10 CRAZY THINGS DRONES ARE BEING USED FOR RIGHT NOW

10 Crazy Things Drones Are Being Used For Right Now
By Darien Cavanaugh, Listverse, 2 August 2016.

When we think of drones, we still often think primarily of their military uses, despite the fact that they’re increasingly becoming a part of our everyday lives. Drones serve an impressive range of roles in the military, commercial, public, and civilian sectors. They’re also becoming more and more affordable and accessible. If you’ve been to an open-air event with a decent crowd lately, there was probably at least one person there flying their personal drone around, taking aerial footage to upload to social media.

As something becomes more common, we tend to find more creative purposes for it. And there are definitely some people out there getting creative with drones, for better or for worse.

10. Orville The Drone Cat

Photo via the Daily Mail

A video of a stuffed cat strapped to a small drone recently went viral...again. We’re not talking about a plush toy. We’re talking about a dead domestic cat that someone taxidermied specifically to be strapped to a drone and flown around.

Orville the Cat died after being struck by a car in 2012. His owner, Bart Jansen, had named the cat in honor of one of the Wright brothers. When Orville passed away, Jansen decided it would be a shame to simply bury him. Jansen decided to have Orville stuffed and mounted to a drone so that the spirit of his beloved pet could take to the skies.

The “Orvillecopter,” as Jansen now refers to his former pet, attracted international attention. Not all of the attention was good; some who saw video of the late Orville flying around were outraged. Others, however, were more positive. The Orvillecopter was showcased at the KunstRai art festival in Amsterdam.

Since 2012 Jansen and his partner, technical engineer Arjen Beltman, have taken on other - bigger - projects. They created an ostrich drone in 2013 and are currently working on constructing a cow drone. Why on Earth they didn’t go with a flying pig drone is anybody’s guess.

9. Pokemon Go ‘Cheater’ Drones

The craze over Pokemon Go after its release in July 2016 game came with an unexpected side effect: Many people who were unaccustomed to exercise were suddenly walking all over town for hours at a time to track down Pokemon.

One player, however, decided he wasn’t going to stand for it - literally. He strapped an Android phone to a DJI Phantom drone and used a program called AirDroid to mirror the screen of the phone onto his computer. The result was that he could still sit on his butt while the drone flew around finding and catching all the Pokemon within range.

In addition, Dutch company TRNDlabs is now selling the “Pokedrone,” a handheld controller that your phone snaps into so that you can navigate a small drone around. The drone’s camera feeds into your phone on the controller, and you engage with the Pokemon by using the controller. It’s actually kind of brilliant...extremely lazy, but brilliant.

8. The Flamethrower Drone

In 2015, a Connecticut teenager strapped a handgun to a drone and fired the gun as the drone flew around. He wasn’t shooting at anyone, and no one was injured.

When firing a gun from a drone failed to satisfy his proclivity for invention, the teen decided to rig up a flamethrower and fasten it to the drone. It was just so he could roast a turkey, of course. What could possibly go wrong with...a homemade flamethrower...rigged to a drone...being flown around by a teenage boy? The really scary part: Technically, the boy didn’t break any laws. There’s no word on how the turkey turned out.

7. Fighter Pilots Controlling Fleets Of Drones

Photo credit: Master Sgt. Donald R. Allen

Militaries have been using drones, in one form or another, since World War II. Today, their usage has become so widespread in surveillance and combat missions that the thought of it has become commonplace. Well, the US Air Force is about to kick it up a notch.

A program currently in development would have fighter pilots controlling small fleets of nearby drone aircraft. The unmanned craft could perform a variety of functions for the pilots, from surveillance and reconnaissance to weapons delivery at dangerous or difficult to approach targets.

If you want to give yourself a headache, imagine flying a fighter jet, in combat, while simultaneously controlling several unmanned drone support aircraft around you. Maybe the Air Force should work on developing a cyborg super-pilot to fly these things first.

6. Swarms Of Micro Drones

Photo credit: US Air Force via the Daily Mail

Small drones disguised as insects or birds have been around for some time. Their research and development is usually attributed to pseudo-clandestine firms like the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an organization responsible for devices every bit as zany (but lethally effective) as something out of a James Bond film.

Micro drones are usually harmless, as they’re used primarily for surveillance and reconnaissance, but they’re about to get a whole lot deadlier. When the Air Force rolled out its 20-year flight plan for small, unmanned aerial systems earlier this year, it included a proposal for what it dubbed “swarming.” According to Col. Brandon “BB” Baker, chief of the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) capabilities division, “Swarming technology changes the game for future warfare.”

