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The lead contamination crisis in Flint has resulted in a tidal wave of bottled water being shipped to the state to provide emergency drinking water for residents. Flint’s most famous resident, Michael Moore, recently pleaded with the world: Please, do not send any more bottled water. After a town hall with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, the…
As China’s economic engine slows, the steel industry is lagging with it. Getty Images photographer Kevin Frayer visited the abandoned Qingquan Steel plant in Tangshan, which closed in 2014. The eerie photos depict just one of the many zombie factories that are left to rot in Hebei province, once home to China’s thriving Steel Belt.…
Fifty-seven years after first giving little girls an unrealistic representation of what a woman’s body should look like, Mattel is finally introducing three new versions of the iconic doll featuring tall, petite, and curvy body types. Already available for pre-order on the Mattel website, the three new versions of the doll join the original in…
As we inch closer and closer to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where we’re expecting smartphones aplenty, the rumor engines are currently cranked to eleven. New small iPhone details? MicroSD-equipped Galaxy?! Surfacephone.com?!? A brief ratings refresher: 💩= Likelihood is very high 💩💩= Probably going to happen, but there’s room for doubt 💩💩💩= Could go either…
This is the X-2, Japan’s first domestically produced stealth fighter. Despite its not-so-stealthy paint job, it’s said to effectively avoid the gaze of enemy radar systems. The X-2—previously known as ATD-X, for Advanced Technology Demonstrator X—was manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for the the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. The primary goal is to replace the…
Li-on batteries can, in some circumstances, be really rather dangerous. A UN panel agrees: the agency has recommended banning rechargeable li-on battery shipments from the holds of passenger airplanes. The Associated Press reports that the UN’s International Civilian Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is nervous about li-on batteries catching fire, which could ultimately lead to the destruction…
Despite its recent problems, Twitter remains a powerful source for real-time thoughts, moods, trends, and news—and third-party developers are still eager to tap into Twitter for the benefit of us the users. These are five free, slick apps that sit on top of Twitter and pump out all kinds of useful features. 1. Nuzzel (breaking…
Who needs metal when you’re surrounded by water? Mitsubishi has announced a rather quirky new way to transmit and receive data, by creating what it claims is the first ever working antenna to be made out of seawater. Seawater, being salty, is conductive: In fact it’s about 1,000 times more conductive than the water that…
Been eating at Wendy’s? You might want to check your credit card statements: The restaurant chain has admitted that it’s investigating a credit card data breach. Speaking to Krebs on Security, Bob Bertini from Wendy’s explained that: We have received this month from our payment industry contacts reports of unusual activity involving payment cards at…
Good news from the world of online security: Oracle, developer of the Java plugin that has been making browsers insecure since 1995, has finally announced that it’s sending it six feet under. The Java plugin isn’t dead immediately: it will be deprecated in the next release of the Java Developer Kit, which is a fancier…
Completing stupid challenges using overly-clunky rideshare bikes is a growth industry, but one man may have just out-Citibiked everyone. Former corporate event planner Jeffrey Tanenhaus found himself bored of cubicle life in New York, deriving pleasure only from his daily Citibike commute. As described in an interview with DNA, Tanenhaus finally said “all right, let…
Alternative headline: Tree takes a lightning strike and is somehow still standing? I don’t know who the actual winner is here. The lightning bolt that struck the tree and rocked half of the trunk away while flooring all of its branches or is it the tree that takes the bolt’s best shot and hangs in…
Circuit City died an ignominious death at the hands of online retail and poor management back in 2009. But this summer, much like Jurassic Park and Star Wars, it’s apparently time for a reboot. New York retail veteran Ronny Shmoel bought up the rights to Circuit City’s brand from IT firm Systemax, which acquired the…
Watch as Horacio Llorens paraglides against the backdrop of the Aurora Borealis. It’s especially nice because the paraglider cycles through different colored lights against the glimmering green of the aurora. His movements are almost poetic, a perfect blend of mixing an extreme sport with the grace of nature. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us…
And here we thought taking down the transit wires would be the worst of it. San Francisco is under siege from the NFL and the people who live there don’t like this one bit. Behold the devastation that Super Bowl 50 hath wrought upon a little city named Frisco. https://gizmodo.com/super-bowl-to-san-francisco-can-you-like-take-down-1742257104 Statues placed all over the…
Artificial intelligence researchers at Google DeepMind are celebrating after reaching a major breakthrough that’s been pursued for more than 20 years: The team taught a computer program the ancient game of Go, which has long been considered the most challenging game for an an artificial intelligence to learn. Not only can the team’s program play…
Most reasonable people can generally agree on two things: the Earth is round and soda is bad for you. And though we know the first to be absolutely true, what’s so bad about soda? Asap Science explains as only they can in the hand drawn animation below. Basically, it erodes enamel on our teeth, pumps…
Today Cory Doctorow tweeted out a fascinating image showing an RCA computer room in 1959. I can’t stop staring at it. There’s a peculiar artifice to the clearly-staged promotional photo that’s so striking—not only for its incredibly rich colors, but for the expressions on the computer operators’ faces. Especially the woman pushing a button with…
The US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has delivered a strongly worded letter to blood testing startup Theranos, saying its California facility poses “immediate jeopardy to patient safety,” and that it has 10 days to comply with “acceptable evidence of correction.” Biotech firm Theranos came under intense media scrutiny back in October, prompting U.S.…
Holistic health advocate Deepak Chopra is at it again, this time spouting his patented food nonsense at the “Fat Summit” online conference. While speaking to celebrity doctor and alternative medicine enthusiast Mark Hyman, Chopra explained that the vast collection of microbes in our gut are actually capable of listening to our thoughts. As science and…
