Ridiculous Speed Sign

A concerned citizen's video message to his county commissioners claiming that speed signs are an apparent waste of taxpayers money. (Thanks Bomser)

And a good way to get a grip on the U.S. federal government budget, "What We Pay For" skips the "-illions" and shows you where your tax dollars go.


"Governments never learn. Only people learn." - Milton Friedman

 

Giant snowman slide

This insanely elaborate slide, apparently the result of 80 hours of shovel-work, has enough icy twists and turns that the video probably doesn't do it justice. [Boing Boing]

And the Ninja-Zombie times tables is just the thing for those times you find yourself wondering what a cross between Abraham Lincoln and a platypus would look like.


"That which is striking and beautiful is not always good; but that which is good is always beautiful." - Nitin Nohria

 

Ski run fail

A little lesson on how not to start your ski run down a steep rocky mountainside captured via helmet-cam. (Full-screen viewing recommended.)

And other things ill-advised... a trove of amusing SMS exchanges at Parents Shouldn't Text.


"Old age is no place for sissies." - Bette Davis

 

Cat Laser Bowling

An innocent game featuring an innocent and unwitting victim: Cat laser bowling. [Gizmodo]

And a few minutes of enjoyment can be had from this little interactive game of choice.


"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." - Anatole France

 

Going out with a bang

As this "memorial to a family member" proves, 320,000 exploding firecrackers sure can perk up a funeral. Worth watching for the sheer enormity of it. [Gizmodo]

And check out this interactive graph, which plots the change in average body mass index since 1980 in all countries in the world. (I'm taking the over.) Worth watching for the sheer enormity of it.


"Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough." - Don Marquis

 

The natural evolution of fashion

Moral of the story in this College Humor original about what kids are wearing these days: It can always get worse. (Especially when it comes to fashion trends.)

And these old spousal irritation checklists were used as part of a 1930s project to enable husbands and wives to give one another constructive feedback and end seething resentments by identifying and tabulating frequent sources of marital friction. [via Boing Boing]

 


"At 18 our convictions are hills from which we look; At 45 they are caves in which we hide." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

 

Oh The Places You'll Actually Go

A little something whipped up by College Humor, Oh The Places You'll Actually Go is a reality-packed, spirit-crushing dose of pseudo-Seuss.

And also a heavy dose of reality, Heavy Stuff on Top of People.


"I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later." - Mitch Hedberg

 

Shooting over par

Can any of these top golfers knock a clay pigeon out of the sky with a golf shot?

For a different type of shooting, try Z-Type, a game from Phobos Lab in which your keyboard meets the arcade game Galaga.


"There is no way to penetrate the surface of life but by attacking it earnestly at a particular point." - Charles Horton Cooley

 

If you knew sushi like I knew sushi

A bit of creative advertising...

..and a pile of creative photography culled from DeviantArt.


"The secret of happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage." - Thucydides

 

Iron Chef Dragon alfredo

Catch the masterful Bruce Lee in a light mood showing off his frying pan comedy skills.

And these Soviet groceries look to be pretty fair fare from a place where people have been known to wait in line for bread.


"Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." - Buddha

 

Water you doing?

A glass of water, hold the glass -- an almost unimaginable trick whereby a cup of of the stuff stands suspended, apparently with no regard for the laws of physics. Very [Gizmodo]

And in other beverage news, is this the "real thing"... Coca-Cola’s double-secret recipe finally revealed? (Though it looks authentic, Coca-Cola says it’s not. Some intriguing history behind the recipe, too.) [Gizmodo]


"Starbucks says they are going to start putting religious quotes on cups. The very first one will say, 'Jesus! This cup is expensive!'" - Conan O'Brien

 

Escher in action

Some guy actually built a working model of M.C. Escher's physics-defying perpetual motion waterfall (which is more like a "waterclimb"). Watch it in action. [Gizmodo]




And Escher's iconic Impossible Worlds recreated in Lego does it some plastic justice.



"You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else." - Albert Einstein

 

Debtris

Debt plus Tetris equals Debtris, with animations for the U.S. mess and the U.K., too. [informationisbeautiful]

And sorta but not really related, Tetris Treats creatively combines two potentially addictive things.


"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them." - P.J. O'Rourke

 

Huckleberry Robot

Kickstarter, which funds creative projects worldwide, is editing a new version of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that won't be bogged down with what Mark Twain was trying to say about racism. And they made an amusing video to tell us all about it. [Nerdist]

And speaking of things past, Old Parked Cars is a so-named photoblog compendium. 'Nuff said.


"People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it." - Ogden Nash

 

No Direction Home

A documentary claim that Bob/Robert Dylan/Zimmerman wrote every popular song in the last 35 years.

