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