Thursday, April 28, 2011

We Would So Be Amused

I know the royal wedding is this week, but it wasn't something that really held any interest for me. That is, until I discovered that one of the invited guests is Rowan Atkinson, better known to most of us as Mr. Bean.

Hopefully this time around, meeting Tha Q-Dawg will go a bit better.


Mr Bean - Meeting Royalty

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

We've Got Big Balls


In 1979 Atari released Hercules, one of the largest pinball machines in the world, standing 83 inches tall by 39 inches wide by 93 inches deep. It used a standard billiard cue ball instead of the traditional smaller steel pinball, and boasted over 18 square feet of playing surface.

I was quite the arcade rat at that time, and remember playing this. Sadly, the gargantuan game provided Lilliputian fun. The larger, heavier ball meant frustratingly slow gameplay compared to a traditional steel pinball, and the cue ball moved and felt like a shotput being heaved about as it lumbered from target to target. That coupled with the uninspired and overly-simplistic playing field made for a really, really dull game.

HERCULES
"Where the Fun Never Ends! Starts!"
(image via TheLongestListoftheLongestStuffattheLongestDomainNameatLongLast.com)




A speeding 500-pound rubberband ball versus car. Hint: don't bet on the car. (could have done with a bit of editing, so if you're the impatient type, jump to 1:56)



Just after Christmas last year, a Dayton, Ohio design company came out with the world's largest claw game called The Santa Claw. It allowed internet users to connect and control the 2000-pound robotic claw game as they tried to pick up giant balls filled with (mostly) small prizes that the company would ship to the lucky winners, free of charge.

It became wildly popular, with queues of 700 or more people, which meant minding their browser for 8+ hours waiting for a brief three-fingered grasp at destiny. Over 4,000 prizes were awarded, ranging from a set of those plastic chattering teeth to the complete Dokken collection on vinyl.

The game no longer awards real prizes, and crowds have since died away so there's probably no more than a few minutes waiting, but you can still play for fun at TheSantaClaw.com (via Destructoid)





AC/DC - Big Balls

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Was It A Car Or A Cat I Saw?


The strangely satisfying Symmetry video from Everynone on Vimeo.


Automagically generate your own symmetrical frozen creations with this oldie but goodie: Flake Maker from zefrank.com.




Weird Al Yankovic - "Bob", where each line of the song is palindromic. Compare to the iconic video for Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Saturday, April 16, 2011

What Is... Freaking Insane?



J! Archive has the answers and questions to every Jeopardy! show since Alex Trebek started hosting 27 seasons ago in 1984. I'll take Holy Crap! for a thousand, Alex!

Monday, April 11, 2011

Ice Ice Baby

A gallery of some pretty amazing ice sculptures



Pretty funny ad from the Bic Shaver folks. I have sympathetic shrinkage just from watching... (via Colossal art + design)




Jonathan Coulton - Curl




Scary Ice Hockey Accident
Clint Malarchuk was goalie for the NHL Buffalo Sabres in 1989. During a game against the St. Louis Blues, Steve Tuttle of the Blues and Uwe Krupp of the Sabres became entangled while chasing the puck and crashed into Malarchuk's goal, Tuttle's skate caught Malarchuk on the neck, severing his internal carotid artery.

Thanks to some quick action by the team's trainer, Malarchuk survived the incident, though surgeons needed over 300 stitches to close the wound.

Sunday, April 03, 2011

The Words Below


The most elaborate commercial ever for... well, you're just going to have to watch and find out. (via Copyranter)



Jeez. Those guys are so touchy.