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If you can believe it, James Earl Jones was paid just $7,000 for doing the voice of Darth Vader in the first Star Wars film. That’s about $26,000 adjusted for inflation, but still not anywhere near a huge payday for a major motion picture. “I got paid $7,000 and I thought that was good money,”…
Well, it’s official. The 1973 sci-fi movie Westworld is becoming an HBO series. “What’s Westworld?” everybody under the age of 50 is probably asking themselves right about now. Only the greatest movie about killer theme park robots ever made. The original Westworld was both written and directed by Michael Crichton of Jurassic Park fame (and…
Will the Nords ever stop in their quest for global design domination? Earlier this year Norway announced the most gorgeous currency to ever occupy a wallet. Now a redesigned passport design for the country is maybe the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen. Like its currency design, Norway’s new passport is the result of a…
All photos from space are cool, but this photo of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is simply masterful, the most spectacular of all the photos of the comet so far. Worthy of a Kubrick movie frame. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
Do you love the low-risk emotional distancing of Tinder but hate having to swipe through all the riffraff to get there? A new dating app called The Grade is here to help, giving you the same Facebook-powered swiping but without all the undesirables. Because it bans anyone who doesn’t make the cut. Just like Tinder,…
One of the UN’s many delightful eccentricities is its internal United Nations Postal Administration, which was founded in 1951 and issues stamps than can only be used within the UN—even though, intriguingly, they’re hugely popular outside of it. The UN recently issued its latest batch of designs, and they’re great. A bit of background: The…
Super7 had a wonderful Alien Vinyl toy as an exclusive at San Diego Comic Con earlier this year – and it was so popular it sold out in about 20 minutes. Although this one is not the exact same one (it’s all shiny and Glow-in-the-dark!), it might be a little easier to get your hands…
After years of waiting, the world finally has a a hoverboard. It’s hard to ride! Here, Tony Hawk shows us how it’s done. Last week, we caught wind that Tony Hawk was taking the Hendo hoverboard for a spin, and today, we’re finally seeing the full-length video shot by The Ride Channel. Even one of…
Martha Stewart’s affinity for drones has been well-documented, and now she’s trained her domestic eye on another buzzy emerging technology. Stewart has launched a line of custom designs with 3D printing darling MakerBot. But will the celebrity backing really create an insatiable rush for at-home fabrication? Will a 3D printer suddenly become as indispensable to…
My first thought was, “What’s wrong with that Millenium Falcon?” This isn’t the YT-1300 light freighter that most Star Wars fans are familiar with, this model by Davor is of the YV-545 which was designed by Corellian Engineering Corporation to replace the ship design we all know as the Falcon. Sturdier, more maneuverable and just…
Those make-good-stuff-happen pranks are getting crazy. After turning a waitress’ shift into the best day of her life, the people at Break decided to give away a house to Cara Simmons, a housekeeper and single mother of three. But first, they made her believe the new house was actually her new workplace. In fact, the…
You can now send more than just nudes selfies on your favorite ephemeral messaging platform. Snapchat teamed up with the mobile payments company Square to launch “Snapcash,” which lets debit card holders 18 and older send money within the private messaging service. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel revealed its e-payments plan to Re/code. How it works…
Toys R Us currently has the Star Wars Sandcrawler (75059) on sale for $249.99 (was $299.99) and I highly recommend picking it up at this price as you should not ever find it cheaper. Lego instituted a policy last year stating that exclusive sets and hard to find items (basically any set over $150) will…
Timelapse photography gives you a super fast version of events, as if you’re seeing the world the world through immortal eyes. So for this week’s Shooting Challenge, make us all feel immortal. The Challenge Take a timelapse. (Don’t know how? No problem! If you have a smartphone, it’s easy!) Then upload the finished version to…
Anybody who’s done a little bit of graphic design takes pride in being able to spot the dimensions of an image. But how good are you really? Pixactly, “an online tool that tests how well you know your pixels,” will now show you in five easy rounds. The challenge is simple. Pixactly presents a pair…
Early this fall, Intel announced its first “luxury smart bracelet” built in conjunction with Opening Ceremony and aimed specifically at the ladiez. Today, we finally got to spend some time with the device and can say with total confidence: Yep, that is one pretty… beeper? The most important thing to note here is that Intel’s…
Most people are happy to clean a basement by just tossing or recycling the mountain of cardboard boxes that always seem to accumulate down there. Thomas Richner took the road less traveled, though, and stretched his Saturday afternoon chore into a multi-week project building a five-foot long model of the Millennium Falcon using nothing but…
Last week our own Charlie Jane Anders gave us some excellent advice on the difference between good Worldbuilding and great Worldbuilding – but sometimes creators of some of our favourite worlds run afoul of a few tiresome Worldbuilding tropes. Here’s seven clichés that need to stop cropping up in Sci-Fi and Fantasy. https://gizmodo.com/the-difference-between-good-worldbuilding-and-great-wor-1658543247 Header Image…
The great promise of the 20th century was that everything would one day be operated by push-button. Even hunting was supposed to become automatic, as you can see in the invention above from 1922. The May 1922 issue of Science and Invention magazine included this contraption which promised “hunting without firearms.” A telegraph key was…
If the Ollie’s white and blue color scheme seems a little too cutesy for you to take it seriously as an RC toy, Sphero has finally released the Darkside version with everything—including the body, the wheels, and even the charging cable—completely murdered out in an all-black finish. You’ll pay a bit of a premium for…
