Kenny Loggins's performance of "Danger Zone" became famous when it was included in the soundtrack of the 1986 movie Top Gun. It's instantly recognizable as a song about skilled men fearlessly risking their lives and having fun while doing it.
So it fits well with the thrilling dogfighting scenes in the 7 Star Wars movies. Weston Wong compiled the best of those combat sequences and set them to "Danger Zone." Now I can easily imagine Tom Cruise piloting an X-wing fighter.
-via Laughing Squid
This young bonobo at the Twycross Zoo in the UK has discovered the. Best. Game. Ever! It's called Sliding Down the Hill. To play, climb to the top of the incline in the enclosure, then slide down on your back. Do it forwards or backwards, but backwards is better.
He has fun doing it over and over again and tries to get his parents involved. They're less interested in playing the game. Perhaps, like humans parent, they're just too tired.
Look at this painting of the face of Marilyn Monroe.
No, closer:
These are tiny images of President Kennedy, who was allegedly one of her lovers.
Kim Dong Yoo is an amazingly precise artist. He makes paintings that are image mosaics of tiny figures--the same one for each painting. These aren't computer generated. He does them all by hand. You can see more of his work here, including paintings of Audrey Hepburn made of tiny Gregory Pecks and John F. Kennedy made of tiny Marilyn Monroes.
-via My Modern Met
Lara Wirth of Melbourne, Australia is a self-taught makeup and special effects artist. Though she's only 16 years old, she's clearly already a master of her craft. If you'd like to learn how to make your own, you can watch videos in her helpful instructional YouTube channel.
Micah McDade of Okmulgee, Oklahoma was born with cerebral palsy. He uses a wheelchair throughout his daily life. But he decided that he wanted to make a big change for his high school graduation: he wanted to walk across the stage to receive his diploma.
So he trained for months for this one special moment. And when his name was called, McDade rose from his wheelchair and walked several steps--the first time he had ever walked in public. The Telegraph reports:
And so, without telling his classmates what he was preparing, Micah put in months of preparation ahead of Friday’s ceremony, building on the countless surgeries he’s had through his life to improve his mobility.
To deafening cheers, Micah was helped up from his chair and made his way across the platform, with the help of staff and a walking frame.
His parents Mark and Anisa McDade told reporters they couldn't be prouder, and wept with joy as they stood cheering along with the crowd.
(Photo: Alton Towers)
It's called the Rollercoaster Restaurant--and for good reason! This restaurant at the Alton Towers resort and amusement park in Staffordshire, UK has tiny rollercoaster tracks between the kitchen and each dining table. After the kitchen staff cooks your food, they place it in steel pots which attach to the metal tracks. Then they send your food rushing down to your table.
-via Laughing Squid
This is the Funn Pack. You can see that it is properly named, given the expression of the man who is wearing it. That's Dan Das Mann, an artist. He built the Funn Pack so that he could pack fun anywhere.
Its has 4 mirror balls, 1,000 watts of sound,* a bubble machine, 2 smoke machines, and 12 lasers. The whole setup is powered by a lithium-ion battery and weighs a mere 50 pounds. That's a lot of fun that is portable wherever 2 feet can carry it.
-via Blazenfluff
*Presumably he means that his speakers are powered with 1,000 watts.
In the now iconic Game of Thrones title sequence, an astrolabe spins over the world, creating an impression of order. But beneath it, plots grow, both organically and mechanically. There are schemes within schemes, hidden within each other.
Game of Thrones is a story of politics--deadly politics, but also just slimy. What better way to illustrate the budding conspiracies everywhere than with slime mold? YouTube user Transcend Rules merged microscopic images of thriving molds with the opening music from the show.
-via Gizmodo
Hank Azaria is a voice actor who has filled many roles over the 26 seasons of The Simpsons. Last Sunday, he delivered the commencement address at Tufts University. At the conclusion of his speech, he offered in-character advice to the graduates using the voices that he provides on the show. Listen to pearls of wisdom from Chief Wiggum, Moe the bartender, Apu the convenience store owner, Comic Book Guy, and the old sea captain.
-via Huffington Post
(Photo: Lee Paxton)
Pictured above is the LeMoyne Crematory in Washington, Pennsylvania. When it was built in 1876, it was the first modern crematory--that is, a building constructed for the explicit purpose of burning human bodies--in the United States.
In the Nineteenth Century, there was a great fear of being buried alive. This led to many inventions designed so that people could call for help if they ever woke up in coffins. Another approach to solving the problem was to ensure that the dead were well and truly dead by burning them into ash.
This was one of the arguments put forward by advocates of cremation. In the 1870s, there was a popular movement to do away with intact human burial and to burn the dead as normal practice. In addition to making sure that the dead were dead, cremation supporters claimed that burning bodies prevented corpses from speading diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever.
