Mrdesplaines

While researching his new book The Humor Code, University of Colorado professor Dr. Peter McGraw enlisted fellow Humor Research Lab team members to create the Humor Algorithm (HA) in attempt to find the funniest city in the US. Research included interviews with more than 900 residents in the country’s ten largest cities, as well as online data collection.

Over a nine-month period, the team collected extensive data for the project. First, they mined the Internet and the comedy industry for a variety of objective measures:

• Frequency of visits to Cheezburger comedy websites, such as Lolcats and FAIL Blog
• Number of comedy clubs per square mile in each city
• Traveling comedians’ ratings of each city’s comedy-club audiences
• Number of famous comedians born in each city, divided by city population
• Number of famous funny tweeters living in each city, divided by city population
• Number of comedy radio stations available in each city
• Frequency of humor-related web searches originating in each city

According to the research, Chicago, Boston and Atlanta top the list of America’s funniest cities.

images via The New York Times, Humor Research Lab

via The New York Times

In this very cute video posted by Mr. Yabawy, a playful white cat atop a perch appears to be controlling the movements of a kitty fishing toy thus inciting the other cat to play with it.

via Nothing To Do With Arbroath

In this video from Android Police, the Google Camera app for Android seems to offer a very distinct suggestion to record in landscape when the user attempts to do so in portrait mode. The dangers of Vertical Video Syndrome have been known since at least 2012.

via Digg

It’s been reported a number of times that honey badgers are tenacious little animals. Such is the case with Stofle, a honey badger and former domestic pet who could not be released into the wild. Instead, Stofle was brought to a sanctuary in Kruger National Park where his stubborn nature almost got him killed by a den of resident lions. Keeper Brian “knew he had to get his honey badger under control” and despite the many different designs, locks and materials Brian used, it began to appear that no enclosure would be able to cage the incredibly clever honey badger.

In the end, and at great expense, Brian had no choice but to build his own “Badger Alcatraz“. “I said ‘Stofle, the days of your escape of over pal.’ That night they called me and said, ‘Brian, Stofle’s out’ I said, ‘Impossible’ but we had trees in there and he’d climb up the trees and he’d lean over onto the wall and he was out. So we cut all of the branches out of the trees near [the wall] and left the trees in the middle. Then he dug up the rocks and he’d roll them with his back feet to the wall and he pile them high enough and then he’d get out. So we took all the rocks away. This was like a game for Stofle. Every time I’d devise some plan, it was like a game for him to work out how could he get over this.”

After all, honey badger don’t care.

A man is charged with aggravated assault against his girlfriend after an Easter egg decorating party went horribly awry Sunday, leaving the woman with a black eye and the man under arrest after attacking cops with a sword.

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Kanzi the bonobo gathers wood, lights a match and builds himself a fire to roast the marshmallows that he so clearly enjoys in this lovely video by BBC One Monkey Planet.

via The Mirror

Three people from an unlucky California family were hospitalized after they were attacked by their pet cat.

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Postal company Neopost shows off a machine that automatically folds and launches paper airplanes in this 2012 video. Previously we posted about a similar machine made out of LEGO blocks.

via Geeks are Sexy, Geekologie, Technabob

Odorless and discreet, vaporizer pens for pot are growing in popularity. But the devices are a nightmare for parents because they make it hard to know if kids are using marijuana.

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Wireless telecommunications company SK Telecom celebrates 30 years of mobile history in Korea with a mobile orchestra made up of 30 cell phones and four pagers. The devices play a version of a song from another SK Telecom ad.

via Doobybrain, The Awesomer

Canadian-based Boston Pizza has taken to social media to help them find new and unique ways of serving pizza. Known as “Pizza Game Changers“, the campaign has promised fans “if you like it, we will make it”. Options have so far included pizza tacos, pizza mints, a gas-powered pizza cutter and the current favorite – the six-layer “pizza cake”, which according to the company, is “great for birthdays, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and even lonely nights watching infomercials.”

via Brand Eating, Eater

Back in 2013 we posted about the Smart Highway, an experimental Dutch roadway that features luminous road markings. A 1600-foot stretch of the Smart Highway has since opened, and as this video shows, the markings do indeed glow in the dark. The Smart Highway is a collaborative project by Studio Roosegaarde and Heijmans Infrastructure

image via NOS Nieuws

via NOS Nieuws, DutchNews.nl, Wired UK

In this slightly blurry video posted by Dj Kurvy, an incredibly talented pole dancer performs an astonishing acrobatic routine in an empty strip club.

via Tara Tiger Brown

On a recent episode of Cat Mojo, host and cat behaviorist Jackson Galaxy had a conversation with the incredibly internet-famous cat Li’l Bub and her human, Mike. The conversation between Jackson and Mike mostly focused around taking care of a cat with special needs (of which Li’l Bub is one), the relationship he has Li’l Bub and have and how they found each other.

Of all my cats, Bub is the one of the only ones who was not in a shelter. She was feral, she was born feral locally and my friend’s mom found her as a probably a one-week old kitten, a newborn with her litter mates. Bub was the only one who had any genetic weirdness (laugh) or as I like to say, magic powers. So she was the only one with magic powers but she couldn’t nurse because of her oddly shaped mouth and this woman basically bottle fed her and took care of her. No one wanted to adopt her because a – she was so small, she was half a pound at two months old…people were scared that she would cost a lot of money and/or it would be a heartbreaking experience. I saw her as the most remarkable little animal I’d ever seen…I just found the perfect cat for me.

photo via Lil Bub

In this 2012 video posted by The Bushcamp Company, a baby elephant near the Mfuwe Lodge in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia attempts to charge at a oncoming vehicle, thinks better of it and turns around to rejoin the herd.

via Daily Picks and Flicks

Moo, an adorable tuxedo cat, excitedly welcomes her human home after three days away in this video posted by inthelife.

via Ceron, Daily Picks and Flicks

Like it or not, cameras are everywhere – and not just security cameras. Individuals taking pictures of themselves and their friends can inadvertently catch you in their snapshots, indoors or out. If you’re particularly paranoid about your image being in the hands of someone you don’t know, the Justice Cap can help you stay hidden…kind of.

