Lucid Dreaming By lucid dreaming, you can gain complete control over the one place that no one will ever care about: your imagination. Just The Facts Lucid dreaming is a scientifically proven phenomenon. How to Take Control of Your Dreams: So, you've doubled your weight over the past five years, you own a record-shattering collection of greasy pizza boxes and broken aspirations, and you're beginning to consider installing a toilet bowl in the place of your computer chair? In order to even begin to get control over your dreams, there are a few preliminary tasks you must complete. Your fake and imagined rendition of Yvonne won't care how much your cry before, during, and afterward! The Tasks: The first step is mentioned in another Cracked article (5 Ways To Hack Your Brain Into Awesomeness), but here's a quick long and wordy rundown. 1. "What?" Calm down! Important tip: Do not use your dream journal as an excuse to tell co-workers about "that weird/bizarre/scary dream you had last night." 2.
One man, 100,000 toothpicks, and 35 years: An incredible kinetic sculpture of San Francisco Thirty five years ago I had yet to be born, but artist Scott Weaver had already begun work on this insanely complex kinetic sculpture, Rolling through the Bay, that he continues to modify and expand even today. The elaborate sculpture is comprised of multiple “tours” that move pingpong balls through neighborhoods, historical locations, and iconic symbols of San Francisco, all recreated with a little glue, some toothpicks, and an incredible amount of ingenuity. He admits in the video that there are several toothpick sculptures even larger than his, but none has the unique kinetic components he’s constructed. Via his website Weaver estimates he’s spent over 3,000 hours on the project, and the toothpicks have been sourced from around the world: I have used different brands of toothpicks depending on what I am building. See the sculpture for yourself at the Tinkering Studio through the end of June.
Kelly and Neil Patrick Harris Inhale Sulfur Hexafluoride With Science Bob Video – 5min.com Visual Cryptography What is Visual Cryptography Visual Cryptography is a special encryption technique to hide information in images in such a way that it can be decrypted by the human vision if the correct key image is used. The technique was proposed by Naor and Shamir in 1994. Visual Cryptography uses two transparent images. One image contains random pixels and the other image contains the secret information. It is impossible to retrieve the secret information from one of the images. When the random image contains truely random pixels it can be seen as a one-time pad system and will offer unbreakable encryption. How Visual Cryptography works Each pixel of the images is divided into smaller blocks. In the table on the right we can see that a pixel, divided into four parts, can have six different states.If a pixel on layer 1 has a given state, the pixel on layer 2 may have one of two states: identical or inverted to the pixel of layer 1. We can now create the two layers. Additional information
An Essay by Einstein -- The World As I See It "How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people -- first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving... "I have never looked upon ease and happiness as ends in themselves -- this critical basis I call the ideal of a pigsty. "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities.
10 Best Places to Live for Escaping World Conflict Where would you be the safest if World War 3 broke out tomorrow? Perhaps it’s a grim subject, but safety and distance from world conflict can be a motivating factor in your choice to expatriate. At the very least, conflict around the world can weigh heavy on the soul, and it’s nice to know there are some places still left in the world where you might be left in peace. Thus, we’ve assembled a list of the 10 best places to live if you want to escape world conflict. 10. Switzerland’s long history of neutrality and its tucked away location among the valleys of the Alps still make it a safe bet, even despite having a high number of bordering nations. 9. Costa Rica has a stable democracy, a disbanded military and a national policy of neutrality. 8. There are regions of Papua New Guinea that are still being discovered for the first time. 7. Canada is the second largest nation in the world, yet it only shares a land border with one other country– the U.S.A.– and it is a peaceful border. 6. 5.
36 Pictures That Look Photoshopped – But Are Not The power of Photoshop is amazing, but still it doesn’t beat the power of imagination. Although many photos taken by professional photographers and enhanced in Photoshop can be absolutely stunning, the photos taken wisely and in a creative manner are even more impressive. Today’s showcase is dedicated to such photos, the ones that make people skeptical about not being manipulated and still they are genuine and impressive. They can be really inspiring and a pride to every photographer’s portofolio, no matter if they are funny, dramatic or just miracles of nature. Salar de Uyuni Water Fairy Burn the Sky Roof Dancers Infinite Possibilities Gelato di Nuvola God’s Canvas Please Don Not Fall, Cloud Lending a Helping Hand Cloud Dragon Falling Up Escape from Fairytale Land Morning Mood Got You Now Playing with Perspective Revenge Hot Dog More than a Mouthful Stool Camel Kisser There Is No Spork In Memoriam Jump from the Ship Rubber Duck Watusi Bull Volcanic Lightning Weather Phenomena Infamous Guatemala Sinkhole Last Drop
More Stupid Cat So there's this cat food commercial. Maybe you've seen it. A cat wanders into an empty kitchen and ambles toward a can of Friskies cat food. The lid suddenly pops off, sending magic glowing swirls all over the room. Then a mysterious portal opens up. The cat leaps through the portal, and finds herself in a brightly colored fantasy land. And even though it's only a 60-second commercial, this stoned cat manages to have a complete adventure, by land and by sea. Her journey eventually comes full circle, and a new portal leads the cat home, where she scarfs down some brown mush in a bowl. Seeing pet food commercials always makes me miss my cat Lola, this commercial in particular. Last time I was home, I brought her a little mouse toy full of catnip. After that she picked up the mouse in her teeth, carried over to the couch, and rolled around for several minutes in a hazy delirium. "No more drugs for you, cat," I said, and put the mouse on top of the fridge. "Oh my god, Lola," I said.
The System 472: Road Sage UPDATE: The Quirky Nomads Podcast has made this comic into a radio production! More info here » ALSO: Now avaiable as an 11×17 print! Check it out here. This is a followup to one of the more popular comics in the archive, famously featuring “figure out purple”. Hitting conflict in the face with more conflict never seems to help, as both sides immediately identify the other as the enemy and shut off any ability to listen to reason. I’d like to point out where this comic starts, “when someone yells at you from their car”. UPDATE: Thanks for all the love on the comic! You can also buy this t-shirt about biking:
Wolverine Alphabet Gallery @omgwtflolbbqbye: yeah I thought so too cause black widow at B made sense and I figured A was some Japanese thing I wasn't aware of, that being said man that stuff looks sweet. Hulk looks more like Grendle and is that Wolvie with a Cap outfit or is that bucky? @omgwtflolbbqbye: Right! X should of had Weapon X, not Dr. Strange. On a side note. ATTN: Sony and friends, Send the mutants and all-around awesome heroes home where they belong. Online : How-To: Carve astounding art-pumpkins We wrote about Ray Villafane’s pumpkin carving tutorial several years ago, but it’s worth linking to again. We were reminded of Ray’s astounding squash-sculpting mojo when our most-awesome Director of Marketing and PR for Maker Faire, Bridgette Vanderlaan, sent around a gallery of Ray’s work through internal email. Even if you don’t have Ray’s artistic chops, I bet, if you carefully follow his instructions, what you get will be a heck of a lot more “high-brow” than triangle eyes and a jagged mouth. [Thanks, Bridgette!] [A few more gourdly ghouls after the jump] Ray Villafane’s Pumpkin Carving Tutorial More: See all of our Halloween coverage on MAKE Gareth Branwyn Gareth Branwyn is a freelancer writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. Related