The swarms could be organized to attack a single major target or be spread out over a large area to engage multiple targets. While larger and more expensive weapons platforms like Predator drones can be taken down with a single hit, a swarm could suffer several losses but still regroup and be effective, a capability the Air Force referred to as “self-healing.”

5. Drone Racing Could Be The Next Big Sport

July 2016 saw 100 student drone pilots participating in the inaugural Liberty Cup. What is the Liberty Cup, you ask? It’s only the northeast qualifier for the US National Drone Racing Championships.

The students were required to research and build their own drones, which supporters see as a natural and beneficial extension of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum taught in public schools. The student pilots wore “First Person View” goggles that let them experience the twists and turns of the racetrack as they operated their drones from remote controls. That actually sounds pretty awesome.

4. More Drones, Fewer Rules

Typically, as an industry grows, so do the number of rules and regulations governing it. Apparently, that’s not the case with drones.

The FAA recently moved to relax regulations for flying drones. The less stringent rules, which go into effect in August, are expected to have the greatest impact on farmers and ranchers, who use drones to survey crops and look for lost cattle. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems estimates that such uses could end up accounting for up to 80 percent of all drone use. Were they taking the Pokedrone into account when they made those calculations?

3. The Anti-Drone Bazooka...For Civilians

Photo via TechCrunch

Don’t let all these drones buzzing around overhead make you anxious. The good folks over at SkyWall have you covered with the SkyWall 100 Drone Defense System.

The SkyWall 100 looks like a bazooka...sort of. But it’s not really bazooka. It’s more like an oversized air rifle that shoots a net to a distance of up to 100 meters (330 ft). That’s not going to be much help against a Predator intent on taking you out with a Hellfire missile, but it’s a considerable threat to many of the small drones that hobbyists use.

SkyWall claims that drones are safely parachuted to the ground once ensnared in the projectile net. Let’s hope so. It may be a legal gray area, but it seems like if you damage someone else’s drone by sending it crashing to the ground in tangle of mesh, you might be liable for the costs.

2. Drone Warships

Photo credit: Elbit Systems via Popular Science

In February 2016, Israel-based defense company Elbit unveiled a new unmanned boat named the Seagull. The Seagull’s primary function is mine detection and neutralization, and it can handle every step of the process from start to finish. But get this: Part of the way it detects underwater mines is by sending little underwater submarine drones out to look for them. That’s right, it’s a drone boat operating a bunch of its own cute little drone submarines...that blow things up.

Militaries and private firms in several countries are also experimenting with the idea of drone ships. The US Navy conducted an exercise in late 2014 in which remote operators controlled 13 boats at once from a single command console. Granted, the boats were primarily small craft operating in Virginia’s James River, but that’s still pretty impressive. At the rate technology is developing, it’s not too big of a leap to imagine drone battleships in the not-too-distant future.

1. Wildlife Conservation And Management

Photo via The Queensland Times

As previously mentioned, ranchers are increasingly relying on drones to help find lost cattle, but they’re also starting to use them to help bring the lost cattle home. Professor John Church, a specialist in cattle research at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada, says he has used drones “like a flying border collie” to herd cattle. Church doesn’t prefer that method, though. He prefers that the cattle remain oblivious to the drones monitoring them from above. That’s a growing trend.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have started using drones to count the calves in dolphin and whale pods around the Hawaiian islands without disturbing the animals. Drones present an immense opportunity for studying animals in their natural habitat in a non-invasive manner.

Top gif image: Orvillecopter (Orville the drone cat). Credit: creamdog via Imgur.

[Source: Listverse. Edited. Top image added.]

10 INCREDIBLE MODERN BUILDINGS THAT BECAME UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES

10 Incredible Modern Buildings that Became UNESCO World Heritage Sites
By Morris M, Urban Ghosts Media, 1 August 2016.

Utter the words ‘UNESCO World Heritage Site’ to people, and many will likely start picturing grand German castles, ancient temples and preserved English country cottages. In some cases, they’d be absolutely right to do so. But the World Heritage list includes a great deal of buildings that defy such simple stereotypes. In fact, some of them are radically modern.

