Restroom Hijinks

I've always wanted to do this!

Healings in Lakeland Florida Revival

This is the story of a little girl's broken elbow getting healed. With x-ray evidence.

Crayon Physics

l children wish their drawings could come to life. Crayon Physics Deluxe sets out to do just that. It’s a 2D puzzle game with a simple premise. You must move a small ball across varied landscapes.

The ball is moved by creating new objects. You use your pointer like a Crayon. You can draw anything you want. Your drawings become physical objects. Draw a ball, and it will roll downhill. Draw a car, and it will drive across the landscape.

Crayon Physics Deluxe won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival. You can’t play it just yet, though. The designer promises a PC version soon.


says the author of the software:
I got a chance to test the game on one of those notebook laptops. It's called Crayon Physics Deluxe and it's a sequel to a freeware game I did in June. The game's website is at http://www.kloonigames.com/crayon/

An Assortment of Close Calls

This one speaks for itself. If you can watch this without cringing, you're either amazing, or demented.


Some more. A few duplicates, but enough new to make it worth while:

Jerry and his Ball-Tossing Robot

Jerry is a luck dog. He can play fetch by himself, thanks to a ball-tossing robot.



Says the inventor: I built the ball machine because I thought my dog Jerry, might like it and that it would be something fun for me to build. So after two years of on and off work, with many safety features such as IR proximity sensors to protect Jerry and my son from the machine, I finally complete.

Far from being a replacement for me, I was always right there with him enjoying his fun. And with all the troubles that I went through to build the ball machine, I still end up throwing more balls than that the machine could count! According to the computer, he played with the machine by himself only 3 times in his life.

Special Effects Makeup: Aging in a hurry

Here's a lesson in making someone young look very old. It's really impressive! And really expensive.

Awareness Test

This is an interesting study. I understand it's from a behavioral sciences course at an Ivy League school.

Please watch the video and answer their questions. Hint: Ignore the team in black; just watch how many passes are made by the team in white.

Cable Installation Goes Bad

Working with giant spools of cable can’t be easy. But these guys could have used more training. There must be a better way to get a spool up stairs.

Watch the videos before reading further. I’ll wait.




Did you watch it?

Wow! I bet those guys feel terrible. Or they would, if this were real.

That’s right. This entire scene was set up. Believe it or not, this is a commercial.

This is an example of viral marketing. It’s an ad for Microsoft’s business VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services. This video and several others have been posted on the Internet. Some explicitly advertise the services, some don’t. But a little research takes you right to this service’s Web site.

It’s a great way to get people talking about a product. Heck, we’re doing it right now.

Prince Caspian

I grew up with the Chronicles of Narnia. Prince Caspian is one of my favorites: good vs. evil, justice vs. corruption. Soon we’ll see how much corruption it has suffered at Disney’s hands.

An Engineer's Guide to Cats

Two professional engineers illustrate the proper handling of cats. They cover topics like feline art and cats as a power source. You’ll see all the practical benefits of being “that guy with all the cats.”

None of the cats, humans, or engineers were mistreated in the making of this film. They were however, slightly annoyed.

Who's on First?

Yesterday's post inspired me: old sketches are still funny!

Today, Abbott and Costello perform the classic "Who's on first?" baseball sketch in their 1945 film "The Naughty Nineties" first performed as part of their stage act. This is one of the funniest sketches of all time, and may be the most famous of all.



As long as we have Abbott & Costello on our mind, here's their math:

Morgan Freeman's Insight

If you haven't seen Evan Almighty, you might want to see it tonight. Besides being fun, clean entertainment, it's also full of some interesting lessons. This is my favorite scene.

Three Legged ToothBot / BristleBot

There's been quite a bit of interest in Toothbots or Bristlebots recently. Hedgehogboy5 has come up with a cool new way of making one.

When do People

All Natural Artificial Flowers

I love brightly colored flowers. They so capture the attention and shout

A company in Germany has taken it to the next logical step. Wow.

Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film

Fans are worried that the feature film adaptation of the beloved trailer won't live up to the original 90-second story's vision.

Passion on Display

People with passion fascinate me. They're inspiring, challenging, dangerous and somehow comforting.

Kim Walker is an amazingly passionate young lady. You can taste a little of that in this cut. This is her song "How He Loves Us" from the We Cry Out CD/DVD, available on jesusculture.org. This DVD was recorded live at a Jesus Culture Conference in Redding, CA. The mp3 is available at iTunes by searching for "We Cry Out".

Cactus Cuties

It's amazing how a big trend can form that is missed by national media.

