Boing Boing » WTF

Terrifying celebrity video faceswaps

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:43:51 +0000

Come for Tom Hanks + Zooey Deschanel, stay for Mike Tyson + Michelle Obama, then run in terror from Sarah Palin + Honey Boo. The animated GIF has reached its apogee in Hybrid Celebrities, a collection of nightmarish video faceswaps at the distinctly NSFW DailyPicDump.com. [Thanks, Papa Fapa!] UPDATE: They're taken from this sketch. [Team Coco]

My Little Ponies humanized for movie

Rob Beschizza — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:35:43 +0000

"Why?" The New York Times investigates:

“We are responding to the desire by our fans to experience the brand in more ways,” said John A. Frascotti, Hasbro’s chief marketing officer. “They imagined themselves as which pony they would be or which pony they identified with the most.” So Hasbro created Equestria Girls, a parallel world in which the My Little Pony characters were reconceived as teenage girls in high school.

Seriously, it's happening every day now, people coming up to us and saying "I want to experience your brand in more ways. Could you lose the hooves and snouts?"

Feather emerges from baby's neck

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:30:26 +0000

"No one knew what was bothering 7-month-old Mya Whittington. Her discomfort stumped her parents and doctors. She was finally hospitalized - and a 2-inch feather eventually poked its way out of her neck, shocking everyone." [ABC]

CNN fakes satellite interview with two anchors in same car lot

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 09 May 2013 14:56:33 +0000

The medium is the message! This extravagantly bizarre moment, courtesy of the producers of CNN Headline News, defies explanation in its giggle-inducing madness.

Eyeballs found in trash

Rob Beschizza — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:52:35 +0000

"Police say they are trying to determine how a medical box containing a pair of eyeballs ended up in a trash bin at a gas station in Kansas City," reports the Associated Press.

TEDxWTF

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:06:57 +0000

The Harvard Business Review has an interesting look at what has happened as TED Talks has expanded to ever-wider audiences and (in doing so) has lost control of its own brand. It's also an excellent object lesson in why slapping the TED logo on something doesn't make it true.

Sinkholes: Swallowing everything, including the kitchen sink

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:57:15 +0000

If you were horrifically fascinated (horrafinated?) by the sinkhole that swallowed Floridian Jeff Bush and his entire bedroom a week ago, you might be interested in some sinkhole science. The US Geological Survey says that sinkholes are a geologic thing. Certain areas of the country are more prone than others (which you probably knew already). But the formation of actual sinkholes in those sinkhole-prone environments can apparently be prompted by human activities, ranging from old mines that weaken the ground above them; to groundwater pumping that destabilizes the soil; to (get this) leaky faucets. The USGS does not say how many leaky faucets, or how bad a leak, it might take to trigger a sinkhole, but the basic idea is that saturating usually dry soil could cause it to shift, so you'd assume it would have to mean a lot of water leaking into the soil under the house.

WTF, evolution?

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:24:29 +0000

A blog which offers helpful critiques of some of the weirder parts of nature.

What is this bizarre Indian "health gadget" from 1950s Bombay?

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:07:40 +0000

Crate-digging for old records on eBay, my brother found this bizarre health gadget identified as having been produced in Bombay in the 1950s. The seller writes:

Very rare and old Twin Transilluminator in Box from India 1950 in good condition. Its medical Instrument for sinuses and Eye therapy. Its made of steel and backlit. its electrical. on box has some description and photos about how to use this Instrument. Its rare and unique medical Instrument and must for medical instruments collectors. The size of box is 9 inch in length, and its width is 5 inch.

What the heck is the history behind this gizmo? More photos below.

NOAA to American public: No, we are not going to just nuke the storms

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 15:20:15 +0000

A Q&A piece on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration begins with this incredibly disconcerting sentence: "During each hurricane season, there always appear suggestions that one should simply use nuclear weapons to try and destroy the storms."

Really? Seriously, America?

Anyway, the entire piece ends up being pretty fascinating, as research meteorologist Chris Landsea explains why nuking a hurricane would be a bad idea ... besides, you know, the obvious reasons.

... an explosive, even a nuclear explosive, produces a shock wave, or pulse of high pressure, that propagates away from the site of the explosion somewhat faster than the speed of sound. Such an event doesn't raise the barometric pressure after the shock has passed because barometric pressure in the atmosphere reflects the weight of the air above the ground. For normal atmospheric pressure, there are about ten metric tons (1000 kilograms per ton) of air bearing down on each square meter of surface. In the strongest hurricanes there are nine. To change a Category 5 hurricane into a Category 2 hurricane you would have to add about a half ton of air for each square meter inside the eye, or a total of a bit more than half a billion (500,000,000) tons for a 20 km radius eye. It's difficult to envision a practical way of moving that much air around.

