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Should we just rename Uranus already?

Two-hundred-and-thirty-two years ago a mistake was made. The question is, do we have to keep living with it forever, or is it finally time to rename Uranus? Even as I write this, I am bracing myself so that I can be stoic in the face of the inevitable barrage of comments that amount to, “I…

This Wonderful Cardboard Robot Proves the Box Is Always More Fun

There’s a long running joke that kids would rather play with the cardboard box than the toy inside. And that’s especially true if that cardboard can then be transformed into an articulated 20-inch tall robot like our friend here. Thanks to pre-cut holes and panels, as well as folding cardboard joints and hinges, this creation…

Here’s when you can finally see Knights of Badassdom

I have no idea how any movie starring Peter Dinklage goes straight to VOD in this day and age, but the much anticipated Knights of Badassdom is pretty much doing just that. It’ll have a limited theatrical run beginning January 21st, but then be available on VOD on February 11th. Seeing as director Joe Lynch…

New Details About the “Old Friend” in the Doctor Who Christmas Special

Check out the first photo of Meryl Streep in The Giver. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost explain why they probably won’t be in Ant-Man. Is another classic villain being hinted at for the Amazing Spider-Man films? That Ouija movie is still happening. Plus yet another Stephen King story is becoming a TV show. Spoilers ahead!…

Rare Manhattan Project Photos Show The Birth Of The Atomic Age

The Department Of Energy posted 21 photos onto its Flickr page a few weeks ago about Chicago Pile-1, the site of the first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction, located in Chicago. Built under the west stands of the Stagg football field of the University of Chicago and initiated on 2 December 1942, the Chicago Pile-1 was…

Bell Labs’ 202 Hack: The First Great Jailbreak?

Before laser-printers were even dreamt of, large companies had to use typesetters to render text if it were to look any good—but they were expensive and tightly controlled. Then, in the summer of 1979, engineers at Bell Labs changed all that. Over their summer vacation, a team of researchers decided to reverse engineer the technology…

Rumor: Amazon Will Open a Wholesale Store Called Pantry in 2014

USA Today is reporting that Amazon is planning to launch a wholesale store in 2014, which will take on warehouse store businesses like Costco and Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club. The rumor suggests that Amazon will launch a new online service, referred to as Pantry, which will initially carry “2,000 products typically found in the center of…

Your Hacked LinkedIn Password Is Art

Last year, LinkedIn suffered the embarrassment of having millions of its users’ passwords stolen. So someone went and turned it into art. Of course they did. Aram Bartholl created Forgot Your Password? after the event: a set of eight books containing 4.7 million passwords leaked during the hack. Bartholl explains: In summer 2012 the social…

Over 60 Percent of Internet Traffic Is Now Driven By Bots

Chances are that, if you’re visiting this page, you’re not a human. A new study reveals that 61.5 percent of all website traffic is generated by automated bots. Hi, robot! The research, carried out by researchers Incapsula, shows that bot-produced traffic has jumped by 21 percent in the last year alone. But while it might…

Following no small amount of outcry, Twitter has reverted its blocking changes. So they’re now virtually all back to normal. Nothing to see here. Move along.

This Is How to Stop People Hijacking Your Details for Marketing

Obviously nobody wants their website full of abusive content cleverly hidden away in the last name field. So why not get creative? Of course, as Randall Munroe points out in the alt text of today’s XKCD: “It’s ok, they’ll always let you opt out! Like they did with the YouTube real name profile thing.” Oh…

Beyoncé’s Surprise New Album Crashed iTunes Overnight

Overnight, Beyonce has released her fifth studio album without warning. Referred to as the “visual album” and titled Beyoncé, it was made exclusively available on iTunes without any announcement—and has already made quite an impact. With Twitter going crazy over the release, the Daily Mail reports that it “caused iTunes to temporarily crash as fans…

Bloomberg: Google Is Thinking About Making Chips

Bloomberg is reporting that Google is mulling the idea of designing its own server processors, using technology from ARM. The report cites a source who points out that the move could help Google better manage the interface between its hardware and software. It also points out that the move would threaten Intel’s market dominance, given…

Disquiet Junto Project 0102: Sonic Tinsel

The project: Record original secular holiday music: glistening, reflective, gentle. Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: ¡¡Muévelo perra!!

La Terremoto de Alcorcón and Mr. K! team up for a booty-shaking, block-rocking tribute to, well, I’m not really sure. I don’t speak German well enough to translate.

Guy plays the 20 most overplayed songs of 2013 in one minute

Found by Redditor refie, here are 2013’s most overplayed songs played back by one guy and his guitar in only one minute. The original songs were a pain, but his interpretation is pretty pretty good. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us in Facebook.

Tomorrow People‘s characters start to click. (Too bad about the plot.)

Last night’s midseason finale of Tomorrow People contained a slew of great scenes in which the characters seemed to be coming to life and becoming living, breathing people. Tough choices were made. Relationships shifted. And meanwhile, the plot… was sort of plonking. Spoilers ahead… Most of this recap is just going to be me listing…

Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: Retreat!

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, indeed. For their first animated music video, the incomprehensibly talented Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings take on a pack of rampaging, cat-calling wolves in a psychedelic battle of dance.

China’s air pollution as seen from space

Via NASA’s Terra satellite comes a staggering view of China’s pollution problem. Via NASA: China suffered another severe bout of air pollution in December 2013. When the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image on December 7, 2013, thick haze stretched from Beijing to Shanghai, a distance of about 1,200…

Blueprint Placemats Help You Engineer the World’s Simplest Meals

For some people, even the lowly peanut butter and jelly sandwich represents a culinary challenge that could go disastrously wrong at every step. It’s those amateur chefs who need all the help and support they can get, and that’s what these placemats featuring detailed blueprints for incredibly simple dishes provide—well, that and a way to…