“An internal video from the Consumer Affairs division of Lego Systems, Inc. I don’t think this video has been seen outside of the Lego Company. Somehow, I acquired the tape when I was little and now I’ve converted it for your viewing pleasure. The tape was extremely old which explains the terrible quality, but it’s watch-able. I’m more interested in how classic the sets are, accompanied with the old-school animation. Hope you enjoy! It took me forever to figure out how to convert this.” — Kooberz

“You’re looking at the seldom-remembered 1957 Packard Predictor concept, one of that company’s last, futile attempts to stimulate interest in its products… The Predictor actually ran, although not very well, and was powered by a 352 cubic inch Packard V-8 producing 300 horsepower. It featured a push-button transmission, reversible seat cushions, sliding roof panels which would move out of the way for easier entry and exit and a retractable rear window. Its many servo motors didn’t always work properly and frequently shorted out. Predictor may actually have been an appropriate name for the car as many of its design elements were later found on other cars. The most obvious is the design of the roof and retractable rear window which ended up on the 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser, the 1958 Continental Mark III and the Mercury Breezeway. The hidden headlights could easily remind one of the 1963 Corvettes and the pronounced proboscis is believed to have predicted the Edsel’s ox yoke grille, although it must have influenced later Pontiac design, as well.” w/ photos

“Before iPods (or even CDs) there were boomboxes. It’s been 20 years since they disappeared from the streets, but the nostalgia they evoke is about more than stereo equipment. We’ve changed the way we listen to music — and to each other.” — NPRmusic

“The history of advertising. How advertising took shape in American culture.”

“One of the best videos on YouTube.” — dalamen

“You might think you couldn’t drink that water, because the whole point is that we’ve detected pollution in it. But these are the chemicals that have been traveling in the atmosphere, and so, yes, it might be a thousand times more polluted than the pre-industrial atmosphere was, but at the locations where we’re sampling it, in these very remote areas, the pollution has had a long travel distance and a lot of it has dropped out along the travel route. We’re looking at the very final fringes of it. We’re still seeing dramatically elevated levels, comparably, but it’s not anywhere near undrinkable… If the ice is old, it will often trap air bubbles in it. Those air bubbles can contain carbon dioxide from ten thousand years ago or even a hundred thousand years ago. And when you put an ice cube of that ice in a glass of water, it pops. It has natural effervescence as those gas bubbles escape. You get a little a puff of air into your nostrils if you have your nose over the glass. It’s not as though it necessarily smells like anything – but when you think about the fact that the last time that anything smelled that air was a hundred thousand years ago, that’s pretty interesting.” w/ photos

“The hair has receded slightly but the trademark glasses and beaky nose are unmistakably John Lennon. A digital artist has marked the 70th anniversary of the former Beatle’s birth tomorrow by producing an image of what he would have looked like had he reached the
milestone.” w/ photos