WebProNews

Tag: Videos

  • This Amazing Time-Lapse Takes Us Through 30 Days and 30 Nights in New Zealand

    Many of my travel-savvy friends have told me that New Zealand is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Having never been myself, I can only take their word on it. But the fact that the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the upcoming film The Hobbit were all filmed there makes me think I should visit as soon as I possibly can.

    Trey Ratcliff recognizes the beauty in the country, and decided to showcase it in an epic time-lapse video, which he calls 30 Days and 30 Nights in Queenstown.

    I shot and edited the entire piece myself here in Queenstown, New Zealand. All of the shots are from this little fertile crescent. I get many questions about that interior shot, and that is from the Commonage Villas ( http://www.commonagevillas.com/ ). I stayed there for about a month while house-shopping, and I think it has some of the best views in Queenstown! Besides that location, every shot was less than a fifteen minute drive from my home.

    He says that he put over 300 hours of work into the project and compiled over tens of thousands of photos in the process (not all of which he used, obviously). Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful achievement and mandatory viewing if you have around six minutes to spare (and I know you do).

    Oh, and you can thank Hans Zimmer for the epic soundtrack.

    Check it out below:

  • Martin Scorsese Siri Ad Gets Another Parody (Funny Or Die Style)

    It was inevitable that the Apple commercial for its iPhone 4S, featuring Martin Scorsese using Siri in the back of a taxi cab, would conjure up images from Scorsese’s classic Taxi Driver, especially considering that in the film there was a scene where Scorsese himself was riding in the back of a cab.

    Now there’s a parody of the commercial from Funny or Die, which goes the extra step of splicing in footage from the film. You can view it here, as the embedding has been disabled. It’s not really all that funny, so it’s up to you.

    Of course, this isn’t the first time the commercial has been parodied. We shared this one last week:

    Here’s another one that hit YouTube sometime in between those two (language NSFW):

  • DeAngelo Williams Wants His Facebook Fans To Create His Next Touchdown Celebration

    You can feel the excitement in the air as the NFL preseason gets underway. The NFL preseason serves two purposes for fans; First, it quenches the football drought that they’ve been experiencing all summer. And is also signals that we’re only a month away from the actual NFL season.

    This Saturday, the Carolina Panthers tackle the Houston Texans, and Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams wants to make the game special – by performing one your your touchdown celebrations.

    Williams has posted a video to Facebook, asking his fans to post videos of their own endzone dances. He says that the best one will get its moment in primetime, as he’ll perform it if he scores a touchdown during the preseason.

    Here’s what he had to say in the video:

    In light of Saturday’s first game against the Houston Texans, I want to run this. For four weeks I’m gonna get a chance to choose between you guys. I want you to put it under my comment box, I wanna get you guys involved in the game. This is what I’m gonna do: I’m gonna give you an opportunity, right now, underneath. I want you to comment and post a link of you doing your best touchdown celebration. The best one , if I score on Saturday or throughout this preseason, I’ll do your endzone celebration.

    Hundreds of comments have poured in, but not everyone is fully understanding DWill’s request. A lot of people are posting videos to generic dances, and there are quite a few suggestion for “The Carlton.” He does have some originals pouring in, although I can’t attest to their quality:

    But hey, anything to spice up the preseason is cool in my book.

    [h/t AllFacebook]

  • Watch Epke Zonderland’s Ridiculous Gold Medal High Bar Routine

    There are good men’s horizontal bar routines. Then there is Dutch gymnast Epke Zonderland’s horizontal bar routine.

    Yesterday, during the final day of gymnastics competition at the 2012 Olympics, the Dutchman wowed spectators and TV audiences alike with his high-flying acrobatics on the way to a gold medal – The Netherlands’ first ever gold in the event.

    Zonderland, apart from sporting one of cooler names in these London Games, performed a routine with an insane start value of 17.900. The high difficulty was granted, in large part, because of a back-to-back-to-back (that’s three) release combination.

    And he nailed it. Check it out below:

    He was awarded a 16.533, which was just enough to beat German Fabian Hambuechen for the gold. For U.S. TV audiences, this was the last gymnastic event the NBC aired for 2012. I’d say it was a spectacular way to go out.

