Latest

The Perplexus Warp Ball Maze Teaches Patience and a Hatred Of Gravity

The trend to make everything 3D had an adverse effect on movies, but it works really well elsewhere. Remember those wooden Labyrinth games where you twisted a couple of knobs to manoeuvre a metal ball through a 2D maze? Well if you were to add a third dimension you’d end up with these Perplexus puzzles.…

The coolest Star-Lord cosplay gear is made out of Lego

Sometimes, you have to marvel at the ingenuity of Lego fans. There’s only so few people who think ‘Oh I know, I’ll make myself a mask! Out of Lego! And make it light up and everything!’ – and the end result is this wonderful replica of Star-Lord’s mask. Made by Alexander Jones – a.k.aOrion Pax…

Shooting Challenge: Dark Photography

It’s daylight savings time. And you know what that means. The world goes dark for the foreseeable future. Let’s make the best of it, and for this week’s Shooting Challenge, let’s photograph really dark stuff. The Challenge Take a low key photo. Or just photograph something that’s really dark. The Technique Low key photography is…

Do Want: A Modular, Programmable Robot Made Of Paper And Cardboard

ZURI is a DIY, programmable “Paperbot” system, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: The parts are built with paper and cardboard. Plus, the design is modular. By combining leg- and body-types, users can create a range of robotic bauplans. According to Laughing Squid, the robot will be smartphone-controlled, and while it’s currently…

Fox Wants Andy Serkis To Win An Oscar For Planet Of The Apes So Bad

Fox wants the Academy to recognize Serkis’ critical work as Caesar in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. They’ve announced plans to campaign hard to get Serkis nominated for this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which would be the first mo-cap performance to ever do so. If you’re wondering why Fox is pushing Serkis…

Toy Story 4 Is Happening, Taking All Ludicrous Plot Theories Now

There’s going to be another Toy Story movie! Honestly all the Toy Story movies, thus far, have been pretty great.ButSo we’re really racking our brains to figure out what this movie could possibly be about. During an investor call, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that a fourth installment of the Toy Story franchise will premiere…

How Do People Estimate Crowd Sizes?

Although the task of determining how many people attend something as large as say, a political rally or a protest may seem like a daunting, almost impossible undertaking to do with any accuracy, with some basic information, it’s actually not that difficult to get reasonably accurate results. The most well-known method of estimating the size…

Skydivers fail to open parachute on time and almost crash on the ground

These two guys were enjoying their skydiving so much that they lost track on their altitude meters failing to open the parachute on time for a safe landing. Luckily they fell on what it seems to be a corn field and that softened the landing. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or…

What’s Going On With The Science In Interstellar?

The science in Interstellar is a mixed bag: black holes are very real, buta planet orbiting a black hole would look very different and shuttles don’t fly on fumes. The whole movie is like that: the astrophysics is either totally spot-on, or absolutely not, and even makes the science consultant cringe. Have you seen Interstellar?…

Remarkable New Technique Produces “Nearly Invisible” Mice

You can put your dissection kits away, kids. Japanese researchers have developed a method that results in extremely detailed images of the insides of individual organs and even entire animals. The incredible new technique is set to dramatically improve our understanding of how biological systems work. This biotechnological feat was performed by scientists at the…

Court Forces Google To Help Marvel Find Avengers Trailer Leaker

It’s perhaps no surprise that Marvel wants the head of whoever leaked the trailer for the forthcoming Avengers: Age of Ultron movie. Perhaps more shocking, though, is that Google is being forced to roll over and help it do so. Yesterday, a federal judge granted Marvel a subpoena against Google, which will help it find…

Project Ara Has a New Modular Phone Rival

Google’s increasingly compelling Project Ara modular smartphone has a contender. Startup Vsenn, co-founded by a former program manager of the Nokia’s short-lived Android-based Nokia X initiative, aims to give it a run for its money—and focus on privacy. The start-up is new. Very new. So new that its website is just a single page. But…

Marvel Subpoenas Google Over the Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer Leak

It’s not a huge shock that Marvel and its parent company, Disney, are not happy that the Age of Ultron trailerthat was supposed air during Agents of SHIELD got leaked a week early. So they’ve turned to the page in the angry corporation playbook labeled “invasive legal action.” On Wednesday, a federal judge granted Marvel’s…

Civilization: Beyond Earth Takes Your Civ Into An Alien Future

Civilization: Beyond Earth takes the basic structure of Civilization 5 and infuses it with science-fiction tropes, alien creatures, and a sprawling web of advanced speculative technology. Yes, it’s an excellent game. Its only fault is that it’s not quite alien enough. Civ: BE is a rich, deep 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) with a…

Mom Tries To Explain Inception, Adorably Massacres The Plot

Moms and Chris Nolan movies. What an absolutely wonderful pairing. Watch as one mother explains the plot of Inception immediately after watching the film, and just completely totals the thing, top to bottom. It’s great. This wonderful video was created by pixelspersecond, and now we think everyone should record their mother watching Chris Nolan movies.…

It’s Our Party And We’ll GIF If Want To

To your keyboards, people! It’s time for a GIF Party. Gather around the digital chip bowl for a minute with us and tell us about your week. Did you learn something amazing? See something new? Finish some long-standing project? Or did you finally master the language of the GIF? Tell us about it (in GIF-form,…

It may look like some very heavy pharmacy branding, but this in fact a piece of silicon, etched to create tiny crosses just 100 microns in size. The resulting surface can absorb virtually all the terahertz radiation you throw at it. [Advanced Optical Materials]

Scientists Resurrect The Dodo With 3D Laser Scanning

More than three centuries after the last of its species walked on the isle of Mauritius, the skeleton of the dodo bird has been recreated using 3D scanning technology. The virtual model is enabling scientists to reconstruct how it walked, moved and lived to a level of detail that has never been possible before. Arguably…

This Baby Dressed As Groot Is The Cutest Damn Thing In The Galaxy

Sorry, Ben McKenzie. Your Commissioner Gordon costume seemed to win Halloween 2014, but that award has been retroactively rescinded in order to give it to the true winner: this baby. I can’t even stand how adorable this picture is. I think I may be ovulating. The baby belongs to Tumblr stunningpicture, whose wife made the…

Whatsapp Read Receipts Now Work How They Always Should’ve

Chances are when you use Whatsapp you probably think one tick means “sent” and another means “read.” Nope! But now the app has been updated so that its read receipts are actually useful. In fact, one tick used to mean “sent” but two just meant that it merely arrived at the other end—it had nothing…