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Sony a6000 Review: A Solid Mirrorless Camera That’s a Small Step Up

Pretty much all mirrorless cameras—Fujifilm X, Samsung NX, to name a couple—with APS-C size sensors can take a damn fine picture these days. The a6000 does its best to stand out with a pinch of style and updated tech, but it’s still largely the same as the camera it’s replacing, 2012’s NEX-6. What Is It?…

Everything You Need to Cut The Cord, Wearables, Nest Thermostat

If you’re ready to cut the cord, Newegg will sell you everything you need to get started today for under $100. The Mohu Leaf is the most popular indoor antenna out there, and the Roku 3 is an excellent media player without a hidden agenda. refurb Mohu Leaf | $28 refurb Roku 3 | $70…

LED Holders Upgrade Newspapers With the Latest Headlines

If you’ve ever read the newspaper in a library or a coffee shop, you’ve probably used those long wooden holders that help make them slightly easier to wrangle without tearing the pages and impossible to pilfer. But an ad agency in Switzerland found a way to make them even more useful with invisible LED news…

Watch This Table Turn Sound Into A Dancing Pattern Of Flames

The latest installment of Veritasium is all about the “Pyro-Board.” This snazzy contraption is a mesmerizing, planar take on the Rubens’ tube – a perforated tube of gas – hooked up to a gas jet and a speaker – that can turn music into beautifully patterned, leaping flicks of fire. The video demonstrates how gas…

Spot the Rover Tracks from Space

In the game of Where’s Curiosity? (hint: the tiny blue rectangle), and discussion of Curiosity’s shiny new drilling location, did we mention you can also see the rover tracks? The more we stare at this photo, the more fun it is. https://gizmodo.com/the-curiosity-rovers-tracks-across-mars-as-seen-from-s-1564620476

LADEE has (Purposely) Crashed into the Moon.

After 100 days of science, and a guessing-game for the impact-date, LADEE has finally hit the moon. https://gizmodo.com/nasas-ladee-spacecraft-just-crashed-into-the-moon-1564649339

Why Were There So Many Giant Insects in the 1950s?

Hollywood produced some 500 science fiction movies during the 1950s, and the stars of many of them were colossal mutant insects. Why were people in the mid-twentieth century obsessed with giant bugs? One economist sums up the dominant theories. In some ways, this debate echoes the current discussion over what makes the zombie genre so…

Cool photo of a guy pouring some water in an inverted plane

Which kind of sorcery is this, you ask? Nothing but the magic of physics and the g forces pulling down the water during a barrel roll. And before someone starts saying this is fake, check out this video showing exactly the same effect in motion. Skip to the 45 second mark to see it. So…

Facebook’s Paper has finally added events notifications as well as the ability to insert photos into comments. Hey—it’s almost like real Facebook. Almost.

HD Video From Space Makes the World’s Tallest Building Look Like a Toy

Static, low-res satellite imagery is so passé. Watching HD video from space satellites is the future, especially when looking down on the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. We’ve seen how footage like this makes the world look like a video game, or a Micro Machines playset! It’s sped up of course, but the airplane…

10 Reasons an Artificial Intelligence Wouldn’t Turn Evil

We all know the story. The moment that computers with their lightning-quick processing power and interlinked systems gain sentience – it’s judgment day. But would that really happen? Here are some psychological reasons why digital super-intelligence isn’t going to be evil intelligence. 10. No Sunk Costs The two major franchises in which evil machines took…

First Three Minutes of Joss Whedon’s In Your Eyes Will Hook You

We’ve been waiting for our first glimpse of Joss Whedon’s tiny movie In Your Eyes for ages, and now here’s a whole three minutes. The film, written by Whedon but directed by Won’t Back Down writer Brin Hill, premieres this Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival. Watch the opening scene now! In Your Eyes stars…

If companies used these hilarious honest slogans I’d buy way more stuff

Honest Slogans is a genius Tumblr written by a deranged Don Draper called Clif Dickens. It’s pure genius. I really hope that some of the brands are actually his clients. You can check all the rest here here. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

NASA: The Only Thing Stopping a City-Destroying Asteroid Is Blind Luck

So you know how we all kind of thought that our odds of getting destroyed by an asteroid were remarkably low? Yeah, that was wrong. According to new research, the odds of a large-scale asteroid impact are actually three to ten times higher than we thought. And the only thing stopping total and utter destruction?…

A 3D-Printed Ultrasound Cast That Looks Awesome and Heals You Faster

Old-fashioned casts are nasty, a festering stinksleeves that you wear like a medieval torture device for what seems like forever. 3D-printed casts take care of the smell and itch issues, and now Deniz Karasahin has designed the next step: a custom cast with an ultrasound device to speed up bone healing. Karasahin’s Osteoid is, obviously,…

DreamWorks Spicing Things Up With Possible CGI Live-Action Hybrid

According to multiple sources, DreamWorks Animation is now developing a movie based on the Harvey Comics series Hot Stuff The Little Devil. That part isn’t so shocking, since DreamWorks bought Classic Media, which owned the rights to all the Harvey Comics franchises such as Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich, back in 2011. What’s…

Transcendence Has Some Of The Dumbest Smart People We’ve Ever Seen

What went wrong with Transcendence? This movie was supposed to be the new science-fiction hotness. An original storyline about artificial intelligence and brain-uploading, the directorial debut of Chris Nolan’s cinematographer Wally Pfister, a great cast… and yet, it’s getting widely panned. Why did the A.I. revolution fail? It’s really sad, because you have to respect…

Deepsea Minerals Are Coming Soon To A Cell Phone Near You

Rocks mined from the seafloor have been confirmed as a viable source for rare earth metals, and thus a tiny piece of the ocean might soon find its way into a cell phone or computer chipboard near you. The finding, published in the April 2014 issue of Applied Geochemistry, all but guarantees a new round…

Meet the real-life version of Walter White, a man who transported meth so he could afford treatment for his critically ill son. Unlike the famous Heisenberg from Breaking Bad, this guy has languished in jail for decades. Guernica has a great story about the effort to get him released.

I Wouldn’t Be Here Without the 1982 World’s Fair

On a recent trip home to Knoxville, Tennessee, I had a flashback. Not an acid flashback (I don’t think). We were weaving through the hilly streets of downtown in the shadow of the Sunsphere, a discoball of a monument built for the 1982 World’s Fair, and suddenly I was there in the crowd, staring at…