Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
Although tropical cyclone Debbie, yesterday a Category 4 beast, has now been downgraded to a tropical storm carrying a severe weather warning, this footage of the cyclone at near peak intensity captured from the International Space Station will make you glad you don’t live on the eastern coast of Australia. https://gizmodo.com/25-000-residents-told-to-evacuate-as-massive-cyclone-th-1793670605 The eight-minute clip reveals…
Period films are the bane of movie producers’ existence. They cost a ton of money, limit locations, require elaborate costuming and are always fighting against the very existence of the modern world. But when it all comes together, the films function as one of the closest things we have to a time machine. Filmmaker Vugar…
After you watch this video of an adorable little girl named Rayna greeting and hugging a new robot friend, you’ll come to the realization it will never hug or love her back—because it’s actually a discarded water heater. (Sad!) Shortly after that, you’ll also come to the realization that kids clearly aren’t being raised with…
As fun as building your own six-foot model rocket might be, launching it is no where near as impressive as watching one of NASA’s towering rockets blast into orbit—unless you point a high-speed camera at it. At 28,000 frames per second, a wonderful pyrotechnics show is revealed as it leaves the launch pad. The Slow…
It appears semi-intentional and a little silly but YouTuber Peter Draws is making a solid attempt at channeling Bob Ross’ meditative tone coupled with slightly odd commentary. And it’s some soothing stuff. Looking over Peter’s channel, it appears that he likes to switch up his tools and this is his first entry with glow-in-the-dark ink…
YouTuber Giaco Whatever is on a quest to build a Nerf blaster that will do more than just leave a tiny welt on someone. He’s constructed an air-powered dart cannon that generates 400 PSI of pressure, and when cranked to full power, it can apparently send a Nerf dart flying at Mach 2.3, twice the speed…
You probably want a carpenter using nails to build your house, so, you know, it doesn’t fall down. But for more decorative wooden creations, fasteners can result in an unsightly finish. An alternative is to rely solely on precisely engineered wooden joints that fit together so perfectly you’d swear they were optical illusions. In this…
Through the lens of a talented photographer, even the most haunting, disturbing, and distressing scenes can be made beautiful. But we can’t decide if photographer Brian Tomlinson’s experiments with pouring random stuff into aquariums looks like a modern masterpiece, or just someone blowing chunks. To his credit, Tomlinson created this setup primarily to capture still…
What’s 15 minutes of fame worth to you? Are you willing to spend the rest of your life feeling like you just rode the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival for three weeks? Because strapping yourself into a spinning office chair powered by a pair of spraying nitrous tanks is likely going to scramble your brain, among…
There are lots of places to go off-road mountain biking if you’re looking for a cheap thrill (or the chance to break your neck). But one of the most dangerous has to be riding into an abandoned mine shaft. If your flashlight dies as you’re pedalling deep into the earth, you’re probably screwed. After countless…
Hell, it might be important today. I’m a little out of touch with the kids these days. But I definitely know that there are young people who are completely unaware of the existence of VHS tapes. For those of us who grew up with them, there’s a strong feeling of nostalgia for the ritual of…
A night at a local pub isn’t complete without a few rounds of darts, but as your blood-alcohol level rises, your ability to hit the bullseye greatly diminishes. Unless you’re playing with Mark Rober’s motion-tracking dart board that automatically repositions itself so you’re guaranteed to hit the bullseye every time. Rober, an ex-NASA engineer, spent three…
The creation of new life is a miracle, but ugh, it sure can take forever. Thanks to the wonders of time lapse photography, however, one YouTuber was able to cut the entire development cycle of a tadpole down to just 20 seconds. It almost looks fake, but it’s as real as life gets. The soon-to-be…
Did you ever go to a petting zoo as a kid, have an awesome time, but then your scaredy cat little brother just flips out and causes a scene? Well, let us be the first to say: It is a very hilarious scene to behold. The Jensen family recently went on vacation and visited the…
Saturday Night Live is remarkable because so much of it still happens live. In fact, the final four episodes of this season will be completely live in all four US timezones. That commitment to the craft is what makes this video of a Kate McKinnon character change so damn impressive. On the March 11 show,…
As you stare at your computer screen on a slow Monday morning, you’re probably wondering why your job doesn’t involve majestic dolphins and stunning background scenery. We don’t have any answers for you, but at least there’s a fullscreen option so you can temporarily forget all those emails you’re avoiding. Shooting with the Sony F5…
Have you ever found yourself listening to some classic 70s funk, rock, or disco and suddenly recognized a portion of the song you swear you’ve heard elsewhere? As YouTube’s Daftworld reveals, it was probably in a Daft Punk track, given the duo’s almost bizarrely impressive ability to turn classic samples into electro hits. The whole video…
OK, you think you like the Legend of Zelda? You don’t. Not compared to this guy. His entire goddamn house is ocarina-operated now, and if he forgets to bring a plastic toy instrument with him he’s probably locked out. So suck on that, I guess. In all seriousness, this is a really impressive and complicated…
Pretty much everything that’s great about technology today is thanks to the microprocessor. Billions of them are manufactured every year and they are one of the many reasons you can read this fine website. But few people understand what’s going on inside that little integrated circuit. Here’s a crash course. The fine folks at the…
Even the most mild-mannered among us can’t spend an afternoon inside a sprawling IKEA warehouse without leaving full of rage. But if you want to drown your frustrations, do it in cheap hot dogs and soft serve ice cream instead of walking out the door, determined to weaponize those tiny IKEA pencils. Up until about…