Attacking weak tropical waves or depressions before they have a chance to grow into hurricanes isn't promising either. About 80 of these disturbances form every year in the Atlantic basin, but only about 5 become hurricanes in a typical year. There is no way to tell in advance which ones will develop. If the energy released in a tropical disturbance were only 10% of that released in a hurricane, it's still a lot of power, so that the hurricane police would need to dim the whole world's lights many times a year.

Read the rest of the piece at the NOAA website

Via Mark Strauss

Image: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team

Honda designs a car "for women," the Fit She's

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:26:58 +0000

At left, the new Honda Fit She's, a car available in predictable pink or what the maker calls "eyeliner brown." The vehicle is designed for the female market in Japan, and costs around $17.5K USD at current exchange rates. Official website here, in Japanese.

The Honda Fit She's features a “Plasmacluster” climate control system the maker claims can improve skin quality, a windshield that prevents wrinkles, a pink interior stitching, "tutti-frutti-hued chrome bezels," and an adorable heart instead of an apostrophe in “She’s.”

No word on whether it cures breast cancer. Video from NBC Today Show here.

Above right, screengrab of the Petticoat 5, the world's first computer "designed for women, by women," as featured in the "Computers" episode of Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper's BBC cult series, "Look Around You." It features a built-in emery board with which you can file your nails; a makeup mirror; and when you press the "S" key, the keyboard emits a puff of fragrance in mint or tomato.

So. Left, right. Guess which one's real.

(via MyLifeScoop)

Court sets accused rapist free, arguing severely disabled woman who can't talk could still refuse sex

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:12:07 +0000

Your daily dose of rage: the state Supreme Court in Connecticut has decided to let a rapist go free in a case involving a severely disabled woman with limited mobility who cannot talk. Why? Because there was no evidence she could not communicate her refusal to have sex with the defendant." She cerebral palsy, cannot verbally communicate, and "is so physically restricted that she is able to make motions only with her right index finger."

(via HeratyLaw).

Update: Here's a different perspective: Part 1, part 2, and here's another.

Cory and I traded emails about this ruling, and here are his thoughts:

The judge ruled on the law the guy was accused of violating, which is a very narrow statute, and the guy was not guilty of violating the statute under which he was charged. The judge even told the prosecutor that this was the wrong statute to be using. The prosecutor -- for whatever reason -- stuck to his guns. Now because of double jeopardy, the guy gets away with it.
My guess is that the prosecutor chose to prosecute under the statute because it carried a higher penalty, and thought that he could intimidate the accused into settling with the threat of a much longer sentence. Instead, this backfired on him. But that's not the defense attorney's fault (his job is to represent his client), and it's not the judge's fault (his job is to rule on questions of law). It's not even the law's fault (there are statutes under which this guy is clearly guilty, but those weren't the statutes used in the case) Sounds like it's the prosecutor's fault for trying to shortcut the trial with a quick plea through a bogus charge.
I guess the point is that it's a different kind of problem: this isn't a case where society can't tell the difference between "legitimate rape" and some other kind of rape. It seems like the judge would have been happy to lock this guy up, if the prosecutor had charged him with the crime he'd actually committed, and it's probably good that judges aren't willing to convict people of crimes they haven't committed.

China: 770 pounds of eggs spilled from truck cause mad scramble (video)

Xeni Jardin — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 15:02:17 +0000

From Beijing Cream blog:

In Zhengzhou, Henan province on Thursday morning, a man in a motorized three-wheel wagon was a bit eager at a yellow light, according to a witness, and crashed into another vehicle, causing him to lose his cargo of 700 jin of raw eggs. We’re not talking about a restaurant server dropping a stack of plates here — 1 jin equals approximately 500 grams, so what we have is 770 pounds of eggs, if you choose to believe it. That amount could serve an entire block of restaurants for a week, and would cost — for some — a month’s salary. (Assuming an egg weighs 2 ounces — it might if it were large and you rounded up — we’re looking at more than 6,000 eggs.)
While some helped the man collect his spillage, others came with plastic bags for their own benefit.

More. (Thanks, Anthony Tao)

Shit White People Do, part umptybillion: "Les Indes galantes—Les Sauvages" (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 14:20:32 +0000

[Video Link]

BB Community moderator Antinous (the person who nukes your comments at Boing Boing when you act like a dick) plucked this gem from the jaws of YouTube and says,

I could watch this a hundred times and find something new to be horrified at every time. I love Rameau's music, but who thought that it was a good idea to have the singers doing the chicken dance in front of a giant turkey cloaca while clenching corncob pipes in their teeth?
You need to see it on a proper monitor to appreciate the full cavalcade of racialist nuances.

