Latest

Watch a floating pillow somehow support the weight of a brick

How is this floating pillow supporting the weight of this brick? Magic? Some sort of invisible string? Maybe it’s an illusion to make it look like the pillow is floating and spinning but it really isn’t? CGI!? Nope. It’s magnets! Which I guess is the closest thing we have to magic here on Earth. BrussPup…

Thanks Textbooks Is the Cure For Anyone Nostalgic for Their Schooldays

Sometimes, going back to being a student feels like it would be a great idea. Life was so easy then. Or, if you had the textbooks featured on Thanks Textbooks, it was a bewildering time of being required to read and answer the strangest questions. A few favorites:

What is this?

When I saw this image appearing in my RSS I couldn’t tell what it was. It looked like a close up of the skin of some animal. Perhaps a detail of a bird or a reptile, I thought. Maybe a colorized microscopic view into some human body part. The answer couldn’t possibly be more different…

Record the Beeps of a Library — and Maybe Make Something of It

Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. Tracks by participants will be added to this playlist as…

Woman’s hair burns during selfie, shows why we should stop being idiots

This girl burned her hair rushing to jump into frame for a selfie. Who’s to blame? Her? Or maybe it’s the uncouth cameraman taking a vertical video. We should toss some blame towards the open flame candle at a small table too. But perhaps, it’s all of us in the wrong. As in all of…

The Best/Worst Moments From Fall Out Boy’s B-Horror Music Videos

There are almost no words for just how strange an experience watching the eleven videos Fall Out Boy did for their last album is. They basically took the money for music videos and made a horror film instead. It’s a thing of utter weirdness even before Elton John shows up as God. Look, I realize…

Man saves squirrel’s life by giving it CPR

This cute little squirrel has a pool repairman to thank for saving its life. When the little critter was found floating in a pool in Phoenix, Rick Gruber, the pool guy, resuscitated it back to life by performing a little bit of CPR. After a few minutes of pumping its lungs, the squirrel was breathing…

The Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership Is Landing at the Smithsonian

A replica of the 1970s Mothership will be displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. It’ll be located at museum’s Musical Crossroads gallery and displayed with music and concert footage of the Mothership on stage. As if we needed more of a reason to go to D.C.’s museums. The replica…

93-year-old vet just recreated his D-Day parachute jump over Normandy

This is just awesome. Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin, a 93-year-old WWII veteran paratrooper, just did the same jump out of a plane into Normandy that he did for D-Day 70 years ago when he was 23-years-old. But he says this jump was much easier because “there wasn’t anybody shooting at me today.” During World War…

This “Aviator Cat” Scene Will Cure Whatever Ails You

Jake, the alien cat in The Cat From Outer Space, doesn’t just help gambling addicts to cheat at horse races, football games and pool games, in his quest to return to his home galaxy. He also flies an antique plane, chasing a helicopter. And this cat-aviator sequence will make all your troubles disappear. The Cat…

Nocturnal Transmissions: What Are You Listening To?

Got an album or band you want to evangelize? A guilty pleasure you’re not actually that guilty about? Podcasts you recommend? Audiobooks? Just some random noises? If it’s audio, let’s talk about it. This is Nocturnal Transmissions, your nightly open thread. Image: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Watch sponges breathe out neon green water like they’re smoking

There’s something completely fascinating in something so incredibly simple. Sponges—animals that can’t walk or swim—are incredibly efficient at what they do and have a super fun history to them too. Watch Jonathan Bird explain how sponges work and where they come from in this Blue World clip. To illustrate how sponges work in filtering water,…

It Might All Be Falling Apart For The Bravest Warriors

Things are starting to get sticky for the Bravest Warriors. After the last episode saw Chris struggling alone against his destiny, now Beth, Wallow, and Danny are stuck dealing with the coming of the Aeon Worm. Beth’s father has amassed his hamster army of followers and will try to free his master from the See…

Saved: A Satirical Tale of Teen Pregnancy in a Christian High School

What happens when you mix a gay teens, teen moms, divorce, and disabilities and then put them under the roof of judgey Christian high school? Saved, a comedy that hilariously deals with some topics that aren’t exactly fiction. Mary Cummings (played by Jena Malone) is a high school senior who gets pregnant upon sacrificing her…

No, that’s not the Eye of Sauron — it’s a planetary system being born. It’s one of the first images captured by SPHERE, a new planet-finder installed in Chile last month. The image shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding star HR4796A — just one of many astounding discoveries SPHERE is sure to make. (Image: ESO/J.-L. Beuzit…

Report: T-Mobile’s Parent Company Might Be Screwing With Hungary’s Press

Deutsche Telekom is the huge corporation that owns two-thirds of T-Mobile. It also, if you follow a chain of sub-companies, owns Origo.hu, a hugely popular Hungarian news site. Origo’s editor in chief was just unceremoniously fired, after writing critically about the Hungarian government—which, incidentally, just inked a $1.5 billion broadband agreement with Deutsche Telekom. Something…

Why Do We Laugh?

In this short documentary for The Atlantic, longtime laughter researcher Robert Provine tells filmmaker Sam-Price Waldman about some of his most notable observations and conclusions. Photo Credit: Trey Ratcliff via flickr | CC BY 2.0 It also features one of the more convincing fake laughs I’ve heard in some time (like smiling, it’s hard to…

This Interactive Trash Bin Turns Recycling Into a Giant Game of Plinko

Recycling should be second nature now, but once you toss a plastic bottle into the dark abyss of a public bin, well—that’s it. Why give it a second thought? ReFILL is an interactive installation that gives a glimpse at the pile-up of would-be trash that’s destined for a second life; everything that goes in is…

Band of Skulls Shows Us What It’s Like to Be a Stripper

Band of Skulls just released their latest music video, and boy, is it eye-catching. The basic premise involves following an exotic dancer through her day, except in reverse. And the song is pretty fun, too! From their new album Himalayan, “Hoochie Coochie” is a kinetic, classic-sounding rock song built out of power cords and bumping…

These Sandals Are a Nightmare If You Don’t Like Laces

Keen long ago laid claim to the “is it a shoe or is it a sandal?” footwear category. But this summer the company is releasing a rather unique pair of shoes that seem impossible to categorize. Possibly taking their inspiration from all the woven knit athletic shoes hitting the market, Keen’s Uneeks are nothing but…