Tech News

A Tandem Bike That Shrinks To Accommodate a Single Rider

A tandem bike can make for a romantic outing for a couple in love, but when there’s just a single passenger it makes for a challenging ride. So California-based Calfee Design built a pair of custom tandem bikes that can actually be transformed into single passenger cycles with just a few simple tools. Of course,…

This Wearable Abacus Is Basically the World’s Oldest Smart Ring

Smart rings may seem like something from an impossible (or at least highly unlikely) vision of the future, but surprisingly enough, tech you can wrap around your little finger isn’t anything new. Just take this itty-bitty abacus from the 17th century as proof. https://gizmodo.com/sorry-smart-rings-arent-the-future-1536985137 Coming to us from China’s Qing Dynasty era, the ring features…

The Story Behind Syracuse’s Upside-Down Traffic Light

Unlike nearly every other traffic light in the U.S., the traffic light up on Tipperary Hill in Syracuse, New York displays green above red. Why this bizarre reversal? Well, St. Patrick’s Day is an appropriate time to tell this story. Perhaps more urban legend than history by now, the origin of Tipperary Hill’s upside-down traffic…

These Dream Worlds Are Made From Boring Google Street View Scenes

The wide-angle perspectives of Google Street View are almost instantly recognizable these days, but Aaron Hobson turns the imagery captured by the roving cameras into exotic worlds that look anything but familiar. Hobson spends hours navigating locations around the world via his computer, waiting for a scene to strike him with potential. He then applies…

GoPro video shows how it would be to see life through Superman’s eyes

Someone put a GoPro on Superman’s head so we could all experience what he sees on his day to day. Or maybe someone put a GoPro on a quadcopter and then changed the speed and added some clever effects to get this great little video. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…

Scientists Revive Moss That Was Encased In Ice For 1,500 Years

Cryonics enthusiasts will be pleased to hear that scientists have demonstrated the ability to revive frozen life not just after a couple years or even a couple of decades. They can bring something back to life that’s been frozen for fifteen centuries. The previous record was just 20 years. A team of researchers from the…

Why Cities Need to Stop Commissioning Calatrava’s Fish Skeletons

I remember the first time I saw a Santiago Calatrava bridge, a spinal column of calcium-white ribs snaking across a Spanish ravine. “That’s cool,” I thought. Then, a few years and a few thousand miles away, I saw another one. And another one. And another one. Why did all these cities have similar structures in…

The Man Who Tried to Invent the Like Button in the 1930s

Think Facebook invented the Like button? Think again. Back in the 1930s one man hoped to create a device that could send feedback to radio stations with the push of a button. He called it the “radiovota.” Get it? The radio… voter. Dr. Nevil Monroe Hopkins, pictured above left, was a research engineer and lecturer…

They Moved Mountains (And People) To Build L.A.’s Freeways

Carmageddon—it was the nightmare scenario L.A.’s transportation authorities warned of when a construction project shut down a critical stretch of freeway for an entire weekend in July 2011. Gridlock. The glow of brake lights. The overwhelming angst of a city denied its full and unimpeded access to its freeways. In the end, the public outreach…

These 10,000-Year-Old Instruments Are Playing Their First Modern Gig

Roughly ten millennia ago, musicians didn’t lug amps or guitars around to their shows—they lugged lithophones, or instruments made of resonant rocks. The oldest lithophones ever found will be played in their first public concert next week in Paris. Sadly, it’ll also be their last. The stone instruments, which date from between 2500 and 8000…

This Beautiful IMDb Redesign Concept Is Long Overdue

IMDb is one of the most useful sites on the web. But it’s also one of the most outmoded. Now, two web designers have taken it upon themselves what an IMDb for 2014 would look like—and the results are pretty great. Here’s how they explain their design. For anyone who isn’t already aware of it,…

20% Off Everything Griffin, Samsung SSDs, SONOS Speakers [Deals]

If you own a phone, tablet, or laptop, there’s a really good chance that Griffin makes cases and accessories for it. Today only, they’re offering 20% St. Patrick’s Day savings sitewide with promo code GREEN20. Pictured Above: Survivor Clear for iPhone 5/5s Elevator Laptop Stand USB Mini Cable Kit iTrip Auto Universal Plus PowerMate Bluetooth…

Scientists Use Graphene to Make Bionic, Super-Powered Plants

A team of chemical engineers and biochemists has managed to change how plants work. Well, to be exact, they’ve made plants work better by embedding carbon nanotubes into the plants’ leaves so that they absorb more light. Put simply, they’ve created bionic plants. The technique is not quite perfect. “We envisioned them as new hybrid…

Microsoft has a special deal for Windows XP users. If you buy a new PC, the company will give you a $50 gift card, 90 days of tech support, and free data transfer. Or, in the words of one Wall Street Journal reporter, “Microsoft is bribing people to stop using Windows XP.”

#KissMeImBicep2

I get the feeling that the BICEP-2 cosmologists are going to be celebrating hard this Saint Patrick’s Day:

This Sneaky Trash Can Lid Lures Flies to Their Death

Just like Romeo and Juliet, flies are tragically destined to crave their one true love: Pungent, moldy, rotten garbage. And thanks to this ingenious trash can design that traps flies only to have them starve, the flies’ love can prove just as fatal as Shakespeare’s. Envisioned by designers Chang Shih-hsun and Hung Jui-yuan, the trash…

Scientists capture first ever signal from the beginning of the Universe

It looks like an explosion from an 80s game, but you’re looking at the first direct proof of the event that started the Universe—the Big Bang. Those black lines represent the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background, which “could have been produced by gravitational waves created by inflation” as predicted by Einstein. If confirmed, it…

Watch This Phone Screen-Protector Handle a Drill and Knives with Ease

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as a deep gouge on your new phone’s screen. Still, it can be hard to bring yourself to put on some stupid-looking screen protector. Unless it’s as tough as this one that we attacked with a hammer. And a drill. Sir Lancelot’s Armor’s “The Holy Grail” is a lot impressive…

9-year-old kid debates asteroid destruction with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Seriously folks, you need to watch 9-year-old Jacob debating about how to deflect or destroy asteroids that may hit Earth with Cosmos’ host Neil de Grasse Tyson. The non-Newtonian fluid line is pure gold. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook

The Woods Around Chernobyl Aren’t Decaying

Like a landscape of the undead, the woods outside Chernobyl are having trouble decomposing. The catastrophic meltdown and ensuing radiation blast of April 1986 has had long-term effects on the very soil and ground cover of the forested region, essentially leaving the dead trees and leaf litter unable to decompose. The result is a forest…