  • These Glasses Let You See the World Through the Blinks of Others

    Imagine that you’re sitting in a room with a few other people, and suddenly the lights flicker for just a brief second. Everyone looks around and then eventually turns to one another. What’s the first thing that everyone says?

    “Whoa, did everyone just blink at the same time or did the lights go out?”

    Well, this installation from artist Michal Kohút is a play on the “shared blinking experience.” Except we’re not dealing with a group blink, but rather seeing the world through the blinking patterns of another person.

    It’s a pretty interesting concept. The installation involves a single pair of glasses that when worn, turn off the lights in the room every time you blink. Considering that the average human blink is anywhere from 100 to 400 milliseconds, that’s a pretty quick off-and-on for the lights. Kohút knew that it would be tricky to time exactly right, and his initial attempts to use a camera failed. He then sought some help from those more technologically gifted and eventually wound up with a mechanism that uses a sensor to read reflections from the eye. Whenever that sensor detects a “rapid change” from the average, it labels it a blink and turns the lights off.

    You blink – the room blinks.

    Of course, the wearer is none the wiser. They blink, and the world goes dark for an instant – same as always. But spectators get to experience the blinking rhythms of someone else, paired with their own. It must be an interesting experience – almost like the room is blinking, or the world is.

    Check it out below:

    [via Co.Design]

  • Watch 138 People Break The World Skydiving Record

    Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and Gabby Douglas aren’t the only people setting records through amazing physical achievements. In an effort that took over three days, nearly a gross of skydivers took to the skies over Ottawa, Illinois to break the world record in vertical skydiving.

    138 divers, to be exact. The previous record was 108, and people traveled from all over the world – France, Sweden, Ukraine, Italy, Russia, and more – to participate.

    Over the course of the three days, the 138 skydivers attempted the mid-air feat 15 times before getting it right. The divers jumped from 18,500 feet and formed a snowflake formation, all while falling at speeds or up to 220 mph.

    Check it out below:

  • Curiosity Rover Descends To The Martian Surface [VIDEO]

    Like many people who dreamed of being an astronaut when they were kids, I’m pretty awestruck when it comes to anything NASA (and space in general). Because of that, I’ve been anxiously awaiting any updates from NASA concerning the Curiosity rover (MSL), the one-ton exploration vehicle that just landed on the surface of Mars.

    We know that all of the images we’ve seen so far are just the beginning – NASA says that as soon as the rover’s mast is deployed and the high-res camera is set up, we’ll start receiving bigger, color images from the Martian surface.

    Go ahead a call this a preliminary image too – or, set of images to be more exact. This 4 fps video just released by NASA/JPL shows the Curiosity’s descent to the surface of the Red Planet.

    This stop-motion video shows 297 frames from the Mars Descent Imager aboard NASA’s Curiosity rover as it descended to the surface of Mars. These thumbnail images were received on Earth on August 6th, 2012, and cover the last two and a half minutes of descent.

    It’s small and grainy – but amazing nonetheless. Check it out below:

  • These 5 Videos Will Make You A Google Shopping Expert

    These 5 Videos Will Make You A Google Shopping Expert

    Google has released the following four Google+ hangouts discussing Google Shopping. The first is an intro and overview. The second is an intro to the Merchant Center. The third is about creative and optimizing product listing ads, and the fourth is about Google Trusted Stores and setup.

    Google recently shared this Google I/O session video about “empowering local shopping” with Google Shopping as well:

    If you take the time to watch all of these, you should be pretty informed about the Google Shopping process.

    Remember, Google will complete the transition from Product Search to Google Shopping this fall, and it’s already August.

  • Well, My Childhood Sucked: Dad Soups-Up Son’s Power Wheels Car

    At one point in my life, I had my own go-kart. It was awesome and I was the envy of my friends, naturally. But that didn’t happen until I was a little bit older – definitely older than this luckiest kid alive.

    Not only did the kid get to enjoy his souped-up ride at the end, but he got a great lesson in mechanics as well. Rebuilding your first car from the ground up at the age of 5? That’s a memory that will last a lifetime.

