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Chromecast just got more educational content and funny laughs, in the form of seven new apps including Comedy Central, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, and more. Sidenote: this also offers more ways to escape your family over the holidays.

How Famous Artists Would Arrange Their Thanksgiving Plates

This year your Thanksgiving guest list includes the old staples of aunts, uncles, and your cousin’s weirdo boyfriend, but if you were so lucky to host famous modern artists, this is how they might arrange their plates, as imagined by artist Hannah Rothstein. She features theoretical plate stylings of the likes of Piet Mondrian (above)…

The Day After The Comet Landing, Everyone Was Listening To Aerosmith

When the Philae lander touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it unleashed a series of Internet memes— most of which were references to the film Armageddon. And within 24 hours, the Aerosmith song “I Don’t Want to Miss A Thing” from the movie soundtrack was spiking on Spotify. According to data released on Spotify’s blog, the…

Tablets Are Broken. Here’s How to Fix Them.

What happened to tablets? The harbingers of the post-PC era, the iPad and its ilk were supposed to be a bridge between our smartphones and laptops, an entirely new breed of device. Nearly four years later, they’re still not living up to their potential. Increasingly lighter and thinner, with better batteries than laptops and roomier…

No Room Is Truly Decorated Without a Millennium Falcon Rug

Tastes and style preferences may vary from person to person, but it would be hard to remain friends with anyone who doesn’t think this Millennium Falcon rug is the perfect accent piece for any room—be it an office, a den, a living room, or a secret cargo hold no one knows about. The rug measures…

Blade Runner‘s Police Spinner gets an Adorable makeover

Blade Runner might not seem like the first movie that you think of kidsy, cute merchandising opportunities, but this Police Spinner is just goddamn loveable. It’s even got a ‘Pull Back and Go!’ feature! The cutest police vehicle in sci-fi comes from Medicom, and is part of a new release of the movie’s Final Cut…

Do We Already Know What the Next Star Wars Animated Series Will Be?

Emily Blunt responds to being fan-cast as Captain Marvel. Guillermo del Toro explains how Pacific Rim 2 will have more science in it. Learn about the supporting cast of Orphan Black season three. Plus tons of details about Reverse Flash. Spoilers now! Top image: Star Wars Rebels Captain Marvel Emily Blunt was very nearly Black…

These City Maps Are Made Out of Razor Blades and Mirror Shards

Damien Hirst loves to play provocateur. The artist makes mosaics with pharmaceuticals and sculptures with taxidermy. Now, for his latest series of paintings, he’s depicting cities in conflict. But look closer: What seem like innocent, black-and-white satellite images are crafted out of sharp, dangerous objects. Seventeen cities engaged in some form of warfare are mapped…

You Can Daisy-Chain These Crock Pots So You Only Need One Outlet

As you prepare your amazing Thanksgiving feast tomorrow you’ll probably realize there’s something missing in your kitchen. But it’s not a key side dish you’ve forgotten—it’s enough power outlets to keep hot plates, slow cookers, coffee makers, and all your other appliances running. The folks behind the Crock-Pot have got your back, though, with a…

First official look at Game of Thrones season five finished footage

Game of thrones’s official twitter account just posted the first few seconds of season five finished footage. The cryptic teaser announces their new website ThreeEyedRaven.com SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Kim Dotcom: I’m Broke

Long time, no Kim Dotcom. Well, perhaps the reason the German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur has gone so quiet is because he’s flat broke. Dotcom has publicly admitted that he’s entirely spent up. With a taste for the playboy lifestyle—and expensive cars in particular—it was only really a matter of time before mounting legal fees saw Dotcom’s…

This Is the Future of Heavy Work, and It Looks Awesome

Always fancied riveting one-handed like a super-hero factory worker, some kind of 21st century John Henry? No problem! Lockheed Martin’s Fortis exoskeleton–introduced in 2014–allows any worker to handle heavy hand tools while standing or kneeling. And it looks like the future. The suit enables workers to be more productive with less fatigue or strain, and…

Video: Who would win in a fight between Batman and Darth Vader?

I know this sounds like one of these questions you typically ask when you are high, and, most probably, the guys at Machinima Prime were stoned when they came up with it. I’m just glad they decided to actually make this video the next morning. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or…

China’s Answer to Google Is Building This Stealthy Smart Bike

While Google busies itself with building cars that can drive themselves, China’s equivalent—the monstrous Baidu—is building this super-cool smart bike. Not as complex perhaps, but a damn sight more realizable. The new bicycle—called Dubike—isn’t motorized, but it is packed with tech that powers itself through your pedalling. Loaded with sensors, it detects heart rate, cadence…

The El Nino That Was So Severe, It Stunted the Growth of Children

In 1997-1998, there was a particularly severe El Niño. Seventeen years later, researches have produced evidence that the areas in Peru most affected by the weather event also ended up with shorter children. Professor William Checkley of Johns Hopkins and his team visited 59 villages in the Tumbes region of Peru, which had received 16…

Report: Foxconn Is Building a Display Plant to Make Sapphire Glass

Foxconn is said to be gearing up to produce sapphire glass—the tough screen covering many were expecting to see in the iPhone 6—in a newly purchased plant. According to Focus Taiwan, the China Economic Weekly reports that Foxconn has signed an agreement to begin building a “display factory” on a site right next to its…

Chernobyl never looked more post-apocalypic than in this new drone film

Filmmaker Danny Cook went earlier this year to Pripyat—an abandoned city near Chernobyl, Ukraine—and captured this new amazing footage. It’s the closest that, hopefully, you will ever see to a post-apocalyptic city, 28 years after the catastrophe that has killed about 200,000 people since then. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or…

Censoring the Web Isn’t the Solution to Terrorism—It’s the Problem

In politics, as with Internet memes, ideas don’t spread because they are good—they spread because they are good at spreading. One of the most virulent ideas in Internet regulation in recent years has been the idea that if a social problem manifests on the Web, the best thing that you can do to address that…

This supercomputer simulation of magnetic field loops on the sun reveal in unprecedented detail how solar winds for and swirl. The colors represent magnetic field strength from weak (blue) to strong (red). [NASA]

How Do You Make Money From Free Software?

Free software—truly free software—is undoubtedly a good thing. But given the rest of the world still uses that pesky stuff called money, how on Earth do you make a living from spending your time giving away software for nothing? In this video Matt Lee, the Technical Lead at Creative Commons, explains how he’s spent ten…