The Five Browns present Flight of the Bumblebee

If I had a nickle for every world renowned sibling piano quintet... I'd be up about five cents. Granted, after inflation... nevermind.

The Brown family of Utah's five childen, all graduates of Juilliard (many of them on full scholarship), are internationally known for their talent and accomplishments on the piano. But you'll never see them get a Gatorade endorsement deal or Nike commercial.

Check out their website for more video, or do like everyone else does. Just search for them on YouTube. Watch out Von Trapp family... here comes the Americans.

http://www.the5browns.com/ 

Toys used to be so cool...

Ahh, video from the days of yore. When toys were toys. And toys were cool. Not that lead paint free, impossible to hurt yourself with junk we have today. Toys like spy pens that fired eye damaging projectiles, complete with spy paper that dissolves in water to form a concoction that is likely so toxic it could bring down an elephant. Real toys.

Bonus: A cap gun designed to look like a Tommy Gun. Seriously. How cool is this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMqd5EQXD-g

Barack Obama gets Rick Rolled

Finally, someone decided to splice together video clips of Barack Obama speeches into a pretty impressive rendition of the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up."

It's about time.

Bonus: I bet you never noticed the similiarities in the dancing styles of Obama and Rick Astley...

Watch the side by side comparison at the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBghD0XBN5M

Randy Pausch's famous Last Lecture

Days after we lost Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon University professor famous for his "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" speech, his speech has gone viral, with over five million views on youtube.

Be inspired. Be very inspired.

Your daily dose of patriotism... Muppets style

Sam the Eagle introduces Beaker, Animal and the rest of your favorite Muppets characters as they perform Stars and Stripes Forever.

For a more traditional version, click the link below, but for a good laugh, enjoy the Muppets rendition. 

Boston Pops 2007 Fourth of July Show

Bring on the pain

Lots of tough guys say "Bring on the pain!" But they usually don't mean this...

Just watch the video.

Creepy guy rents guns

Step right up folks, for only $10 you can rent pistols, rifles and shotguns from Don Davis of Indianapolis, Indiana. The only requirements:

1) You must be 18

2) You must have a drivers license 

3) You must use the store's ammo.

4) The price is $10 per gun

How about:

5) Don't kill anyone

6) Don't injure anyone

7) Don't threaten anyone

8) Promise to abide by #5-7

Seriously. I've rented videos. I've rented tables. But I've never rented a gun. I didn't know you could rent guns. And based on this commercial, I don't think he's the guy I would go to for my gun rental needs. The laugh is extremely creepy.

If you need to test before buying, take it to the range at the store and bring it back. What other reason would you need to rent a gun?

An unorthodox get rich quick scheme

A recent Wall Street Journal article reports the latest in a long line of controversial executive perks:

Posthumous Paydays.

Automatic options vesting, company-sponsored life insurance policies and continued payment of salary after death are just some of the perks top executives have written into their contracts, adding up to hundreds of millions of dollars in some of the most lucrative deals.

Severence pay packages, originally designed to see a person through to his next line of work, are now being used to compensate the departed as they transition to the afterlife.

One individual, Shaw Group CEO James. M. Bernhard Jr., is promised $17 million in compensation as part of his non-compete agreement, in which he would agree not to work for a competing company for two years after he leaves Shaw Group. An agreement that covers his death (when he would generally be considered unable to work for, or compete with, anyone).

And for those concerned about the transportation needs of the dearly departed, there's even the $158,400 afterlife car allowance afforded XTO Energy CEO Bob R. Simpson. That, in addition to the continued payment of his $4.4 million annual salary, should hep him with the high cost of gas until his $111 million bonus is paid and $20 million in stock options are vested by the company.

But in reality, times are hard for the upper class elite. The declining value of the dollar may be costing you and me a few hundred dollars a year in rising expenses and declining personal wealth. But for these guys, the fall of the dollar represents the loss of tens of millions of dollars in personal wealth.

So quit complaining.

Your Navy at work

Navy gunboats. Awesome before. Even awesomer in the future.

Check out the video of these guys in action. It's just a shame there's not many rivers in Iraq and Afghanistan. These guys would handle things, to quote Major Payne, "quick, fast and in a hurry."

Any video of small boats with the capacity for tremendous amounts of gunfire is good video. Bottom line.

Ladies love fuel efficiency

According to a study commissioned by GM, attitudes are changing regarding the hottest cars on the block.

