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Amazing Mid-20th Century Disaster Illustrations By Walter Molino

When accidents occur and people are faced with perilous situations the world around them seems to slow down a bit, as the adrenaline kicks in to give them the strength to escape the situation with their life.

This slow motion effect is eerie when you're in the thick of it, but it also helps your mind keep a mental snapshot of the scene that you'll never forget.

However, it would be nice to see how the whole horrible scene played out without having to be in the middle of the mess, a photo taken from a bystander's perspective like these awesome illustrations by Walter Molino.

Walter could infuse any situation with suspense and tooth-grinding tension, and the beautiful disasters he created for the Italian newspaper La Domenica del Corriere are action-packed eye candy.

After looking through Walter's portfolio of incredible disaster art it's easy to see how iconic fantasy artist Frank Frazetta was inspired by Walter's staging, stark realism and attention to detail.

-Via Dangerous Minds


How to Use a Fog Machine to Deter Burglars

A burglar breaks into your house. Even though the alarm has sounded and alerted police, he reasons that he has two minutes to grab your valuables and escape. Easy enough, right?

Wrong. The house he has targeted is now rapidly filling with fog. He can't see anything.


(Video Link)

Fog Cannon is a South African company that manufactures unique home security devices. When one of its alarms is triggered, it sprays out a fog that doesn't hurt anyone or damage your furnishings, but it reduces visibility to nearly zero. Its most powerful system fills 2,700 cubic meters of space in just 60 seconds.

-via Contemporist


Rockin’ Star Wars Theme

A group called Galactic Empire plays the main Star Wars theme in a manner you’ve probably not heard before. They give the dark side a real workout here! We have Darth Vader, a Shadow Trooper and an Imperial guard playing guitar, a Stormtrooper on bass, and Boba Fett in drums.  

(YouTube link)

How do they play with gloves on? I find your lack of faith disturbing. Do or do not, there is no try. It’s not all music. they stop in the middle to show some silliness. -via Viral Viral Videos  


An Animated Look at Every Vehicle in the Original Star Wars Trilogy Drawn to Scale


YouTube Link

Sploid took the images of Toronto-based illustrator Scott Park and turned them into this fun animated video of every mode of transport in the original Star Wars trilogy sized to scale. Set to the Cantina Band music, this look at vehicles from Tauntaun to TIE Fighter is an entertaining diversion. Via Laughing Squid


Fifteen Fun Facts About Time Bandits

Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam's masterpiece Time Bandits is one of those movies I loved as a kid even though I didn't totally get the film, and just like the kids who attended the test screening I liked one part the most- "the parents being blown up!".

Nearly three and a half decades later I've seen Time Bandits dozens of times and still find something to love with every new viewing, and I appreciate the amazing performances now more than ever.

(YouTube Link)

The Time Bandits themselves are played by little people with huge personalities, so it's easy to see how their roles could be inspired by their real life attitudes.

But Ralph Richardson's personality changed a bit as he played The Supreme Being, a role he took so seriously that he submitted his own red ink edits complete with message "God wouldn't say that". 

(YouTube Link)

There were more than enough talented actors cast in Time Bandits, but none proved more important to the final look of the film than Sean Connery.

He helped guide Gilliam's directing on the first day of shooting, and he came up with that fun bit at the end where he plays the firefighter. Is there anything Sean Connery can't do?

Read 15 Fun Facts About "Time Bandits" at mental_floss


Here, Let This Huge Spider Crawl on Your Face


(Video Link)

Do you love spiders? Of course you do! Spiders are fun. Lisa Donovan loves it when her pregnant giant orb spider (Nephila maculata) goes for a walk on her face. The spider is venomous, but, Donovan points out, she has a pleasant personality.

-via Ace of Spades HQ


Wyatt Earp and the ‘Fixed' Heavyweight Title Fight

The modern day image of Wyatt Earp is that of a gunslinger, Old West lawman, and gambler. We know from previous articles that there was much more to his adventurous life. Part of that was his involvement in boxing. In fact, some historians will tell you that at the beginning of the 20th century, Earp was better known for refereeing a boxing match than he was for the fight at the OK Corral. This was because he was the referee at the infamous 1896 fight that many believed was fixed -by Earp.

After Tombstone and the OK Corral, Earp drifted to San Diego where he ran saloons and dabbled in real estate. He also refereed a number of fights both with gloves and bare knuckles, Dyke said. By the time Earp moved to San Francisco in 1891 he was well-known in west coast boxing circles.

The Sharkey-Fitzsimmons fight was to settle a three-year question as to the rightful holder of the gloved (Marquess of Queensberry rules) heavyweight title. Boxing was illegal in San Francisco but such trivialities as city law hardly mattered as city officials and police commissioners embraced the bout, Mechanics Pavilion was secured as a venue and more than 10,000 tickets were sold.

