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Could We Be Getting Two Ghostbusters Movies In The Near Future?

We may know who’s directing the Aquaman movie. Amy Adams describes Lois Lane’s role in Batman v. Superman. Tom Hanks may star in the movie of Dave Eggers’ The Circle. The King Kong movie Kong: Skull Island adds one of our favorite actors to its cast. Plus Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Once Upon a…

Why Is Peanut Butter So Damn Sticky?

Arachibutyrophobia is a proposed humorous name for the fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the top of your mouth, coined by Charles M. Schulz in a 1982 edition of his famed Peanuts comic strip. But why does peanut butter have such a tendency to get stuck in your palate when so many other foods…

These beautiful paintings feel like 1980s sci-fi film concept art

I’m so in love with the amazing paintings of Simon Stålenhag. So much that I’m posting about him again. There’s something about his aesthetics that remind me of the sci-fi movies from the 1980s—the combination of color, everyday suburbia scenes, and the kids wandering around his world. Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish illustrator who lives…

Photographer stretches skin to freaky limits without Photoshop

Dutch photographer Juuke Schoorl explores the limits of human skin in this series of pictures called Rek—stretch in Dutch. To create such patterns and shapes she doesn’t use Photoshop but cheep household materials like nylon fishing rope or tape. The artist writes: With ‘Rek’ (stretch in Dutch) I explore the aesthetic possibilities of the human…

A Little Lead Can Make Graphene Magnetic

Graphene has very many strengths, but there is one thing it isn’t and that is magnetic. Now, a team of researchers has found that the insertion of a little lead into the planar graphene structure can change that. https://gizmodo.com/this-video-explains-what-graphene-is-and-why-its-a-magi-1605110399 The team—from from IMDEA Nanoscience, the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Madrid Institute of Materials Science…

Spectacular photo of airplane flying by volcano’s molten lava eruption

I don’t know if I would be happy to fly so close of an active volcano that is ejecting lava like in this photo featured on National Geographic’s Your Shot. I know the plane is not flying over the lava, but you never know when Earth is going to get mad. For photographer Baldur Sveinsson,…

Report: Roku Is Getting HBO Go and Showtime for Comcast Subscribers

Comcast subscribers will soon be able to access HBO Go and Showtime on their Roku according to a new FCC filing. We just don’t know when. In a document uncovered by Re/code, it’s revealed that Comcast saw fit to “authenticate” the two apps on its networks in a deal made on November 25th. That will…

All of 2014 Conan O’Brien show in one insane supercut

I’m a big fan of Conan O’Brien (and Andy Richter) and this supercut of his show at TBS is a great sample of their particular brand of hilarious absurd humor. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

While the spiral pastel colors of this image are evocative of a painting, they are in fact a visualization of data from ESA’s Planck satellite showing the interaction between interstellar dust and the Milky Way’s magnetic field. Scientists are studying how the dust’s alignment with that field influenced our galaxy’s formation.

A New British Show Will Feature a Space Ark Piloted by an Android Bear

Britain’s Channel 4 has ordered a pilot for a half-hour science fiction comedy that follows 200 hundred humans on a mission to find a new home after the destruction of Earth. So far, that’s a pretty standard sci fi set up. And then there’s the ship’s pilot, which is described as an android bear. Suddenly,…

What Your Favorite App Says About You

Harsh, but perhaps ultimately fair. What does Endomondo do again? [Truth Facts] http://kindofnormal.com/truthfacts/2014/12/15

Excellent short on relationship problems and interdimensional physics

BAFTA-winning animator Jonathan Hodgson said Rabbit and Deer—a short film by Péter Vácz and Attila Bertóti—”is a stunningly directed and beautifully crafted play on the universal conflict of emotional incompatibility.” He’s completely right. Some of the best 15 minutes I’ve spend in front a screen this year. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on…

The Flu Shot Isn’t a Good Match This Year. Is It Ever?

The CDC announced recently that this year’s flu vaccine is missing a key strain, one that accounts for 48% of what’s circulating. That strain, a “drifted” version of H3N2, was discovered in March 2014, but the vaccine strains for the Northern hemisphere, including the US, had been decided a month earlier. (The Southern hemisphere vaccine…

The Physics of Why You Get Confused When You Reverse a Car

Driving forwards is easy. Reversing is… weirdly much trickier. This video from Minute Physics explains why you shouldn’t feel dumb about it—because it’s all down to physics working against you. Drive forwards and you turn the wheels right there with you at the front, changing the direction you travel in with the rear wheels simply…

Uber Claims to Have Scaled Back Use of Its ‘God View’ Tool

In November, it came to light that Uber employees were able to track its riders using a “God View” tool. Now, in a letter to Senator Al Franken, the company has explained that it’s scaling back the use of the tool. https://gizmodo.com/report-uber-can-track-any-customer-using-its-god-view-1660525110 In last month’s report, Buzzfeed reported that Uber’s top New York executive, Josh…

Oil Paintings That Look Like They Came Straight Out Of Futuristic Lab

Beautiful in their own right, these works of art from artist Atsushi Koyama look very much like illustrations for how to manipulate a holographic design table. A lot of precise hand and eye coordination is involved. Koyama’s work here is so precise that it’s hard to imagine that they’re oil paintings and not computer-generated blueprints.…

Google’s 2014 Top Searches: Robin Williams, World Cup, Ebola, and More

Here’s your 2014 Google Zeitgeist, better known as the last 12 months in Google Search. The company does this every year, and it’s always fascinating because search sheds light, however disappointingly, onto what the heck people on earth are thinking about. Because when you want to know more about something, you Google it. As with…

This Cantilevered Library Design Is Terrifyingly Brilliant

If a hurricane ever happened to hit downtown Calgary, I think I’d rather stand out in the open than hide under the cantilevered main floor of this proposed library design, in case the whole thing fell over. But apocalyptic design flaws aside, this failed proposal for Calgary’s central library is incredibly clever, and I’m slightly…

Meet the Spiky Shelled Sea Snail Named After The Clash’s Joe Strummer

After discovering new deep sea snails with spiky shells, researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute named one of them (on the left above) A. Strummeri after Joe Strummer, singer for the Clash. Speaking with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, lead researcher Shannon Johnson explained that the name was based in more than just a…

Don’t Spend $30,000 On This Stupid Diamond-Covered Apple Watch

Hey, rich people: you know that $5,000 Apple Watch you already had your eye on? Forget it. This one is better, in every quantifiable way. More diamonds. Bigger price tag. An extra side order of diamonds to go with your diamonds. Oh, and you can even pay for it right now. The diamond-encrusted digital timepiece…