    From YouTube:

    At the age of 2 Evan received his Lightning McQueen Powerwheel for christmas of 2009. After three years of use he had worn through the plastic wheels. We decided to upgrade the oem plastic wheels to metal rims with rubber tires. From that point more modifications were added every few weeks. Now, Evans Lightning McQueen Powerwheel is equipped with an aluminum back half chassis, dual sealed gel batteries with an output of 24 volts, a 500 watt .66 horsepower electric motor, disk brake, throttle modulated variable speed control with reverse and sparco battery cut off switch.

    Check out the evolution of the Lighting McQueen Power Wheel below:

    All I know is that kid better not give his dad grief ever again, for the rest of his life.

    [via reddit]

  • Fifty Shades of Grey, as Performed by Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell

    Let’s just say that I don’t expect an audiobook anytime soon.

    During a promotional interview for their upcoming film The Campaign, Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis were surprised and asked to give an impromptu dramatic reading of popular masturbatory fan fiction megahit Fifty Shades of Grey.

    Other than utter confusion and a lack of any sense of syntactical structure, I think they did a bang up job.

    The writing is indeed exquisite.

    With all do respect to Mr. Galifianakis and Mr. Ferrell, I don’t know if it can top this (NSFW):

  • Silver Medal Amounts to “Disgracing the Motherland” for One Chinese Olympian

    I think it’s safe to say that for most Olympians, winning a Silver medal is a joyous experience. Sure, you may feel a bit disappointed in not taking home the Gold, but I doubt most athletes would feel as though they’ve let down their entire country with a second place performance.

    The exception, apparently, is in China. The country is currently in the lead in both total medals and Gold medals, but one Chinese Olympian is less than thrilled about his contribution to the cause. Weightlifter Wu Jingbiao had nothing but tears to give after grabbing the Silver in Men’s 56kg.

    This clip of Wu in an interview following his runner-up performance is going viral – and it’s no wonder. It shows the olympian overcome with emotion, crying into the arms of the reporter. Remember guys, he just won a Silver medal at the Olympics!

    According to Bloomberg, here’s part of what Wu said during the interview:

    “I’m ashamed for disgracing the motherland, the Chinese weightlifting team and all those who supported me. I’m sorry!”

    It’s terrible to see someone so torn up, feeling that they’ve shamed an entire nation. It’s even more unfortunate when it’s a medal winner who’s so disappointed.

    [Image via London2012.com]

  • Louis C.K. Apologizes More Than Anyone, Ever

    One of the great things about Louis C.K.’s comedy, both his standup and his hit show Louie, is that it is oftentimes painfully self-deprecating. Some of his best bits involve his failings as a father, husband, and the ability to be a generally decent human being.

    But behind all of that we know that Louis C.K., and by extension Louie, is a great guy.

    With that in mind, have you ever noticed that Louie apologizes. A lot.

    And if your day was bereft of a good Louis C.K. compilation video, you’re in luck. You’ll actually be shocked with how many “sorry” utterances appear on Louie, and it’s only halfway through season three.

    From the folks over at Slacktory, check out the supercut below:

  • Usain Bolt Bested…By a Cheetah

    Usain Bolt Bested…By a Cheetah

    In 2009, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt set an astounding world record in the 100m dash: 9.58 seconds. That’s fast. Really, really fast. But even with a time like that, he’s hardly the fastest land mammal.

    That distinction is now held by Sarah, an 11-year-old cheetah who lives at the Cincinnati Zoo. This summer, Sarah broke her own 100m record of 6.13 seconds with a blistering 5.95 seconds – the first sub-six time by any creature on two or four legs.

    And now, thanks to National Geographic, you can watch her fly:

    Sarah, an 11-year-old cheetah at the Cincinnati Zoo, set a new world speed record this summer during a shoot for National Geographic magazine. She first earned the title of world’s fastest land mammal in 2009 when she covered 100 meters in 6.13 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 6.19 seconds set by a male South African cheetah named Nyana in 2001. On June 20, 2012, Sarah shattered all 100-meter times when she posted 5.95 seconds.

    By comparison, Sarah’s 100-meter run was nearly four seconds faster than the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt of Jamaica, whose fastest time for the same distance is 9.58 seconds. Sarah’s top speed was clocked at 61 mph.

