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The folks at Signal Snowboards like to experiment over the winter months with conceptual deck designs—sometimes they’re practical, and sometimes they’re downright crazy. And the company’s latest creation, a snowboard with a built-in turntable, probably falls into that latter category. Like with all of Signal Snowboards’ creations, the Scratch & Shred Turntable Snowboard is completely…
At Treehotel in the north of Sweden, the rooms rise up like trees in an enchanted forest: a UFO, a mirrorcube, a giant bird’s nest. It’s some of your wildest childhood fantasies—brought to life by Swedish architects. So how did it all begin? The hotel is the work of its two founders, Britta and Kent,…
The latest version of Ubuntu—14.04 LTS or Trusty Tahr to its friends—is now available, with support for touchscreens and super hi-res displays. Go download it now for free
This map shows the 9,000 chemical plants across the U.S. where, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a “catastrophic chemical release” could occur. It helps us answer an unsavory question—whether you live near a potentially dangerous chemical plant. Mother Jones put this map together a year after the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that…
Hear mention of tin and your thoughts instantly turn to cans stuffed with limp vegetables. But while the metal has become ubiquitous thanks to its use in convenience food packaging, it actually serves all manner of exotic purposes—and it could just change the future of electronics. Humble Origins Tin—or Sn to its buddies in the…
By now, you’ve read all about Heartbleed—but what, exactly, does it look like in action? Thankfully some nerdy brave computer scientists have run it, so you don’t have to. In this video, Dr. Steven Bagley run the Heartbleed code to show you exactly how it works. Rather him than us. [Computerphile]
Gardening and technology couldn’t, perhaps, seem more different, but don’t you believe it: a new initiative out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will soon see your veg patch become an open source project. The Open Source Seed Initiative has been designed to make a new range of seeds—including broccoli, celery, kale, quinoa and other…
Pathé News was perhaps the most well-regarded news agency of the 1900s—and now, its entire 85,000-video newsreel archive is available to watch for free on YouTube. The stash of videos contains from as far back as 1896 right up to 1976. There’s clips from the the First and Second World Wars, scenes of the 1937…
It’s easy enough to find ultra-fast SD cards—if you’ve got the cash—but super speedy microSD cards are harder to come by. No longer: Toshiba has just launched the world’s fastest, and it should breathe life into your compact mirrorless camera. The new microSD cards are the first to ever meet the UHS-II spec, which means…
Your right to free speech means that the government can’t arrest you for what you say, but it doesn’t means that anyone—anyone—has to listen the crap you come out with. In today’s XKCD, Randall Munroe remind us that the first amendment doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want and suffer no consequences—just suffer no…
When it was planted in 1896, this Canary Island date palm counted the orange trees of an Anaheim citrus grove as its neighbors. Today it rubs shoulders with the bamboo stalks of Adventureland. The tree was already 58 years old when Walt Disney bought the ranch it ornamented for his new development. Bulldozers soon reconfigured…
Well, hmph. That’s not how drones work guys. Supposedly, this video shows Portugal attempting to launch a naval drone by giving it a running start. As the drone is thrown in the air to fly, it immediately nosedives and crashes into the ocean. What a wonderful failure. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff.…
Turns out, the American motion picture and music recording industry loves weed just as much the rest of us do. For more than 60 years, weed’s been getting name-dropped in pop culture—from early propaganda videos like Reefer Madness to more recent celebrations of stoner culture like Half Baked. Eclectic method integrates both viewpoint extremes (and…
Staying healthy is a lot like medieval warfare. Cells vs viruses. There are cells defending their castles and viruses trying to break through. If a sneaky virus manages to attack a cell, the cell fights it and notifies all the other castles about what to build to defend it. Man, learning about biology is so…
Disquiet Junto Project 0120 Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. Tracks by participants will be added…
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer popped up on Twitter tonight, and, if this really is his account, it looks like it hasn’t taken long for his loyalties to start shifting. Two out of his first four tweets have been sent from an iPhone. Of course, there’s every possibility this isn’t actually his real account. But…
Screw playing Call of Duty or Halo or Titanfall or any next generation video game, I want this Chalk Warfare game where you draw your own weapons and fight your friends to become real. Your weapons are only limited by your imagination and well, your drawing skills. Sure normal guns and drones and energy swords…
A clearer photo of the mysterious unidentified flying object in Texas has surfaced. The image—enhanced above—clearly shows a boomerang-shaped blended wing object with two exhaust nozzles that seems clearly different from a B-2 bomber. It was “completely silent” and did “severe 180 degree turns in the sky in the shape of an S.” The new…
A car has four wheels but these stunt guys only need two. Watch them cruise down a road doing a sideways wheelie on a car. The road isn’t under them but right next to their window. They’re so casual and calm about it I love it. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join…
White on black is a no-no in many design circles, but there are definitely exceptions to the unofficial rule—like these cool prints from Marlon de Azambuja. The Madrid-based architect took an inky permanent marker to full-color photos, eliminating everything except for the thinnest structural silhouettes. The transformation is part day-to-eve, a bit painting-on-velvet-minus-the-blacklight, some essence…
