James Baker

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Beautiful photos of haunted New Orleans

Born and raised in New Orleans, Frank Relle takes us round his home town in these hauntingly atmospheric nightscapes. Frank uses long exposures and some serious lighting—mounted on stands sometimes three stories high—and works with city authorities to shut down street lights during his shoots. The resulting photos display a beautiful combination of colors and … Continued

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Flood makes bridge collide with another bridge

It is not easy to picture such massive manmade structures like bridges colliding—but then the flooding right now in parts of Eastern Europe is so severe that there is a state of emergency in several countries. This video was captured in Bosnia amid a massive relief effort and fears that wartime landmines might be displaced … Continued

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This seems like the hardest way to make an animated GIF

Street artist INSA mixes graffiti and animation and calls it GIF-iti. He thinks big and doesn’t shirk, producing multiple super sized wall filling works which he digitises and repeatedly overpaints, rendering the results. Street art is by its nature temporal but INSA’s work will last forever—or at least until they pull the plug on the … Continued

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Time-lapse video captures the terrifying speed of the San Diego fires

This time-lapse video shot yesterday near Escondido—in San Diego county—captures the terror of seeing an uncontrollable forest fire coming towards you. What you are seeing here happened in only two and a half hours. The video stops as the 1000-acre fire closed in and the evacuation began at the brewery where it was filmed. It’s … Continued

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Diver fends off great white shark in frightening encounter

Not what you want to see even when you have a spear gun to hand—this diver was taking a dip off Florida earlier this month when he saw a great white shark materialise then disappear into the cloudy waters. Cue some tense moments as the shark circles, getting closer, until finally being fended off. SPLOID … Continued

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Digital projection system puts people into the world of Tron

This is the latest dance video from Nobuyuki Hanabusa’s Enra collective and you can’t help but appreciate how much talent is on show here—digital and physical. Hanabusa’s choreography and video experimentation combines live projection with talented performers who practice synchronisation until they get it spot on. Hanabusa is the founder of the Enra experimental dance … Continued

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Neat video of bioluminescent footsteps at San Diego beach

You’re looking at the results of red tide bioluminescence, a phenomenon produced by single celled microorganisms known as phytoplankton. When washed up by the surf, beaches can look like they are from another world. This neat video shows how they react to touch. Red tide can sometimes get so dense that they eat up too … Continued

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Hilarious retro game lets you play as Glorious Leader! Kim Jong-un

Behold the trailer for Glorious Leader!—a game that lets you play as Kim Jong-un battling against the forces of capitalism evil on foot or your trusty unicorn. You can be the Supreme Leader of North Korea himself and a friend can play with you as Dennis Rodman. According to its developers, it will be available … Continued

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This has to be one of the most revolting things I’ve ever seen

It’s sad that this praying mantis was killed—but what comes out of its body is as disgusting as it’s long. Horsehair worms ride in live invertebrates, feeding and growing up to 39 inches as they mature. Some release chemicals to make hosts seek water and drown, others can survive their host’s predation, so do not … Continued

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Armless table tennis player will probably beat you using his mouth only

Unless you’re an extremely good amateur or professional player, Ibrahim Hamato will probably beat you at table tennis. This Para Table Tennis player from Egypt has no arms, and holds his paddle with his mouth. Ibrahim shows off his unbelievable skills at the World Team Table Tennis Championships 2014 in Tokyo, Japan, where he was … Continued

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Motocross rider misses curve, miraculously survives huge fall

This unfortunate motocross rider appeared to misread a corner and throttled at just the wrong moment during a race in New Jersey. He ended up being propelled into the top of a tree and—according to comments left at the end of this YouTube clip—survived with some serious injuries. The rider, identified in comments as Justin … Continued

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Watch parkour with a pogo stick and other gravity-defying tricks

This extreme pogo video shows just how gravity-defying tricks can be performed with the latest super-charged sticks, a limited concern for your own well-being and a hell of a lot of talent. If you are interested in understanding how it is possible to pull off such insane stunts when the pogo you had as a … Continued

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Iran unveils bootleg copy of US Sentinel stealth drone

Iran claims to have successfully reverse engineered and manufactured their own version of the Lockheed Martin Sentinel RQ-170 stealth drone that crashed in their territory on December 2011. It’s unknown if their claims are true or not—they have not demonstrated the drone flying yet. They only thing we know for sure is that last year … Continued

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Ukrainian tank goes kamikaze on a road near Crimea

A car dash cam in Mariupol—an Ukrainian city 310 miles (500 kilometers) from Crimea—captured this tank wreaking havoc through a street, smashing through a billboard, and invading road lanes going in the opposite direction. Luckily, the car driver avoided a potential collision and continued to drive like nothing had happened. Mariupol is on Ukraine’s coast … Continued

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Scientists reveal sneezes are more dangerous than people think

Using advanced image processing and physics algorithms, MIT scientists have analyzed hundreds of high-speed sequences of sneezes to obtain an accurate 3D model of fluid clouds and droplet trajectories with some frightening results. They found that smaller droplets travel really far because the cloud keeps them afloat. It’s surprising how far they can go, they … Continued

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Explosion destroys tree that fell on a high voltage line

This tree fell on a high voltage line and was then blown up with detonation cord, shattering it into fragments in a highly satisfying explosion. The action was over in seconds and the deadwood blasted into conveniently transportable sections. Thanks reader MagnusX for translating and clearing this up! SPLOID is a new blog about awesome … Continued

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Great white shark chews and nearly sinks inflatable boat

Looking at this video of a great white shark biting and nearly sinking an inflatable boat, it seems that looking for them in this type of vessels is not a smart idea. Fortunately, the South African film crew on board wasn’t hurt, but the boat was seriously damaged and was sinking as it limped back … Continued

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Man makes giant 13.4-foot-long space station with 282,000 matchsticks

Artist Pat Acton recently completed this enormous 1/26 scale model—13.4 feet (4.1 meters) long by 9.2 feet (2.8 meters) wide—of the International Space Station, which uses 282,000 matchsticks, 8 gallons of glue and 1,950 hours of perseverance. He also made modules at 1/13 scale, complete with cutouts that show all the details within the station. … Continued

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The calm life of stormtroopers when they weren’t missing targets

It wasn’t all war, war, war in the Star Wars universe, as Malaysian photographer Zahir Batin reminds us with these curious images of stormtroopers going about their everyday lives. Some AT-ATs cross a road, some giant chickens get fed and there is even time for the local newspaper, a little fishing, some music—and even maybe … Continued

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Time-lapse video shows that packing for space is pretty complicated

This time-lapse video shows the intricate steps involved as the European Space Agency loads its latest Automated Transport Vehicle in preparation for a summer launch. The ATV-5 will be carried on an Ariane 5 rocket from the agency’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and will deliver 2,600 kilograms of dry cargo to the International Space … Continued