Nature photography has come a long way from the burry, grainy black and white films that used to air on TV.
Now with the advent of powerful digital cameras and superbly crafted lenses...a viewer can be transported right into crystal clear, close-up views, that previous generations would have never seen in a lifetime.
Screen Captures: The Coolest Nature Video Ever
Roen Horn edited together some amazing "macro" footage of plants and critters of all kinds...combining beautifully shot images and time-lapse photography...over a music bed of "Hello Tomorrow" by Karen O.
Imagine being arrested and then forgotten in a windowless holding cell without lights, a toilet, and food or water for nearly five days.
UCSD student Daniel Chong doesn't have to use his imagination...it actually happened to him.
Arrested with other students by the DEA in 2012, he was told: "Hang tight. We'll come get you in a minute."
But that's when his nightmare began.
The agents forgot about him and didn't "re-discover" him for nearly five days.
Forced to drink his own urine to stay alive...after his cell lights went out...he began to "lose his mind" and hallucinate.
He'd been so forgotten in the end, when he was discovered the agents had no idea who he was.
He was incoherent, suffering from kidney failure, had a perforated lung from eating glass, was dehydrated, and literally on the brink of death.
In order to avoid a lawsuit Federal Agents settled with him for 4.1 million dollars and issued a formal apology.
Before you wish you could get "forgotten" too and receive that same kind of payday...Chong needed to be hospitalized for five days and is still being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Here is a CNN video report about it:
I've been a dedicated fast food patron for most of my adult life. And my waste-line and health are both ample testaments to this lifetime diet of burgers, fries and carbonated high-fructose water (aka sodas).
When I was young, I didn't care much for warnings about health effects and nutrition. But as you age it becomes more and more clear that what you eat has an effect on the quality of your life.
At the same time, the fast food industry has been creating more and more of what I call "Frankenstein" foods...laboratory concoctions designed to save them money...all while serving up up less and less healthful and nutritious meals.
Video Screen Capture
For example, when I was a kid, french fries were made from whole, sliced potatoes. They were fried on the outside and soft, real potatoes on the inside. When held at one end they bent under their own weight and when you broke them open you saw nothing but white potato.
Now if you break open the typical fast-food french fry, you can immediately see that they are not made from a whole potato...but rather look like a lattice-work of potato "bits".
Video Screen Capture
It's much harder to see what's under the hood in that beef patty.
A few years ago I read an article in the news paper where "a California woman sued Taco Bell, claiming its taco filling is only 35 percent ground beef. The rest, she [alleged] in her class action suit, consists of edible padding: binders, extenders, preservatives, additives and other non-meat ingredients." * A Taco Bell spokesman challenged those findings and proudly announced Taco Bell's filling is actually "88 percent ground beef, [and] that this beef is no different from what you'd buy at your local supermarket for use at home". *
According to that ABC article the rest of that burger is in fact binders...no different that what you'd find in meat loaf...and furthermore, the fast food industry is under no obligation to reveal what is in their beef...AND their "hamburger" may in fact only contain 70% real beef.
Isn't that re-assuring? Knowing that what you're sold as beef (sometimes even in the supermarket) is actually "meat-loaf"...that should put your mind at rest. Right? -------------------------
I found an interesting video that further expounds on the subject. The video is called "What's In A Burger?"
It claims that "beef" found in a fast-food burger is actually only 2% to 15% meat...or "practically vegetarian".
Video Screen Capture
WARNING: When you hear some of the "other" ingredients in "hamburger"...ammonia for one...it may change your dietary choices.
Old habits die hard though...and even knowing about the Frankenstein foods they're serving...I still find myself darkening the doorways of far too many fast-food joints.
But I'm trying to change my ways and eat more healthfully. Maybe if we all do the food industry will change its practices as well.
Here's to hoping that day will come...soon!!
All images in this post are screen-captures from the video.
Unless you NEVER watch TV...you've probably heard of the talent competition on NBC called "The Voice".
Just in case you haven't: Singers compete on the show to get the panel of all-star, celebrity judges (Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, Usher and Shakira) to choose them for their "team" and a chance to stay on the show.
The "twist" is that it is a "blind" competition...and initially the judges cannot see who's singing unless they "choose" them first.
Generally the level of talent is AMAZING and you see and hear some very PHENOMENAL singers.
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I just found a hilarious video mash-up with an old clip of John Lennon singing "Imagine"...inter-cut with scenes from the show. The video is very well done and looks like Lennon really is auditioning for the competition.
It really drives home what a different environment entertainers find themselves in today compared to the 1970's.
At the end of this video there is a humorous reference to Bob Dylan too.
Enjoy!
(All images in this post are "screen-captures" from the video above)
Screen Capture From The Video: Used As A Reference By Artist Matt Levert For His Digital Painting
Hello!
I came across a very cool digital painting on Matt Levert's Concept Art Forum Sketchbook Page.
He mentioned using a video as a reference....and I checked it out.
I'm very glad I did because the video is pretty amazing...and I decided to share it here!
As part of their Human Planet series BBC One filmed Bajau fisherman, Sulbin, free-diving over 65 feet (20 meters) below sea level to catch a fish.
