Absolutely! While I absolutely *love* the original, I do enjoy clever parodies too…
**Note, I had to replace the collegehumor version with a Youtube version. Collegehumor seems to be having problems supplying the content 🙁
Category: Very Cool
Items just strike me as novel and unique
Slow-Mo Lightning
Another incredibly cool video. There is no detail to indicate the speed at which this was filmed, or even if it was filmed at all (could it be a fake?). But, making the assumption that this is really lightning slowed down… very, very cool…
Where the Hell is Matt?
Stupid? Maybe it seems that way on the face of it. But I think it’s brilliant. And he’s been more places than you or I ever will and he for sure has met more people.
Just good, clean, uplifting fun. If you don’t grin when you watch his silly dance then I don’t know if there is any hope for you.
My favorites are North Korea and India.
Go Matt!
See more funny videos at CollegeHumor
My Favorite commercial – The Discovery Channel – Awesome
One thing we can credit TIVO (and other time-shifting, commercial skipping devices) for is much greater effort on the part of commercial creators to actually make the commercials entertaining and worthwhile.
Of course there have always been great commercials (Thanks VW!) and folks with brilliant vision in that vein, but the hastening of mediocre content by technology is one of the greatest entertainment coups of the 21st century.
The Discovery Channel’s Boom-de-ya ad is expansive, uplifting and the jingle is habit forming. Truly one of the best ads I know!
Schlieren Photography
Continuing with my fascination for altered time and space perception (through mechanical means), I had not heard about Schlieren Photography until I saw this video on Slashdot Review over the weekend.
The balloon (what is it about balloons?) was one of my favorites, but the towel was cute. The shockwaves emanating from piston shots was instructive. In some cases you can actually see the bullet overtaking the shockwave from the initial firing of the weapon.
Volley Soccer
Wow! Talk about a “Young person’s sport” . I suppose it’s safe to say that the golf set is unlikely to adopt this as their winter sport…
I used to play some volleyball after work and I think that, in a week, I could have got off maybe one of the shots these guys are doing each time the ball comes to their side (I would have needed the week to recover after smashing into the floor…).
Slow Motion Karate Chop
Continuing with my fascination with altered time perception. This video Dramatically shows how we can trick ourselves into believing one thing when the complete opposite is true.
My conception of a Karate strike is one of invincible fortitude. A feature that is notably lacking in the slowed down version of events…
Frozen Grand Central
Still in keeping with my love affair with altered time perception. This is a wonderfully ambitious stunt performed in New York’s Grand Central station. It is only successful because it is so massive in scale.
Harmless and fun, here is a link to the perpetrators’ blog (Improv Everywhere) if you want more info or to see some of their other missions
Now *that’s* a landing!
As scary as this looks I have to say that I’d *love* to try this someday. There is very little room for error and you definitely need to be confident with your skills.
Of course parking off to the side and watching planes taking off and landing from here would be a lot of fun too! I’ll have to see if I can ever get to St. Barts (maybe via a cruise) and make my way over to this strip for a couple of cool photo opps and some excitement.
First Person Bike Trail
I’ve done a little mountain biking in my time. This is definitely what it looked like from my perspective. I can’t say I was ever up to the level of these guys who make this look effortless. I got a great rush through the first half of the trail and then just simply enjoyed the rest. If you don’t ever think you’ll mountain bike on singletrack but really want to know what it’s like… well… here’s your chance!