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One Year After Snowden, What’s Really Changed?

Father’s Day is here again, but this year, dad won’t be getting an exciting bucket of leaks from Edward Snowden. No, instead we all get to look back on a year of NSA revelations and wonder what’s actually changed. The truth is, depressingly little. The first reports on Edward Snowden’s leaks were published exactly one…

My Little Pony‘s Lauren Faust Is Making An Animated Comedy About Medusa

Lauren Faust brought the magic of friendship—along with great writing and animation—to My Little Pony, and next she is turning her animation skills toward Greek mythology, with a movie about Medusa. Sounds like a winning combination. According to The Wrap, Sony Animation has tapped Faust to direct their Medusa film, with a screenplay by Antz…

What App Permissions Mean in Plain English

When you’re eagerly installing the latest must-have disappearing photo app or addictive puzzle game, how much time are you likely to spend reading through the required permissions before you accept them? Probably not enough. It’s tempting to give the permissions screen no more than a cursory glance when installing apps, not least because they’re often…

Is There a Cleaner Way to Make Metals?

Making metal is a dirty business, and we don’t just mean in terms of getting your hands dirty. Creating useable metals from the ores that are dug from the ground is a heavily polluting endeavor—but it might be about to get a whole lot cleaner. Most metals are created in a two-step process. First, the…

Why Do Clouds Suddenly Form Around Nuclear Explosions?

Back when open-air tests of nuclear weapons were common, scientists noticed that clouds would suddenly burst into existence around the explosion. Soon afterwards, the clouds disappeared. What caused these clouds to flicker in and out of existence? Find out! Many of the classic images we see of nuclear explosions include rings, or layers, of clouds…

​The Boardie Electric: Boosted Board Shows The Future of Fun

Sure, there’s Tesla. Tesla’s great. Self-driving Google cars? I’m into it. But Boosted Boards’ electric longboard is available today, at a price (some) people can afford. And riding it is glory and joy itself. Boosted is a new company: six mechatronic engineers and an industrial designer. They designed a skateboard driven by two brushless electric…

This Robot Is the Rembrandt of Painting With Light

The more traditional technique of light painting involves creating freehand designs using a point of light in front of a camera taking a long exposure photo. The results are occasionally recognizable—but most often random—and that’s part of their appeal. Jeff Crossman and Kevyn McPhail take a different approach, though, using a robot arm to create…

7 Signs That Humans Are Domestic Animals

Tens of thousands of years ago, humans were wild animals. Our ancestors roamed the land in search of food by day, and huddled together for safety by night. But then something changed. We domesticated ourselves, and this process didn’t just change us profoundly — it changed a lot of other life forms around us, too.…

How Creationists Interpret Genetics (Hint: They’re Very, Very Wrong)

The majority of creationists freely admit the existence of biological variation, adaptation and speciation. But, how do they reconcile this with their rejection of evolution? A former young-Earth creationist walks us through the convoluted logic. I’ve previously introduced David MacMillan, a former creationist blogger, who has begun writing a series of explainers to unravel these…

The Xbox One Gets a Graphics Boost When Devs Ignore Kinect

Say what you will about Microsoft’s decision to give up on packing in the Kinect with its Xbox One (I sure have!) but there’s good news for performance junkies: When Kinect’s out of the picture, the Xbox One gets a 10 percent boost in graphics power. The announcement that Xbox One dev kits were going…

Watch Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Audition For The Very First X-Men Movie

Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine in seven movies over the course of 14 years, and it all started with the audition. Travel back in time to see Jackman’s very first reading with X-Men director Bryan Singer. This is a rather understated beginning to the now-familiar pairing of actor and character—in fact, you may want to…

Colbert Gives Amazon the Finger For Shady Book Selling Tactics

In the wake of Amazon’s questionable tactics in dealing with publishing house Hachette, many Amazon shoppers are questioning their loyalty to the mega-seller. Stephen Colbert, not one to hide his anger, unleashed on Amazon in a less-than-subtle way last night. A big reason for the anger in this case is that Colbert’s own books are…

The Beneath Trailer Channels That Old Descent Feeling

This is the first we’ve seen of the mine drama Beneath, and so far so good. It’s your classic “oh no we’re stuck hundreds of feet underground and there’s something down here” horror movie, but hey, if it ain’t broke… From what we can tell in the trailer, it looks like the monsters are the…

Remember how Barnes and Noble said it was going to give up on its Nook tablets? Well they are back! As branded Samsung Galaxy Tabs. Samsung and B&N just signed an agreement to bring the Nook software and name to a flavor of the 7-inch Galaxy Tab 4. Hooray?

Brutally honest Top Gun trailer shows how ridiculous this movie is

Once again, the guys at Screen Junkies show us the ridiculous Hollywood bullshit of a blockbuster film: Top Gun. It’s a ridiculous movie to begin with, but it completely falls apart in a hilarious way when you see it through their Honest Trailer lenses. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on…

5 Rail Stations From America’s New Golden Age of Train Travel

With a high-speed rail network slowly making its way towards reality, cities are commissioning grand stations for the 21st century to accommodate this new mode of transit. Here are five stations on the horizon that are bringing the drama and glamour back to train travel, while positioning it for a high-tech, high-speed future. Union Station,…

Stunt Casting That Actually Made Everything Better

Stunt casting is a long tradition in science fiction and fantasy, but it’s only gotten more common lately. Films and TV shows will cast a famous actor — or someone who used to be in a Joss Whedon show — to spark interest. Sometimes, it’s just unnecessary. But here are a bunch of cases where…

More New Game Of Thrones Season 5 Characters Reveal A Major Twist

SPOILERS AHEAD, PEOPLE. A few new rumored names have been added to the Game of Thrones fifth season character list, and if true, they reveal something very unusual will be happening on the show next year. The new characters and their descriptions come from Winter Is Coming, of course. Here they are: Varamyr: Dubbed Varamyr…

This Smart Monitor Will Help Brown Thumbs Raise Victory Gardens

It’s tough finding time to keep your houseplants from withering away, much less the effort to maintain an entire outdoor urban garden. But with this comprehensive monitoring system, gardeners of any age and skill level can grow the best crops in the neighborhood. The Edyn system is comprised of two parts: the Edyn Garden Sensor…

Why A “Sex Chip” Could Be Considerably More Trouble Than It’s Worth

The ability to trigger feelings of extreme pleasure on-demand is a prospect that’s fascinated both scifi writers and scientists for decades. Indeed, the day is coming when we’ll be able induce orgasmic-like sensations at the flick of a switch — a prospect with obvious appeal, but with some serious downsides. Back in 2008, neuroscientists Morten…