If you get the opportunity, jump

Strange way to mark the days of a year, but I suppose it could get weirder than this guy doing it one backflip at a time. [Gizmodo]


And get to know yourself a little better with What Your Favorite Blog Says About You.

"What you do today can improve all your tomorrows." - Ralph Marston

Jamming phones

Watch a musician's surprising reaction to a cell phone ringing in the middle of his intense solo performance.


Alternatively, he could have tried the Shakespeare Insult Kit. (Directions for use: choose a word from each of the three columns, and preface with "thou".)

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame." - Benjamin Franklin

Cop a move

Filipino traffic cop adds some style on the job. Or maybe he's just trying not to get run over.


And a bevy of photo remakes of famous art from a recent contest sponsored by Adobe.

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." - Theodore Roosevelt

Dribble the town red

Artist dribbles and dabs to create a portrait of Yao Ming using just a basketball and (fittingly) red paint. [Gizmodo]


And photos of a novel art installation comprising 180,000 tiny people holding up the floor. Also, let 'em eat fake... some truly impressive miniature food art.

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Do the job halfway

Lesson learned: Never get into a prank war with an Aussie, or you'll suffer the wrath of a
42-foot car guillotine. [Gizmodo]


And a macabre and fascinating Tumblr where people offer up how they will shuffle off this mortal coil.

"A cause may be inconvenient, but it's magnificent. It's like champagne or high heels, and one must be prepared to suffer for it." - Arnold Bennett

Take a turn for the worse

If Rube Goldberg created an ereader, it would be The Page Turner. I'm pretty sure there isn't an app for that.


Also more complex than it needs to be, pasta equations, an epicurean delight for the mathematically inclined.

"Computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." - Andy Rooney

Crowboarding

Nature works in strange ways, and a crow devising a winter roof-o-lympics sledding event to amuse himself is merely one of them. Either that, or I'll have to change my opinion on witchcraft.


And similarly themed, the photographic series Animalia appears to explore what would happen if PETA and Affirmative Action went too far.

"To subjugate another is to subjugate yourself." - Elbert Hubbard

Curvy pool

Billiards trick shots well worth watching. Caution: serious English ahead. (And more at the dude's website.)


And use this infographic to figure out whether that guy is a Geek or a Nerd.

"I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it." - Jonathan Winters

Uneven platform

From your friends at Funny or Die, a bad lip reading interpretation of Newt Gingrich's campaign policy views makes as much sense as anything we've got going in Washington today.


And also on matters political, the alter egos of Henry Kissinger, Queen Elizabeth II, et al. make Foreign Policy’s list of fake and entertaining Twitter accounts.

"A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself." - Joel A. Barker

Family ties

Of all the ways to ask her hand holy matrimony, 22 hours of shooting and whole lot more time editing a stop-motion Lego marriage proposal is probably near the bottom of my list. [CNET]


Also in a family way, is it true when they say, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree"? See for yourself... a few decision trees about The Effect Your Father’s Music Has On Your Own covering a variety of genres.

"To love abundantly is to live abundantly, and to love forever is to live forever." - Henry Drummond

Shovel ready

Who knows whether it will stand, but a Chinese company put up a 30-story building in a mere 15 days, all caught in a time lapse video.


Not really along the same lines — but definitely faster and topical — build your own president.

"By working faithfully 8 hours a day you may eventually get to be boss and work 12 hours a day." - Robert Frost

Fauxtoshop beauty regimen

The beauty industry's best-kept secret — including pro-pixel intensifying fauxtanical hydro-jargon microbead extract and more — revealed, or rather ridiculed, in Fotoshop by Adobé.


Also transformative, Street Art - Best of 2011 will give you a new perspective on taking a walk.

"Advertising is the ‘wonder’ in Wonder Bread." - Jef. I Richards

Edible universe

A tour of the universe via the kitchen, courtesy of Micro Macro. [Gizmodo]


Also lost in space, Scale of the Universe might give you a new perspective on how tiny and insignificant you are.

"Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over." - HAL 9000

Sez who?

A worthy follow-on to the original, Sh*t Nobody Says is mostly the funny, snarky truth. (And if that isn't enough, Business Insider rounded up a 10 best 'Sh*t People Say' videos list you might want to look at.)


Also of no use, these presumably one-shot stock photos, a collection of photos so specific and odd you can't imagine how they would be used once, let alone again.

