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Men such as IBM Economist Joseph Froomkin feel that automation will eventually bring about a 20-hour work week, perhaps within a century, thus creating a mass leisure class. Some of the more radical prophets foresee the time when as little as 2% of the work force will be employed, warn that the whole concept of…
Strange week, huh? Ikea killed the shelf everyone had in their first apartment, Fitbit recalled its fitness tracker over some nasty rashes, and DHL punked UPS with some clever advertising. Let’s take a look back at this week’s best stories! DHL Pranked UPS Into Advertising For Them The dramatic increase of online shopping has fanned…
According to the Press Democrat, 20-year old auto glass repairman, and parkour instructor, Andre Hurley paid Caleb Raff, owner of The Brick Hutt Lego store, $15,000 for a one-of-kind, platinum Avohkii Mask of Light. The piece is from the discontinued Lego Bionicle line. This is believed to be the most expensive Lego piece ever sold.…
Listen to this young girl playing her sheng, a Chinese instrument invented thousands of years ago. The woodwind may be ancient, but the sound is pure 1980s nostalgia—it’s the Super Mario Brothers theme, right down to the sounds of Mario collecting coins and mushrooms. Amazing! Music was a big part of the old school Nintendo…
You may already be familiar with In-N-Out’s fabled secret menu, but it’s just one of several popular food chains whose order options aren’t limited to what’s on display. In fact, there’s a menagerie of exotic items and flavor combinations just waiting to be uncovered, if you know what to ask for. Here are five of…
Watching the world-class ice athletes of the Winter Olympics, whether it’s in speed skating, figure skating or hockey, is a jaw-dropping affair. The speed, control, and dexterity they exhibit while somehow balancing on a metal blade is simply amazing. But what exactly is going on with those blades? Smarter Every Day’s Destin Sandlin shows us…
Noted leaker Evleaks tweeted an image this morning purportedly showing two versions of the new Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch. The image indicates Samsung might add a “Neo” version, possibly a budget model along the lines of the iPhone 5C. That’s not a guarantee (this is, after all, merely a leak), but perhaps this is what…
Shawn Reeder made this impressive time-lapse of New Zealand after he decided to leave his home to become a film maker travelling around the world. His first stop was the country he always wanted to travel to “for as long as [he] can remember.” Looking at this video, it was a good decision. In the…
This is something you don’t see every day: Two fighter jets landing simultaneously in perfect synchronization on the same runway. Two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons from the 35th Fighter Squadron land in sync after a training sortie Feb. 13, 2014, at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The pilots faced different training scenarios to…
The newest work from Ubermensch creator, Emanuele Kabu, It’s Called “Moon” illustrates the unintended side effects of melatonin ingestion as a sleeping aid. Kabu should have stuck with the red wine. https://gizmodo.com/the-weirdest-thing-on-the-internet-tonight-ubermensch-5995286
NSFW. This is NSFW guys. If you don’t want to see body parts typical of a Playboy photo shoot, do not click. Anyway. NSFW. Here’s a collection of images from photographer Patrick Van Dam’s book Playboy Behind The Scenes. It shows how those iconic centerfold sausages are made and how hilariously awkward and unsexy it…
I’m not going to be a hamster on a wheel anymore. I will be a corgi running on a carousel. This never-ending GIF wins my own personal internet forever. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
I’d like to have whatever these ice crystals are having because damn it’s quite the trip. The video of these ice crystals melting was taken by Shawn Knol using cross-polarized light which I’m going to assume is some code word for really powerful drugs and not actually some super slick microscope. SPLOID is a new…
Buh-bum. Buh-bum. Buh-bum. We all have our own interpretations of what a heartbeat sounds like but here is what it looks like during heart surgery. It looks like it’s rolling in place inside your chest. Pretty amazing. BoingBoing said that this footage was taken during Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital’s live-tweeting of a coronary artery bypass graft…
If I have to look at one more half-melted slushy snowdrift, I’m going to junkpunch the nearest passerby. Luckily, there are things like amazing honeycomb sculptures and insane light installations to bring everyone off the ledge that winter has put them on. Enjoy a little reprieve in the form of the most beautiful items we…
Whenever you look at vintage photographs taken using old methods, there’s always a certain haunting quality about them. The life captured is so still, the eyes always seem so dark. It’s almost joyless. Photographer Victoria Will wanted to see how old photographs would translate with modern people so she used an 1860’s era method of…
It’s happened to all of us. You get back to your car after a delicious brunch or productive visit to the bookstore only to find a demonic little slip of paper tucked under your windshield wiper. “But the meter was broken!” you think. “I’m going to contest this!” you say to yourself. No, you’re not.…
People, muster up all your creative juices and imagine the most ridiculous bed you can think of. Is it a waterbed? Obviously. Can it play music from your iPhone? Totally. Does it vibrate to the beat of that music? Yes, it can. Can it sync 50 LED lights to the beating of your heart? Yup.…
1926: One of the world’s first walk-through metal detectors, invented to search employees leaving a manufacturing plant in Germany. [April 1926 issue of Radio News]
Here’s a fun trick for pyros (which is pretty much every human ever). As a candle poofs out and leaves a smoke trail, you can re-light it again by igniting the smoke trail. The fire burns down and hits the wick and boom, let there be light. It’s an old tip but it’s just so…
