Last Friday, Apple began selling its new $3500 Vision Pro spacial computing headset. That same day, Dante Lentini posted a video of himself using the headset while driving a Tesla, presumably with the autopilot feature turned on. The Vision Pro allows you to see what's in front of you at the same time as you see whatever you're computing. How dangerous is this? Apple explicitly warns us not to use the product while driving, and Tesla requires drivers to have their hands on the wheel when using any of their three types of autopilot feature.
The video ends with Lentini appearing to be pulled over by police. However, Lentini told Gizmodo that he was not arrested, that he just pulled over when he saw the police because it would enhance the video. Were any laws broken? The legal code hasn't adapted to autopilot features and virtual reality headsets, but you could always make a case for distracted driving.
Love those dancing chickens! TikTokker ilgallinaio_special posts videos of his/her chickens dancing to music. They've got the moves, the rhythm, and frankly the avant-garde looks that grab attention. People love them. So does actor and dancer Smac McCreanor, who you've seen before on Neatorama, doing interpretive dancing as various objects being crushed in a hydraulic press. McCreanor saw an opportunity to expand her repertoire and enlisted friends Ardyn Flynt, Malia Baker, and Kristi Griffith to learn those chicken moves with her. Every time they would master the moves of a new chicken video, McCreanor posted the side-by-side at TikTok. The video above is a compilation of their best collaborations with the dancing chickens.
Note the passionate dedication to mimicking the chickens' moves accurately. Also notice the hairstyles and accessories that allow these dancers to look even more like the chickens whose roles they are taking. Even the facial expressions are spot-on! -via Boing Boing
Have you ever heard someone say they're coming down with the epizootic? It meant they had some illness that could be a cold or flu but they didn't know, and epizootic was a funny word to say. All these years later, I found out that epizootic, which I've always heard pronounced with a "zoo" in the middle, is a real word that is pronounced epizo-otic. It refers to an epidemic among animals.
The slang use of the word probably dates back to 1872, when an equine influenza spread rapidly among cities in the eastern US and millions of horses suffered. This was a disaster because everything was transported by horse power, from travelers to milk to firefighters. The lack of working horses brought New York, Chicago, Boston, and other cities to a near-standstill. While only about 1% of affected horses died from the disease, many more died from being worked while sick or from pneumonia that develops after the infection clears. Learn more about the epizootic of 1872 at Jstor Daily. -via Strange Company
What we are seeing here is a glacier moving along a channel and breaking off pieces that become icebergs. The ice is much deeper than it first appears. One large chunk breaks off and then slowly flips. We can see that the ice is bluer the deeper it goes, but when the bottom side finally surfaces, we see how blue it really is. And that's really, really blue, like artificial raspberry flavor in a bomb pop. The location of this glacier isn't posted, but some redditors think it's Grey Glacier moving over Grey Lake in southern Chile.
Why is the bottom so blue? That part is where the ice is the oldest and most compressed and the air bubbles are squeezed out, so it contains more actual water than the whiter parts on top. Water in large quantities is blue. You'll find a more detailed explanation at Wikipedia. If your local lake or pond is green instead, that's because of the things that live in it. -via reddit
What's a decipoint? It's the place where ten different geographical boundaries meet. I live within a rock's throw of a tripoint, where three counties meet, but you can't really stand on it because it's in a river. You know about Four Corners, the only spot in the US where four states meet at one point, called a quadripoint. There is only one place in the world where the boundaries of ten geographical units meet, and that is at the summit of Mt. Etna in Sicily.
Although Etna is an active volcano, there are plenty of towns surrounding it due to the fertility of the land. Ten municipalities draw their boundaries, or city limits as Americans say, up to the top of the mountain. Two more municipalities reach almost to the summit, as you can see in a map at the linked article. Why did they draw their borders like that? Well, if your town was that close to one of the world's most famous volcanoes, you would, too. After all, Etna is a big tourist draw. It erupts occasionally, and the lava flow is as liable to run down into one town as it is the others. Since they share the risks as well as the fertile soil and the tourists, that's how it ended up. Read more about the strange boundary lines leading to Etna at Atlas Obscura.
