Gav and Dan, the Slow Mo Guys (previously) were challenged to illustrate internet memes in super slo-mo video. The memes they selected are actually just internet slang terms, and whether you are familiar with them has little bearing on how enjoyable the vignettes are. You can bet your bottom dollar that this will be made into animated gifs that will be used on reddit and other forums for eternity. Some of these stunts were really difficult to get right, but my favorite was the easiest: flipping the table. The biggest mess they've ever made! -via Viral Viral Videos
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Shen’s Startup Ideas from Owl Turd are, in order, 1. useless, 2. dumb, and 3. incomprehensible. But hey, those qualities (or lack thereof) never stopped a startup from making a ton of money. What really makes the difference in whether a startup idea ever comes to fruition is how much venture capital you can raise. Then you need the appearance of heading for success for just a little while, and you’ll either be bought out by someone with more time and money than you or someone who wants to eliminate their competition. Of course, that part about the appearance of heading for success is the part where so many startups fail.
How can we misspell “yard sale’? Let me count the ways -because there are a lot more than two. Oh, I can’t count because after a few, I just giggled too much. And they go on and on, in a picture post at Buzzfeed that includes some non-yard sale misspellings and miswordings that are just as funny. Too bad there's no spellcheck for poster board! Everyone makes mistakes, but when this many people don’t catch their mistakes, it becomes entertainment.
In 2012, Felix Baumgartner set a world record for skydiving from an altitude of 128,100 feet. We followed his quest to achieve it for years before it actually happened. in contrast, we heard nothing about another man's quest to break the record.
Early this morning, Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, went upon a helium balloon to a height of 135,890 feet above the earth -that over 25 miles! He then cut the balloon away and fell to earth. It took two hours to go up and only 15 minutes to come down.
“It was amazing,” he said. “It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.”
Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at speeds that peaked at 822 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by people on the ground.
The life-support equipment Eustace used was developed by Paragon Space Development Corporation. Google had offered support when Eustice first revealed the project to them, but he didn’t want the jump to turn into a marketing event. Read more about the jump at the New York Times. -via Laughing Squid
In March of 1876 in Bath County, Kentucky, pieces of meat started falling from the sky. Not just a little bit, but enough to have all the neighbors gathering to figure out what happened. The meat was dropped over an area 100 yards long and 50 yards wide.
The shower drew plenty of attention, and curious neighbors and newspaper reporters flocked to the Crouchs’ farm to see the mystery meat and offer their opinions on it. Many locals said it looked like beef, but one neighbor who was a hunter, “on being shown a piece of the flesh, declared it to be bear meat, and stated that it had ‘that uncommonly greasy feel’ peculiar to the flesh of that animal.”
Others took it upon themselves to taste it, and two men said it was “either mutton or venison.” A local butcher who tried a piece “declared that it tasted neither like flesh, fish or fowl. It looked to him like mutton, but the smell was a new one.”
With no one able to identify the meat by sight or taste, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported, “a great deal of the flesh was sent to chemists and others in various parts of the country, and analyses were made by several well-known scientists.”
The scientists came up with several possibilities, but the most likely explanation is one you won’t want to read while eating. The rest of the story is at mental_floss.
(Image credit: cjohnson7)
This game works a bit like Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero, in that you have to play an instrument at the right time in the music in order to score. That said, the score is the least of your concerns because you are playing the cymbal and the cannon for the 1812 Overture! There are certain points during which you can fire the cannon and cause a massive explosion whether or not the song calls for it. That’s the fun! I scored 45 or something, but also managed to wreck the opera hall quite a few times. Play it yourself and see what I mean. -via b3ta
A group of seminarians are entertaining the crowd at a fundraiser at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. We have a musical number going when things go all Jimmy Cagney. The Rev. David Rider (of Hyde Park, New York) starts tap dancing. He is challenged by the Rev. John Gibson of Milwaukee, who shows off his Irish dance. The two try to one-up each other until they come to a moratorium and stage a duet. It was a real crowd-pleaser! -via Buzzfeed
Even if you couldn’t see their faces, it should be obvious which of these Tolkien fans is the older one. Sigh. This comic from CommitStrip is labeled “a true story.” Share this with someone young and let us know if you have to explain it. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Remember the stranger who ran into a burning house to save a man? He left the scene without talking to the media, and managed to lay low for a couple of days. But Jimmy Kimmel found out his name is Tom Artiaga and invited him to a taping of Jimmy Jimmel Live! That’s when Artiaga’s cover was blown, so he could receive some recognition -and appropriate rewards for an avid baseball fan. -via Viral Viral Videos
Ebola jokes can be tasteless or scary, and could cause offense among those who are truly frightened of the virus. But no one takes public health more seriously than ZDoggMD, the musical alter ego of Dr. Zubin Damania.
