I absolutely love the new Discovery Channel adverts. They accompany the new tagline “The World is Just Awesome”.
It’s a great tagline. They are superb ads.
And I really do love the world. I need to escape my desk!
There are two versions of the adverts: here and here. Read more about them on Wikipedia here.
In 1970 the Italian singer Adriano Celentano composed the song Prisencolinensinainciusol.
What makes the song interesting is that it is gibberish, but specifically designed to sound like American English.
To an English speaker that’s very interesting because it provides an idea of what English sounds like to foreigners.
Listen to the song (it’s actually quite a fun song anyway). It does indeed sound like English – as if I should be understanding it.
Here is a time-lapse video showing the ordeal of Nicholas White who was trapped in an elevator for 41 hours back in 1999. He went for a cigarette break at 11PM on a Friday night and was trapped in the elevator until Monday morning. The video shows his 41 hours compressed into under 4 minutes accompanied by some great piano music. He repeatedly prises the doors open (to show a brick wall) and lands up spending a lot of time sleeping.
I have been stuck in an elevator for just over an hour before, but at least people knew that I was in there. The video is extremely popular and has already been viewed 2.8 million times.
Here are some snaps from the vid for those who can’t view it.
Hour 0 (11pm Friday night) – Holding down the alarm button and hoping for help
Hour 3 (2am Friday night) – Waiting and hoping
Hour 11 (10am Saturday morning) – Catching some sleep
Hour 23 (10pm Saturday night) – Relieving himself down the elevator shaft
Hour 33 (7am Sunday morning)
Hour 41 (3pm Sunday afternoon) – Rescued…
I know you were wondering: he says that he releived himself down the elevator shaft while holding the doors open.
I just love this clip (although I’m not convinced that is a lemur)
Here is a link to some more of these scientology videos about and from Tom Cruise. From what I can make out, they are deadly serious clips from the Scientology awards where Tom Cruise was awarded the “IAS Freedom Medal of Valor”. I can see why he likes this stuff so much. Basically, he believes that he above all others sees the world for what it really is and is going to save us all.
In the first clip there is some ramble from the presenter who then introduces Tom Cruise. He talks about how the world is going down hill because the masses are so deluded. How the government is covering all this up to keep the masses down. And then: “But there’s someone on the other side of the global arena. Someone advancing Scientology on a truly epic scale – to a very different future. And he is Class 4, OT7, Platinum Meritorious and IAS Freedom Medal of Valor winner – Tom Cruise, the greatest movie star in the world.”
Thank God for Tom Cruise!
Part 2 talks about how Tom Cruise personally saved firefighters and police at ground zero after 9-11. He realized that there was a “deadly toxin” in the air (which the government was covering up). So he personally organized a “purification program” which saved the lives of those exposed to the toxin. From the video it looks like the “victims” got free saunas.
Thank you Tom. You are a true hero.
From clip 3: “Night after night, city by city, through 18 and 20 hour days, Tom Cruise travels this world meeting with ministers, ambassadors and the American State Department. Advancing LRH technology straight into the corridors of power. His presence alone opens the door for [Scientology’s] expansion.”
We love you Tom.
Then there is a clip of him accepting his Freedon Medal of Valor: “I think you know that I am there for you. And I do care so very, very much! So what do you say? Do you want to clean this place up?”
Thank you for caring Tom. Please clean this world up for us with your superior knowledge and abilities. Katie must be so proud.
Seriously though – I was left thinking that although completely deluded, Cruise really thinks he is helping people. The thing is that he is actually just selling Scientology to the world. I’m not sure if he does any real good – he just sells his crazy cult.
Scientology is a strange and secretive cult/religion/business invented by a science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, in the 50’s. These guys have some seriously wacky beliefs about spirits, psychiatry, medicine, etc. They are also very rich and they play hardball with their critics.
The cult also makes a lot of money. You have to pay to get the different “courses” (which can cost more than $20,000). You have to pay for your membership. Worse than that – you get paid to recruit more members. It’s basically a pyramid scheme.
In fact, there are several witnesses and people who knew Hubbard who claim that he stated on several occasions that the best way to make money is to start a religion.
Anyway, this stuff is crazy and the most famous of the nuts is Tom Cruise. An “indoctrination” video featuring Tom Cruise has been leaked onto the net in which he basically rambles on about how:
Basically he, Tom Cruise, is going to use is power to save the rest of us. He would love to go on holiday – but there is so much to do
Just watch his expressions. The way he laughs and rambles so intensely. You can see that he believes these things – and that he is nuts.
This is one of the best YouTube videos that I have ever seen. It shows a guy throwing a paper plan from a skyscraper in New York. There is something about the way that the little plane flies over the busy city without anyone noticing which is beautiful. The accompanying music is also perfectly chosen to leave you with a great feeling.
I have watched it a few times already and more than 234,000 other people have seen it. I really recommend watching this if you can.
Maps of War have a great animation showing “5,000 years of religion in 90 seconds”.
Very cool.
You know that game in the arcades where you have to throw the ball through the hoop? Basically a mini-basketball game. You know the one.
Well this guys must be the world champ at that game. He is incredible! I don’t know how he picks the balls up so quickly without looking.
Air travel is something that people love to hate. So extremely useful that we all use it, but it often seems very disorganized. On top of that terrorists love to make their point on airliners so airports must scramble to handle security. It can be chaos.
Check out this truly enormous queue in Heathrow. It’s all to get through a security checkpoints and took around 3.5 hours to get through. I found myself wondering is someone was keeping a place for the guy taking the video.