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Way back on September 27th, 1986, the city of Cleveland was taken over by 1.5 million helium-filled balloons. The photos are amazing. The aftermath was not. Tom Holowach, the project manager of Balloonfest ’86, popped by Kinja to say hello, and has kindly offered to answer all your questions about the event. The sky’s the…
At long last, Roku finally is getting a YouTube app. That closes one of the few streaming holes it had left, and only goes further to make it more important than ever.
The geology of the Gulf Coast and the Great Lakes makes the land around them particularly suitable for an ugly task: hazardous waste disposal. There, hundreds of injection wells, each up to 10,000 feet deep, contain the chemical leftovers from steel mills, wastewater treatment, and more. Soon, one such well will be home to the…
Jupiter is not only the largest planet in our solar system, it’s also arguably the most stunning. Those massive storms—including that enormous red eye—produce quite an atmospheric show. And as a cheaper alternative to a giant telescope, this tiny desktop-sized version of Jupiter lets you stare in awe at the gas giant when you probably…
Ever since The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug came out, everyone knows the terrible dragon’s name. We’ve all seen his nest in Erebor and felt the pain he’s caused the exiled dwarves. But few know where Smaug or his fellow dragons came from. And though this video touches on it very briefly, it’s still a gorgeous…
Apple’s OS X beta program is now open to everybody. Previously, you needed a $100 per year developer account to try out Apple’s latest features buried in the beta builds of its operating system.
Babies born premature or sick are often completely reliant on a ventilator to stay alive. In many parts of the world that’s a $40,000 machine that runs completely autonomously, but in developing nations it’s often the child’s parents—continuously squeezing a hand pump. It’s a depressing image that inspired students at Brigham Young University to design…
Enjoy this cool animated map that shows the formation of the United States, territory by territory, from its first incarnation to the incorporation of Hawaii on August 21, 1959. Make sure to click on expand to see it big. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
American architect Philip Johnson designed some of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century. Johnson, who died in 2005, has long been hailed as one of the greats. But there’s one fact about the man that many people in the architecture community don’t like to talk about: Johnson was a fascist who openly supported…
Mattress shopping can be a major pain in the ass. Something that Casper, a newly launched sleep startup, wants to remedy. The supposed solution? One single, painstakingly engineered mattress for the masses. Instead of focusing on the quantity of its offerings, Casper wants to hone in on quality, offering a single, (supposedly) universally appealing mattress.…
Twitter’s new, Facebook-style design is now available to all. If you don’t have the new look already, head on over to Twitter’s new profile page and click the button that says “get it now.” [Twitter via Techblock]
When we reported another Russian fireball on Saturday, we weren’t sure if it was real or a hoax. Now, thanks to geophysical stations in the region, we can confirm that the event coincides with a sound-blast, and even pinpoint a probable location on the Kola Peninsula. Fireball observed in Murmansk, Russia on April 19th, 2014.…
Using dots of paint, pointillists painted entire canvases with what was essentially one pixel of pigment at a time. Now, modern photo mosaics have automated the same effect, sorting hundreds, even thousands of images into one grand daddy photograph. Here are four images filled by near infinite memories, captured by you. Winner: The Mosaic House…
Esquire editor Ryan D’Agostino will be taking over as Editor-in-Chief at Popular Mechanics in a few weeks. Godspeed Ryan, we can’t wait to see what you do with it!
Electronic music duo George and Jonathan dropped their new record, III, overnight in the form of an interactive website that shows you a visualization of every single note that’s played on the record. It’s hypnotic. Most of the record plays as a 3D viz of what seems to be the entire timeline of each song…
It’d be fun to be a stuntman if you had the stones to put your body on the line and jump off of stuff all day. Even if you don’t, these GoPro videos of real stuntman dives will give you a taste of what it’s like. (Spoilers: It’s awesome.) Each little clip features Canadian gymnast…
Last year, Withings’ Pulse fitness monitor impressed us with the plethora of data it collects—including, as the name suggests, your pulse. This year’s update adds yet one more handy feature: a blood oxygen monitor. Mountain climbers, now you can breathe easy. The newly-released Pulse O2 uses a nifty rear-mounted lens and light to monitor your…
The now Google-owned Nest thermostat is now available for purchase in the hardware section of the Google Play Store for its regular price of $250. Now where are those Boston Dynamics robots?
This five-port USB charger has enough juice to charge up a few tablets and several phones simultaneously, making it perfect for your desk at work, traveling, or any gadget-lover’s night stand. Mpow 5-Port Smart USB Wall Charger | $18 | Promo Code MPOW36UG This Qi charger is off-brand, and not particularly beautiful, but it’s only…
Subterranean captains’ chairs, rounded counters for flight monitoring, perfect pastels in the crew’s uniforms: Midcentury Herman Miller and Eames furnishings look awesome on the Starship Enterprise. Take a minute to check out these throwback posters and you’ll be daydreaming of Captain Kirk shaking you an out-of-this-world gin martini. [MattWileyArt via Retroist]
