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Nothing jumpstarts technological development like a good war. WWII gave us UAVs, WWI introduced tanks, and the French-Indian War produced a unique gun battery—more cannon flotilla than warship—the radeau. A radeau (French for “raft”) is basically just that—a basic, flat-bottomed, multi-purpose, floating platform. They were especially popular as buoyant battle stations in the American Colonial…
Following last week’s celeb-photo-hacking-scandal, Apple has started sending email notifications that warn people that their iCloud accounts have been accessed from web. This is the first step to what we’ve been toldwill be a more secure iCloud future. Now when you login to your account from a web browser—or when somebody else does—you’ll get an…
Exactly 350 years ago today, New York City became New York City. The city itself already existed, of course: As the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. But on September 8th, 1664, the British gave it its permanent moniker, which makes today its name-day. We’ve seenall manner of maps illustrating how NYC has grown over the…
Last month, HP gave us a good look at Microsoft’s upcoming Chromebook slayer, known as the HP Stream, after temporarily posting its specs on their own website. Now, HP is announcing the device in a more official capacity with models expected to be available in the U.S. as early as September 24. But it’s $100…
Star Wars: Rebels’ première isn’t far off now, and Disney would like you to know that with yet another clip from it. This one sees Ezra and the ragtag group of Rebels plan to liberate some Wookiee slaves from the Empire. It’s starting to feel like we’ve seen half of Rebels’ opening special Spark of…
Next to the lightsabers from Star Wars, the time-traveling DeLorean from the Back to the Future trilogy has to be one of the most recognizable film props ever created. Countless die-hard fans have even gone as far as to buy and modify real-life DeLoreans to look like the one seen in the films, but Sideshow…
Automatic photo upload apps have freed us from a cumbersome world of USB cables and memory cards, and generally speaking it’s great to have your pictures sent to the Web automatically. Sometimes, however, it’s not so great. Even if you’re not a celebrity with nude pictures to hide, you might not want all of your…
There’s nothing like a thin layer of condensation on your ski goggles to ruin a perfectly good run down a hill covered in tantalizingly fresh powder. But active people get warm and sweat, and science says that cold moist air condensing on your goggles is inevitable. Unless you’ve got a pair of these F-BOM goggles…
Everyone’s talking about tomorrow’s supermoon—how big, bright, and beautiful it will be. It’s always the same. But how big is it going to be, exactly? This image shows how much the moon size varies in the sky from its perigee (it’s closest point to Earth) to its apogee (the furthest point from Earth.) On the…
Twitter has been fairly upfront about its plans to offer “in-the-moment commerce experiences” ever since it acquired CardSpring just a few months ago, but now, it’s official. Starting today, some users will see the option to buy products directly from the tweets themselves. For now, only a select group of artists, brands, and charities (Burberry,…
The Iris+ looks pretty cool. Just dream of practically anything you’d like a drone to do, and chances are the new 3D Robotics quadcopter will do it. Autonomous flight? Check. Longer flight time? Check. Dynamic LED lights for directional awareness? Check. Crazy-ass “Follow Me” function? Check. Based on specs alone, the Iris+ is a big…
Lego’s long been beloved across the world – but a monstrously successful year for the Danish company has now seen them overtake Mattel as the biggest toymaker by sales in the world. The company’s first-half results, released last week, showed a sales increase of 11% – bolstered by the huge success of The Lego Movie…
Though it’s been a few months since the FCC voted to move forward with its horrible net neutrality rules, we’re now getting close to the finish line. The (extended) public comment period ends September 10, and the future of the internet is at stake. In fact, it’s up to you. “But how do I comment?”…
This photo and video of a daredevil from the Red Bull Skydiving team holding a glider while riding another glider makes me giddy with joy and excitement. First, because it’s simply amazing—one stunning, extremely difficult stunt that they executed perfectly. The other reason is that it reminds me of a kid throwing a paper glider.…
Remember how Target was struck by malware that caused it to give up details of 40 million credit and debit cards? Well, turns out that Home Depot’s recent security lapse was a result of the exact same hack. Krebs on Security reports that last week’s Home Depot. hack was “aided in part by a new…
If the new TV series Zona is half as cool, weird, and intriguing as the concept art byAlex Andreev, it will sure be a must watch. Based on a short sci-fi novel by brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Zona is scheduled to launch in Russia in 2015. Alex Andreev lives in St. Petersburg, Russia. He’s…
Ahead of tomorrow’s announcement by Apple, a video has been posted online which claims to be a short review of the new iPhone 6. It’s in Mandarin, it’s far from definitely being real—but this could, maybe, possibly be the phone that Apple announces tomorrow. Obviously there’s no way of telling for sure that this is…
We’ve certainly made some pretty big advances when it comes to household lighting—but why rest on our laurels? The next leap forward in lighting could be sheets of OLEDs that hang from your walls—and use half as much power as light bulbs. While OLEDs currently power the displays of TVs and smartphone to great effect,…
Beans. They are delicious. And great for you too. One of the staples of the mediterranean diet. Sure, they have some resounding side effects, but nobody is perfect. This cute video explains the science behind farts. Watch it and learn—because farts are always great table conversation. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…
I don’t know how scientifically accurate the script of this short film by French directorAćim Vasić is. It seems very unlikely that planets can shift their orbits the way the film describes but there’s something undeniably true that makes this movie worth watching: Its depiction of human greed. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…
