Nasa's Voyager 1 is the farthest manmade object ever sent from Earth. Launched in 1977, it is now 11 billion miles away and has entered the 'magnetic highway'- the point at which it leaves our solar system. Shame Sir Patrick Moore (RIP) will not be around to discover what lies beyond.
In 1990, Voyager turned around to look back towards us, and took a photo of the Earth, a shot where our planet is so small it appears as a Pale Blue Dot. (Have a look below, that's not dust on your screen in that light brown sun beam)
This became the title of a bestselling book by Carl Sagan, and this stunning animation uses his words.
Fairly obvious how most of this is done, but fantastic sleight of hand and comedy madness all the same. Yann Frisch won the 'FISM' this year, the World Championships of Magic. It was held in Blackpool. In July. Never knew something like that existed. Why wasn't it on TV? Maybe it was.
Paul Daniels also does some cup and ball juggling. "Say Yes Paul".
Thought the original video was hilarious anyway, but this just adds that *little bit* more. Imagine having to learn that weird dance routine in the first place, it just doesn't make any sense, go anywhere and say anything, does it? Oh, apart from the bit where she flashes her ringless finger / hand in the chorus.
Yes, call me old, but those odd-middle-eight-dance-routines that Janet Jackson started in the late 80's have seemingly influenced everyone in that female-singer-but-look-I-can-dance genre, and they have always been shite, and Beyonce has extended that to a full length video of nonsense.
Without the timing of those poor dancers alongside the 'star', those professional dancers that have also spent hours learning these weird bobbins moves, a solo '
performer doing this sort of routine in a local disco would look like someone in need of restraint / help / a bit of a talking too, along the lines of 'can you please stop showing off' or 'have you taken your medication'.
Thanks to mrandrist on B3ta.com for sharing earlier today - yes it's a bit old, but I'd not seen it before.
An animation of cloud free photographs taken by a satellite on Earth's dark side, knitted together to reveal our globe radiating its fragile light into the darkness of space.
Or Laws Of Motion & Gravity vs. a comically involved, complicated invention, laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation, usually involving a chain reaction.
All makes sense at around 30secs.
Here is Red Bull's version. **Warning** Includes Free Running.
In her final days as Commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams of NASA recorded this extensive tour - its bit like an office farewell really, before her commute home - via the Soyuz Spacecraft.
*Amazing* Think of the cool surreal sculptures street artists could do with this technique - we'll be discovering art in all sorts of unexpected places, scratching our heads mumbling 'Lego? It's not... is it?". Banksy could do some superb thought provoking stuff that would turn everyday objects into priceless pieces, if he can find strong enough glue. At last, stone masons can accurately fix brickwork and statues, replacing missing limbs, heads other bits on ancient artifacts, but that's boring. 3D print Terminator's robotic hand and stick it on Nelson, add a double bass instead of a bow for Eros and of course, a massive 99 ice cream cone complete with Cadbury flake for Liberty, that's more like it. Cue advertisers..
If you live in the United States, you MUST have this shelving unit in your front room - it looks like some pretty harmless Ikea model doesn't it? Er, no. This is the USA.
As we all know in the UK, if you live in the USA you need to have guns, and lots of them. Guns to protect yourself, your family, your property and your rights to carry a gun, if someone else with a gun should come near and threaten you, your family, your property - or presumingly, your rights to carry a gun. So why not get more guns that the potential person that should dare do this, and hide them in this shelf. Great idea.
'Where?' I hear you say. Well, watch this video. Hopefully the American owner of such a unit would be able to run to the shelf, remember how to open the arsenal before the American owner of another gun enters the room and wonders why the home owner is suddenly fiddling with their pretty harmless Ikea shelf.
I'd hate to live in a place where you are under such a constant and real threat of being shot, you'd need enough guns in your front room to arm a small terrorist cell.
George Lucas is estimated to be worth over $3Billion so why is he flogging Star Wars to death?
"Hi George, got an idea for a TV advert. It's Yoda / Darth Vadar and they talk about our products, and cheapen themselves in the process!"
"Will the younglings like it? Then yes - but can we call it Yodafone?"
"No. That'll take away from our brand. And it's too clever George"
The Star Wars Lego series aside (Appeals to a new generation, gets them interested in a film series that started, what, 30 years ago? And is now a cartoon series on TV too isn't it?) isn't it time Lucas stopped these partnerships (Vodafone / PC World / VW - is that it?), and looked after the Star Wars Brand?
