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Why You Should Never Use Pixelation To Hide Sensitive Text

Pixelation is great for hiding faces and covering up nakedness, but it’s not good for disguising text. It’s so bad, in fact, that it might not even protect you at all. The explanation comes by way of Dheera Venkatraman, who expertly explains the premise in great detail on his blog. The simple version goes a…

Tech News Eric Limer Jul 25 '14

Watch water doing crazy stuff on hydrophobic surfaces

There are a lot of great applications for materials being developed that display extreme water repelling properties, inspired by nature and particularly desert life. This video doesn’t explain any of them and that’s fine—I just like to watch all those crazy water droplets doing crazy stuff. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…

Sploid James Baker Jul 25 '14

Shop window displays that should be in a museum

This compilation of window display designs from around the world is really impressive. Forget that they are hooked baits designed to drag you into a vortex of fierce consumerism. Just enjoy the creativity, the beauty and the playfulness they exude. Top image: Selfridges Tiffany & Co. Christian Louboutin This is not strictly a window display…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi Jul 25 '14

River in China mysteriously turns blood-red overnight

The residents of Wenzhou, China, woke up last Thursday to discover that the inner city river had turned blood-red. Everyone is puzzled, as this has never happened before and nobody knows the cause yet. China Radio International reports: Inspectors from the Wenzhou Environmental Protection Bureau are taking samples and analyzing the cause of the incident.…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi Jul 25 '14

Baseball team is so bad it had to install robots to cheer up human fans

The Hanwha Eagles—a South Korean baseball team famed for losing—now have robot fans to cheer them on. Absent supporters can use social media to deliver messages and show their faces on the robots’ LEDs. This has to be the saddest, most depressing thing I’ve ever seen in any sport. The Hanwha Eagles have won the…

Sploid James Baker Jul 25 '14

Lois Lowry Explains How The Giver Movie Improves On Her Book

There’s a lot the upcoming Giver movie has changed from the book: The age of the characters, the expansion of the film into a thriller, the addition of a character who is no longer around in the book. But there’s one change Lois Lowry wishes she had thought of. In a panel at Comic-Con, Lowry…

io9 Katharine Trendacosta Jul 25 '14

Samsung’s Gear VR Headset Plans Outed by Leaked Official Companion App

Samsung’s Gear VR headset thing is the subject of a new leak, with a mobile companion/control app for the gadget now unofficially available. The app, obtained by Sammobile, describes itself as a Gear VR Manager and is a bit barebones without the actual hardware to manage, but once installed it connects to Samsung’s servers and…

Gadgets Gary Cutlack -- Gizmodo UK Jul 25 '14

The evolution of video game controllers in 16 cool photos

Javier Laspiur made this series of pictures showing the evolution of video game controllers throughout history. I played with most of these, even the 1983 Teletenis, and it feels like it was yesterday. It’s been quite a journey that’s not over yet. I can’t wait to see what the future of video games will bring…

Sploid Omar Kardoudi Jul 25 '14

The prettiest science experiments of the year according to Princeton

Princeton University is celebrating the beauty of science, a selection of of experiments and research papers that result in amazing displays of color and motion that can be classified as contemporary art. Here are the prettiest ones. Plenty of Fish to See. This video shows how fish can see far more than a few nearest…

Sploid James Baker Jul 25 '14

Is This One of the Most Innovative Buildings of the Year?

You’re looking at a building that’s been shortlisted for a prize awarded to a building in the UK that has contributed most to the evolution of architecture. This is the Saw Swee Hock Student Center at the London School of Economics, designed by O’Donnell + Tuomey Architects. It’s been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize…

io9 Annalee Newitz Jul 25 '14

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Is a Mix of Endearing and Infuriating

Two scenes from the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were screened for the throngs of people sitting in San Diego Comic Con’s Hall H Thursday, and they were surprisingly entertaining. Except that every attempt to enjoy them was ruined by a gross moment that ruined it all. The first scene took place 10 minutes into…

Movies Katharine Trendacosta Jul 25 '14

These beige bars somehow turn into frozen fish sticks

Hmm, frozen fish sticks sure start off looking suspiciously like the protein blocks from Snowpiercer and you know how that turned out (if you watched the movie). But this is all fish! Minced cod, to be exact. The frozen blocks of fish supposedly trap the flavor and are presumably more efficient to ship. Apparently, one…

