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Johnny Weir's closet

I am completely aware that I post way too many videos. Yet life goes on.


Best quotes:
"I call it my Martian bubble-coat. I'd wear something like this to the grocery store."
"I would buy anything as long as it had an LV on it. I would even buy bread."
"I have a lovely fur tree. One really fun thing I have on here is this fur, kind of trapper hat. It has this really beautiful look, like this long flowing mane of, of fox. And then on top it's python. This is kind of a multisex hat."
"My closets are a constant swirl of happiness and movement."
THIS MAN IS AWESOME. (via NY Mag)


Best quotes:

"I call it my Martian bubble coat. I'd wear something like this to the grocery store."

"I would buy anything as long as it had an LV on it. I would even buy bread."

"I have a lovely fur tree. One really fun thing I have on here is this fur, kind of trapper hat. It has a really beautiful look, like this long, flowing mane of, of fox. And then on top it's python. This is kind of a multi-sex hat."

"My closets are a constant swirl of happiness and movement."

THIS MAN IS AWESOME.

(via NY Mag)
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Alyssa Thomas on terror watch list

Ok, so the title sounds innocuous enough. A seemingly innocent individual was discovered to be on the terror watch list, and was made to go through extra security measures before she was allowed to fly from Cleveland to Minneapolis. Seems routine, until you discover that Alyssa Thomas, an Ohio girl of Indian heritage, is actually 6 YEARS OLD.



The family was told to contact Homeland Security to clear things up with them, but the government has sent back a letter, addressed to Alyssa (who is, again, 6 YEARS OLD), that nothing in her file would be changed. Now, the no-fly, terror watch list is meant to protect Americans from people who have known or suspected ties to terrorism, so that they won't fly and cause another airplane terror fiasco (obviously). But this girl IS 6 YEARS OLD. Come ON now. We have reports of underwear bombers and Times Square bombers being able to get on flights with little to no trouble, and the government wants to prevent a 6-year-old girl from flying to Minneapolis. Ridiculous.

(via AOL News)
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Devon Aoki

If I were to have chosen any celebrity to date Joseph Gordon-Levitt, previous star of 3rd Rock from the Sun and most recently the male lead of (500) Days of Summer, I would probably have chosen just about any persona other than Devon Aoki, with whom sources say JG-L was holding hands with and kissing a few days ago. Here's a kid whose most recent movie had him hooked up with the adorably indie Zooey Deschanel, and now he's rumored to be with Devon Aoki, whose acting chops are most known from her appearances in Sin City and 2 Fast 2 Furious.

























(via Just Jared)
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Pink dolphins

Amazon river dolphins may not be oceanic dolphins like the ones that most people are familiar with, but as river dolphins, they still fit under a general classification of "dolphin", even though they are officially classified under a different taxonomic family than ocean-living dolphins. Besides being shockingly pink, they can turn their heads 180 degrees around, if that talent interests you.

















(picture via ISPTR)
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Simultaneous lightning strikes in Chicago

A Chicago Tribune photographer caught two lightning bolts striking both the Trump and Sears (now Willis) Tower at the same time during last night's mega-thunderstorm in Chicago. The resulting image was amazing, and looks like it should be on one of those motivational posters (although I can't imagine what the tag word would be for this picture. Teamwork? Possibility? Impossibility?)

See the photo here.
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Youtube's vuvuzela button

In honor of that never-ending droning heard at the World Cup 2010 games, Youtube has added a vuvuzela button at the bottom of some of their videos (from my research, it shows up not only on World Cup videos, but on some non-related videos as well). It pretty much does the opposite of what 99% of TV viewers want: instead of muting the vuvuzela sounds, it adds them to your video. All you have to do is press that little soccer ball on the right bottom corner, and you can feel like you're watching 30 Rock IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Edit: It looks like the button doesn't show up on externally embedded videos, so double click the video to watch in a separate window and try the button on Youtube's actual site. But I'm going to keep the video here regardless because I like this clip.



(via Techcrunch)
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BATMAN GOLF CART.

This is gold.






















(via This LA Life through Google Reader Play)
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Romanian stowaway

A Romanian man has successfully stowed away on a flight in an external wheel compartment while sustaining minimal injuries.

With all the pressurization that you feel within the cabin during a flight, as well as the frost on the windows that indicate below-freezing temperatures outside of the plane, you would think that a person would never be able to survive outside without certain death. But this guy managed to survive the flight between Vienna and London relatively unharmed, barring some bruises and hypothermia. He wasn't deported or charged - after being taken into custody by the Metropolitan Police in the UK, he was released with no charges against him. He didn't even have to worry about immigration or anything because, as both Romania and the UK are part of the EU, Romanian citizens are allowed to travel freely to London. 