America is a melting pot to be sure, and Natty Geo lets you explore the last-name landscape via this interactive map of surname popularity across the country.


"People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so they'll have good voice boxes in case there's ever anything really meaningful to say." - Kurt Vonnegut

 

Only in New York

Just another day on the NYC subway, including of course a guy sharing a meal with his rat. [Gizmodo]

And for public transit buffs, Buses on Screen purports to be the end-all for info about bus appearances on big and small screen.


"A man can do only what a man can do. But if he does that each day, he can sleep at night and do it again the next day." - Albert Schweitzer

 

Phantom of the Floppera

Feast your ears (and eyes) on the Phantom of the Floppera, a working organ that uses finely-tuned floppy drives (remember those?) to play an impressive rendition of Bach's Toccata and Fugue. [Boing Boing]

And also from the endangered species list, Letterheady is a site dedicated to the increasingly rare art of letterhead design.


"Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest." - Isaac Asimov

 

Robots Gone Wild

Called the most elaborate action sequence ever filmed, one YouTube commenter summed it up nicely: "I've always wondered what The Matrix + The Terminator + Robocop + Transformers + Speed + Die Hard + iRobot + Bourne + 300 + The Expendables + Iron Man + Every Rambo Movie + The Iron Giant + Spy Kids would look like. And now I know." The Endhiran is near. [Mashable]

And decidedly less high-tech, watch Keira Rathbone create art with a typewriter and/or check out the gallery.


"The good news about computers is that they do what you tell them to. The bad news about computers is that they do what you tell them to." - Ted Nelson

 

Hardcore metal Legos

Bricks rock -- hard -- in someone's brief glimpse into a plasticine dream. [Gizmodo]

And somewhat fittingly, an infographic about the hazards of hearing loss. Moral of the story: Don't listen to your iPod while watching a rocket launch and have the airbag in your car deploy.


"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice." - William Shakespeare

 

Transportation sights and sounds

Thirty beautiful cockpit-view minutes of a commercial airliner's twilight landing approach into LAX compressed into three minutes.

And a Google engineer created this NYC subway internet-instrument of sorts, where the lines of crossing trains plunk like guitar-strings. Give it a whirl and try to find the easter eggs. The subway never sounded so sweet. [Gizmodo]


"If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it's moving you away from your goals." - Brian Tracy

If Websites Were TV Shows

A quick and creative College Humor original skit about how WebMD, Craigslist, and other popular sites would translate into network programming.

And some doodles from noodles, idle sketching by famous authors.


"Don't you wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work." - Gallagher

UK Q&A

The difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England (and a whole lot more) explained, sorta, by a Yank, oddly enough.

For those who have wondered where we swear the most, now you can get the results conveniently packaged in heat-map form. [via Gizmodo]


"The advantage of a classical education is that it enables you to despise the wealth which it prevents you from achieving." - Russell Green

Stool sample

Check out Sporthocker, the next big thing in German sports (?). As you sit and laugh, you;ll wonder whether this is a prank. [Gizmodo]

And, not for the faint of stomach, the "The Yuck Factor" tells all about the nasty stuff they call "luxury" goods.


"Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence." - Vince Lombardi

Worst commercial ever?

Is this VCR into Cash commercial idiotic and terribly made? Or downright awesome? You make the call.

And a Belgian artist pits Pencil vs. Camera, with surprising and creative results.

Finally, this old-school crapola website, with a design circa 1996, might make you just a touch nostalgic.


"The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want." - Ben Stein

Jumping to conclusions

Every picture tells a story, don't it? But be not hasty in your judgment. A few quick scenes to prove the point.

And beautiful yet creepy 3D paintings on glass created using layers to get an ethereal and eerie effect.

Finally, it's difficult to argue that ROA's street art defaces these scenes of urban blight.


"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." -- Albert Einstein

Domino the Safeway

Six miles of crap falling over in a grocery store.

And truly the afterlife for devices, these gadget sculptures are what should happen to your old stuff when it dies.


"The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." - Albert Einstein

Beatboxing history of hits

A brief history of hip-pop, as told through the international language of beatboxing. [via The Daily What]

And also from the self-expression files, the Freedom Filter maps freedom of speech, religion and the press around the world.


"The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all." - H. L. Mencken

Enhance and zoomify

This scene from an imaginary show called Crime Cops is a just-real-enough parody of the "CSI" genre that you'll question taking the real thing seriously. [via Gizmodo]

And Drowning Beautiful gives you a glimpse of artist Jason de Caires Taylor's craft of creating underwater sculpture, which he casts in concrete, submerges in the ocean, and waits for coral to cover to produce beautiful and haunting works.


"The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple." - Dame Rebecca West