Formula Rossa, the new roller coaster in Abu Dhabi travels 1.2 miles in only a minute and a half, reaching speeds of up to 150mph! But what else would you expect for a theme park called Ferrari World?
Harnessing the same technology that powers fighter planes off aircraft carriers, the rollercoaster's carriage travels the ride's 2.07 km (1.2 miles) distance in just a minute and half.
Oh, and did we mention it was built above Abu Dhabi's Formula 1 track? Well, it is. It's the star piece for the "Ferrari World" theme park that's opened just in time for the UAE's grand prix on November 12th.
See a "point of view" video (which may cause dizziness) and a look behind the scenes at World's Biggest. Link
Gliding through the Bath train station on a Saturday morning with a high-speed camera pointed out the window, capturing everything in detail. No plot, little action, and sadly, no music, but this video is oddly fascinating. -via b3ta
Lorie and Ryan Davenport are camped out in front of Best Buy in St. Petersburg, Florida, so they will be first in line for the Black Friday sale a full week from today. They switch off heir duties with another couple, and say they are saving places for ten people altogether, but this might tend to put a crimp in their Thanksgiving holiday.
"We've been doing this for six years now and we got beat out by the same guy for the last six years," said Lorie Davenport. "So this year, we said, this might be our last year, it might be our last hurrah, so we're coming extra early if we have to because we are gonna be first if it kills us."
After getting an OK from Best Buy management, the Davenports are now in it for the long haul.
Although the couple say they're not sure what they'll buy when the doors open at 5 a.m. next Friday, they are hoping for a good deal on a large-screen TV or perhaps something from the Apple Mac line.
Shopping is very important to some people. http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/nov/18/190004/st-pete-couple-in-line-a-week-early-for-black-frid/news-money/ -via J-Walk Blog
Foolproof advertising is when your entire building brags about your product -and it's visible from far away. Still, it may tend to limit your customers when you sell the location. Mental_floss takes a look at ten such attention-grabbing buildings from this milk bottle ice cream stand to an 85-foot chest of drawers! Link
How well do you use apostrophes? Test yourself with this simple 10 sentence quiz. You can check each answer as you go, which may improve your performance on the later sentences. Yes, I guessed all of them correctly, even if I do make mistakes when I'm writing in a hurry. Link -via b3ta
Emily Gobeille and Theo Watson hacked an Xbox Kinect and created a puppet show made of light! Get this -it was one day's work. Engadget has a little more about the tech involved. Link -via The Daily What
Think having a wizard for a friend will make all your troubles go away? Think again -possessing the power of magic doesn't always mean one possesses competence! Take Orko, for example:
One of He-Man's running gags is Orko poor magical skills, in that nearly every time Orko attempts to use magic, it backfires. He also has a seemingly magically-imbued hat that can contain many more items than the hat's outside appearance and size would suggest.
It's never made clear why Orko is so inept, from Orko supposedly losing an amulet that allowed him to properly use his magic, to it being suggested in an episode that Trolla's natural laws are opposite of Eternia's.
See all ten not-so-wonderful wizards at Geekosystem. Link
Sacha Goldberger took a fanciful series of photographs of his grandmother Frederika in a super hero costume. The 91-year-old was delighted with the project. You see her here stopping traffic; other photos show Super Mamika campaigning for office, flying into buildings, and even one where she's in bed with Superman! Mrs. Goldberger's real life story is a fascinating read as well. After the photo shoot, "Mamika" attracted thousands of fans on MySpace and elsewhere. Link-Thanks, Alice!
University of Central Florida business professor Richard Quinn delivered a lecture he hoped he would never have to. He had uncovered indications that many of the class of 600 seniors had cheated on an exam. Quinn said the entire class had to retake the test, and challenged the cheaters to confess, in which case they would not be kicked out of school.
He said: “I don’t want to have to explain to your parents why you didn’t graduate, so I went to the Dean and I made a deal. The deal is you can either wait it out and hope that we don’t identify you, or you can identify yourself to your lab instructor and you can complete the rest of the course and the grade you get in the course is the grade you earned in the course.”
Prof Quinn also added a requirement for those who came forward complete a four hour course in ethics. In return there would be no permanent record of the cheating.
So far more than 200 students have admitted to cheating.
A video of the 15-minute lecture is included with the story. Link -via reddit
Red and Jonny call themselves Star Wars geeks. They started taking self-portraits wearing Storm Trooper helmets on their honeymoon, and continue to do so. See them in both everyday and outlandish situations in a years-long series of photographs.
Someone had to do it sooner or later. It's a new way to add delicious bacon to your holidays -bacon Pumpkin Pie!
In the spirit of fall here in the Pacific Northwest, here is a recipe of my friend Joe's own design! He sought to bring bacon to the dessert menu, and hunted for a pie media capable of sustaining a bacon infusion while retaining deliciousness. Pumpkin (perhaps rhubarb) is the only one he could think of. I offer this recipe to all you bacon lovers out there.