Nearly 9 in 10 women surveyed (88%) said they would rather chat up someone that owns a fuel-efficient car over someone with a sports car.

Four in five car buyers agreed that, at a party, they would rather talk to someone with a fuel efficient car over someone with the latest sports car.*

45 percent of 18-43 year olds say it's a "fashion faux-pas" to have a vehicle that is environmentally unfriendly.

The moral of the story is, ladies like the hybrids. So if you want the ladies to love you, go fuel efficient. They'll love you even more if you spend all the gas money you save on taking them to dinner. Just don't drive to a restaurant that's far away.

The Yahoo! EcoGeek blog entry

GM Press Release

*Was this study conducted in San Francisco? Not sure what parties they go to, but sure...

Lend a hand while you sleep

Remember a few years ago when there were a number of projects utilizing the unused processing power of thousands of computers from around the world to conduct research or analyze huge amounts of data?

Maybe I've been in a cave, but I haven't heard much about them for a while, until I located this project, the World Community Grid, a few days ago.

Every time you leave your computer on while you aren't using it (whether you step away for lunch or leave it on at night), it has unused processing capacity that could be utilized for good. Not hackers using malware to hijack your computer to send spam, but organizations doing research like analyzing DNA and other processing-heavy assignments. Supercomputers are expensive and projects like this are low-cost alternatives for researchers on a tight budget. When you start using your computer again, the software load is reduced so you can get back to doing what you do.

You know it's for real because I saw it featured on CNNMoney.com.

Lend a hand, and who knows what breakthrough projects you could be a part of.

How soccer should be

Yeah, soccer shouldn't really be played on rooftops, but the concept of street football is little known in America.

Most American soccer moms probably think street football is anything that doesn't involve an elite level travel team playing on immaculate pitches and costing thousands of dollars a year.

Crews with these kinds of skills could really draw some interest into the game. I'm a soccer purist myself, but it's still a cool video, even though parts of it are clearly fake.

Guitars with multiple strings are overrated

Good musicians play guitar with five or six strings. Great musicians play with just one. Watch this video of One String Willie, a guitar player that performs with just one string, and you'll be entertained. Or not, it's really your call.

Silly rabbit...

After more than 20 years of watching this rabbit get shot down every time he tries to get a bowl of cereal, it's refreshing to know he's at least had some of that sugary goodness in the past.

Those kids in Trix commercials are jerks, who made them Cereal Commander?

Looking for a Mother's Day gift idea?

Show your mother you care this Mother's Day season, send her a photo. For complete instructions, watch the video.

Yeah, it's from last year's Mother's Day season, but it's still a good video.

MIT has a party mode?

When I was in school, party mode meant going out to the club or to a bar. These guys brought the club into their dorm room.

There's a big red button mounted on one of the bed posts that, once pressed, activates the party mode depicted in the video. There's lasers, blacklight, graphics on huge LCD screens, a huge sound system and lots more.

Too bad nobody at MIT ever parties...

Check out the other videos:

System Activation
Party Mode in Action

The exception to the rule

Normally, I'd rip these guys with the best of them, but these are actually pretty cool.

Yes, they have way too much time on their hands, but at least they accomplish something with it. I'd rather see someone do this than sit on their couch all day. Even if you never liked Transformers you have to agree.

Tired of going through security?

Apparently the folks at Dolby Labs don't have enough to do. A friend in San Francisco sent me this video of a Swiss man who is taking flight to the next level.

Literally, he's leaving the plane and going out on his own. Plenty have glided in a similar manner, but this guy's wings have an onboard power system that allows him to jump out of a plane and soar up and down through the sky for a solid five minutes of powered flight.

For his next prototype, he projects he will be capable of taking off from the ground and flying for ten minutes.

Ohh, and if you want the shorter, but way cooler, version of the video, use the link below for the version with 'Danger Zone' by Kenny Loggins dubbed over the audio. Because this guy is truly the Top Gun.

The Top Gun

The only reason to watch the Oscars...

Watch my montage of the best parts of the Academy Awards show from Sunday night...

Well, OK, it's no montage. But I could care less about entertainment award shows (how do they find time to make movies when they have to appear at dozens of mostly meaningless award shows every year?).

However, I did happen to catch this part of the show, it was awesome.

Worst fight scene ever

Generally, great movie fight scenes try to make you believe they are real through awesome combat sequences. This one, on the other hand, is like watching wrestling. You just know it's fake, and that makes it funny.