1. Villa Tugendhat (Czech Republic)

Image: Petr1987

‘A dream made from glass’ is how some have described the Czech Republic’s most-iconic modern building. Designed by architect Mies van der Rohe in the late-1920s, the Villa Tugendhat completely changed what a house could be. A simple, white shape that seemed to float effortlessly above its long walls of glass, the Villa was one of the first homes in the world to be built using factory methods. Such cutting-edge design didn’t come cheap. It cost 5 million Czech crowns to build - around 15 times the cost of a ‘typical’ villa of the day.

In terms of history, the Villa Tugendhat could hardly be more important. Owned by a wealthy Jewish family who fled, it became a symbol of everything that had to be left behind when the Nazis steamrollered into Czechoslovakia. In 1992, it was the building where the Czech and Slovak leaders agreed to dissolve the republic, creating the modern nations of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. But for today’s visitor, it’s likely to be the beauty of the place that strikes them. Seen on a snowy winter’s day, the building practically seems to disappear, leaving only a crisp white outline against the blazing winter sun.

2. Wroclaw Centennial Hall (Poland)

Image: Taxiarchos228

It’s a hymn to concrete. A celebration of technological progress from the dawn of the 20th century. A vast, grey block that dominates the outskirts of the Polish city of Wroclaw, the Centennial Hall was once home to the largest concrete dome on Earth. Twenty-three meters high and studded with glass, it looks from the inside less like a modern building and more like a kind of vibrant, abstract painting.

Built in 1911, the hall was intended to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. For a celebrated rooted in history, the organizers commissioned an architect with his face firmly turned towards the future. Max Berg was interested less in the stuffy world of the dead than in exploring what reinforced concrete could do. At a time when skyscrapers over 10 stories were still considered a modern marvel, Berg managed to create a dome that seemed to hang weightlessly in the middle of the air.

The original vision for the hall was as a venue for sporting events, exhibitions and for plays that would last another 100 years. We’re happy to report that, over a century later, the hall is still used for this exact purpose.

3. Fagus Factory (Germany)

Image: Carsten Janssen

If you were to randomly stumble across the Fagus Factory in Alfeld, Germany, you likely wouldn’t think much of it. A polite little box with glass windows and a towering chimney, it looks like pretty much any other factory built in the Interwar period. But therein lies the rub. The Fagus Factory isn’t just a generic factory. It is the generic factory. Designed back in 1910 by Walter Gropius, it set the template for modern factory design for decades to come.

At the time, the functional aesthetics and great glass windows of the place were nothing short of revolutionary. They predated the Bauhaus school, the Czech functionalists, and the rise of international modernism. The emphasis on glass allowed the workers to spend their days bathed in natural light, while the form of the building leant an elegance to the simple job of shoe-making. The factory turned out to be so well-designed that it continues to operate even today, 106 years after it first opened.

4. Sydney Opera House (Australia)

Image: Adam.J.W.C.

Is there any other building on Earth as instantly recognizable as Sydney Opera House? The sail-roofed icon of the city’s waterfront took a staggering 16 years to build, went wildly over-budget and resulted in the architect, Jørn Utzon, resigning in protest. Yet in the end none of those problems matter. Sydney Opera House is one of the greatest buildings in the world. Even without UNESCO-recognition, it would still be globally famous.

It’s hard to picture now just how visionary this building was when it was first proposed. The seashell-like white structures on the roof would have been an impossibility only a few years earlier. They nearly proved impossible anyway. It took the team six years alone to figure out the roof. Sadly, such engineering leaps are today often overshadowed by the Opera House’s sublime beauty; likened to watching a pair of pristine white ships, bobbing gently up and down, far out at sea. Not that this matters. The Sydney Opera House is today an enduring symbol not just of a city, but of the entire country of Australia.

5. Rietveld Schröder House (The Netherlands)

Image: Husky

The Rietveld Schröder House in Utrecht represents a fascinating ‘what if?’ What if modern architecture had developed along these lines, rather than the cooler, more-functional ones of the Villa Tugendhat? Built in 1924 as a living manifesto of the De Stijl group of Dutch artists, it now exists as an interesting kind of dead end. An alternate destination the rest of the world ultimately decided not to travel to.

From the outside, the building looks almost like an abstract painting. Overlaid white blocks interact with coloured lines that exist only at right-angles to one another. The whole thing seems assembled from boxes. In comparison to the brick townhouse connected to it, the Rietveld Schröder residence looks like an arrival from another world.

The home was inscribed by UNESCO in 2000, more for how it subtly-influenced later architects than for its success in sparking a movement. Yet it still retains a singular kind of beauty: the beauty only found in buildings that are truly unique.

