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Flying Cars Are Just Two Years From Reality ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Another day, another story about how flying cars are just two years away. Funny how they’re always just two years away. Today at Fast Company: “The good news is we’ve been at this for eight years and we are less than two years from shipping the product,” the CEO [of Terrafugia] says. Just another two…

Scientists say some farts can help prevent cancer, strokes and dementia

The smell of flatulence could help avoid cancer,strokes, heart attacks and dementia, according to scientists at Exeter University. Hydrogen sulfide is one of the gases produced by bacteria as it breaks down food in the gut, it is toxic in large doses but in tiny amounts it helps protect cells and fight illness. Professor Matt…

Behold the All Time Best/Worst Movie About the Internet

There are many movies about the internet. Some are good. Some are bad. And now comedian Nathan Fielder has made a movie about the internet so bad that it is the best. Unfortunately, it’s not quite real. But the part of it that exists is great. On Comedy Central’s Nathan For You, Fielder hand-holds small…

How Vacant World Cup Stadiums Could Be Turned Into Housing

The World Cup ends this weekend, leaving Brazil with the heady task of deciding what, exactly, to do with the 12 stadiums that were built or converted for games. Two architects have published a proposal to convert the stadiums into something Brazil desperately needs: Affordable housing. French architects Axel de Stampa and Sylvain Macaux have…

Why The Destruction Of A Blue Supergiant Star Is Unlike Any Other

The recent detection of a gamma-ray burst from a massive blue supergiant is helping astronomers understand how the universe’s primordial stars ended their lives in cataclysmic explosions. But more than this, it revealed several features never seen before in a stellar explosion. Astronomers recently detected an anomalous flash of energetic radiation streaming away from a…

Maps of an Alternate North America That Never Became the United States

Imagine a world very different from our own, where North America developed not into the stable geopolitical regions we know today, but Balkanized into smaller empires, territories and republics. Visualizing such a world is a favorite past time of graphic designer Jordan Penny, who has spent the better part of a decade combining his love…

The only life advice you must always keep in mind

This video gives a very valuable advice.Something that we heard many times before but we keep forgetting: Death can hit you at any given moment so you better enjoy life while it lasts. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

The Book You Need To Read To Understand The Economics Of Digital Comics

Want to understand what is going on in the world of webcomics and digital comics publishing? Here’s a book all about the current digital landscape, available as a crowdfunded preorder. You can also crowdfund a magical transgender TV series, a comic about an all-female space crew, and a chance to have your own superhero action…

​How To Make The Outdoors Comfortable And Easy For First Timers

Taking your friends and loved ones with you is one of the neatest things you can do in the outdoors. Who’s going to believe you saw Sasquatch unless they’re right there alongside? Here’s how to make it easy for them. A lot of the stuff I do outdoors I do by myself or with a…

Game Of Thrones Meets Teen Wolf? MTV Is Really Putting Shannara On TV!

This could be the most interesting new TV show of the next year or so. MTV has ordered Shannara, based on the heroic fantasy novels by Terry Brooks, straight to series. The first season will be 10 episodes, based on The Elfstones of Shannara. Top image: Doug Beekman, Sword of Shannara. As we reported last…

Watch as Laser Scanners and CNC Millers Restore a Castle’s Gargoyles

Even a building made of stone is still subject to the ravages of time, and the intricately carved gargoyles on Kronborg Castle in Denmark were in desperate need of repair before they crumbled into dust. We all know how easy it is to replicate something using a 3D printer, but if you need something made…

The World’s Most Fascinating Places, As Seen In Science Fiction Books

It’s the middle of summer — the time of year when wanderlust takes over our brains. You want to leave your home and your job and explore what the world has to offer. But here’s the next best thing — 15 books that take place in science fiction and fantasy versions of the most fascinating…

Amazing cloud waves herald the alien invasion apocalypse

Looking at these time-lapse videos of Undulatus asperatus—”a cloud formation proposed as separate cloud classification in 2009″—look like the ocean’s surface in a stormy day as seen from under the water. They also look like those scenes in sci-fi movies when something really bad is coming to kill us all from the sky. Or the…

Discovery of WWII photos in a foxhole was just a dumb hoax

Right around Independence Day, an amazing story went around: historians discover a soldier’s camera at the site of the Battle of the Bulge. They develop the 70-year-old film and find grainy but gripping images taken by a soldier just before he was killed. It’s an engrossing tale—but it’s false: the photos came from a book…

Inside San Franciso’s Fire Department, Where Ladders Are Made by Hand

San Francisco’s Fire Department is one of the few left in the United States that still uses wooden ladders. Each is made by hand at a dedicated workshop. Some have been in rotation for nearly a century. We’ll get to the why and how, but hang on: Wouldn’t a wooden ladder burn? Yes. They go…

The Constantine TV Show Has Already Had A Major Change Of Direction

Judging from the extended featurettes we’ve seen so far, the pilot for NBC’s Constantine focuses on John Constantine’s meeting with the ordinary woman Liv, who gets caught up in demonic business and needs to team up with Constantine to survive. But don’t get too attached to Liv. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the character of…

Deals: Tiny Espresso, Bluetooth Shower Speaker, 128GB MicroSD

The Nespresso Pixie is small, attractive, and makes some great espresso. It even includes a milk frother! It’s never sold below $200 until today. [Nespresso Pixie Espresso Maker, $155] Update: The third party seller offering it at $155 has sold out. Amazon has it for $194, which is still a great price for this unit,…

Tracking the Bizarre Edits Congress Makes to Wikipedia

The elected representatives you chose to represent you in the legislative branch of the United States of America aren’t just making modifications to national law. They’re also editing the Wikipedia pages for “Horse head mask” and “Step Up 3D.” Or at least their staffers are. And thanks to @congressedits, you can keep tabs on it.…

The U.S. Centers for Disease control have shut down their flu and anthrax labs, citing “accidents.” Over the past month, hundreds of C.D.C. employees have been exposed to potentially deadly anthrax and H1N1 flu strains due to flubbed safety measures and sample contamination.

The Curiosity Rover Has Now Ventured Beyond NASA’s ‘Safety Zone’

Curiosity is now officially coloring outside the lines. The rover recently drove out of the area NASA had initially demarcated as safe terrain for its 2012 landing in Gale Crater. The landing ellipse established by NASA measured approximately four miles wide and 12 miles long (7 x 20 km). THe HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars…