Tech News

Have Some Physics With Your Tea Next Time You’re in Malaysia

Travelers to southeast Asia frequently marvel at the showman-like skill with which street vendors prepare a drink known as teh tarik (“pulled tea”). They might not realize those same vendors are intuitive physicists at heart. Teh tarik is the national beverage of Malaysia, a mixture of black tea and condensed or evaporated milk, whipped into…

Watch flowing lava scorch the Earth

Here’s beautiful footage of lava flowing from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano. The hot red burning orange lava oozes its way across the ground and basically swallows everything in its path in a fiery inevitability. It’s quite mesmerizing to see from up close. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

After 80 Years of Confusing People, the London Underground Has an Accurate Map 

Up until recently, the London Underground was difficult to navigate because of its beautifully-drawn yet horribly inaccurate map. But there’s a new map in town—actually, the London Underground’s been using a more accurate map for a while now and just not sharing it. The engineer Harry Beck created London’s minimal (and very inaccurate) map 82…

A Millennium Falcon Speaker Is the Best Way to Blast John Williams

It’s quite possibly the most recognizable film score of all time, and without a doubt, the best way to enjoy John Williams’ Star Wars soundtrack is on iHome’s new Millennium Falcon-shaped Bluetooth Speaker. At ten-inches long it’s not only a well-detailed model of the Falcon that would look great perched on the corner of your…

A Life-Size Plush BB-8 Is the Next Best Thing To a Real Droid

Sphero’s version of BB-8 rolls and moves just like the movie version does, but at around half-a-foot tall it’s a little disappointing in terms of scale. That’s why we’re tempted to drop $50 on this life-size plush version from ThinkGeek that feels more like a true companion droid. At two-feet tall, 18-inches in diameter, and…

A New Light-Based Memory Chip Could Change the Fundamentals of Computing

Electrons are quick, but they’re not quick enough — in fact they’re holding back the speed of modern computing. Now, a team has developed the world’s first ever light-based memory chip that can store data permanently, and it could help usher in a new era of computing You might have noticed that the clock speeds…

What Happens When You Get A Parasite

The experience of living with a stomach parasite is not something a decent person would ever want to share. Which brings me to the point of this article: the parasites I contracted in Guatemala. My bowels were bleeding, my intestines sounded like a rockslide, I was diuretic, bloated and weak. So, I had some reason…

How To Organize Your Google Hangouts Just Like Email 

You probably know Google Hangouts as an app that pops up in the corner of a browser tab or on your smartphone, but it’s possible to archive your messages in Gmail too—from here they can be searched, labelled and starred so you can bring up the most important ones whenever you need to. Conversations only…

Behold The Incredible Sneer On Revoltech’s Ultron Action Figure

Just look at it. Look at that action figure and try not to hear a pithy remark from the voice of James Spader. This Ultron figure isn’t just amazing-looking, it’s here to snidely judge everything on your desk or toyshelf while doing so! The 6.7” tall Ultron is remarkably detailed, but where it really shines…

Nap on This Wonderful Landspeeder Bed All the Way to Tosche Station

Yesterday Redditor Ghostfaceace posted this photo of an awesome Landspeeder bed he built for his son, complete with glowing lights underneath, and Star Wars-themed bedding on top. Ghostfaceace, who builds houses for a living, unfortunately didn’t post any building instructions, parts guides, or even step-by-step photos of the bed coming together. So unless you’re handy…

You Can Turn Your Phone Into a Radar Gun With a Simple Wireless Accessory

One day it might be just another one of the hundreds of features that come standard in a smartphone. But for now, a new Kickstarter campaign promises to turn your mobile device into a speed-measuring radar gun using a simple Bluetooth accessory. According to the creators of the Scoutee, their device uses the same radar…

This Engineer on YouTube Will Teach You To Make Longboards and Ziplines

Maker Faire NYC hits the Big Apple this week, so to get you in the mood for homemade robots, inventions and all things DIY, here’s a YouTube channel that teaches you to make almost anything. It’s called I Like to Make Stuff, run by Bob Clagett, a former Dell engineer based in Savannah, Georgia. He’s…

Vibration of Small Particles Could Trigger Aftershocks of Earthquakes

Earthquakes can create copycat events up to 1,000 kiometers away — and it could be the result of the vibration of small particles, according to new computer simulations of seismic activity in the Earth. New Scientist reports that a team of researchers from the Second University of Naples in Italy has developed a computer model…

This Dramatic Shadowplay Marked The Last Red Arrows–Vulcan Flypast

British aerobatic team Red Arrows has performed a majestic flypast with XH558, the last of the Vulcan bombers, for the final time at the Southport Air Show on Saturday September 19th, The nine red British-built Hawk jet trainer aircraft of the Royal Air Force made a V-shape in front of the Vulcan, and performed a…

An Acrylic Tunnel Turns a London Museum Into a Sci-Fi Alice in Wonderland

You’re staring through a new installation at London’s V&A Museum, called Mise-en-abyme. The narrowing isn’t just perspective — those acrylic archways really are getting smaller. Created by London designers Matteo Fogale and Laetitia de Allegri as part of London Design Festival 2015, the installation takes inspiration from the exhibitions around it. The pair explains to…

Edward Snowden: Advanced Encryption May Stop Us Communicating With Aliens

On Friday, Neil deGrasse Tyson welcomed Edward Snowden to his StarTalk podcast. Along with the usual conversations about privacy and government, Snowden had another important warning to provide: encryption may hurt our abilities to see, or be seen by, extraterrestrials. Speaking to deGrasse Tyson from Russia, Snowden explained that the current need for data encryption…

Six Easy Ways to Tell If That Viral Story Is a Hoax

“And so it begins … ISIS flag among refugees in Germany fighting the police,” blared the headline on the Conservative Post; “with this new leaked picture, everything seems confirmed”. The image in question purported to show a group of Syrian refugees holding ISIS flags and attacking German police officers. For those resistant to accepting refugees…

The long-delayed extradition hearing of Kim Dotcom has begun in Auckland, New Zealand. It’s expected to last weeks, as he battles against claims from U.S. authorities that he cost cost music and movie companies over $500m.

This Is What Happens When an Indie Band Experiments at the LHC

It’s normally just researchers that get to experiment at the LHC. But one physicist has decided to invite a series of bands to play around at the world’s largest science lab — and this is the result. The first event of a new an initiative called Ex/Noise/CERN, that’s led by Dr. James Beacham, saw the…

The Closing of the Hungarian Border, As Seen by Drones

This drone video captures what’s happening right now on the border between Hungary and Croatia. All you can see for kilometers on the road are busses and checkpoints. It’s yet another instant mega-fence for Central Europe, where countries are pouring resources into preventing Syrian refugees from crossing over borders as they flee to the west.…