Christopher Lantz

via http://bigredrobot.tumblr.com/page/4

Ze Frank continues his witty, narrated webseries with True Facts About The Duck.

Maim Ixed on YouTube, who claims to be a dog, created an excellent remix of the latest single track “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. They sped up the track to make vocals by Pharrell Williams sound a lot like Michael Jackson. The remix is available to download and stream online.

So I found out just by pitch shifting “Get Lucky,” the track sounds a lot like Michael Jackson. The “He-hee’s”, “Woo’s” , “shamonas” and other MJ sounds developed on their own when the track sped up.

via Mike Mitchell

jilsanderson:

Bain de Minuit in Numero February 2012 captured by Tom Munro

For some of their films, Disney would film real actors so that the animators could watch them for reference. 

It’s silly to me that people think most animators just pull this sort of stuff out of their head. OF COARSE THEY USED REAL ACTORS (or whatever substitute they can find, usually themselves, haha)! One of my favorite animation books is actually called “acting for animators”…that’s how important it is guys ;p. Although it’s definitely neat seeing how close the reference is to the finish product.

Condom manufacturer Durex has announced Fundawear, vibrating underwear that encourages couples to “touch over the internet” using an iPhone app. Fundawear aren’t currently available for sale, but Durex Australia is holding a contest on its Facebook page to win a set of his and hers Fundawear.

via The Telegraph, BetaBeat

Philip N Howard wonders if there are any countries that have, on balanced, suffered as a result of the coming of the Internet -- say, because improved networks created so many opportunities for dictators to spy on dissidents that it swamped any free speech/free association benefits that the Internet delivered. So he scatter-plotted PolityIV’s democratization scores from 2002/2011, and cross-referenced them with World Bank/ITU data on internet users. The conclusion: by this method, no country experienced a decline in its overall levels of a democracy as it attained widespread Internet penetration, and almost all many countries experienced a rise in democracy levels that correlated to a rise in Internet penetration.

Are there any countries with high internet diffusion rates, where the regime got more authoritarian? The countries that would satisfy this condition should appear in the top left of the graph. Alas, the only candidates that might satisfy these two conditions are Iran, Fiji, and Venezuela. Over the last decade, the regimes governing these countries have become dramatically more authoritarian. Unfortunately for this claim, their technology diffusion rates are not particularly high.

This was a quick sketch, and much more could be done with this data. Some researchers don’t like the PolityIV scores, and there are plenty of reasons to dislike the internet user numbers. Missing data could be imputed, and there may be more meaningful ways to compare over time. Some countries may have moved in one direction and then changed course, all within the last decade. Some only moved one or two points, and really just became slightly more or less democratic. But I’ve done that work too, without finding the cases Morozov wishes he had.

There are concerning stories of censorship and surveillance coming from many countries. Have the stories added up to dramatic authoritarian tendencies, or do they cancel out the benefits of having more and more civic engagement over digital media? Fancier graphic design might help bring home the punchline. There are still no good examples of countries with rapidly growing internet populations and increasingly authoritarian governments.

Are There Countries Whose Situations Worsened with the Arrival of the Internet?

Indianapolis-based artist and father Ryan Hunley of Second Street Creative asked his cute little daughter August if he could help as she tried to buckle her seat belt. She quickly responded by telling him, “Worry about yourself!”

via reddit, Videogum

Israeli animator and illustrator Leigh Lahav recreated a collection of hit TV show intros celebrating the quirky lifestyle of her husband Oren Mendezitsky, as a present for his birthday.

via Tastefully Offensive

“Awkward Handshake: The Game” by the Montreal-based Moving Mind Studio is a short video that imagines various social situations as a first person shooter video game.

via Tastefully Offensive

Submitted by: Unknown

Whisk Yourself Away Into the Faniverse!

Submitted by: Hipster90

‘Vision of Hell: Orpheus’ ground sculpture at Broughton House, Northants, Kim Wilkie

archiemcphee:

Unicorns = Awesome

We love this lovely origami unicorn created by Yaroslav Mischenko, a talented photographer and paper artist from Kiev, Ukraine.

Head over to Design You Trust to view more examples of Mischenko’s folded paper creations.

via http://saimanchow.com/

Could Patton Oswalt’s multi-verse vision for the next Star Wars film actually become a reality? Redditor Criticalbuzz made this colorful mock-up poster in homage to Oswalt’s The Gauntlet of Infinity.

