At first glance this sticker I spotted on a water fountain appears to be from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, telling citizens that they’ve checked out the water and it’s probably safe. If you have any doubts about there being chemicals in there that seeped in because of hydraulic fracturing, don’t worry, just turn on the spigot and do the ‘ol match test and see if it bursts into flame. Wait, what? [More]
videos
Just How Much BP Oil Is Left In The Marshes?
By 4.28.11
On the one-year anniversary of the catastrophic BP oil spill in the gulf, scientists are still struggling to figure out just how much oil is in the marshes. This excellent New York Times video explores their challenges, not the least of which is the inherent complexity of determining the damage to a vast and vibrant ecosystem. One group of researchers, for example, are guesstimating the number of bird deaths by taking bird carcasses out to sea, dropping them in, and seeing how many wash ashore. [More]
Is Sugar Killing Us?
By 4.25.11
Is a packet of sugar a sweet dose of death? A big article in the New York Times Magazine recently explored how sugar might be a secret scourge destroying our health. And for the purposes of this discussion, there is no distinction between regular sugar and HFCS – for these researchers it’s all toxic. Why? [More]
Art Activists Cover Naked Body In Oil In Tate Museum To Protest Censorship And BP Sponsorship
By 4.22.11
A group of art activists this week staged an unsanctioned protest inside the world-famous Tate Modern museum in London by pouring oil over a naked body lying on the floor. [More]
Pump Price Keeps Rising Even Though You Stopped Filling Up
By 4.21.11
Seems like gas prices want to rise so bad, they’re even doing at the pumps themselves. Kirkster captured on video a fuel pump where the gallons and cost on the meter kept rising even after he stopped filling up his car. As if $4 gasoline wasn’t bad enough! [More]
Make The Telemarketer Repeat Themselves A Zillion Times Until They Hang Up
By 4.15.11
Now this is how you mess with a telemarketer. Reader areaman in the comments on “Annoy Telemarketers Into Leaving You Alone” pointed out this clip of comedian Jim Florentine taking on one of those debt consolidation companies. She keeps trying to read through her pitch and he keeps insisting that there was a part in it he didn’t hear and makes her go over it again and again. “No, no, before that,” is his constant refrain. She tries to soldier on but eventually hangs up in frustration. Classic. [More]
Brian Regan Doesn't Know How To Use UPS
By 4.15.11
Comedian Brian Regan talks about how he’s really bad at using UPS. If you’ve ever wondered why UPS operators sound like they’re both bored and on the verge of killing you, it’s because of jackasses like this who call up and give fake information because they’re too lazy/stupid to figure out how to perform basic measurements. Is it really that hard to weigh yourself on a scale, then weigh yourself on a scale holding the box, then subtract your weight from the you + box weight? But once you get past the basic “customer is a moron” premise, the bit is pretty funny. [More]
Tajazzle Bedazzles Your Intimate Areas
By 4.14.11
This is an incredible infomercial for “Tajazzle,” a “3-step system of personal confidence” whose third step is a crystal tattoo that you place in an area “only your lover can find.” Everything from the product itself, to the cheesy actors super committed to being super sensuous, is hilarious. [More]
Video: Driverless Tractor Rampages Cars In Walmart Parking Lot
By 4.11.11
It’s demolition derby time at this Walmart parking lot where a tractor without anyone behind the wheel drives around in a circle of death, plowing through minivans and raising sparks as its blade gouges the side of the building. [More]
Concept Of Emerald Nuts Breakfast Pouches Fry Robots' Circuits
By 4.11.11
Emerald Nuts have a series of new ads pitching their pouches of breakfast nuts as more “human” than a traditional breakfast bar. To convey this message, “Cubebot,” “Mombot” and “Commuterbot” disdainfully decline the nut blends offered by their human counterparts, preferring instead to force a breakfast bar through their wood-chipper-like mouth-grinders. Pretty high concept for pre-packaged trail mix! [More]
Guy Wins Race Against NYC Bus On Big Wheel
By 4.7.11
If you’ve ever ridden the bus in New York City, you know it is a damn slow experience. But, unlike a taxi, it’s a couple of bucks, and unlike a subway, it’s above-ground. So people put up with it. But exactly how slow is an MTA bus? Mark Malkoff decided to test it out and he videotaped himself racing a bus, down 42nd st from 10th to Madison ave, on a child’s Big Wheel. Turns out the guy who makes the wheels on the bus go round and round, all through the town, has some catching up to do. [More]
Are We Just Outsourcing Our Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Tragedies?