Under normal circumstances, this guy probably wouldn't have survived, so don't try it at home. The plane reportedly had to fly at lower altitudes than normal because of stormy weather, meaning that oxygen levels were still enough to sustain him. If the plane had flown at normal heights (i.e. higher), the lack of oxygen probably would have knocked him out or killed him, not to mention the effect of the colder temperatures at higher altitudes (it was already around -41F at the level the plane was at, so that was BUTT COLD as it was). If he had fallen unconscious, when the wheels came down again, he could have just fallen out and died that way, even if he had managed to find the right spot to hide in so that the wheels wouldn't have crushed him coming up in the first place.

Man, this guy is really lucky. He manages not to die while essentially being holed up outside of the plane for hours, and then he gets off scot-free with the police as well.

(via BBC)
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Hello Kitty petrol

Oh look, Hello Kitty-branded gasoline. $32 for 3L of the stuff. Thanks Japan.

























(via designboom)
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Refs at the World Cup

So after the scandal of Koman Coulibaly and the USA-Slovenia game, I thought that the big refereeing controversies would be over, at least for a little while. After all, how many controversial calls can you fit into the course of a weekend?

I was proven wrong. There were plenty, such as in the Germany-Serbia game, where there were 9 (9!!) yellow cards called in that single game alone. And then, in the Brazil-Ivory Coast game, two handballs were committed in Brazil's second goal, but neither one was spotted by either the refs or the players.


But I think the most mind-boggling one I witnessed was during Sunday's same Brazil-Ivory Coast game. In the replays, the Ivorian Abdul Kater Keita is running, knocks into Kaká (who isn't looking his way), and falls down, clutching his face, even though Kaká's arm had only knocked him in the chest. The ref apparently doesn't really see what went down, but sends Kaká off with a red card anyways, meaning that he's not allowed to play in Brazil's next game against Portugal. Of course, Brazil is already through the group stage, so it's not really that big of a problem, but still. You can see the footage below. What dirty playing from Kader Keita - go to :20 for the action.




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Forever 21 wedding bands

Forever 21 makes wedding bands now! If you're looking to save some money on not just your nightclub dresses and 5-inch platform heels, but your big day expenses as well, look no further. For $4.80, you can get Forever's "I Do Ring Set", which comes with both a wedding band and an engagement ring. The website claims that the two are made of metal, but it doesn't specify what kind, and the stones are obviously cubic zirconia, not diamond. But it's $4.80!

(via Forever 21 through The Frisky)
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Heather Morris in "Videophone"

Forget about the camera head people and the multicolored plastic guns of Beyonce and Lady Gaga's "Video Phone". This version is so much better. Heather Morris and fierce man in the pink tutu for the win.




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Italy vs. Paraguay and Fabio Cannavaro

I watched the Italy vs. Paraguay game today on ESPN and was listening to the commentary that the announcers were making. This was refreshing, because the other day, I had to watch the games on WGBO, or the Spanish-speaking channel in Chicago, because other networks weren't playing the U.S. vs. England game. The only real thing I could understand from those commentators was when a team made a goal, at which point the announcers would shout "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" and it would be pretty obvious that something big had happened.

Anyways, the ESPN announcers were talking about the captain of the Italian team, Fabio Cannavaro. He's now almost 37 years old, making him one of the oldest players in the 2010 World Cup (behind England's goalkeeper David James, the oldest in the games at 39, who didn't play in the starting lineup of his country's first game but may soon replace Robert Green after the uproar over his goalkeeping skills against the U.S). Man, this guy is almost 40 and he is still CAPTAIN of his team.

And as I was watching, before my eyes, at 3:38 on the clock, Cannavaro does this kick like nobody's business in an effort to stop the ball:


He is at least 4 feet in the air, even though you can't see it on the screenshot. But look at his leg! He is pushing 40 and he can still bend like that? This wasn't even a very important moment in the game; the ball was about to go out and he was just trying to stop it. It wasn't like he was about to make a goal or anything. No wonder he's captain of the reigning World Cup champion team.

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Ohio cops

I haven't had a long-standing relationship with the cops in my area. Aside from a single speeding ticket I got in high school, my interactions with the police force in the past have been extremely limited. So I don't exactly have a bone to pick with police officers in general. But if a cop tried to bust me for speeding based on a hunch, with no further radar or laser-based evidence, I think I'd be pretty annoyed.

Unfortunately for commuters in Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court just ruled this past week that a speeding ticket based only on an officer's reckoning of the alleged speed of the car in question is enough for a speeding ticket to hold. So, in short, you can't argue a speeding ticket down in court even when the cop is just guessing your speed. The officer needs "gauging speed" experience or training through the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy (or a similar training school), but even a rep of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission said, "It's kind of a dead-reckoning kind of thing". Learning how to do this kind of visual gauging doesn't even take up that much time in training. Reportedly, visual speed gauging is only a small part of a 5-hour unit of training,  and the officers are asked to watch 20 cars and estimate their speeds. If they get an average of 5MPH off of the actual speed, they pass.

