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Skiing in light suits looks like the most spectacular thing

Skiing? Fun. Night skiing? Even more fun. Night skiing in impossible bright light suits that transform your body into a glowing orb as you fly down the mountain? That has to be the most fun you can have. And if it’s not, it’s definitely the coolest looking way to ski down a mountain. We’ve seen…

Not only does Oklahoma have more earthquakes than California, but hundreds of them are directly tied to fracking.

According to a FCC filing spotted by Android Police, the Chromecast is getting an upgrade to a 5GHz Wi-Fi chip, which should make for some speedier Netflix streaming. It also makes it an even more potent contender to Google’s own brand-new Nexus Player, or the likes of the Apple TV for that matter. [Android Police]

In the Future, Your Umbrella Will Be Half-Vibrator, Half-Airgun

Umbrella technology innovation has really ground to a halt these past few hundred years, but luckily some inventors in Beijing and Nanjing have come up with an umbrella for the twenty-first century. It uses a high-powered fan to blow water up to three feet away from you. Called the Air Umbrella, it has the advantage…

Report: Google May Be Developing Some Kind Of Wireless Network

According to a FCC filing submitted on Monday and uncovered by Reuters, Google might be working on some kind of wireless network, offering sweet, sweet internet without giving all of your monies to AT&T. What we know at the moment is that Google has applied to conduct tests in California across different wireless frequencies, including…

How much the living room has changed over the years

Here’s a clever ad from Philips for their smart Hue light bulbs. It shows how much the living room has changed since the invention of the light bulb: TVs get flattened, furniture evolves, people’s clothes follow trends, etc. but the light bulb stays the same. Well, we know that’s not exactly true but it’s a…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Demon Cat

Perched on a tilted tombstone, the demon cat waits in the dark. Has it come for your soul or a scratch behind the ears? You tell us the story. “Demon Cat” is by artist Patrik Björkström (found via r/ImaginaryDemons), and Björkström has his own chilling piece of prose to go with it. If “Demon Cat”…

Curious Alice Is 1971’s Tripped-Out Version of Lewis Carroll’s Classic

In 1971, the National Institute of Mental Health released a short film that was intended to dissuade kids from trying drugs. But if there was ever an anti-drug movie that made kids want to try drugs, this is it. Titled “Curious Alice,” the film was a take-off on the Lewis Carroll stories of Alice in…

Hundreds of Earthquakes In Ohio Linked To Fracking

You can’t blame hydraulic fracturing for every natural disaster, but newly published research has linked 400 small earthquakes in Ohio last year to the geology-busting technique. https://gizmodo.com/you-cant-blame-fracking-for-every-natural-disaster-1601863986 Photo Credit Daniel Foster via flickr | CC BY 2.0 Let me emphasize that the earthquakes were small. So small, in fact, that every one is believed to…

Sleeping sperm whales look so eerie and magical

I can’t remember if I ever saw sleeping sperm whales when I was a kid watching each and every single episode of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau on TV. Had I seen a scene as eerie and magical as this one, I would remember it. So weird and wonderful. SPLOID is a new blog…

Watch American Horror Story‘s Two-Headed Lady Sing

It’s American Horror Story: Freak Show, y’all. And yeah, it’s really freaky—especially if this season is going to include a musical number in every single episode. Possibly NSFW images below. First up, sorry about missing the premiere. I was ill. But I’m back and I’m here and I won’t abandon you again. I think I…

In This Future Dystopia, Clones Have Developed A Troubling Addiction

The teleporter is one of the classic technologies of science fiction stories and it usually is portrayed as a positive, a marker of just how far a society has advanced from our own. This story, however, spins it into something much darker. In response to this piece tracing where teleporters have appeared in science fiction…

How Different Countries Rank Humanity’s Greatest Threats

What do you think is the greatest threat facing the world? A new survey queries people in countries all around the globe and finds that how you answer may depend on where you live — and on your politics. The Pew Research Center took surveys in 44 countries in 2002, 2007, and then again in…

Our New Favorite Tumblr: First Drafts Of History

John Overholt, Curator of Early Modern Books & Manuscripts at Harvard’s Houghton Library, just launched a fascinating blog called “First Drafts of History,” featuring the earliest extant versions of Wikipedia articles. Here’s the first entry for Star Trek (dated September 2001): Barack Obama (dated March 2014): And “IPhone” (dated June 2005 – two years before…

Gary Numan: Cars

My first (and only) car was a 1986 Chevy Astro minivan, grey on the bottom and white on top with a very thin red stripe running horizontally along the center separating the two. By the time I inherited this oversized vehicle box in high school, it had been in the family for over a decade.…

Margaret Atwood Explains Why A Wizard Of Earthsea Is A Masterpiece

Every month the Wall Street Journal’s Book Club features a famous author leading its readers through a discussion of a book of their choice. This month, it’s Margaret Atwood, and she’s chosen Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Top image: Henna Krank. Talking about why she chose Le Guin’s fantasy masterpiece, Atwood calls…

Watch an Anamorphic Painting Transform From Bird to Fish and Back Again

Perspective is everything for Thomas Medicus: The Austrian artist created his latest work by strategically hand-painting 160 glass strips, then placing them in a very particular grid formation. From most angles it looks like a total mishmash, but four distinct images are hiding in the fray. Emulsifier is an example of anamorphosis, an artistic trick…

What Makes Outlander So Similar to Battlestar Galactica?

Ever since Battlestar Galactica went off the air, we’ve been waiting to see what series creator Ron Moore would do next. After a few false starts, he finally claimed a new series as his own: Outlander, a fantasy romance that on its surface couldn’t be more unlike Battlestar. But the two shows have a lot…

A Grieving Woman Keeps Her Comatose Husband Moving By Remote Control

After a trauma that leaves her husband comatose, Diane agrees to a radical treatment—one that involves exercising his body by remote control. This short film explores Diane’s life and her thoughts about her marriage with this physical ghost of her husband. A Better Life, which was written by Conor Holt and Ben Grell and directed…

The Teaser For Disney’s New Short Film Feast Is SO FREAKING ADORABLE

You might already be excited for Walt Disney Animation’s Big Hero 6, but are you ready for the ridiculous cuteness that is Feast? Check out the first footage for the short film showing before Big Hero 6, about the life of a Boston Terrier, told through a series of meals. Confession time: I’ve actually seen…