The opera-ballet shown, "The Noble Savages" is by French Baroque era composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. More about its history here, and you can buy the music on Amazon if you're so inclined. I can maybe give the dude a break, seeing as how it was all, like, 1725 when he wrote it and stuff, man. But there can be no forgiveness for any of the contemporary humans involved in this production.

In China, some people are seriously into collecting pairs of big, round, nuts, and playing with them

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:09:17 +0000

[Video Link]. Collecting pairs of walnuts is a thing in China. The bigger and the older, the better! "Playing with these kind of nuts isn't for ordinary people," says one collector in this exquisite Reuters News video. (via Shanghaiist)

China: Statue in public square appears to show pigs having incestuous sex

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:05:25 +0000

"I can explain this." Pigs Depicted Having Sex Doggy-Style In Zhengzhou Public Square Are Said To Represent Filial Piety.

Mars Curiosity/LFMAO parody video: "We're NASA and We Know It"

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:40:12 +0000

[Video Link]. This parody music video debuted this week on a new YouTube channel called Satire, and mashes up LMFAO's hit “Sexy and I Know It” with the NASA Curiosity mission and abundant JPL-love.

"It comes complete with shout-outs to Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson," reports the Washington Post, which dug into the story behind its creation. Half a million views so far, huh? Best NASA PSA ever.

Cat Dance (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 01:17:40 +0000

In the 1970s, someone thought this was a good idea. [Video Link]

(Thanks, Tara McGinley)

Steve Jobs' Palo Alto burglarized in "totally random" attack

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:57:22 +0000

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the Palo Alto home where deceased Apple co-founder Steve Jobs once lived was burglarized in a "totally random" attack last night. More than $60,000 worth of "computers and personal items" were allegedly stolen, and a suspect has been taken into custody. (via Steve Silberman)

Thailand: politician accidentally kills woman with machine gun in restaurant

Xeni Jardin — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 15:52:38 +0000

CNN reports that a Thai politician accidentally shot and killed his ex-wife with a submachine gun in a restaurant in northern Thailand. "Senator Boonsong's gun was accidentally fired off while he was trying to keep his pistol into its case." The shot went "straight in" to his female dining companion. Other news organizations report the deceased as his cousin, or his secretary.

The Counting Song, by Adam Buxton, dir. Cyriak (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:48:36 +0000

[video link]. Illustrations by Sarah Brown. Do stay with it. Things escalate. (HT: Tim Shey)

Skateboarding goat wins Guinness World Record (video)

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:07:02 +0000

[video link]. The goat's name is "Happy," of course. (thanks, Clayton Cubitt)

Most epic slow-speed police chase ever (video)

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:44:15 +0000

[ Video Link] This video has it all: a giant truck carrying tons of lumber, a manic suspect, a maudlin news narrator (added after the fact) intoning cliches, cops shooting guns, and lots of fire and 'splodey stuff.

It's weird how something like this would be terrifying and tragic if you were there or someone you loved was affected, but it's the stuff of lulz in YouTube form now. So surreal.

(via Joe Sabia)

OMGCATSINSPACE

Xeni Jardin — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 05:20:53 +0000

A Tumblog of Greatness: OMGCATSINSPACE.

(thanks, @sbethm)

Elderly gentleman shoots armed robbers at Internet cafe in Florida

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:17:10 +0000

This surveillance video clip shows 71-year-old Samuel Williams thwarting an armed robbery at an internet cafe in Marion, Florida on Friday, July 13, 2012. Williams, a licensed gun owner, may now become the poster child for those who support "concealed carry" rights in the state.

Williams was present when two masked thugs walked into the Palms Internet Cafe in Marion County, Florida. One of the men was brandishing a gun while the other had a bat. They started ordering patrons around and one smashes a computer screen. That's when Williams took action.
Williams was seated toward the back of the cafe dressed in a white shirt, shorts and baseball cap. One of the masked men, identified as Duwayne Henderson, 19 [at left in photo], comes in pointing a handgun at customers. The second man, Davis Dawkins, 19 [at right in photo], is seen swinging a bat at something off screen, which was later identified as a $1,200 computer screen.
As Henderson turns his back, Williams pulls out a .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun, stands from his chair, takes two steps, nearly drops to one knee, and fires two shots at Henderson, who bolts for the front door. Williams takes several more steps toward the door and continues firing as Henderson and Dawkins fall over one another trying to exit the building. The two eventually run off screen.

Both suspects received non-life threatening gunshot wounds, and were later captured by police. Williams will not face any charges, according to a rep from the State Attorney's Office (via Joe Sabia).

Camp Carreon's new strategy: rape puns!

Rob Beschizza — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:47:33 +0000

The longer it goes on, the stranger it gets. Here's Nate Anderson at Ars Technica on the latest stunt.