During the dive he holds his breath for two and a half minutes but says he can go as many as five...and to deeper depths as well!
It's amazing to watch him stride across the sea-bed...stalking his prey with a speargun.
Screen Captures From The Video
Near the end of the video he is successful in his hunt and heads back to the surface.
If you're like me, you'll find yourself feeling short of breath as you imagine what it must be like to be at that depth without an oxygen tank.
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As a side note: You may also get a chuckle when the commentator adds, "Perhaps the idea of humans existing as marine mammals is not so far fetched after all." Absurdly drawing some kind of parallel between man's ability to swim and hold his breath to humans existing as marine mammals. : )
Otherwise...the video is mesmerizing...hope you're as enthralled as I was!
The following video is amazingly timely...especially in this day of a US Government absolutely drunk with it's own agenda and power...trampling on a Constitution they all swear under oath to uphold...acting as a lap-dog to the money-men, Illuminati and elites, New World Order zombies...and traitorously taking orders from an extra-national U.N.
Auto-tune remix artist, Melody Sheep, took Charlie Chaplin's 1940 anti-fascist speech from his movie, The Great Dictator, and turned it into an amazing song and video. I do not necessarily agree with everything in Chaplin's auto-tuned speech in this video. Most importantly I do not think "science and progress will lead to all men's happiness". Instead I believe peace and happiness only come through resolving man's spiritual quest to find God. But in my opinion, it still contains a powerful message about the state of man...which is even more true today than when Chaplin filmed this 73 years ago.
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, (1889 - 1977) was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work in the United States during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I.
Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s. His most famous role was that of The Tramp, which he first played in the Keystone comedy Kid Auto Races at Venice in 1914. From the April 1914 one-reel Twenty Minutes of Love onwards he was writing and directing most of his films, by 1916 he was also producing them, and from 1918 he was even composing the music for them. With Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith, he co-founded United Artists in 1919."
Lyrics follow the video below.
Screen Captures From The Video
Charlie Chaplin - Let Us All Unite - Lyrics:
I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible - Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. In this world there is room for everyone, and the good earth is rich, and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls Has barricaded the world with hate We think too much and feel too little
More than machinery, we need humanity More than cleverness, we need kindness Without these qualities life would be violent And all would be lost
Do not despair The hate of men will pass And dictators die And the power they took from the people Will return to the people
Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world To do away with greed Now let us fight to free the world To fulfill that promise Let us all unite!
Soldiers, don't give yourselves to brutes Men who despise you enslave you Tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle
Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts You are not machines You are men
You the people have the power To make this life free and beautiful Let us use that power To make this life a wonderful adventure
Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world To do away with greed Now let us fight to free the world To fulfill that promise Let us all unite! Let us fight for a new world To do away with greed A world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness
Do not despair The hate of men will pass And dictators die And the power they took from the people Will return to the people
Hello! Even if you love cats as I do...you certainly know that they can get themselves into mischief!
And especially if they have their front claws...they can literally shred everything in sight.
Many years ago I saw an animated short called, "The Cat Came Back"...and never forgot it.
It is very a funny, slap-stick tail of guy who has a tiny kitten left on his door-step.
Cat lovers learn to just grin and bear the "darker side" of their furry little guests...but this character decides to keep trying to put the cat out after it breaks and sheds its way through his things...and that's where the "fun" begins.
First a few screen-captures from the video...followed below by the video itself.
Unless you've been living under a rock you prob'ly already know Pixar has produced a number of 3D animated feature films, beginning with the highly successful Toy Story in 1995.
They followed that success with a string of box office gold and critically acclaimed films like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars...just to name a few. (wikipedia: Pixar)
While all their films have great characters, "set" designs and backgrounds, editing and scores etc...one thing generally sets them apart form a lot of films: A very entertaining story.
In 2000, Pixar produced, For The Birds , a short film that is a definite case in point.
It premiered on June 5, 2000, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, and later was shown alongside a theatrical release of the 2001 Monsters, Inc. Later it won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2001. (wikipedia: For The Birds)
For this short film, Pixar took a healthy slice of something we all experience in life (the idea of insular groups, and trying to fit in) and created this very amusing short video.
In the end it even offers up a lesson about life in the spirit of an Aesop's Fable.
Here is a high quality version of it I found recently...enjoy!
It's hard to believe it's been so many years ago...but way back in 2005 I took a number of Maya animation and film-making courses at the college I still attend.
Unfortunately, after really getting into animation for a while...I went on to other things...and sadly have prob'ly forgotten most of what I learned.
And computer animation has changed a lot since then.
It's certain, back in 2005 everything was a lot more difficult to do. For example, personal computers were much less powerful then...so rendering short scenes would take forever.
Yep...much has changed since then...but an entertaining story is still king.
In 2005, Blur Studios made quite an impression on a lot of people with a short animation called "In The Rough".
It's a very funny story about a caveman dealing with some frustrations of life...that a lot of us "modern cavemen" can relate to. :)
Sceens From Blur Studios - "In The Rough"
I found a high quality version of it I'll post below. It's only 5 minutes long...and I'll refund your money if you don't like it.
Oh...one last thing...there is some "cartoon" violence in it...so if you are worried this might offend you I'll understand if you move on to other links here.