When you jump on this trampoline, you are getting some real altitude! And you don't even have to jump that high. Actor, model, and adventurer Jay Alvarrez thought it would be cool to take some friends up in a hot air balloon with a trampoline suspended underneath. And jump on it. Sure, it looks scary to you and me, but these friends are all skydivers, and they are all equipped with parachutes along with cameras. There's a videographer suspended from the edge of the balloon, but who's taking his picture? Oh yeah, must be a drone. This kind of thing would be so much fun if it weren't for the sheer terror that almost everyone else on earth would feel. The only casualty of this stunt is the soccer ball, and you have to imagine that someone down there on earth gave it a good home. -via Born in Space
It's nice to get a romantic Valentine's Day card, but it's extra special to get one that shows how your significant other went the extra mile to acknowledge your personality, preference, or passion. Show how much you've been paying attention to what they like by getting a pop culture Valentine card from artist PJ McQuade! Or maybe it's a matter of shared interests, so you can bond over your mutual admiration for a particular entertainment franchise. Or then again, you can do like I did at Christmas and send your whole family a random assortment of his cards and confound them to no end. At least you'll get a phone call out of it.
The top picture shows a range of pop culture Valentines, and the second picture shows what's inside. You'll find everything from Twin Peaks to Anchorman to Lord of the Rings to Jaws to Curb Your Enthusiasm. Get your orders in now at McQuade's Etsy store Castle McQuade, and make your Valentine feel special.
The sound of a dial-up modem scared us when we first heard it, then as we became used to it, it turned into an annoyance. Harsh and dissonant, we did not miss it a bit when we upgraded to various kinds of broadband internet connections. But then years went by, and the only place you heard that sound was in "young people don't know these things" listicles, which just made us feel old. Yeah, I'm speaking for myself.
Jonny Wilson, also known as Eclectic Method (previously at Neatorama), took the grating yet nostalgic sound of a dial-up connection and made it into "Dial Up Modem Song," which may get stuck in your head. If you did the Rate-a-Record segment at American Bandstand, you'd say "It has a great beat and it's easy to dance to." You have to admit, it's the best that noise has ever sounded. -via Laughing Squid
Are you single this Valentine's Day? Would carrying a ketchup bottle with you make you feel better about it? Heinz aims to fill that gaping hole in your heart with the Emotional Support Ketchup Bottle. The classic glass ketchup bottle comes with its own cap, plus a Nalgene cap for easy access on the go, a strap so that you can wear it all the time, and stickers to personalize it. Any time you feel the least bit of sadness or anxiety, just reach for your handy ketchup bottle for some tasty tomato-y comfort. In a pinch, you can even put some of your ketchup on other foods. There, that makes it all better, right? Not so fast!
Heinz should learn a lesson here- when you concoct a marketing stunt designed to go viral, make sure the contractor you use to manufacture the product can deliver adequate inventory. Within a few hours of hitting the internet yesterday, they were completely sold out. -via Geeks Are Sexy
Ryan Reynolds brings us a full-length ad for Lay's potato chips, emphasizing the variety of available flavors. It stars Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson, the insurance agent character he played in the movie Groundhog Day. That's right, Ryerson finds himself stuck in a time loop like the one in the movie. Keep watching and you'll soon feel empathy for his frustration as he figures out he's in hell. You'll probably feel even worse for the clerk, who has no concept of what's bothering him. She's just doing her job, kind of like how Ryerson was doing his in the movie.
Is this a Super Bowl ad? If it is, Frito-Lay would have to buy eight slots to run it, and that's expensive. But it's Frito-Lay, so I wouldn't be the least bit surprised. After all, people know Groundhog Day the movie more than they care about Groundhog Day the holiday. Or they could just count on the virality of the YouTube video and save a lot of money. Happy Groundhog Day! -via Digg
Have you ever considered getting a DNA test done to find out who you are related to? I was never interested. I have boxes of genealogical records that other family members compiled, and I'll probably never read them. But millions of people have taken commercial DNA tests that not only purport to identify your ethnic background, but will also connect you to others in their database who have some genetic relation to you. The news is not always good. An AskReddit thread had people sharing the stunning results of DNA tests and how they uncovered old secrets and rearranged families. Redditor theloneliestdonkey has a real horror story.
My grandfather did not die when my dad was 4 like we always thought. Instead, he faked his death, walked 1500km to the other end of the country, married a sixteen old girl and had 7 more children.
All the while leaving my grandmother to bring up the 6 children he had with her and his 2 children from an earlier marriage. Worst part was that he used the same names for the second batch of kids as his first lot.