So what happened? Earp was suspect the minute he entered the ring, as he was friends with Sharkey’s manager and should have never been chosen as the referee. When Earp made a controversial call against Fitzsimmons, the crowd went wild. Read the entire story of the fight that ruined Earp’s reputation for the rest of his life at the Guardian. -via Digg


Firehouse Cats

But you got to force the last door, let MEow do this one!! #forcingdoors #teamwork #letMEowdoit

A photo posted by Boogie (@midtownboogiefdny) on Jan 21, 2015 at 6:43pm PST

You might associate Dalmatian dogs with fire departments, and indeed they are traditional. But if a pet is going to actually live in a firehouse, a cat will keep the mice away and doesn’t need to be walked. A couple of cats who live in New York City firehouses have their own Instagram accounts. Boogie, shown above, is in Manhattan at Ladder 24. Carlow, below, lives at Tower Ladder 13 in Yorkville.

Sexy Saturday! #damnimgoodlooking #sexyandiknowit #yourewelcomeladies

A photo posted by Carlow (@carlow_fdny_cat) on Jan 24, 2015 at 6:22pm PST

Both cats have avid followings, and even cross-post each other’s pictures sometimes. They are both loyal FDNY employees who are treated well -spoiled, even! -via Laughing Squid


Goldfish Tea Bags

The Taiwanese design firm Charm Villa makes tea bags that look like goldfish. Each one is assembled by machine and hand in a 16-step process. Tug on the cotton string and the bag will appear to swim within your cup.

(Photos: Charm Villa)

-via Lustik


All I Do Is Farm

(YouTube link)

The Peterson Farm Brothers are back with a new parody song -about farming, of course. This is their agricultural version of “All I Do is Win” by DJ Khaled featuring Ludacris, Rick Ross, T-Pain, and Snoop Dogg. Personally, I think they made the right decision in skipping the expected "Let It Go" parody. The lyrics are posted and explained at their blog. -via Viral Viral Videos


The True Story Of The Monuments Men

The special operations group known as the Monuments Men had a very interesting story to tell about their incredible efforts on behalf of arts and antiquity during World War II, a story that has now been made into a feature length film starring George Clooney, John Goodman and Matt Damon.

They were tasked with recovering cultural property by the Roberts Commission during and after WWII, property that was stolen by a Nazi force known as the Kunstschutz, and after the war ended they were sent in to previously occupied territories in hopes of finding these precious works of art and historically significant treasures before they were looted by troops or destroyed. They recovered many important works of art but sadly some, like Raphael's Portrait of a Young Man, have yet to be recovered.

You can read more about the Monuments Men, and see more amazing photos, over at 607Visual.


An Articulated Bandsaw

I'm currently building a wooden cabinet that looks like Pinkie Pie. It has a lot of curves and tight angles, so I looked at bandsaws a few months ago. They were all too expensive. I've made do with a jigsaw instead.

But none of the bandsaws at the hardware store looked like anything like this! Core77 has the rundown on this amazing power tool from MD Dario, an Italian company that specializes in bandsaws for wood and marble.


(Video Link)

It can cut through large blocks of wood and/or fingers from just about any angle you want. So it overcomes all of the space limitations of table-mounted bandsaws. It also has a template function so that you can trace the blade movement along a pre-existing model.


The Incredible Art of Aquarium Landscaping

(Whisper of the Pines by Serkan Çetinkol--Turkey)

(Way to Heaven by Dmitriy Parshin--Russia)

I've just discovered a medium of art previously unknown to me: aquascaping. That's landscaping inside aquariums. It's a highly competitive field. The International Aquatic Plants Layout Contest is an annual event where you can see the finest examples of aquascaping. The Grand Prize winner gets ¥1,000,000. That's about $9,560.

Some participants try to duplicate terrestrial environments--even deserts--under the sea. Others make full use of the water to create elaborate, delicate forms out of living plants. You can view more examples at Colossal.


Traffic Sorted by Color

(vimeo link)

At first, this looks like a car ad, like those that show a group of cars "driven by professionals on a closed course." That's not it at all! This started out as a four-minute shot of traffic on state route 63 in San Diego. Then filmmaker Cy Kuckenbaker (previously at Neatorama) actually edited each car into sorted sequences by color! No, he didn't change any car colors or use computer-generated imagery -just editing. And what great editing! You can read about the process at his site. The colors are ranked by how common they are, which is why the black-and-white police vehicle is all by itself. -via Daily Picks and Flicks


My Christmas Eve

(YouTube link)

Bob Welsh spent 29 years as an Ohio State Trooper, and now is a professional storyteller. He has a spoken word poem about working on Christmas Eve. You might think it schmaltzy, but you'll still get those feels by the time it's over. -via Bits and Pieces


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