Saturday, March 17, 2012

Romney surges in polls after flaunting wealth

Tonight's political satire, Republican primary edition, courtesy of The Onion:

Friday, March 16, 2012

Date Night, Rube Goldberg edition

Tonight's date night video:

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - James Taylor, Steve Martin and others rehearse Foggy Mountain Breakdown for the gala celebrating the 120th Anniversary of Carnegie Hall last year:

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Aurora

Tonight's aurora borealis video (try watching in full screen mode):

From the video's description:
... Shot in and around Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, at 70 degree north and 30 degrees east. Temperatures around -25 Celsius. Good fun. ...

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Scared crows

Tonight's commercial humor - not your average scarecrow:

Monday, March 12, 2012

Cell phones in church

Tonight's cell phone free worship service:

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Fun with airsoft

Tonight's airsoft project:

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - the Kruger Brothers' Forever and a Day:

Friday, March 9, 2012

Trunk Monkey

Tonight's optional auto accessory:

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Ping pong toddler

Tonight's ping pong video:

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Tides of March

Tonight's high tide video, from the Bay of Fundy:

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Big bore

Tonight's "Who's afraid of a little recoil?" video - shooting the .950 JDJ rifle, billed as the largest caliber centerfire rifle ever built - weighing in at 50 lbs, firing a 2,400 grain bullet via 240 grains of powder:




My shoulder hurts just looking at the video.

Monday, March 5, 2012

How to make an entrance at a movie premiere

Tonight's flashy entrance - Navy SEALs parachute in to the premiere of Act of Valor:

Here's a first person point-of-view:




And one from the ground:




A trailer for the movie:

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's brief musical interlude - How Mountain Girls Can Love, by the Sleepy Man Banjo Boys:

From the video's description:
A bedroom practice of Ralph Stanley's How Mountain Girls Can Love. Brothers Jonny Mizzone age 9 on banjo, Robbie Mizzone age 12 on fiddle, and Tommy Mizzone age 14 on guitar. Jonny is playing a Huber Vintage VRB-75 Banjo.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Elephant Picasso

Tonight's artistic elephant, from Thailand:

From the video's description:
Watch this elephant paint a beautiful image of an elephant holding a flower. You'll be amazed at how her talent unfolds as she carefully completes each stroke. Her mahout talks to her throughout the process as his gentle touch gives her confidence. She focuses on her work and seems to enjoy the approval of the audience and, of course, the sugar cane and banana treats. All of her training has been reward based. ...

Friday, March 2, 2012

That's like, so, you know, totally uncool

Tonight's language rant, courtesy poet and comedian Taylor Mali:

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Training flight

Tonight's Navy aviation training video - according to the video's description, footage from a fighter detachment at NASWI (Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, in Washington State) with VFA-204:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Temporal distortion

Tonight's time lapse video (try watching in full-screen mode):

From the video's description:
What you see is real, but you can't see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of thousands of 20-30 second exposures, edited together to produce the timelapse. This allows you to see the Milky Way, Aurora and other Phenonmena, in a way you wouldn't normally see them.

In the opening "Dakotalapse" title shot, you see bands of red and green moving across the sky. After asking several Astronomers, they are possible noctilucent clouds, airglow or faint Aurora. I never got a definite answer to what it is. You can also see the red and green bands in other shots.

At :53 and 2:17 seconds into the video you see a Meteor with a Persistent Train. Which is ionizing gases, which lasted over a half hour in the cameras frame. Phil Plait wrote an article about the phenomena here blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/10/02/a-meteors-lingering-tale/
There is a second Meteor with a much shorter persistent train at 2:51 in the video. This one wasn't backlit by the moon like the first, and moves out of the frame quickly.

The Aurora were shot in central South Dakota in September 2011 and near Madison, Wisconsin on October 25, 2011.

Watch for two Deer at 1:27

Most of the video was shot near the White River in central South Dakota during September and October 2011, there are other shots from Arches National Park in Utah, and Canyon of the Ancients area of Colorado during June 2011. ...

Monday, February 27, 2012

Heavy machinery, delicate work

Tonight's deft excavator operator:

Sunday, February 26, 2012

How it's made, wheel edition

Tonight's how-it's-made video - steel racing wheels:

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude mashup - Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls + The Beatles' Come Together:

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Iron, wrought

Tonight's wrought iron video:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Finger artist

Tonight's nimble-fingered artist:

Monday, February 20, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Chris Thile and How to Grow a Band From the Ground performs at the 2007 Joe Val Bluegrass Festival:

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Fishing under ice

Tonight's upside down video, from under the ice at Lake Saarijärvi in Vaala, Finland (try watching full screen):

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The joy of books

Tonight's animated bookstore - filmed at the Type Bookstore in Toronto:

Friday, February 17, 2012

Hello

Tonight's Lionel Richie song, movie collage version:

