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Scientists just revived a 30,000 year-old frozen virus in Siberia

In what’s either the beginning of a Michael Crichton movie or a scientific breakthrough, researchers have successfully revived a 30,000-year-old virus buried deep in the permafrosts of Siberia, the largest virus ever discovered. The virus, known as Pithovirus sibericum, was revived from samples from ancient permafrost, which the researchers used to infect amoebas in their…

America’s First ‘Wireless Newspaper’ Killed Catalina’s Carrier Pigeons

If you lived on the small Southern California island of Catalina at the turn of the century, news was hard to come by. The island had a rather unreliable carrier pigeon system and copies of the L.A. Times wouldn’t arrive by boat until around 1:30 in the afternoon. News was slow moving. But all that…

A Whiteboard With a 3D Face Will Really Improve Office Doodles

Hilarious caricatures of bosses and uptight managers are a staple of any office. But unless you work in a design studio filled with artists, deciphering who a doodle is supposed to be can be tricky. Unless you’ve got this whiteboard featuring a 3D face relief that lets even number crunchers create erasable masterpieces. Anyone familiar…

Changes in global diet could make famines more likely

Over the past half-century, a few staple foods like rice and soybeans have come to dominate people’s diets all over the world. And this could spell disaster. A new research paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores how local staple crops like cereals and roots have been superseded by “energy-dense foods”…

Canada Wants to Send Its Astronauts to Space in Computer Shirts

Wearable technology has a long way to go. Sure, a smartwatch that lets you read text messages on your wrist is neat, and a pair of glasses that take pictures is innovative (or whatever). But what about technology we can really wear? Like clothes? Canada’s on the case. The land of hockey champions and Commander…

This pilot firing a missile is the coolest selfie ever, not the Oscars’

Forget about Ellen Degeneres and forget about this astronaut. This is the most awesome selfie,not theirs: A Royal Danish Air Force pilot firing a live air-to-air AIM-9 Sidewinder missile form his F-16 fighter. I feel a bit of deja vu writing about this—after this and this—but it’s such a cool image that it had to…

The World’s Safest Shiv Also Makes Your Ladder Way More Useful

Ladders might give you access to areas of your home you simply can’t reach, but that’s pretty much all they’re good for. Need to bring a few tools with you to fix a leaky gutter? You’re on your own—unless you’ve got this handy Ladder Limb in your toolbox, which adds a carabiner for hanging or…

Buildings That Used to Be Pizza Huts: Where Are They Now?

It started with some Pittsburgh humor. Pittsburgh-based comedian Tom Musial does a bit about a GPS unit that can give directions in “Pittsburghese.” Because in Pittsburgh, no one calls it “Interstate 376,” it’s “The Parkway.” It’s not “The Liberty Tunnel,” it’s “The Liberty Tubes.” And directions are often given by way of what used to…

Animator brings a musical scene that was cut from Frozen to visual life

One of the songs that was ultimately cut from Frozen is “Life’s Too Short,” a duet that Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel sing when Anna first arrives at Elsa’s ice castle. Fan animator Audrey Arini created an animatic that imagines how the scene might have played out onscreen. Arini (also known as Bambi Killer) studied…

Man builds giant 50-foot-tall snowman with entire trees for arms

A farmer in Gilman, Minnesota, decided he have had enough of the snow that was ruining his greenhouses, so he decided to start piling it all up intothis 50-foot-tall snowman.Because why not. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

What do these nighttime satellite photos reveal about civilization?

Looking at the Earth from orbit is fascinating, especially at night. That’s when you can measure the ways that human civilization covers the planet, and discover how national boundaries affect the electrical grid. North Koreaat night The only visible place is Pyongyang, the capital city. Its light emission is equivalent to the smaller town in…

A new plan for U.S. transportation! California tries to fix its water crisis! An ugly building with good politics in Philly! Plus, Italy’s boyish new leader and a walking tour of “crushingly boring” Silicon Valley! It’s all in this week’s best Urban Reads. Obama unveiled a new transportation and infrastructure plan last week. Now he…

Making The Hobbit 2‘s barrel escape was its own epic adventure

When Bilbo and the dwarves escaped Thranduil’s kingdom, they did so in empty wine barrels, rushing down the forest river, fighting wood elves and the rapids simultaneously. Their escape was a breeze compared to what director Peter Jackson and the actors went through to make the scene, as this Wired video reveals.

Color Solar Panels Let Stained Glass Windows Produce Cheap Power

Because solar panels are designed to accumulate as much light from the sun as possible, they’re typically very dark in color. It makes them more efficient, but also kind of an eyesore, minimizing their adoption. So researchers at the University of Michigan have developed what they believe to be the world’s first semi-transparent, colored solar…

Evil conspiracies are all too ordinary, on True Detective

On True Detective, it’s interesting that the closer we get to knowing who is behind all the murders, the more we realize that the answers are mundane — and all the more horrible for being the opposite of supernatural. I’m not trying to claim that there is a big reveal here about the show not…

These Compost Islands Would Turn NYC’s Garbage Into Gold

The average New Yorker generates about three pounds of trash every day, and a huge amount of that is food waste—which could be composted, if only we had the space. Enter “Green Loop,” a proposal to build massive composting islands off the coastline of NYC. “We send trucks millions of miles every year, creating traffic,…

Hear All About the Amazing Cinematography of House of Cards

Been watching season two of House of Cards? The answer is yes. So you know how beautiful the cinematography is. In an interview with Go Creative, the Igor Martinovic, the show’s cinematographer tells how he crafted the show’s unique visual style. When watching House of Cards, you may be struck by the precisely composed shots,…

Does it always matter how a movie ends?

The ending of the movie has, by default, it’s last word. But, sometimes the scene is stolen by a wrap-up that comes before ending, a thematic ending that eclipses the actual ending. In response to some new thoughts from Zack Snyder on Watchmen’s polarizing ending, a discussion began about some of the movie’s better closing…

Vote on the best satellite photos from 2013

It’s that time of year — the Earth Observatory is pitting gorgeous photo against gorgeous photo in a tournament to pick the best of 2013. Set up a betting bracket, then vote the best photos in each of 4 categories. Need more enticement to spend your Monday afternoon eyeballing the Earth? Here’s a few of…

Can you tell the difference between poetry written by a human and poetry generated by a computer? Bot or Not is a Turing test for poetry; take the quiz to see if you can guess the provenance of each poem. It turns out that some of those bots aren’t half-bad poets. [via Nerdcore]