Have you ever just stopped and taken a few minutes to peruse DARPA’s YouTube channel? There’s a good chance you’ve seen some of these before (maybe all of them), but some of this stuff is just downright spine tingling for anyone who has ever imagined a robot uprising.
The sound in this one really doesn’t make it any less scary:
Even the game of Simon can’t make this less creepy:
More of this:
Yes, they should definitely be more Cheetah-like:
They should definitely be able to creep (or stomp terrifyingly, rather) up stairs:
Yes. Even more Cheetah-like:
With new capabilities. Somehow scarier when it comes jogging out of the brush:
No obstacle shall stand in the way:
I’m not sure if there’s a ton to be gained by rereleasing Jurassic Park in 3D – on a purely cinematic level. Admittedly, I’m not 3D’s biggest proponent, but it’s unclear whether seeing the island and its inhabitants jump out of the screen will really add anything to what is already a stunning film – both visually and otherwise.
But rereleasing it, 3D or not, is something I can get behind. When Jurassic Park hit the theaters, I was seven years old. The adults responsible for me were pretty awesome so I got to see it in theaters. Jurassic Park is a movie you want to see in the theaters, no matter how many times you’ve caught it on cable. And for that reason alone, simply so more people can experience it on the big screen, it’s worth it.
Oh, and it will probably rake in plenty of cash.
Check out the new trailer for Jurassic Park 3D, which is really an old trailer refashioned as a new trailer. Oh well, anything involving Jurassic Park gives me a hit of nostalgia that I can’t help but cough over. Put away those damn onions, will ya?
Check out the not-nearly-Goldblumy-enough trailer below:
Jurassic Park 3D is set to his theaters in April of 2013 in celebration of the original film’s 20th anniversary. Jurassic Park 4, on the other hand, may be on the way a little on down the road.
[via JoBlo]
Remember the Go Google Hall & Oates “mangobbler” video?
“We love hearing about all the different ways people use collaboration in Docs – from creating shared grocery lists to co-authoring full length novels,” says product marketing manager Preston Hershom. “In the past, we even created a few of our own stories showing how you can go Google, whether you’re writing an 80s hit or crafting the perfect invite list.”
“Now, anyone can create their own story about collaboration with the Gone Google Story Builder,” says Hershom. “Make your own personalized video featuring the characters, story, and even music of your choosing and then share it with everyone you know (or maybe just a few of your closest friends).”
If you post your video to Google+ with the hashtag #gonegoogle, Google might feature it on a Google+ page.
If you can’t get to the app, you’re not alone. Google says that so many people are creating stories with it that it has been having trouble keeping up, but they’re working on taking care of that.
Clicks are everything, right? But of course, sometimes they are just too hard to come by. I mean, who has the time to develop and pursue a real viral campaign anymore? Your viral content needs views – or at least the illusion of views. If you’ve got the money, BUYRAL has the time.
In this parody ad from John St., we see that millions of clicks are just a few dollars away. Their dedicated clickers will work all day to make your content viral – and they even start the training from an early age. Check it out:
[h/t The Daily What]
This one is dedicated to the folks out there who sing loud and proud, even if they have no idea what they’re actually singing or if it is at all consistent with reality.
Here are some classic misheard lyrics, with a few interesting takes on what someone could hear in a lyric thrown in. You’ve got your classic, “‘scuse me, while I kiss this guy” and “I see a bathroom on the right” – but you also have some interesting listening mistakes I’ve never come across. “Obama’s elf?”
Whatever. They’re performed live which makes it all the more impressive, and fun. Check it out below:
[Collective Cadenza via UPROXX]
Google released an interesting Webmaster Help video today. This time, Matt Cutts takes on the topic of Google shutting down products, which is rather timely, considering that Google is getting ready to shut down homepage backgrounds, and a number of people are upset about it.
The user-submitted question is: “Matt, we often hear about Google ‘killing off’ products. Why do you guys do this? Are you just being mean or “out to get” us SEOs? Sounds like there is something bigger going on. Could you please elaborate?”
Cutts says he asked the user what they meant, and they gave him the example of the Wonder Wheel and iGoogle.
Cutts says this is an informal opinion, but then proceeds to respond, “In my experience, Google is pretty good about trying to explore the space. We want to try out new things. Unless you’re trying things out – like if you’re trying to ski, and you never fall – then you’re not really pushing yourself hard enough. So we do try out a bunch of different ideas. At the same time, some of those ideas are not going to work out.”
When you can see that a particular project is “not going to succeed,” he says, it might be time to put those resources (machines or engineers) into a different project. Sometimes, he says, something just doesn’t get enough traction over time.
“It can also be the case that maybe you build a product, and then the internal infrastructure that we use changes over time…evolves. I like to joke that the half life of code at Google is about six months. If you wait six months and go back to a particular section of code, like half of it will have changed. So there’s a lot of stuff going on internally under the hood to make our systems better at Google, but if you happen to fork off, and you’re on a strange little evolutionary path, so to speak, and then after a while people are like, ‘Oh, that is three generations behind our current technology, and we don’t even know how to get back to where we were before,’ then sometimes it’s easier to think about shutting down that project or rewriting it with newer technology or folding that functionality into a different thing.”
“It’s not malice,” he assures us.
That’s really only part of his answer, so watch the video for the rest, but he does make the point that if it has enough users, it’s unlikely that Google will shut it down. It’s unclear how many people are using background images.
