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Twitter just added a third column to make it “more flexible for various screen sizes” and not at all to look more like Facebook, nope.

The strings of a violin deform wildly when you play it

I’ve seen guitar strings filmed with a regular camera showing the sound waves they produce. It’s a trippy effect. This, however, is different: A violin string filmed in slow motion. To be honest, I never expected for the strings to deform so much on this instrument. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

How Devastating Plagues Can Make The People Who Survive Even Stronger

Though it was responsible for tens of millions of European deaths in the mid 14th century, the Medieval Black Death left a surprisingly positive consequence in its wake. According to a new study, surviving generations lived longer and had better health than ever before. This is the topic of a recent paper published by Sharon…

Report: Apple Is Getting Ready to Buy Beats for $3.2 Billion

According to the Financial Times, Apple is closing in on an acquisition of Beats, the headphone manufacturer turned streaming music service. The $3.2 billion deal would give Apple control over a powerful brand, but at the same time, it would be puzzling and uncharacteristic of Apple. The FT points out it would be Apple’s biggest…

These Eerie Photos Make Megacities Look Totally Deserted

We built these cities. All over the world, the crumbling ones, the glistening ones, the towering ones, the little ones—cities are built for people. So when you see one that’s empty, it’s usually eery. Somehow, however, Hungarian photographer Bence Bakonyi makes them beautiful. The 23-year-old’s “Urbanites” series depict various cityscapes in China. Bakonyi describes the…

Read George Washington Carver’s Thesis: “Man is Simply Nature’s Agent”

George Washington Carver is perhaps best known for his work on peanut cultivation, but his botanical research was far more wide-ranging than the one legume for which he’d eventually become famous. Agriculture in the Reconstruction-era American South had an over-reliance on cotton. Cultivating the same plant in the same places over and over again leads…

The 100 Pauses To Get A Bunch Of Kitten Children Stoned

I’m not really sure what to say about last night’s 100. A lot of really bad decisions were made, that’s for sure. And then everyone got really, really stoned. Spoilers ahead. I’m going to be brief because I don’t feel like there’s a lot for me to say about an episode where all the kitten…

US Army cadets’ final survival test sounds like hell on Earth

That guy being thrown into a pool is a fully-equipped US Army cadet about to enter their final survival challenge. They call it Survival Gate #4 but they may as well call it The Gate of Hell, because that’s how it sounds like: Weighed down by heavy equipment, cadets must perform several tasks in a…

What If Batman: The Animated Series‘ Bruce Timm Made A Star Wars Comic?

Animation producer Bruce Timm once auditioned to draw a Star Wars comic. While he didn’t get the gig, we can see his artistic take on the Star Wars universe in his sketches and try-out pages. In a 2000 interview with Comicology, Timm revealed exactly what Star Wars job he was trying out for: I was…

This Is Why Adapting Cartoons To Live-Action Is So Damn Hard

Why is it that, whenever someone announces a live-action adaptation of a previously animated story, I feel a nervous knot in the pit of my stomach? This question raised its ugly head with my realization that Disney’s Descendants — a Disney Channel original movie that sees the kids of all Disney’s heroes and villains going…

A Gods-Eye View of L.A.’s Transit Network in Motion

Google Maps is great for transit directions, but what if you want a gods-eye view of a city’s public transportation network in motion? Try TRAVIC. Developed by University of Freiburg grad student Patrick Brosi and geOps, TRAVIC (Transit Visualization Client) harvests public data feeds supplied by transit operators like L.A. County’s Metro to visualize the…

What is Autonomous Hazard Detection?

What if we lived in a future where our robotic explorers could automatically detect and avoid hazards? What if they could do this while flying around an alien world, picking out a safe place to land without our intervention? That future is creeping closer for the next generation of robotic explorers. Autonomous Landing and Hazard…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: A Monster Problem In The Swamplands

Some folks out for a drive have gotten themselves into a very unpleasant situation. Is it made better or worse by the creature looming before them? Tell us your story inspired by this scene. “Jozin z Bazin” is by artist Sergey Kolesov and prints are available through inPRNT. As always, we invite you to come…

These Sushi Notepads Will Remind You To Pick Up Dinner

Sushi is a treacherous food to eat at a desk because of the potential splash factor—shirt-front soy sauce is not a good look. The good news: That will never be a problem with these adorable Nigiri notes! The bad news: You can’t eat them. 🙁 Each pack comes with four kinds of mini memos—tamago, salmon,…

Is The Flying Car Finally Here?

It’s that time of year again! Every six months or so, the media rave about the latest advancements in flying car technology. They insist your flying car is ALMOST HERE! No, no it’s not. We’ve been waiting on flying cars since at least the 1920s. And countless companies of the 20th century tried to make…

Vegas Is Tearing Down This Empty Hotel That Never Opened

If you’ve visited Vegas anytime since 2009, you’ve likely seen the empty hotel. It doesn’t have any signage; instead, it is often swaddled in ads, like the world’s priciest billboard—a bloated Cirque du Soleil-wrapped blue whale hovering over the Strip for four lonely years. Now a court ruling is finally putting the doomed hotel out…

The dangerous beast known as the “attack novel.” It seizes you and will not let go until it’s been deposited on paper, as Charles Stross explains. If you see one, do not call the authorities.

Read This Engrossing Collection Of The Shortest Science Fiction Stories

We have a collection of very, very short science fiction stories for you to read — ranging from an alternate reality view of where the dwindling bee populations are really going, to how some of the Starship Enterprise’s second-string crewmembers might best extend their life spans. The stories were all written by commenters today, as…

Amazon’s Revolutionary New Patent: Taking Photos on a White Background

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is no stranger to making generally awful (and excessive) patenting decisions, but that doesn’t make its latest grant any less absurd. Amazon has officially been granted a patent for its brilliant idea to… take photos on a white background. Whether it’s a testament to the skill of Amazon’s…

Popcorn Time for Android: Stream Movie Torrents on Your Phone for Free

You remember Popcorn Time, the Netflix for torrents that suffered a self-inflicted death? Well, it never really died. The open source project lives on in the form a forked appversion, available for download for Mac, Windows, and Linux. Today, it comes to Android. The app is a faithful reproduction of the original streaming website: Pick…