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These Lamps Make Use of Your Camera Kit While It’s Idle

You love your camera kit. Of course you do, it’s beautiful! But wouldn’t it be great if you could make use of it—by which we mean, well, look at it—while it wasn’t in use? That’s where Phlite might just come in. The idea is that Phlite transforms your camera gear into a desk, table or…

23andMe Has Stopped Performing Health-Related Genetic Testing

Following demands issued by the Food and Drug Administration late last month, 23andMe has ceased all health-related genetic testing until further notice. In a November 22 letter to 23andMe, the FDA explained that it was “concerned about the public health consequences of inaccurate results from the [23andMe] device,” adding that “the main purpose of compliance…

Twitter is teaming up with Singaporean start-up U2opia Mobile to make its feeds available to entry-level mobile phones without the Internet: you’ll dial and listen to what people are saying.No, really.

WSJ: Spotify Is Planning to Introduce Free Mobile Music

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Spotify is planning to launch a free, ad-supported version of its streaming music service for mobile devices Citing “people familiar with the matter”, the rumor suggests that Spotify is planning to end its policy of insisting that all its mobile users pay a monthly fee. The sources explained…

Drums can sound completely different depending on where they’re played

Wow, this is really cool. Audio Zéro recently made a video called Wikidrummer that shows how the same song on drums can sound completely different depending on where the drums are played. Out in the field, on a road, underneath a highway, inside a garage, in the park and so on can change the overall…

Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary

The project: Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches. 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…

World’s most powerful electric motorcycle looks like the future

This brawny futuristic mini tank on two wheels is supposedly the world’s most powerful electric motorcycle. The battery-powered beast can re-charge its 12.8kWh juice pack in 30 minutes and has the power of a 1000cc motorcycle. Called the Voxan Wattman, the bike can hit 0-60mph in less than 3.4 seconds and reach a top speed…

The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: When Science Fails

God, what I wouldn’t give to be smeared out of a cannon right about now.

Real life Mario Kart is ridiculously fast and even more fun

Mario Kart just might be the funnest video game in the entire world. Only the soulless can’t find enjoyment in go kart racing with super fast Mushroom speed, red shells and Nintendo characters. So you can imagine the even more ridiculous levels of fun you can have if you turned Mario Kart into a real…

Seeing fog roll through a mountain is like seeing a horde of ghosts

I’m supposed to know better. Fog is a phenomenon of weather. It’s a low cloud hanging near the ground. It’s shrouded moisture. It’s not a haunting ghost. It’s not from another planet. But why does this hypnotic time lapse of fog rolling through the Rocky Mountains from Richard Gottardo feel so supernatural? Or at least,…

Would you travel inside these pods attached to the wing of a jet?

The Aviationist’s reader Bjørn Broten found these two shots of the Exint, a pod designed to carry special forces and wounded soldiers in and out the battlefield—attached to the wing of Harrier jets or Apache helicopters. Imagine that ride. People were joking yesterday, but if you want to see how this may feel,take a look…

Did Tomorrow People just jump the shark… or was that a masterstroke?

I really can’t decide if the latest plot twist on Tomorrow People is brilliant or the final nail in the coffin of the show’s credibility. This show about super-mutants on the run certainly has my attention, I’ll say that. Spoilers ahead… Last night’s Tomorrow People has a pretty simple plot: Stephen tells the others that…

Watch a car impossibly zipline across a river

Where we’re going, we don’t need roads… we need a zipline, thought these intrepid Russians. Because, in order to cross a violent river without a bridge nearby, crazy Russians thought it would be smart to strap their car to a zipline and let it fly by to the other side. I guess. I don’t know…

Are Singulatarians actually Puritans?

Will we be fucking after we leave our bodies behind for cyber-heaven? Over at Steal this Singularity, futurist gadfly R.U. Sirius has a hilarious and smart essay about people who imagine we will transcend sex and random goofiness after the AIs take over. After returning home from annual futurist conference Singularity Summit last year, Sirius…

Prepare to sacrifice all productivity this afternoon. This is a Wikipedia list of every single star that has appeared in science fiction, and where it showed up. There are some obvious favorites like Deneb and Altair — but why are stars in Boötes so cool? You know you want to find out.

Listen to DJ Earworm’s Annual Mashup of the Year’s Biggest Hits

Another year, another massive mashup. That means it’s time for the United States of Pop, mixmaster DJ Earworm’s annual amalgam of the top 25 Billboard hits of the year. As usual, this mashup—which I, for one, always look forward to—is impressive. What we’re listening to here is a hell of a lot of Lorde, Katy…

What the hell is wrong with these crazy Russians?

…and try not to pass out. Because I almost passed out watching the muscles being stretched and imagining the pain. Extreme bungee jumping, they call it. WARNING: this video is not for squeamish people (like me.) And yes, it was recorded in Russia. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us in Facebook.

1995 Patent Shows Early Version of Navy’s Submarine-Launched Drone

Today the U.S. Navy announced that it successfully launched an unmanned aerial vehicle from a submerged submarine. Quite an impressive feat, no doubt. But it’s far from a new idea. In fact, the Navy applied for a patent on a similar submarine drone-launcher in 1995. The Navy was granted patent 5,615,847 in 1997, which is…

It’s about time. Samuel R. Delany was named this year’s Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masterby the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

Watch 50 Siri and Google Now Voice Commands in Action

Not sure which virtual assistant/life-partner to entrust with your personal well-being? PhoneBuff newest videos should make that choice at a least a little easier, showing you 50 different commands using both Apple’s Siri (above) and Google’s Google Now (below). Watching the two videos, it’s easy to get a sense of each voice assistant’s strengths and…