Our favorite science/math illustrators are back today with a easy-to-understand breakdown of exactly why you should switch to door number two.
Today, AsapSCIENCE tackles the Monty Hall problem – the classic questions that stems from the game show “Let’s Make a Deal.” Let’s say you are given the choice between three doors – and there’s a car behind one of them. You pick door #1. Monty then reveals one of the wrong doors, #3. He asks if you want to change to door #2. Do you do it?
Surprisingly, yes. It may seem pointless, but making the switch actually increases your odds of winning. Check out how:
Last week, AsapSCIENCE looked at the real possibility of a zombie apocalypse. You should check that out too.
Jimmy Kimmel has been asking parents to unleash their inner troll for a couple of years now, and the product is always entertaining. For the second year in a row, the late night host made a simple request: tell your kids that you ate all of their Halloween candy, and film their reaction.
Mean? Absolutely. Hilarious? Absolutely. I, for one, think it’s good to teach your children how crushing disappointment feels at an early age. This way, they are better prepared for life’s curveballs. I know that’s cynical – but hey, it’s Monday.
Though it oftentimes leans toward the popular and recent, the IMDb’s Top 250 would be a pretty solid springboard for anyone wanting to get into film, or anyone trying to round out their film knowledge. Now, you can see all 250 films (plus 53 more) in the incredible 2 and 1/2-minute long supercut.
“This list does change infrequently, and I began the project over a month prior to November 1, 2012, so attention to my haters…Yes…I KNOW some of these movies are not on the top 250. 53 Titles to be exact (as of 11/1/12). However, none of my haters can tell me that any of these 303 titles do not exist on IMDB,” says creator Jonathan Keogh.
Check out a lot of amazing films in rapid fire below:
Awesome, right? It’s amazing that you’re able to identify so many of the films with only second-long clips. I guess it’s a testament to the superb editing.
[via reddit]
Now that the Star Wars franchise is in the (hopefully) capable hands of Disney, people are already speculating as to who might helm the next installment, slated for a 2015 release.
This clever parody imagines what might be going on over at Disney HQ right now, as execs scramble to find the right director. Tarantino? Shyamalan? Perry? Bay? At this point, who knows?
Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on much of the east coast and various locations inland earlier this week, and her destruction left millions without power, caused widespread flooding and property damage, and halted ground transportation in many cities.
It also disrupted air travel on a massive scale, as many are still feeling the effects of thousands of flight cancellations over the last few days. There have been 20,028 cancellations since Saturday, according to FlightStats. The bulk of those cancellations occurred on Monday and Tuesday (7,977 and 6,562 respectively) as the storm slammed into New Jersey and New York. Newark International, La Guardia, and JFK International experienced the most disruption.
FlightStats has compiled this data into an amazing heat map that shows the effect of the superstorm on U.S. air travel. You can check it out below:
[via Business Insider]
One of the more fascinating and terrifying things to come out of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the self-made videos posted by soldiers. The were the first two wars to occur in the YouTube age, and thus the first two wars that were able to be broadcast thousands of miles across the world into people’s living rooms – uncut.
Today, we have an example of that in the form of raw POV footage from Afghanistan.
On reddit, the poster claims that the soldier manning the POV camera is his friend who “almost got capped on camera.” Yeah, I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description. This Halloween, it’s good to remember that real life is often scarier than any monster from a work of fiction.
Check out the soldier’s near-death experience below:
Smashing pumpkins is fun. Smashing pumpkins in creative ways is more fun. Smashing pumpkins in creative ways in slow-motion is the most fun.
This short comes just in time for Halloween, from director Ross Ching for The Thrash Lab. Earlier this month he had a viral hit with this popsicle stick bomb video, shot at 1000 FPS.
Check out the top 10 ways to smash a pumpkin, at 1500 FPS:
These are some pretty good ideas for pumpkin smashing. I guess I’m obligated to tell everyone not to try this at home – or at anyone else’s home. At least wait until after Halloween. If you smash any of my intricately carved pumpkins, I’m going to go all Liam Neeson on you. I’m sure others feel the same way.
Retrograde Axonal Transport? Virus Specificity? Olfactory Nerve? If you’re unfamiliar with these terms, you may want to hit the virology books – because that’s exactly how the world is going to devolve into zombie chaos, according to AsapSCIENCE.
They take some previously reported pop science on a possible zombie-like outbreak and put it into a concise, understandable animation. So, could it really happen? Yes and no.
Are people going to die and come back to life? Probably not. But according to the video, a targeted virus that affected the right parts of the brain could turn living humans into zombie-like walkers. Important stuff, considering it’s Halloween week.
On the plus side, these hypothetical zombies wouldn’t pose quite the risk of traditional zombies. You wouldn’t have to shoot them in the head – any old close-range shotgun blast would do.
[via Geekosystem]
Back in September, we brought you the two-part saga, “Shit Apple Fanatics Say” – eight or so minutes of remarkably accurate utterances from most of your Apple fanboys friends. “Gestures.” “It just works.” “It’s revolutionary.” You know, stuff like that.
But we shouldn’t forget that Android users, the other side of this needless technological squabble, can also be quite the little fanboys. I mean, if they weren’t we wouldn’t have this “beef.” And every comment thread for every video ever put out by either Google Android or Apple wouldn’t have to be hijacked with an OS flamewar.
But since we know that’s never going to happen, we may as well balance the ticket with a “Shit Android Fanatics Say” video – because, you know, widgets.
Check it out below, courtesy Mobile Phone Finder: