When you’re a bandwagon fan and don’t care who knows it
The best part of being a bandwagon fan is that your team wins every time. Read more: http://www.wimp.com/when-youre-a-bandwagon-fan-and-dont-care-who-knows-it/
What Is the First New Creature in ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’?
Who’s that muppet? A still from the ‘Star Wars’ video released May 21Image: Lucasfilm/Omaze When director J.J. Abrams recorded his first video from the set of Star Wars: Episode VII in Abu Dhabi, he was sending a number of messages to different kinds of Star Wars fans. The obvious message, meant for all kinds of fans, was that they should enter a charity contest with probably the coolest prize in history: a bit part in the still-unnamed Episode VII. But the arrival of a large muppet-like creature halfway through Abrams’ monologue sent another few messages to more serious fans. It was a clear signal that Episode VII will use the retro puppeteering of the original trilogy — think the motley crew of Jabba’s palace — alongside the somewhat soulless CGI of the prequel era. “We’re going to use every tool in the toolbox,” was how Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy put it last summer. No doubt there will be one or two computer-generated beasties in the final movie, but the fact that this curious creature is the first non-droid we’ve seen in Episode VII is surely intended to calm any older viewers who felt Episodes I to III fell too far into the uncanny valley (population: Jar Jar Binks). Meanwhile, the identity of the on-screen beastie has not been officially confirmed, but according to Wookiepedia, it appears to be a dead ringer for a species called the H’drachi. That’s an extremely nerdy reference for Abrams to be making, since the camel-like H’drachi have only been seen in a few Star Wars comics. This is especially interesting given last month’s announcement that the so-called Expanded Universe of Star Wars comics and novels was being moved to the universe next door; now, none of its storylines officially happened in Star Wars canon. Using a species as obscure as the H’drachi in Episode VII seems something of a sop to Expanded Universe fans: Don’t worry, it says, we still respect the source material, and we’re going to use it liberally in this brave new Star Wars universe. And there’s one more thing. Fans of the various wonders to have poured out of Jim Henson’s Muppet workshop over the years find this creature, with its lumbering movements and sleepy eyelids, to be surprisingly familiar. A lot of us looked at it, and were reminded of this: They’re the Mystics, ancient creatures from the much-underrated 1982 movie Dark Crystal. That movie in itself has a Star Wars connection, being a collaboration between Henson and Gary Kurtz, who produced both the original Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. Mystical camel-like muppet aliens lumbering around with bird-filled carriers on their backs? That sounds a lot like the Star Wars we used to know. Roll on, Episode VII. Chris Taylor is the author of How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, the first complete history of the Star Wars franchise and its fandom. The book releases September 30 and is available for pre-order here. Read more: http://mashable.com/2014/05/21/star-wars-episode-vii-creature/
A Man Found Whale Vomit On The Beach, And He’s About To Cash In Big Time
Of all the bizarre get-rich-quick schemes floating around out there, this one is probably the weirdest. And that’s because it has to do with selling vomit. While strolling on the beach in Lancashire, England, recently, one lucky guy by the name of Ken Wilman stumbled across what he thought was a large stone. Much to his surprise, however, it was actually a chunk of whale puke. Take a look at this video to learn about why someone just offered the man £50,000 for it. You never know when a big pile of money is going to fall into your lap. Let’s just hope that if it happens to you, it won’t come in the form of solidified vomit. Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/whale-vomit/
Grown Men Reenact Conversations With a Toddler