    Now, the Usain Bolt association may be a little unfair – he’s only working with two legs. But it is amazing to see just how fast an animal on the hunt can be. That Sarah the cheetah could shatter the fastest man in the world’s time by more than 3 seconds – it’s fascinating and truly terrifying at the same time.

    For a comparison, here’s Bolt setting that record back in 2009:

    Bolt will race in the 100m final this weekend. Can he defend his title? Maybe. But as far as setting a new world record, there’s only so low he can go. According to one Dutch mathematician, 9.36 seconds is about as low as a human being can go at the moment.

  • Someone Thought a Robot that Swims Like a Human Was a Good Idea

    I no longer feel the need to preface anything about robots with the phrase “it’s my belief that,” because it’s now a mathematical certainty that humans are slowly but surely engineering our violent and imminent overthrow by continuing to make smarter, faster robots.

    Google’s busy making spider robots, some scientist with a death wish is teaching them how to learn from prior actions. Other are making sure they can perform like SEAL Team Six – it’s insanity.

    But the one thought that has allowed me to sleep at night was the hope that during the violent robot uprising, I could simply swim out into the ocean and await my fate at the hands of a shark or something.

    Apparently no, I won’t even have that option.

    Japanese engineers (surprise) have developed Swumanoid, the prototype swimming robot.

    The robot overall has a special-purpose drive using four struts, and the force the robot receives from the water can be measured. Because the robot is currently at the prototype stage, its swimming speed, corrected for size, is 0.64 m/s or approximately three times slower than the current world record for the 100m freestyle. From now on, the researchers are planning improvements to make it faster.

    Yes, let’s make it faster…

    Zombies? Hah! You’re looking at the end right here folks.

    [via Geekologie]

  • Watch This Guy Attempt The Michael Phelps Diet Challenge

    Back when Michael Phelps had his amazing medal run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one of the many facts about the young swimmer that fascinated the nation was that he consumes somewhere around 12,000 calories a day. At first, it sounds like a ridiculous amount of food – and it is. It’s somewhere in the ballpark of 24 Quarter Pounders w/ Cheese. But when you remember that he trains hours upon hours each day and burns of copious amounts of calories in the process, that massive number becomes a bit more palatable.

    A bit.

    I don’t know why (some unworldly level of masochism, I guess), but professional competitive eater Furious Pete decided to attempt the “Michael Phelps Diet Challenge.” In that challenge, a person must consume the entire daily allotment of Phelp’s caloric intake – in one sitting.

    Here’s what the challenge consists of:

    3 Fried Egg Sandwiches, Bowl of Grits/Oatmeal, 5 Egg Omlet 3x French Toast, 3x Chocolate Chip Pancakes, 2 Large Ham and Cheese Sandwiches, 0.5 Kilos (1+lb) of Pasta, 1 x XL Pepperoni Pizza, 0.5 Kilos (1+lb) of Pasta, and various Energy Drinks

    That’s pretty much dead on what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast, lunch, and dinner – according to MichaelPhelps.net.

    Check it out below to see if he’s successful:

    12,000 calories is roughly the sustenance that’s recommended for an adult over the course of six days. I can imagine that eating all of that in a matter of minutes is probably not the best thing you can do for your body. As a veteran of a couple White Castle and Taco Bell eating challenges, let be be the first to ask you to please please not try this at home.

    [via reddit]

  • Colonel Sanders May Prefer The White Meat, But He Loves The Gays

    Although we’re not entirely sure of Mike Huckabee’s true intentions for scheduling a national “shove your face with Chick-fil-A” day, it’s happening today, all the same. Around the country, millions of people are lining up to buy a spicy chicken sandwich and some waffle fries to show their support during Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

    Why would Chick-fil-A need their own impromptu appreciation day? Well, unless you’ve been living under a rock you’re probably aware of the pounding the company has taken lately because of their President’s outspoken criticism of gay marriage. Those comments (although rather unsurprising to most) prompted a strong backlash from marriage equality supporters, some of which called for boycotts.

    Honestly, I’m sure that most of the population would just as soon advocate that everyone shuts the hell up as they would pick a position either way.

