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Mountaintop removal mining is exactly as destructive as it sounds. In West Virginia coal country, entire mountaintops have been stripped into barren wastelands for the sake of coal. But every once in a while, you’ll see a lonely island of green—a centuries-old cemetery that just barely continues to exist. In this video from the BBC,…
First it was an extra set of shoulder-mounted robot arms, but now MIT feels that humanity could also benefit from a couple of extra robotic fingers on each hand. Faye Wu and other researchers at the school have been developing SR—or supernumerary robotic—fingers that work alongside your existing digits to make countless tasks easier to…
Got yourself a super-cheap streaming dongle from Google? Or thinking about picking one up? Here are 10 lesser-known tricks and tips that you can use to get more from your Chromecast and unlock some of its hidden potential. 1. Get the Chromecast wallpaper If you like the impressive photo slideshow that appears when your Chromecast…
Because the internet never fails to find the worst possible way to deal with any given event, the above image is currently being passed around on Twitter as this morning’s downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. It is not. It is a screengrab from Lost. People are horrible. https://gizmodo.com/this-isnt-the-malaysia-airlines-crash-its-photoshopped-1606662221
We’re tired of seeing people sending crap to space in weather balloons, but this Walter White bobblehead is fun enough to get a pass. * Get it? GET IT? I’ll get my coat. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
We’re still learning exactly what happened with Malaysia Airlines flight 17, but there’s one thing we can be sure about: this photo is fake. As Twitter photo debunker @PicPedant reveals, it’s a photoshopped screenshot from the TV series Lost. Update: The account that’s passing it off as real (with 3,626 retweets and counting) is @VyrecPenang…
To the average layperson (read: me), computer viruses are strings of text that crawl through your computer like so many worms after you open that email from your friend’s grandma. They’re intangible. Which is why seeing how 24 top designers illustrated the most famous viruses is so much fun. The Computer Virus Catalog is a…
It’s an iPad Mini kind of day, with some awesome Staples deals on the previous generation model, and $80 off the Retina version courtesy of eBay. Apple iPad Mini Retina 32GB ($420) | eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/351094422103 Apple iPad Mini 64GB ($360) | Staples http://www.staples.com/Apple-iPad-mini-with-Wifi-64GB-Black/product_1199210 Apple iPad Mini 32GB ($340) | Staples http://www.staples.com/Apple-iPad-mini-with-Wifi-32GB-Black/product_1199211 FYI, we’re experimenting with…
Emojis. Love them or hate them, they snuck into our daily lives and they are here to stay. This fun mockumentary shows how everyone has come to accept, live with and even depend on these silly graphics to express feelings and emotions through Facebook, Instagram and text messaging (as sad as that can be.) SPLOID…
At just 38 pounds—including its electric motor and rechargeable battery—the creators of the Zinger claim their electric wheelchair is the world’s lightest. It even folds flat just like a lawn chair, and while you won’t want to have to carry it on a long walk to the beach, it’s easier to toss into the trunk…
This week, the world was reminded of just how awful Comcast can be, thanks to the recording of one appalling customer service call. But that flare-up was also a reminder of how many people could find themselves trapped in similar situations, with fewer ways out, if Comcast’s merger with Time Warner Cable goes through. Fortunately,…
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the B-2 Spirit’s inaugural flight. Through its quarter-century of service, the original Stealth Bomber has earned its place among the most elite warbirds in the USAF fleet and remains a vital weapon of the US arsenal to this day. It’s a plane that could start—or stop—WWIII single-handedly. With the…
Europe recently decided that folks have a “right to be forgotten” on the internet, giving people the opportunity to get results they don’t like erased from Google and other search sites. But the internet never really forgets, and here’s proof: Hidden From Google, a new website that documents the things people ask Google to erase.…
After nearly a year of quiet testing, Facebook is finally releasing its newest app specifically built for monitoring your interactions on Facebook and dubbed Mentions. The catch? Celeb-status users only, please. Anyone who qualifies as a “verified public figure” (read: you have the venerated blue check mark) should be able to start using the app…
Last week, some strange news swept the science internet: Much of the plastic scientists expected to find on the ocean’s surface is gone, and no one knows exactly where it is. Now the scientists behind the research have shared a first-of-its-kind map of ocean plastic with National Geographic–and it could be key to solving the…
It looks like Snapchat, everybody’s favorite disappearing message app, is getting ready to handle mobile payments. This week, the company filed two payments-related trademarks that seem to signal a shift in its business. But don’t get any bright ideas about Snapchat the disappearing money app. There’s probably a simpler explanation. The trademarks themselves are incredibly…
An art installation that plans to be the world’s largest picnic blanket is currently checkerboarding its way through the green rolling hills of Switzerland. This summer, about 1,500 picnickers have ventured to the site, which is adorably named BIGNIK. And it’s only going to get bigger. The blanket is the vision of brothers Frank and…
It’s true that the word random is commonly used in English, but do we know what it actually means? Vsause explains it in this video. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
MagSafe is really wonderful tech, the MacBook’s most underrated feature. Wouldn’t it be great on the iPhone too? That’s what the Kickstarter for a charger and battery pack called “Cabin” is shooting for. And even if it never actually happens, it’s a nice fantasy. Cabin won’t upgrade your iPhone to change its charging port or…
In the wake of the EU decision that people have a “right to be forgotten” on Google, Microsoft is now offering Bing users in Europe the chance to request that certain links in search results be removed. And evidently, Yahoo will be next.
