Archive for January, 2007

Science Projects: Slowing Down Time with High-Speed Video

In earlier science projects articles about sulfur hexafluoride gas and non-newtonian fluids, we at least had a little bit of theory and explanation to go with the goofy videos. Not so much in this entry. It turns out that filming a video in very high speed, then watching it in slow motion, is just fun. What could be better than watching somebody get hit in the head with a water balloon over the course of a minute? [youtube]tZ8TJ4E_ihY[/youtube] Remember to always wear safety goggles when attempting this next one: [avi width="320" height="240"]http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/highspeed/bulbdrop.avi[/avi] The video above was made by Tom and Mike, see more of their videos here. And of course, the obligatory Mentos / Diet Coke slow-motion explosion: [youtube]GfLBOupDdX8[/youtube]

The Best Worst Movies about the Future

Many movies have been made about the future and most of them have sucked. Usually they involve people in shiny suits and rocket cars. Or its some lame post-apocalyptic future where everybody wears football shoulder pads and drives dune buggies. However, there have been a few movies that have been so bad that they actually managed to get some things right. These movies all come from the 70's so mind-altering drugs probably had something to do with it. 1. Zardoz: A giant floating head tells a bunch of crazed white guys that the penis is bad and vomits guns and ammo from its mouth. Sean Connery also runs around in a loin cloth the whole movie. If you think of the head as George W. Bush it kind of makes sense. Sean Connery would represent the East Coast liberals I guess. [youtube]pQR9cHkyeFM[/youtube] 2. Barbarella: Jane Fonda does lots of drugs and has sex with everybody she meets. At one point she is even raped by a giant church organ. I suppose this is kind of like Paris Hilton except I don't want to punch Barbarella in the face everytime I see her. [youtube]a4-hAIDitBU[/youtube] 3. Americathon: In the future everyone will wear sweatsuits, live in their cars and America will go bankrupt and will owe billions to the Native Americans who also own Nike. In an effort to save the country president John Ritter will put on the largest Telethon ever to save the country. The amount of drugs they had to be taking to make this film is truly staggering. However the Seminole tribe just bought the Hard Rock franchise so maybe they were onto something, besides just cocaine. [youtube]AUV6vCCg6ns[/youtube] So you see they really did understand the future in the 70's they were just too high to be able to tell anybody about it.

Best Marathon Quote Ever, Wizards

[youtube]FT9pWUmrimU[/youtube]

Deviant Artist Becomes World’s Greatest Fan-fic-er

An artist named *spacecoyote posted two "fan-fic" anime-style drawings of The Simpsons and Futurama characters to the popular art site deviantART.com. Less then a week later, she was signed on to work for Bongo Comics - owned and created by Matt Groening (creator of both series) on anime-style Simpsons comics. She also might be working with 20th Century Fox as well. How's that for a nice little bit of happiness from this "Web 2.0" world? Post some junk online that you think your friends might dig and instead of a lawsuit (more common) you get a job? Please do check out *spacecoyote's drawings - I especially like her realization of Marge, Patty and Selma in the Simpsons drawing. Here's the official deviantART posting on the topic if you'd like to leave her some props.

The Best Musicals are Fake Musicals

Musicals. If you stop and think about it, it's bizarrely amazing that musicals continue to exist. The fact that they make up a whole genre of theater and film is stranger still. People just start singing, for no reason, or for contrived reasons. They dance around, in the middle of the day. Don't get me wrong, musicals take a lot of skill to write, score, direct, and act in. But let's face it - if there were no such thing as musicals, and you had never heard of The Sound of Music, or Grease, or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and someone tried to explain the concept to you, the only possible response would be, "WTF?" Which is why I have developed a theory: the best musicals are the ones that make fun of musicals, or at the very least point out the absurdity of the whole business. Here is empirical, scientific proof. The ten best musicals that make fun of musicals: 1. Cannibal, the Musical [youtube]ACklTprCjd4&NR[/youtube] 2. Musicals interrupt class [youtube]7cXoh62rNE8[/youtube] 3. From The State: Porcupine Racetrack [youtube]0OI5s2szhyo[/youtube] 4. Buffy - They got the Mustard Out [youtube]YCs3uAYNBiE[/youtube] 5. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut medley [youtube]tHDH2IyKqMY[/youtube] 6. It's Springtime for Hitler [youtube]TYyX3PjJ710[/youtube] 7. Waiting for Guffman - if only I could find a clip of "Nothing Ever Happens on Mars" [youtube]r6oCLPBW41Y[/youtube] 8. The Simpsons - Planet of the Apes [youtube]WAxkNbyqxD8[/youtube] 9. Of course, the Internet is for Porn [youtube]ZWEsbjUPmCs[/youtube] 10. And now for the big finale: [youtube]SFIHYlgxK5g[/youtube]