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Watch this programmed robot arm, complete with creepy pink hand, scratch away on some vinyl like a true turntablist. I don’t know whether to feel amazed by the programming, or deflated by how easy this robotic arm makes the rhythmic scratching of records look.
Either way, it can’t compare until the robot arm is switching records, using a crossfader, and syncing songs on the fly. Until then, the DJs of the world are safe from their robotic overlords. And don’t all robots have a tin ear?
–via AnimalNY
Some people still think the world will end in 2012, because that’s where the Maya calendar ends. C.G.P. Grey explains how that strange idea came about. An even simpler explanation came from Dan Pirraro a couple of years ago. If this goes too fast for you, the script is at Grey’s website. Link -via The Daily What
Have you got a calendar for the new year yet? The calendar we use might not be all that rational, but we are quite used to it. This video from Jeremiah Warren will help you understand how our calendar came about. -via The Daily What
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Still think that pandas are cute and cuddly animals that eat only bamboo? Surely it poses no threat to other wildlife, right? Well think again: this wild panda in China was videotaped eating a dead animal:
Captured on an infrared camera in the Laohegou forest area, the panda appears to find a dead wildebeest in a gulley and gnaws on its bones for two hours.
Pandas are typically known to eat only bamboo shoots, but according to Chen Youping, deputy director of Forestry Department of Pingwu County, it is not unknown for the beasts to eat meat."The reason why pandas eat meat is because it used to eat meat millions of years ago," he said.
"Now they mainly eat bamboos, but we occasionally see bones of dead animals in pandas' excrement during our years of field work," he added.
Link | Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
I grew up during the Cold War, with an image of Moscow as a drab, grey, cold, Soviet citadel. But the Cold War has been over for 20 years! This video shows the city as beautiful and colorful, both historical and modern. -via Everlasting Blort
Comments Off It’s the opposite of the “fail” videos! As you’re waiting for something to go wrong, it turns out just right in these video clips. -via BroBible
Comments Off You can’t take this kitty cat to a regular pet groomer. No, lion wrangler Alex Larenty has to take care of that job, and he has to do it every day. Watch him brush the hair and file the claws on this 250 kg lion.
-via io9
On the one hand, it appears amazing that we sacrifice expensive electronics for the amusement of our cats. On the other hand, I know how easy it is to accumulate obsolete computer equipment that may not function as originally intended, but will still amuse the cat. Which, in turn, amuses us! -via Tastefully Offensive
Who knew they made such weirdly adorable noises?
These geektastic electronic musicians play the kind of songs that make you want to click your left mouse button excessively while nerding out online.
They have a style all their own, part electronic, part hip hop, with some nerdcore rapping thrown in. Their songs would make the ultimate soundtrack for nearly every video game ever made, plus you can dance to it!.
Speaking of video games, this time around the trio plays their own version of the song Earthquake by Labrinth using an app game called Grabatron.
It’s catchy, rugged enough to appeal to the hip hop heads that might get an earful, and I would have played their tracks non-stop in my walkman back in the day, as I worked at getting my initials on the high score pages of my fav arcade games. Geeks up, schmucks down!
–via GeeksAreSexy
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What happens when your luggage pass through those black rubber flaps at the airport? Delta Airlines sent a camera through the conveyor belts to give you a glimpse of a day in the life of your luggage.
Hit play or go to Link - via Laughing Squid
Built in the 1950s, this bunker in Wiltshire could house and feed 4,000 people for three months. The United Kingdom designed it to house the government if the worst happened during the Cold War. Watch this video tour of its facilities and make an offer. It’s up for sale.
Link -via Boing Boing
Or, more precisely, she’s dancing to dubstep music. She’s no Marquese Scott yet, but the 94-year old grandmother of YouTube user chucklepley can bust out the moves.
-via Geekosystem
This trailer for the upcoming video game release Kiki Trick will have you wondering just WTF is going on. The game is from the makers of Wario Ware, which is full of crazy moments and utter nonsense, so the fact that this trailer is so off the wall is not surprising.
What is a surprise, however, is the fact that this trailer somehow represents actual gameplay footage! What in the world is this game going to make you do, cure a stomach ache by taking antacids, or telling a scary story while huddled around a candle?
The Kiki Trick team sure has stepped up the lunacy scale, and even Japanese gamers are scratching their heads on this one. Enjoy two minutes of madness, Japanese gamer style.
–via Joystiq
Comments Off The Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF) concluded last month in Ghana, and Liberia won the tournament by defeating Ghana in the final game 4-2. Link -via Buzzfeed
Comments Off Elvis the crocodile lives at Australian Reptile Park near Sydney. He did not appreciate the noisy lawnmower that was invading his territory, so he captured it and pulled it into his underwater home. Elvis stood guard over his catch until park staff could lure him away with kangaroo meat. When they recovered the mower, two of Elvis’ teeth were still embedded in the engine casing from the attack! Link -via Arbroath
In his Republic, presents an allegory of the value of philosophy and the nature of knowledge that is popularly known as Plato’s Cave: to the unenlightened mind, the world is filled with confusing ideas, like shadows on the wall of a cave, that only reflect truths not yet discerned. Michael Ramsey’s stop-motion animated presentation of this story won first place at the USA Film Festival Short Film and Video Competition in 2008.