Sploid Casey Chan Jul 25 '14

Missile launch looks like hilarious fail until you see what happens next

When I started to watch this video I thought “oh, that’s funny, a failed missile launch.” Obviously, it didn’t fail at all. That’s exactly how the nuclear-capable anti-submarine missile RPK-2 Viyuga is launched: Just throw it in the water and it will come alive to deliver its warhead up to 28 miles away. …it is…

Sploid Jesus Diaz Jul 25 '14

Awesome kid snuck into 50 music festivals to make this super fun movie

Coachella. Glastonbury. Bonnaroo. The Grammys. You name the music festival, Marcus Haney has somehow snuck into it. He makes fake passes, pretends to be the press, jump fences and does anything he can to get in and has somehow made friends with famous bands and shot their album covers. Here’s the movie trailer for his…

Sploid Casey Chan Jul 24 '14

The 1970s Spacecraft Is Doing Science Again!

The 36-year-old ISEE-3 is back collecting shiny new science! …but our efforts to bring it home are for nought. Instead, our first crowd funded, crowd source citizen science space mission will be on a heliocentric orbit. Ah well, that’s still pretty amazing! Just a few months ago, the ISEE-3 spacecraft was a chunk of derelict…

Tech News Mika McKinnon Jul 24 '14

Firefly‘s Whole Cast Will Reunite for Firefly Online

Announced today at Comic-Con: All of the original Firefly stars will reprise their characters for the online game! And Alan Tudyk is playing multiple roles. Also showing up will be Michael Fairman as the crime lord Niska, who is apparently hiring. You can check the game out on the Firefly Online website.

io9 Katharine Trendacosta Jul 24 '14

Christopher Nolan Shows Us Interstellar‘s Mind-Warping Alien Planet

This afternoon at Comic-Con, Christopher Nolan and Matthew McConaughey dropped an exclusive look at a new trailer for their mysterious new film Interstellar. Some of the footage was the same as the UK trailer, below. But here’s what was new: we got a look at the destination for McConaughey’s Cooper and Anne Hathaway. We see…

Movies Katharine Trendacosta Jul 24 '14

Poop-powered flamethrower can shoot out gigantic 30-foot flames

This poop-powered flamethrower is like the old high school trick of using farts to light fireballs, only on a much more epic scale. The key to creating 30-foot flames from poop, apparently, is grinding the poop into a super fine powder with a blender. Nick Klein, the guy from Arizona who made this DIY rig,…

Sploid Casey Chan Jul 24 '14

Community Cast and Crew Reveal Season 6 Secrets

After a brief montage of Community seasons 1 to 5 highlights, the screens in Ballroom 20 flat line – but that’s when Yahoo brings it back to life. After announcing, “We have the technology, we have the capability to make the world’s first bionic show. Community will be that show. Better than it was before.”…

io9 Perri Nemiroff Jul 24 '14

Here’s Tina Fey & Rachel Dratch In a Great, Odd 1999 Two-Woman Show

Some blessed Chicago improv fan has posted a full recording of Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch’s two-woman show Dratch & Fey. It ran from 1999-2000 at Chicago’s Second City and New York’s UCB just before the women got famous on SNL. The crackly VHS upload is definitely low quality, but the show holds up. If…

Tech News Kate Knibbs Jul 24 '14

Why You Should Never Use Pixelation To Hide Sensitive Text

Watch water doing crazy stuff on hydrophobic surfaces

Shop window displays that should be in a museum

River in China mysteriously turns blood-red overnight

Baseball team is so bad it had to install robots to cheer up human fans

Lois Lowry Explains How The Giver Movie Improves On Her Book

Samsung’s Gear VR Headset Plans Outed by Leaked Official Companion App

The evolution of video game controllers in 16 cool photos

The prettiest science experiments of the year according to Princeton

Is This One of the Most Innovative Buildings of the Year?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Is a Mix of Endearing and Infuriating

These beige bars somehow turn into frozen fish sticks

Missile launch looks like hilarious fail until you see what happens next

Awesome kid snuck into 50 music festivals to make this super fun movie

The 1970s Spacecraft Is Doing Science Again!

Firefly‘s Whole Cast Will Reunite for Firefly Online

Christopher Nolan Shows Us Interstellar‘s Mind-Warping Alien Planet

Poop-powered flamethrower can shoot out gigantic 30-foot flames

Community Cast and Crew Reveal Season 6 Secrets

Here’s Tina Fey & Rachel Dratch In a Great, Odd 1999 Two-Woman Show

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