Quick — who was born in 1926 and died in 1962? Unless you’re a superfan, chances are you wouldn’t have known offhand that the answer is Marilyn Monroe. Steve Ellison, on the other hand, can answer in seconds. Also known as the “Human Wikipedia,” Ellison has the rare ability to remember the birth and death year of any famous person in history. Posted Wednesday, a YouTube video shows random crowds of strangers testing his memory. From Michael Jackson to the trickier John Steinbeck, Ellison consistently gets it right — and even corrects a few people along the way. The video, uploaded to YouTuber Charles Trippy’s account, claims to be real. Check it out, above; then tell us in the comments: Are you impressed with the Human Wikipedia? Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/human-wikipedia/
ESPN‘s long-running line of “This Is Sportscenter” ads take a whimsical and bizarre angle on the legendary show’s behind-the-scenes productions, imagining scenarios and backstories that, for all we know, could actually be true. They’ve produced some really funny spots over the years. But the latest offering — which purports to reveal that straight-laced NFL analyst John Clayton actually rocks a gnarly ponytail, head-bangs to Slayer and still lives with his mother — may be SportsCenter’s best ad yet. That was the chatter on the social web after the spot instantly started spreading in sports circles upon hitting YouTube Thursday morning — high praise considering the campaign’s hilarious history. So kudos to ESPN on another successful spot. But it may not match this ad from April, which showed why it actually sucks to be Michael Jordan. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/06/sportscenter-john-clayton/
Like a politician on the campaign trail, Saturday Night Live wants change for season 38, which starts Sept. 15 with host Seth MacFarlane and musical guest Frank Ocean. To shake things up, SNL revealed this week to The New York Times that Jay Pharoah — not the usual Fred Armisen — will impersonate U.S. President Barack Obama. Let’s commemorate the switch with the following seven SNL clips of presidential impersonators played by Will Ferrell, Dana Carvey, Darrell Hammond and other funnymen. Who is your favorite SNL president? Tell us in the comments. Barack Obama George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush Bill Clinton George W. Bush Ronald Reagan Jimmy Carter Gerald Ford Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/09/14/snl-president-obama-impersonator/
Larsen Jay is a man who thoroughly believes that flowers not only bring joy to people’s lives, but that they also have the power to heal. In 2007, Jay was confined to a hospital bed after falling from a ladder. The accident meant he had to endure a long and painful recovery, but fortunately for him, he received plenty of visitors bearing gifts of cards and flowers. Once he got better and was able to move around the hospital, Jay noticed that there were plenty of rooms without any blooms. That’s when he decided to do his best to brighten people’s lives by passing his bouquets on to others. Thus Random Acts of Flowers was born. Now a full-fledged non-profit organization based in Knoxville, Tennessee, it brings a dash of color and a smile to people’s lives! What an inspiring and beautiful story. It put a huge smile on my face, and now I want to share the joy by giving someone a bouquet of flowers! Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/random-acts-of-flowers/
A team of firefighters in Auckland, New Zealand, banded together to help a distraught mother duck after her ducklings fell down a storm drain. The team of heroes formed an assembly line to pull the tiny babies out while the notably anxious mom duck watched. The moment the chirping cuties are reunited with their mother is one that will put a huge smile on your face. I’m so glad someone took the time to get a closer look at that drain once they heard the quacks coming from it. It’s people like these fine firefighters that make the world a better place. I’m sure this momma duck will be forever grateful for their kindness. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/ducklings/
Superbike racer Riccardo Russo made an error at the 2012 Italian CIV championship race in Mugello he’ll likely remember all his life: He forgot to run the last lap! To make the situation even worse, Russo was leading the race at the time. As he crossed the finish line, he slowed down and started celebrating his “win,” while all the other racers whizzed past him. The video above shows the unfortunate celebration for a while, and then the director switches to the rest of the racers who completed the final lap. While Russo’s error seems quite unbelievable, these types of mistakes occasionally do happen in racing. Spanish racer Julián Simón famously celebrated his win too early in 2009, eventually finishing fourth in the race. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/07/11/motorcycle-race-leader-forgets-to-run-last-lap/
During the April 11 episode of Community, NBC is throwing a GIFathon, where viewers are encouraged to create and post GIFs on Tumblr using hashtag #Greendale GIFs. The best GIFs posted between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. ET will win prizes, NBC exclusively told Mashable. NBC is trying to harness its viewers who are active on Tumblr to bolster live viewing of the “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” episode. “Intro to Felt Surrogacy” features the cast as puppets and guest Sara Bareilles, so NBC is looking for for puppet-related GIFs. NBC describes the episode as such: The study group takes a wild balloon ride that crash lands in the woods and they end up spending some quality time together with a friendly mountain man (Jason Alexander of Seinfeld). GIFathon prizes include a signed script, season 3 DVD, puppet T-shirt, posters, stuffed “Being Human” mascot, Greendale white robe, duffle bag, Day Break CD, cast photo and mugs. BONUS: ‘Game of Thrones’ Fans Wait Hours to See These Items in Person Game of Thrones Exhibition in New York City Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof Game of Thrones Exhibition Photos by Mashable’s Emil Lendof […]