6. Luis Barragán House and Studio (Mexico)

Image: via Wikipedia

Somewhere in a working-class neighborhood of Mexico City lies a peculiar little house. A stark, grey concrete block at the front, it appears somber and forbidding from the street. However, this impression belies what the structure is really like. Step inside, and you’ll enter a pastel-colored wonderland of bright blocks and geometric shapes silhouetted against the burning sky.

Image: Thomas Ledl

Built in 1948 by the architect Luis Barragán, the house was the first serious attempt to adapt the International Modern Movement for Mexico. While the simple lines and functionalist aesthetics were kept in place, splashes of color were added, along with Islamic-style fountains and a Mediterranean vibe. The result is a house both clinical, yet sparkling. The sort of place you want to admire as a museum, but can also imagine having a delirious party in.

7. Stoclet House (Belgium)

Image: Jean-Pol Grandmont

Designed in 1905 and built in 1911, the Stoclet House in Brussels is a building that stands, trembling, on the very edge of the modern world. An example of the Vienna Secession movement, it has firm links to the sinuous, winding Art Nouveau style of the late 19th century. Yet it’s also a house with one foot planted firmly in the future. In its geometric lines and blocky forms, it’s possible to find the genesis of the Art Deco style which would soon take over the entire world.

The interior is just as impressive. One of the principles Vienna Secessionism was Gesamtkunstwerk: Creating a ‘total’ work of art. That meant every surface, every little detail had to work as part of the whole. As a result, the Stoclet House was filled with paintings and drawings that embodied the same principles as the house. Works by Gustav Klimt jostled for space alongside those by Koloman Moser. Functional objects such as water glasses and cutlery were designed to express harmony with their surroundings. Even the hedgerows were trimmed into the same, angular style as the house.

8. Tel Aviv White City (Israel)

Image: BergA

When the British designated their new garden city in British Mandate Palestine in 1929, they had no idea just how architecturally significant Tel Aviv would turn out to be. By a fateful twist of history, the area was suddenly experiencing an unusually-high level of immigration involving architects. Often Jewish exiles, their ideas forged in the white hot excitement of the emerging Bauhaus movement, these architects were determined to put their ideas into practice. In doing so, they created one of the most-enduring paeans to modernism.

The White City would become the name given to the 4,000 modernist buildings that sprouted up across Tel Aviv like mushrooms in that period. Graced with simple curves, geometric forms, and all painted a stunning white, they represented the fulfilment of the Bauhaus dream. Although only 1,000 buildings now remain - many in an advanced state of decay - UNESCO chose to list them in 2003; preserving what is perhaps modernism’s finest achievement.

9. D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station (the Netherlands)

Image: Uberprutser

Not all modern buildings on UNESCO’s World Heritage list are chosen purely for their aesthetic or historic qualities. Some, like the D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station, are chosen for their practical abilities. A vast pumping station opened in the province of Friesland in 1920, the building represents a highpoint of 20th century engineering technology. Even today, in 2016, there is no bigger or more-advanced steam pumping station anywhere in the world.

Although the pumping house may look dull from the outside, it is in the interior that the magic truly sparkles. Large, imposing examples of industrial architecture sit alongside great metal tanks and vast turning wheels. Metal girders crisscross the ceiling, water pipes line the walls. This is a building dedicated to one thing and one thing only: protecting the Netherlands from the vagaries of flooding in the most-efficient way possible.

10. Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall (A-Bomb Dome, Japan)

Image: Oilstreet

In an ideal world, the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotional Hall would be on UNESCO’s list for its architectural merit, or maybe not on the list at all. But this is far from an ideal world, and the Hall’s inclusion will forever remind us why. At precisely 08:15 on August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb onto the waking city of Hiroshima. Nearly 90,000 people were vaporized in a flash of light. The age of nuclear weapons had dawned.

Of all the buildings at the hypocenter of the blast, the Hall was the only survivor. Built in 1915 by Czech architect Jan Letzel, it somehow withstood the explosion to remain essentially intact. While the use of the bomb likely saved lives - both American and Japanese - in the long run, the sheer scale of the destruction it wrought marked a turning point in modern history. It’s no accident that nuclear weapons have never again been used in warfare since the bombing of Nagasaki a couple of days later. The poignant ruins of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, untouched since that fateful day, remind us why.

Top image: Villa Tugendhat. Credit: Vít Švajcr.

[Source: Urban Ghosts Media. Edited.]

