- Tech NewsSploid
Dad saves a kid from getting hit by becoming faster than a superhero
Old man strength. The ability to fix anything broken inside the house. The impeccable sense of direction. The never ending wallet. Dads are basically real life superheroes. Especially this dad, who probably activated the secret powerful dad mode God code you get when you become a father that made him instantly realize the trajectory the … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech NewsSploid
Bug trapped upside down does hypnotic workout forever
Is this bug a workout warrior who’s doing some insane six legged bench press? Or is he a dumb little critter who think he’s walking normally and doesn’t realize he’s trapped upside down? Whatever he’s doing, it’s hypnotic. And it goes on forever. And ever. And ever. Like three hours forever. SPLOID is a new … Continued
By Casey Chan - io9
What If Star Wars‘s Sound Effects Sucked?
Star Wars fans should count themselves lucky that George Lucas found talented sound designer Ben Burtt to bring the audible portion of his scifi universe to life. Because as this video proves, Star Wars would have been a much different movie with a less talented foley artist in charge. [Via Laughing Squid]
By Rob Bricken - io9Television
Supernatural Shows What Happens If You Live With Monsters Too Long
Last night’s Supernatural included one emblematic moment of Dean Winchester badassery that is bound to be immortalized in GIFs and T-shirts forever. “Look at me, Bitch!” And yet, the show also used that moment to talk about how Dean is becoming a monster. Something that happens when you spend too much time around them. Spoilers … Continued
- Tech NewsSploid
Pop an Ambien and watch happy Bob Ross happily washing his happy brush
I can watch Bob Ross forever. Back in college, I used to watch his program—The Joy of Painting—on late cable TV because he triggered my autonomous sensory meridian response like crazy. I’d get goosebumps and my blood pressure would drop. Here’s that son of a gun washing his brush again and again and again. SPLOID … Continued
By Jesus Diaz - Tech NewsSploid
Dang, people don’t notice the homeless even when they’re family members
To most people living in cities around the world, the homeless have essentially become invisible. They blend into the streets, they’re background noise, they’re just a part of the fabric of a city like buildings and street lights and crosswalks. Only… they’re human. Just like us. To prove how invisible the homeless are to normal … Continued
By Casey Chan - Tech News
The Story of What Might Have Been, Palaeontology Edition
Find a palaeontologist. Have him watch a whole lot of science fiction time-travel movies. Guide him into philosophical conversations about pivotal moments and alternate history. Then set him in front a keyboard, and see what spills out about what he might have studied if not dinosaurs. Okay, that’s probably not how this article was written, … Continued
- Tech News
tUnE-yArDs – Water Fountain
In a perfect world, you’d get an extended cut of this new tUnE-yArDs video, and watch it after you’d eaten a bunch of psychoactive drugs. This is what you get when kids who were raised on Pee-wee Herman grow up and become artists. And it’s no accident. For real. Director Joel Kefali says: When Merrill … Continued
By Leslie Horn - io9
You Haven’t Seen Firefly Until You’ve Seen It On An Etch A Sketch
How much love does Firefly inspire? Enough to make cartoonist Boulet sit down with his Etch A Sketch and draw this single-line Firefly scene, with Serenity sitting in the background. Incidentally, everyone who hasn’t already should check out Boulet’s comics site; the man is a gift to the Internet and he posts short comic stories … Continued
By Lauren Davis - io9Movies
Could Roberto Orci Really Be Directing Star Trek 3?
Roberto Orci played a huge role in revitalizing the struggling Star Trek franchise with the 2009 reboot, which he co-wrote. And now, according to Variety, he’s lobbying to direct the third Trek movie, which J.J. Abrams is too busy to helm himself. Somehow we missed this bit, buried in an article about Orci and his … Continued
- Tech News
How to Make a Drill-Powered Pepper Grinder
If you’ve ever cooked pepper steak, you know the feeling of your forearms cramping up after what seems like hours of twisting. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were just a machine that did all the hard work? Lucky for you, there is, and it’s probably in your garage. That is, if you still have … Continued
- Tech NewsDesign
Abu Dhabi’s New Park Will Hide a 30-Acre Oasis Below the Desert
The United Arab Emirates has been overrun with a surge of costly and extravagant developments over the past decade including the Palm Islands and Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Now, a 125,000 square-meter park in Abu Dhabi will join them—but this isn’t your average mega-development. The beautiful design is credited to Thomas Heatherwick, an imaginative and … Continued
By Eric Rydin - io9Television
How Can You Tell If A Spinoff Series Will Succeed — Or Fail?
Spinoffs can vary pretty wildly in quality, from shows that are good enough to stand all on their own to shows that make even their predecessors unwatchable by association. But what are some of the signs that help you figure out which kind you’re getting? After learning some details about the spinoff that was confirmed … Continued
By Ria Misra - ScienceAnimals
Quick: Is This A Jackson Pollock Painting, or Insect Flight?
Can you distinguish a clever data visualization from an abstract expressionist painting? This happens to be the former, rather than the latter, but you’d be forgiven for not knowing. According to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Flight trajectories of fruit flies during exploration of a 30 cm wide wind tunnel are reconstructed as … Continued
- Tech News
This Early Concept for the 1964 Ford Pavilion Was Googie-tastic
Above we see an early planning illustration for the Ford Pavilion at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. This design is a bit wilder than the one they actually built, which you can see below. Those swooping corridors — while decidedly more tame in their trajectory in its final built form — did include one … Continued
By Matt Novak - Tech NewsSploid
This video of a car hitting a dog is not what it seems
I will not spoil the ending of this Russian dashcam video, so you have to watch the entire video till the very end. Trust me, you will really enjoy this—a lot. SPLOID is a new blog about awesome stuff. Join us on Facebook
By Jesus Diaz - Tech News
The FCC (Still) Stinks at Defending the Internet
The FCC’s soon-to-be-proposed rules on net neutrality reportedly won’t stop broadband providers from giving better service to people that pay for it. That stinks. This was the agency’s big chance to lock down a set of regulations that will keep the internet free and open, and it’s letting America down. In fact, the FCC has … Continued
- Tech News
A Map of Who Doesn’t Have Indoor Plumbing in the United States
Did you know that 1.6 million Americans don’t have complete indoor plumbing? The American Community Survey published on Tuesday that says that nearly 630,000 occupied homes in the United States lack complete plumbing facilities*, and The Washington Post whipped it into a handy interactive map. How’s your home state doing? If you’re from Connecticut, the … Continued
- io9
Wasp Nest Merges With Human Face To Become Nightmare Fuel
A wasp nest merged with this wooden statue to form… your darkest fears. This was discovered by Redditor CountBubs. And here’s the caption that follows this terrifying image: “An abandoned hornet’s nest my dad found in his shed that he hadn’t been in for a couple years. The head is apart of a wooden statue … Continued
- io9
Two Astronauts Must Decipher An Emergency Message From Their Future
Inspired by a script outline by Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher, Exit Log follows two astronauts on a ship that can travel three minutes back in time. When they receive an emergency message from an alternate version of themselves, how will they proceed? For Bombay Sapphire’s Imagination Series, Fletcher wrote a very basic outline of a … Continued
By Lauren Davis