The much requested studio recording of The Cactus Cuties singing our National Anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. The Cactus Cuties, http://thecactuscuties.com, range in age from 8 to 13. This performance was at the Texas Tech vs Texas basketball game January 20, 2008 in front of over 11,000 people. The girls are Andi, Baylee, Blaire, Madeline and Tatum. The group is named for the Cactus Theater in Lubbock, Texas and they are coached by Cami Caldwell.

Your Calling is Calling

I'm not particularly a fan of the company that made the ads, as much as I'm a fan of the message they're using to sell their product. The message is good.

5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, talks about our new wave of overprotected kids -- and spells out 5 (and really, he's got 6) dangerous things you should let your kids do. Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.

Wolverine Can Dance

This is the Medley Hugh performed at the Tony awards. He is very
talented but there's something un-nerving about watching Wolverine
singing and dancing!

Strong Bad does Music

It just occurred to me that I’ve never posted one of my heroes: Strong Bad from Homestar runner. In this episode, Strong Bad holds forth on Death Metal music.

Strong Bad is good. Strong Bad is wise.


Here’s Strong Bad’s take on Techno music.


And for good measure, here’s his take on playing guitar:

Tornado Video Footage

A tornado is stunningly powerful. A tornado is defined by the Glossary of Meteorology as "a violently rotating column of air, in contact with the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud..." In practice, for a vortex to be classified as a tornado, it must be in contact with both the ground and the cloud base. Scientists have not yet created a complete definition of the word; for example, there is disagreement as to whether separate touchdowns of the same funnel constitute separate tornadoes.

Most tornadoes have wind speeds between 40 mph (64 km/h) and 110 mph (177 km/h), are approximately 250 feet (75 m) across, and travel a few miles (several kilometers) before dissipating. Some attain wind speeds of more than 300 mph (480 km/h), stretch more than a mile (1.6 km) across, and stay on the ground for dozens of miles (more than 100 km).

Tornadic waterspouts are more literally "tornadoes over water". They can form over water like mesocyclonic tornadoes, or be a land tornado which crosses onto water. Since they form from severe thunderstorms and can be far more intense, faster, and longer-lived than fair weather waterspouts, they are considered far more dangerous.

SuperMom

If you take everything a mom says in 24 hours and condense it down to 2 minutes, that would be impressive. If you make it into a song, that's amazing. If you sing it in front of hundreds accompanied by the William Tell Ovurture, you are something else.

Chemistry Fun

I don’t know why we never got to do these kinds of science experiments. I’ll be we could have learned some interesting things. They could have rebuilt that wing of the school anyway.

Confuse the Cat!

Here’s a new way to confuse a cat: wait for a cold day, when the fishpond has frozen over; then let the cat look through the ice to see the fish. It’s great!

Alton Brown on Risk Taking

Alton Brown is half Consumate chef, and half mad scientist. He's Bill Nye The Science Guy for cooking, and he has become one of the "Superstars" of the madly popular Cooking Network. He's great entertainment, as well as being an excellent source of information about cooking and about mad science. Oh, and a good belly laugh!

Alton Brown is interviewed by Donny Deutsch on CNBC's The Big Idea. It turns out that Alton started out as a producer, not as a chef. The part I like best is where they discuss the need to take risks.

Fast, Green and Amphibious

No, we’re not describing a rare species of frog. The Rinspeed sQuba is a car — sort of — that, assuming you’re a hyper-rich, environmentally-minded James Bond wannabe, will totally make your day. Not being much of a car guy myself, I don’t usually geek out about them here. But there was something so crazy about this one that, while I don’t ever need to own it, I’m just kind of glad it exists.

Here’s the skinny: the sQuba uses the body of a Lotus, but it’s of an all-electric, zero-emissions persuasion. In fact, it’s got three electric motors — one to power the wheels, one to power the propellers and one to power frontal water jets that control the orientation of the car underwater. (The above picture, by the way, is real.)

From EcoGeek:
The car’s entire drive train is watertight up to 10 meters (we assume probably a bit below that as well), and there are compressed air tanks built into the car so, whenever you want to go for a swim, you just drive into the water and put in your mouthpiece. Apparently the roofless design is as much a safety feature as a design statement. Easy escape is always best…
This is the company’s Bond-inspired concept video, complete with underwater footage. (It kinda has to be seen to be believed.)

via mental floss.

Darth Vader in Love

It’s a strange thing when thinking of Darth Vader in Love, but I suppose it happens even to the uber-nerd himself. And what better day for it?