"Some people see things that are and ask, 'Why?' Some people dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?' Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that." – George Carlin

iFixate

Saturday Night Live recently took a swipe at our collective phone fixation with a parody ad for "Headz Up", an app that sends realtime notifications about everything you're missing in life because you're staring at your phone. Sadly, it seems like it would be one of the more useful apps out there. [TechCrunch]


And while it's likely no one predicted we'd end up staring at little black mobile boxes, some of these predictions for the year 2000 made in 1900 are intriguing, and in many cases right on the money.

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." - Niels Bohr

Shelf-ish

Lot of word play in The Joy of Books, a colorful stop-motion animation.


And from the Good Book, @TweetTheBible86 that will retell the entire Bible, one verse a day (for 86 Years). [Mashable]

"If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster." - Isaac Asimov

Ledger domain

Betcha didn't know that Radwanderung translates to "bicycle tour", one way to say losing your marbles and mountain biking along a ridiculously steep gorge. Big cojones, little trail.


And now for no particular reason, here is ____________ wearing a cat. Kitteh Fashion photos of famous people — for better or worse, an up and coming meme.

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live." - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Ock n' Oll

Check out the "Rock Ock", an eight-necked, multiplayer guitar and so-proclaimed world's largest multi-player instrument in action playing "Crossroads". Ladder sold separately. Great if you know players ranging in height from midget to NBA center.


And not too far afield, classic album covers re-created with clip art (and Comic Sans).

"Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end." - Henry David Thoreau

 

Twirls gone wild

Surprisingly funny vid of construction workers attempting to subdue an out-of-control concrete buffer (or possibly a power float), punctuated with nicely done play by play improv by the dudes filming it from their window.


Also on the class warfare front, the hippie continuum... what level hippie are you?

"It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech." - Mark Twain

 

Buckle up

Spend a few minutes and watch Don's version of People Are Awesome. Incredible scenery and stunts. Highly recommend higher def, like 720p full screen. (Thanks Bomser)


And a curious experiment, Twitter by Post presents an attempt to shift one's tweeting life to old fashioned postcards.

"Hasten slowly." - Augustus

 

Ice is nice

Pretty cool under-lake filming and effects featuring two of my favorite things, freezing cold and water. [Thanks TED]


And above ground, Goths Up Trees, candid photos of goths in the wild.

"Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime." - Jimmy Cannon

 

Thin is out

Good bit of viral marketing from LG with smart thief caught on cam. [TechCrunch]


“Although this dress was one of a kind, apparently he didn’t think that I was his one and only,” and other well-reasoned break-up bargains on Never Liked it Anyway.

"I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders." - Jewish Proverb

 

All the Rage

George Mason University's Green Machine marching band plays Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" and does, in fact, kill it. [bOING bOING]


And somehow apropos, whisky in a can gives you eight shots of Scotch in a non-resealable can. Can't imagine anything going wrong with that.

"An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't." - Anatole France

 

What a long strange trip it's been

A whole year of backpacking around the world — 17 countries over five continents in 343 days — boiled down to just five minutes. [Gizmodo]


And some well-known American hand gestures to avoid using abroad.

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything." - Theodore Roosevelt

 

Dark Knight Lionized

Voiceover from the viral "Dark Knight Rises" trailer impressively mashed up with scenes from Disney’s "The Lion King". [Mashable]


And how many titles can you name in these film alphabet "quizzes" from the 1990s, 1980s, and 1960s?

"Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?" - Confucius

 

He said she said

Amusing, dragtastic sketch Sh-t Girls Say pretty much nails it.


And things other people might say, check out vocabulary quizzes at Merriam-Webster’s website for a couple minutes of educational fun. Ten questions, max 10 seconds each.

"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition." - Timothy Leary

 

Raider nation

Does that scene look familiar? Raiders of the Lost Archives shows you a shot-by-shot comparison of the Spielberg/Lucas classic vs. scenes from 30 different adventure films made between 1919 and 1973.


Also derivative, “Catch 182,” “Jane Eyre’s Addiction,” “Green Eggs and M.C. Hammer,” and more book + band name mashups at Booking Bands.

"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." - George S. Patton

 

Awe together now

Folks with large cajones living on the edge of sanity in Like There is No Tomorrow, a compilation of awe-inspiring video clips.


Also risky territory, find your U.S. presidential candidate match using this handy quiz.

"Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward." - Victor Kiam

 

Animal attraction

Tech-savvy pet bullfrog plays the game Ant Smasher on a tonguescreen device. [bOING bOING]

And an iPad app that lets you play with pigs. Real pigs, that is. [eater.com]




And in other visual pursuits, Buzzfeed’s collection of the "Most Powerful Images of 2011".

"There is no education like adversity." - Benjamin Disraeli