Wednesday, February 27, 2013

I Can't Believe These Are All TV Shows!





Well... they exist, so somebody watches them.

(source)

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Skrillex's Muse

From the Wikipedia entry of Skrillex's song "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites":

"It is prominently a dubstep song that uses elements of electro house and progressive house. It also uses a vocal sample of exclamations from Rachael Nedrow (also known as speedstackinggirl") shouting "Yes, oh my gosh!""

And that's how we went from this:




To this:

Sunday, February 24, 2013

He Went On Space Mountain Seventeen Times, Clap, Clap





                    ♫  I went on space mountain seventeen times. Clap, clap. 



Yet another internet classic.

CAUTION! It might get stuck in your head.
(too late?)

Friday, February 22, 2013

Chinese Language (in) Firefly (supercut)

A supercut of Chinese used in (the prematurely and unfairly terminated TV series) Firefly.



This can't be real Chinese. They didn't say "niga" once.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Obama's Leprechaun

Nah, just kidding. It's actually Obama's elf.




(but it does look a bit like a leprechaun... doesn't it?)


Youtube needs a repeat button. Yesterday.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Meteor Over Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia (Feb 15th 2013)

There are some natural disasters which are so rare that the chances of someone seeing them happen in front of their own eyes are very slim (fortunately). However, the chances of these natural disasters happening somewhere on the planet during someone's lifetime are pretty good. For example, there have occurred 4 earthquakes above 9.0 on the Richter scale and 16 equal or above 8.5 during the lifetime of someone who is 80 years old as of 2013 (born in 1933).

Before the 1800s people might not even learn about major natural disasters, unless the events were documented in written history or at least transmitted from generation to generation through stories. In the 19th century, telegraphy and newspapers for the first time made it possible for the broad public to learn in significant detail about a natural event which had occurred anywhere in the world. After the 1920s radio took over, and following the 1950s through television, not only could you be informed of a natural disaster that had occurred, but you could also see video of it happening, sometimes even live. Finally, from the first decade of the 21st century and onwards, the internet has allowed anyone who is close to a natural disaster to report on it. The fact that practically everyone nowadays carries video-audio recording equipment (a.k.a. cell phone) on them definitely helps.

Some natural disasters you can still only read about. For example, moderate (Eyjafjallajökull) to large (Mount St. Helens) volcanic eruptions have been recorded on video, but hugely devastating ones similar to the Krakatoa and lake Toba volcano eruptions, which are of course a lot rarer, have not been recorded on video yet (and hopefully won't for hundreds or thousands of years). Tsunamis were another natural event that could only be imagined until the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake tsunamis (some may find videos disturbing) were recorded, broadcast/uploaded and thus witnessed all over the world.

But enough with the history lesson. One of the rarest natural events with immense destructive potential that has not been recorded on video yet is a meteor strike. We came close to that two days ago.

On February 15th 2013, 09:20 local time, a meteor passed over Chelyabinsk oblast, Russia, producing a fireball which emitted strong light as it burned in the atmosphere, as well as a shock wave which caused hundreds of injuries mainly due to fallen glass from shattered windows. It wasn't technically a meteor strike as it appears to have burnt in the atmosphere and no fragments that hit the ground have yet been found (hence its designation as a meteor and not a meteorite). The object was a few meters to 17m long with a mass of 6.4 to 9.1 million kg and entered the atmosphere at a speed of around 15km/sec (54.000km/h or 33.500mph). Its air burst (disintegration before it hit the ground) occurred at an altitude of 15-25km and the total energy released was in the order of 500 kilotons of TNT. That is 20-30 times more than the energy released by the atom bombs used against Hiroshima (16 kilotons of TNT) and Nagasaki (21 kilotons of TNT). 

Almost immediately, photos and videos depicting the event started appearing on social media.
Finally, the question everybody has been posing for the past couple of years has been answered:

"Why do so many Russian drivers have dashboard cameras?!"  
"So that they can record meteors and upload the footage to Youtube of course!"


Here are some of the best videos of the meteor and the shock wave:

Meteor streaks across the sky as this driver waits at a red light.




The light from the meteor burning up and the shadows it created as seen in Chelyabinsk.




Another one from a webcam in Chelyabinsk. It starts at around 0:44.
(on an unrelated note, I find their lack of traffic lanes disturbing)




The date and time are wrong in this one, but it has been reported as legit.




Here it is again at 01:15.




This driver exits at a junction right in time to catch a nice view of the meteor's trajectory.




This one is from Yekaterinburg, about 150km away from Chelyabinsk.




All hail the dashboard camera king. He has views of both the outside and the inside of the car.
Meteor is at 0:42.




Shock wave arrives at 0:27. Careful, it might be loud.




CAUTION, shock wave is loud and almost immediate in this one.




Again the shock wave and falling glass.




Kids at a school panic as they are near a window when the shock wave hits, causing the glass to break.




The meteor passes over the nearby town of Korkino and about a minute later the shock wave comes making snow fall off of some roofs.




Shock wave is at 0:12 in this one.




CCTV footage shows the effects of the shock wave.




