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It’s the 100th anniversary of World War I: experience it in real time with “The First World War in 261 weeks,” a podcast that recounts the events of the war, week by week, 100 years from when they occurred. The podcast will run, as the war did, for five years. Find it oniTunes, Podbean, and…

Forget Encryption, Encode Secret Messages in Fake Spam

Send an encrypted email, and whoever sees it whistle past their eyes knows you’re trying to hide something. So why not hide your most secret messages in plain sight, hidden in otherwise innocuous looking spam? Spam Mimmic takes your message and hides it in a stream of spam-style text. It’s really just an internet-savvy form…

Neighborhood teams up to create crazy synchronized Christmas light show 

The neighbors of this community in Yucaipa, California, synchronized the Holiday lights on their houses together to create this impressive show. I can’t imagine the endless discussions to agree on colors, types of lights, or music—a nightmare before Christmas. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Obama’s Plan for Better Policing: The Good, the Bad, the Body Cameras

You may be shocked to hear that EFF doesn’t think technology is a solution to every problem. That includes problems with the police and with public safety. And, as we’ve pointed out when it comes to drones and other types of local surveillance, we think adoption of new technology requires communities to understand and discuss…

Video: Skiing through this impossibly narrow ridge is so freaking insane

Holy cow. I don’t know how professional skier Cody Townsend pulled off this insane ski line that saw him pretty much drop straight down and then through the most narrow of cracks while skiing insanely fast but he did it. The English language is not equipped to express how unbelievably mind-blowingly awesome his ski run…

A Brief Moment in the Death of a Star Produces Stunning Results

The Egg Nebula is 3,000 light years from Earth and is a “preplanetary nebula.” This look is produced when a dying star’s hot remains flare up and illuminate the surrounding cloud of gas and dust. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team This particular image was taken by the Hubble Telescope on November…

The Model Spaceships That Made Interstellar Look as Real as Possible

Christopher Nolan’s quest for realistic-looking space travel in Interstellar was achieved partially through the amazing models of New Deal Studios, which used a lot of ingenuity to achieve Nolan’s very specific requests. One solution included a lot of salt. FX Guide has an in-depth article on the miniatures used in Interstellar and the film techniques…

This Clever Device Makes Your Bike Safer And Smarter

Texting and driving might be bad, but have you ever tried riding a bike through traffic, whilst trying to read Google Maps and texting your girlfriend? You’ll probably end up with a wing mirror in the kidneys, if you’re lucky. Thankfully, Kickstarter is On The Case. The COBI system wants to be a one-stop shop…

Short film: The horror of re-discovering a UFO crash from the 1960s

The Landing is a powerful short film directed by Josh Tanner that tells the story of a mysterious UFO crash in the 1960s and the truth that is revealed when it’s found again in the present day. It makes us question what is alien and makes us wonder if it’s better off just not knowing…

Clever video shows how a beautifully intricate snowflake gets formed

Here’s a clever video that shows the “formation” of a snowflake. It’s actually footage of a snowflake melting but it’s played in reverse so it seems like we’re seeing the birth of a snowflake. But even though it uses that bit of trickery, it’s such a beautiful process to see. I wish we could see…

Report: Apple’s Hiring Fashionistas To Help Flog Its Watch

With the impending launch of the Apple Watch, many people have been wondering how a company geared towards selling gadgets to techies will flog $5,000 fashion accessories to Vogue editors. According to documents seen by 9to5Mac, the solution lies in hiring fashion-concious staff. The site claims to have seen “internal hiring documents” that say Apple…

The Avengers Assemble To Sing A Christmas Carol Medley

Before the Age of Ultron, it’s the Age of Jolly St. Nick, and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes have gathered to together to do a bit of caroling. It’s fun, but what really makes this video is the special guest caroler at the end. Marvel, we need a holiday album STAT. [Via Laughing Squid]

Syfy’s Working on David S. Goyer’s Superman Origin Show Krypton

Another D.C. television show is in the works: The Hollywood Reporter‘s saying that David S. Goyer’s going to spearhead the creation of a Gotham-style origin story for Superman called, of course, Krypton. This was rumored a while ago, but now there are more details. According to the report, Syfy’s going further back into the past…

Riding a motorcycle on a roller coaster is pure crazy

A lot of people already think that riding a motorcycle is dangerous. A lot of people find riding a roller coaster thrilling and scary. So why not combine the both and use a motorcycle to ride a roller coaster track? Mixing all that scariness and dangerousness and ridiculous thrills together gets you pure crazy. Red…

Satan has never been so cute

This little guy looks like the great evil that should be sitting on your shoulder telling you to do the bad thing. I really like this Lil’ Devil by polywen. It is hard to think something so cute is supposed to be deliciously evil. You’re reading Leg Godt, the blog with the latest Lego news…

Satisfy All Your Morbid Curiosities With Six Feet Under

Ever since our livechat with a mortician, a million additional morbid questions have sprouted in my mind. So I went to satisfy my itch the best way I know how: television. This weekend, I took my tub of peanut butter ice cream and binge-watched Six Feet Under. For a show about a morticians, Six Feet…

The Plan to Save Louisiana’s Coast Costs More Than the Manhattan Project

Louisiana is sinking, faster than you might think. Every hour, it loses more than a football field-sized chunk of land to the ocean. Or, to use more evocative words, it’s like “a layer cake made of Jell-O, floating in a swirling Jacuzzi of steadily warming, rising water.” To save its disintegrating coastline, Louisiana will need…

Dig Deep With YouTube’s Most Bizarre Hollow Earth Videos

Like aliens above, the notion that there’s life below the Earth’s crust is catnip to conspiracy theorists. A recent Telegraph article recapped a statement made in 2002 by one Dallas Thompson on Art Bell’s Coast to Coast AM radio show. After a devastating car accident, Thompson had a vision of a world that could be…

Leak Reveals Hackers Sent Extortion Email to Sony Execs Before Attack

Now things are starting to make sense. The latest leak of data stolen from Sony Pictures in a recent hack appears to be the email archives of two top executives at the company. It also reveals that the hackers asked those executives for money to prevent the destructive attack. Apparently, the execs didn’t even open…

Vince Guaraldi Trio: Christmastime Is Here (Instrumental)

I consider myself lucky. I managed to make it through the first weekend of December relatively unscathed by bad Christmas music—I didn’t even hear the “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” remake, which I consider a victory. But there’s one album you could put on repeat from now until December 25 and I wouldn’t mind one…