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Watch Engineers Test Their New Martian Dropship

Inspired by the Skycrane that NASA devised to safely land Curiosity on the surface of Mars, the European Space Agency has unveiled its own version of the rover-on-a-rope concept: the Dropter. An engineering team spent eight months developing the quadcopter dropship, which is designed to deliver rovers to their target landing sites while avoiding rock…

These storm photos are so perfect that they feel like illustrations

Photographer Jody Miller has been storm chasing and the results are outstanding. These vivid images capture the fury of mother nature in some extraordinarily beautiful landscapes. Jody Miller is a photographer, designer and animator who has participated at the Ansel Adams workshop and loves shooting abandoned and lonesome places, particularly at night. You can visit…

Watching cells grow over time is a lot of fun

Andy Lomas made this music video for a song called Seething by Max Cooper. Lomas created software that emulates biological cell growth. Just by adjusting certain parameters, such as the forces between cells or the source and quantity of nutrients,he obtains different forms. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Producer Says A GI Joe/Transformers Movie Is “A Possibility,” But…

But don’t get too excited. Lorenzo di Bonaventura, producer of both the Transformers and GI Joe movie franchises, has announced that a crossover movie between the two franchises is something they might do in the future, but for now it’s not even something being discussed. Here’s how di Bonaventura replied when Total Film asked him…

These Cable Wraps Make Tidying Way More Fun

Keeping your workspace in order is dull—but these fund cable tidies inject a little humor into proceedings, by turning your rat nest of wiring into a stack of fake barcodes. The brainchild of Duncan Shotton, there’s not a huge amount to say about these devilishly simple yet good-looking tidies. They’re flat sheets of plastic designed…

Will Arrow Crossover With Batman v. Superman? And New Star Wars Actors!

Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of Millions, talks about his Doctor Who episode. Gotham’s executive producers describe their version of Batman’s origins. Maisie Williams explains how Arya Stark is like Darth Vader. Plus, what will Paramount have to do to get Michael Bay to make another Transfomers? Top image: Arrow Star Wars Add two more names…

All Parking Signs Should Be This Easy to Read

Parking signs can be some of the most confusing things on the planet. But New York City-based designer Nikki Sylianteng is on a quest to change that, with a new style of sign which finally makes sense. Admitting that she’s “been hit with one too many parking tickets despite her best efforts,” she decided to…

Seven common myths about the brain squashed by science

This neat video destroys seven commonly held myths about the brain—because there is a lot we think we know but don’t. The effects of drugs, alcohol and size are just a few of the areas where misconceptions are busted. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

These New Smart Bricks Are Like Lego for Real Buildings

If these lumps of concrete look familiar, that’s because they take some of their inspiration from Lego—but there’s more to them than child’s play. Created by a company called Kite Bricks, the blocks are actually referred to as Smart Brick, or S-Bricks to their chums. They come in a range of shapes and sizes, but…

What the Tour de France Looks Like as a Subway Map

This weekend, the Tour de France kicked off in Yorkshire, England, and today it will pass through London, too. So this Subway-style chart, drawn in the style of the classic London Underground map, is a particularly apt celebration of the iconic cycle tour. In this maps, colors of stages are purely cyclical, but rider movements…

We Would Rather Do Anything Than Sit And Think for 15 Minutes

A series of studies, published in the most recent issue of Science, had students ranking sitting in silence and thinking below almost everything else, including self-administering electric shocks. In “Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind,” researchers attempted to answer the questions of “Do people choose to put themselves in default mode by disengaging…

Season 2 of Witches of East End Went Straight For the Tentacle Sex

Oh, stop. That’s not a spoiler. That would imply that the last scene of the season 2 premiere had anything to do with the rest of the plot. It didn’t, but it did remind me why I love this show. Here’s the deal: No one in season 2 Witches of East End learned a thing…

Video: Boeing 767 pilot avoids crash with Airbus A340 crossing runway

A Boeing 767-300 had to abort its landing at Barcelona airport when an Airbus A340 suddenly crossed the runway as it was a few feet from touch down. It would have been a disaster comparable to the accident at Los Rodeos, in Tenerife, when two 747s collided on the runway killing 583 people. This happened…

Harnessing the Power of Butterflies Was a Boon to Air Balloon Travel

It’s brought whole new meaning to the phrase “Butterfly Effect.” Christian Schloe‘s “Dream On” and “fly away” are available as prints on Artflakes. [via Victorious Vocabulary]

Who’s Ready for Mark Wahlberg as The Six Million Dollar Man?

The latest rumor is that the perennially stalled Six Million Dollar Man film has found its star in Mark Wahlberg. It’s an unsourced, unconfirmed rumor, so it may mean nothing. Alternately, prepare for an onslaught of jokes about Wahlberg’s clueless Transformer character reacting to the abilities of Steve Austin. “I think I can run fast!”…

Carnival of Space #361

This week’s Carnival of Space celebrates Cassini’s birthday, bringing citizen science to a Maker Fair, getting up close and personal with the new Orbital Carbon Observatory, and more. Read on for stories on new technology, citizen science, and astronomical prettiness. Astronaut Reid Wiseman captured just how intimidating Arthur is, even from space. Carnival of Space…

Celebrate Seinfeld‘s 25th With The Story Behind the Show About Nothing

While we were busy celebrating America’s birthday, another anniversary snuck by us: on July 5th, Seinfeld turned 25 years old. And despite being old enough to drink, smoke, and drive a rental car, the show is still a nearly-universal cultural reference. The one-hour documentary Seinfeld: How it Began is required watching for any die-hard fan.…

Pomplamoose: Come Together

Beatles covers are maddeningly tricky. Stay too close to the original, and it comes off fawning. Muck around too badly, and you’ve desecrated a musical shrine. How do you take a song by The Greatest Rock Band Ever, Ever™ off the pedestal and safely play around with it? Befuddlingly, Pomplamoose nailed it. Like most songs…

Evleaks says that Verizon is set to offer prepaid 4G LTE starting on July 17th. $45 will get you unlimited talk and text and 500MB of data a month, while data jumps to 1GB for $55 or 3GB for $65. [Evleaks]

Nobody Knows How to Rescue These Poor Stranded Boeing 737s

On Thursday, a freight train derailment near Superior, Montana sent three Boeing 737 fuselages tumbling into the Clark Fork River. Today, the cracked and scraped airplane bodies still litter the river’s shores, and officials don’t know how they’re going to remove them. The train, carrying six 737 fuselages along with various Boeing parts and some…