The National September 11 Memorial is due to open in two weeks, on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks of 2001. The memorial has been under construction for the past seven years; click through for a time-lapse condensation of the construction process. Go on, make your day a little more poignant.
Bon Iver does nice music, and Bon Iver does nice music videos. It’s Friday, it’s raining, you really ought to be at the bar by now anyway, so take a look at their latest offering. Be prepared for big ol’ Icelandic vistas, volcanic terrain, and some kid doing stuff that may or may not pertain to the song lyrics.
And suddenly the real use of online flash-mobs becomes clear: stealing junk from convenience stores. Yesterday, a group of about 28 ‘young people,’ believed to have coordinated online, cleaned out a Maryland convenience store in under a a minute.The police have attempted online identification, but no arrests have been made.
You guys remember Dave Chappelle, right? The comedian. He was sort of a big deal. Then he burnt out on the Chappelle’s Show and disappeared for about five years, staying almost entirely away from the press, until he turned up on San Francisco’s WiLD 94.9 for a morning interview yesterday. Give it a whirl.
They made a robot seagull. It flies by flapping its robot seagull wings. I mean yes this is a huge breakthrough in terms of flight engineering, but even if that’s not your jam, you’re going to want to take a look at the awesome two-metre wide flying robot on display at TEDGlobal.
You’ve probably wondered about this yourself. What would happen if you had access to a backhoe, and a swimming pool, and weren’t constrained by issues like the law, or those stupid labels saying ‘do not operate heavy machinery while intoxicated’? Well you don’t have to wonder anymore; these Hungarian folks have the answer.
Melissa, a Brazilian footwear brand, is doing it right. They created this giant time-lapse video on the side of a building in SãoPaolo using Post-it notes as analog pixels. I’m not totally clear on why this would make me want to buy shoes, but whatever it looks amazing.
You’re going to want to watch this. OK Go have put out a new experimental music video for their new track, All Is Not Lost. You remember that one video with the treadmills? Or with the Rube Goldberg machine? Yeah, this is better than that.
8 bit Invader (maping) from Darkfejzr on Vimeo.
A projection mapping by the Czech designer Pavel Novák turns the façade of a university building into a mash-up of 80’s video games – running the gamut from Pac-Man to Space Invaders. It’s called 8-bit Invader. The initial screening was for the 5th anniversary of Tomas Bata University’s department of visual arts in Zlín, Czech Republic.
You guys remember that VW commercial that ran during the Superbowl with a tiny Darth Vader? Well, Greenpeace does. And they’ve made a spoof follow-up in an effort to call attention to the automaker’s environmental record. Liberal media sentiments aside, it’s cute – click through for a tiny Vader and a Message About The Environment.
Well, I’m told Cars 2 was a little awful, breaking Pixar’s long-running streak of critical acclaim – but I’m willing to write that off as a fluke, because the Brave trailer looks pretty great. Please. Click through. Watch Pixar’s first female protagonist fight a bear at Stone Henge.
So the employees at Legoland California decided to pull a prank on general manager Peter Rochetti, by replacing his Volvo XC60 with a life-sized replica made of these Lego bricks they just had lying around. 201,076 bricks, in fact. It’s hard working at Legoland.
Oh this is just mean. And yes, okay, by mean I probably mean amazing. Prior to the 60th annual Miss USA pageant, held last Sunday in Las Vegas, delegates were asked to field a couple of debate questions – like this one, where they share their views on teaching evolution in schools. Cruel.
Professional Barack Obama impersonator Reggie Brown was invited by the Republican Party to speak at their Leadership Conference in New Orleans over the weekend. Classy birth certificate references and borderline racist jokes ensued, until he was pulled off the stage by a conference official. Come, observe democracy at its high point.
Australian TV presenter, Karl Stefanovich found himself interviewing the Dalai Lama, as one does, and decided that the best thing to do would be to try that “the Dalai Lama walks into a pizza shop” joke. Take a look and see how well that worked out for him.