Personally, I don't think that 20 vehicles is really a large enough sample size to determine an officer's accuracy of speed gauging, especially when money, points, and a speeding ticket are on the line.

(via Cleveland.com and autoblog through Google Reader Play)
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Harel Skaat

I'm still watching Eurovision, yes. But how does one resist Israel's Harel Skaat, also known as the REAL LIVE VERSION OF DISNEY'S PRINCE ERIC, one of Disney's great successes in Very Good Looking Disney Princes (along with Aladdin). Which makes Skaat a Very Good Looking Disney Lookalike Prince.

He gets a couple notes sour at the end of his Eurovision performance (unfortunate, considering his rehearsal videos showed him singing them on point), but the rest of his singing is quite lovely. I'm not just talking about him because he's cute; his voice is pretty decent too, especially if you Youtube his other songs.

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Eurovision 2010

I don't understand why American networks don't broadcast Eurovision. I would watch it ALL THE TIME.

For those of you who don't know, the Eurovision Song Contest is an annual show held within the countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Each separate country submits a singer and song to the contest, and the people watching vote through televoting or text messages (like American Idol). From what I discern, a tally of the scores within each country for each contestant determines who the country as a whole votes for (so whichever contestant gets the most votes within a country gets that country's vote).

So this year Germany's contestant won. Her performance, while lovely in its own right, was not EPIC. To see epic, you HAVE TO watch the Moldovan entry. The sax guy makes the performance, although the light-up violin is pretty good in and of itself.

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Twilight MasterCard

Best way to teach responsible spending habits: put Edward Cullen on the face of your child's source of money. They'll never lose it.


(picture via Risky Business/HR through Go Fug Yourself and NY Mag)











And in case you were wondering, this isn't a scam/made up card by a rabid Twilight fan. It's a real, coming-soon, prepaid MasterCard from MYPLASH.
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Spanx for Men!

They EXIST. MEN'S SHAPEWEAR. I was browsing Nordstrom online and I saw "Spanx for Men" featured on the top bar. Neiman Marcus was the only department store carrier of them until recently, which may be why I just noticed them (Neiman Marcus isn't usually the first online store I hit up when I'm window-shopping). The men's fashion director of Neiman Marcus, Nickelson Wooster, reportedly said,


"We are selling them as quickly as Spanx can make them... Men may not be talking about it, but they’re buying it." (NY Times)

For men, they pretty much work like the previously-sold women's Spanx: by sucking everything in and getting rid of any unsightly bulges (i.e. beer bellies). I don't think they sell garments for man-pooch quite yet, but you can definitely tell how tight these shirts are around the stomach by looking at the online models on Nordstrom.


(via Nordstrom)













This guy can thank his genetics and intense workout regimen for how little work this Spanx shirt actually has to do for him. But that thing is TIGHT; one can imagine how much these shirts really could suck in a flabby gut.



(via NY Times)
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Urban Outfitters

This Urban shirt has inspired enough controversy for them to have pulled it off the shelves as of right now:

WE'RE SORRY. THIS PRODUCT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.

And for good reason. Message tees are rarely a fashion-forward statement in themselves, but this is toeing the line of extremely distasteful. I'm not sure a recently-cured anorexic would be pleased to see this walking down the street. Even though they tried to minimize the impact by writing in the description:

Eat less or more or however much you'd like in this seriously soft knit tee cut long and topped with a v-neck.

the shirt has already done its damage. Bad move, UO.








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Electric Daisy Carnival

Electric Daisy Carnival is an electronic dance festival in SoCal. Apparently they take auditions...?


The Youtube description:


An out-take that took place 3 weeks into the EDC casting calls. Featuring Nigel Ficke; an Australian 'dance academy graduate' hopeful, that came in for open casting on April 29th 2010. The Insomniac team was so floored & taken a back, that they made him the feature character in this episode for the 6 part EDC 'Audition' mini- series.




(via BuzzFeed)
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Guatemala City sinkhole

Imagine you are an ordinary person, living your ordinary life in Guatemala City. You've heard of a 30 story deep sinkhole appearing in 2007 due to ruptured sewage pipes, but thought that the idea of it happening again was ridiculous. After all, sinkholes only happen when the ground underneath the surface becomes too saturated to hold the weight of the buildings and soil above it, or sometimes when cracks in the limestone bed occur naturally, causing soil to collapse into the crack and eventually fall through altogether. Surely it couldn't happen twice in such a short period of time!

And yet it did. This 2010 sinkhole is pretty much the equivalent of one day waking up and finding a 100-foot deep, 60-foot wide hole on your street intersection. In the process of forming, it swallowed your neighbor's house. To make matters worse, it could get bigger and swallow your house too.

The photos are linked.

(via National Geographic and just about every other news site online)