VIDEO: WATCH THIS MAN JUMPED FROM 25,000-FOOT WITHOUT A PARACHUTE

Watch how professional skydiver Luke Aikens skydives 25,000 feet without a parachute. By doing so, he’s the first person in the world to achieve such a feat. Don't try this at home, folks!

Top image credit: E! Online (video screengrab)

[Source: RT via YouTube.]

10 TERRIBLE (AND DANGEROUS) INTERNET CRAZES

10 Terrible (and Dangerous) Internet Crazes
By Morris M, Toptenz, 1 August 2016.

The internet is a force for both good and evil. On the one hand, it’s given us more awesome top ten sites and videos of cats falling over than you can shake a proverbial stick at. On the other, it’s sparked endless crazes that run the whole gamut of awful from “really stupid” to “probably deadly.” Here we round up the top 10 worst internet fads of all-time, from dumbass dances, to stupid poses, to shoving condoms up your noses (yeah, really)…

10. Pokémon Go - Landmines and Accidents

At time of writing, Pokémon Go is the biggest thing happening on the entire internet. It’s so big, in fact, that reptilian creatures living on Mars can see it with the naked eye. An ‘augmented’ reality game that allows players to track Pokémon across locations in the real world, it has been responsible for players getting more exercise, for Americans learning the metric system…and for endless horrific accidents and acts of obnoxiousness.

First, the accidents. Because Pokémon Go requires players to stare at their phones as they walk around places they’ve never been to before, the game has led to many people wandering into situations they really shouldn’t be in. In America, for example, armed robbers have used the game’s Pokestop feature to lure people into darkened alleyways. If you’re talking about other places, it’s even worse. In Bosnia, players have been lured out into the middle of active minefields.

Then there’s the obnoxious side. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum recently had to beg people not to come onto their premises to catch Pokemon. That’s right: some players are so dead inside that they will actually go looking for Pikachu inside a memorial to the Jewish victims of Nazi genocide. If that doesn’t prove we’re living in an idiocracy, we don’t know what will.

9. #YOLO - Car Crashes and Spoiled Rich Kids

If a week is a long time in politics, in internet terms it’s probably closer to ice ages. The #YOLO craze only struck in 2012, but already it feels like it happened in another lifetime. An acronym for You Only Live Once, it was something people tweeted, usually with a selfie, just before doing something slightly odd or dangerous.

That’s not hyperbole. People really were doing some stupid stuff in the name of YOLO. A 21-year old wannabee rapper named Ervin McKinness tweeted a shot of himself drunk driving at 120 MPH with the caption #YOLO. In his case, he probably should’ve taken the acronym’s meaning to heart. His dumb stunt caused him to lose control of the car and die in a fiery crash that killed four other people. The moron.

Even when YOLO wasn’t dramatically shortening peoples’ only lifespans, it was still annoying. Nearly everyone who tweeted it was an annoying rich kid on the verge of doing some annoying rich kid thing, like bungee jumping, or sky diving, or (hopefully) sticking their stupid rich faces into a whirring fan.

8. Owling - The Poor Man’s Planking

Planking was a short-lived craze from the UK, which involved people taking pictures of themselves lying flat (like a plank of wood) in bizarre locations. Sure, it annoyed some people, but we didn’t really have a problem with it. It was what came next that made us slowly lose faith in the idea of a loving God. The creation of Owling.

Owling involved people squatting hunched-over on their feet, staring into the distance. Yes, like an owl. Gangs of smug twenty-somethings would get together and do it in groups, post the photos to the internet, and a new craze was born.

Or not, which is exactly why we hate it so much. Planking came out of people’s natural desire to do something silly and put it online. Owling came out of peoples’ natural desire to get mildly-famous for starting an internet trend. It was just a bunch of hipsters riding the coattails of a genuine, bottom-up craze. Pro tip: when you have to title your first video ‘the new planking!’ you don’t have the new planking. You have Owling. And nobody wants Owling.

7. The Duct Tape Challenge - Terrifying Head Injuries

Man. In our day, tying someone up with duct tape and daring them to escape used to be called ‘kidnapping’. Now apparently it’s a ‘challenge’. Semantics aside, the duct tape challenge blew up in early 2016 on YouTube. To play, you just get your friends to wind as much duct tape around you as possible. Then you try to escape. Simple, right?

Sure. Unless things happen to go badly wrong, leaving you with horrific brain injuries.

14-year old Skylar Fish was the unlucky recipient of these injuries. Whilst doing the challenge, he slipped and fell. Since his arms were duct taped to his side, he couldn’t break his fall. The sharp corner of a window ledge did it for him.

