03 April 2010

The Wall of Death

A video of a Wall of Death attraction in India, where life is probably still cheap enough to make this possible. This is probably more dangerous for the spectators than some realize...



This is a follow up from my post 1.25 years ago, but I still think it is cooler with the lion.

05 March 2010

Old Spice Commercial

Srsly, WTF?!

Bright College Days

Tom Lehrer's funny Bright College Days song:



Bright college days, O carefree days that fly,
To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high.
Let’s drink a toast as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls.

Turn on the spigot,
Pour the beer and swig it,
And gaudeamus ur-igit.

Here’s to parties we tossed,
To the games that we lost,
We shall claim that we won them some day.

To the girls young and sweet,
To the spacious back seat
Of our roommate’s beat up Chevrolet.

To the beer and benzedrine,
To the way that the dean
Tried so hard to be pals with us all.

To excuses we fibbed,
To the papers we cribbed
From the genius who lived down the hall.

To the tables down at Mory’s (wherever that may be)
Let us drink a toast to all we love the best.
We will sleep through all the lectures,
And cheat on the exams,
And we’ll pass, and be forgotten with the rest.

Oh, soon we’ll be out amid the cold world’s strife.
Soon we’ll be sliding down the razor blade of life.

Ready?

But as we go our sordid sep’rate ways,
We shall ne’er forget thee, thou golden college days.

Hearts full of youth,
Hearts full of truth,
Six parts gin to one part vermouth.

04 March 2010

Capoeira

Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, music, and dance. It was created in Brazil by slaves brought from Africa, especially from present day Angola, sometime after the sixteenth century.

Participants form a roda, or circle, and take turns either playing musical instruments, singing, or ritually sparring in pairs in the center of the circle. The sparring is marked by fluid acrobatic play, feints, and extensive use of sweeps, kicks, and headbutts.

(Information via WIkipedia)



10 February 2010

Some Cool Handpainting...

An excerpt from Damn Cool Pics:

Body painting is a type of art in which paint is applied to a part of skin. It is considered one of the ancient types of art. Unlike tattoos, body painting is temporary. Lasting for just few hours or ion some cases a few weeks. Hand painting art is the application of make-up or paint on to the hands to look like any object or mostly to depict animals.







Following art is created by Mario Mariotti (1936-1997), an Italian artist from Florence, famous for his amazing hand painting art.



























Artist Guido Daniele who has specialized in body artwork. His hand painting which he dubs as ‘Handimals‘ is appreciated around the world.

For your enjoyment, we have a collection of Guido’s hand painting art, check out his amazing creations which look like real animals.







































11 January 2010

What has our Society (Part Deux)

Waterskiing with a backhoe. O.k. So this isn't as bad as the guy taking a dump in a public plant, but there is something... I dunno about this after you stop laughing at it...



What our society has come to...

Taking a poop in a plant?! RLY?! The lack of common decency (not to mention hygiene) here is amazing...



Given the zooming of the camera, it seems to me that the feed was being monitored so it also surprises me that they security folk didn't do something about this.

23 December 2009

Site Lets Investors See and Copy Experts’ Trades

From a NY Times article.

The trouble with mutual funds is that investors can feel as though they have put their money in a black box. The 90 million Americans with money in funds know little about fees, what securities their money is invested in and who is in charge.

Daniel Carroll, who started investing when he was 15, thinks he has a way to let average investors learn about investing while experts manage the money. In 2008, he started KaChing, a Web site where 400,000 amateur and professional investors manage virtual portfolios. Others have logged on to see what the investors on the site are doing and make the same trades in their own real portfolios.

On Monday, KaChing is to add a new twist. Customers can set up brokerage accounts that automatically mirror the trades of a money manager, some of them professionals.

“The idea of an asset manager showing all his research, his holdings — it’s unheard-of,” said Mr. Carroll, now 27 and the vice president for business development at KaChing. “In the financial industry, the idea is that information is currency; they protect it with their lives.”

