Transcendental levitation

You'd think this bird is flying without flapping its wings, but it's just sync'd up with the camera's frame rate.




Have you ever wondered what a rocket launch looks like when viewed from the perspective of space? Pretty cool when you condense two-and-a-half minutes of footage into a quick 11-second video.




And finally... in the Empire State, a momentary flying car, thanks to a tornado.

"The bluebird carries the sky on his back." -- Henry David Thoreau

Call it like it is

A fun little video, Title Drops is a clip montage of movie characters saying the name of their film.


Twitter account @CorrectNames is a trove of alternate monikers for everyday things.

Bread Mushroom pic.twitter.com/Wg77cFLkFj

— Correct Names (@CorrectNames) June 16, 2017

And if you've been on even one conference call, you probably can relate to this Conference Call Bingo board.

Conference call bingo, anyone?

"You have but to know an object by its proper name for it to lose its dangerous magic." -- Elias Canetti

Heaven can wait

This quick 40-second spot tells you everything you need to know about why you shouldn't text and drive (or text and walk, for that matter). Nine people killed and more than 1,000 injured every day, says the CDC, which might now consider it a disease.


And your ticked-off neighbors and the notes they write.

"There are too many people, and too few human beings." -- Robert Zend

Justice desserts

Security camera captures a would-be thief getting his well-deserved dose of instant karma.


And photographer Olivia Locher breaks 43 bizarre, ridiculous, and outdated laws in this tongue-in-cheek photo series.

"Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do." -- Potter Stewart

Emission impossible

Some midday pyrotechnics in London, Ontario when this car crash turned a utility pole into a fireball-shooting wizard.


And a more sedate display from an art installation called "New Spring", a spellbinding from-another-dimension tree that bears smoke-filled bubble "fruit".

"Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plenitude of the soul." -- Gaston Bachelard

Kinesis

Tragedy at The 14th Factory in LA CA as a woman destroys $200,000-worth (?) of sculptural crown art attempting to take a selfie.

And turn any image into modern art with Simplify.thatsh.it.

Another man's treasure... amazing portraits created from trash.

"Art holds fast when all else is lost." -- German Proverb

Spective

In the spirit of 100 Years of Beauty, here's the yang side of the coin showing 70 years in the evolution of douchebag style.


And use your powers of observation and attentiveness to find what's wrong with these pictures.

"One faces the future with one's past." -- Pearl S. Buck

Hands down

Intently-focused cat brings a certain efficient intensity to its bottle cap goaltending efforts.


And some pets caught red-pawed in acts of common thievery.




Lastly, Princess BB the pet bird digs on a too-relaxing Q-tip massage.

A post shared by Princess BB (@birdbee0705) on Mar 24, 2017 at 5:59am PDT

"In ancient times cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this." -- Terry Pratchett

Bale-out

Damn the concussion -- full speed ahead. Man takes on giant hay bale and learns who's boss.

A post shared by Harry Connell (@conndogo) on Jul 9, 2017 at 3:12am PDT

Speaking of doing flips, paint your very own abstract paintings with this Pocket Pollock toy, a wooden toy named after the abstract painter dreamed up by artist Steve Casino. (And if you want more, Casino's YouTube channel has a bunch of other wooden toy sculptures you might like.)

A post shared by Steve Casino (@stevecasino) on Jul 2, 2017 at 7:27pm PDT

"Wisdom before experience is only words; wisdom after experience is of no avail." -- Mark van Doren

Ask questions later

A refrigerator jam-packed with explosives has one final, futile act of defiance before its assassination in broad daylight.

http://gif87a-com.tumblr.com/post/161461427110

Also for no good reason, watch a bodybuilder get shot with over 1000 paintballs.

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity." -- Harlan Ellison quotes

Walk the walk

Kevin Parry gets on a treadmill and demonstrates 100 ways of walking -- angry, sneaky, drunk, hippy, etc.


A choreographed LED hula hoop performance set to a Massive Attack "Teardrop" remix.




Photogrammetry lets you fly (virtually) through the Sofa Hotel in Istanbul like it was scanned by an enormous MRI machine.

"People say that losing weight is no walk in the park. When I hear that I think, yeah, that's the problem." -- Chris Adams

When death gives you lemons

A little tale of the Reaper enjoying some soul food at a neighborhood lemonade stand. I think there's a spiritual message in there somewhere.


An artist creatively (re)imagines each of the 50 states as food puns.



And the dizzying expanse of a public bicycle graveyard in China looks like impressionist art.

"The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity." -- Seneca

Masters of disguise

The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", but starring Big Bird and some Sesame Street regs is the mashup you probably didn't think was possible. Masterful editing.

And a quiz... how well can you spot fake news?

Finally, if you think you're seeing things, check out these 180 photos of shadow pareidolia, courtesy of Bored Panda.

"Do not mistake a goat's beard for a fine stallion's tail." -- Irish Proverb

Motion sickness

A post shared by @zeelowcee on Apr 21, 2017 at 8:15pm PDT

This man -- if that's what he is -- can flex and move like nothing you've ever seen. When he travels, he might go in his own carry-on luggage.

And an interesting little science project -- how to make a bottle that rolls in "slow motion".

"The human species is made up of seven billion subspecies each consisting of one specimen." -- Robert Brault

Fur goodness sake

It's 2017 and hard to imagine we're still gawking at cats on the Internet, but these cats are 2 fast and 2 furious for anyone's good.

And it appears pet owners getting glamorous matching manicures with their animals is also a thing these days.

"One cat just leads to another." -- Ernest Hemingway

All in the family

Meet this nauseating family of social media influencers, the subject of a CBC comedy. Satire, sure, but a little too "klose for komfort"... still makes me queasy.

And watch this mama bear carry her cubs across a river on her back.

"In some families, please is described as the magic word. In our house, however, it was sorry." -- Margaret Laurence

Switched off

Bizarre video compilation of Chuck E. Cheese animatronic character malfunctions, as if they aren't already creepy enough.

And the most amusingly awful and absurd volume control interfaces that Redditors could devise.

"Technology presumes there's just one right way to do things and there never is." -- Robert M. Pirsig

Reverse a-peel appeal

That unsettling feeling you get when things seem to defy your brain's logical senses... to wit, watching this carrot get unpeeled.


And check out this magic Chex mix-filled banana.




Finally, this two-piece suit made entirely of pizza from Villa Italian Kitchen is a boon to food and fashion.

"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do." -- P.J. O'Rourke