Aug 20 2008More Dubai Photos: Now With More Island!

Back by popular demand, more stunning Dubai photography from David Hobcote. This batch includes several photos of the main city, along with some of the progress on The World Islands. Just stunning -- really makes me want to take a helicopter up and see what my town looks like from above.
UPDATE: Lots of cows. Oh, and a train. So, yeah, suck on that Dubai. CHOO CHOO, bitches, CHOO CHOO!
Hit the jump for several more, including the first house completed on the World Islands.
Aug 20 2008Travel In Comfort With The Tiddy Bear
This is a commercial for the inappropriately named Tiddy Bear. It's a $15 stuffed booby bear that attaches to your seatbelt's shoulder strap and prevents it from cutting into your skin. But the commercial is funny because *snicker* every time they say "Tiddy" it sounds like "titty" -- and they say it a whole bunch! WAHAHAHAH! *wiping tear* Holy shit, I'm eight.
Thanks Lauren and Aaron, I've always wanted to stoop to a new low.
Aug 20 2008Bus Stop Seating Just Got Swingier!

Bruno Taylor modified a London bus stop with a swing (and, quite possibly, a MacBook Air ad). But just one, so you'll have to wait your turn or double up and have a stranger's privates dangerously close to your butt. As you can see, there's a cute girl on the swing, and based on the angle of her dangle and facial expression, she's having a good time. So, yeah, whee. Add a slide and a guy soliciting free candy, and you've got yourself a playground.
Aug 20 2008Solar Panel Tie Can Charge Your Gadgets

This solar panel tie collects light and, through a process that even Scientologists don't understand, converts it to usable energy. The tie has a little pocket on the back that stores the gadget you're charging, and is completely impractical. I'm all for green shit (figuratively), but I just don't see these catching on. The majority of guys that have to wear ties (like me) work in fluorescent cubicle farms where this thing would get little to no charge. I mean, I can't even see a fucking window from here. We used to have one, but management boarded it up when they found out we liked looking out of it. What somebody needs to do is invent solar powered hard hats or something a landscaper would wear, like, I dunno, a suntan. Oh my God, I'm brilliant.
Hello, patent office? Are you sitting down? Good, now put this in your pipe and smoke it -- solar-powered suntans! I drew a picture and everything. Well, it's on a bar napkin, so I'll just tell you -- it's a really tan guy on a lawnmower charging a boombox. It's great, he's got a cord coming out of his belly button and everything. Hello? HELLO?
Solar Powered Tie Seems Great, Probably Won't See Much Light [ohgizmo]
Aug 20 2008Cat Born With Four Ears, Named Yoda

Some cat in Downers Grove, Illinois (just west of Uppers Orchard) was born with four ear flaps. So what do you name a cat with four ears? That's easy -- Barfly. But then you let your son pick another one and he chooses the name of that creepy green goblin from Star Wars.
Ted and Valerie Rock first spied the little guy in 2006 at neighborhood bar on the South Side of Chicago before a Bears game. He was the last of a litter of eight put up for adoption by the bar's owner.
But the Rocks, who had lost their cat of 20 years just 6 months prior, saw something special in the gray kitten and decided to take him home.Their "Star Wars"-loving son thought to name the cat after the tiny Jedi master.
"I had named him Barfly," Rock said. "But we kind of liked Yoda better, and Barfly lasted only about a day."
Apparently the abnormality can cause hearing problems, but Yoda has checked out fine and lives a perfectly normal four-eared life. Well, if that isn't the most heart-warming story of the day. I swear, my heart almost feels like it's on fire. And, hello -- my left arm just went numb. Oh fu
UPDATE: Whew, false alarm. Sorry to scare you folks, but the ticker's just fine. It was the Double Diablo Burrito I had for breakfast. And my arm? Ha, I had forgotten I was prepping it for a Stranger.
Yoda the Cat Astounds With Four Ears [foxnews]
Thanks to Bryan, Sam and Kathryn, who were all born with four of something else. Limbs!
Aug 20 2008ZOMG, She's Not Real -- She's CG!

