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Did Star Wars: Episode VII‘s Big Twist Just Get Revealed?

X-Men: Apocalypse will bring back the Beast/Mystique relationship. Robert Downey Jr. explains the surprising condition for him making Iron Man 4. And will Ray Palmer have any superpowers on Arrow? Plus Walking Dead, Gotham, Agents of SHIELD, Sleepy Hollow and The Originals. Spoilers now! Top image: Arrow Star Wars A passel of Star Wars rumors…

This Particle Is Matter and Antimatter at the Same Time

You might think that matter and antimatter aren’t the best of friends, cancelling each other out when they come into contact—but you’d be wrong. In fact, researchers have now discovered a particle that’s made up of both. Researchers, led by Ali Yazdani of Princeton University, have now imaged what they call a Majorana particle. They…

How the Alien Surfaces of Our Solar System Look, Side-by-Side

With Rosetta hanging out so closely with an asteroid, we’re getting better views than ever before of what the surface of an asteroid looks like. But compared to one another, how do the surfaces we’ve visited in our Solar System stack up? Fortunately, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has put together this infographic which shows the…

No, this isn’t some kind of strange pool game: it’s the International Space Station’s reflection in an antenna on the Russian Zvezda module. It was snapped by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst. [ESA]

This Guitar Blogs

What happens when you give Steve Benford, the Professor of Collaborative Computing in at the University of Nottingham, a guitar and some time? He creates an instument that blogs is what. Inspired by a banjo with a rich history, Benford decided to bring the Internet of Things to a guitar. In doing so, he created…

The Wall Street Journal reckons that ESPN is about to launch a service that will allow you to stream live NBA games without needing a TV service. Which, if true, would be pretty neat!

Map: The average commuting times in the United States

According to the United States Census Bureau “the average travel time to work in the United States is 25.4 minutes.” This interactive map by WYNC maps shows you all the average commuting times for each zip code in the entire country. Check out some of the main urban areas: SPLOID is a new blog about…

Cool photo of Batman or some Rafale pilot flying over Baghdad

Impressive shotof a French Air Force Rafale jetflying over Baghdad en route to attack ISIS targets in Mosul, Iraq, from its base in Al Dhafra, United Arab Emirates. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

How a movie sex scene actually looks on the set (mildly NSFW)

As you could imagine, all those sex scenes that look so hot on the big screen are actually quite awkward while filming. Check out this behind-the-scenes clip of Brooklyn Decker and Patrick Wilson trying to get into it while they get sprayed with fake sweat on the set of Joe Carnahan’s movie Stretch. SPLOID is…

Watching this guy making lids for pots is so satisfying I get goosebumps

Casey thinks watching people making pots is soothing. It is true. I also think it is extremely satisfying. Watch master Hsin-Chuen Lin creating two different kind of lids for the same jar and you will see what I mean. It’s such a pleasure I get goosebumps. At last, I understand Demi Moore. You can buy…

See the Gone Girl Before She Was Gone in An Education

Rosamund Pike kills it as Amy Dunne in Gone Girl, but she isn’t an overnight sensation. Pike has been stealing scenes as a supporting actress for years, and her turn as a beautiful but not-so-smart 60s socialite in 2009’s An Education is some of her best work. An Education is a wonderful movie apart from…

Listen to Serial, a Riveting New Podcast from the This American Life Team

This fall’s best new podcast is called Serial and it’s the first podcast series I’ve ever listened to that can objectively be described as suspenseful. It’s a WBEZ production, and it’s basically like This American Life if TAL went in super-deep on one story. Which makes sense, because it’s the same staff working in a…

Our Favorite Android, iOS, and Windows Phone Apps of the Week

As the weekend winds down, there’s no better time to see what new apps can give your smartphone new superpowers. Here are the best candidates from the past week. Android Offtime for Android Offtime wants to save us from our own devices. Following a successful crowdfunding bout in 2013 with months spent in preview, the…

Back of the Box – 10/05/2014

September is over, and the spooky month of October is under way – time to reset the clock and start all over again for Recruit program Month 2! Let’s take a glance back at a week of endings and beginnings in all things Pop culture. It’s been harder to gauge stats for me as October…

What Wi-Fi From the Past Tells Us About Ourselves

Hello my weekend warriors. It’s been quite the week hasn’t it? But now it’s come to end, but many of the great stories across the internet still live on. Make sure you don’t miss these four awesome reads. On August 27, 1883, there was a massive explosion. Not one that you could even hear up…

Microsoft Wants to Turn Your Living Room Into an Xbox Game

Rememeber Microsoft’s balls-to-the-wall crazy IllumiRoom idea, when it wanted to use a projector-type gadget to transforms rooms into immersive gaming experiences by projecting video games all over them? Yeah, they’re still doing that. It’s called RoomAlive now. RoomAlive is a proof-of-concept prototype showing what it’d be like if Microsoft figured out how to use Kinect…

Largest vocabulary in hip hop uses more unique words than Shakespeare

Designer and data scientist Matt Daniels charted this neat comparison of vocabularies in hip hop. At the bottom of the chart you can see DMX with only 3,214 unique words. Outkast has more unique words in their lyrics than Shakespeare, but everyone is way behind Aesop Rock, who rules with 7,392 words. Aesop Rock is…

Looks Like Facebook Messenger Is Prepping Friend-to-Friend Payments

Facebook Messenger has a friend-to-friend payment feature in the works, and it’s already set up in the app. It’s just not turned on for the general public. The payment feature would let you give and receive money by providing Facebook with debit card information, similar to Square Cash. Stanford student Andrew Aude uncovered the hidden…

8th Grader Pens Creative Algebra Problem About Star Wars, J.J. Abrams

An eighth grader by the name of Cody was asked by an instructor to convert an algebraic expression into a word problem. Cody was happy to oblige – and with an ample helping of Star Wars references, no less. Bob Swanek (Cody’s father, we presume) posted the above photo of Cody’s problem online. “This is…

Drought, Startup Money, Poop: What’s Ruining Our Cities This Week

California’s drought news gets worse (despite this funny PSA). The plan to revitalize downtown Vegas stumbles (but could still work, with better direction). And someone smeared feces all over New York City’s bikeshare (for real). It’s What’s Ruining Our Citi (Bike) and more. The drought is really, really, really ruining East Porterville, California Summer is…