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Federer trick shot redux

Tonight's don't-try-this-at-home video - Andy Murray and James Corden, of the UK TV show A League of Their Own, attempts to recreate Roger Federer's William Tell trick shot:




Here's the original Roger Federer video:

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Robot meets Rubik's Cube

Tonight's robotics video - an automated Rubik's Cube solver sets a new Guinness World Record:

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Celtic Woman performs Ave Maria:

Monday, February 13, 2012

Fast hotel

Tonight's quick construction project - building a 30-story hotel in 360 hours using pre-fabricated materials:

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Word as image

Tonight's lexicographical video:

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Machete slingshot

Tonight's machete slingshot:

Friday, February 10, 2012

A real page turner

Tonight's Rube Goldberg page-turning contraption:

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Another blond public school graduate

Tonight's blond humor:

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

When bungee cords fail

Tonight's reason not to go bungee jumping - an Australian woman goes bungee jumping near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe:

Raw footage (language NSFW):




Luckily she survived - here she is in an interview about the fall:

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Spray on clothing

Tonight's aerosol fashion:

Monday, February 6, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, Op. 11, performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra:

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Close calls

Tonight's close calls:

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Superbowl car ads

Tonight's look at some Superbowl ads, automotive edition:





Friday, February 3, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Florence and the Machine's Cosmic Love:

Thursday, February 2, 2012

The Pyro Board

Tonight's musical flames:

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

A short history of the modern calendar

Tonight's history video:

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Who's your favorite?

Tonight parental favorite:

Monday, January 30, 2012

Time is nothing

Tonight's time lapse video (try watching it in full screen mode) - Time is Nothing - Around the World Time Lapse: 17 Countries. 343 Days. 6237 Photographs. One incredible journey.:

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Somebody that I used to Know, by Walk Off the Earth:

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Your flight, from your baggage's perspective

Tonight's passenger travel video, from your bag's point-of-view:

Friday, January 27, 2012

Not good at parking? There's an app for that

Tonight's parking assistant:

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Polite distances

Tonight's etiquette video:

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

100 Years in 10 Minutes

Tonight's history video recap:

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Rollerman

Tonight's extreme sports video - "Rollerman" Jean Yves Blondeau:

Monday, January 23, 2012

Move

Tonight's travel video - a guy travels the world and splices together one second of video from each location:

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Jarrod Radnich plays his original arrangement of themes from Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean":

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Maybe she's born with it ... or maybe it's Fotoshop

Tonight's digital image-manipulation video satire - Fotoshop by Adobé:

Friday, January 20, 2012

The higher the heels, the bigger the fall

Tonight's catwalk fashion model video:

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Lobsters... Whoa!

Tonight's cute kid reaction:

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Best of 2011

Tonight's best-of compilation:

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Dance like nobody's watching

Tonight's laundromat dancer, Angela Trimbur - in a laundromat in Echo Park, CA:

Monday, January 16, 2012

The Three Little Pigs, Shakespeare edition

Tonight's fairy tale, in the manner of The Bard:

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Snowboarding

Tonight's best-of compilation - snowboarding videos:

Saturday, January 14, 2012

That's about how it works

Tonight's debt increase video satire:

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Serene

Tonight's time lapse video - The Mountain, filmed from El Teide in Spain:

From the video's description [link(s) omitted]:
... The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.

A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.

Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32.


Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Looping elevator

Tonight's unusual elevator - the cyclic elevator, or Paternoster lift, at the Attenborough Tower at the University of Leicester, UK:

From WikiPedia:
A paternoster or paternoster lift is a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments (each usually designed for two persons) that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can step on or off at any floor they like. The same technique is also used for filing cabinets to store great amounts of (paper) documents or for small spare parts. As a result of safety issues, many such lifts have been shut down, however a small few survive around the world, the largest of these located in the Arts Tower at the University of Sheffield, which also remains the tallest university-owned building in the UK.[1]
...
First built in 1884 by the Dartford, England engineering firm of J & E Hall Ltd as the Cyclic Elevator, the name paternoster ("Our Father", the first two words of the Lord's Prayer in Latin) was originally applied to the device because the elevator is in the form of a loop and is thus similar to rosary beads used as an aid in reciting prayers.[2]

Paternosters were popular throughout the first half of the 20th century as they could carry more passengers than ordinary elevators. They were more common in continental Europe, especially in public buildings, than in the United Kingdom. They are rather slow elevators, typically travelling at about 0.3 metres per second, thus improving the chances of getting on and off successfully.[3]

The construction of new paternosters is no longer allowed in many countries because of the high risk of accidents (people tripping or falling over when trying to enter or alight). Five people were killed by paternosters from 1970 to 1993. The elderly, the handicapped and children are the most in danger of being crushed.[4] In 1989, the paternoster in Newcastle University's Claremont Tower was taken out of service after a passenger undertaking an up-and-over journey became caught in the drive chain, necessitating a rescue by the Fire Service. A conventional elevator was subsequently installed in its place. This accident led to an 18-month close-down of all UK paternosters for a safety review,[citation needed] during which additional safety devices were fitted. ...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Take a photo

