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Fascinating mechanical music boxes

Every time I see a mechanical music box my jaw drops. But when I saw these extraordinary pieces, by 18th century master watchmaker Jaquet Droz, I couldn’t believe they worked mechanically and not by magic spell. The level of precision and complexity is mind-blowing. [Thanks for the tip Fernando] SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow…

RocketSkates Look Fun, Damn Hard To Use

Ars Technica’s Andrew Cunningham got a chance to try out a pair of RocketSkates, a motorized pair of step-in, battery-powered skates that recently brought in over half a million bucks in Kickstarter funding. We’ll admit, these things look like they could be pretty fun to use – once you got over the learning curve, anyway.…

The World’s Smallest 3D Printer Costs Less Than $300

The two biggest factors when it comes to choosing a printer are price and capacity. The bigger an item you want to print, the more expensive the printer will be. But if you’ve decided to just tip-toe into the world of 3D printing, and are just testing the waters, the $299 iBox Nano looks like…

7 Brilliant Facebook Cover Photos Just in Time For Halloween

Too lazy to whip up a Halloween costume? It’s fine; you can just dress up your Facebook cover photo. Too lazy to do that? Just take a look at these clever cover photos, change you profile picture to a pumpkin, and imagine what it’d be like to be more creative. [E3, Ori Hasson]

A Star Wars pumpkin that’s more Machine now than Gourd

At long last, the day is here. Happy Halloween! Let’s rejoice in the only way we can – by watching a man carve a pumpkin into the shape of an Astromech droid before stuffing its innards with electronics. Oh internet, you never cease to delight me. The delightfully named OCT-31 comes from Greg Aronowitz of

Tons Of Wild Rumors About Wonder Woman, Spider-Girl And Spider-Woman!

There are tons of pictures, storyboards and new details for Terminator: Genysis. And what could make Game of Thrones end after a seventh season? Plus new reveals for Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars: Episode VII, Skull Island and American Horror Story. Spoilers now! Top image: Batman v. Superman Wonder Woman Rumor has it that…

The Best Free Android Apps in Amazon’s Hallowe’en Giveaway

The Amazon Appstore already gives away one free app each day, but today it’s decided give away 30 apps, worth a combined total of $115, for free to anyone with an Android phone. Here are the pick of the bunch that you should download first. The offer runs until Saturday, and there are some great…

Top photographers explain what modern photography is really about

Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Tyrone Lebon created this neat documentary showing the state of the art of modern photography. The film features some of the world’s best contemporary photographers talking about their creative process, inspiration, and ultimately, what modern photography is about. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

This Is Why National Parks Are So Important

This incredible satellite image is of the dormant volcano of Egmont National Park on New Zealand’s North Island. And that clear, sharp boundary on the left is where the park stops and human kind starts. The image, taken on 6 March 2013 by Korea’s Kompsat-2 satellite, clearly shows the boundary between protected and non-protected areas:…

3 Hours of Tongue-Pulling Was a Real Option to Check Mortality in 1848

Courtesy of the wonderful QI Elves on Twitter, here’s a graphic showing real entries in an 1848 contest for the best way to determine if someone was really dead or not. It’s so good that they had the competition, how would anyone have come up with “check for heartbeat with a stethoscope” otherwise? For other…

Google Fined $2,000 for Street View Cleavage Shot

Google has been handed a fine from a Canadian court, after it was found to have embarrassed a lady and invaded her privacy by sticking a photo of her cleavage on Street View. The lady claimed such high levels of embarrassment were caused by seeing the top-heavy photo of herself sitting outside her house in…

Cool interactive ad lets you choose between a plain and a badass story

This interactive ad is actually two commercials in one. If you let the video roll, you’ll end up with your average car commercial. But if you press R in your keyboard while watching it, you’ll see a badass action film. Of course, the combination of the two makes it even cooler. Watch the full ad…

Hungary Withdraws Its Proposed Internet Tax—For Now

Following continued protests, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has announced that he’s withdrawing plans for his proposed Internet tax—at least for now. https://gizmodo.com/protests-against-internet-tax-in-hungary-continue-large-1652169631 Orbán took to the radio this morning to explain that the government won’t move ahead with the proposal to tax the transfer of data. But he did point out that he is…

10 Tropes Involving Fantasy Weapons That Should Die In A Fire

Weapons are a major part of fantasy literature of every kind. That’s why there’s a whole category called “Sword and Sorcery.” But as fantasy stories have proliferated, some fantasy weapons tropes have taken over the genre. Here are the ten we’d like to see retired. Nothing in this list was necessarily bad the first few…

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft catches a glimpse of bright sunlight reflecting off the hydrocarbon seas of Saturn’s large moon Titan. [NASA]

Google Calendar’s been updated so now you don’t need to refresh for new appointments to appear. Finally.

How to Make People Feel Comfortable In Front of a Camera (With Science)

Many people, even those who are usually confident and outgoing, can shrink into themselves in front of a camera. In this video, headshot photographer Peter Hurley teams up with psychologist Anna Rowley to explain how you can overcome that problem. Calling the topic Psyphotology—clever—the pair recount during this TEDxCambridge talk how Hurley once even struggled…

Don’t Panic: The Ozone Hole’s Holding Steady

Despite research suggesting that the ozone layer is still being chewed apart, NASA’s most recent study of the Antarctic ozone hole reveals it isn’t getting any larger. https://gizmodo.com/the-earths-ozone-layer-is-still-being-chewed-apart-1624876534 Analysis of the hole reveals that the hole reached its peak size on September 11th, reaching a size of 9.3 million square miles. That’s virtually identical to…

Serious users of Google’s Wallet rejoice: now it can auto-withdraw funds from your bank and send low balance alerts so you never run out of cash.

No matter how hard you squint and stare, no matter how many you have to try, why do Captcha codes never seem to get any damn easier? [Truth Facts]