In this video tutorial, photographer Rob Turney demonstrates how to make refractographs—beautiful photos of refracted light. Refractography requires no digital trickery and no lens—just a camera, light source, and an object that refracts light (marble, wine glass, and so on). For more examples of refractography, check out Turney’s gallery and the Refractography Flickr group.

via PetaPixel

photos by Rob Turney

The sixth annual Quidditch World Cup took place on April 13th-14th in Kissimee, Florida. Quidditch, based on the fictional sport played atop broomsticks from the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling, was first created in 2005 at Middlebury College in Vermont. Since, the once-fictional sport has evolved into an intercollegiate and international sport governed by the International Quidditch Assoaciation (IQA), and thousands gather every year to participate in and watch the World Cup. Quidditch has its own official rule book, and players still ride broomsticks and play with a quaffle, snitch, and multiple bludgers. The University of Texas at Austin Quidditch team were the champions of the 2013 World Cup.

via The Atlantic

Submitted by: Unknown (via Matthejew)

(via HijiNKS ENSUE – A Geek Comic - Make It So / As You Wish)

You are more beautiful than you think.

As part of Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign, the company conducted a social experiment demonstrating that, although only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful, they are more beautiful than they think. In the experiment, women describe themselves to an FBI trained sketch artist who then draws their self-critical portrait. Strangers are asked to describe the same woman to the sketch artist, who then shows the women the marked difference between how they perceive themselves and how others see them.

images via Dove Real Beauty Sketches

via Coudal

A rotating light source causes a bizarre visual effect on a woman’s face in this short video by Madrid-based director Nacho Guzmán. The video is a teaser for Guzmán’s upcoming music video for the song “Sparkles and Wine” by French electronic duo Opale.

via Xatakafoto, PetaPixel

via http://thisisnthappiness.com/post/11939719266/jonathan-jacques-belletete

Though Fergie‘s contribution to the The Great Gatsby soundtrack insists that “a little party never killed nobody,” anyone who’s read the book will know that’s not exactly how things turn out for Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his pals. But until the consequences come, you can bet they’ll take her suggestion to “dance until we drop.”

While the earlier trailers have played up the tragedy of Gatsby’s tale, the latest one mostly emphasizes the hardcore partying. That means fast cars, fancy boats, sparkling diamonds, glitter by the bucketful, and all the booze one could possibly want. Watch the video after the jump.

As The Playlist puts it, it’s basically “Jazz Age Spring Breakers.” The comparison isn’t totally absurd. Both films deal with the tragedy of the American Dream, though Gatsby prefers to show off his wealth with beautiful shirt instead of with shorts in every color.

In typical form, Luhrmann isn’t setting all those lavish parties to the jazz music of the era. (Or at least, not just to period-appropriate music.) Instead, he’s filled out the soundtrack with more modern tunes from Fergie, Beyonce, Lana del Rey, Florence + the Machine, The XX, Gotye, and Jay-Z. The choice is bound to inspire some grumbling, but I’m hoping it’ll bring a fresh perspective to the old tale.

The Great Gatsby hits May 10. Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Debicki, Joel Edgerton, and Isla Fisher also star.

“The Great Gatsby” follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan) and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

• ‘The Great Gatsby’ International Trailer: “Is All This Made Entirely From Your Own Imagination?”
• ‘The Great Gatsby’ Trailer: Leonardo DiCaprio Is the Ultimate Self-Made Man
• ‘The Great Gatsby’ Gets Six Character Posters and Two TV Spots
• ‘The Great Gatsby’ Trailer: Jay Gatsby Narrates His History as An American Icon
• ‘The Great Gatsby’ Trailer – Baz Lurhmann and Leonardo DiCaprio Tackle the Ultimate American Tale
• Gemma Ward and Callan McAuliffe Cast in ‘The Great Gatsby’

Submitted by: Unknown

Voices of Learning with Sarah Silverman is a new series on web comedy channel JASH where Sarah Silverman shares enlightening tidbits of wisdom. In episode one, one thing she shares is, “Look, I don’t know everything but I do know that penises shouldn’t taste medicine-y.”

On an episode of Speakeasy by Made Man, host and comedian Paul F. Tompkins assists actress Alison Brie as she attempts to imitate popular internet memes and create unsexy animated GIFs.

The ‘Mad Men‘ and ‘Community‘ star successfully takes on Grumpy Cat, Overly Attached Girlfriend, Ermahgerd and Unflattering Beyoncé. Her Hadouken pose doesn’t end quite as successfully as it starts, however. Alison also stems the tide of sexy GIFs by creating some of her own. Does she succeed, or only add fuel to the fire?

via Gawker

photo via The Illuminator

Following explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, the NYC Light Brigade and The Illuminator projected supportive images like “Brooklyn loves Boston,” “Peace and Love,” and “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that,” on the side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Peter Jay Sharp building.

photo via Lucky Tran

photo via StopMotionsolo

via Gothamist