At Atlas Obscura, Amy Elliot Bragg traces the history of the cremation movement. She writes:
Because cremation was a moral crusade for the betterment of public health, it attracted sympathizers from other moral causes to its ranks, including no small number of women activists. The suffragist Lucy Stone was the first person cremated at the Forest Hills Crematory in Boston in 1893. Frances Willard—suffragist, temperance activist, and avid bicyclist—was also a vocal advocate of cremation. In 1900, the New York Times ran a satirical news item about the cremation of Willard's cat: “Each of Toots’s human friends will sprinkle a little myrrh or frankincense over the body, and while it is being consumed the incense will counteract any odor which might be emitted through the furnace chimney.”
Gather around, kids.
A long time ago, we didn't have smartphones. We didn't even have cellphones. We had phones that would only work if you plugged them into a special outlet on the wall. And none of them could operate SnapGram or InstaChat or whatever newfangled things you use nowadays.
This is what we had to use. It's called a rotary phone. You dialed numbers (there were no contacts) by turning the wheel, often while wearing an onion on our belts, which was the style at the time. And now designers Søren Pors and Apama Rao have faithfully recreated the original design in a functional sculpture called The Uncle Phone.
-via Fubiz
Poor ducklings! 8 of them fell into a storm drain in Titirangi, New Zealand. Fortunately, the local volunteer fire brigade showed up to save the day. The firefighters opened the drain, then one of them hung upside down so that he could reach the ducks. After pulling the ducklings out, the firefighters placed them in a handy traffic cone, then released them to the care of their anxious mama.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
(Image: Warner Bros.)
In 1957, Warner Bros. released "What's Opera, Doc?"-- one of the most famous Bugs Bunny cartoons of all time. It was a parody of Richard Wagner's operatic Ring Cycle. Generations of children grew up watching that short in theatres and on television. As one of the greatest of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, it became deeply embedded in popular culture.
Some of those children grew up to become professional opera singers. For them, "What's Opera, Doc?" was their introduction to opera. The Wall Street Journal quotes mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Bishop:
Like many other singers and crew staging the 17-hour, four-opera Wagner extravaganza at the Kennedy Center, Ms. Bishop got her first taste of opera from a cartoon rabbit and his speech-impaired nemesis.
“I could sing you the entire cartoon before I knew what opera really was,” says Ms. Bishop, who performs the part of Fricka, wife of Wotan, king of the gods. […]
“Those of us who didn’t freak at the sight of a rabbit in a winged helmet sliding off of the back of a fat horse—we went into opera,” says Ms. Bishop, 49, who grew up in Greenville, S.C. […]
“Growing up in Iowa there’s not a lot of opera—I know that may come as a shock,” recalls Mr. Heaston, 37, a former pianist for the Dallas Opera and now adviser to the artistic director of the Washington National Opera. “At a very base level, that’s what I got from Looney Tunes at a very early age: I learned how to tell stories through music.”
-via Jeremy Barker
(Photo: David A. Mitchell)
Phillips Brewery is releasing a new pilsner. To mark the occasion, it plans to deliver its new product to one thirsty drinker who wins a contest using a 4-year old bald eagle named Hercules. The contest is called "Beer from a Bird." It's the company's retro response to Amazon.com drone delivery. CTV News reports:
The brewery has partnered with Duncan-based Pacific Northwest Raptors for the contest.
The organization, which aims to raise awareness and promote conservation for birds of prey, is supplying a four-year-old bald eagle named Hercules to deliver a single can of Pilsner to the winner.
“We wanted to be involved because our goal is to get people closer to these incredible birds,” said operations manager Robyn Radcliffe. “So they’ll hopefully feel more inspired to protect them in their natural habitats, to learn more about ways that they can do that and to get more involved in conservation.” [...]
“He won’t be flying that far. Half a kilometre, probably. It’s sort of up to him,” Radcliffe said. “Our birds moods govern our interactions with them. We’re not going to ask them anything they’re not confident and comfortable doing. That’s very, very important to us.”
Half a kilometre translated into American is 0.31 miles. Despite the use of America's national bird, Phillips Brewery is actually located in Victoria, British Columbia. Here's the brewery's promotional video for the contest:
Kids who use wheelchairs sometimes find that conventional costumes on sale won't work for them. That's when Walkin' & Rollin', a non-profit organization in Kansas City, comes in. The artists there specialize in the costuming and cosplaying needs of children who use wheelchairs.
It's the brainchild of Lon Davis, who started the organization after building a WALL-E costume for his son, Reese. After encountering the challenges of integrating a costume into a wheelchair, Davis began offering the service to other families for free. Last year, Davis described the design task to The Mighty:
“A lot of what Reese helps with is helping me to understand what works for a child in a wheelchair and what doesn’t,” Davis told The Mighty. “When I build a costume for his chair, he will give me hints like, ‘No, you can’t do that because then I can’t reach my brakes for my chair,’ or ‘If you attach that bar here instead, then I can get in and out of my chair easier.'”
You can see photos of costumes that Walkin' & Rollin' has produced here.
-via Super Punch