Link -via Nerdcore (which has a different animated short narrated by Orson Welles)
Comments Off Slate V imagines LEGO sets that reflect what is going on in the world, in your choice of Occupy Wall Street or Arab Spring versions. If these really existed, I would be in line to get one! Then it would be easy to illustrate the events of the past year in LEGO. Link -via I Am Bored
Comments Off This epic musical geek creation is called the gAtari-a musical instrument which uses the extremely limited sound capabilities of the Atari 2600 to make the kind of music hardcore gamers will love, and parents will classify as noise.
I don’t fully understand how the device works, but here the creator cTrix attempts to explain how, and why, he came up with it:
The “gAtari” was my excuse to do something a little silly after I discovered that the Atari 2600 was more limiting than I realized! (31 pitches, minimal waveforms and only 2 channels!) I needed an EQ which could take a high voltage and drop it down to line level (Boss bass EQ) plus a way to hold loops between tracks and parts (Boss delay). So rather than have it “DJ” style config, I thought I make something a little more creative.
I hope the gAtari sparks a new trend in club music, doesn’t the sweet sounds coming out of this thing make you wanna get up and shake your rump?
–via GeeksAreSexy
Comments Off This Christmas, give you fellow priests a present they won’t soon forget: a smack to the face with brooms!
That’s what about some priests did while preparing Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity for Orthodox Christmas on January 7:
The outburst, broken up by baton and shield-wielding Palestinian police, came to head as the Greek Orthodox and Armenian clerics, who each control a portion of the church along with Roman Catholics got into the scuffle over a ‘turf war.’ The Church of Nativity is believed to be built over the cave that marks the birthplace of Jesus.
Bethlehem police Lt-Col Khaled al-Tamimi was quoted in Reuters as saying that no one was arrested “because all those involved were men of God” while the BBC reported that the 1,700-year-old church is in bad shape because priests can’t agree on who should be footing the bill for its repair.
Most people born without arms would never dream of taking up archery, much less training to compete in the Paralympics, but then most people don’t have the drive that Matt Stutzman has in abundance.
Matt has never let his physical impairment stop him from doing anything he’s wanted to do, including playing guitar and learning to eat with his feet. He is an inspiration to us all, and should serve as a reminder that we can do anything we put our minds to, regardless of physical limitations.
Join me in wishing Matt luck as he gets ready for the 2012 Paralympic Games in London!
–via Super Punch
Comments Off Recently we brought you the first edition of the Feast of Fiction recipe series-a recipe for Sunshine Souffle from the video game Skyrim. That recipe looks delicious, and easy to make, but their newest recipe for Butterbeer looks utterly repulsive.
That’s right, I said Butterbeer, but before all you Harry Potter fans get too excited, you need to know: this recipe contains neither beer nor butter, and it contains artificial butter flavoring, which makes any food (except movie theater popcorn, for some reason) gross and way too buttery.
Maybe this recipe is a dream come true for HP fanatics, but to me it sounds like a good idea gone terribly wrong. But what do you think: are you going to be trying out this recipe for yourself?
–via GeeksAreSexy
Eagles love to perch outside of YouTube user pla1554alaska’s home. So do her cats, Gizmo and Suitcase. They’ve all managed to get along, even hang out within inches of each other.
-via Althouse
On December 21, 2011, International Space Station Commander Dan Burbank captured the spectacular sight of Comet Lovejoy as seen from 240 miles above the Earth. Take a look: Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
Not sufficiently retro for you? Then you could try the Andy Griffith version of “Single Ladies.” As for me, I think that we should start an Internet movement to summon Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, and LeVar Burton together to present a real-life version of this video.
-via The Mary Sue | Previously: Wrinkled Ladies
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Your cute video of the day is brought to you by the Hillside Animal Sanctuary, where Tabitha the Pig plays with her best buddy Susie the Dog.
Andrew Hough and Martin Coutts of The Telegraph has the story:
Five-week-old Tabitha was found close to death by the side of a road in Norfolk when she was just a couple of days old. She was found "shivering and alone" by a member of the public on a country lane on the outskirts of Norwich.
Susie, who is five years-old, was rescued from appalling conditions at a Welsh puppy farm two years ago where she had been used to breed from.
Wendy Valentine, the founder of Hillside, said: “They just took an instant shine to each other and whilst Susie wanted to mother Tabitha at first as she’s grown older they seem to be the very best of friends.
“They are constantly with each other and don’t like being separated. "They go to sleep with each other and eat next to each other. It’s lovely to see them playing with each other, Susie is very gentle with her and seems to know she’s only young."
What a wonderful Christmas morning tradition! Every year for the past 25 years, writer Nick Confalone's father taped him and his sister coming down the stairs:
Every year, our dad would tape us coming down the stairs. This is a compilation of all the videos I could find. Relatives and pets grow up and disappear, and new extended family members appear in their place. [...]
For the record, the new guy who "appears" is my sister's husband, a Nashville singer/songwriter
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] - via Oddity Central
The cats from Kagonekoshiro (Basket Cat Blog) are ready for a holiday party! Which will keep their hat on the longest? My money is on Shiro -not only because he’s the most patient and balanced cat ever, but also because I’ve watched the video. -via Buzzfeed
Artist and musician Rhe De Ville had recorded a danceable update to her joyful holiday anthem “Happy New Year” for 2012, with a new video, too! Of course, the original is nice, too. -Thanks, Rhe!
Comments Off Is it perfect timing, coincidence, or a message from beyond about the viability of this marriage? No, the wedding party didn’t run for cover, but neither did they suffer from a tornado or air raid. It was most likely just a siren test. -via reddit
