but I don't like to show off...


link

Beats me but it sure looks cool. Check out this strange light that appeared over Norway









Here is the news story

*Update* they are saying it was a failed Russian missile test

This is how you start a dance party

Check out this little stop motion film made of post-it notes

Tim Noble and Sue Webster create shadow art from old junk. Take a look at these pictures

Real Life is Rubbish, 2002



Dirty White Trash (With Gulls), 1998

( More under cut )

I am not a huge fan of McDonald's (except their fries, Mmmmmmm) and usually I really hate their advertising (the whole "I'm lovin it" campaign drives me nuts.)

But this interactive outdoor ad in London is very clever. They are getting their logo into pictures and videos all over the web. (I found 127 flickr pics and 27 YouTube videos tagged with mcdonalds, piccadilly and circus.)

Stolen from t0rs0

If this can do what this ad says it can do I may have to buy and X-Box

Check out this cool film, very well done.

Kick ass! A movie is coming! It also looks like the wild things are going to be muppet like and not CGI

*Update* According to Muppet News Flash (A Jim Henson News Blog) "the titular "Wild Things" for the film were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop."!! Awesome!

This was made in Whales using some amazingly well trained sheep dogs, some sheep and a ton of LED's

ThruYou.com is a site designed by someone named kutiman. He takes youtube videos and then mashes them up and creates new songs out of them. Pretty amazing ones at that.

Here is the first one called Mother of All Funk Chords



In the information section of each of his videos he has links to all the original YouTube videos he took them all from.

He has seven of them so far with a wide variety of styles. You can check them all out together at his home site.

Check out the trailer for the new terminator - It looks awesome!

I've written about Julian Beever who is a street artist who makes amazing art with chalk.  Kurt Wenner is another amazing street artist who uses chalk. Edgar Mueller is very similar two these two but he uses paint. Check out these cool pics.



( One more pic and a video behind the cut )

I was going to post this a couple of days ago but the video wasn't embeddable. Now thanks to youtube it is.

Check out this trippy fish. It's head is transparent and it has huge eyes that move around within it.

The large green things are it's eyes. Here is the full story about it

This is pretty cool it's a map showing all flights in the world over a 24 hour period.


Air Traffic Worldwide 24HR from kouko a on Vimeo.

Check out the Obama action figure


They are from a Japanese company, but unfortunately the site seems to be down now so no Obama for you!

The CNN/Facebook live page is brilliant. This is the best use of social media during a live event ever.

Obama will end 'don't ask' policy, aide says

On Friday, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, responding on the transition team's Web site to a Michigan resident who asked if the new administration planned to get rid of the policy, said:

"You don't hear politicians give a one-word answer much. But it's 'Yes.' "

I think I am going to go out and get in line for these today.


The Macbook Wheel

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Improv Everywhere is a comedy troupe who pulls pranks and stunts on the public without telling anyone they are doing it. I've written about their simultaneously freeze in grand central station and the Best Buy jokes they've done.

They did one this summer that was really good. They call it the "Best Game Ever" (It's similar to a stunt they pulled in '04 called "Best Gig Ever").

They picked a little league game at random, researched both teams so that they knew the names, nicknames, stats and everything of all the players. They then flooded the stands with crazy screaming fans for both teams. They also sent in mascots, had a famous NBC sports announcer call the game over the PA, broke out a huge jumbo tron score board in center field and even got the Goodyear Blimp to fly around over the game. All of this without telling the players, coaches or parents what was going on.


Best Game Ever from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

Check this out, it's a fake live action Thunder Cats trailer using Hollywood actors Brad Pitt, Vin Diesel and Hugh Jackman among others.

All the effects were done frame by frame in Photoshop. The footage was edited in Adobe Premiere. This person did an amazing job with it.



I would totally go to that movie

I don't know if you've noticed but YouTube is now widescreen. You can even embed videos in the widescreen (16:9 aspect ratio) format. Yay




Another cool webby thing I've found recently is viewzi.com. It's another search engine, but this one is a little different. It uses Google for it's back end engine, but it's how the results are displayed that make it so different. You get a number of different "views" to choose from; videos, images, text, etc. It's pretty cool. I don't think it will take over for Google, but I do think it's a glimce into the future, I would not be surprised if Google results look very similar in a few years.