Skylar’s eye socket was crushed, blinding him in one eye. The teenager also suffered a brain aneurysm and required over 40 metal staples to be shot into his skull to (essentially) keep his brain from falling out. We’d make a joke about how duct tape could hold head together as well, but that’d probably be crass.

6. Gallon Smashing - Industrial-grade Obnoxiousness and Arrests

Listen: we know that teenage boys are natural troublemakers. We didn’t spend our teenage years trying to build planet-destroying superweapons without picking stuff like that up. But Gallon Smashing took troublemaking to Everest-like heights of obnoxiousness. A short-lived fad in 2013, it basically involved going to your local store, grabbing a container of milk, and smashing it on the floor.

That was it. Sometimes, you might throw it into other produce and try to smash that as well. Others, you might fall down into the smashed remnants of your dignity and beg passers-by to help you up (the ‘prank’ element). But, really, basically, you were just smashing stuff up and posting videos to the internet, like a drunken redneck at a NASCAR rally.

The craze quickly petered out when everyone realized The Man really isn’t cool with you smashing other peoples’ property up. A bunch of teenage boys got arrested and charged with misdemeanors, and the world gave a collective ‘meh.’

5. Cone-ing - The Prank that Isn’t a Prank

We’re going to have to go right back into the Dark Ages for this one. Cone-ing (or coning, whatevs) is an internet craze from the prehistoric era of 2011. We know, right? It’s also one of the dumbest ‘pranks’ in history. Not because its harmful. If anything, it’s pleasingly restrained. No, cone-ing was absurd because it was a prank that managed to not have any element of pranking to it whatsoever.

The idea was pretty simple. You’d order an ice cream from a drive-thru place. When you got to the window and the bored guy behind the counter handed it over, you’d grab the ice cream and not the cone. At which point…literally nothing would happen. Not one thing. You’d take the cone the incorrect way and drive off. The guy would shrug and go ‘huh, that was an odd way to hold an ice cream’ and go back to work. We can’t stress enough how literally not a single other thing would happen.

That isn’t a prank. It isn’t even a joke. It isn’t even a vaguely-humorous thought. It’s holding an ice cream cone the incorrect way. And yet it got so popular that even Justin Bieber was doing it.

4. The Kylie Jenner Challenge - Unavoidable Grossness

Imagine, for a second, that you are an imbecile. You see a picture of Kylie Jenner’s brand new, puffy lips (circa 2015) and decide it’d be fun to temporarily give yourself a look like that. So you get a glass, put it over your lips and create a vacuum by sucking all the air out. What do you think happens next?

If you answered ‘unbridled horror,’ congratulations, you’re cleverer than all the lunatics who climbed onboard this out-of-control bandwagon.

Artificially puffing up your lips using dubious methods turns out to be very bad for your lips and looks in general. The luckiest got away with having horrendous big, swollen, painful lips that made them look like monsters for a short period of time. The unluckiest had blood vessels explode, their lips tear open, blood spray out, and an avoidable trip to the plastic surgeon. Ironically, opting to go straight for surgery would’ve allowed them to get Kylie Jenner-lips with half the pain, half the cost, and only 90 percent of the self-loathing involved.

3. The Harlem Shake - A Manufactured Viral Hit

In 2012, Gangnam Style became the biggest thing in the history of the internet. Psy’s silly dance caught on to such a degree that the official video racked up 2.6 billion views on YouTube. You could literally make a video, upload it to YouTube, and force every single person in China to watch it twice at gunpoint and still have fewer views than Gangnam Style.

Fast forward a year, and the world was looking for the ‘next Gangnam Style‘. Only there was nothing out there. So a bunch of PR guys got together and decided to cynically manufacture a viral hit that would make them rich. Like fools, everyone fell for it. The name of that faux-viral hit? The Harlem Shake.

In 2013, Quartz magazine published a damning analysis of how corporations manufactured the viral spread of the Harlem Shake to make money. It’s a little complicated, but it basically involves a Warner Bros subsidiary, Maker Studios, ‘borrowing’ somebody’s idea and using their PR machine to get everyone on Earth watching it. Feeling cynical yet? If you could see the size of Maker Studio’s bank balance immediately after everyone started doing the Harlem Shake you would be.

2. The Condom Challenge(s) - Repeated Risk of Suffocation

There are two ‘condom challenges’ that became internet sensations, incredibly. We say ‘incredibly’ because not only should the very words ‘condom challenge’ make all right-thinking people start running as fast as they can in the other direction, but also because both involved a serious risk of suffocation.