When it comes to home construction (or any kind of construction, really) safety should always be your primary concern. If you’re not taking steps to ensure no bodily harm comes to you or those around you, then that’s just plain dumb. For example, one thing you should never do when building something is use your own hand as a hammer. I wish this was just a hypothetical, but sadly, it’s not, as you can see in the video below. It’s equal parts horrifying and impressive. Well that’s going to leave a mark. Hopefully he has really good health insurance and his employer is all paid up on their premiums! Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/russian-hammer/
The next generation of Pokémon games bring the franchise into a brave, new world: one that enters the third dimension for the first time. When Pokémon X and Y come out around the world on Oct. 12, it will push the franchise forward with help from Nintendo’s powerful 3DS handheld. Pokémon X and Y are the first games in the seven-generation franchise to immerse players in a 3D world; previous titles relied on two-dimensional sprites for worlds, characters and Pokémon. This leap forward for the series and the more powerful 3DS handheld have inspired lots of changes in the new games. To learn more about how Pokémon X and Y took shape during development, Mashable sat down with Junichi Masuda, the director for X/Y. He’s been involved with studio GameFreak since its launch in the mid-90s, first composing music for Pokémon titles, then moving on to direct games. Mashable: What did it take to translate the sprites and two-dimensional art into that 3D world? Masuda: When we first decided to develop on the Nintendo 3DS, we looked at its much-improved rendering power. We always knew we wanted to bring Pokémon into 3D, but we didn’t want to bring it in a traditional realistic sense. We wanted to convey the soft feel of the 2D in previous games. After doing some experimentation, we made that determination that we could get that same feel across in 3D and just went for it. Now that there are hundreds of them available, how much work was it to turn the Pokémon sprites into full 3D characters? Masuda (with input from graphic designer Hironobu Yoshida): It was quite difficult to translate the 2D models, especially with that characteristic style we have in the GameFreak games. That characteristic style was hard to translate. The 2D sprites appear just as you draw them in previous games. That allowed us to make a lot of adjustments to the models even late into the development period. But because of the 3D, we had to have the settings and animations finalized well in advance of previous titles. Also, now that we’re working in 3D, we had to make the settings of each character much more detailed than before. For example, we had to really think about the thickness of something — what a Pokémon’s tail looks like on the inside — in order to create these 3D models. The 2D images have these different thicker lines and thin lines that accentuate different pieces of each character, and getting that translated into 3D was very difficult and took quite a bit of time. How do you design new Pokémon for each game? Masuda: Each time, we have different settings for each game’s regions, and those are based on real-world regions. Getting inspiration for what kind of creatures live in those regions and coming up with ideas for new Pokémon is one of the things we do as graphic designers. We’re also challenging ourselves to come up with things we haven’t done […]
Helping those who can’t help themselves is an incredible calling. Annie Hart is well known dog lover and the executive director of The Bill Foundation. She makes it her life goal to rescue animals that suffer abuse or neglect and to find homes for the pitiful animals that are left to die on the streets. Her YouTube channel is full of heartwarming animal rescues, but none so touching as the incredible rescue she just pulled off in December of last year. The dog she found was in such bad shape, it was clear he had been on the streets a long time. She named him Gideon… then saved his life. (Video at the bottom) Gideon was found with deep lacerations around his neck. The Bill Foundation He was emaciated and it seemed that he had been living on the streets for a long time. The Bill Foundation It was clear that he was extremely sick. Annie believe he is one of the sickest dogs she ever rescued. The Bill Foundation It’s uncertain whether or not Gideon’s former owners were physically abusive, but Annie thought it was obvious that he suffered neglect and deep emotional abuse. The Bill Foundation Even though the dog knew he needed help and was terribly ill, he had a hard time trusting his rescuers. The Bill Foundation He was literally trembling with fear at the sight of people. The Bill Foundation Then, something amazing happened. Watch the video to see how all of this unfolded. Not only did Gideon’s body began to heal, but his spirit did as well. Instead of quaking in fear when he saw humans, he began to realize they could be a source of love and comfort. The love and hope within him blossomed, shining through. The Animal Wellness Foundation generously paid for Gideon’s medical care, which was more than $4,000. Please support them and help them rescue the pups they come across like Gideon, by visiting their Donation page and giving what you can. The Animal Wellness Foundation is also fostering Gideon and in charge of finding him a forever home. If you’re interested in applying to adopt Gideon or any of the other wonderful animals they have rescued, please visit their site. At the very least, please help spread the word about these wonderful miracle workers by sharing this amazing video. Annie saved Gideon’s life. Help save the lives of other dogs and click Share below! Source: The Bill Foundation Read more: http://viralnova.com/tragic-pitbull-rescue/
