Sploid: Where awesome, wild, and breathtaking tech moments burst into view.
Modder Valplushka gave a thorough overhaul to a quadcopter and brought to life the single most annoying enemy in Half-Life 2. All this time, the dystopian haunts of City 17 were just a town in modern day Russia. Although the heavily-augmented drone won’t be searing corneas or sending Combine soldiers to chase anyone down, it…
Besides shooting an actual human or a pig carcass, the best way to determine the efficacy of a projectile—like a bullet—is with ballistic gel, which has almost identical density and viscosity to human muscle tissue. But how does it fare against extraordinary voltages? According to this experiment caught on video, the short answer is: not…
Boosted boards—those snazzy electric longboards—are in high demand, and they’re expensive. Fully decked out, one of these is going to run $1,600. And they won’t ship until late July at the absolute earliest. There’s an obvious solution—but it’s not easily embarrassed. Igor from Inspire To Make rigged up some skateboard wheels to accept a flexible…
Losing your job sucks. Losing your job when you live on the Red Planet could really, really suck. This short imagines what it might be like. When graphic designer Jeff loses his job on Mars, he find his wife is spending rather more time doing downward facing dog with her yoga instructor than he might…
Teenage rebellion takes many forms. Some of us get dumb haircuts or listen to some truly terrible music. But for the amateur scientist, breaking your mother’s heart* involves diethyl ether and the family pool. The thing about deithyl ether is that it’s really, REALLY flammable. And it floats on water. So The Backyard Scientist set…
You’ve heard of math savants and chess geniuses, but Barnaby Dixon might be a young prodigy when it comes to designing puppets. His latest creation is easily the most detailed and animated finger puppet you’ve ever seen, and Dixon spent two entire months refining and perfecting its design. The performance he puts it into the…
Among his many accomplishments, Tony Hawk is probably best known for landing the first 900 during an official competition at the X-Games. But watching him attempt countless skateboard tricks while floating in zero gravity in a vomit comet is yet another reason to be impressed with his skills. Especially since he appears to keep his…
It’s a big sweeping question that can’t possibly have an answer. Is it the story? Is it the characters? Is it the cinematography? This examination by Now You See It attempts to break down what makes a movie elevate from good to great, and focuses on a few things: the impact it has on filmmaking…
We all love watching cooking videos, and we all gasp and drool over food documentary videos. We simply can’t stop ourselves. But the truth is, this trend is totally silly and a lot of is treated way too seriously. It’s just food, after all. This parody video of those food videos that populate the Internet…
The world of Westeros in Game of Thrones is so impressively detailed, and the history of its characters is so well crafted, that it’s amazing George R.R. Martin could even come up with something so imaginative on his own. Of course, as we know, that’s not the case. Game of Thrones is heavily influenced by…
Here’s a fun and interesting look at how Hollywood ages actors with make up and prosthetics versus what they actually look like when they get old. Some of the movies get it very close (Marlon Brando in The Godfather), while some movies are way too liberal with the wrinkles and the balding and end up…
To test the sticking power of the glue used inside its Gokiburi Hoi Hoi roach traps, a Japanese pest control company called Earth Chemical created a human-sized version and then made a scientist, athlete, and sumo wrestler attempt to get from one end of it to the other. They all failed miserably. But watching the…
Ever wonder what the dreams of a professional animator must look like? Adult Swim’s Off the Air videos continue to be some close approximate of that breed of visual weirdness, and Shapes is the latest installment. Strap in for kaleidoscopic cats figures, trippy rotoscoping, claymation, glitch art, and intentionally terrible CGI. The video took the…
Welcome to the post. Welcome to Wayne’s World, Goodburger, Fight Club, Hogwarts, Earth, Jurassic Park, the real world. Welcome to LA, the Daily Bugle, the jungle, high school, and another edition of Thunderdome Welcome to the concept of semantic satiation, where your sleepwalking brain will soon turn the words “welcome to” into meaningless noises. Welcome…
The Nerdwriter has a really interesting breakdown on intertextuality in movies, or the idea of how something seen in a movie is shaped by something previously seen in something else. A call back, of sorts. A cultural or genre nod, even. But what’s really interesting is how intertextuality is now used in a world of…
Aside from sparklers, the most least piece of fireworks kids have access to are black snakes, those tiny pucks that grow into long ashen serpents as they burn. As far as pyrotechnics go, black snakes incredibly lame, except when YouTube’s NightHawkInLight super-sizes them. Once the mix powdered sugar and baking soda ignites, it becomes a…
When you smash the previous world record of walking on a highline of 1,640 feet—by doubling it over, walking on the slackline for 3,346 feet, you are truly fearless. When you do it in the sweeping mountains of Aiglun, France and walk as if you’re not afraid to fall, extreme can’t even begin to describe…
Spoiler alert, obviously. Actually, are there really spoiler alerts when it comes to movies by Quentin Tarantino? Everybody knows that everybody dies. Room 237 made this really fun video of characters from all of QT’s films, like Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, showing their first and last appearances. More often than not, that last appearance…
Here are two black mambas—the world’s most dangerous snake—fighting each other for the right to mate with a female black mamba. They’re engaging in a form of plaiting combat where they twist their bodies in a braid in hopes of making the other black mamba submit. It’s basically a never ending shove match that goes…
If you grew up with an older brother or sister and an old school video game console, Zachary Antell’s short animation Player Two should hit you right in the nostalgic feeling bank. Some people call that a heart, and maybe make you want to pick up the phone to call him or her (or let’s…
