Mathematical doodling
This is a wonderfully whimsical introduction to doodling by way of graph theory, snakes, Oroborous and mobius strips. Oh, and the Mobiaboros.
(via vulture)
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kottke.org posts about video
How to fold a fitted sheet
One of the biggest challenges you’re going to face in your life is how to fold a fitted sheet.
That’s a pretty strong statement, but that domestic sorceress does know how to fold the hell out of a fitted sheet. Magical! (thx, neven)
Crazy bad 80s reunion videos
Somehow a Norwegian television station got a bunch of 80s celebrities — people like Norm from Cheers, Tiffany, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Ricki Lake, Eddie the Eagle, Tanya Harding, Dolph Lundgren, Bananarama, Manuel from Fawlty Towers, etc. etc. — to do promotional music videos for an 80s nostalgia show and the results are nothing less than a supertrainwreck. First they did “We Are the World”:
And followed that up with “Let It Be”:
Unbelievable. (via @sportsguy33)
Zero to ten years timelapse
Like Noah Kalina’s Everyday but with a newborn baby girl aging 10 years.
(thx, matt)
Stopping the world
Oh, this is lovely. Someone took a high-speed camera and instead of pointing it at something fast, they put it on a fast-moving train and shot footage of the platform moving by.
Wonderful illustration of the concept of frames of reference. (via capn design)
The best of Barry Sanders
I may or may not have just spent 30 minutes watching Barry Sanders highlights on YouTube.
Probably my all-time favorite NFL player.
Cookie Monster wants to host SNL
Here’s his audition video:
Fantastic idea…I would love to see a Saturday Night Live with Sesame Street characters. Hey, if 30 Rock is really The Muppet Show…
Kinect hacking
When Microsoft released the Kinect, they unwittingly provided a bunch of data hackers with a new toy. Open-source drivers were created (with Microsoft’s blessing) so that you can hook a Kinect up to a PC and do stuff like this:
That’s Robert Hodgin manipulating his Kinect data in realtime with Cinder, which is like Processing (but for C++). Here’s one with him and his cat.
How not to cheat your way through college
Using statistical analysis, University of Central Florida professor Richard Quinn determined that dozens of students had cheated on a test, told them in a lecture (video below), and over 200 students confessed after the lecture.
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.
A full orchestra plays John Cage’s 4’33”
Here’s video of a full orchestral performance of John Cage’s famous 4’33” composition, in which none of the performers plays his or her instrument; it’s four minutes and thirty-three seconds of ambient noise.
You’re not going to think it’s worth it, but watch the whole performance. (thx, liz)
Danny MacAskill rides again
Danny MacAskill, the fantastic Scottish trials cyclist, is back a new video packed with gravity- and death-defying stunts.
I had a special screening of this with my three-year-old son this morning before I came into the office; he gave it two thumbs up. Way up! (via @mathowie)
Amazingly bad soccer
In the 90th minute of a quarterfinal match between Qatar and Uzbekistan in the 2010 Asian Games, you’ll see the worst ever play by a goalie and then it gets even worse.
Playing catch with dough
I love this video of a guy rolling out dough and tossing it several feet to another man over and over and over again…and even over a passing waiter. They’re making parathas, an Indian flatbread.
In the Nightclub by One-Half of One Dollar
A translation of 50 Cent’s hit single In Da Club into the Queen’s English.
When I arrive in my Mercedes-Benz
I find the nightclub is full of actors
Basically, a lot of different people want to have sex with me
And I mean A LOT
I fear change
Xzibit is preparing a marijuana cigarette
I am very good at interpretive dance
Gunshot injuries have had no effect on my gait
(via @dansays)
Finger skating
It is more amazing that people can do crazy things on skateboards or that some of those same crazy things can be done on tiny skateboards using your fingers?
Skateboarding in Kabul
A nice short documentary on the fledgling skateboarding culture in Kabul, Afghanistan.
(via matt)
Update: The video on Vimeo was erased for some reason, so I switched the embed to one at YouTube.