You see that chick? She's not real -- she's a CG version of actress Emily O'Brien created by facial animation studio Image Metrics. And let me tell you, she definitely kicks the shit out of last week's CG facials.
Using (USC's) Institute for Creative Technologies' special scanning system that can capture facial details down to the individual pore, the face of actress Emily O'Brien was transformed into a digital representation of herself, which could then be entirely machine-manipulated. A special spherical lighting rig captured O'Brien in 35 reference facial poses using a pair of high resolution digital cameras. The facial maps were then converted into 3D data using Image Metrics' proprietary markerless motion capture technology.
Hit the jump to see a high-res video of the CG Emily talking and moving. It's freaking amazing. Did I mention she kind of looks like Keira Knightley? Because she does. Now I'm not sure what kind of implications this has for the adult-entertainment industry, but if I had to guess, I'd say a series of wicked pirate-themed skin-flicks. Pirates of The Caribbean: At World's Rear End! Or, alternatively, Pirates of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chesticles.
Hit the jump for a few more pictures and a very worthwhile video.
Aug 20 2008Viral Ad For Samsung's Omnia Touch Phone
This is a viral video for Samsung's new touchscreen Omnia i900 phone. I don't want to ruin anything, so you'll just have to watch it. I thought it was cute. Well, not like bunny or kitten cute, but still, it's neat. Just not as neat as my bedroom. I'm OCD.
Thanks Dennis, but please, don't touch anything.
Aug 20 2008Bigfoot: "That Totally Wasn't Me"

In a turn of events that shocked no one, Bigfoot left a message for reporters in the woods claiming the recent pictures of a creature in a freezer, are, in fact, not him. The message, spelled out with carefully arranged arm-length turds, read "that totally wasn't me".
Turns out Bigfoot was just a rubber suit. Two researchers on a quest to prove the existence of Bigfoot say that the carcass encased in a block of ice -- handed over to them for an undisclosed sum by two men who claimed to have found it -- was slowly thawed out, and discovered to be a rubber gorilla outfit.
First, the hair sample was burned and "melted into a ball uncharacteristic of hair," Kulls said in the posting.The thawing process was sped up and the exposed head was found to be "unusually hollow in one small section." An hour of thawing later and the feet were exposed -- and they were found to be made of rubber.
Well folks, it just goes to show you -- you can't believe every legendary creature is real just because some asshats claim to have one in a freezer. You can't will Bigfoot real, no matter how badly you want to make love to him.
Researchers say bigfoot just a rubber gorilla suit [yahoonews]
Thanks to Dan, SilverSided, Laurel, Brad, The Hashishin, Gingela5, and Melanie for letting me down easy.
Aug 19 2008World's Largest Digging Machine Is Huge

The world's largest digger is a giant trencher built a couple years ago by German manufacturer Krupp. It took more than 5 years and $100 million to design and manufacture.
The machine is almost 95 meters (311 ft) high and 215 meters (705 ft) long which is just like almost 2.5 football fields in length with 45,500 tons in weight. Maximum digging speed is 10 meters (32 ft) per minute and it can move more than 76,000 cubic meters (~2,700,000 cubic ft) of coal, rock, and earth per day.
Wow, pretty impressive. You get two of these things working around the clock for a couple days and I could finally bury my girlfriend. Haha! No, but seriously honey, go to the gym.
Hit the jump for several more pictures of the digging behemoth.
Aug 19 2008Eye Candy: The Burj Dubai Nears Completion

The Burj Dubai tower, tallest building in the world, is soon to be completed. So photographer David Hobcote took a bunch of high-res pictures from the air to commemorate the 2,087 ft structure. As you can see, the results are breathtaking. And, if you don't start again, potentially lifetaking.
Hit the jump for several more of the ridiculousness.
Continue Reading "Eye Candy: The Burj Dubai Nears Completion"
