Here’s why the Air Force is the best: not only do you get to fly awesome drones, every once in a while your superiors say Oh, fine, we’ll throw another foam party, and the jets are doused in fire suppressant.

But wait, this was no rave. It was just a huge annoying accident at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where a welder accidentally triggered the emergency fire systems, releasing a galactic shit-ton of foam retardant. It’s sort of cute to see a little A-10 poking its head out of a bubble bath, but then you see that the foam spilled out of the hangar and try to wrap your head around what this must have been like to clean up.

If you’ve spent countless unproductive hours of your life on YouTube, you may already be pretty familiar with floppy drive music, but if you aren’t, then you are in for a world of surprise. If you thought the CD-ROM drive brought along the death of the floppy drive, you are wrong because they are back with a musical vengeance.

While he is just one of the many creative artists who have created sweet floppy drive music, YouTube user MrSolidSnake745 has just finished what could be his greatest work yet: the Doctor Who theme song performed by his orchestra of eight robotic floppy minions. To see more of his unique work and subscribe, head on over to the Snake’s page here.

Read more…

We’ve gotten used to seeing Sebastian Vettel kicks some ass on the race track. After all, he is the reigning Formula One world champion twice over. But in a kung-fu movie? We’ve got to be kidding, right?

Only we’re not. As you may recall, Infiniti – the luxury automaker that sponsors both Vettel himself and his Red Bull Racing team – announced about a month ago that the German driver would be starring alongside action star Celina Jade in a short film. Called Drive of the Dragon, it’s the first in a multi-part promotional campaign being undertaken by the Japanese automaker. The flick has made its debut, and you can check it out by scrolling down below. But be warned: cheesiness will ensue. Read more…

We don’t know anything about this man or the chair he’s driving. Yes, driving. We just know that he was apparently caught in China, doing a nice clip on the shoulder of a rather nice multi-lane road, in what looks like a custom sofa chair. There’s some sort of contraption between his feet that looks like a control panel, but it could just as likely be a wombat cage or a pot of gold. And we give him props: whatever he’s doing, he looks cool as hell doing it. Have a look below for the video. Read more…

Inspired by the graphic novel “Five Fists of Science” — and perhaps encouraged by the plucky MIT student who made his own Tesla coil hat and survived — a DIYer named Rob designed a Tesla coil gun, which he says is fully functional. Rob used a Nerf gun cast in aluminum for the housing and created a high voltage switch with a 3D powder printer. The gun is powered by an 18V ion drill battery and a flyback transformer housed inside a PVC plumbing end cap. Though Rob has yet to fire the gun, photos show what he says are sparks from the setup, and a demo clip is on the way. While video proof is always nice, so is preserving your life. We wish Rob the best with both.

SOURCE via Hacker Friendly

If you’d been by the shore of the Sumida River in central Tokyo this past weekend, you would have noticed that it was glowing a distinct shade of blue. That’s because Panasonic decided to kick off the first-ever Tokyo Hotaru (fireflies) festival by sending 100,000 EVERLED light bulbs down the river, both to mimic fireflies as well as to pay homage to a Japanese tradition of floating candles on the water. Before you cringe too much at the thought of the environmental impact, rest assured that Panasonic minimized the footprint of its aquatic LED parade. All the bulbs ran on solar power (presumably, charged during the day) that kept Evolta batteries fed inside, and the entire lot was scooped up in a large net afterwards. We love the exhibition as a large-scale demo of sustainable lighting — you may just want to avoid fishing along the Sumida’s shoreline for a while in case you catch a straggler.

SOURCE via Panasonic

Having a ruff day on the road? Don’t take it out on other drivers, do what dogs do when they’re out for a ride. Director Keith Hopkin takes to California’s highways and byways and films eight dogs “doing what they love to do,” he says on his Vimeo channel.

The video captures that pure enjoyment of a dog’s nose in the wind, the sun on his fur and not having a care in the world. There’s even a slow motion montage where each dog closes his eyes, smiles and dreams of bacon.

Perhaps one of the best moments is at 1:04 when Beans the dog rides past a Bugatti Veyron and checks it out. Dogs may not know cars, but they do know a good breeze.

Of course, it doesn’t appear any of the dogs are strapped in to their seats, which is illegal in California. The Golden State requires pets be buckled up on in a cage when riding in a car. Then again, the unharnessed pooches won’t get a ticket, their owners will. Scroll down to watch the video, and click here for the creator’s Facebook page if you want to become a fan.

Read more…

Ever wonder why the Guinness Book of World Records is so darn big? We’re not exactly experts on the ins and outs of officially recognized feats, but we’d have to say it’s because the organization will put its stamp of approval on just about anything imaginable. Like, for instance, the top speed of a toilet.

That’s right, folks. There’s a new World’s Fastest Toilet, and it hails from Australia. Piloted by Jolene Van Vugt, this motorized porcelain throne managed a two-way average of 46.6 miles per hour. Don’t worry – this record may have been claimed, but the World’s Fastest Kitchen Sink has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

If you think setting a world record on a toilet is crazy, perhaps you’re not familiar with Van Vugt. She’s a professional motocross rider, was the first woman to backflip a dirtbike and is one of the stars of the Nitro Circus television and live-action show.

Naturally, we have video of Jolene on the toilet below, along with an image gallery of the self-proclaimed porcelain princess in the act before, during and after the flush.

Read more…

Oh, how we’d like to go all grumpy-old-man-get-off-my-lawn on Chevrolet for this latest bit of hipster marketing. But dammit, it’s got robots in it. Real robots, industrial robots, installed inside a 2012 Chevrolet Sonic hatchback. And it’s just so cool.

The robots are there to help Jeff Soto paint a mural on an empty brick wall, and while we’re pretty sure the final product of this collaboration is still something like 90-percent man and 10-percent machine, we really like what we see. Chevy calls Soto a “respected street artist,” which we figure just means a graffiti artist with a degree rather than a rap sheet. (Soto’s is from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA.) Soto, in turn, refers to the compact Sonic as the first “robotic art car.”

While Soto did a lot of conventional work on the mural, he also used the Sonic’s robotic arms, which were controlled from within the car and could be operated while Soto drove. The painting appendages emerged through the Sonic’s windows, sunroof and hatchback, and seem to take up all the available space inside the car, save for the driver’s seat.

While we were fairly impressed seeing the Sonic play indie rock, we definitely think the little car should focus on its art. There’s some real talent there.

Read more…

Canadian modder Brent Smith has managed to connect an aging exercise bike to Nintendo’s perennial racer. Naturally, there’s some Arduino involvement, but the whole setup plugs directly into an original SNES console — no emulation necessary. Power-ups are accessed with a button in the center of the exercise bike’s handles, each of which has a directional button for steering, while the pedals function as the acceleration button, accurate to one sixth of a rotation. According to Smith, “it’s a lot harder than it looks” — and we believe him. Watch his test-drive kart plow off-track in the video demo after the break. Read more…