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Strangers slap each other’s faces in hilariously awkward video

Rememeber the complete strangers kissing video? This is the anti-strangers-kiss video—and it’s real, not a viral using actors. Screenwriter Max Landis gathered friends and acquaintances, paired them randomly and then asked them to hit each other in the face in this awkwardly fun video. Landis says his work is more than parody and is intended…

iOS 7.1.1 Jailbreak Gets an Easy Video Tutorial

If you were excited by yesterday’s news of a jailbreak for iOS 7.1.1 but left a little nervous at the prospect of going through the ordeal alone, help is at hand: this video guides you through the whole process, start to finish. https://gizmodo.com/theres-finally-a-jailbreak-for-ios-7-1-1-1594893633 The instructions by Mac Mixing show you how to use the new…

The Beijing Zoo Opened A Virtual “Online Zoo”

China is a big place, and not everyone can easily get to the zoo. To solve the problem, the Beijing Zoo went virtual. It’s an interesting approach to the stated mission of most zoos, which is to educate the public and to promote awareness of conservation-related issues. If the public can’t come to the zoo,…

How the Aged Vacuum Tube Could Save Moore’s Law

Moore’s Law is under threat. In the battle between chip designers and the laws of physics, it’s beginning to look like it won’t be long before it’s impossible to double the number of transistors on integrated circuits every two years. But there could be a solution, and it involves—of all things—good old vacuum tubes. We’re…

That Time J.M. Barrie Founded A Truly Atrocious Cricket Club

There are all sorts of literary friendships in history. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg. The Algonquin Round Table. But they usually restricted themselves to literary pursuits. Not so with J.M. Barrie’s cricket team, which was packed with famous names and almost no athletic ability. J.M. Barrie loved cricket.…

Soundhawk’s Smart Listening System Aims to Make Hearing Aids Cool

Here’s how hearing aids work today: Oh you can’t hear well? Stick this ugly thing inside your earhole. But in the view of a new company called Soundhawk, that’s all wrong. Better hearing can be cool. Soundhawk’s new Smart Listening System wants to change the way we experience hearing devices, and hopefully, open them up…

Where the Dollar Sign Comes From

This symbol first showed up in the 1770s, appearing in documents of English-Americans who had business dealings with Spanish-Americans. However, it wasn’t until the very early 1800s that it became popularized, around the same time as the first official U.S. dollars were being minted. Previous to this, the symbol had already been in use as…

According to an FCC filing, Motorola’s slick new Moto 360 smartwatch will support wireless charging using the Qi standard.

Daniel Radcliffe Wants to Be Ben Affleck’s Robin

While answering questions for BuzzFeed Brews, Daniel Radcliffe answered the question of “Which franchise would you do?” with “Batman.” When he realized that they are already rebooting the character, he offered himself up for the role of Robin. The exchange happens around the two-minute mark, and Radcliffe comments that he’d be “perfect” for Robin. Honestly,…

This might look like a routine scientific experiment, but you’re actually looking at European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (tick) as he sets fire to samples of various solids (tick) aboard the International Space Station (tick) to see how they burn (tick). This man truly has a wonderful job. [ESA]

Insane skater jumps subway tracks in NYC

This clip shows skateboarder Koki Loaiza jump the tracks at 145th Street in Harlem as part of a shoot for a video. He wipes out right onto the line on one attempt but clears the gap on another at around 2:32. Pure unadulterated madness. With trains and live killing electrical rails. SPLOID is a new…

Short film shows why a world without secrets would end up badly

This surreal short film shows how life in a western saloon changes dramatically thanks to the malicious influence of a smart-ass voiceover. The voice reveals all the thoughts from the villagers dragging them into a true ballet of death. The film, directed by Erick Kissack, features the voice of Nick Offerman. SPLOID is a new…

This New Nanomaterial Can Withstand Forces 160,000 Times Its Weight

MIT engineers have taken inspiration from architecture to create a new material that combines high stiffness with low weight—by using a repeating geometric structure that’s airy, yet remarkably strong. The new material design has been developed in a collaboration with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and uses microlattices with nanoscale features to combine “great stiffness…

How Computer Memory Really Works

We talk about memory a lot when we discuss gadgets, and it’s no surprise: it’s one of the biggest indicators of performance in the gadgets we all use. But rarely do we stop and think about how it works at the very basic level. In this video, Dr Steve Bagley explains how logic gates—the simplest…

The First Look at Syfy’s 12 Monkeys Is Appropriately Weird

Syfy’s new trailer (using the advertising song of the summer, the Kongos’ “Come With Me Now”) covers pretty much all of their shows: Defiance, Haven, Dominion, etc. But sandwiched right in the middle are a few seconds of the upcoming tv version of Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. The few scenes look like some of the…

Metal milling machine video will put anyone into a hypnotic trance

Watch the CTX gamma 2000 TC—a computer-controlled metal milling machine with 4,000 Newton meters of torque. It’s pure metal porn eye candy, so deeply hypnotic that will put you into a trance state. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Nokia’s Updated Android Phone Takes Two SIMs for $135

Nokia has just announced an update to its first Android handset. The X2 is brightly colored, cheerfully specced, cheap—and even accepts dual SIMs. https://gizmodo.com/nokia-x-the-first-nokia-android-1529525060 Weighing in at $135 or so off-contract, you might not expect much from this evolution. But in fact the specs aren’t too bad: you get a 4.3-inch WVGA ClearBlack LCD screen,…

Bloomberg: Larger iPhones Go Into Production July, Ship September

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple will put two new iPhones into production in July—one with a 4.7-inch display, the other with 5.5-inch screen—and both might ship by September. If that rumor is true—and that’s still a big if—it both reaffirms rumors and states the obvious. We’re now primed to expect two new larger iPhones, and…

Timelapses of Solar Puffing Are Gently Mesmerizing

When a trio of telescopes teamed up to stare at the sun, they captured the dynamics of solar puffing. The timelapse of a puff is gently mesmerizing: not outright stunning or mind-boggling, but somehow still incredible in their understated hiccupping release of plasma. A jet building into a puff. The red-green-blue channels are each mapped…

Gorgeous GIF Captures the Sun Puffing Plasma

Last year, a trio of sun-gazers — SOHO, STEREO and Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) — captured unusual eruptions of plasma being “puffed” from the sun’s corona. The GIF comes from SDO and shows the jets that caused the puffs. The three colors in the above image — red, green and blue — corresponded to three…