Below is what your first view looks like, then I clicked on the "Photo Tag Cloud" view (which is really cool to play with)

Keith Olbermann had a fantastic comment last night on Prop 8, if you haven't seen it check it out.

Here we come!

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese scientists have produced clones of mice that have been dead and frozen for 16 years -- a feat that could lead researchers to one day resurrect long-extinct species, such as the mammoth.
Dolly was cloned using cells from live animals. Now scientists believe they can resurrect extinct species.

Dolly was cloned using cells from live animals. Now scientists believe they can resurrect extinct species.

Until now, scientists have only been able to produce clones using cells from live animals. This is how researchers created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult animal.

Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility of resurrecting extinct animals from their frozen remains.

But the latest research -- published in the journal, Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences -- shows that scientists may have overcome the obstacle.

Researchers at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, used cells from mice that had been frozen for 16 years at -20 Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).

They extracted the nucleus and injected it into eggs whose DNA had been removed. Several steps later, the scientists were able to clone the mice.

"This is the first time a mammal has been cloned from a sample stored at conditions reasonably close to what might be expected in permafrost," Teruhiko Wakayama, who led the study, said in a statement.

"(It) gives some hope for those who might seek to clone extinct species from frozen carcasses."

Captain America Found in Marvel Movies

The weekend after "Iron Man" opened, people everywhere were buzzing about the secret scene after the end credits with Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo as Marvel Comics' Nick Fury. It was so successful, actually, that a subsequent scene Robert Downey Jr. filmed to go at the tail end of "The Incredible Hulk" was moved up to the last scene in the film and featured in TV commercials.

But what escaped most viewers' notice were hints in both movies signaling the forthcoming appearance of another Marvel icon: Captain America. With "Iron Man" out on DVD now, and "The Incredible Hulk" hitting shelves next Tuesday, sharp-eyed fans can catch tiny glimpses of Cap if they know where to look.

A few perceptive observers noticed during the theatrical run of "Iron Man" that in the scene where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) walks in on Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) as his armor is being removed, there was something on the workbench behind him. Circular, with red and white stripes and a half-completed star in the center, it was speculated that this was Captain America's iconic shield.


In a Q&A session in Santa Monica last month, director Jon Favreau confirmed that it is indeed Cap's shield. He said a visual effects artist at Industrial Light & Magic Iron Manhad placed it there just as a joke. But Favreau loved the little "Easter egg" and decided it should stay.


Captain America himself made a cameo in "The Incredible Hulk," but don't feel bad if you didn't see it. While director Louis Letterier had hinted in interviews that they had shot an appearance, the scene ended up on the cutting room floor. But now it can finally be seen in the bonus features on the DVD, as first spotted by FilmSchoolRejects.com.


In the original opening scene of the movie, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) travels to the Arctic, away from civilization, to try to end his own life and rid the world of the Hulk. Incredible HulkThere, buried in the ice, is the frozen body of Captain America. It's a little difficult to make out the figure, but again he can be identified by his shield.


The character is scheduled to get his own film, called "The First Avenger: Captain America," in May of 2011. Then he's expected to join Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and other Marvel heroes in the group "Avengers" movie that July. The speculation is that the first movie will be his origin story, set during World War II like the initial comics. Then he will be frozen and brought back in modern times to join the team, just like he did in the books. Jon Favreau has stated he'd like to direct "The Avengers," but first he's focusing on "Iron Man 2," hitting screens in May 2010.

Sweet! I missed both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk in theaters this summer, but I bought Iron Man the day it came out. I also caught The Incredible Hulk on my way to Vegas last week, I really enjoyed both movies. I can't say I was ever a huge CAP fan, but I did love the avengers, I collected them for years. Vision was always my favorite of the group, I really hope he makes it into the movie.