The first iteration was probably the worst. In the hazy, halcyon days of 2013, some teens decided to outdo all previous challenges by daring one another to snort a condom. You read that right. Against everything Mother Nature had ever intended for us to experience, those who did the challenge sniffed a condom up one nostril and pulled the long, horrible bit of rubbery grossness out of their mouths. That no-one suffocated is kinda amazing.

The second iteration was also crazy. At its most-basic, it involved filling a condom with water and then putting it over your head and filming the results as you nearly drowned inside a device designed to go on men’s wieners. Although rumors of a teen suffocating surfaced in December 2015, these were only rumors and it’s thought no one actually died from the challenge. Some people claimed this was evidence the game was safe, which is kinda like miraculously surviving a multiple car pile-up and deciding you’re therefore invincible to automobiles.

1. Twerking - Cultural Appropriation and Way Too Much Miley Cyrus

Twerking is a move born in the dance halls of Jamaica and the cities of West Africa. It’s a highly-sexualized dance with a complex history and a whole load of cultural baggage. People have been arguing for decades whether it’s sexy, misogynistic, empowering, disgusting, or just plain fun. Then 2013 rolled around, and suddenly all anyone could discuss was Miley Cyrus’s backside and Robin Thicke’s stupid song.

Twerking became an internet-powered craze after Cyrus rubbed her rump against Thicke’s stump during a TV performance of Blurred Lines. Aside from giving every single person on Earth who saw it lasting nightmares that will never cease to haunt the darkest regions of their psyches, it instantly robbed twerking of any semblance of cool and made it the least hip thing you could possibly do (with the possible exception of using ‘hip’ in a sentence). A whole history of alternative culture was wiped out in a single second by Miley’s nightmarish thrusting.

Luckily, this was one of the few times everybody seemed to unanimously agree an Internet Thing was awful. The BBC even named it their most-annoying word of the year.

Top image: Pokémon Go. Credit: iphonedigital/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Source: Toptenz. Edited. Top image added.]

10 MOST OVER-THE-TOP LIMOUSINES IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW

The 10 Most Over the Top Limousines in the World Right Now
By Nat Berman, Money Inc, 26 July 2016.

Limousines have always been a luxury vehicle that is specifically made for excess. However, some limos take it completely beyond the normal standard of lavish and include a downright ridiculous amount of features, amenities, and tech. Of course, the most souped-up limos in the world are typically the priciest. With featured like hot tubs, min-pools, and gadgets you wouldn’t even know existed yet, you could probably set up camp and live in some of these vehicles.

Here are ten of the world’s most over the top limousines.

1. The Million Euro Mini - US$1.35 million

Kazakhstan’s Princess Regina Abdurazakova owns the most expensive Mini Cooper in the world, coined the Million Euro Mini. This one of a kind limousine isn’t mini-sized at all and has a pink body covered in over a million Swarovski crystals. In addition, each wheel of the car has a crystal in its center that measures over 3 inches in diameter. As if that weren’t enough, the window films of the limo contain approximately 50 grams of pure gold. Inside, the Million Euro Mini has 20 parking cameras, 30 parking sensors, 70 TFT screens, and a 47-inch television.

2. The American Dream - US$4 million

The American Dream is a custom built limousine owned by famed car designer and collector Jay Ohrberg. For decades this ride has held the distinction of being the longest limo on the planet - it comes in at 100 feet and has 26 wheels. Think of this vehicle as a mobile luxury condo. It not only has a sun deck and a Jacuzzi, but a swimming pool, more than one king size bed, and a helicopter landing pad.

3. Armor Horse Vault XXL - US$150,000

Those who want to party with top level security features should check out the Armor Horse Vault XXL. G-40 grade steel gives this limousine the beef it needs to stop heavy firepower, plus all of its glass is bullet resistant. Inside is a luxe wood paneled interior and six LCD screens, a retractable pole for dancing, high tech sound system, and a big wet bar.

4. Maybach Landaulet - US$1.4 million

The Maybach Landaulet’s style is based on a limousine model that Maybach made in the 1920s, and it exudes sophistication and elegance. Though this isn’t a stretch limo, it still costs well over US$1 million - that’s partly due to having gold flecked granite inlays and a 612 hp bi-turbo V12 engine. The interior is covered in butter soft white leather and there’s a retractable roof that allows passengers to soak up the sun.

