I'm sure you've seen in The Parent Trap (or most likely on YouTube) a sleeping person set afloat so they wake up in the middle of a lake. I wanted to add a little more excitement to that concept. It would take a lot more preparation and skill, but ultimately we replace the lake with air. Pick your least favorite friend, wait until he's asleep, get him in a plane, strap him with a parachute, and film him as he opens his eyes to the earth thousands of feet below.
This article is a must read for all of you mediocre crossword enthusiasts who can only dream of meeting Will Shortz. (I put myself in this category.)
Another sweet boat this weekend (see yesterday's Zipper Motorboat), the Seabreacher X is a high-speed sub, fashioned after a man-eating shark. Built by Innespace, the submarine has a 260 horsepower engine, can speed through the water at 50 mph on the surface and 25 mph when diving, and best of all: the Seabreacher X can jump 12 feet into the air!
My best prank would be to tie a bunch of helium balloons to a chair and tie a really long rope to the chair (probably 20 feet high). Then tell someone the skit will be for them to get in the chair and the balloons will take them up and they won't know how to get down. Once they are up in the air and have no way to get down then you can throw things at them... like poop. And to top it off you could shoot paint ball guns at the balloons to pop them and let the person down.
Lock up your grandfather clocks; there's a new lady on the scene. Meet "365" by German designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen, an electric grandmother clock that completes a two-meter (or six-and-a-half-foot) knitted scarf once every 52 weeks.
Kitschy kicks your thing? Try these self-lacing sneakers on for size. Inspired by the iconic Nike Air 2015s worn by Michael J. Fox's character in Back to the Future Part II, these shoes utilize an Arduino-powered force sensor and somewhat bulky pair of rear-mounted servo motors to pull themselves tight when offered a human foot. A switch reverses the process. Feeling ambitious? Head over to Instructables for complete instructions on how to build your own pair.
This summer if you are in New York get yourself in some rubber soled shoes, buy a timed ticket in advance and run to the rooftop of The Met for The Big Bambu. It’s green, literally. It’s made from one of the most sustainable materials around. And it’s even recyclable! And you can walk through it!
If you are born without any arms, you will figure it out. Somehow, I doubt Ren Jiemei needed sewing tutorials on how to thread a needle with her feet. But here it is.
INSANE what you can do with a truckload of packing tape. Viennese/Croatian design collective For Use/Numen uses the common junk drawer office supply to create massive, self-supportive cocoons that visitors can climb inside and explore.
Janelle Monáe is simply in a class of her own. Genre-bending beats, distinctive fashion sense (à la the fabulous Grace Jones), and sweet dance moves to boot. Whether or not Monáe falls within your musical realm, you've gotta admit: the tiny five-foot-tall singer is chock full of infectious energy and exceptional talent.
This year's fifth annual Maker Faire featured a fully articulated, fire-breathing animatronic dragon named Saphira (after the dragon from the book Eragon).
Sean Stiegemeier has captured absolutely beautiful timelapse footage documenting the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland:
I was shooting last Friday and for a particular shot I wanted a special on a product; I wanted it focused, but soft. Unfortunately we had run out of flags to cut it so my Key Grip came up with a great DIY solution: cut a hole in black wrap, put it on a stand a few feet away from the light (Dedo 400W HMI) and cover that hole with a light diffusion (Opal). The distance from the light guaranteed a defined shape while the diffusion softened up the light itself.
The Rivaldo is a famous soccer move named after the majestic Brazilian playmaker. Using fancy footwork, the Rivaldo rockets the soccer ball away from your opponent and spins it around so fast he won't know which way to go.
Recently I've become fascinated by vertical gardens. They're cropping up all over the place, whether it's in my neighborhood's newest hair salon or in San Diego as the beginnings of a new company. Vertical gardens have several cool advantages over horizontal ones:
Looking for a cheap & easy stylus (but not interested in using processed pork?) Adam Kumpf of design firm Teague demonstrates how to make a DIY soft conductive stylus for the iPhone, iPad, or any device with a capacitive touch screen. All it takes is a pencil and sock. Yes, it's that easy. "We've been experimenting with conductive foams and fabrics in search of a middle ground. Fortunately, it's quite easy to make a soft, conductive writing tool using some pretty basic materials. All you need...
This one smells like a fish story. It is not. Tuesday April 13, Dave and I got up to surf westward at 7 in the morning. First rate waves. Headache cold water....sun blocked by the cliffs. Fast, clean, beach break. 3-4 foot sets, mostly lefts. About 15 dolphins swam by. Blase blase. We always see dolphins. But then some bigass whale with barnacles breaches. We are speechless. It is about 20 feet from us. We follow it for about thirty seconds and pinch ourselves. Have-you-ever? No...
Scott Balogh is an amazing surfer and obsessed with showing you the best surf places...mostly cause he wants to get 6 good hours every day. Red Frog is eco certified, which means it uses rain water, and the internet connection is spotty. But this is a plus. you feel like you are on a tropical island...and you are. Only access by motor boat. Scotty loves nothing better than to roast the obnoxious surfers by cutting a rooster tail 1 feet from their surf board. "I roasted that brazilian j...