There is a little restaurant called Signature Café (I've written about it before) that is owned by a really cool couple. The woman is the head chef and used to work for the Clinton administration. She is also a big Obama supporter, so anytime they are in town doing a fundraiser she volunteers to provide food and to cook.

A few months ago after a big event Obama went back in the kitchen and helped her with the dishes. There were no cameras or reporters around so he wasn’t trying to get any publicity out of it, he was just wanted to help, pretty cool stuff. If you ever go, ask her about it and she will tell you the story in much greater detail then I did.

PS she also has a fantastic story about how pissed off Bill Clinton became with her when he found out she was supporting Obama instead of Hillary

You know you need a little more cowbell...

I have an answer to that horrible dilemma: morecowbell.dj, it is a little Flash app that takes in any MP3, analyzes it, and adds rhythmic cowbell and Chritopher Walken samples.

Last week I went to a book launch event that was so cool. The book is about people from Minnesota who have organized around specific causes and made a difference. These are all people who didn't look for the government to solve their problems, they decided to do something to help themselves.

The cool thing is that the stories and people have a wide range of backgrounds. One was a group of Apple Valley parents who got sick of their kids being over scheduled and too busy, so they organized a boycott of Sunday sports activities (It's scary how much shit they got from other parent and coaches for doing it). Another group was about inner city health issues, and some amazing women who have put together healing and birthing circles to help other women who don't have heath care.

If you want to read some inspirational and very cool stories go buy this book (it's only $10.85)

Click picture to go to amazon



(Plus I know the author very well)

Like djkangal said; DID YOU KNOW THIS??? I didn't know this


TRON goodness is coming

Ok, so this is a little to happy and cheesy for many of of you, but it is pretty dang cute


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Here is a link to the video (you can even watch it in high def)

The other day I wrote about a cool (and phallic) new building going up in Chicago.

Dubai, never one to be outdone, is making something even more amazing.

Ambitious plans to build a revolutionary 420-meter shape-shifting skyscraper in Dubai have been unveiled by architects.

The 80-story Dynamic Tower, described as the "world's first building in motion," will also be the first skyscraper constructed from prefabricated units, according to a press statement released by New York-based architect David Fisher's Dynamic Group.

Each floor would be capable of rotating independently, powered by wind turbines fitted between each floor Full Story There is also a video



Seems to me like you would get dizzy, they say it moves to slowly to feel but it doesn't look like it to me.

SEATTLE -- Even if you're going the speed limit it might not be enough to prevent you from getting a ticket if you're holding up traffic in the fast lane.

State troopers are on a mission to make sure the left lane on area freeways is used for its intended purpose: passing.

"We're doing 58, 59 miles an hour and they are just sitting there, traffic's passing them on the right hand side," Trooper Keith Leary said while pointing out a car in the left lane of Interstate 5. "That's exactly what we don't want to see happen."

The driver, Brasta Bonifcho, said he was surprised what he was doing was illegal.

"I didn't know that, I really didn't know that," he said. "I am guilty, no question about it."

Leary reminded Bonifcho that drivers need to stay in the right lanes unless they're passing another vehicle.

Everyone pulled over during Leary's patrol said they thought it wasn't a problem as long as they were going the speed limit. But the law says otherwise.

"It is a traffic infraction to drive continuously in the left lane of a multilane roadway when it impedes the flow of other traffic," the statute reads.

The reason for the law is to help keep traffic moving and to diffuse potential road rage situations.

"It just takes one thing to set them off," Leary said of frustrated drivers stuck behind slower moving vehicles. "If we can alleviate one of those things, maybe we can avoid an assault."

The State Patrol said several recent collisions caused by slow vehicles in the passing lane have prompted increased enforcement of the law along area interstates.

Drivers in the HOV lanes are exempt from the rule, but anyone else could be facing a $124 ticket.



It's about fricking time they start doing this.

Makes me rethink that job offer I had in Seattle

I'm always a sucker for some good viral marketing (it is part of my job after all)

A new one popped up lately that is very good. Actually vnsplshr posted the video last week thinking it was just a cool video.