5. Cadillac One - US$3 million

Cadillac One was built specifically for President Barack Obama in 2009. It’s part of a presidential fleet that includes heavily fortified Cadillac limos, and three of the cars travel in procession at all times whenever the POTUS is being driven around. Since its interior plans are classified, not much is known about the lavish features inside this limousine. What is known is that there’s oxygen masks, tear gas, plenty of guns and ammo, firefighting equipment, and luxuries to keep the President and his crew comfortable inside. Rumor has it that Cadillac One also contains a grenade launcher or two, but that’s never been verified.

6. The Sultan of Brunei’s Rolls Royce Silver Spur Limo - US$14 million

One of the most expensive limos in the world belongs to the Sultan of Brunei. Many heads of state and royalty have limos, but this one truly beats all for its opulence. The exterior of this car alone is ridiculous - it’s actually covered in pure 24 carat gold and was specially designed just for the royal family. As part of the Sultan’s huge car collection, his Rolls Royce limo stands out for being the definition of decadent. It holds just about everything one could think of to put inside a limousine.

7. The Boeing 727 Limo - US$1 Million

“Waste not, want not” had to be on the minds of the creative crew behind the Boeing Limo. A Mexican limousine company came across a Boeing 727 and thought to turn it into a stretch limo by removing the jet’s wings and mounting its body onto a Mercedes bus chassis. It weighs an enormous 24,000 pounds, contains a sunken living room, fireplace, heart shaped bed, and a dance floor. That’s not even the beginning. The Boeing Limo accommodates up to 40 people, has a private back room, multiple televisions, and can reach a top speed of 124 mph.

8. The Batmobile Limousine - US$4.2 million

Few people don’t know what the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s Batman movie series looks like, whether they’re a DC Comics fan or not. The iconic ride has become an important part of the Batman franchise, and a super fan decided to build a limo version of it in 2012. It looks every bit the part on the outside, and inside the Batmobile limousine has a V8 Corvette jet engine. Creating such an amazing recreation of one of the most recognized cars in the world wasn’t cheap, and the project cost over US$4 million.

9. Rolls Royce Phantom Limo - US$3.8 million

Rolls Royce is known for creating opulent cars, and their limos are no exception. One of the most stunning is the Rolls Royce Phantom limousine, which is based on one of the world’s most expensive cars. A 6.8 liter 432 hp V12 engine, bullet proof armor, and impeccable styling are part of what makes this limo worth over US$3.5 million. The Rolls Royce Phantom limo also has a full sized office tucked inside for the businessperson on the go, and it’s been used to chauffeur some of the world’s most important dignitaries and political leaders.

10. The Midnight Rider - US$2.5 million

When people think of limos, they typically envision long, sleek, and graceful lines that house a wealth of luxuries. The Midnight Rider is long and it does have tons of lavishness inside, but its exterior looks absolutely nothing like most limousines. Designed and built in 1986, it has the distinction of being the world’s biggest for-hire limo and was constructed from a tractor trailer body. This is what allows it to host up to 40 passengers. In addition, The Midnight Rider has an 1,800 watt sound system, its own dance club and DJ booth inside, three different lounge areas, and a full size bar with room for several bartenders. With all that’s in it, it comes as no surprise that this limousine also holds the record for being the world’s heaviest.

Top image: DeLorean Limo. Credit: Dr_Emmet_Brown/Reddit.

[Source: Money Inc. Edited. Some links added.]

INFOGRAPHIC: ARE YOU JUST ONE WEAK PASSWORD AWAY FROM A DEVASTATING SECURITY BREACH?

[INFOGRAPHIC] Is Your Company Just 1 Weak Password Away from a Security Breach?
By Erin Styles, Last Pass.

Today, just about everything we need to do is available as a cloud offering. With services like Office 365, Google Apps, and Dropbox, businesses are putting some of their most valuable intellectual property into the cloud. With all this convenience comes risk. With the use of a large number of 3rd party services, the enterprise landscape is far more complex. Corporate assets are now available from anywhere, with only a password protecting access to them.

A new survey conducted by Spiceworks on behalf of LastPass asked ~250 IT decision makers working in companies with 500 or more employees how they are protecting their business data. We found that their first line of defense is a strong password, but the majority - 62% - say that employees using weak passwords is their primary password management challenge. In addition, 73% of employees don’t reset their passwords after sharing it with someone else.

Check out the infographic below to see these results and more. Sign up for LastPass Enterprise today and give secure password sharing a try!

[Source: Last Pass.]