    But both sides of the controversy are fired up. The Chick-fil-A haters are simply standing up for what they feel is a universal social injustice and a company that perpetuates it. Or perhaps they’re just showing that they can be as intolerant toward others’ beliefs as the intolerance that they rail against.

    The Chick-fil-A supporters have held their ground against those who would attempt to chastise a company for promoting good Christian values. Or maybe it’s the company’s right to free speech in the form of donations that draws their support. Perhaps they are just close minded bigots falling rather ungracefully on the wrong side of history.

    Whatever the case, the Colonel doesn’t give a sh*t. KFC loves the gays, or maybe they just love your money. Either way, they want to take Chick-fil-A’s business.

    Check out this Funny or Die sketch featuring John Goodman in the role he was born to play – Colonel Sanders:

  • A Different, Funnier Take On That Martin Scorsese Siri Commercial

    Last week, we showed you an a new iPhone 4S commercial featuring Martin Scorsese using Siri. While much tamer, we couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain uncomfortable scene in Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

    Now, there’s a funnier take on the ad. AppJudgment has uploaded the following parody to YouTube (via 9to5Mac):

    This video is even funnier considering that a real Siri ad was recently called out for delivering bogus information.

  • “Taken” Would Be Much Different Without Liam Neeson

    Whenever I happen to catch the movie Taken on FX or Starz, I always think how incredibly lucky that girl is that Liam Neeson is her dad.

    Despite being a tad unbelievable as times (teenage girls want to follow a U2 world tour? U2?), I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love the movie. I mean, how can you not? It’s an hour and 45 minutes of badassery with a waterworks-inducing climax. It’s what an action movie is supposed to be.

    But that thought always gets me: it’s rather fortuitous that the father of the kidnapped girl has a “particular set of skills.”

    So, what if the dad whose kid was taken had no real particular set of skills – that is, except a true love for meatballs and Home Improvement?

    Courtesy of Captain Hippo, check out the trailer for Taken: With a Real Dad.

    If that admittedly hilarious fake trailer left you thirsty for actual Liam Neeson ass-kicking, make sure to go check out the international trailer for Taken 2, set to hit theaters on October 5th.

  • Here’s 40 Minutes Worth of Chrome WebRTC Developer Discussion

    If your’e looking to develop for WebRTC, you may be interested in the following Google+ hangout video Google has uploaded to YouTube.

    If your’e not familiar with WebRTC, it’s a free, open source project designed to enable web browsers with real-time communications capabilities via Javascript APIs. Google’s Chrome team creates and maintains the Web RTC site, but the project is supported by Google, Mozilla and Opera.

    Now, watch a handful developers discuss it:

  • This LEGO Wheelchair Can Transport A 200-Lb Guy

    I’m sure you’re well-versed in the amazing things that can be built using everyone’s favorite childhood (and adulthood, for that matter) toy, LEGO. So, it’s probably not surprising to hear that someone has managed to make another awesome machine using just a couple different sets of LEGOs and a few multi-directional wheels.

    There are plenty of unfortunate reasons why a person would need to move around in a wheelchair. But if you had to use one, I can’t imagine anything cooler than a LEGO wheelchair.

    It can move up to 90kg, which clocks in at a little over 198 pounds. Here’s how the machine works:

    It uses 6 NXT’s to drive 12 NXT motors (2 per NXT for maximum power output) which are connected to 12 Rotacaster multi-directional wheels. Using these wheels will later allow for side to side movement(strafing).

    There is a master NXT which controls the 6 NXT via turning on/off touch sensors. The joystick is connected to 4 touch sensors to determine direction (forward, backwards, turn left, turn right).
    The master NXT then turns 2 motors (left / right side) different directions which turn on / off 12 touch sensors (2 per NXT for backwards / forwards).

    Courtesy of Burf’s Crazy Lego Inventions, check out the first-ever LEGO wheelchair:

    [via MAKE:]

  • How To Get Started With The Google Places API In 15 Minutes

    Google uploaded two videos about the Google Places API today. The first one is about getting started with the API, and the second one is a Q&A on the same topic. Together, you’re looking at about fifteen minutes of your time, and if this is something you think your app might be able to benefit from, you might as well check them out.

    The documentation for the API, which Google still considers experimental, by the way, can be found here.