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Let’s Talk About Whatever You Want Right Now

It’s Friday, and the end of a loooong week. Everyone at Gizmodo is getting revved up for the Home of the Future, and I forgot to assign someone to post an Open Thread! What is going on in your life? What are you forgetting? Is it “to call your mom on Sunday”? It better not…

Watch Astronauts Practice Drilling an Asteroid Underwater

Training for the imminent mission to an asteroid has begun in Houston, and it looks like fun. On Friday, astronauts Stan Love and Steve Bowen jumped in NASA’s 40-foot-deep pool to try out a new suit design and several tools that could be used on the asteroid mission slated for the 2020s. Thank God they…

What Are Moms Up to on Twitter?

Moms! They gave you life, cared for you, taught you right from wrong, and most importantly, they loved you (unless they didn’t). But now that you’ve abandoned them to move on to bigger and better basements, moms need to fill that hole in their heart any way they know how. It’s time to talk about…

Express Your American Pride with Vintage-Style National Park Posters

Between 1936 and 1943, the Works Progress Administration produced about 2,000 posters to publicize everything from civic events to national parks. They’re gorgeous. So gorgeous that graphic designer Steven Thomas used them as inspiration for his latest project: See America. With 10 vintage-style posters, Thomas tips his hat to a golden age of design as…

Remember Camera and Poke, two of Facebook’s standalone apps? No? Apparently, you’re not alone. In fact, so few people remembered to use the apps that the apps existed at all that Facebook saw fit to kill them once and for all. Rest in peace, Poke and Camera. We hardly knew ye—like, at all.

Is Rio’s Olympic Prep Really So Bad That London Might Host Instead?

A report from the Evening Standard makes a bonkers claim today: That London will be a backup if Rio can’t get its act together for the Summer 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee denies it. But that’s a hell of a mixed message—just last week, an IOC Vice President said that Rio’s preparations are “the…

That Time An Unscrupulous Vixen Hypnotized And Enslaved Superman

We all know that Superman’s powers include super-hypnosis… but it turns out he’s highly susceptible to hypnosis himself. All you have to do is dangle a watch in the big guy’s face and he becomes yours to command. At least, judging from this Lois and Clark episode. In “Illusions of Grandeur,” a struggling female magician’s…

Illustrations of the Iguana-Toothed Dinosaur

Historic illustrations of dinosaurs are reflections of the science of their times. This makes them less accurate, but engaging in the manner of careful line-drawings capturing a worldview from a time gone past. This is the Iguanodon as seen by scientists throughout time. Iguanodon was first identified in 1825 by Gideon Mantell, which means that…

Why is Alabama the Only State with an Official Tipple?

The other week, Kelsey brightened your Friday afternoon with the tale of three cities that are each symbolized by a trademark booze: Chicago’s Malört, NYC’s iconic Manhattan cocktail, and London gin. Which made me wonder: what about states? America’s states have an entire curiosity cabinet of official symbols, from official state butterflies (the Monarch, for…

Finally One Person Does The Right Thing On Vampire Diaries

Yay for Julian, the Traveler inhabiting Tyler’s body, for doing what needs to be done, on last night’s Vampire Diaries. Seriously, did anybody else spend half an hour shouting at the screen for somebody to do this? Spoilers ahead… Just how selfish are Stefan and Elena? They’re so afraid to give up their immortal lives,…

Two-year-old kid flips out when he watches fireworks for the first time

This two-year-old kid was taken to a wrestling show and, for the first time in his life, experienced fireworks. His expression of awe is genuine and yet not very different from the one I have every time I see them. Fireworks are awesome, no question about it. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff.…

This plastic heals itself through a process that’s eerily reminiscent of blood clotting. It contains a network of capillaries that deliver healing chemicals to damaged areas. So in the future, the cracked screen of your phone could mend itself. Image: Nathan Bajandas/Beckman Institute/University of Illinois You may also enjoy:

Scientists reveal sneezes are more dangerous than people think

Using advanced image processing and physics algorithms, MIT scientists have analyzed hundreds of high-speed sequences of sneezes to obtain an accurate 3D model of fluid clouds and droplet trajectories with some frightening results. They found that smaller droplets travel really far because the cloud keeps them afloat. It’s surprising how far they can go, they…

How Streaming Video Could Kill The DVD Special Feature — Or Save It

Streaming video is rapidly becoming the movie-watching mode of choice, but does the takeover of streaming video mean that the special features and commentaries that accompanied DVDs are dead? With the release of the previously redacted Bond movie commentaries, we were left wondering about what the future of streaming video meant for special features down…

World’s Slowest Surveillance Cams To Produce a Single Image in 100 Years

It’s a little disconcerting to know how many of our day-to-day movements are being recorded in real time, what with CCTV, security cams, and smartphone wielding strangers. And while Google Streetview’s taking short-term before-and-after shots of our cities, one artist wants to capture a city’s evolution over a hundred years in a series of extra-extra-extra-long…

The Green Goblin Could Have Been Terrifying In Amazing Spider-Man 2

The Green Goblin could have looked downright monstrous in Amazing Spider-Man 2, if artistLong Ouyang‘s original designs had been used. Just see for yourself! [via Comic Book Movie]

Fan-Made Trailer For Jim Butcher’s Next Dresden Files Book Is Splendid

Jim Butcher’s next book in the Dresden Files series, Skin Game, doesn’t come out until May 27 — but you can feed your Dresden Files addiction right now, with this action-packed book trailer. This trailer was created by the talented folks at Dresden Files Fan Filming, featuring Tiffany Briels as Mab, Queen of Air and…

Keep Your Cookbooks Clean With a Temporary Recipe Tattoo on Your Arm

The cookbooks I’ve used in my life have endured drippings, grease splatters, and one especially harrowingly bath in a pot of tomato soup. Let’s face it, a big block of paper is an inconvenient thing to lug around the kitchen. But there’s an ingenious little idea that puts tattoos in a perfectly convenient place to…

10 Animated Dinosaurs That Totally Ruled

In the world of animation, there are few universal truths. But one, at least, is that everyone loves dinosaurs. Whether you think they’re fascinating or just plain awesome, few stories were made worse by the presence of our prehistoric friends. And since today is dino-day across the io9 sub-sites, let’s celebrate by looking at some…

News Of Junk DNA’s Death Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

The term “junk DNA” has been under attack lately, but a pair of geneticists are now making the case for this much maligned and misunderstood concept. There are significant chunks of our DNA, they argue, that really are utterly useless. By the end of the Human Genome Project, biologists had discovered that over 98% of…