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Put your face close to your screen and hit play. This short video, uploaded by YouTuber Shaun O’Callaghan, was shot from a DJI Phantom quad-copter as Yasur volcano on Tanna Island in Vanuatu erupted. The view is absolutely stunning, but the remarkable thing about this footage is that the copter survived the heat, smoke, debris,…
Here’s a fun old trick anyone can do: draw arrows on a piece of paper, put a glass in front of those arrows and pour water into the glass. Watch as the arrows you drew magically change directions right before your eyes. Refraction is a mind bending thing. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome…
“Dude, you sure you’re ok to drive? Your pupils look a little dilated” ranks among the top three things nobody wants to hear as the third blotter of acid kicks in—directly between, “Please bend of over the examination table and try to relax” and “Sir, step out of the vehicle right meow.” The later, of…
Seriously, why the hell would anyone want to kiss a cobra snake?* The GIF grosses me out, but the video is even worse. That’s when he actually opens his mouth. Ugh. * I wish someone asked me that question after I met my first wife. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…
Here’s another classic musicless music video by Mario Wienerroither. This time, it’s The White Stripes’ The Hardest Button to Button that gets stripped of its audio and remixed with empty noises to sound like real life. It’s a lot more awkward and a lot less revolution rousing! Like two kids playing for change in a…
The Soyuz capsule touched down at 0324 GMT outside Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. Weather conditions were difficult, but all three crew of Expedition 38 are safely landed after six months in space.
After enlightening us with obscure facts about The Simpsons, CineFix is revealing more information about something else everyone loves: superheroes. So here are 7 facts about your favorite superheroes—Spiderman, The Avengers, Superman, Wolverine, etc.—that you probably didn’t know. https://gizmodo.com/9-simpsons-facts-that-you-probably-didnt-know-about-1530716522 Even if you’ve treated the comic books as gospel since you were a kid and the…
No, this portrait isn’t made up of thousands upon thousands of magnetic sculpture beads. The metallic wonder’s lifelike contours and shimmer comes from painstakingly hand-placing 13,000 variably sized platinum beads. The Japanese jewelers, Platinum Guild International K.K, offer the work, and quotes begin a half million dollars. This is absurdly expensive, but not all together…
Do you like Wikipedia? Are you a fan of obscenely wealthy educational institutions with unspeakable power? Then you’ll love the job listing that just went up at Harvard. They’re hiring a Wikipedian-in-Residence. It pays by the hour. You might be wondering what exactly a Wikipedian-in-Residence does, and you’d be wise to wonder whether or not…
Today’s slim, svelte computers look great. You, on the other hand, look like a total yutz fumbling around to plug a thumb drive into a USB port that’s somehow perpetually upside down. What if saving your data was as easy as slapping a sticky note on your screen? That’s what a design team proposes with…
It’s rare to find a designer who also knows their way around an electrical diagram, but Marjan van Aubel is one of them. The energy-minded designer is back with a new piece, Current Table, which uses dye solar cells to absorb energy and charge your devices. Van Aubel worked with a company called Solaronix on…
Fans of the One Laptop Per Child program were shocked and saddened to hear of the organization’s imminent demise this week. There’s only one problem: OLPC isn’t actually dead. Despite what some blogs are reporting, the organization is alive and well… just not as alive and well as it once was. On Tuesday, Wayan Vota…
Whiskey purists would cut their own tastebuds off before allowing ice anywhere near their drink. Cold whiskey is great, but ice tends to melt and muddle the flavor. Whiskey stones are generally supposed to be the best of both worlds, but what kind of whiskey stone should you use? Cool Material decided to run some…
For most people, staring at blueprints is a real chore. Nobody really knows what all those little lines mean, and, wow, they’re just so blue. Most importantly, however, blueprints make it hard for a layperson to comprehend what a space will actually be like in real life, which is a problem when you’re building a…
This new cool SpaceX photo popped in my Twitter feed right after reading how Putin is annexing Crimea to Russia in the same way Hitler annexed the Sudetenland to Germany back in 1938. I don’t know what will happen next but this is yet one more reason why NASA should fast forward the manned use…
Helmets made with a liner material called expanded polystyrene will protect your head during a ski accident, but need to replaced after the first major impact. Helmet liners made from expanded polypropylene, though, can endure multiple impacts before needing a replacement. Using a series of sensors inside its liner, POC’s new Skull Orbic H.I. MIPS…
Neil Young is a lover of music, and so he has embarked on a well-intentioned quest to improve the quality of digital music. His Pono player is based on a good understanding of the problems with digital music—but its prescription for a solution only half-way makes sense. https://gizmodo.com/neil-youngs-new-pono-music-player-will-cost-400-1540260068 As I discussed in a post last…
This picture looks like the nightmarish moments before a mid-air collision, but breathe easy! It was just a lucky shot by photographer Sebastian Lebigrand, who was aiming for the moon and caught these two planes passing each other at completely different altitudes: apparently they are 1,000 feet apart. The RyanAir plane is cruising at 36,000…
Outdoor cookouts can get a little grubby, a little dirty, a little messy—that’s part of their charm, for some folks. If, however, you are searching for the classiest damn DIY al fresco dining experience of all time, look no further than this impossibly tidy Mon Oncle barbecue set. It actually comes in a briefcase. This…
Count this as marketing for Nikon, but it’s useful marketing nonetheless. The camera maker is rolling out a series of videos showing you how to develop your photography skills. The first one is all about combining natural light with a flash. Nikon has recruited notables such as National Geographic photographer Joe McNally to host the…