I need a cooler hobby. Over the weekend, Zane Whitmore, a 34-year-old from Seattle, attached himself to a hot air balloon with four piercings across his shoulder blades, and took to the air for a little more than an hour, cruising at just under 3 000 metres. No, I don’t know why either, look at the video.
Perspective-based art is usually a little lame – ‘look, guys, I’m holding up the Leaning Tower of Pisa!’ – but this dude pulls it off. Erik Johannson, Stockholm street artist, set up this bottomless pit illusion called ‘Mind Your Step’ in Sergels torg, and let passers-by play around with it. It’s cool.
Look, I don’t like to court contradiction, least of all on the web, but I think I may have accidentally lied to you guys yesterday. I told you that this beer advertisement was the best beer ad that there ever was, and I meant it. I did. But then the internet showed me this.
moonage3, who uploaded this advert by Hahn Brewery, called it the ‘Most EPIC beer commercial EVER.’ Now, the word ‘epic’ is getting a little stale, and nobody likes too many letters in upper case, but just this once I’m in agreement with moonage3. Please. Let Hahn Brewery show you how they put awesome in a bottle.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has released a report stating that the ‘war on drugs’ has failed. Like Dame Judi Dench and Sting, the 19-member panel – which includes Sir Richard Branson, Kofi Annan and former leaders of Brazil and Mexico – is urging for the decriminalization of drugs. The USA is not amused.
Some people will just always be cool. Take this guy for example – when it comes to making an exit, he’s pretty much nailed it. I love how he manages to hold his beer steady, climb THROUGH the car window one leg at a time without failing, and then drive off nonchalantly into the distance. Now that’s a real boss – respect!
Cats hate water – fact – but clearly no one told the one in this video! See how he lounges in a bathroom sink under a stream of running water from the tap. In between expertly washing himself, playing with the water, and occasionally taking sips straight from the stream, he might actually kill you with the cuteness of it all.
Hell. Yes. Filmmaker Jon Gustafsson caught footage of the Grimsvötn eruption – the one that closed all those Icelandic airports and grounded all those planes – from the apparent safey of an Icelandic military helicopter. It looks pretty cool. And I’m very excited to have written that sentence.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the commercial spaceflight vehicle, recently had its seventh test flight, dropped from a height of 15km to see if it could adjust speed and bearing with various wing configurations. Which sounds technically fancy, but really just looks insanely cool.
June is men’s health month and Britain’s #1 glamour model, Rhian Sugden is in town to raise awareness for testicular cancer. Because she is supporting such an important cause. You can read more about that here. And you can click ‘continue reading’ to watch a video of Rhian doing the weather report in a bikini […]
You guys like water balloons, right? Look outside, of course you do. And slow-motion things are pretty swell. And it’s Friday. So click through, start your weekend right. Seriously though, this isn’t so much a bursting water balloon as an exploding water bed. They’re called red giants.
A couple of videos of young women dancing without shirts at a traditional Thai festival have gone viral – and despite the fact that this festival is one honouring Thai goddesses that are often depicted dancing without shirts, authorities have condemned the act, fining the dancers and threatening the photographer with jail time.
Old Spice has launched a new marketing campaign for its ‘Jungle Wilderness’ scent, featuring a vague parody of manly mascot Isaiah Mustafa. I mean, it’s funny and good but mostly I feel a big ol’ Isaiah Mustafa-shaped vacuum when watching this. Click through, though. Moustaches.
Hello! It’s Friday, everything is awful except this. A German dude who entertains himself by building slingshots and posting videos of them online has built a crossbow that shoots machetes because if you really need a reason to build a machete crossbow, something is broken inside of you. Please, enjoy.
Yesterday, Virgin America held an opening ceremony for their new Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport; press were ushered onto a waiting aircraft, and told to keep an eye out for Virgin-Galactic-related-things after takeoff. After about 20 minutes they were asked to look out of their windows, because White Knight 2 and Spaceship 2 were doing fly-byes.