Too soon, you say?
Actually, not soon enough. The US media hysteria around this illness is ripe for ridicule and it’s time we stepped up before someone else does it even more tastelessly.
Yeah, it’s a clever song parody, but the purpose of it is to warn against misinformation and panic regarding the disease. The duet features Devin Moore from the band Rabbit! (Incidentally, a Z-pack will do nothing against a virus.) Read more at ZDoggMD.
As I grew up in the 1970s, I recognized that the Disney princesses I’d enjoyed at the movies were not good role models for my own future daughters. But by the time I had daughters, there was a whole new generation of princesses, and they were each progressively a bit more relevant to real life. Of course, each was criticized, but then the protagonist was usually improved upon in the next princess movie. Caroline Siede looks at the different ways the princesses are role models for young girls.
Belle is defined by her intelligence and love of reading. Princess Jasmine—the only supporting character in the entire princess line—openly declares she’s not a prize to be won. Mulan disguises herself as a man and saves China from invasion. Tiana goes from waitress to business owner thanks to her own determination. Merida and Rapunzel reject the limiting lifestyles their parents try to force on them. Like Snow White, these female-driven films found massive success at the box office, and like Frozen they actively subvert expectations of Disney princess storytelling.
And while Moana deserves ample praise for centering on a woman of color, Disney has actually done a fairly good—if delayed—job diversifying its princess line. So far the company has turned a Middle Eastern princess, a Native American chief’s daughter, a Chinese warrior, and a black business-owner into four of the most recognizable characters in pop culture with remarkably little fanfare. Meanwhile, we’ve yet to have a single superhero movie centered on a character of color.
Even looking back at the three classic era princess movies: Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, they were breakthrough films when considered in the social context of their time. As the progressive arc from Snow White through Frozen continues, we are looking forward to Disney’s next princess movie, Moana, in 2016. Read Siede’s full article at Boing Boing.
When Rosecrans Baldwin, the author of Paris, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down, took a copywriting job at a French advertising agency and relocated from Brooklyn to the 3rd arrondissement, he imagined a life of baguettes, croissants, and other fine carbohydrates. The reality of expat living in Paris, he soon learned, was a little bit more complicated.
1. There’s an actual psychological disorder called Paris syndrome. It occurs when a tourist arrives in Paris and is so distressed to find the city does not meet his or her romantic expectations that it causes a breakdown. It strikes about a dozen people each year. Japanese visitors are particularly susceptible, possibly due to the über-romantic image that Paris holds in Japan. The Japanese embassy once repatriated several sufferers with a doctor or nurse aboard the plane.
2. Parisian doctors work from home. Not all of them, of course, but the physician I saw did. It’s unsettling to walk through a doctor’s living room, past her children’s things, to reach an examination room full of medical equipment. She also answered her own phone and could always see me within a few hours. At the time, I wondered if she was really a doctor.
3. McDonalds is perceived by lots of people to be a wholesome restaurant. But the French still eat their takeout in classic French style: over several courses. Lots of my French co-workers would get takeout from there nearly every day. A few chicken nuggets to start. Then a burger, possibly two burgers -un Big Tasty or un Royal Deluxe- plus fries and perhaps a beer. This was followed up by a small house salad, then dessert (no French meal is complete without dessert). All of this was consumed over the course of 45 minutes, with plenty of time for casual conversation.
4. The French are very polite, especially to one another.
Have you ever heard the saying, “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander"? Well, take a gander at these guys who are willing to try on sexy Halloween costumes designed for women. Sure, the costumes are overly revealing, poorly-constructed, and mostly just dumb. But at a few points, the fellows start to enjoy it. -via Geeks Are Sexy
There are certain aspects of horror films that tend to get used over and over because they just work. If you want to craft a good story, you need to know how to harness the power of darkness, the long tracking shot, the juxtaposition because ordinary life and the nightmare, the suspenseful reveal, and other aspects of storytelling on film. But honestly, you don’t have to care about filmmaking at all to enjoy this article, because it’s got video clips of classic scenes narrated to illustrate each concept, so you don’t even have to read anything. -via Metafilter
Air New Zealand is the official airline of Middle-Earth. And they take full advantage of the title, with a new flight safety video thst has an overwhelming Hobbit theme. This was directed by Taika Waititi, with appearances by Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood and cameos by Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown), Dean O’Gorman (Fili), and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. -via Hilary Gilbert
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