Individuals are desperate for advice and transparency from people who help them manage their money, and mutual funds do not provide enough, said Andy Rachleff, KaChing’s chief executive and a longtime venture capitalist who co-founded Benchmark Capital.

“The mutual fund industry is a $10 trillion industry that has seen no innovation for 25 years. The Internet has had no impact,” Mr. Rachleff said.

KaChing has attracted a roster of prominent early investors from Silicon Valley who have financed the company with $3 million. They include Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape; Kevin Compton of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; and Jeffrey Jordan, chief executive of OpenTable, the online reservation service.

The angel investors have also been investing their own money through KaChing during the pilot period. “The concept is great — the ability to tap into not just the wisdom of the crowd, but to be able to identify and invest with the particular geniuses in the crowd that stand out,” said Mr. Andreessen, who has invested $100,000 using the site.

Customers will be able to open a brokerage account with Interactive Brokers and link their account with their choice of investors on KaChing. KaChing charges customers a single management fee of 0.25 percent to 3 percent, set by each investor. KaChing keeps a quarter of the fee, and the investors get the rest.

Each time the investors make a trade, KaChing will automatically make the same trades for the customer. Customers can log on whenever they want to check their portfolio’s performance. They can send the investor private messages and receive alerts if the investor does something unusual. With the click of a mouse, customers can stop mirroring an investor.

KaChing rates investors on the site by giving them a score the company calls Investing IQ. The formula is modeled after one used by managers of Ivy League endowments, Mr. Rachleff said, and considers risk-adjusted returns, whether investors stick to their strategies and the quality of the research they provide to explain their ideas.

So-called genius investors are those with high scores that have at least a yearlong record on KaChing. The genius investors sign regulatory documents that they will not break the law, including “front-running” stocks, which is the illegal practice of buying or selling a security for their own account with the advance knowledge of pending orders.

KaChing monitors trades in the personal brokerage accounts of each of its model investors and their families. The site is also a registered investment adviser with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Only a dozen people have qualified as genius investors so far. They include a retired lawyer in Omaha, a student at Chapman University and the founder of a Bay Area investment firm.

For investors, KaChing is a way to make some money on the side or expand their existing business. Andrew F. Mathieson, founder of the investment firm Fairview Capital in Greenbrae, Calif., said he hoped to use KaChing to cater to people who did not meet the firm’s million-dollar minimum.

“Most investment products are sold rather than bought,” he said. “Our vision of this is it’s a product that will be bought by investors on the basis of the information we’re putting on the site.”
Recommend More Articles in Technology » A version of this article appeared in print on October 19, 2009, on page B4 of the New York edition.

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22 December 2009

Toyota Midnight Rider Tundra Tailgater

Sweet party truck!

Toyota Midnight Rider Tundra Tailgater by Brooks & Dunn
Normally when we feature a cool car we like to tell you about the engine power, but in the case of the Toyota Midnight Rider Tundra Tailgater by Brooks & Dunn we're stuck on the accessories. This flatbed packs a 42 inch HDTV and Kicker sound system, a BBQ grill, beer tap and ice chest. Designed with Brooks & Dunn's truck/country music fans in mind we suddenly feel the urge to follow the band on their 2010 farewell tour in one of these bad boys.





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18 December 2009

Experiencing the Void

A proposal for the Guggenheim Museum's Rotunda which is part of the 50th Anniversary celebration from Julien de Smedt. Unfortunately, this is only a 2D project, and there are no plans that I know of for making this real.



17 December 2009

Hermes' Tokyo Window Display

An eye catching and artistic yet wonderfully simple store window display.

06 December 2009

View from the Top

The Burj Dubai's spire lets one person see the world. Luckily that person has a video cam so we can all share. Burj Dubai is currently the world's tallest building, in a country sitting on the some of the world most serious debt right now...



Movie Trailers

Mashup trailers for modern movies in the style of movies from the 40s and 50s:







I can't imagine how much work and time went into these! Pretty cool...

03 December 2009

Camouflage artist Liu Bolin

These are photos not photoshops... More of his work here: http://www.ekfineart.com/html/artistresults.asp?artist=82&testing=true