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The team of Japanese scientists who published a study trumpeted as a groundbreaking advancement in stem cell biology are now asking that it be retracted. The study claimed that by dipping blood cells in acid, scientists had discovered they could turn them into stem cells. But since its publication at the end of January, many…
A new movie about Chicago; an unbelievable road diet in Buenos Aires creates 100 blocks of pedestrian space; and a tour of the vibrant city of Accra. Plus, another idea for solving San Francisco’s housing crisis, and everyone’s favorite cokehead mayor hits the late night talk show circuit, all in this week’s Urban Reads. A…
As part of a project called “Shapes of Cities,” London-based designer Yoni Alter takes a handful of iconic buildings from various metropolitan areas and silhouettes their shapes in a range of colors, overlapping the forms to create a single abstracted, impossible skyline. While there are plenty of posters that highlight a city’s best buildings, Alter’s…
As much of the world migrates its movie needs from optical disks to hard drives, a team of chemists from Spain found a new use for a regular old Blu-Ray player. They turned it into a cheap but functional medical device that could help the third world. The hack itself is actually sort of simple.…
If you’ve ever walked around in a hilly city, you’ve probably done your share of avoiding uphill paths. Hills have a way of carving dividing lines into a city. In Pamplona, Spain, two neighborhoods separated by elevation could be connected by this striking new outdoor elevator. The elevator would replace what is now a precarious…
This accident could have been a total disaster, but fortunately it just ended with one ruined Cessna airplane, a ripped parachute, and no victims. MyFox Tampa Bay got these incredible photos of the mid-air collision between an airplane and skydiver. More photos and information here. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us…
Visit any major U.S. city and you’ll likely see the anecdotal evidence that use of public transit is steadily growing in popularity. Last year, however, Americans reached an important milestone: according to a new study by the American Public Transit Association, U.S. residents took almost 10.7 billion trips on transit, the highest number since 1956.…
LEDs have come a long ways. From the early 70s when a bulky LED watch cost thousands of dollars to LG’s announcement last month that it had created an OLED TV as thin as a magazine, these glowing little bits of magic have become wonderfully cheap and impossibly small. But guess what: they’re about to…
Warren Elsmore, a former IT consultant, gave up his job over a year ago to pursue his passion: Making badass buildings with Lego. His St. Pancras station build is incredibly detailed and quite impressive. It’s made the rounds at Lego events and conventions around Europe and at 120,000 bricks, it’s a pretty epic creation. St…
Remember that girl who showed us what foreign languages sound like to people who don’t speak them? She’s back with 14 different music genres. Enjoy! SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
Light painting is awesome, whether you use your own two hands and a LED glowstick, or leave it up to a roomba-like robot. But the folks at the production studio Fiction decided to take it up a notch by bring a makeshift UFO into the mix. Like any good light painting, the photos are long…
There’s no denying that typerwriters were (and are!) fantastically complex and beautiful pieces of machinery. They’re also noisy, expensive, and a pain to use. With Pop Chart’s Visual Compendium of Typewriters though, you can have the best of both worlds: antique art and a backspace key. The chart features over 60 hand-illustrations of typerwriters dating…
We’ve seen countless action movies in which daring heroes get their gaping wounds sealed with white hot metal, but we rarely get a peek at what happens after the fact. This video from The Medicine Journal explains how it really works. Doctors use cauterization sometimes because they use it in sterile environments—so for the love…
The Center for Land Use Interpretation, in Culver City, Los Angeles, opened a new exhibition on Friday exploring the contemporary state of solar power in the United States. The show includes extensive photographs of all existing solar power plants in the U.S. southwest, many of which were taken “from the air, using aircraft and remote…
Yutaka Sone’s Little Manhattan is a solid marble model of Manhattan, breathtaking in its detail. Sploid’s Jesus Diaz got to see the mythical piece in person this weekend—click through for a fantastic video.
I came across some wintertime military photographs that looked like lost frames from the Battle of Hoth, in The Empire Strikes Back. So much, in fact, that I couldn’t resist adding some laser gun turrets and AT-ATs. Check them out and post your mashups in the comments. A U.S. Air Force airman defrosts a C-130J…
We love all of Anker’s external chargers, but the Anker Astro3 is pretty unique in offering three USB ports on a relatively compact 12,000mAh frame, and today you can pick one up for just $40. Anker Astro3 12,000mAh External Charger | $40 with Promo Code ASTRO32G Amazon’s Gold Box is back with a vengeance today,…
Street photography is tasked with capturing the fleeting beauty of the city. Photographer Mick Victor looks closer and finds vibrant abstraction in the graffiti strewn walls of Los Angeles. In a video produced by Snow Globe Studios and posted by The Atlantic, Victor explains how he searches for these accidental compositions of not only graffiti,…
Waking up on a dark winter morning is never fun. But imagine if the sun didn’t come up at all. Rjukan, Norway—which is cast into shadow for five months a year—has found a solution. The town is finishing its first winter using a system of mirrors to create an oasis of sunlight during its perpetually…
Nuclear bunkers have fallen out of fashion in recent years, but that doesn’t mean you can’t transform one into a delightful bed and breakfast. This bunker in Scotland is currently up for sale and even includes a fascinating history: It’s situated on a former POW camp. According to the listing, the 26,000 square-foot space known…
