I still have no idea what the Ad Council does, or why they do it, but I really don’t care after watching this hilarious PSA commercial promoting arts education. Whatever it is they do, as long as it features a wall-smashing Johannes Brahms distributing a hearty Guten TAAAAAG!, I’m sold.

YouTube Link. [via BoingBoing]

UPDATE: As Susan Jacobsen (apparently of the actual Ad Council) points out in the comments, the Ad Council is an important non-profit organization dedicated to the creation and distribution valuable public service announcements tackling a wide range of issues, many of which have become iconic campaigns over the years. This info is for those of you people who didn’t already know. You know who I’m talking about. For shame.

I, for one, am absolutely thrilled that someone from the Ad Council actually took time to read, and comment on, It Makes Your Nose Tickle. This makes the first IMYNT reader who isn’t A) a family member, or B) myself.

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This is surveillance footage from inside and outside a bank as an F5 tornado ripped through Parkersburg, Iowa Memorial Day weekend with winds exceeding 200mph. Several angles from the interior of the bank show windows exploding and debris flying in every direction. The exterior security camera captured the tornado leveling a house that was located across the street from the bank. No one was inside the bank at the time, though this series of storms killed eight people in the Parkersburg area.

Interior Bank Security Camera Footage – Weather.com

Exterior Bank Security Camera Raw Footage – Weather.com

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This morning at 4:37am a magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook the Midwest and Southenrn Illinois. Local news channel WAVE-TV was on the air as their studio began to shake during the weather report. Its funny, as the weatherman nervously continues through his weather report as studio lights shake overhead and external cameras bobble around, and his female co-anchor considers hiding under her desk.

View Video [USA Today]

Additional videos from the studio [WAVE-TV]

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Robot technology sure has come a long way since those plastic toy’s that shot sparks out of their mouths that we use to play with as kids. The following are three videos from the interwebs displaying what happens as these androids cross the “Rise Of The Machines” threshold.

Our first entry from Japan is a bulky, human-shaped robot that can jump up to its feet from lying flat on its back, all Jackie Chan-style. Unlike Jackie, this robot hasn’t quite mastered the standing-up and kicking ass part, to which we should be thankful.

Are people with Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) equally afraid of robot snakes? Now is the best time to find out, since the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have developed just that: robot snakes! These wriggly guys can shimmy up walls, swim through water and even scale the inside of a drain pipe. The best part in the video comes when it climbs a dude’s leg!

Finally, as the creepiest of the creepiest, comes the BigDog developed by Boston Dynamics for the US Department of Defense. This four-legged robot is more of a mule then a dog, in both size and function, designed with the idea that it will help soldiers carry heavy loads over rough terrain. And rough terrain it can handle, indeed! Its advanced sensors help it stay upright under any condition, even when forcibly kicked in the side by someone in this demonstration. Skip to the middle of the video to see it slip and slide over a patch of ice, to which I could not stop laughing simply because it looks like a real animal! You almost feel bad for it as it struggles to regain its footing!

Via Gizmodo, Gizmodo, Gizmodo

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Video: In March 2007, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, gave a presentation at TED University on five dangerous things every parent should let their kids do. “Allowing kids the freedom to explore, he says, will make them stronger and smarter and actually safer.”

I don’t have kids but I look forward to being the crazy uncle who lets my nephew do all of these crazy things. Is 12-months-old too young to drive a car? Don’t tell my sister.

Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do (video)
[via BoingBoing]

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