Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
Did you know today was a holiday? After a weekend of low-effort costumed drunks fighting, fucking, and puking in front of my apartment—sometimes simultaneously—I thought we were done this year’s glorified national Santacon. But no. Halloween is today. Let us breathe the heavy sigh of the defeated. Adulthood may have jaded me to the once…
Formula 1 pit stops are almost comically quick. The driver rolls in; a gang of crew workers buzz around; and then two seconds later, the race car shoots out to zip around the track again. But what’s actually going on? And what the hell are all those damn people doing? This video explains. Red Bull…
A peeled orange and a red bell pepper. That’s what I thought a pencil and a Coke bottle cap were when I saw them in macro. That’s because when you stare at something from up close, even if it’s something you see everyday, you lose your sense of familiarity with it. The dash of color…
Stunt driver Vesa Kivimäki might officially be the fastest man on two wheels, but he doesn’t ride motorcycles. Instead, on an airfield in Seinäjoki, Finland, Vesa set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest side wheelie in a car, hitting an unthinkable 115 miles per hour. Driving on two wheels is already hard enough,…
Here’s a simple experiment you can try at home that produces a unique substance called sodium acetate from baking soda and vinegar. It’s also often referred to as “hot ice” because at room temperature it forms crystals just like ice does—but without the need for a freezer. It’s arguably a more fascinating experiment than the…
When ancient humans looked to the skies, they dreamed of flight. When modern birds look with jealousy and annoyance to see who’s making them look like a bunch of chumps, they see RC helicopter stunt pilot Alan Szabo Jr. The footage from this flight appears to be sped up. It isn’t. The illusion is testament…
We already know that waxing any part of your body is extremely unpleasant. But the point is further driven home when you watch The Slow Mo Guys wax their own legs at 28,000 frames per second through the lens of a Phantom V2511 slo-mo camera. Living with hairy legs doesn’t seem so awful in comparison.…
I know videos like this are intended to be exhilarating and make you say “woo-hoo” but I just spent the whole time waiting to see a man smack into a rusty cargo container and sink to the bottom of the ocean. Dominik Gührs, Felix Georgii and Dominik Hernler (with a little corporate support) designed and…
Space is undeniably cool, but you know what else is cool? Space gear. And taking a long, leisurely tour through the international space station in beautiful 4k with pristine focus is the best way to see all those wires, meters, monitors and control stations. Bookended by vertigo-inducing shots of Earth as seen through the ISS…
Watch as Mr. Rogers eats a new American classic—banana with a single slice of American cheese. Immerse yourself in his gentle journey. Imagine what he might’ve smoked beforehand. Slow it down, reverse it, bop it, pop it, twist it, jam it, but don’t eat it. Like any good journalist, I tried this at home, and…
Tall buildings often have tuned mass dampers hidden inside their structures to stabilize them against the wind. Those tuned mass dampers are huge and heavy and help limit a building’s movement by swaying in the opposite direction of the building. That is, if the wind is making a skyscraper sway to the right, the damper…
Chances are you don’t have a 5000 watt light bulb lying around your house but if you do, here’s a nice Halloween decoration idea for you: stick that bright ass bulb in a pumpkin and watch it glow this awesomely eerie red. It looks like it’s about to go nuclear. Actually, watch out. If it’s…
Besides the free candy, Halloween is supposed to be about scaring yourself silly. But don’t waste your time on horror movies, haunted houses, or ghost stories. Just watch this behind-the-scenes look at how Hyperflesh makes its oversized baby masks. You’ll be terrified of going anywhere near a daycare afterwards. [YouTube via Laughing Squid]
How do you relax at the end of a long day? A movie? A good book? Maybe a long soak in the tub? You’re doing it all wrong. What you should be doing is strapping on a giant propeller and parachute, then heading to Utah where you can soar just inches above a massive salt…
Some artists work with paint, others use clay, while some chip away at chunks of marble. Shinri Tezuka prefers the medium of candy, turning melted sugar into stunning crystal-like creations through the Japanese art of amezaiku. As Great Big Story reveals, each creation is a race against time, as Shinri only has about five minutes…
Deep down you know it’s not much better than eating chocolate frosting right from the container, but somehow you’re able to justify doing it with Nutella. Unless you’re YouTuber CemreCandar who filled his entire tub with 600 pounds of Nutella before immersing himself in the chocolate hazelnut bath. Delicious? Disgusting? Whatever your thoughts on the…
Everybody knows that Quentin Tarantino loves to connect his movies into one cinematic universe. People smoke Red Apple cigarettes, people eat Big Kahuna burgers, Michael Madsen’s Vic Vega from Reservoir Dogs is brothers with John Travolta’s Vincent Vegas from Pulp Fiction, and so on. It’s fun to make those connections while watching any QT movie…
I very much enjoyed watching this surfboard get made by hand because, well, I love watching anything get made by hand. But also, there are neat graphics that pop up and show what’s happening at each step of the process. You get to see an animation of what he’s actually doing to the surfboard and…
Stabilizing footage of Steve Storey’s mountain bike ride down a bumpy trail almost turns it into a casual cruise around the park. That is, if you only stare at the top half of the footage. If you look at the bottom half, you’ll see how much thrashing is actually going on. And if you try…
For every spectacular wingsuit video you see online, you have to assume there are at least 100 that didn’t go as well. They’re just rarely posted. But Eric Dossantos decided to share his recent trip down a mountain featuring some spectacular footage of his descent, until things went terribly wrong. Thankfully, Dossantos survived this landing.…
