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Is this the worst and most hilarious art theft ever? Yes, yes it is

Police have released this hilarious security camera video of a young man trying to steal an art piece that commemorates World War I from the Castle Fine Art Gallery in Birmingham, England. Obviously, the gallery’s security staff caught him as he stepped out of the museum. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

Clip and Share Content Anywhere with Issuu’s New iOS 8 App

Issuu has announced the release of its newly revamped digital print publishing platform, now optimized to take full advantage of iOS 8’s newest features. And, from the looks of the new app, Flipboard is about to get a run for its money. By far, the coolest new feature is called Clip. Clip allows the reader…

Mantis Vision’s 3D-Sensing Tablet Could Help Anyone Make VR-Ready Video

Mantis Vision is best known as one of the companies behind the tech in Google’s 3D-mapping Project Tango tablet. Today, it’s pushing out an Android tablet of its own, called Aquila. From the surface, the 1920 x1200 8-inch Aquila tablet, made in partnership with hardware company Flextronics, looks a lot like a the Project Tango…

X-rays of the weird things that vets find inside pets

I just knew about They Ate WHAT? A competition where vets send X-rays of animals with weird things stuck within their bodies. These are some of the winners—some images look kind of harsh but don’t worry, all the animals were treated appropriately and they are fine and hungry again. First place: More than 30 ornamental…

Amazon Beat Google to Buy the .Buy Domain Name for $4.5 Million

Amazon — king of selling stuff on the interwebz — just paid a cool $4.5 mil to buy the rights to the .Buy top-level-domain, beating out Google in the process. The auction, held by internet boss ICANN, involved the sale of three of the fancy new top-level domains (TLDs) that have been created in the…

Here Are the Pets that Won a Star Wars Look Alike Contest

This was the first place winner in Petco Mexico’s Star Wars Contest. It’s pretty good. It’s no small boy and his dog, but it’s pretty good. https://gizmodo.com/the-most-adorable-han-solo-and-chewbacca-are-this-kid-a-1534513890 And we have to agree with Geekologie on this one: the third place dog was the better candidate: Also, I legitimately don’t understand how this came in second…

Line, the semi-popular social messaging network, has ‘done a Facebook‘ and spun its 30-second video-capture feature off into a separate app. If you’re a fan of “Stylish Filters, Titles, and More!”, you can download it here. [Line]

This is how natural-born filmmakers come to life

Some people say great movie directors come to this world with a camera on their hands. Add hard work to their natural-born visual storytelling skills and they become genius filmmakers. But talent is something you are born with. This fantastic ad shows how that happens. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…

Drone-Carrying Drone Carries Drone Carries Drone Carries Gum

It’s like Inception, but with UAVs: the guys at Flite Test recently sought to redefine ‘overkill’ by using four remote-controlled aircraft to deliver one stick of gum. Because science. The Flite Test crew were trying to further the drone-delivery-system idea that’s become popular since Google’s Project Wing and Amazon’s infamous Prime Air concepts, but using…

This 3D-Printed Smartphone Microscope Only Costs a Dollar

We’ve seen small smartphone microscopes before, but they’re either a bit shitty or a bit pricey — problems neatly solved in this edition of Stuff You Didn’t Realize You Could 3D Print. It would appear that there’s some kind of very specific version of Moore’s Law that applies only to smartphone microscopes: a couple years…

Man runs out of subway car and races it to get back in at next station

I could have never imagined this could be possible: Watch this guy getting out of a London subway car and running all the way to next station to get back inside the same subway car. I think this can only happen in London. In a place like New York—where trains most often run at Mach…

How Scientists Use CT Scans and 3D Printing to Understand Armored Lizards

In the video below, Dr. Ed Stanley explains why using these technologies is so important for scientists studying these lizards. Also, he holds up a 3D printed skull of one named Smaug giganteus. Yes, it’s named after exactly what you think it is. [Science Today]

Boeing’s Going to Sell Rides On Its New NASA-Funded Space Taxi

Buying rides to space isn’t anything new now — in fact, flying in something so old-fashioned as a ‘capsule’ on a ‘rocket’ is probably a little passé. But that hasn’t stopped Boeing from sticking a tourist seat into its new NASA-funded spacecraft. On the back of yesterday’s announcement that Boeing has won a $4.2bn NASA…

Here’s How Marvel’s Shows Stack Up to DC’s

There are a lot of comic-based shows coming to TV, even when you exclude the ones that are just in development. So, because we need to pit Marvel against DC always, let’s ask the questions: Who has more? Who has more leading women? More leading POC? And, does any of this mean anything? https://observationdeck.kinja.com/list-of-dc-comics-coming-to-or-being-developed-for-tv-1635836997

$9,000 Gets You Access to Facebook For Oligarchs

Back when apps were new and cool and edgy, someone made an iPhone app that did quite literally nothing but prove that you’re a baller. Now that social networks are new and cool and edgy (or they used to be), someone’s made the same concept: a Facebook country club, if you will. Netropolitan bills itself…

David Fincher’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Would Have Been Bonkers

David Fincher was rumored to be taking on a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but now he says he just couldn’t do it. Which is a shame, because it sounds like it would have been a totally insane trip. In a recent interview that touched on a bunch of Fincher’s projects, he tossed…

Good night, Amsterdam

There is so much more to Amsterdam than weed at a coffee shop and the red light district. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those. But just check out this hyperlapse of Amsterdam and pretend that you’re biking around or going down the canal or just enjoying the quaint vibe of the lovely…

Jumping on a trampoline has never looked this cool

I should have never grown up. Or at least, I should have never stopped jumping on a trampoline because these guys, brothers Sean and Eric Kennedy of the troupe Flippenout, make jumping on a trampoline so damn cool. It’s a combination of grace and synchronization with a splash of never growing up. The duo were…

The Greatest Advocates of Trade Aren’t the Rich, But the Poor Countries

A Pew Research poll defies major economic models and social standards by finding that poorer countries were more likely to approve of trade than rich ones. Find out what the world is defying below. Top image: Containers by Jim Bahn/flickr/C.C. by 2.0 https://observationdeck.kinja.com/poor-countries-like-trade-rich-countries-hate-it-1635972032

Netflix Under Pressure to Close Down The VPN Loophole

By this point, everyone and their internet-connected dog seems to know that you can access US Netflix (and its sweet promised land of rich video content) from abroad using a simple VPN, or even just a Chrome extension. Your streaming days might be limited, however: Netflix is reportedly under fire to shut the loophole down.…