I think in many ways, a lot of us were affected by Robin William's suicide. The man just hid those tears and fears so well, none of us knew he has struggling and hurting. That, in turn, made the news even more shocking. Seems YouTube artist Heather Rooney took some time to sit down and do a rather breathtaking and photo-realistic portrait of the sad star, and she captured the whole thing on time lapse so we can see it slowly breathe to life. In the wake of the news, there is something rather haunting about this. But you cannot deny the girl has some real talent.
Anytime someone can do a photo realistic piece of art it always blows my mind, but the subject here is what makes it so poignant. It is like we watch him come to life on the paper, only to be reminded that we will never again see that manic, brilliant performer shining. It's odd, but by the end of the video, you have a tear in your eye.
You don't have to like Pokemon and you don't have to like celebrities for the following list to be awesome. That above photo should just about sum up how great this concept is. Seems some crafty thinkers found some great photos of celebs that look just like Pokemon and made an awesome article about it.
It is two great tastes that you think just wouldn't taste that great together, and boy, would you be wrong. I have perused the list many times myself and cannot quite figure out which one is my favorite. The Justin Bieber one is pretty solid, but I might have to go with Tom Cruise. Trust me, just look at it for yourself. You'll see. Lists like this are exactly why the internet exists. Pure gold.
Video games have never been bigger business than they are right now. In some cases, even beating the film industry for the amount of money they bring in on the first day, it is clear games are not just for kids anymore. But what about games that are so weird, so strange, so surreal, no one knows what to make of them?
Well, thankfully, Oddee put together a rather impressive list of nine bizarre games (some of which you can play right now, a few of which are board games) that sort of defy all expectation. From a game you cannot win, to a game your computer can't figure out how to beat you at, the list is nothing if not different. There are definitely worse things to do on a Saturday than fart around and play some insane games that make no sense, so have some fun. If you can actually call it that. Some of these are so weird it's hard to tell.
When we think about YouTube, many of us think the same thing. It's a great place to watch fails and cats doing insane stuff. It is also a great place to catch up on old music videos or commericials that were a big part of your youth. What people sometimes forget it, YouTube is the IT place now for finding new, young directorial talent. A sort of club of future film makers, all sharpening their craft at this great site. It is with that in mind that MakeUseOf compiled a list of some great short films on YouTube that you should check out now, before their creators become famous.
A couple of them are really powerful and show a keen eye for direction and story telling. Granted, they are not all gold label winners, but they show us that YouTube is home to a lot more than just guys falling off of bikes or people making scenes in public. It is also home to some brilliant young minds who will eventually help form the future foundation of cinema as we will come to know it.
There is no better time to be alive as a foodie than right now. Never before in history has it been so okay to be one of the people who really, truly, enjoys the essence of food. This has much to do with the fact that the interweb is full of foodies, and makes it easier for us to find each other. That rambling intro out of the way, I recently stumbled upon a site that is pretty much confectionary heaven. First heard about the site on SuperPunch, and since then, I have been on it every day.
Basically, you know all those food blogs that make dinner look extra delicious and make it sound exciting by mixing up ingredients and layers of flavor? Well, this site is like that, but with dessert. All I should have to say is creme brulee filled strawberries and you should already be drooling on your keyboard.
Trust me, go check out this site right now. Just make sure you have a bib on.
For most people, the thought of living in some small compartment on the ocean floor for two weeks is nothing short of horrifying. From the idea of the cramped space (you are forced to share with others), to the simple idea that you are so deep that if something goes wrong, there is probably little you can do to save yourself.
But you present the same opportunity to an oceanographer and it is like offering them a two week vacation in Cancun. The reason being, decompression and the bends keep divers from being able to stay under that deep for more than an hour at a time, and while living down there, they can get 2 years of work done in two weeks. Liz Bentley Magee is one of those people, and this is the story of her two weeks at the bottom of the ocean.
So we may stop for a moment and commend these brave and brilliant people for doing this, but I still believe it is only a matter of time before some archaic sea creature decides to try and eat them. But as long as it is in the name of science, and we learn something from it, so be it.
