Just in time for the holidays (or not quite since they won’t arrive until after December 25th), Microsoft has released three Windows “Ugly Sweaters” with designs based on MS Paint, Windows XP, and Windows 95. I’m not sure why they’re calling them “Ugly Sweaters” though, since they’re all exceptionally beautiful. They cost $69.99 each, but that seems like a bargain to look like Clippy had too much eggnog and threw up all over you.

Keep going for the other designs. You can pre-order them on the official Xbox site here.

Source: Geekologie – Microsoft has released three Windows ‘Ugly Sweaters’ for the holidays

YouTuber close personal acquaintance made this video parodying what every episode of The Mandalorian is like. I mean, he’s not wrong, but I also don’t even care. I’ll take Mr. Mandalorian doing endless side quests for as long as Disney will give it to me. My drug is Baby Yoda and I’ll do whatever it takes in whatever back alley to get my fix. Looking for a good time? I’ll show you a good time. Just give me some of that Baby Yoda.

Keep going for the full accurate video, as well as the full version of the theme song he recorded for his video. It’s terrible but in a terrible way.

Source: Geekologie – This is what every episode of The Mandalorian is like

The famed Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico was being decommissioned after two cable failures in four months, but engineers had not figured out a way to safely demolish the telescope in a controlled manner. Well things took care of themselves on Tuesday when the telescope collapsed in an uncontrolled structural failure after additional cables snapped. The whole thing was caught on camera by a drone that was doing an inspection as well as by the observatory control room.

The iconic telescope is probably best known for showing up in movies like GoldenEye and Contact. The whole situation kind of sucks but at least nobody was hurt and we got some pretty cool footage to show for it. Unlike the time I accidentally lit my apartment on fire while making a TikTok video but turns out my phone wasn’t even recording so instead of getting any cool footage I just became homeless instead.

Keep going for the full video, as well as a video syncing the two sources up. I also included the scene from GoldenEye where they also destroy the Arecibo Observatory, but with way more explosions.

Source: Geekologie – The Arecibo Observatory collapsed on Tuesday and the whole thing was captured on video

Because why not, here’s Jonathan Frakes asking you things for 47 seconds. It’s either a compilation from Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction or it’s a toddler simulator for parents. Then again, if my toddler had the magnetic charm of Jonathan Frakes I wouldn’t keep him tied to a tree all day.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Jonathan Frakes asking you things for 47 seconds

Ryan Reynold’s production company Maximum Effort made this ad for Match pairing Satan up with 2020. It’s obvious when you think about it, but you didn’t think about it because you’re not Ryan Reynolds and nobody paid you a ton of money to make a commercial about it. Anyhoo, it’s fitting and it’s good, and the guy they got to play Satan has almost as much muscle as I do.

Keep going for the full video. 2020 has been great.

Source: Geekologie – Ryan Reynolds made an ad for Match that paired Satan with 2020

Eric Ord animated this beautiful music video as a tribute to all the video games he played growing up. I’m not a super old fogey so I didn’t recognize all the Atari titles, but other than that his list matches up pretty closely with mine. The only discrepancy I noticed was a severe lack of Japanese dating sims.

Keep going for the full video. It’s a music video so obviously works better with audio.

Source: Geekologie – This guy made a beautiful animated tribute to video games he played as a child

This is a video of mathematical artist Inigo Quilez breaking down how he made a procedurally generated graphic of a girl taking a selfie. Even if you don’t understand everything he’s saying (you won’t), the step-by-step explanation is weirdly soothing and engrossing. I think I understood about 3% of what he was saying. Mostly the part where he says, “Hi, I’m Inigo Quilez.” After that it’s pretty much a soothing confusing haze. It’s a testament to his presentation skills that I watched the entire thing despite not understanding anything he was saying. Look, if I wanted to understand math I would’ve paid attention in class instead of being too stupid to understand math.

Keep going for the full video. You can play with the editable real-time rendering code here.

Source: Geekologie – Step-by-step breakdown of how to paint a selfie girl with math

On Sunday, David Chang became the first celebrity to win $1 million for charity on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Although to be fair, his phone-a-friend should be getting all the credit here. I’m with Chang in that I didn’t even know Benjamin Harrison was a president. If I had been his phone-a-friend I would’ve told him it was was trick question because none of those people were presidents and that the correct answer was George Washington because that guy was definitely a president.

Keep going for the full video as well as Norm Macdonald’s infamous performance on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Also, they didn’t highlight it in the video but the charity he was playing for was the Southern Smoke Foundation which is a crisis relief organization for people in the food and beverage industry.