She went on to tell us that the two families met and had a big barbecue that was quite awkward, since one side idolized their father, but hers did not. But sometimes there's a reasonable explanation, which doesn't reflect well on the company issuing the tests.
My parents and I all did dna tests and I manage their profiles- theirs were done before mine was available. They each got a panicked message from a woman on the other side of the world who had matched as their daughter. She was distraught, thinking her parents had lied to her for her entire life.
When I logged in to my account, it showed that I had no dna matches with my parents which I knew to be wrong, plus the fact my mum was a young child when this woman was born made it clear the company had swapped our results. Customer service just said ‘oh well’ and offered a new test. My family found it funny but that poor woman who had spent several days freaking out thinking her life was a lie before I got her messages and responded.
We learned long ago that the Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago spelled the end of the dinosaurs, and most other plant and animal species on earth. Reading about the effects of that impact is chilling, but you know what would be even more chilling? To imagine what that asteroid impact would do to the earth as it is now. There were no humans around 66 million years ago, no cities, no infrastructure, no agriculture, and no national boundaries.
John D. Boswell, also known as Melodysheep (previously at Neatorama) took what we know about the asteroid impact and transposed it onto our modern world, so that we can envision just how big and earth-shattering it was. In the best-case scenario, the world population goes from eight billion to around two billion people in the first couple of days. But surviving doesn't get easier after that- it would be a real global apocalypse.
Should we be worried about an asteroid impact? Astronomers are keeping tracks of the asteroids, and are working on ways to protect our planet. Others are working out schemes to survive and ride out the apocalypse. This is a long video, but the last couple of minutes are promotional. And the visuals are stunning. -via Geeks Are Sexy
I also found out that if you put the word Chicxulub into Google search, the asteroid rolls across your screen and you can feel the impact.
People love to hate the font Comic Sans. It's a perfectly appropriate font to use for invitations to a child's birthday party or in a cartoon balloon. The problem was that as we learned to use personal computers for everything, Comic Sans was used inappropriately and overused until it became a joke in itself. It looks ridiculous on a warning label or a tombstone or a political billboard, but examples of all those can be found. So how did the beleaguered font come about in the first place?
The credit, or blame, goes to typographical engineer Vincent Connare. In 1994, he was working on a program for Microsoft called Microsoft Bob, which was aimed at children. The text belonging to the program's virtual assistant seemed quite harsh in Times New Roman. He was a talking dog, after all. Connare couldn't find a more appropriate font, so he looked outside of the supply of available computer fonts for inspiration and designed Comic Sans for the dog. Maybe that's why the font seems most at home overlaying an image of Doge. Now that Comic Sans is thirty years old, read the short version of its origin in an excerpt from the book Comic Sans, Is it Really That Bad? by Thomas Steeles. -via Kottke
Steve Gourley was skiing down Davis Gulch in Utah with his GoPro helmet camera on Sunday when he was caught in an avalanche. The hard slab avalanche was unintentionally triggered by another skier, and Gourley was carried along 650 vertical feet, but was not completely buried. He was wearing a backpack with emergency equipment and helmet, but no airbag. He describes his moves in a comment at YouTube.
I was able to get close to the crown and behind a lot of the mass. My main efforts were to try to stay upright and facing downhill. I ended up in a whitewater survival position which was difficult to maintain. Everyone thinks you can swim but the characteristics of the snow do not really allow for that. When you try to push off or pull on it, there may be no purchase. When you reset to try again, you can create negative gains and start to roll. I want to say the extra surface area with my poles helped to stabilize and stay on top.
We're glad he made it back okay. Despite the lighthearted music, this was a scary episode. -via Digg
Update: The video has been pulled, but you can still see it at TMZ.
Sesame Street's sweet young Muppet Elmo began the week on Monday asking an innocuous question. Little did he know that he opened the floodgates of despair. That Tweet got 140 million views as it went viral, and now has 12,000 comments from people sharing how they are really doing. Many of them were tragic, illuminating the mental health crisis that permeates modern life.
So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse than the day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me, that's on the worst day of my life.
Elmo each day the abyss we stare into grows a unique horror. one that was previously unfathomable in nature. our inevitable doom which once accelerated in years, or months, now accelerates in hours, even minutes.
Can you imagine the effect that must have on a happy little Muppet? The team behind the Muppets' accounts (they all have their own Twitter feeds) posted a followup, but for Elmo's sake, the other Sesame Street characters lent their support.
