Did you see a meteor streaking across the Los Angeles sky a few nights back during the supermoon? Well, it’s not quite what you think, but rather just a clever stunt by Red Bull. Simply put, what you saw were skydivers in wingsuits equipped with LED lights and “Sparking Pyrotechnic”. These daredevils jumped from a helicopter hovering 4000-feet above the Los Angeles skyline and zipped through the sky at nearly 120 miles per hour. Read more to see the video from the wingsuit’s perspective.
An Antarctic expedition organized by the Flat Earth International Conference (FEIC) aims to find the frozen barrier they believe marks the edge of our world, which is allegedly thousands of feet thick, stands 164-feet high and surrounds the entire planet. This trip has intrigued many, including YouTube star Logan Paul, who just may join in on the fun. “If you take a globe and you squish it down, the Antarctic would go all the way around the Earth. It’s kind of like an ice shore and it’s very, very large. It’s not like you just go there and you can just peek over it. We don’t believe anything can fall off the edge, because a big portion of the flat earth community believes that we’re in a dome, like a snow globe. So the sun, moon and stars are all inside. It’s very high but all contained inside. So there’s no way to actually fall off of the earth,” said FEIC founder Robbie Davidson to Forbes. Read more to watch Logan Paul’s flat Earth documentary.
Dogfish Head is best known for their unique beers, and their latest creation is no exception. Founder Sam Calagione appeared on a Kodak podcast last year and learned that beers with high acidity and vitamin C could be used to process film, and SuperEIGHT beer soon became a reality. Early batches were shipped over to Kodak to ensure they could successfully develop Super8 film, and as you might’ve guessed, it did so without a hitch. Read more to see actual Super 8 motion picture film developed with the beer.
Photo credit: FairyAndYou via Laughing Squid
Need an iPhone case and love buttered toast? If so, then “Fairy And You” has just the creation for you. There’s not much information available on this custom creation, but it does look to be made out of some type of flexible silicone material that not only looks tasty, but can at the very least protect your handset from small drops. Read more for a video and additional pictures.
Virtual reality headsets are nothing new or special nowadays, but one guy decided to take things to the next level by wearing one for an entire week. Meet Jak Wilmot, co-founder of Disrupt VR, who decided to conduct an experiment, or a 168-hour VR marathon session to be more specific. However, he did allow himself 30 seconds to switch headsets when needed as well as 30 second break sessions to eat, if required. “I have never appreciated the smell of outside air so much. One thing we cannot replicate is nature. We can do it visually and auditorally, but there is something about the energy of outside that is amazing,” said Wilmot. Read more to watch his experience and for additional information.
Photo credit: Alberto Aguado Baudil
Manta rays are sea creatures characterized by triangular pectoral fins, horn-shaped cephalic fins and large, forward-facing mouths. If you were to transform one of them into a functional computer mouse, it would probably look something like the “Manta Mouse” by industrial designer Alberto Aguado Baudil. There are no fancy LEDs, but this computer accessory was designed for the ultimate in comfort. Read more for additional pictures and information.
“The Joy of Painting” hosted by Bob Ross is known to be a relaxing television show, but that isn’t the case when you run it through DeepDream, a computer vision program created by Google engineer Alexander Mordvintsev. These painting videos go from instructional to a hallucinogenic dream-like nightmare, thanks to the convolutional neural network used to find and enhance patterns in images via algorithmic pareidolia that deliberately over-processes the imagery. Read more for another example and additional information.
Photo credit: Yanko Design
Technically speaking, a computer mouse is essentially a handheld pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface, which is translated into the motion of a pointer on a display to allow for smooth control of the graphical user interface. Did you know that computer engineer Bill English helped inventor Douglas Engelbart build the first mouse prototype in 1964? We’ve come a long way since then, and have seen countless versions of this device over the years, and the latest is “The Hemisphere” by industrial designer Deokhee Jeong. Read more for additional pictures and information.
UAE’s Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, nicknamed “The Rainbow Sheikh,” has built what could quite possibly be the strangest looking SUV youl’l ever see. It’s called Dhabiyan, and it’s basically a 10-wheeled vehicle, based on the Oshkosh M1075 military truck spliced with a Jeep Wrangler, powered by a 15.2L 6-cylinder Caterpillar C15 diesel engine generating 600hp. This monster weighs in at 24-tons and measures 10,8m in length, 2.5 meters in width, and 3.2 meters in height. Read more for another video and additional information.
Marc Köhlbrugge launched Expensive.chat as a social experiment, and it’s basically a web-based chat service where every letter typed costs $0.01. This chatroom has somewhat been gamified with a leaderboard showing users who have spent the most money up top. As you scroll through the messages, you’ll realize that most of them are just advertisements for services, and there’s a box at the bottom to post your own. The website accepts Stripe, debit, and credit cards for payment. Read more for a Tweet showing how to get more than your money’s worth.