Also, the Kabul skatepark profiled in the video is looking for donations of equipment (paging @tonyhawk, @tonyhawk to the front counter, please) and money and/or assistance with shipping (shipping to Afghanistan is challenging). They’re also selling these fetching Skateistan t-shirts (and tote bags) in a variety of styles and colors.
Liquid magic
Under certain circumstances, you can mix liquids of different colors, then unmix them, and not violate the second law of thermodynamics.
(via fine structure)
Dueling Michael Caine impressions
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon try to one-up each other’s Michael Caine impressions. Brydon’s is superior but Coogan’s “broken voice” is pretty great as well.
(thx, finn)
A movie about Linotype
Here’s a teaser trailer:
From the film’s website:
Linotype: The Film is a feature-length documentary film centered around the Linotype typecasting machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler. Called the “Eighth Wonder of the World” by Thomas Edison, the Linotype revolutionized printing and society, but very few people know about the inventor or his fascinating machine.
The Linotype completely transformed the communication of information similarly to how the internet is now changing it all again. Although these machines were revolutionary, technology began to supersede the Linotype and they were scrapped and melted-down by the thousands. Today, very few machines are still in existence.
(via df)
Cleveland to LeBron: you should shove it
Nike made a rare misstep with LeBron’s recent “What should I do?” commercial, but Cleveland’s video response is fantastic.
1899 trip across the Brooklyn Bridge filmed by Edison
This was filmed in 1899 from a train crossing the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan by Edison Manufacturing Co.
The film sold for $22.50 in the Edison films catalog.
Building the Empire State Building
New York, the documentary film by Ric Burns, contains a great segment on the Empire State Building that is available on YouTube in three parts.
The first two parts are particularly interesting, especially the construction stuff that starts around the five minute mark of part one. Oh, and don’t miss the steelworkers throwing red hot rivets around to each other…that starts right near the end of part one and continues into part two. Some other highlights:
- The original Waldorf-Astoria hotel was torn down (with no small amount of glee from the ESB’s developers) to make room for the new skyscraper. The hotel was built by William Waldorf Astor, heir to the forture created by his father and grandfather (John Jacob Astor & John Jacob Astor III), on the site of his father’s mansion. WW Astor’s cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, went down on the Titanic and the Senate hearings into the disaster were held at the hotel.
- The steel beams were custom forged in Pittsburgh and shipped immediately to the building site…some arrived still hot to the touch from the furnaces.
- At the peak of construction, the workers were adding 4-5 stories a week. During one 22-day stretch, 22 new floors were erected. From start to finish, the entire building took an astonishing 13 months to build, about the same amount of time recently taken by the MTA to fix the right side of the stairs of the Christopher St subway station entrance.
- The building didn’t become profitable until 1950.
(thx, lily)
Goalkeeper faster than speeding locomotive
Watch how quickly this goalie gets back to defend his own goal.
He’s moving so comically fast compared to the other players on the pitch that it reminds me of the not-so-special effect of Clark Kent racing the train in Superman. (via unlikely words)
AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on the Bagpipes
The only way this could be better is with Brian Johnson’s vocals stitched in there.
Living in a Photoshop world
If only real life had Photoshop.
Dodging the burnt toast was a fave moment.
Even more parkour on a skateboard
I know, I know, shut up already with the parkour and the skateboarding but this is worth watching:
The blooper reel at the beginning is entertaining (MOTHERFRICKER!), but final trick is the best one. (thx, cary)
Robot beanbag hand can grip anything
I am unclear on exactly how this works, but it does work amazingly well.
The gripper uses the same phenomenon that makes a vacuum — packed bag of ground coffee so firm; in fact, ground coffee worked very well in the device. But the researchers found a new use for this everyday phenomenon: They placed the elastic bag against a surface and then removed the air from the bag, solidifying the ground coffee inside and forming a tight grip. When air is returned to the bag, the grip relaxes.
(thx, phil)
Tiny catapult for throwing pies at bees
First there was the mini cannon. Now someone has built a tiny catapult to hurl 3mm-wide pies at bees and other insects. No, seriously! Here’s the slow motion evidence. (thx, liz)
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