Back when I drove a forklift for a living, we had driving contests, like picking up and transporting an egg without breaking it. Helicopter pilots, however, are a more daring breed, as you can see from this video. Among other tricks, the pilot shaved a man on the ground. No -- not with the blades of his aircraft. Presumably he's still working on that stunt. Rather, the pilot had a safety razor attached to a landing strut and maneuvered the chopper so that he shaved a volunteer's face without drawing blood.
German photographer Markus Reugels specializes in high-speed photography, and captures a lot of images of water drops. By adding chemicals to the water and raising his shutter speed to one sixteen thousandth of a second, he's been able to take some truly amazing shots:
By thickening the water with guar gum he was also able to alter the shape of the splashes, making some of them take on the bizarre look of something from a science-fiction film or a nuclear mushroom cloud.
The shapes, which varied from 3cm to 15cm, were altered even further by adding sugar and, by putting rinse aid in the dish, he was able to increase the height of the droplet splashes.
His images on Flickr are really amazing. You really should check them out.
Ah, The Addams Family! Although this show lasted only two years -- 1964 through 1966 -- it has endured as a pop culture phenomenon, spawning movies, cartoons, revivals, and comics. Let's take a look at some things you might not know about that show.
1. The show was preceded by the one-panel cartoons of Charles Addams, which made their debut in The New Yorker in 1937. These works of dark humor featured the same characters that would later grace the show. Addams was known as a man of ghoulish if playful interests, and his house was filled with instruments of torture and medieval weapons, particularly crossbows. He hoped to someday put his crossbow collection to practical use:
“I have this fantasy,” he said, smiling, “A robber breaks into my apartment and just as he comes through the door, I get him -- right through the neck. Always through the neck.”
2. John Astin, who played Gomez Addams, was initially offeredthe role of Lurch.
3. Astin’s crazed, maniacal look as Gomez Addams had prior service. While living in a rough neighborhood of New York City, he would get between his apartment and the subway station safely by acting a bit deranged. No one bothered him.
4. Fans sometimes stop Astin, speak French to him, and expect him to react as Gomez did when Morticia spoke the language of love. Ringo Starr from The Beatles once grabbed Astin’s arm and started kissing up its length before Astin stopped him from going past his elbow.
5. Ted Cassidy released a 45 rpm single consisting of a dance song called “The Lurch”. Here he is demonstrating it on a 1965 episode of the variety show Shindig!
For the first twenty seconds, she bores her way in. Then she starts to tank up, and her body swells with blood. This is an everyday event, but it's so fascinating at this close-up view.
Students at the University of Maryland build a functional helicopter that is powered only by human exertion:
The X-shaped helicopter, called Gamera, has 42-foot diameter rotors at each end of 60-foot long crossbars. A pilot's module is suspended from the middle, where Wexler, a biology student, sat and pedaled with feet and hands. Pilot included, the contraption weighs just over 200 pounds.
Judy Wexler pedaled hard enough to lift the craft (just barely) off the ground for four seconds. Skip ahead to three minutes into the video to see the flight.
You may have encountered people who can't walk down a hallway without running into other people, or waddle down the center at the slowest possible speed. Or maybe it's just me. I walk fast, so this is a pet peeve of mine. Anyway, this flooring surface developed by researchers at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo is an attempt to solve the problem. The stuff is made of lenticular lenses -- the same material used in 3D holographic cards. It's supposed to subconsciously guide you to the right side of the hallway.
I do not know the origins of this picture, but the dog's owner should be commended for providing much-needed protection from arrows and bladed weapons. She is ready to go to both the dogpark and the Ren fair.
In the past, Scott Blake made composite portraits of people using barcodes. Now he's getting with the times and using QR codes instead. Pictured above is a portrait of radio show host Amy Goodman. Each one links to segments from her show over the past nine years.
http://illusion.scene360.com/art/17770/bar-code-madness/ via Dude Craft | Artist's Website | Photo: Scott Blake
Although it lacks the refinement of a Geo Metro, a 1970 Oldsmobile Toronado station wagon isn't a bad foundation for a limousine. This was one of several dozen built during the defunct custom car builder Miller-Meteor, a company perhaps best known for making the Ghostbusters' Ecto-1. It recently sold on eBay for $3,000. The seller pushed it as a tool for picking up women, and it's obviously well-designed for that purpose. Right, ladies?
Actually, it's not the real Darth Vader. It's just an actor dressed up as Darth Vader. Specifically, this is Jonathan Arons, who puts on a truly original performance for people at a senior center in New York City.
Jully Nascimento from Brazil got this QR code inked on her arm. When scanned, it reads "hold on". That's the name of a song by Good Charlotte that was meaningful to her in her youth.
There's just something majestically beautiful about cement-filled Budweiser cans linked by a chain. This work by Brooklyn-based designers Chen Chen and Kai Tsien Williams is called "American Ninja".