Every street has that one scary house on it, usually way down at the end. It always seems dark, yet you always feel like there are eyes inside there, peering out at you. In the same breath, almost every town has an abandoned mental hospital or old asylum in it, and just like with that one scary house on your street, these abandoned facilities seem like something you dreamt up your nightmares. Colorless and cold, even something as simple as looking at them fills you with a sense of dread that chills you to the bone. It is like you can feel its haunted presence, even miles away. As much as we would all like to pretend these don't exist, they do, and we might as well make a list of them. File this one under: nightmare fuel. Here are six abandoned asylums that look like something out of a horror movie (and in one or two cases, really is).
You cannot grow up in or around Massachusetts and not know about the Danvers State Hospital. If you are driving into (of all places) Salem, it used to loom on a hill just over the highway, and you could always feel it, looking at you. It was like some great beast that hunkered down on the horizon, warning all people to turn around before it was too late. Famous for many things, including the rumored invention of the pre-frontal lobotomy, Danvers State Hospital was everything we learn to fear about the way old sanitariums were run. Patients were often either abused or ignored, and when word finally did get out how bad it was there, the place was shut down almost immediately. The odd thing was, this also meant it being abandoned fully equipped, which somehow made it all even scarier. I know because I went. Truly unsettling stuff.
Remember in the intro I talked about how one or two of these "asylums" WAS the setting for a horror film? Well, this is that place, and the movie is called Session 9 (and it is amazing). Also, there is a level on the Xbox game Painkiller that uses the Danvers State Hospital as a setting. The place "mysteriously" caught fire in 2007, and it was a fire you could see from Boston. A very surreal ending to a very surreal (and terrifying) place.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
I have to give a huge shout out to Miss Cellania for writing up a great piece for Mental Floss about this very establishment. Seems this place was not quite sure what it wanted to be. First it was a hospital that took care of people suffering from TB. Then it became a nursing home (because nothing says "we should make this place into a nursing home" like thousands of TB fatalities). After that, they were going to build a giant Jesus statue there (hey, let's overcompensate for the death and evil with a giant Jesus statue). Of course, that fell through. Now it has become one of the most prevalent places for urban explorers and novice ghost hunters alike.
A big part of its draw for some is the death tunnel or "body chute". The place the staff would use to bring the (many) dead outside without bringing anymore duress to their patients. A very creepy place with a very creepy history. Heck, this one inspired a horror film or two itself.
Dogs are amazing creatures. Whereas cats sort of do what they please and often seem like they are sent from some other world to do weird things ad observe how we react to them, dogs just seem like they want to make humans happy. Also, sometimes, it seems like dogs want to partake in some of that happiness with us. That takes us to our most recent dog video, which is quite unlike any other dog video out there. Though the title of this article gives it away, you just need to see this for yourself:
What can you even say about that? The girl is laughing, so the dog laughs harder, which in turn makes the girl laugh harder, which in turn makes the dog laugh harder. It may only be seven seconds long, but that seven seconds still manages to be both epic and hilarious. Oh, and adorable. Sorry, but a dog that sits like a human and laughs like a human is adorable. I wish I knew such a dog. I would invite him or her to all my parties.
We all know the feeling. We see a great trailer and get ourselves all amped up for a movie. We wait months until it comes out, we rush out to see it, and it just does not live up to the hype. It is a crappy feeling, but it happens. Trailers seem to be better than most movies lately, and they ruin so much of the movie it is like you don't even need to see it if you've seen and enjoyed the trailer. But the fact of the matter is, even the movies that seem like they are going to turn out awesome can sometimes be duds. Thankfully, some websites know this and see these films and then assemble a list of said films to warn us.
Though I am fully aware some of the movies they name on this list may anger some people (as some of these films have big fan bases), that seemed an even better reason to post it. Sometimes, the most interesting internet articles are the ones that you don't always agree with. Anyway, check out the list here and see if you agree with the choices on it. It may be a little old, and it may be a little instigatory, but isn't that half the fun of the web?
We don't like to think about "what if's". We don't like to imagine moments in history if they had played out any differently. We essentially like the way everything played out, for the most part. But, what we don't stop to realize is that the speeches we heard on days like D-Day and on the successful moon mission are just one draft. There were always two speeches written up for major events. One, that one we were often lucky enough to hear, was the good outcome speech. But a second speech was always prepared for those situations where things could clearly go in any direction. For example, what Nixon was prepared to say had the moon landing not ended well:
"IN THE EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding."