Source: Geekologie – Chef David Chang becomes first celebrity to win a million dollars for charity on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Inspired by this tweet, researcher Kate Petrova did a deep dive of scented candle reviews before and after the pandemic. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, reviews of scented candles took a deep drop after the pandemic started with numerous complaints that the candles lacked any scent. One of the symptoms of COVID-19 is losing your sense of smell and taste so, ya know, put two and two together.

First, I downloaded a random subsample of US-based customer reviews of the 3 most popular scented candles on Amazon. Between January 2017 and January 2020, the average rating stayed around 4.3/5, but there was a sharp drop between January and November 2020. 2/n pic.twitter.com/kpCRZ1StKZ

— Kate Petrova (@kate_ptrv) November 27, 2020

Since the beginning of 2020, customer satisfaction with scented candles has been dropping at a much faster rate compared to unscented candles. 4/n pic.twitter.com/LULlUh9P6W

— Kate Petrova (@kate_ptrv) November 27, 2020

You can view the complete Twitter thread here. Personally, I’ve noticed my candles have also started losing their flavor. Not sure what gives, but they taste terrible now.

Source: Geekologie – This researcher correlated negative reviews of scented candles with COVID-19 cases

This is a super impressive illusion featuring two stationary circles that look like they’re not only moving, but expanding and contracting. I don’t know how it works, but I do know that it involves the inner and outer rings. And also maybe magic. Here’s the video:

矢印の方向に動いて見えますね～？
人間の脳は単純なので矢印で惑わされてしまうのでーす pic.twitter.com/lUPySup2du

— じゃがりきん (@jagarikin) November 25, 2020

Keep going for a video proving that the circles are stationary, as well as a video demonstrating that the key to the illusion are the inner and outer rings.

Source: Geekologie – Mind-bending optical illusion using stationary circles

Software engineer and Line Rider enthusiast David Lu spent 11 years creating this absolutely incredible Line Rider track he titled Omniverse II. It would suck if you spent 11 years on something and the end result was bad, but this isn’t that. This is good. I didn’t know it was possible for a Line Rider track to have a narrative arc but now after watching the video I’m beginning to question the foundations of my beliefs and reality itself.

And as if spending 11 years working on something like this wasn’t insane enough, David Lu wrote an article documenting the history and creation of the track. Even the article about the insane thing that he did is more impressive than anything I’ve ever done. Not only could I never make what he made, I can’t even understand his explanations of how he made what he made.

Keep going for the full Line Rider track, along with a video essay discussing it in more detail. It goes way beyond some guy just sitting in his bedroom all day playing around with a game.

Source: Geekologie – This guy spent 11 years working on this Line Rider track

Back in July, the official Guinness World Record for most Jenga pieces stacked on a single vertical piece was set by Tai Star Valianti with 485 pieces. Well that record is now poo poo, because last Tuesday Kelvin the Menga Man set a new world record with 517 pieces. And then just days later, his friend lamlei of Team Captain Noodles broke that record by stacking 518 pieces.

Neither of those were verified by Guinness, but there’s a time-lapse for both attempts and also is anybody actually worried about people cheating at this? Do they really need an offiical to stand there and make sure they’re not taking steroids or something? Just give these guys whatever Guinness certificate they hand out and let’s move on with our lives.

Keep going for lamlei’s 518 piece time-lapse and Kelvin’s short-lived 517 piece record time-lapse.

Source: Geekologie – Guy stacks world record 518 Jenga pieces on single vertical Jenga block

This is video of Moto2 rider Aron Canet narrowly avoiding being turned into soup after falling from his bike during a qualifying session for the Portuguese Grand Prix. He ends up in the middle of the track and even before he finishes sliding he realizes where he is and starts scrambling to the edge for safety. It almost looks cartoonish how he’s scrambling on all fours and barely moving. But to be fair, it is difficult to crawl when your underwear is completely filled with poop.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – MotoGP rider barely manages to dodge motorcycles after falling

While clearing snow from a vehicle in Russia, the owner noticed a massive slab of concrete falling from the building above and narrowly got out of the way in time. When I say massive, I mean massive. Like 100% this guy would be dead if he didn’t have his Russian reflexes with him. Also, what is happening n Russia that giant concrete slabs just fall from the sky? From what I’ve seen on the Internet they’re already playing life at the max difficultly so it seems excessive to add in randomly falling objects.

Keep going for the full video. The size of the concrete slab is truly impressive.