Tonight's photo experiment:

Monday, January 9, 2012

News bloopers 2011

Tonight's news blooper compilation:

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Movie quotes, Arnold Schwarzenegger edition

Tonight's movie quote compilation (Warning: language NSFW):

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Roller coaster

Tonight's European mountain ride:

Friday, January 6, 2012

Zeitgeist 2011

Tonight's year in review video:

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - a rendition of The Chordettes' Mister Sandman:

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Near miss

Tonight's close call:

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Party tricks

Tonight's party tricks video:

Monday, January 2, 2012

Address is approximate

Tonight's short movie:

From the video description:
Google Street View stop motion animation short made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins.

Story: A lonely desk toy longs for escape from the dark confines of the office, so he takes a cross country road trip to the Pacific Coast in the only way he can – using a toy car and Google Maps Street View. ...


Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous New Year!

Today's video - Where the Hell is Matt?, dancing his exuberantly silly little jig (now over 40 million views on YouTube):

Monday, December 26, 2011

Gone fishin'

Taking a few days off from posting. See you in the New Year.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everyone a joyous and very merry Christmas! May the nativity of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ fill our hearts, minds, and souls with joy and His Divine Love.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Canon Rock:

Friday, December 23, 2011

Hallelujah Chorus

Tonight's musical interlude, Alaskan grade school edition - Hallelujah Chorus - with kids from the Kuinerrarmiut Elitnaurviat 5th Grade school, and villagers from Quinhagak, Alaska:

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Puppies for Christmas

Tonight's video montage - puppies for Christmas!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Celtic Woman performs Panis Angelicus:



Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Hallelujah Chorus, Silent Monk edition

Tonight's musical interlude - the Hallelujah Chorus, by the Silent Monks:

Monday, December 19, 2011

Veni, Veni Emmanuel

Tonight's (bonus) musical interlude -- the beautiful Advent hymn Veni, Veni Emmanuel (O Come, O Come, Emmanuel) rendered in the beautiful Latin:

This performance by L'Accorche-Choeur, Ensemble vocal Fribourg, conducted by Zoltán Kodály:





This more contempory performance by Mannheim Steamroller:

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Celtic Woman performs Amazing Grace:




Sunday, December 18, 2011

A hub of activity

Tonight's Internet infrastructure video:

From the video's description:
Lower Manhattan’s 60 Hudson Street is one of the world’s most concentrated hubs of Internet connectivity. This short documentary peeks inside, offering a glimpse of the massive material infrastructure that makes the Internet possible. ...


Saturday, December 17, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Celtic Woman performs Little Drummer Boy:

Friday, December 16, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - the North Point Community Church's iBand makes music using iPads and iPhones:

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bob Hope - Christmas with the troops

Tonight's video - Bob Hope entertains the troops:

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

FedEx Ground dominoes

Tonight's domino video, FedEx edition:

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Special effects

Tonight's special effects video collage, showing the use of blue and green screens in movies and TV shows:

Monday, December 12, 2011

Mi nombre es ...

Tonight's vocal impersonator, from the Spanish-language show Mi Nombre Es...:

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Showtime

Tonight's department store Christmas display - Saks Fifth Avenue 3D video projection show at their flagship store in New York City:

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Never Wet

Tonight's hydro-phobic video:

Friday, December 9, 2011

A friendly voice

Tonight's friendly voice:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - Anna Burden (I think that's the singer's name) performs Lulu and the Lampshades' You're Gonna Miss Me:

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Earth time lapse from ISS

Tonight's time lapse video - Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 on board the International Space Station from August to October,
2011:

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

When news anchors fail

Tonight's news anchor fail compilation:

Monday, December 5, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude, a repost - from an October 2010 performance:

From the video's description:
... [T]he Opera Company of Philadelphia brought together over 650 choristers from 28 participating organizations to perform one of the Knight Foundation's "Random Acts of Culture" at Macy's in Center City Philadelphia. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ - the world's largest pipe organ - the OCP Chorus and throngs of singers from the community infiltrated the store as shoppers, and burst into a pop-up rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's "Messiah" at 12 noon, to the delight of surprised shoppers. ...


Sunday, December 4, 2011

Never Wet

Tonight's dry innovation:

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Happy Hannukkah

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish visitors! Tonight's Hannukkah rap -- Candlelight, by the Maccabeats:

Friday, December 2, 2011

Musical interlude

Tonight's musical interlude - actor and comedian Michael Winslow, billed as the "Man of 10,000 sound effects" for his ability to make sound effects using only his voice, performs Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love on a Norwegian TV show:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Human slingshot

Tonight's fun-with-bungee-cords video: