Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
The skin of a squid is basically a magic material that can change colors as they expand and contract. PBS Deep Look calls them tiny water balloons filled with pigment and it’s pretty much their strongest (only?) defense mechanism in the open waters. They can change how iridescent their skin is and mimic how sunlight…
Can animals understand each other? And if they do, do they communicate through language? Is their language sophisticated enough to combine sounds into meaning in some grammatical sense? And can they talk about things that aren’t right in front of them? A lot of them can do some of those things! Bees can explain where…
We’re as guilty as anybody for propping up the process of making handmade goods and artisanal products but the truth is, they’re really fascinating to watch. But of course, being totally obsessed and narrowly focused with something can come with a lack of self awareness which makes the whole artisanal movement an easy target to…
Gamers have superpowers. Not in an imposing professional athlete physical sort of way but more like a Professor X, out-think and outwit you capacity. Their reactions are quicker, they can make moves that we could never do, and they might be able to read our minds. Don’t believe me? How about these three video game…
Corporations aren’t inherently evil, they’re only as greedy as the humans behind them. It’s the same thing with robots. Robots have no emotions—they’re just a pile of metal, screws and circuits—but they will be as mean, selfish, and avaricious as the people programming them. Wire Cutters is a brilliantly crafted student film directed and animated…
Here is a truly lovely visual comparison between the much loved, original Star Wars trilogy and the much maligned, newer prequel movies. The video, called Star Wars Poetry, shows off how the new movies are so strikingly similar with the old trilogy, honoring the original flicks while creating a sense of familiarity in the world.…
The big surprise in this legitimately bonkers biking video is that there is absolutely no surprise in what happens. You see everything happen before it happens even though you’re in disbelief as it is about to happen and question if this could really happen. I mean, the bike rider, Primož Ravnik, rides straight down the…
As we all learned from Game of Thrones (and definitely not sitting through high school history), when there’s a chance to sit on a throne and rule a kingdom, everybody who can sit seemingly wants to be king and queen, even if it means fighting your family members for the chance. Here’s a really fun…
I don’t know if a car stunt can get any crazier than this. Car on fire? Check. Man jumping out of the car on fire? Check. Car plunging into a lake while the man is jumping out of the car on fire? Check. It is totally spectacular and also just plain nuts. Also, it has…
The smell of baking bread is like the universal language for neck-breaking, nose-enlightening deliciousness. It’s impossible not to smile to yourself at the idea of fresh bread. It’s everything good in the world, it’s possibility, and it’s just damn good to eat. And watching bread bake in a timelapse? Who knew that your eyes could…
NASA and Boeing have released a little teaser on their newest spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, which will be built and tested at Kennedy Space Center and hopefully, eventually taxi people to space. Imagine touring space inside one of these awesome pods in the future. The video below highlights some features of the Starliner. SPLOID is…
Ever find yourself in a field of grass and desperately need a rope? Yeah, me too. Turns out you don’t have to live rope-less, you can just grab a bunch of grass and twist them perfectly into a strong and sturdy rope that can hold much more weight than you think. Here’s how, from NightHawkInLight.…
This is going to be so cool. The US Navy commissioned an electromagnetic launcher for testing on the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and the system will be much more efficient and smoother in launching planes in the future. It’s the first time things have been shot off the ship without the old steam…
Here’s a really unique view of what it would be like to be a dead animal in the life cycle of nature. National Geographic dropped off a wildebeest carcass in the Serengeti in Africa and recorded exactly what it looks like to see bugs swarm and vultures fight each other to eat what’s leftover of…
I imagine when Superman flies around the world, all he sees is a blur as he zooms by. But since we can’t all be Superman, the closest we’ll get to that close first hand blur view is zipping down a street on a longboard at 70mph. But since most of us would never do that…
Here’s a wonderful photo from the US Navy showing their launch of a Mobile User Objective System communications satellite. The US Navy says the picture shows “a 5-meter payload fairing lifts off from Space Launch Complex-41”. I say the picture looks like it perfectly captures the idea of shooting for the stars. SPLOID is delicious…
Life and Thyme continues its excellent video series about food and chefs by taking a look at Chef Timothy Hollingsworth and his upcoming Otium restaurant. In this chapter, we see Hollingsworth take a visit to the fish market and cook a splendid looking dish while talking about what food and more importantly, passion means to…
The Dutch angle is a film technique where the camera is tilted a bit so that the shot looks purposely off, what’s happening in the shot is not parallel to the frame, it’s at an angle instead. The Dutch angle heightens tension and is disorientating and can make us uneasy (to match the character’s uneasiness).…
Bloomberg Businessweek recently toured National Audio Company, a shop in Springfield, Missouri and one of the last and definitely the largest remaining manufacturers of the classic audio cassette tape. It’s almost adorable to see all the old machines whirring to pump out tapes that you thought no longer existed. Surprisingly and improbably, NAC made more…
Here’s a glimpse of the process of how an NHL arena turns a concrete slab into an official ice hockey rink. It’s footage from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a place that’s hard enough to get water (let alone ice). The process of putting the ice rink together is quite quaint, it involves string…