Sort of insane to think that, but yes, there seemed to be a pretty good chance those guys might die up there, and the President needed to be prepared to handle that. Read more about Doomsday Speeches here.
Just makes you even more grateful for how things played out.
Cats are very mysterious creatures. With dogs, you pretty much know what you are getting, but not so much with cats. Some days your cat may want to curl up in your lap and never leave your side, and the next day that same cat could act like you don't exist. Why do they do it? That is the beauty of it, we have no idea. The random insaity of a cat is pretty much summed up by the fact that they will often beg and bother you while you are eating, yet they want nothing to do with your actual food. Again, we could ask why, but we know better. Because that is just what cats do. Essentially, whatever they want. Here are 8 videos of cats doing un-cat like things, and it proves we know nothing about these marvelous and mysterious beasts.
You think you have seen it all until you have seen this video of a cat barking like a dog until it is spotted by a human, then it returns to meowing like normal. Honestly, it is almost scary. Is it taunting a dog? Do cats secretly bark when no one is around? This video begs more questions than answers.
This one is true and actually happens if you get your cat in just the wrong circumstances. For some reasons, cats seem to hide that they know selective English. They only bust it out at the most important times and usually only when they are in great duress.
While it might seem slightly mean that the owners are laughing, there is something undeniably hilarious about the fact that this cat is clearly screaming no. If the cat was actually going to be harmed, this would not be funny. What makes it funny is cats react to taking a bath the same way six year old boys do.
Breaking Bad actor Aaron Paul seems like a cool dude. Pretty much just a regular guy who stumbled into a great career. What we forget is just how much these actors struggle to get work before they land their dreams gigs. Aaron Paul is a perfect example, as he has done everything from Corn Pops commercials to the following video, which may blow your mind (and some chunks in the process). I wouldn't say this is NSFW, as it played on MTV during the day. But I will tell you, it gets a little nasty.
So it is like a nod to the movie Carrie, except with vomit instead of death. That last sentence is the weirdest thing I have typed in a long time. It is just shocking to see some of the things young actors (and actresses) have had to cut their teeth on to get where they are today. It is also a nice little allegory for what can come from bullying, though not a subtle one. Lastly, this is a nice reminder that some music actually used to be made by actual bands who played instruments and not computers and guys playing with Macs.
When it comes to peeling pineapples, I didn't think there were too many methods. This video showed me I was wrong. At first, it seems like this guy's pineapple peeling method is actually somewhat time consuming, but then you realize he does it all within a minute, and it hits you how impressive it is. Plus, he is not just peeling it. He is peeling, bagging, and serving to go.
Pretty sure one of my fingers would be in that bag with the pineapple slices if I tried this.
Huge props to this guy, though. Pineapple is delicious, and handing someone a bag of fresh pineapple is like handing someone a pitcher filled with the delicious nectar of life.
Also, pineapples must kind of secretly fear this guy. He is their Jack the Ripper.
The movie Heathers was a dark comedy that no one saw coming. Dealing with the have and have nots in the 80's, it showed us a different side of high school hirearchy, and put and oddly twisted take on the whole thing. Some found it too dark, and some didn't know what to make of it. But the people who liked it, loved it. That, in itself, has helped earn the film the cult status that it has today. Yet there is much about this cult film that even the most die-hard fans don't know. Thankfully, there is an article at Topless Robot that goes into great detail about this awesome movie with the writer himself, Daniel Waters.
"I feel like all of the scripts now are reverse-engineered from screenwriting books like Save the Cat and telling you how to write a screenplay," says Waters. By contrast, he told me that he wrote his first screenplay after looking in the newspaper and finding something missing in theaters.
It ends up being a really interesting look at a movie that was way ahead of its time. Heathers was lampooning high school excess and social cliques long before that became that norm. Check out the piece, you might just learn something you didn't know about this awesome movie.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has swept the internet over the last few weeks. From friends and family to celebrities, everyone seems to be joining the cause and covering themselves in cold water to make a point. Just when you think you have seen it all, the above happens over at Kotaku.
Seems Minecraft creator Notch challenged one of his gamers to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in-game, and that is just what he did. The funny thing is, it involved a lot more than just making this scene happen. There was coding involved, and it ended up being a rather difficult process which you can check out in detail here.
Just shows you, when the whole world gets behind a cause, even video game characters are not immune to having pixellated buckets of ice poured over their heads.