Here is the video, it's been viewed over 4 million times and has more then 6000 diggs:


http://view.break.com/513310 - Watch more free videos

There is actually a cell phone video of the same incident to add realism


http://view.break.com/513569 - Watch more free videos

Well it turns out the videos were made by director, Timur Bekmambetov. Timur is the director of the new Angelina Jolie movie Wanted. Timur reviled that he made the videos in his LJ (tbekmambetov) (It's in Russian)

It's not clear if the scenes are from the movie or not.

oh and YAY for well known directors being on LJ

SAN FRANCISCO: An American military supercomputer has reached a long-sought-after computing milestone by processing more than 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second....

To put the performance of the machine in perspective, Thomas D'Agostino, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said that if all six billion people on earth used hand calculators and performed calculations 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner can in one day. more

How much is a quadrillion? Well this is what a quadrillion penny's looks like:



Here we have the buildings we used for scale back at a trillion (the smaller block), but they're now a bit
dwarfed by our new cube of pennies. This is a quadrillion, or a thousand times one trillion.
This cube is roughly a half-mile wide and would weigh an astonishing three billion tons.

Wow, check out this new building that is scheduled to be finished in 2011. It's called the Chicago Spire, it's 500 feet taller then the Sears Tower! The architecture is amazing - although it is quite phallic when you view from afar. Here is a panorama from the 140th floor



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Check it out, it's a full vertical loop - in a water slide.

As a side note, what's the deal with Europeans and speedos?

UStream.tv, live interactive streaming video for everyone. It's the YouTube for streaming video.

They streamed Obama's speech tonight live.

There was a new tribe discovered in Brazil, this tribe has never been contacted or seen by the outside world.

A third giant red storm has flared up on Jupiter, joining the Great Red Spot and the recently developed Red Spot Junior. The spot, along with new measurements of record-high wind speeds on Red Spot Junior, come at a time when the solar system's largest planet is experiencing a time of global upheaval.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is an ancient, hurricane-like storm that may have been raging for 340 years or more, based on early observations with telescopes. At three times the width of Earth, it is the largest storm in the solar system.

It was recently joined by a similar, but smaller storm called Red Spot Junior. Red Spot Junior grew out of the merger of three smaller, white storms between 1998 and 2000 and turned red in 2006. It is about the size of Earth.

Now, a third red spot, about half the size of Red Spot Junior, has broken out on the giant gaseous planet. The spot, previously a white storm, now appears red in Hubble Space Telescope images taken on 9 and 10 May. The observations were led by Imke de Pater of the University of California, Berkeley, US.

More...

Computer storage is getting cheaper and cheaper, also small and smaller.

How about some online storage for you? What if you could backup almost everything online, so you have access to it from anywhere, and it was free.


adrive.com

50 gigs of online storage for free


I love the interwebs

Check this out, animation done on walls



MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.


(Stolen from mraustin)

Check out these really cool timelapse pictures from Alexey Titarenko








Clicky for more

I just found Digsby, holy crap is it cool. You can sign into all of your IM accounts, all of your email accounts and all of your social networking accounts and have them all in one nice place. You get notices from any and/or all of them. You can keep track of your twitters, or see all your myspace messages. You can even be logged onto more then one myspace profile at once! (Which doesn't mean a ton to most people, but it will help me with the Next Element page and the Hard Monday page)

This thing is awesome.

First I have a fun little game, it's sort of like a tiny Sim City game



Next, thanks to dj_spider, is a great video featuring Ron Jeremy in a hedgehog costume in what might be a kids show - very funny.

Check this site out Mint.com, holy wow!

It's like the ultimate in money management and money saving sites. I just watched a coworker sign up and do the whole thing and it looks so freaking cool.

I will go home and sign up myself and give an update later on tonight.

*edit* I have tried it now, I really like it. It has some great recommendations and tips to save money. I also really like the alert system

George Lucas unveiled his latest project, Star Wars: The Clone Wars at this morning’s Cartoon Network Upfront presentation.

This will change everything. I would think the auto industry will try to kill this, everyone will buy one of these things. They don't say how many years away it is, but wow.