"Both Star Wars and Angry Birds share the instant and irresistible appeal of hands-on fun," said Lucasfilm vice-president and head of studio operations Colum Slevin. "People seem to instinctively know what to do when handed a lightsaber or a bird in a slingshot, so this is a natural combination." Yes Colum, naturally the two go together, just like seeing Darth Vadar in PC World.
Lucas has even allowed part of the film to be used in a teaser advert, without doubt the first of many. Rovio must be rubbing their hands with glee. R2D2 won't be, he's featured as an Egg.
I'm actually dreading what Lucas will allow next. Go Compare adverts? Compare the bloody Meerkat? PPI claims? HALIFAX RADIO STATION ADS!!?? Who is still playing Angry Birds anyway, and who will play this game apart from bored suited commuters on their way to work, who are well aware of Star Wars having watched them in the cinema, then again on TV, then on VHS, then on DVD - then again at the cinema (Don't start me on Jar Jar Binks) then again on the special edition digitally remastered DVD with bonus scenes, then Blu-Ray - and probably, because I know he's working on it, 3-Bloody-D? George, why don't you just make another Star Wars film for flips sake, before episode 1, or after 6 - don't tell me - that'll kill 'the magic'.
Not something you see everyday I must admit, so yes, if I was a local resident, I think I'd take my kids along to have a look at it, after all it is a BMW stuck in a pothole by a mini roundabout on the A320.
One of my favourite things on Twitter is getting a tweet when the ISS is coming overhead (Follow Twisst here) and will be visible. Clever stuff. As it speeds across the sky, mostly unnoticed from people below - 'it's a bloody plane, you can't see satellites with the naked eye' etc etc I wonder what they can see below. Must be AMAZING - and watching this video, it clearly is.
I have no idea what 'Mescaline' is, and I can't be bothered to copy / paste it into Wikipedia to look it up. It's a bit like LSD from the following video - featured Christopher Mayhew MP in a BBC (Daily Mail would LOVE this) documentary that was never ever shown. Humphry Osmond, the 'dealer' coined the phrase 'Psychedelic', but it would take someone in California with a less British plummy accent to add the 'Man' bit in the 1960's.
Here's this SHOCKING FOOTAGE Daily Mail readers.
You think an MP taking drugs on TV presumingly to make a name for himself / get on the 50's version of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is shocking? How about the Army? Soldiers! On an exercise! With Guns! TAKING ACID?! "1 hour and 10 minutes after taking the drug, with one man in a tree, feeding the birds.."
Jan Matejko, Battle of Grunwald - now in 3D. "67 unique characters, each rendered as three-dimensional models, come together to form a clear spatial composition. Depth and perspective appear "within arm’s reach", inviting the viewer into the canvas to experience it from a new perspective"
"The project posed a challenge to animators, who were required to meticulously interpret and recreate the 1878 original and find solutions to problems such as how to depict figures who were partially obscured by those next to them."
Stay with this past the Pink Panther theme - this is all recording live and in one take. Very clever stuff, must be a right headache remembering where he's saved all those samples, and getting the timing right.
Reminds me of David Ford'sState Of The Union - also using sample loops, recorded in one take (embedding requests denied unfortunately) and Go To Hell which looks even more complicated;
"This visualization shows ocean surface currents around the world during the period from June 2005 through Decmeber 2007. The visualization does not include a narration or annotations; the goal was to use ocean flow data to create a simple, visceral experience."
"With the world's most credible and respected DJs lining up for an audition and Simon Cowell giving them his valid, undeniable & professional point of view; one man who goes by the name of DJ Facebender is set to rise to superstardom with his impeccable skills and prowess behind the decks."
Skip to the 1:25 mark, and watch as Mc Blizzard takes on his teacher, Mr Grist in a rap battle. This is no fake, Blizzard has appeared on SB:TV 3 times - watch him in action here. Thanks to both The Badger and Will Posket for sharing, and as the later says, "Kids, this is why you should stay in school".
Ah. Sorry, there it is, crowbarred into the end. George Lucas, you can't be short of cash, so why are you allowing this? Isn't it ruining the Star Wars brand?
Superb, and gets better as it goes on. Extracts from the 1980's BBC documentary featuring a group of novice skiers at Söll. They don't make television like this anymore. Currently in the b3ta popular links, the full documentary can be found on this YouTube channel.
By the way, have you heard that another TV chef has been seen shoplifting? Yes, Nigella Lawson has been seen running out of Tesco's with two large melons under her coat. *Tumbleweed*