Source: Geekologie – Guy narrowly avoids being killed by a massive slab of concrete

This is a video of a group of skydivers losing altitude awareness and narrowly avoiding being turned into pancakes on the side of a mountain. Apparently the group was the second to exit and nobody noticed the drop was at the wrong place until it was almost too late. All their safety gear (AADs, audible altimeters, etc.) was set for ground level and nobody noticed there was a mountain where there wasn’t supposed to be. Anyways, nobody dies, but apparently this is a famous video in the skydiving community as a reminder to spot your jump location and make sure there aren’t mountains where you don’t expect there to be mountains. Seems kind of obvious, but apparently not.

Keep going for the full video.

Source: Geekologie – Skydiver loses altitude awareness and almost hits a mountain at terminal velocity

This is a video of a Russian lunatic firing an AK-103 until it catches fire. And then he, uh, proceeds to fire some more. The craziest part is that this was put out by the Kalashnikov Concern, the actual manufacturer of the AK-103. I mean, props to the Russians for risking their employees’ lives for the sake of demonstrating how tough their products are. I don’t consider myself an overly cautious person, but watching the guy constantly bash the gun to reload because it was jamming due to being on fire gave me anxiety. Why not fill the room with knives while you’re at it?

Keep going for the full video. The thing catches fire at 5:20 and the video is 18 minutes long if you want an idea of how far they take it.

Source: Geekologie – Shooting an AK-103 until it catches fire

In one of the most Italian things that has ever happened, the Italian police used a Lamborghini Huracan to transport a donated kidney more than 300 miles from Rome to Padua, averaging 145 mph for the two hour trip.

The Lamborghini Huracan they used, which was specially modified for such tasks with a refrigerated frunk, was obtained by the Italian police back in 2017. Speedy organ delivery isn’t its only job, though. In fact, it’s a regular patrol vehicle for the department with lights, a police computer and other equipment necessary to perform traffic stops and arrests. Luckily for other speeders, it was too busy flying down the road for officers to check their radar guns.

The Italian State Police actually has a few Huracans for situations like these, and they’re also outfitted with a refrigerated frunk for transporting organs or other temperature-sensitive medical supplies. The vehicles also have defibrillators on board, making them much more than just a loud way to give tickets to speeding Italian motorists.

Sure, they could’ve helicoptered the kidney which would’ve been safer and faster, but this is Italy. Obviously it makes more sense to drive the thing with a damn Lamborghini (and make a video of it in the process). I imagine they must’ve also been yelling “Mama mia!” the entire time and scarfing down plates of spaghetti to calm their nerves.

Grazie alla nostra @Lamborghini Huracan abbiamo trasportato in tempo il rene di un donatore per il trapianto a una persona
“Per salvare una vita non servono superpoteri” anche solidarietà, tecnologia ed efficienza aiutano @CNTrapianti @MinisteroSalute #essercisempre#5novembre pic.twitter.com/teUxqbMgvW

— Polizia di Stato (@poliziadistato) November 5, 2020

Source: Geekologie – Italian police deliver donated kidney 300 miles in two hours using a Lamborghini

This is a video of a McDonald’s employee showing how they make a Big Mac. It’s not particularly interesting unless you’re interested in how a Big Mac is made, but I am, so here we are. If you’ve ever wondered why the top bun is always off centered it’s because they let the lid do all the work when they close it. I will admit I’m loving this trend of people showing how the sausage is made on TikTok. I’m sure corporate doesn’t like seeing their secrets being revealed (there’s nothing more appetizing than a bin filled with old patties), but as a consumer I can’t get enough of videos like this. Now can somebody make a TikTok showing what exactly is in a McRib? Don’t get me wrong they’re delicious, but I have a hard time believing they’re made from actual rib meat and not a reconstituted shoe.

Keep going for the video.

Source: Geekologie – McDonald’s employee shows how they make a Big Mac

This is a video of a Utah teen saving his choking friend with the Heimlich maneuver during a school lunch. It’s weird how everybody else is so casual about somebody choking to death just a few feet away and basically nobody even acknowledges that this kid saved his friend’s life. I’ve always wondered if the Heimlich maneuver actually works and turns out it does. Or maybe the choking friend thought he was getting a big hug and the friendship gave him the determination to not die. Guess we’ll never know, but somebody owes somebody their bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

Keep going for the entire ordeal caught on camera.

Source: Geekologie – Utah teen saves choking friend with Heimlich maneuver during school lunch

It doesn’t look terrible and I actually kind of dig the style, I’m just not sure why it exists and who it’s for. Do kids still watch Tom & Jerry? Is it for the adults who grew up with it? It feels like something that would’ve come out in the early 2000’s, not in 2021 when movie theaters aren’t even a thing anymore.

Keep going for the full trailer.

Source: Geekologie – There’s a live-action Tom & Jerry movie and here’s the trailer