By 4.4.11
When we noted the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on March 25, you might have looked at that and thought, phew, good thing stuff like that isn’t happening anymore. But in developing countries around the world with little to no worker rights and sweatshops paying pennies a day, it is. Like in Bangladesh in December 2010 when 29 workers died after a fire swept through the Hameem garment factory. The workers were trapped inside because guards had been ordered to lock the gates in the event of a fire in order to prevent clothes from being stolen during the confusion. The factory made clothes for GAP. [More]
GoDaddy CEO Shoots Elephant, Sparks Stampede Of Customers To Flee
By 3.31.11
The CEO of domain name registrar GoDaddy is facing an online furor after the video he posted of himself killing an elephant in Africa went viral. After the elephant dies and CEO Bob Parsons poses next to it, villagers from all around come out to strip and devour the carcass on the spot. Many of them are wearing day-glo orange GoDaddy caps. As these images play in the video, “Hells Bells” provides the soundtrack. Now a backlash movement has started for folks to switch their domain providers away from GoDaddy. [More]
Delaware Woman Climbs Into Her Basketball Hoop To Protest State Ripping It Out
By 3.28.11
A woman climbed up and sat on top of the basketball hoop in front of her house in a faceoff with a bulldozer sent by the the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) to rip it out. The truck already had seven other hoops in the back but this one wasn’t going down without a fight, a confrontation caught on video by Delaware Online. [More]
Android On Crack Dance Sets Hearts Aflame
By 3.28.11
This show really puts our mall cellphone carts to shame. Instead of a bored guy with a pencil goatee sitting on a stool, they have a full-on breakdancing show. This one features a life-sized inflatable Android just going absolutely ape-nuts on the dancefloor at the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc cellphone stand near 101 Tower in Taiwan. As commenter Oranges w/ Cheese puts it, “Those inflatable suits are so weird because the movements are so sudden and odd. ” I don’t know how many cellphones it sells, but the branding effort endears the plucky green guy to your heart. He just tries so hard! And that positive association can pay dividends in brand goodwill down the line, just like his masters planned. Muaha – break it down! [More]
Remember The Flames Of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory
By 3.25.11
100 years ago today, over 100 factory workers died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. The deaths could have been prevented if management had implemented basic safety precautions, but they chose not to, choosing profits over people’s lives. Here is a snippet from a great PBS documentary on the tragedy, starting at the moment the flames started to lick the walls, which would soon become gouged by the fingernails of the panicked workers trapped inside. [More]
Video Of Home Depot Easy Button Ripoff In Action
By 3.24.11
Reader Ed went back to Home Depot and took a video of that Home Depot ripoff of the Staple’s “Easy Button” getting pressed. The mechanized voice released from inside says, “Don’t see the product you want you want on our displays? The Home Depot can still provide it! Ask an associate to set up a CFP to locate the product you want!” That’s a lot more words than when you push the original button, which says, “That was Easy.” Nice job, big orange, you steal someone else’s idea and then totally ruin the whole concept by adding a bunch of extra marketing language. [More]
Would You Berate Someone For Eating On Public Transit?
By 3.18.11
Public transit smooshes together people from all walks of life. In this video, a person from the “don’t eat on the subway” class of society comes into contact with the “I’m hungry and I’m going to eat my noodles” class of society. The woman from the first group keeps asking the woman from the second group to stop eating, at one point saying that “animals eat on the subway like that,” and the woman from the second group and her friend take offense. Then the train lurches and punches start flying. The noodles appear to stay intact, thank heavens. [More]