Camp Carreon isn't done with [The Oatmeal's Matthew] Inman yet—a new video depicts the cartoonist as a "Psycho Santa," while a new website suggests that Carreon might like to pursue litigation against those who engaged in a "Distributed Internet Reputational Attack" against him. ... it's up on a site called Rapeutation.com. The site, apparently set up just for the video, suggests that Internet users are (or have been) engaged in a coordinated assault on Carreon's reputation.

Don't miss last night's feature, by Glenn Fleishman, about the amazing pile of cash that Inman's charity drive generated. It's a good refresher for the whole complicated story behind it, too.

Epic moonwalk video

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:54:39 +0000

Video Link. Eric Nash, aka @onelovecandyman, is from Pasadena, CA, and works as a stuntman and actor in and around LA. You can see him stunt-busking sometimes along the Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade. He's incredible. Post more videos, Eric!

(thanks, Joe Sabia)

TSA agent pokes fingers in ashes of traveler's dead grandfather, spills them on floor, cackles

Xeni Jardin — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 18:39:09 +0000

Indianapolis resident John Gross was going through TSA security in the Orlando, Florida airport, carrying the cremated ashes of his Sicilian grandfather "in a tightly sealed jar marked 'Human Remains." TSA rules say that this sort of material in carry-on baggage must be labeled, and go through the X-ray machine, but that human remains are to be opened under “no circumstances.” Guess what happened? According to Gross, an idiot TSA agent ignored the agency's own rules, and caused the ashes to be spilled on the terminal floor.

"They opened up my bag, and I told them, 'Please, be careful. These are my grandpa's ashes,'" Gross told RTV6's Norman Cox. "She picked up the jar. She opened it up. "I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it."
Gross says about a quarter to a third of the contents spilled on the floor, leaving him frantically trying to gather up as much as he could while anxious passengers waited behind him.
"She didn't apologize. She started laughing. I was on my hands and knees picking up bone fragments. I couldn't pick up all, everything that was lost. I mean, there was a long line behind me."

Gross says he wants “an apology from the lady who opened the jar and laughed at me."

There's video here. More at the Orlando Sentinel.

Update: He got an apology, sort of. Conveniently, the TSA has lost surveillance video of the incident.

Gross said a high-ranking TSA official contacted him to empathize because of what transpired at the airport. He said the official claims that TSA cannot locate video of his exchange with the security worker. “I got the apology, but I got it from the wrong person,” Gross said.

Cory blogged about the incident when news first broke.

Mr Yummy battles Mr Whippy in Blackburn Ice Cream War

Rob Beschizza — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 19:54:05 +0000

Hostilities erupted this weekend between two ice cream truck operators in Blackburn, England, leaving both their vehicles damaged. According to a local quoted by Lancashire Telegraph, children watched in horror as "Mr Yummy jumped out of his van and smashed Mr Whippy’s window."

Walmart breaks bad: active meth lab found inside Missouri store

Xeni Jardin — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 02:28:33 +0000

Apparently, corporate profits just aren't enough for some global megabusinesses these days: a Walmart store in South St. Louis County, Missouri was emptied by police when an "active methamphetamine production laboratory" was discovered inside.

Now, it's entirely possible that the "lab" consisted of an empty plastic bottle and some chemicals, but still, you guys: some tweeker was cooking crystal inside a freakin' Walmart.

The store was open and full of customers when it was cleared about 6:15 p.m. Thursday after employees and then police discovered the possible hazardous situation involving the substances used to make methamphetamine, St. Louis County police Lt. Mark Cox said. The chemicals were discovered after police were called about a shoplifter. Cox did not yet know details of the "lab," how it was put together or where in the store it was located.

UPDATE: It gets weirder. This local news report further clarifies that a woman detained for shoplifting at the Walmart "began to make meth in the loss prevention office."

Now that is baller. You're busted for shoplifting, placed in what amounts to a holding cell inside the store, and how do you kill time? Makin' ice!

"Loss prevention had detained the woman, and she was placed in a holding area until officers arrived," reports KDSK-TV.

"While she was detained, she began cooking meth in the holding room."

Sounds like an improvised mobile setup—she's no Heisenberg, and that's no blue.

Good news, though, the store will only be closed for three hours. And, nobody got their face chewed off.

Here's a photo of hazmat guys cleaning it up. And a local Patch.com article has more details here.

Sarah Flagg, writing on a local Patch.com page, says it was "a portable meth lab in her purse," also known as “shake and bake.” These are often fashioned on the fly from a two-liter or 20-ounce beverage bottle (the size Bloomberg is outlawing in New York City... coincidence?).

Shake 'n' Bake is an actual thing. It is, as you might imagine, very dangerous: a resulting explosion can kill or seriously burn the "cook" and any bystanders.

(thanks, @harringtonkent)