In reality, he couldn’t read minds, but snakes told him what they were thinking.

(Via: Reddit. H/T: Chevrolet Humble Texas)

Volkswagen seems to be upping their advertising ante with commercials that instantly go viral. You may recall their commercial where a little boy dresses up like Darth Vader and uses the Force to turn the car on. This year, Volkswagen stays with the same theme, Star Wars, yet uses dogs to sell their cars. How? By having them bark the Star Wars theme song, genius right? This is exactly what the automotive industry needs to do to attract new customers and Volkswagen is staying with what has worked for them in the past and remaining outside the box at the same time. This commercial is clearly available on YouTube but will be coming to the big tube on Super Bowl Weekend. May this inspire others within the Automotive Industry to get creative with their promotions and marketing campaigns, it goes to show that it grabs attention which creates word of mouth and that turns into selling cars. May the creative force be with you!

Disney characters are usually always on the “cutesy” side of animation and rightfully so, since their targeted market is for kids. However, the talented Tim Shumate might make you want to have a second glance at these characters as he transforms Disney characters into pieces of drool worthy art.

1. Ariel/Siren

We all know her to be under the sea, a castaway in her own family. Tom Shumate turns this lovable Disney character into a Siren we want on land.

(Siren)

2. Snow White/Waiting for Loves True Kiss

After seeing this piece of art you will wish you were the 8th dwarf.

(Waiting for Loves True Kiss)

3. Belle/Till the Last Petal Falls

Belle from Beauty and the Beast always seemed to have a rebellious side, this print shows a little more of it.

(Till the Last Petal Falls)

4. Jasmine/Royal Blood

Jasmine stole the heart of Aladdin in 1992, now she’ll be sure to steal yours in 2012 with this flirtatious piece.

(Royal Blood)

5. Tinker Bell/Those Who Wander are Not Always Lost

Sprinkle some pixie dust my way.

(Those Who Wander are Not Always Lost)

Check out these and more fantastic pieces of art created by Tom Shumate on Society6

The English language is often the butt-end of jokes, considered by many in Europe and Asia as an “ugly” language with strange sounds and simple words. Compared to Italian, French, Russian, and Chinese, it is a “dumbed down” version of speech, at least to the ears of others around the world. The language does, however, have some amazing traits, including the ability to change the sound of one word to another based upon pacing.

Here’s a perfect example of this phenomenon at work:

Did someone just tell you that the word “Gullible” used to be spelled “Gulllible” and it was the only word in the English language that was spelled with the letter-L in it three times in a row before Teddy Roosevelt had it changed?

Art can be found everywhere online, but to find art that makes your jaw drop to the floor is hard to discover. Especially when pop culture figures are turned into epic art pieces, yes, the kind you want to frame and hang on your walls. These sketches drawn by Jose Vega are that of a talented hand and needs a little extra notoriety since each piece makes you want to say, yep.

Samurai Vader

Yep.

Yep.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Pirate

Yep. Yep and Yep.

(via: CGHub)

Robots are becoming more advanced and soon we will most likely have something close to Rosie (Jetsons) invading our homes as common as computers. The more we see their capabilities the stranger it will seem incorporating them within our lives. This video of  a Japanese robot with life-like movements that most humans can not do, such as slick dance and aerobatic moves only intensifies the yearning for wanting one. Until they are available for mass production all we can do is watch with envy.

IMHO The one thing that is missing from this video is a dubstep soundtrack.

Every year, people pour into Arcadia, CA, the day after Christmas to be part of one of the most exciting days in horse racing: Opening Day at Santa Anita Park. This year, the 75th winter season opens to an added bonus that fits perfectly with the times. In an era when smartphones are able to do just about anything we want, they will be gaining a new attribute at Santa Anita – the ability to place wagers from the seats.

Visitors connected to the Santa Anita Park WiFi will be able to research races and place bets without waiting in line as the park is launching their new mobile app. The sheer convenience alone is enticing, but there is more to it. Horse wagering is serious business; there’s always luck involved, but having the information in hand and the time to put it all together adds to the allure of the app.

Lord of the Rings fans have been waiting to be reunited with Middle Earth for the release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, as we venture back to the beginnings of the brilliant J.R.R. Tolkien’s treasured stories of mystical Elves, Dwarves, Goblin’s and of course the beloved Hobbits.

