Beijing Olympics Men's 4x100 Relay
If you missed it (like I did), then be sure to watch the incredible footage of the Men's 4x100 relay that occurred yesterday at the Olympics. (Note: requires Microsoft Silverlight install, but it's worth it.) It is quite a race... one that pits the heavily favored French relay team against a United States squad led by Michael Phelps and anchored by Jason Lezak. The announcers took on a somber tone for much of the race, and as Lezak took off from the blocks for the 4th and final leg of the relay... they seemed downright depressed:

"I just don't think he [Lezak] can do it."  (4:43)

"Bernard is pulling away from him [Lezak]."  (4:50)

"The United States is trying to hang on to second; they should get the silver medal."  (4:59)

But then the incredible happens:

<loud>"But Lezak is closing!"<:/loud>  (5:04)

<louder>"He's tightening it [the race] up!"<:/louder>  (5:13)

<screaming>"Here comes Lezak! Unbelievable at the end! He's done it!"</screaming>  (5:19)

After you watch that, then go read about the split times and CNN/SI's story.

(Update Mon Aug 11 09:22:03 PDT 2008 // updated content and URL)

Seam Carving
Watch this video about image resizing using seam carving. Very impressive. Can't wait for this to be rolled into GIMP.

Scrubs Musical
Kristy called me from the gym tonight... "Turn on Scrubs! Turn on Scrubs! It's a musical!" I tuned in just in time for Guy Love Between Two Guys. Hilarious stuff. (I watched "30 Rock" afterward just to see why Alec Baldwin won his "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series" Golden Globe... it's a fun show.) When Kristy returned home later, she raved about Everything Comes Down to Poo ("Everything comes down to poo / Please won't you pinch us off a big fat clue?!").

Fletcher Capstan Tables
An associate sent me a link to these amazing tables. Before I share the link, read to the description:

All Capstan Tables are exclusively designed and built, and each one numbered. [...] Please understand that this is an extremely special piece of furniture, of exceptional quality and design - it is not for everyone by a very very long way and can only be afforded by the lucky few of us with exceptional wealth.

Here is the link. There are three Quicktime videos, but you can get the idea by watching just the first one. It would be really cool to have one of these in our new attic as a game table; but the tone of the description infers somewhat ominously that such a table could cost well above our entire budget for the home renovation project! Nonetheless, it is a pretty amazing piece of furniture.

Free Hugs
Maybe you have seen this video on the grassroots Free Hugs Campaign, or maybe you haven't. It's worth watching.

Evolution of Beauty
Is your perception of beauty distorted? Watch this and find out.

More here.

Ad: FotoPrix
This was sent to me by a friend in the Advertising biz. The ad is for a photo development company in Spain and is not recently authored (i.e. you may have seen this elsewhere), but it is the first time I have seen it.

perfect pictures for an imperfect world

Criss Angel
A friend of mine sent me a link to a video by illusionist Criss Angel. It wasn't particulary impressive, but it made me curious enough to google up a few other short videos. Among the several that I found, I thought this was a pretty cool illusion. I guess this guy has a TV series on A&E. If I had expanded cable, I'd definitely make time to watch it.

The Hire
I am hereby warning any of the 2 or 3 people that read my blog that you have until Friday, October 21st to order your own copy of "The Hire" (I got my copy a couple of years ago). It is free for BMW owners, but only $4 for the unwashed. Great little collection of short films. Don't miss out... after the 21st it will no longer be available.

Sheer Driving Pleasure
A friend tipped me off to a video of a 2004 BMW M3 GTR (a $350,000 car) driven on the Nurburgring track (requires Flash Player 7... sorry).

Yowza!