What is it about kids that makes their nonsensical comments and absurd thoughts sound brilliant? Oh yes, they are so darn cute. Kids often get away with murder — on the English language, that is. When it comes to having conversations, no one minds, because we adore them. But when a grown man tries to say that stuff? It’s creepy, just plain creepy. SEE ALSO: Baby ‘Bachelor’ Breaks Hearts in New Reality Show Filmmaker Matthew Clarke decided to prove how odd this was by staging a series of episodes entitled “Convos With My 2 Year Old,” replacing an adult man in place of his daughter Coco. Watch the hysterical results in the first episode, and prepare to have similar noggin-scratching exchanges with your children one day (or perhaps, with other awkward adults). BONUS: 10 Cute Kids Explaining Things 10 Cute Kids Explaining Things [VIDEOS] 1. ‘Star Wars’ According to a Three-Year-Old “The shiny guy always worries.” 2. Murét Explains Dinosaur Extinction “Poor dinosaurs.” 3. Kid Explains Bacon “They squirt it out their bums.” 4. Leprechauns According to a Three-Year-Old “People don’t have green parts on them.” 5. Five-Year-Old Explains TV Remote “Here’s really fast-forward and there’s really back-forward.” 6. Kid Explains the Digestive and Circulatory Systems “Nose, toes and fingers!” 7. Four-Year-Old Explains Sex “Someone on TV had sex all the days.” 8. Eight-Year-Old Explains ‘Romeo and Juliet’ “Romeo killed the person whose name started with a ‘t.’” 9. Five-Year-Old Explains Marriage and Santa “You’re only a kid ’til you get married.” 10. 10-Year-Old Explains the Meaning of Life “It’s a puzzle that’s blank at the beginning.” Read more: http://mashable.com/2013/05/23/conversations-with-2-year-old/
C3-Bieb-O Wants to Be Your Droidfriend
R2-D2 usually scores all the lady action with his thruster jets and hologram transmitting capabilities, but his droid buddy C-3PO makes a play with a new look and smoother groove. The revamped (and hairier) Threepio adopted the moniker C3-Bieb-O to remix Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend.” The Rebel Alliance-friendly lyrics include gems like: “So give me a chance, I’m God on the Ewok’s world,Spend a week with your droid you’ll be calling me your droid-friend.” Viral Photo Gallery 7 Fake Hurricane Sandy Photos You’re Sharing on Social Media Fake Hurricane Sandy photos flew around Twitter and Facebook on Monday, as users shared jaw-dropping images. Unfortunately, the race to post the most striking pics has most folks skipping the all-important fact check. We’ve gathered up five “Hurricane Sandy” photographs that have spread on the social web, but weren’t actually taken during the massive storm. Obama and Romney Are Your New Dress Up Dolls Still not sure who to vote for? Or maybe you’re dead-set on a candidate, and simply waiting for Election Day next week. Regardless of who you’re voting for on Nov. 6, both of these presidential candidates could use some change — of outfits, that is. The websites Change4Obama and Change4Romney will keep voters entertained until the election. Both sites, created by social discovery site SocialPlex, allow users to dress up Barack Obama or Mitt Romney as various characters. You can mix and match features like hair, eyes, nose and outfits. Your Favorite Logos Reimagined for the Zombie Apocalypse [PICS] There seems to be a craze for reimagining top logos and since this is Halloween, why not rethink them for a zombie apocalypse, right? Assuming that event were to come to pass, here’s what your neighborhood Starbucks and the gas station down the street might look like, as envisioned by artist Ben Fellowes. For more of these horrifying logos, check out his site. New York City Subway Needs a ‘System Restore’ [PIC] Yes, crashed Windows OS, we know the New York City subway system was unable to restart after Hurricane Sandy. And, yes, we would love to run a system restore. After Sandy ravaged the East Coast Monday evening, the subway system in New York City was left crippled. Not immune to inclement weather, the Windows-based display above the 77th Street subway stop seemed to have hit a snag as well. ‘The Walking Dead’ Gets ‘Dear Photograph’ Treatment [PICS] Dear Photograph, a popular nostalgia blog showcasing photos within photos, gave its visitors a terrifying surprise Wednesday: The Walking Dead-inspired posts. Dear Photograph creator Taylor Jones told Mashable he teamed up with FOX International Channels on the Halloween Day images, which folks at The Walking Dead created for their international ad campaign. Each of the two blog posts showcases a zombie and a post-zombie-apocalypse caption. Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/08/01/c3po-justin-bieber-boyfriend-video/
Bear Cubs Line Up And Groom Each Other In The World’s Most Adorable Wildlife Video.