The countdown has begun as the release of The Hobbit is exactly a year away; it will adorn our screens on December 14 2012. This time we plunge our imaginations into the adventures of Bilbo Baggin’s, a hobbit who is on a quest to reclaim the Lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Bilbo made his appearance in the LOTR trilogies as Frodo’s cousin who adopted him at the age of 21, he also taught the elvish language to Frodo and shared the same birthday with him, as well as long walking trips.

Through the amazing direction of Peter Jackson in the Fellowship of the Ring, we watch as Bilbo leaves the Shire on his one hundred and eleventh birthday and as he departs, he passes forth the Magic Ring and Bag’s End unto Frodo, J.R.R. Tolkien’s main character.

The Hobbit will have us explore the beginning when Bilbo was younger, to when he meets a creature that will change his life forever and takes hold of the “Precious Ring”. Many characters that we have come to love in the Lord of the Ring’s Trilogies will make a return and some will not, we will have to await this journey through a New Year, and four seasons before we will travel back in time upon the captivating voyage through Middle Earth once more.

Created originally in Japan, Pac-Man is a classic arcade game developed by Namco and through its popularity has become its mascot. This simple yet memorable game’s creator is, Toru Iwatani, who originally named the character “Puck-Man”, but had to change its name due to American vandals defacing an arcade game. Therefore, Iwatani changed the characters name to “Pakkuman”, which is Pac-Man in Japanese for the American version release; this eventually became the official name. Although developed in Japan like many games, Pac-Man became more common in American culture.

The Pac-Man Inspiration

What exactly inspired the creation of Pac-Man? It was Pizza.

That is correct, Toru Iwatani ordered a pizza and when eating the first quarter of the pizza, Iwatani saw a head with its mouth open, hence the first sight of what we know now as, Pac-Man, which was created in May 1980. It was also in the 80’s when Pac-Man made its television debut resembling the Pac-Land and Pac-Man 2 games.

Namco realized that Pac-Man could be developed for a game system after the game company, Atari, reinvented the game in 1981 with unfortunate flickering ghosts and slow motion characters that were not well liked by players.

Pac-Man’s very first story line began in Pac n’ Roll, where the character trained under Pac-Master during his summer vacation. In this game, the Pac-Master trained Pac-Man how to fight power pellets to help defend Pac-Land. This is when the future Ms. Pac-Man (Pac-Master’s daughter) and the ghosts Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde were introduced. Chronologically, Pac-Man was the very first video game that featured some of these characters that Pac-Man would eat within a maze.

Pac-Man did not reach its popular potential until the early nineties, through figures and games and after Namco released Pac-Man World, a game today’s players are more likely to recognize with its 3-Dimensional characters. It was not until the Ms. Pacman game release when Pac-Man received her as a girlfriend and then wife; this is when Pac-Man Junior made his very first appearance. Pac-Man than took on Pac-Land to save fairies who have been taken by ghosts. The following games would follow, Pac- Man world 2, Spectral Realm, Pac-Mania, Pac-Man World Rally, Pac-Man World 3 and many others.

7 Fun Pac-Man Facts

1. Pac-Man loves to munch on a variety of foods such as, green grapes, strawberries, cherries, oranges, peaches, bananas, pears, apples and of course Power Pellets and the well known Pac-Dots.
2. Pac-Man’s biggest rival is Nintendo’s Mario, since Mario’s original name was “Jumpman” sounding very much like Pac-Man.  This is not such a huge surprise since the creator of Mario; Shigeru Miyamoto has stated that Pac-Man is his favorite video game character.
3. In the original Pac-Man Clyde is the only ghost missing.
4. The ghosts have real names but can only be seen in attract mode.
5. The very first installed coin-machine operated Pac-Man video game was on May 22 1980 in Japan.
6. The name Pac-Man comes from the eating sound paku-paku often heard in Asian cartoons (“paku” is the Japanese sound for “chomp”).
7. Power Pellets power-ups were inspired by Popeye eating spinach.

Pac-Man is still loved by many gamers today and played on new-aged consoles, the latest game is “Pac-Man Party 3D” available on Nintendo 3DS and was just released on November 8 of this year. Below is a highlight of the recent Pac-Man video game to see what you are missing if you have yet to obtain this game. “Wakka, wakka, wakka” dear Pac-Man friends.