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Tiny Sensors Powered By Passing Cars Could Monitor Our Aging Roads

Between rush hour traffic and 18-wheelers, our roads take a real beating over time. Tiny sensors in the asphalt could give us a real time map of stress on aging roads, but then how do you keep embedded sensors powered for years? By harnessing the very motion of the cars whizzing by. That’s the clever…

Ocean lifts guy several feet up in the air, smashes him against beach

That guy being lifted by the ocean several feet up in the air and then smashed down against the beach is bodyboarder Alex Johnston. It’s like the ocean is alive and Poseidon is saying “would you stop being clowns and GET OFF MY LAWN?” SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on…

Are We Undergoing a Major Shift in How We Treat Animals?

Karen Joy Fowler just won the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award for her novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, about a girl whose psychologist father rears her and a baby chimp as “sisters.” Recently she talked about why she’s hopeful that humans will begin treating animals better. https://gizmodo.com/this-book-is-a-masterpiece-about-sisters-who-are-a-scie-510163738 In a conversation with science fiction writer Jeff…

The Mystery Man In Those 445 Photobooth Pics Has Finally Been Identified

For years, no one knew the identity of this mystery man who, from the 1930s to the 1960s, took hundreds of photobooth pics of himself. Once his image stash became the main attraction at a portraiture exhibition, however, he became an internet sensation and, whaddya know—someone online recognized his friendly face. Meet Uncle Franklyn! Rutgers…

Everything a Camp Cook Could Need Fits Inside This Nesting Doll Pot

It’s easy to overpack when you’re heading out into the woods for some weekend camping, but when it comes to supplies for cooking meals, MSR’s Flex 4 System packs pretty much everything you could need into a compact single pot. Pop off the clamp-down lid on the 5.3-liter dual-handled aluminum pot and inside you’ll find…

Game Of Thrones Director Explains The Finale’s Missing Character

Hardcore, book-reading Game of Thrones fans expected a certain someone to make their first appearance in last night’s finale, but that certain someone didn’t. Now episode director Alex Graves has explained why. Warning: Spoilers both for last night’s finale and future events! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about and yet…

Today marks the anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova‘s launch into history, and, decades later, the launch of the first Chinese woman into orbit.

The Powerpuff Girls Are Back To Save The Day

Good news, everyone! Cartoon Network has just announced that The Powerpuff Girls are getting a 2016 rebooted return to TV. This all new series is largely a factor of the January re-imagining’s success. We don’t know whether the reboot will look like the January special or the original, but it’s good to have the girls…

NASA Has Figured Out What Titan Smells Like

Good news, everyone! A recent lab experiment by NASA scientists has revealed the precise aromatic quality of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. And like a fine wine, it has a “strong aromatic character.” Unfortunately, NASA doesn’t have a Futurama-like smell-o-scope at its disposal. Instead, its scientists were able to “reverse engineer” the recipe that makes up…

Peek-A-Boo Teddy Bear Has A Pants-Wettingly Terrifying Surprise

The horrifying Undead Teds bears are back. And now they’ve been upgraded to be even more terrifying. Behold the giggling, face-ripping Undead Teds Peek-A-Boo Edition. You’ve done it again folks—we’ll be sleeping with the light on. This is not the first time we’ve featured the Undead Teds, but it may be the most horrifying. Undead…

These Revolutionary Optics Could Make Battlefield Lasers a Reality

Weapons that shoot light rather than bullets are quickly becoming a reality, however their huge bulk and even larger energy consumption still demand that they be mounted on vehicles such as battleships and tractor trailers. But thanks to this newly developed optics system from the US Army Research Lab, tomorrow’s battlefields could soon be crowded…

How I Turned Neil Gaiman Into A Fictional Character For My New Novel

For his new novel The Severed Streets, the second installment of his Shadow Police series, acclaimed writer Paul Cornell decided to include author Neil Gaiman as a significant character. In this essay, Cornell shares why and how he went about making his fictional Gaiman. I’d just been in a head on car crash, which my…

The World Cup should be played with 6-foot helium-filled soccer balls

Most Americans just don’t have the same zeal for soccer—or football—as the rest of the world does. But if a giant six-foot wide helium-filled soccer ball were used instead of those regulation balls, maybe more people would tune in here to watch the World Cup. You can actually buy this giant ball from VAT19 to…

What’s the Best Chef’s Knife?

You can do almost anything with a good kitchen knife. You have plenty of options but which one is the best? We want to hear from you. You often hear people mentioning Wüsthof or Shun as having some of the best cutlery around. But those certainly aren’t the only options. So what’s your kitchen weapon…

The Mechanics of Making Espresso In Space

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be bringing something special to International Space Station this winter: an espresso maker that functions in microgravity. The mechanics of making this work are not as simple as it seems. We spent the morning chatting about the psychological impact of getting terrestrial luxuries (like a decent cup of coffee) in…

The Card Test That Supposedly Revealed Homosexual Tendencies

Until recently, many psychologists did everything possible to make closeted gay people admit they were gay so that they could be “cured.” One tool these scientists used to figure out who was homosexual was a bizarre card game called the “Picture Arrangement Test.” It was in the early 1950s that Silvan Tomkins, a psychologist, was…

Match.com Will Use Facial Recognition to Find People Like Your Ex

Match.com recently announced a partnership with Three Day Rule, a personalized matchmaking service that will find you a date that looks like your ex. You simply send them some pictures, and they find a match. The service costs $5,000 for six month membership. And it’s creepy as hell. “I’ve noticed over my years in matchmaking…

A giant dragon just emerged from the Sun

Holy Mother of Dragons, a stream of plasma in the shape of a dragon flying at full speed has emerged from the Sun. According to NASA, the “eruption [tens of thousands miles long] was minor” and “most of it fell back into the sun.” NASA, I love you, but you have no imagination. SPLOID is…

Should The U.S. Unleash Killer Robots In Iraq?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked the U.S. to deploy Predator and Reaper drones against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) fighters. And, today, Secretary of State John Kerry has confirmed that drones are definitely an option. But would they really make any difference? Patrick Tucker, the technology editor at Defense One, spoke…

Genetically-Modified Orange Bananas Are Ready for Human Testing

It’s been nearly a decade in development, but a genetically modified breed of bananas that’s designed to combat starvation will soon enter human testing. The bananas are rich in beta-carotene which turns into vitamin A in the body. For the children in Africa suffering from vitamin A deficiencies, this is a godsend. Also these banana…