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Can you spot the camouflaged snipers hiding in these photographs?

These may look like typical landscape photographs, but hidden inside each one is a sniper with a gun pointed at the camera lens. The German Army provided photographer Simon Menner with two snipers for his Project Camouflage series, which puts the viewer in the crosshairs of an apparently invisible military professional. Menner has provided clues…

Hilarious corgi running on a carousel is a perfect metaphor of life

I’m not going to be a hamster on a wheel anymore. I will be a corgi running on a carousel. This never-ending GIF wins my own personal internet forever. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

Japan’s Transformers-themed hotel room transforms fandom into despair

Do you love Transformers but hate yourself? Then why not fly around the world to Japan, and stay in a special Transformers-themed hotel room that you could easily recreate by yourself at a Holiday Inn with $50 and a quick trip to Target? The room is in the Asahikawa Grand Hotel in Hokkaido, and as…

Watching ice crystals melt is like seeing a psychedelic kaleidoscope

I’d like to have whatever these ice crystals are having because damn it’s quite the trip. The video of these ice crystals melting was taken by Shawn Knol using cross-polarized light which I’m going to assume is some code word for really powerful drugs and not actually some super slick microscope. SPLOID is a new…

Which countries do Americans perceive as their greatest enemies?

Over the past few years, Americans have overwhelmingly pinpointed Iran as public enemy number one. But as a recent Gallup Poll illustrates, Americans are now focusing their attention on several new perceived threats — a sure sign of the world’s complex and ever-changing geopolitical balance. According to the poll, half as many Americans now view…

What a beating heart looks like during surgery

Buh-bum. Buh-bum. Buh-bum. We all have our own interpretations of what a heartbeat sounds like but here is what it looks like during heart surgery. It looks like it’s rolling in place inside your chest. Pretty amazing. BoingBoing said that this footage was taken during Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital’s live-tweeting of a coronary artery bypass graft…

This is the science vs. theology debate we wanted

You can watch it live here! io9 pal, physicist Sean Carroll, is debating cosmology with Christian philosopher William Lane Craig. Scroll to about 55 minutes in, past the ads, and you’ll catch the debate.

‘Nature is Ruthless’: Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice to the People of 2088

In 1988, as part of a print advertising campaign, Volkswagen asked many thinkers, including author Kurt Vonnegut, to write letters to the people of 2088. Vonnegut’s words of advice: Nature is out to kill us all and instead of being overly optimistic, we should submit to its terms of surrender. Vonnegut begins his missive by…

The secret history of the book behind True Detective

Over the past week, we’ve been looking at references from True Detective to the book The King in Yellow published in 1895. But, the world The King in Yellow was building actually began years before that, with another book published in 1893. TRUE DETECTIVE SPOILERS (and literary analysis) ahead, people. After True Detective’s references to…

No, really. They’re making Space Jam 2.

I know. It sounds like a hoax, or an early April Fools thing. But no, it’s real. They’re doing Space Jam 2 — and LeBron James is starring, as soon as he gets over last night’s broken nose. I’d always thought the first Space Jam was an epic flop, but turns out it actually made…

Most Beautiful Items: February 14 – 21, 2014

If I have to look at one more half-melted slushy snowdrift, I’m going to junkpunch the nearest passerby. Luckily, there are things like amazing honeycomb sculptures and insane light installations to bring everyone off the ledge that winter has put them on. Enjoy a little reprieve in the form of the most beautiful items we…

Its tapestry skin keeps it hidden in the brilliant colors of the jungle

When the first explorers returned with the hides of the misnomered Flying Monkey, researchers back home guessed that the colors made for a dazzling mating display. It was only after the xenophotographer Ly Bishop lugged his wide spectrum equipment into the jungles that they realized that the creature’s skin let it blend in with the…

Quite Possibly the Most Important Moment in the History of Doctor Who

The Doctor has had many epic moments in the 50 years that Doctor Who has been on the air. But this moment featuring Patrick Troughton isn’t just one of the most epic, but possibly the most important of all. This is the moment where the Doctor announces his mission to battle evil for the first…

The universe shares an important property with chocolate syrup

What is the texture of the universe? Turns out that it’s kind of gooey. A group of physicists have used sound waves to analyze matter in the cosmos, and found that its consistency is exactly the same as chocolate syrup. Over at Quanta Magazine, Natalie Wolchover has a great article on the team of physicists…

Celebrities looked like they time traveled in these 1860’s photographs

Whenever you look at vintage photographs taken using old methods, there’s always a certain haunting quality about them. The life captured is so still, the eyes always seem so dark. It’s almost joyless. Photographer Victoria Will wanted to see how old photographs would translate with modern people so she used an 1860’s era method of…

This New App Wants to Fight Your Parking Tickets For You

It’s happened to all of us. You get back to your car after a delicious brunch or productive visit to the bookstore only to find a demonic little slip of paper tucked under your windshield wiper. “But the meter was broken!” you think. “I’m going to contest this!” you say to yourself. No, you’re not.…

These Extraordinary Tunnels Look Like Gateways to Other Worlds

If you’re going to go down the rabbit hole, you might as well do it in style. These tunnels from around the world look exactly like the sorts of places that would lead you to the lands beyond our ken. The Light Tunnel at Detroit Metropolitan County Airport, Romulus, Michigan Light patterns along the tunnel…

Scientists are appalled at Nicaragua’s plan to build a massive canal

The Nicaraguan government has approved a plan that would see the country cut in half by a 177-mile-long canal. The new route would boost the country’s economy and rival the one in Panama — but scientists say it would be an environmental and social catastrophe. Construction on the $40 billion canal is scheduled to begin…

I Want This $30,000 Vibrating Waterbed That Syncs to My Heart Rate

People, muster up all your creative juices and imagine the most ridiculous bed you can think of. Is it a waterbed? Obviously. Can it play music from your iPhone? Totally. Does it vibrate to the beat of that music? Yes, it can. Can it sync 50 LED lights to the beating of your heart? Yup.…

1926: One of the world’s first walk-through metal detectors, invented to search employees leaving a manufacturing plant in Germany. [April 1926 issue of Radio News]