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The remains of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, have been found in Greece. His injuries and burial goods match what archaeologists would expect from the royal’s grave. Intriguingly, he was buried with an unknown woman, who also appeared to be a soldier.

This Map Shows Manhattan Transform from the Countryside to a Metropolis

It’s hard to imagine, but Manhattan used to be a bunch of open fields and trees. Then, after a small Dutch fort turned into an important trading post, things began to change. Anda new map projectby the architects and coders at Morphocode lets you visualize the past 300 years of that process. Urban Layers is…

Every Night, the Robot Waited for His Friend to Come Home

But he never arrived. Sometimes, the people you miss come to define your life as much as the people in it. Nikolai Lockersten is lead art director at Storm Studios in Norway. You can see more of his awesome work on his website.

Even Animal Planet Is Making A Zombie TV Series Now

Animal Planet has announced that it’s optioned The Other Dead, the IDW comic book about a world where a zombie virus appears that only infects (non-human) animals. Sure, it sounds a little goofy at first, but consider how completely screwed you’d be if you were attacked by more than two undead squirrels at once. Created…

NASA: The Sun looks like a Jack O’Lantern just in time for Halloween

Here’s a photo of the Sun looking like a Jack O’Lanterntaken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on October 8, 2014, a blend of two light wavelengths (171 and 193 angstrom.) SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Hang These Polyhedrons Wherever You Need Some Colorful Geometry

Like all good things, the pretty Themis Mobile also requires a little work. This floating DIY sculpture by Swedish designer Clara von Zweigbergk will bring a bright burst of color to a sunny room—after you’ve taken a refresher in high school geometry class. What I love about this mobile is that it requires a bit…

The tweens of the world are in mourning yet again—Instagram is down. We’ve reached out to Instagram for comment and will update as soon as we know more about what’s going on. For now, at least, we can all take solace in the fact that—even if for just a few minutes—we get to live in…

I Took a Bath in a Giant Tub of Beer (For My Health)

The Czech Republic is a nation renowned for its beer. The home of Pilsner, with first class breweries everywhere you turn, you’re as likely to find a great place to stop off for a pint on its street corners as you are to see a Starbucks or McDonalds in the U.S.. However, for my recent…

This Hodor figurine unfortunately does not come with Hodor sound effects

Gods be good, this figure would be a million times better if it just came with a button in the base that you could press to get it to loudly exclaim ‘HODOR!’. Announced at NYCC, Dark Horses latest figurine/statue in its Game of Thrones line – which will also feature thisdelightful Joffrey toy– is a…

This short film would be fun if it weren’t so close to real life

The creators of this Shelved—director James Cunningham and eleven visual effects students at the Media Design School in Auckland, New Zealand—say their short film a homage to movies like Clerks, Mallrats, Slacker, and Dazed and Confused. After watching these two robotic losers in action, I can see why. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…

Questions for the 90s: Should Robots Pay Taxes? Can Africa Be Saved?

The March-April 1986 issue of The Futurist magazine looked at the far off, futuristic decade of the 1990s. In an article titled “Issues for the 1990s,” Edith Weiner and Arnold Brown examined what they saw as the emerging concerns of the world. Well, the world as seen from 1980s America. Rising health care costs? Potential…

Why Are So Many People Living Underground in Beijing?

With a population of 23 million and growing, Beijing is dealing with a major housing shortage. That’s why thousands of immigrants looking for affordable homes in the city are going underground — literally and figuratively. A thriving gray market exists for windowless apartments buried deep below the streets. But why are so many people able…

Lego Steampunk Millennium Falcon won’t make the Kessel Run anytime soon

The website FBTB (From Bricks to Bothans) runs a few build contests throughout the year, but one of the most popular has been Steam Wars Returns. The rules were to take a vehicle from Star Wars and build it the steampunk style. This is the winning entry, from builder Marcus1984. The Chewbacca, R2D2 and C3PO…

This Stress-Sensing Fitness Tracker Won the Nation’s Top Design Award

The National Design Awards were last night in New York, where 20 products were vying to be named the country’s best. The winner, chosen by public voting, was a fitness tracker called Spire, which claims to keep tabs on your overall well-being by measuring heart rate and breathing patterns to monitor stress. Spire was designed…

Animator Drew Berry Explains How To Get A Job In Science Art

Just how do you get a job revealing the unseen beauty of science? Here, animator Drew Berry whose stunning visualizations of the inner workings of cells have been displayed everywhere from scientific journals to the MOMA, explains his own path into the field. Berry joined us to take our questions about his amazingly-detailed biomedical animation…

This Shot-for-Shot Empire Strikes Back Remake Was Made By 480 Fans

Star Wars fans are a wildly devoted bunch, and 480 of them just had their goddamn dreams come true. The Empire Strikes Back: Uncut is a shot-for-shot remake of Episode V, composed entirely of 15-second clips filmed and submitted by (very) creative enthusiasts. This is… a lot of fun! Each of the scenes are so,…

11 Ludicrous Gifts from Neiman’s Holiday Catalog

You know Christmas is a-comin’ because there’s a slight nip in the air and the disgustingly over-the-top Neiman Marcus Christmas catalog is out. As usual, it’s full of expensive crap most of us do not need (or even want!) like Snowflake cufflinks, mink backpacks, and golden Beats by Dre headphones. Behold! Luxury: A five-foot-tall Tanqueray…

Rooms Is The Perfect Novel For Long Scary Fall Nights

Why do the spirits of people linger long after they’ve passed from the living world? This is a central question in Lauren Oliver’s first adult novel, Rooms, a powerful haunted house story that digs deep into the cracks of a broken family, and the house they grew up in. It’s the perfect novel to kick…

Can You Guess What This Is An Image Of?

Hint: It’s not a brain. Solution below! This image shows a cross-sectional snapshot of a simulated supermassive star going supernova, approximately one day after the star’s interior began expanding outward. The star’s helium core can be seen powering fluid instabilities and the mix of heavy elements throughout the star’s interior. This image is the work…

Google Docs’ Autocomplete Knows Where You’d Rather Be

As far as cloud-based text editors are concerned, Google Docs is just about as convenient as they come. Still, old habits die hard—Google Docs knows this. And it’s here to smack the Office right out of you. Power-what-now? Surely you just had a minor stroke and missed a few keys. And, speaking of keys: Not…