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Last year, Kawika Singson used a GoPro to capture amazing footage of lava spilling into the ocean. Twisted Sifter notes that the camera was "hopefully on a very long pole." This is only one of many incredible lava videos in his YouTube channel. Watch more and flinch repeatedly.

Singson shot the videos at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. It's very dangeorus work:

It was extremely difficult to get to," he told The Huffington Post. "The videos can only show you so much, but to actually be there, to feel the heat. ... The heat is one thing, but the gases are extremely toxic."

Singson, a Hawaii local who explores the lava and volcano at least once a week, outfits himself with a respirator when filming lava closely and wears long pants and long-sleeved shirts to protect himself from burns. Although his rubber tennis shoes sometimes melt as he walks over the scorching grounds, he prefers them to fire-proof boots, in case he has to run from a collapsing area or a random combustion. The thin soles also help him more accurately feel the ground over which he's walking.

"You have to be on the top of your game out there," he said. "First of all, you have the ocean and the current, then you have the lava, then you have to worry about bridges collapsing and then you have to worry about the super-hot toxic steam. All those things are going on at the same time."

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Out of all the cities in the world, Shanghai might look the most futuristic. The rapid transformation that took it from a vertically challenged, agrarian looking town into a bustling metropolis with an arms race for a skyline actually might have actually advanced it decades beyond the present.

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Call it preemptive extinction panic, smart people buying into Sci-Fi hype or simply a prudent stance on a possible future issue, but the fear around artificial intelligence is increasingly gaining traction among those with credentials to back up the distress.

The latest example of this AI agita manifesting into real world action comes in the form of an open letter calling for safety measures to be instituted that was posted online Sunday and signed by none other than Tesla's Elon Musk and famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

More about Robots, Artificial Intelligence, Ai, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk

(Photo: Europics)

Here’s your heart-warming news story of the day. Xiao Li of Shenzhen, China spent a week in an internet cafe researching business opportunities. After going a week without sleep, he fell into a deep coma and remained in that state for over a year.

There was little hope for him to recover. But the magic of the human spirit endured within him. When a nurse waved a 100-yuan ($16 USD) bill under his nose, Li revived. The New York Post describes this perhaps apocryphal scene:

For months doctors searched for a way to awaken Li, but to no avail. It wasn’t until his family revealed what he loved most in the world that they found their key to success.

“We had asked his family what really drove him, and they were very clear that it was money,” Tang said. “When we learned about his fondness for money, we experimented with notes and change.

“Memories of smell and sound can be very powerful stimulants,” he added. “We found that a crisp, new 100 yuan note crumpled under his nose worked best.”

In the course of a human life, it often takes a great crisis to remind us of what’s really important.

-via Daily of the Day

The next time the cops are hot on your heels, remember the "bootlegger's K-turn" so you can get away without the other car crashing into you.

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These facts really tie the room together.

In a new episode of "Things You Didn't Know," CineFix tackles The Big Lebowski, the Coen brother's cult classic about a dude, his PTSD-inflicted best friend and white Russians.

Between counting down how many times the script features the F-word to explaining the real world inspirations for characters like Walter and the dude, this video will probably teach you a few things about the hysterically absurd comedy.

More about Videos, Movies, Film, The Big Lebowski, and Watercooler

Jam on toast is fine and all, but here are some other sweet and savory ways to get the most out of your jar. Read More

I'm admittedly terrible at "choose your own adventure" stories. Flipping through them as a kid, I'd always peek at whatever page the story directed me to, read the first couple sentences, and if I liked where things were going, I'd stick with it. Turns out not much has changed in 20 years.

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When sharing a pizza, it's every man for himself.

Fortunately, a simple hack can help you hide away a portion of your cheesy treasure without your greedy friends noticing the difference.

At long last, say goodbye to the "I only got one slice!" blues.

More about Viral Videos, Pizza, Watercooler, Videos, and Life Hacks

Three senior executives leave AMD.

A hit, miss or maybe?

Earlier today, Google opened the doors to its Google Domains shop: its attempt to disrupt the internet domains market by going head-to-head with big daddy GoDaddy.…

Here's what you need to run Grand Theft Auto V when the game arrives in March. UPDATED.

If you find that creating your role-playing character's backstory a little rough (thanks to your sense of imagination being dulled to a smooth sheen), the internet — as always — is here to help.

Who The Fuck Is My D&D Character is a generator (via Super Punch) made by Ryan J Grant that will do as advertised. Click a button and you'll get a complete backstory. Race, origin, background. If you're not happy with it, click it again, and again, until you get something like this.

Or this.

Or this.

You may not be the most dangerous character in the game, or the most helpful, but at least you'll be the most interesting.

Recommended article: Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.
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liddo-cait:

i reblogged this before but we actually started playing this game and it has resulted in spilled drinks, flying cigarettes, and friends getting hit in the gut with 5lb crystal balls

it is fantastic

via

 

The post The World’s Tallest Rollercoaster Coming To Orlando appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

If taunting spirits in a video game just isn't enough for you, you might be the type of gamer that developer Volition and publisher Deep Silver are targeting with their Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell pre-order promotion. According to a press release, if...

Did you know that you can hack toasters to play Doom? Well, with this four-minute clip of hacker fiction you can!

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Thanks Gene

 

The post Surfer Girl appeared first on Bits and Pieces.

One of our tipsters stumbled across a pretty impressive video of a giant Tesla coil playing music — in a snowy forest! The forum showing off the video is in Finnish but Google Translate does a pretty good job getting the point across.

This massive Tesla coil dubbed the BiggerDR was built by [Kizmo], who lives way up north in Finland. He was originally inspired by another build and decided to try his hand at making one. The Tesla coil, detailed in another forum post (in English this time) has some pretty impressive specs. The coil alone has 1550 wraps! Not too mention a pretty impressive bank of capacitors in series…

His YouTube channel has some great videos of the build — in fact, he’s been messing around with Tesla coils for at least 7 years already — stick around after the break to see BiggerDR in action.

Our first snowy and electrical musical debut is the classic and venerable Imperial March.

And of course, the Benny Hill theme.

[Thanks for the tip, Aleksin!]

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