The baseball cap features a small strip of high-powered LEDs on the brim. When on, they create a face-obscuring glare for any camera that might be trained in your direction. It works best in low lighting conditions since daylight or natural light will obviously balance out the LEDs and illuminate your face evenly.

(Spoiler alert/NSFW-ish warning: the video above contains a lot of upturned middle fingers.) Of course, the brim of the cap itself will partially obscure your face even in bright sunlight. If you are adamant about keeping your face off of cameras for whatever reason, the Justice Cap will keep you anonymous “from dusk ’til dawn.”

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Keep Going - Check out this Great Related Gajitz Article:

About Face: Defeat Face Recognition Software With Makeup

Art Goes Geek Chic: Intricately Detailed Cardboard Cameras

Illuminating Design: The Lamp That Keeps Time For You

Camera Obscura: Freaky, Frightening Cameras of the Dead

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British snowboarder Jamie Barrow uses handheld electric thrusters from dreamscience Propulsion to reach great speeds while zooming across a frozen lake in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The thrusters function in much the same way as jet engines by rotating fans at around 30,000 RPM to produce a narrow column of air that propels it. More on the thrusters and filming of Barrow is available at dreamscience Propulsion’s website.

images via Gizmag

via Gizmag, Digg

Abe-chan the pet myna bird displays a remarkable ability to speak Japanese in this 2012 video uploaded by his human. The bird converses carries on a brief conversation after his owner attempts unsuccessfully to get him to answer the phone. Abe is a Common Hill Myna, a species renowned for vocal mimicry akin to that of the African Grey Parrot. For those curious about what the bird is is saying, Reddit users have taken it upon themselves to translate the conversation.

Bird:” ‘Uhm Hello, this is the Ono family.”

Bird: “What’s wrong?”

Owner: “Abe-chan, you’re a little too early. Once the phone’s picked up, then properly say hello.”

Bird: “Okay, understood.”

There are a number of other videos of Abe-chan in action over on the bird’s YouTube account.

via reddit

The collaborative MY-72 style from PUMA and Japanese fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro is a true hybrid design, featuring a traditional black brogue combined with a PUMA Disc silhouette. The shoe sits on a traditional stacked-heel leather sole, with an upper built with black leather and mesh. Replacing the laced bed is PUMA’s Disc closure system and accompanying plastic cage overlay. A lightly padded tongue and collar — complete with a pair of convenient lace pulls — are additional callbacks to the lifestyle sneaker. Continue reading for detailed looks, and find the PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro MY-72 available for purchase now through oki-ni.

Read the rest of PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro MY-72

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Post tags: Mihara Yasuhiro, oki-ni, Puma

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Drones are a real and terrifying marker of the modern state panopticon, an enabler par excellence of the surveillance state and extra-judicial killing. Let's shoot 'em with machine guns and see what happens!

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YouTube user darthblaker has uploaded an amusing mashup of Disney‘s animated film Frozen and AMC‘s television show Breaking Bad. In the video, Anna gets a perhaps unexpected response from one Jesse Pinkman.

via reddit, Daily Picks and Flicks

In this adorable video posted by Matt Rundquist, an unsuspecting dachshund crawls inside coat and becomes a barking sleeve, really confusing the other dog in the room.

via Tastefully Offensive

We've all been there: stuck in a futile, seemingly intractable situation and about to give up hope, when suddenly someone shows us we've been approaching the problem the wrong way. Or actually drunk and trying to climb an actual fence. Happens to everybody.

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Black Friday-The Collapse of the American Shopping Mall is a new book by Cleveland-based photographer Seph Lawless documenting the insides of abandoned shopping centers across the United States. It’s a subject that hits close to home for Lawless, for whom deserted local malls like Rolling Acres in Akron and Randall Park in North Randall, Ohio represent more than just shuttered stores.

Cleveland has lost nearly half its population since these malls opened in the mid-1970s. We’re not talking white flight here. People fled the state to find jobs and the problem hasn’t gotten any better.My city is not only losing jobs. We’re are losing people and it’s frightening.

photos via Seph Lawless

via The Daily Mail

You bros are the unsung heroes of Coachella. Without you, who would brighten people’s days with a clever ironic t-shirt? How would women be able to dance without the impending threat of being grinded on?

The headline pretty much tells the story here, doesn't it? Is this some hijacking (no pun intended) of the US Airways Twitter account by a rogue employee, or simply a fuck-up? (Very Not Safe For Work image below.)

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A Norwegian fisherman was gutting a large cod he'd caught when he ran across an unusual lump in his fish. Probably just some semi-digested herrings, right? No big deal. (Spoiler: It wasn't just semi-digested herrings.)

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Metal Albums With Googly Eyes is a Tumblr blog that strategically places plastic googly eyes on various heavy metal album covers. A number of high profile groups get the googly-eyed treatment here, including Iron Maiden, Slayer, Dio and Ozzy.

via Sad and Useless