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iOS 8.2 is coming today, bringing with it no doubt the new Apple Watch app. Start your iPhones.

A Heating Element Lets This Blender Make Sauces From Start to Finish

There are already high-speed blenders on the market that spin with such speed and power that they actually produce enough heat to cook soups and sauces right inside a single appliance. But this blender is the first with an actual 800-watt non-stick heating element built right in. That means that not only can homemade soups…

AMC Really, Really Likes The Walking Dead Spin-Off—Plus The First Pic!

AMC has just announced that it’s ordered two full seasons of The Walking Dead spin-off TV series, well before the first episode even premieres. They must really like what they’ve seen of the series, which will star Cliff Curtis (Gang Related) and Kim Dickens (Deadwood), and whose first season will air this summer. Do you…

Puppet Versions Of Korra Characters Reveal What Really Happened On Set

We already miss The Legend of Korra, which wrapped up its final season this winter, but we’ll get to revisit the characters when the final season comes out on home entertainment tomorrow. And in this exclusive clip from the Book 4 Blu-ray, puppet versions of the characters dishing on the behind-the-scenes antics of the Spirits.…

Apple Messed Up on the MacBook Air Again

For years Apple’s MacBook Air has languished in partial obsolescence—a great laptop with fantastic battery life and a quizzically outdated screen. 1440 x 900 is a pitifully small resolution for modern times. Sadly, the company hasn’t learned its lesson: the 2015 MacBook Air refresh has the same, outdated display as it has for years. What…

The “Harvard Sentences” Secretly Shaped the Development of Audio Tech

During World War II, the boiler room under Harvard’s Memorial Hall was turned into a secretive wartime research lab. Here, volunteers were subjected to hours of noise as scientists tested military communications systems. Out of this came the Harvard sentences, a set of standardized phrases still widely used to test everything from cellphones to VoIP.…

Oh Good God It’s a Gold MacBook

If you’re shiny gold iPhoneor your shiny gold iPadweren’t enough, you can now have an equally absurd, pretty goddamn beautiful gold MacBook to round out your collection. Because we may all be monsters, but look how shiny. The fancy new paintjob is a nice complement to the new MacBook’s sleek, super skinny profile. And as…

Artists In Prison Once Created Functional Carnivals Made Of Toothpicks

At a local San Francisco landmark, Musée Mécanique, you can see old entertainment machines like zoetropes and laughing robotic clowns. You can also see elaborate, moving carnivals made of toothpicks, most of which were created by people who were incarcerated. In the 1940s, at least two inmates in California spent their time sculpting and mechanizing…

The New Ultra Skinny MacBook: Here’s Your Next (Gold!) Apple Laptop

It’s about damn time Apple reinvented the MacBook. More than the refreshed MacBook Air we’ve been hearing rumors about since last year, this new laptop is called simply MacBook. It’s so little and tiny that we’re practically breathless. I’ll start with the shockingly diminutive specs about size and weight because jeez: It weighs just two…

Tor Doesn’t Want to Depend on US Government Money Anymore

Tor is transforming. The anonymity service is making a concerted effort to find funding sources other than the United States government, the problematic sugar daddy that’s bankrolled Tor for years. The Daily Dot reports that Tor is making a concerted effort to diversity funding from sources from around the world and depend less on Uncle…

New Technique Reveals Where AIDS Hides In The Body – In Real Time

A new, noninvasive technique has been used to create a real-time map of the simian AIDS virus (SIV) in the entire body of a living monkey, researchers report today. The method is called immunoPET, and it’s already turning up unexpected “viral reservoirs” where AIDS may gain a purchase in the body. Borrowing a labeling strategy…

Apple TV is not getting updated hardware (at least not yet) but its price just dropped to $70. Great for watching HBO Now on.

Wow, China builds complete 57-story skyscraper in record 19 days

Sploid reader Xian Min Zhang sent us the latest time-lapse video of the construction of his latest building: A 57-floor 2-million-square-foot (180,000-square-meter) skyscraper fully built with energy-efficient, factory-produced Lego-like blocks. He claims that they are now building these at a record three floors per day! The company keeps increasing their building speed and size of…

Standalone HBO Is Launching Exclusively With Apple

Great news for Apple-loving cord-cutters: When HBO launches HBO Now, its new standalone subscription service, Apple will be its exclusive partner. You’ll be able to watch after you sign up using an iOS device or Apple TV. You won’t need an Apple TV to watch it. HBO Now will also work with iPhones, iPads, and…

Golden Age Superheroines Who Were As Awesome As Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman gets all the attention as comic’s pre-eminent superheroine, but there are plenty of other female crimefighters worthy of our attention — even back in the Golden Age of comics. Here are 20 more wonderful women heroes you should know. Betty Bates, Lady at Law (1940) Ms. Bates didn’t have any superpowers, but that…

This Fan Made Cubone Mask Is The Freakiest Pokémon Merchandise Ever

This is a life-sized mask of a Cubone’s skull. It’s very pretty, but if you know enough about Pokémon to understand what it is, you’ll also freaky as hell. The mask is made by Etsy user Faust and Company and, understandably, to avoid any legal issues the rubber mask is advertised as a ‘Dragon Skull…

Even After The Apocalypse, Marriage Is Complicated On Last Man On Earth

Why get married when you’re the last two people on Earth? That’s the question Phil Miller faces when his sole human companion insists on walking down the aisle. But he begins to wonder if making the best (raisin ball) of a bad situation (Carol) isn’t so awful after all. Well…at least until the very end…

Brain-To-Brain Interfaces And The Science Of Telepathy

Recent advances in brain-computer interfaces are turning the science fantasy of transmitting thoughts directly from one brain to another into reality. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk a mile (or 1.6 kilometres) in somebody else’s shoes? Or have you ever tried to send a telepathic message to a partner in…

Top Predators May Be the Most Important Animals on Earth

Humans have always had a complicated relationship with other predators. Grizzly bears, crocodiles, great white sharks—these are among our planet’s most awe-inspiring creatures. Still, we’d never want these deadly animals in our backyards. But new scientific evidence suggests that we need them far more than we realized. Whatever your personal feelings about Earth’s most powerful…

All The Reasons Why This True-Crime TV Movie Became A Cult Classic

Made-for-TV movie Helter Skelter aired in 1976, two years after the book it’s based on was released, and seven years after the Manson Family murders it depicts were committed. Over time, it’s become a cult classic among true crime fans, and it holds up amazingly well today. Here’s why. It feels chillingly authentic Despite so…