Incredible video of an air tanker refueling a tanker against a full moon
Without a doubt, this is one of the coolest airplane videos I have ever seen. Thanks to the magic of telephoto lenses, the moon in this infrared clip looks impossibly gigantic. The fact that a KC-10 tanker is refueling another KC-10 tanker make the entire thing feel unreal—as in “I had a hard time believing … Continued
A lone coyote running across the frozen waters of the Boston Bay
The US Coast Guard just tweeted this photo of a coyote running across ice, taken from one of its ships in the Boston Harbor, near Quincy. I imagine this is what would happen if humans were destroyed, civilization disappeared forever, and everything was cold and miserable—which sounds like Boston to me. SPLOID is delicious brain … Continued
Show this animation short to any children you want to scar for life
My first thought when I started to see Danny and the Wild Bunch—a short live action and animation film by Robert Rugan—was: “Is this some dumb Pixar imitation.” I’m glad I kept watching, because I love when sugar, spice, and everything nice goes to hell. SPLOID SELECTS is a series where we feature awesome and … Continued
These were Leonard Nimoy’s Spock ears in The Wrath of Khan
Margaret Weitekamp, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s curator of science fiction and space memorabilia, has some thoughts about why Leonard Nimoy and his Spock character were so universally loved. She also published this photo of the ears he used in the Star Trek classic The Wrath of Khan. Paradoxically, it’s the humanity in … Continued
Case solved: This is the true color of that goddamn white and gold dress
In what may be the biggest case of mass hysteria ever experienced in the history of the internet, everyone in the planet speculated tonight about what’s the color of a stupid dress. Some people even claimed it changed color.* Others looked for Photoshop analysis or scientific explanations. Here is the true color. The dress is … Continued
A fascinating view into the US Air Force boneyards
You can zoom in this 48-megapixel image of the USAF boneyard in Tucson, Arizona—stitched from Bing Maps satellite images—and try to identify all those airplanes. Or you can watch this USAF documentary on how the US stockpiles thousands of planes in deserts around the country to keep the active fleet flying.* Or you can do … Continued
Would you eat this grey ice cream?
I have had black sesame ice-cream and it’s absolutely delicious. It didn’t look like this soft black sesame ice cream cone, however. The one I had was absolutely black. This one looks weird, as if someone got a time machine to order a cone in 1038, when all ice cream was in black and white. … Continued
First images of the world’s largest airplane
Holy crap, it’s real! Behold the first glimpse of Paul Allen’s crazy space venture: The largest airplane in history, a 385-foot (117-meter) wingspan beast designed to carry and launch a giant rocket to space, with a combined weigh of 1,200,000 pounds (540,000 kg)! Check out the mind-blowing photos. But first, watch this video to observe … Continued
Photos so perfect they feel unreal
Daniel Cheong loves digital blending—a post-production technique “that manually mixes multiple bracketed exposures in order to obtain the maximum dynamic range” without getting the everything-is-illuminated effect of overcooked HDR. His work is beautiful. His photos are sightly surreal, yes, but I love the results. That storm against the Milky Way photo above is a great … Continued
Check out the new (and coolest) Mars Curiosity panorama selfie
Bravo NASA f0r capturing this new cool Mars Curiosity selfie on the surface of Mars at its new research site, the Mojave. NASA made this image by combining dozens of photos taken during January 2015. Here is the annotated version, so you can see the sites that the rover visited before reaching this point. The … Continued
Spectacular photo of a missile launch from a Russian fighter jet’s wing
Very cool high resolution shot of a missile launch from the wing of a Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker. According to Cenciotti at The Aviationist, it’s an R-73, a “heat-seeking, short-range missile with a sensitive, cryogenic cooled seeker that can “see” targets up to 40° off the missile’s centerline.” SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us on … Continued
Beijing’s new airport terminal looks more like a gigantic spaceport
Check out Beijing’s new airport terminal by Zaha Hadid: 700,000 square meters (173 acres!) in total, with an 80,000-square-meter ground transportation centre. It kind of looks like the mother of New Mexico’s spaceport, from where Virgin Galactic operates: New Mexico’s spaceport, however, is tiny compared to Beijing. Look at the insane space inside this place. … Continued
Nobody would have believed this 70 years ago
Looking at this picture it is hard to believe that the United States and Australia were in a bloody no quarter war against Japan only 70 years ago: Spot the Mitsubishi F-2 escorting a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the direct heir of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki. U.S. Air Force, Japan … Continued
This Power Rangers fan film starring Katee Sackhoff is fucking amazing
Holy Ice-hockey-Jesus-on-a-Pogo-stick. I can’t believe the darkness in this short by Joseph Kahn, a “deboot” of the Power Rangers, as he calls it—a fan film, “not a pilot, not a series, not for profit, strictly for exhibition.” A free fan film starring Katee Sackhoff, the iconic Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica. As Kahn describes it: This … Continued
This tidal bore makes waves that people can surf for 15 minutes non-stop
This is the mascaret at the port of Saint-Pardon de Vayres, near the city of Bordeaux, a tidal bore that produces waves for 15 minutes of continuous surfing. One second the river is completely quiet, the next the waves break in, taking dozens of surfers with them. A close up from the boards: Some aerial … Continued
Addictive animation loops
I imagine that the creators of The Amazing World of Gumball are heavy consumers of zolpidem tartrate. Argentinean animation studios Ronda probably got a few boxes too, so they came up with theses never-ending loops of the show for Cartoon Network. Pure eye sour candy. SPLOID SELECTS is a series where we feature awesome and … Continued
I would totally live in the world’s first carbon-positive house
According to Dwell, this is the “world’s first carbon-positive prefabricated house,” which produces more “more energy than its uses.” Its designer, ArchiBlox, claims it’s “expected to offer the same environmental benefits as 6,095 native Australian trees.” Simple, clean design—put it in a forest and I will move in. SPLOID is delicious brain candy. Follow us … Continued
China used more concrete in 3 years than the US in 100 years
Bill Gates has an incredible statistic: According the USGS’ cement statistics, China has used more concrete from 2011 to 2013 (6.6 gigatons) than the United States in the entire 20th century (4.5 gigatons). It blows my mind but, then again, as Gates point out, look at Shanghai’s evolution in just 20 years… …and now imagine … Continued