The age of personal flight has finally arrived. You can now purchase your very own jet pack for the extremely high price of $75,000. The Martin Aircraft Company Jetpack gets 30 miles to the tank, sails along at 60 mph, and can reach heights of almost 8,000 feet. Oh, and bonus: since it weighs less than 254 pounds, you won't need a pilot's license to operate. Previously, NASA's Wicked Cool Take on the Classic Jetpack.
Google Street View has civilization well covered, but what about the great outdoors? Street View now travels via snowmobile in the unpaved Canadian wilderness, just in time for the winter games.
16-year-old Alexander Kendrick has invented a low-frequency radio that allows for cave-texting, meaning deep underground cellular communication.
Ah, Irish fashion. It has given the world so much. This tutorial video will show you how to tie your very own Irish Ghillie Brogue shoes. The steps are as follows:
Start by lying on your side on the floor or mat with the legs extended. The elbow should be directly underneath the shoulder to support the body. As you contract your abdominals, use your torso to lift yourself off of the mat while your elbow and feet are touching the ground. Hold this for 10 to 15 seconds making sure that the spine and neck are in a neutral position. Repeat on the opposite side.
Having trouble falling asleep? Using coconut oil, olive oil, beeswax, and essential oils, you can easily concoct your own DIY, nice-smelling sleep salve that will help you drift off to slumber with minimal effort.
Just like it's hard to fall asleep when it's too hot in bed, it's difficult for some to fall asleep when it's really cold. Avoid this unpleasant scenario by investing in a heated mattress pad so that by the time you are ready to check out for bedtime, your bed and blankets are already toasty.
Is it possible to gauge what the weather is going to be like without checking your smartphone? By looking at the shape of clouds and how high they are in the sky, you can start getting a hang of predicting what the weather will be like in the next day or two.
If you want to avoid catching the cold this season, act like a complete germaphobic nut and wash your hands frequently. Wear gloves to avoid directly touching frequently-touched public surfaces that may carry germs, such as doorknobs and handrails.
If you don't have the backyard space to make a Japanese rock garden where you can spend long afternoons meditatively raking ripple-like patterns into the sand below your feet, settle for the next best thing by making a simple, miniature zen garden that can easily fit on the corner of your desk or nightstand.
Cayenne peppers are great for spicing up your bland cooking, but did you know that they can also prevent frostbite? If you ever need to keep your feet warm during a long snow hike or skiing adventure, add a little bit of cayenne pepper powder to the bottom of your socks.
Mayonnaise is not exactly the healthiest thing in the world, but it makes for a great household and self-care item, from whitening your yellowing piano keys to adding shine and luster to your dry and brittle hair.
A senior Syrian government spokesman just confirmed his nation did indeed possess chemical weapons, and might employ them against a "foreign aggressor."
Major banks and the financial global elite are now confirmed to have as much as $32 trillion in hidden assets stashed away in offshore accounts that are subject to little or no taxation. As a result, around $280 billion is estimated to be lost in tax revenues. In other words, the multi-trillion dollar banks and elite families are avoiding any taxation while forcing United States citizens to foot the bill. Amazingly, the $32 trillion stashed away represents the overall GDP of the United States...
Artist Frank Bölter created a life-sized origami boat to sail up the Elbe. The boat cost £110 to construct back in '97 (today's conversion rate would put that at $175). The boat is 30 feet long, and weighs 55 pounds. It took 2 hours to construct, using a 170 square meter sheet of paper.
Sure, you've folded paper airplanes before. But I bet they don't stay airborne for very long. But they will, thanks to this clever little hack.
"Bang Goes The Theory" is back on Wonderment. This time it's not a vortex cannon demolishing houses (three little pigs style). In this episode, Jem Stansfield's latest stunt involves him climbing a 1210 feet high building like a real life Spider-Man. Stansfield uses a special pair of hand built vacuum gloves, powered by a vacuum cleaner on his back.
There's been a lot of craziness from the far East lately on WonderHowTo... A Chinese farmer builds an army of robots, a Thai baker makes horror movie-esque bodies out of bread, a Chinese James Bond enthusiast hacks together his own submarine, and don't forget the Japanese cooking show narrated by a poodle named Francis...
Dirk Auer has set a new world record…for insanity. This past July, the adrenaline junkie raced down the rickety, wooden Mammoth roller coaster at 56mph, in his specially made inline skates. Auer made it through the entire length of the roller coaster (2820 feet) in just over a minute.
What would drive Michelle Wibowo to create such a hyper realistic baby cake? An outsider to the cake decorating world might consider the subject matter a bit odd. However, elaborate baby shower cakes are a popular fad, and Michelle's award winning baby cake is the creme of the crop.
Thailand's own Stan Winston. Artist Kittiwat Unarrom's gruesome baked goods are mindblowing. I can't imagine rendering this level of realism in clay, let alone bread dough.
Turn the tables. Our buddy GreeenPro came up with this ingenious prank.