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Victoria, British Columbia experienced a tiny earthquake this afternoon. It poses no threat, but its location within a dense seismograph network and proximity to population centers make it an ideal case study for comparing measured and perceived shaking. The earthquake was located just off the southeast tip of Vancouver Island at 1:37 pm local time,…
After a hard night of partying, the metabolized chemical remnants of whatever you snorted, smoked, sucked, or injected are expelled through your urine. While authorities have long been able to detect these metabolites through direct urine tests, monitoring drug use in any given geographic region has been far less precise—until now, that is. https://gizmodo.com/how-to-pass-a-urine-test-or-at-least-stand-a-fighting-1552844463 In…
Voice actor Rudi Rok can do a pitch-perfect dog impersonation. Watch him interacting with actual dogs in this interesting video experiment. I really really wish science came up with a working human-dog-human translator. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
Famed hacker Geohot has released a tool called Towelroot that will allow you to root your Galaxy S5, along with a number of other prominent Android devices. Geohot, the hacker behind a number of iOS jailbreaks and the target of Sony’s legal team after hacking the PS3 a few years back has turned his sights…
Between rush hour traffic and 18-wheelers, our roads take a real beating over time. Tiny sensors in the asphalt could give us a real time map of stress on aging roads, but then how do you keep embedded sensors powered for years? By harnessing the very motion of the cars whizzing by. That’s the clever…
That guy being lifted by the ocean several feet up in the air and then smashed down against the beach is bodyboarder Alex Johnston. It’s like the ocean is alive and Poseidon is saying “would you stop being clowns and GET OFF MY LAWN?” SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on…
For years, no one knew the identity of this mystery man who, from the 1930s to the 1960s, took hundreds of photobooth pics of himself. Once his image stash became the main attraction at a portraiture exhibition, however, he became an internet sensation and, whaddya know—someone online recognized his friendly face. Meet Uncle Franklyn! Rutgers…
It’s easy to overpack when you’re heading out into the woods for some weekend camping, but when it comes to supplies for cooking meals, MSR’s Flex 4 System packs pretty much everything you could need into a compact single pot. Pop off the clamp-down lid on the 5.3-liter dual-handled aluminum pot and inside you’ll find…
Today marks the anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova‘s launch into history, and, decades later, the launch of the first Chinese woman into orbit.
Good news, everyone! Cartoon Network has just announced that The Powerpuff Girls are getting a 2016 rebooted return to TV. This all new series is largely a factor of the January re-imagining’s success. We don’t know whether the reboot will look like the January special or the original, but it’s good to have the girls…
Weapons that shoot light rather than bullets are quickly becoming a reality, however their huge bulk and even larger energy consumption still demand that they be mounted on vehicles such as battleships and tractor trailers. But thanks to this newly developed optics system from the US Army Research Lab, tomorrow’s battlefields could soon be crowded…
Most Americans just don’t have the same zeal for soccer—or football—as the rest of the world does. But if a giant six-foot wide helium-filled soccer ball were used instead of those regulation balls, maybe more people would tune in here to watch the World Cup. You can actually buy this giant ball from VAT19 to…
You can do almost anything with a good kitchen knife. You have plenty of options but which one is the best? We want to hear from you. You often hear people mentioning Wüsthof or Shun as having some of the best cutlery around. But those certainly aren’t the only options. So what’s your kitchen weapon…
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti will be bringing something special to International Space Station this winter: an espresso maker that functions in microgravity. The mechanics of making this work are not as simple as it seems. We spent the morning chatting about the psychological impact of getting terrestrial luxuries (like a decent cup of coffee) in…
Match.com recently announced a partnership with Three Day Rule, a personalized matchmaking service that will find you a date that looks like your ex. You simply send them some pictures, and they find a match. The service costs $5,000 for six month membership. And it’s creepy as hell. “I’ve noticed over my years in matchmaking…
Holy Mother of Dragons, a stream of plasma in the shape of a dragon flying at full speed has emerged from the Sun. According to NASA, the “eruption [tens of thousands miles long] was minor” and “most of it fell back into the sun.” NASA, I love you, but you have no imagination. SPLOID is…
It’s been nearly a decade in development, but a genetically modified breed of bananas that’s designed to combat starvation will soon enter human testing. The bananas are rich in beta-carotene which turns into vitamin A in the body. For the children in Africa suffering from vitamin A deficiencies, this is a godsend. Also these banana…
The photo above, taken on April 6, 1925, shows a movie projector being loaded into an Imperial Airways airplane for the first in-flight movie ever. And the photo below shows the screen and interior set-up for this historical feat. But was it really the first in-flight film ever shown? Technically, no. Indeed is was one…
Last week, the internet was aflutter with news of a study showing how head injuries rose in cities with bike share—at least according to the media. But it turns out that most of us were making a major error in interpreting the data, as CityLab explains today. In fact, head injuries actually went down overall.…
The Pentagon grounded its very expensive and very problematic F-35 fleet over the weekend due to an apparent engine oil leak. Within a day or so, the military inspected all 104 of the jets, three of which did not pass the tests. The rest are now back in the air. This sort of thing happens…
