Lists/summaries of interesting news, articles, videos or photos.
Here’s what happens when Alka-Seltzer gets added to a water drop in space:
Want to see an aluminum foil ship float on “nothing”? (It’s not quite nothing, but it’s still pretty cool.)
Asimo, the robot made by Honda, ran at the 2007 CES:
The blind learn to see with their tongue:
Boeing conducted a 777 ultimate wing load test:
Here’s another Boeing 777 test, the maximum rejected takeoff:
I’m an airplane sucker. Here’s a Boeing 777 on final approach in high cross winds:
I liked the Volkswagen “Unpimp your ride” commercials instantly when they came out. I’ve always liked clean lines and elegant cars. I think “pimped” cars are in truly bad taste. The mods are almost always done for the wrong reasons, and usually only to show off in garish fashion. The poor cars end up looking worse than before and make me cringe when I see them. Imagine my delight when Volkswagen decided to poke fun at the people who pimp their rides!
Meet Hal, the IT system admin depressed because Steve, one of his faithful servers, died… I don’t particularly like Hal or the ad itself, but it is effective and sticks in your mind. This was done in the style of the Apple ads, and was for Symantec’s Backup Exec software. Back when I used Backup Exec, it only did file-level restores, and was kind of difficult to use. Let’s hope the new version advertised here works better.
I don’t drink Coke and I don’t play GTA, but I thought this ad was pretty cool. It’s always nice to see the bad guys turn good. Two words also come to mind: synchronized serendipity. This ad is very watchable.
Here’s another Volkswagen ad, this time for the Phaeton. The Phaeton is probably a pretty amazing car, and the Phaeton plant is a pretty amazing place full of innovative engineering, but unfortunately, the price is too high for the VW brand. It would have been much better to build Audis like this. After all, they’re the same company. But the ad is amazing. I’ve never seen shadow play this good.
Another Bud Light ad, this one about the best men who hired an auctioneer for their friend’s wedding. The beer ads are always pretty good, and not surprisingly so. Given the amount of money that Budweiser throws at their advertising, the ad agencies have to make sure they come up with the good stuff.
I’ve always had a soft spot for British comedy. It’s hard to pinpoint why, but there it is. My favorites are Benny Hill, Monty Python and Mr. Bean. I’ve recently discovered Harry Enfield’s work, and I love his black and white mockumentaries (but only those, not his color work).
Here’s Benny Hill, in “The life of Maurice Dribble, from womb to tomb”:
Or how about this classic hospital scene? There’s the classic Benny Hill twist at the end:
Here’s Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean), in a couple of clips from another famous show called “Blackadder”. In this first clip, a secret mission is planned.
In this second Blackadder clip, the origin of WWI is discussed:
John Cleese performs his own eulogy in this clip from the 2006 International Comedy Festival:
Harry Enfield’s comedic genius shines in this clip, entitled “Women keep your virtue”:
While British humor is still likeable nowadays, it has lost its lustre and subtletly. It’s now crude and lewd. Have a look at this clip from a show called “Extras”. This is definitely a few orders of quality below the vintage British comedy I like.
The olm is a cave salamander completely adapted to the dark environment where it lives. It has no eyes, and is completely without pigmentation. Early discoverers thought olms were baby dragons. These salamanders live in a group of caves in the Balkan mountains.
Do you know what animal has the strongest punch in the world? Look no further than the stomatopod, an ocean creature that punches its prey to knock it out.
Have you ever seen a giant snail? Given the various parasites all snails host, I’m not sure I’d play with them. This brave woman’s got a giant snail on her arm. Yuck.
This horse is amazing. It’s called Blue Hors Matine, and the rider is Andreas Helgstrand. I have never seen a horse move like that. Even the commentators are left speechless.
The bower bird is a truly amazing animal. It builds an elaborate nest, complete with assorted objects of various shapes and colors, in order to attract a mate.
If you didn’t think crows could use tools, think again:
Have a look at this fantastic battle between a herd of water buffalo and a pride of lions. If you watch till the end, you’ll see how the buffalo attack the pride in numbers in order to retrieve a captured calf. The poor thing not only has to resist the lions, but a crocodile that grabs onto it from behind as well. It’s a heroic battle, and that little calf is a true survivor.
I’ve been holding onto these videos for a while, and finally got the chance to post them. The first is Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham. I’d looked around for it for the longest time, and never could catch it when it was on TV. Found it on YouTube. 🙂
This is a video that involves animation, and it was a sort of mockumentary done with Dizzy Gillespie. Supposedly he’s hired to do the music for a new product, but the director isn’t happy with what he hears.
If you like Gumby, then you’ll like Mr. Morph. Here are two videos with him.
Do you like 80s cartoons? I know I do, and I miss them. It was so nice to sit down on Saturday and Sunday mornings and watch cartoons on all major TV channels! Now all we’ve got is mostly crud, on both the Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Gone are the good old cartoons…
This video mixes live footage with some pretty innovative and artistic animation.
This is a nice little clip of computer animation showing a worm crossing a road.
Raoul Pop 