Complete directions are at Allrecipes. Link-Thanks, Peter! (Image credit: Sunny Byrd)
Are you sick and tired of finding yourself washed up on glitzy beaches and modern shores? Are you constantly being cast away on so-called "desert islands" that happen to come equipped with a Starbucks and a McDonalds? Well, if you're longing for the good old days, when a shipwrecked individual had to roll up his tattered sleeves and fend maniacally for his life, then we've got just the entertainment you're looking for.
"MATANGO" AKA "ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE": In this 1963 Japanese film, a storm-weary yacht is shipwrecked, and the passengers (a psychologist, his girlfriend, a wealthy businessman, a famous singer, a writer, a sailor and his skipper) are forced to take refuge in a fungus-covered boat. Perhaps not coincidentally, "Gilligan's Island" premiered in America a year later. But the two aren't as similar as you might think. For instance, in "Matango", the castaways eat the boat -growing mushrooms for sustenance, and end up turning into hideous fungal monsters. For all his comic mishaps, at least Gilligan never did that.
ROBINSON CRUSOE: The granddaddy of desert-island lit, Daniel Defoe's 1719 novel is most likely based on the true story of Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk. In 1704, Selkirk took part in a privateering expedition that included an inauspicious combination of a tyrant captain, a leaky ship, and repeated attacks by the Spanish. Sick of all the drama, Selkirk jumped ship (literally) to a tiny island 400 miles off the coast of Chile. And though he expected to be rescued quickly, he ended up stranded there for more than four years -which was bad, but still better than the alternative. Shortly after Selkirk deserted his crew, the ship sank. There were only eight survivors.
THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON: Adapted into more than a dozen movies and at least five TV series, the tale of The Swiss Family Robinson began life as a collection of bedtime stories in the early 19th century. Based on the late-night tales with which Swiss pastor John David Wyss lulled his sons to sleep, the fictional adventures were published as a novel in 1812 by one of his sons, Johann Rudolph Wyss. Coincidentally, the son of a preacher man also wrote the words to the Swiss National Anthem.
"NEW MOON": No relation to the Hammerstein-Romberg operetta, the 1940 film starred "America's singing sweethearts," Jeannette McDonald and Nelson Eddy. It told the story of aristocratic French mail-order brides and sexy indentured servants stranded together on a desert island -proving that even displaced, emaciated island-squatters can fall in love via musical number.
"CAST AWAY": Besides doing the impossible (that would be keeping an audience's attention for hours with just one actor on screen and no soundtrack), the 2000 Tom Hanks epic is also known for its blatant FedEx product placement. And while FedEx didn't pay for the shout-outs, the movie was shot at the company's facilities in Moscow and Memphis, Tennessee. It also included FedEx employees as extras, and an appearance by FedEx CEO Fred Smith. Fortunately, the mail giant knew to stop when it was ahead. In the sage words of FedEx's managing director of global brand management, Gayle Christensen, "adding even more promotion to that [movie] might go over the top."
"SWEPT AWAY": When this Madonna-centric remake hit theaters in 2002, it received little love. Why? Possibly because the 1974 original had a better title: "Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August". Amazingly, that's just one of the many long-winded titles for films by Italian director Lina Wertmüller, including "The Blue Collar Worker and the Hairdresser in the Whirl of Sex and Politics," "A Complex Plot about Women, Alleys, and Crimes," and "Summer Night, with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes, and Scent of Basil." Wertmüller's titling tendencies might have something to do with her equally long full name, Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol van Braucich. Or maybe she was just hoping the extra-wordy titles would catch critics' attention. It turned out the opposite was true; she became the first woman ever nominated for a best director Oscar in 1977, for the succinct "Seven Beauties".
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The above article is reprinted with permission from the Scatterbrained section of the March-April 2006 issue of mental_floss magazine.
Be sure to visit mental_floss' entertaining website and blog for more fun stuff!
Allie at Hyperbole and a Half has been busy moving to a new home in a different state. She's now found time to tell us about the emotional trauma the move caused for her two dogs. As expected, the story is accompanied by illustrations that will make you giggle uncontrollably. Link
It's Fill in the Bubble Frenzy with boy genius Mal and his talking dog Chad! What is he saying in this empty speech bubble? Tell us and you might win any T-shirt available in the NeatoShop -take a look around, pick one out and tell us what shirt you’d like with your submission in the comments. If you don't specify a t-shirt with your entry, you forfeit the prize. Enter as many times as you like (text only, please), but leave only one entry per comment. For inspiration, check out Mal and Chad’s comic strip adventures by Stephen McCranie at malandchad.com. Good luck!
Update: What goes in the speech bubble? "How long do you think you can keep this ufo hidden? People are going to notice I don't have a tv." Congratulations to lordunger, who wins a t-shirt from the NeatoShop for his efforts! Stay tuned for another chance to win with Mal and Chad next week!
One video contains 60 years of television catch phrases. You probably know most of them, but if you don't, scroll down for a list of all 71 clips at Gawker. http://tv.gawker.com/5690431/60-years-of-televisions-most-memorable-catch-phrases-in-146-seconds