Two bear cubs grooming each other is adorable, sure, but when you add a third bear to the mix? Then, you get this video, which is off the scales cute. It’s almost as if they are playing a game of telephone by whispering secrets to each other. In reality, they are just grooming and making sure they all have clean ears, lending a helping paw to one another…well their tongues technically. It doesn’t really matter why they’re doing this, though. Your heart will melt into teeny tiny pieces, regardless. (Source: Sylvie B) Share these grooming bear cubs with your friends below. Read more: http://viralnova.com/bear-cubs-wash/
Watch What Happens When an iPhone 5 Is Glued to the Ground
Gadget geeks scrambled to Apple stores around the world Friday to get their hands on the iPhone 5. If you didn’t dedicate yourself to standing in line at 2 a.m. (or do the smart thing and order online), you might still luck out and find one just laying in the street. That’s what happened to people strolling through a busy square in Amsterdam, but it was a little too good to be true. A couple of Dutch pranksters glued the prized smartphone to the ground and recorded what happened. BONUS: iPhone 5: All the New Stuff iPhone 5: All the New Stuff Bigger Screen The most noticeable change in the new iPhone is its larger, 4-inch screen. The display actually isn’t any wider than the previous one, but instead extends length-wise to a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Its resolution is 1,136 x 640 pixels — that’s not quite high-def, but it still has the same pixel density — what Apple calls a retina display. The taller screen allows for five rows of apps (plus the permanent row on the bottom), and Apple says its colors are better, too. LTE The iPhone 5 is the first iPhone with LTE connectivity, and it’s going to work on the networks of AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, as well as many others across the globe. To accommodate so many different LTE bands, Apple had to split the iPhone 5 into three different models, only one of which works on CDMA networks. That’s a departure from the “world phone” approach of the iPhone 4S, but at least Apple was able to integrate both the LTE and voice radios into the same chip, saving space in the device. Lightning Connector The 30-pin dock connector, which has been on Apple portable devices since 2003, is now obsolete, replaced with the much smaller Lightning connector, the name being a play on the Thunderbolt connector on Apple’s Macs. Apple says it’s 80% smaller than the old dock connector, and had the extra advantage of being reversible (no more “getting it wrong” the first time you try to insert it). Of course, the new jack means many old accessories won’t work with the iPhone 5 — unless you buy Apple’s $29 adapter, that is. Even if you do, the adapters don’t support exporting video, so you’re stuck with AirPlay for that. Thinner Design All this beautiful new technology means Apple was able to shave off a couple of millimeters of thickness. Thanks in part to the new connector, the combined-radio chip and integrating touch electrodes right into the pixels, the iPhone 5 is just 0.3 of an inch thick. It’s also lighter, weighing just under 4 ounces. A6 Chip The iPhone 5 sports a new processor, the ARM-based Apple A6. Apple claims that it’s twice as fast as the A5 chip in the iPhone 4S, and has twice the graphics performance. Like its predecessors, it’s optimized for iOS to save power. The phone is rated to last up to eight hours […]
‘BioShock’ Finite: Developer Irrational Games Shuts Down
Irrational Games, the developer behind the ‘BioShock’ franchise, has announced the company will shut down.Image: Irrational Games In an abrupt announcement, Irrational Games has decided to permanently close after 17 years. The video-game studio, whose most-popular gaming franchise is first-person shooter BioShock, revealed the news in a letter on the company’s website. “I am winding down Irrational Games as you know it,” Ken Levine, co-founder of the Boston studio, wrote Tuesday. “I’ll be starting a smaller, more entrepreneurial endeavor at Take-Two. That is going to mean parting ways with all but about fifteen members of the Irrational team. There’s no great way to lay people off, and our first concern is to make sure that the people who are leaving have as much support as we can give them during this transition.” Irrational Games’ final project before shuttering will be Burial at Sea Episode 2, the final BioShock Infinite DLC (downloadable content) update that comes out on March 25. Tuesday’s announcement shocked many gamers, as Levine’s letter offered a vague explanation for why Irrational Games will shut down. “Irrational Games” quickly became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter. Sad to hear that Irrational Games is shutting down. Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite were monumental games that will live with us forever. — Zack Scott (@ZackScott) February 18, 2014 More people are upset about Flappy Bird being taken down than Irrational Games closing or Marvelous going bankrupt. I hate today’s industry — Pinhead Larry (@SgtMettool) February 18, 2014 We’re sorry to hear about the winding down of Irrational Games & send our best to our friends & colleagues. We’re all big fans. Sad news. — Volition (@DSVolition) February 18, 2014 Here is Levine’s full letter: When Jon Chey, Rob Fermier and I founded Irrational Games seventeen years ago, our mission was to make visually unique worlds and populate them with singular characters. We built Rapture and Columbia, the Von Braun and The Rickenbacker, the Freedom Fortress and some of the nastiest basements a SWAT team ever set foot into. We created Booker and Elizabeth, the Big Daddy and the Little Sister, MidWives and ManBot. In that time, Irrational has grown larger and more successful than we could have conceived when we began our three-person studio in a living room in Cambridge, MA. It’s been the defining project of my professional life. Now Irrational Games is about to roll out the last DLC for BioShock Infinite and people are understandably asking: What’s next? Seventeen years is a long time to do any job, even the best one. And working with the incredible team at Irrational Games is indeed the best job I’ve ever had. While I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before. To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to […]
15 Examples Of Animals Being Way Smarter Than We Give Them Credit For
For those who don’t spend much time around animals, it’s easy to assume they aren’t intelligent and only act on pure instinct. While animals are obviously incredibly instinctual creatures, they’ve also proven that they have the ability to think, reason, and even solve certain problems. Don’t take my word for it, though. Just check out how these 15 smart critters use their brains. 1. In a 2016 study, European scientists found that with homing pigeons, either the leader will fall back into the flock and let others take over when it doesn’t know where it’s going, or the flock won’t follow the leader when they realize they’re going the wrong way. Flickr / schizoform 2. This gorilla at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, taught himself how to walk a tightrope. Reddit / gugulo 3. This study tested whether New Caledonian crows could figure out how to get a drink of water from a half-filled pitcher. Not only did they find a way, but they were found to be as smart as the average five- to seven-year-old child! <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f46732f" data-source=" Chimpanzee solving a memory puzzle <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f4673f8" data-source=" Bird learns to trigger store door motion sensor <div class="llcust" data-lltype="media" id="ll_59bb35f4675c9" data-source=" 6. This study found that chimps of all ages and sexes can learn how to play rock-paper-scissors. Their performances during sessions of the game were on par with those of four-year-old children. Wikipedia <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f46769d" data-source=" Genius bird uses bread as bait <div class="llcust" data-lltype="video" id="ll_59bb35f467820" data-source=" 横に並んで注文 pic.twitter.com/lQYeyfnsMC — ねこナビ編集部 (@b_ru_ru) March 30, 2017 <div class="llcust" data-lltype="media" id="ll_59bb35f4679fd" data-source=" 9. These researchers discovered that octopuses can recognize different people. Wikipedia <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f467ad2" data-source=" Minny the Bunny ganks my crackers like an expert- she flings the crackers everywhere knowing she can sneak a few bites as I clean up the mess. <div class="llcust" data-lltype="media" id="ll_59bb35f467ca3" data-source=" 11. In order to avoid potential predators, newborn humpback whales and their mothers “whisper” or communicate with each other at much lower decibels than singing males. YouTube / Smithsonian Channel <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f467d78" data-source=" Balance Dog <div class="llcust" data-lltype="video" id="ll_59bb35f467ef6" data-source=" <div class="llcust" data-lltype="embed" id="ll_59bb35f467fbf" data-source=" African Gray Parrot is a problem-solving genius <div class="llcust" data-lltype="video" id="ll_59bb35f46813a" data-source=" <div class="llcust" data-lltype="media" id="ll_59bb35f468207" data-source=" Read more: http://www.viralnova.com/smart-animals/
Kid shows amazing 2 year dance progress.
It’s amazing what two years (700 hours) of practice can do. Read more: http://www.wimp.com/kid-shows-amazing-2-year-dance-progress/