CCTV footage of the light produced by the fireball (at 0:31) and the shock wave (01:25).




I wonder just how many people thought at first that this might be a nuclear attack...


(source, source and source)

Friday, February 15, 2013

Hit By A Bus (supercut)

As this video proves, most of the time, when they use this particular trope in film, they do it in a very unintelligent and unrealistic way. 

For example, the victim stands in the middle of the road talking to a person on the sidewalk for quite a few seconds before a bus which has perfectly good visibility ahead of it hits the victim at a speed well above the speed limit for that road.

In any case, the video contains other automobiles too and rumours abound that it's the same driver in every scene.




There's more where that came from. 
Check out previous supercuts.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Harlem Shake

I was just surfing the internet, just passing the time and I came across this:



And I'm like, "What is this? I don't even" and  "WTF did I just watch?".

A few days ago I had read that this... thing called Harlem Shake is gaining popularity and might be the new Gangnam Style, but I didn't really pay much attention.

Apparently (as I learnt through Know Your Meme), Harlem Shake (or as I like to call it, Coloterrorista), created by an artist named Baauer, was uploaded on Youtube on August 23rd 2012 (although there exists an even earlier upload of the same from May 10th 2012).



Apart from the fans of that particular music genre (trap), no one else really noticed it.

Then, on January 30th 2013, Youtube user DizastaMusic (aka Filthy Frank) uploaded this video:



It went viral, spawning an ever increasing number of imitators with all kinds of people doing their own versions. Wikipedia describes the "script" of these videos very nicely:

"Various videos have since been released that start with a lone dancer (usually wearing a helmet/mask of some kind) dancing to the build up of the song while other people go about their normal business. Once the build up reaches a climax and the song "drops", the video cuts to the same setting but with a bunch of people twerking, jerking, spinning, humping, and bumping. Other dances are purely improvisational."

From what I've seen, some of the main motifs are (in the same video): masks, helmets, bodysuits, thrusting, spazzing-shaking, punching dolls, staying totally still and generally all types of improvisations.

Below are a few video compilations of Harlem Shake:
















Only the future will tell if it's going to be the Gangnam Style of 2013.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Airplanes Landing Under Severe Wind

According to the video description, this is footage from an airport in northern Spain.



Of course, for the airport to be open, it means that these conditions are considered acceptable for a safe landing. Still... I would definitely not like to be a passenger in one of these planes...

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Iridescent Smiley Face of the Superb Bird-of-Paradise Explained

A few years back (2007 to be exact), we posted a clip from David Attenborough's nature documentary series "Planet Earth" featuring the amazing mating display of one particular species of bird of paradise (if you haven't seen it before, go see it, it's definitely worth it), the superb bird-of-paradise (Lophorina superba), native to the rainforests of New Guinea, where the male displays to the female what looks like an iridescent smiley face.

In the following video, the Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University, as part of their "Birds of Paradise Project", very neatly explains how the male superb bird-of-paradise achieves its magnificent transformation.





(source)

Friday, February 8, 2013

American Employee Caught Outsourcing His Job To China

According to the article at thenextweb.com:

A developer at a US-based critical infrastructure company, referred to as "Bob", was caught last year outsourcing his work to China, paying someone else less than one fifth of his six-figure salary to do his job. As a result, Bob had a lot of time on his hands; in fact, during the investigation, his browsing history revealed this was his typical work day:
 
  • 9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours. Watch cat videos.
  • 11:30 a.m. – Take lunch.
  • 1:00 p.m. – Ebay time.
  • 2:00 – ish p.m Facebook updates – LinkedIn.
  • 4:30 p.m. – End of day update e-mail to management.
  • 5:00 p.m. – Go home.

And the question is, what was he doing wasting his time on LinkedIn?
He had a six-figure salary at a job where he did almost nothing else all day, but surf the internet.
Was he seriously looking for something better than that?!

In any case, instead of cat videos, the guy should have watched a few of the Onion News Network videos. It would have been time well spent and that is because here we have a case of life imitating... internet comedy.

As you'll see below, the Onion News Network had "reported" on a similar a situation nearly four years ago.




(source & source)

Monday, February 4, 2013

Funny Star Trek: The Next Generation Montages

Yesterday, I found (well... it was under "Youtube recommends") a Youtube channel (user gazorra) containing funny edited clips from Star Trek: The Next Generation, that continue on in another channel (user andrewhussie). Both channels appear to go silent in 2009.

There are 34 short videos in total.
I admit that most of them don't quite hit the mark (too... illogical, repetitive or just not funny enough for me), but below are five that I did like.


Picard casually plays the flute in the face of danger





Data's classical concert performance





NaQed stare





"You think this is funny?" - A tribute to Wesley Crusher





That Jean-Luc Picard...

Sunday, February 3, 2013

A Day in India

Be warned, this video will make you crave for some Indian food and/or a trip to India.

As always, viewing in full screen, HD, with sound is highly recommended.


A Day in India from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.

(source)

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Neo Lebowski

Excellent mashup of "The Matrix" and "The Big Lebowski" where it is revealed that Neo is in fact... the Dude.



Only 629,445 views in something more than two years?
This deserves far more!