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Here’s What You Would See If You Were Kicked By A Giraffe

A giraffe came across a wildlife photographer’s camera and knocked it on its back, giving us an idea of what a giraffe hoof to the head would look like. Photographer Chris Barnard took this accidental video, which lets us see not just the kick, but also the underside of the giraffe, all without the resulting…

Colorful Map Shows L.A. as a Patchwork of Rancho-Era Land Grants

Los Angeles County commissioned this 1888 map for a mundane reason—to record property holdings—but the result was an eye-catching, colorful artifact that seems to depict a land of dueling principalities. And for a while, it was. Beginning in 1784, first Spain and then Mexico carved the Southland into vast tracts of land, or ranchos, that…

Stripped car transforms into exotic sports car with magic foam

Reddit user Geeky_ shows how a scrap car can be magically transformed into an exotic sports car with expanding foam. The car, which is pretty much just a stripped metal body, gets fattened up with luxurious curves and looks like it costs a million bucks. Slick. Painted blob never looked so good. Granted the car…

Did You Know UPS Trucks Only Make Right Turns?

Turns out left turns are not only riskier, they also waste gas. So UPS – optimization-obsessed logistics company that it is – got rid of them. Photo Credit: David Guo // CC BY 2.0 Via Priceonomics: UPS engineers found that left-hand turns were a major drag on efficiency. Turning against traffic resulted in long waits…

Doctors Can Now Grow Engineered Vaginas in Women

After decades of work, a team of doctors say they’ve successfully engineered vaginas that have been implanted and grown in women. The vaginas were grown in a lab from the female patients’ own cells and later transferred to their bodies, where they formed into normal vaginas. The breakthrough bears some huge implications, too. It sounds…

For The Elderly, Better Eating Through 3D Printing

The European Union, concerned about the special needs of its rapidly aging population, is spending more than $4 million to develop 3D printers that will produce food that is optimized for the elderly. The program is called PERFORMANCE: an over-labored acronym that stands for “PERsonalized FOod using Rapid MAnufacturing for the Nutrition of elderly ConsumErs.”…

How Do Red And Giant Pandas Coexist? The Secret Is In Their Skulls.

Red pandas and giant pandas have more in common than simply being equally adorable and included on the IUCN Red List. They both eat bamboo and live in the same habitats. How do they coexist without competing over the same resources? The secret might be hidden in their skulls. Despite their English language labels, red…

Photographer reveals the secret of the Windows XP desktop image

Charles O’Rear is the photographer who took Bliss, the image that became the desktop of every single Windows XP computer in the world. Billions saw it and probably think the photo is so perfect and colorful that it is computer generated—or at least Photoshopped. O’Rear reveals the origin of the photo in this video. So…

This Classy Office Furniture Should Replace All Cubicles

Everyone needs a little privacy at work, but unfortunately this usually means erecting cheap walls of plastic which depress their inhabitants at the same time they define workspace. A new line of office furniture by the folks at Rack & Tack manages to divide up a room while still being cheery, colorful and clever. Designed…

The 100 Continues To Kill Off Small Children

This episode of The 100 was called “Murphy’s Law,” which is an adage that means anything that can go wrong will go wrong, which makes sense because a lot of really bad things happen in this episode to a guy named Murphy… I’ll just pause to let that sink in… But if I had to…

U.S. Army Compares New Hacker School To “The Birth Of The Air Force”

Over the next three years, the U.S. Army will be filling its brand new cyber warfare institute at West Point with the best and brightest hackers it can find. Not just hackers, however: the institute will bring together psychologists, lawyers, mathematicians—anyone who can help the country win the inevitable cyber war and save America. It…

It’s not so hard to tell Dallas from Milan, but what if you were looking from more than 500 miles above – and in the dark? This quiz from Nautilus takes city light maps snapped via satellite and asks you to sort which city matches which light signature — a surprisingly tricky task. Image: NASA…

The Dizzying Work of Hand-Painting Ads Across New York City Skyscrapers

Walk around New York City, and you’re bound to see the work of these “wall dogs“—the men and women who paint billboard-size ads by hand, high above the city streets. Their work is exacting, and the places they paint are terrifying. Don’t watch this if you’re afraid of heights. Hand-painted outdoor ads aren’t exclusive to…

Why Istanbul Wants to Build the World’s Busiest Airport

Back in 2013, when Istanbul was still competing to host the 2020 Olympics, the city announced plans to build “the world’s largest and busiest airport terminal.” The Olympic bid ended up failing—but Istanbul still wants to build its mega-airport. Today, Grimshaw—the team of architects behind St. Petersburg’s new airport and dozens of other huge transit…

Watch The New Batman Short By The Animated Series Creator Bruce Timm

Batman: The Animated Series co-creator Bruce Timm delivers a brand new Batman short in honor of the hero’s 75th anniversary. Styled as a 1930s pulp, it follows Batman to the lair of Hugo Strange. Since Batman first appeared in 1939, Timm decided to play tribute to that era with a sepia-toned adventure, and Hugo Strange,…

Concept Art Writing Prompt: The Astronaut Of Skull And Flowers

An astronaut experiences a moment of death and life on sunny planet. What kind of story can you write inspired by this particular juxtaposition? This week’s image is “Homecoming,” by the artist Tuomas Korpi, via r/SpecArt. As always, we invite you to come up with a story based on this image and post it in…

This Folding Knife and Spork Is Plastic Cutlery Evolved

If there’s one downside to a summer spent relaxing at garden parties and backyard barbecues, it’s having to dine with disposable plastic cutlery. It’s flimsy and it’s awkward—and thanks to designer Wei Young, you’d be far better off just bringing this reusable set that folds away so it can hang off a carabiner. Just ten…

Mesmerizing video shows how to make a dragon egg from Game of Thrones

I love to see talented people crafting objects. This is a good example: How to make a dragon egg from Game of Thrones “using the technique of repousse, chasing and metal spinning.” Mesmerizing. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Watch The Apocalyptic Short Movie That China Tried To Ban

This short film, “Hong Kong Will Be Destroyed In 33 Years,” has become a huge hit on Youtube in the past month, racking up over 600,000 views. But don’t try and search for it on the Chinese video search service Baidu — it’s been removed. According to the blog Fei Chang Dao, search results for…

Amazon Buys Popular Digital Comics Platform Comixology

Amazon is buying Comixology, one of the major players in digital comics. This is huge acquisition for Amazon which revolutionized the way we consume regular books with the Kindle. Can it lend some of that mojo to the world of comics as well? Comixology was founded in 2007, and distributes books by basically every publisher…