Ryan Fleming: Best selfie Ever
Smartphones and digital devices make life better, but they make things dumber as well. If you have a Facebook account, then you probably know all about the dreaded selfie – a picture that a person takes of themselves on their own camera, or more commonly a smartphone, either by extending their arm and looking back at themselves, or by taking a shot of their reflection in the mirror. It’s common, it’s understandable, and like the dreaded “duck face” it is almost always unflattering and needs to end … or at least jump to the next level.
Kayleigh Hill knows how to up her selfie game. During the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, Hill decided to take a selfie of herself while running on the field during a game. The look of sheer joy contrasted by the frantic look on the security guy’s face is classic (and was captured and reposted by Buzzfeed). Hill claimed that it would cost her $1500 in fines, and she did interrupt an important game for the college baseball fan … but look at her. Look at that look of joy on her face even as she is being tackled. Well played, Kayleigh Hill. Well played.
Natt Garun: Shut down the Internet, it’s Flash Shamu time
I have been staring at this website for about 15 minutes. Staring, scrolling, slowly wiping drool from the corners of my mouth. I don’t know how to describe this but absolutely mesmerizing. Who the heck knows where this Flash orca came from, why it looks so angry and pixelated, or if it has more intentions than just following your browser pointer – all I know is this thing is my new best friend and no, that’s not creepy at all. When everyone comes back into the office on Monday after your holiday break, just send this out in a mass e-mail and see how many colleagues you can catch staring at Shamu for longer than five minutes. Can’t promise you won’t get fired, but if they’re as cool as I’d like to think they are, they’ll thank you for it. Come on, guys, a personal pet orca! Who can be mad?
Amir Iliafar: Rudely interrupted
I don’t even know where to begin but I’ll start by graciously tipping my hat to arch-nemesis and Social editor Molly McHugh for this find.
Russians love dash cams and we love Russians that use ‘em. Why? Well, we get crazy shit like this, that’s why.
As you can see from the vid, some Boris is driving along, minding his own business – on what seems like a normal country road – when BAM! Out of nowhere a pair of horny cows enters the roadway busy getting their Marvin Gaye on. In less than a split second the unsuspecting driver plows into the cows while the bull plows into the other. One cow goes flying, shattering the windshield while the other has his week presumably ruined.
It’s a whole mix of crazy and awesome with a little bit of WTF sprinkled in. But that’s not even the best part. Look at the timestamp on this vid; it’s from the freaking future! Russia already beat us into space, now they are perfecting time travel?! Well played, Putin.
Molly McHugh
Disclaimer: I’m a horrible person. Usually I use Staff Picks to mock or shame someone or something. But not this week. No, this week belongs to you, Lentil. I don’t know if it was the three whiskey gingers before bed or the fact that I’m pretty sure my mom call-screened and hit ignore on me last night, but when I happened upon this story, I got a big rush of all the feelings.
Meet Lentil: He’s a tiny French Bull dog with a cleft palate. All the puppies in Lentil’s litter had serious facial defects … and … they all died. Except Lentil. Because Lentil is the chosen one.
Lentil used to have to eat from a tube but had surgery so now he can eat or drink on his own more easily. However, Lentil’s owner chose not to fix the aesthetics of his face, because that would have been for purely cosmetic reasons.
In case this isn’t all heartbreaking and adorable enough, allow me to really drop the hammer: Lentil is an “ambassadog” (I wish I could claim responsibility for making that title) with a pet therapy program where kids meet and play with animals that have the same conditions they do.
So now that you’re feeling bad and good and happy and sad and confused, I leave you with this video of Lentil. He has wiggled his way into my heart and I’ll never be the same and have to go cry and laugh into my keyboard now.
Caleb Denison: Try this on your Huffy
For this week’s staff picks, I’m sticking to my bike theme. Last week, I shared a look at one of the most bad-ass bike riders I’ve ever seen. This week’s bikers, however, get my pick because they reach incredible speeds under their own power. In fact, you could say they are the fastest humans on earth.
This September at Battle Mountain, Nevada, the World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC) will take place. There, Canadian cyclist, Sam Whittingham, Scottish cyclist, Graeme Obree and a host of other speed-demons from all over the world will climb into light-weight contraptions that look more like rockets than bicycles and do battle along a five-mile stretch of desert highway.
Whittingham, who is featured in this video (skip to 7:45 for the goods), is the current record holder, having reached an incredible 82.819 mph. But Obree thinks he has what it takes to take Whittingham down.
Like many of the bikes that will compete at the event, Obree’s is a recumbent design. But his cycle is unique because, in order to ride it, he must face the ground. What could possibly go wrong? You can see Obree doing a test-run in his uniquely designed cycle here, but be sure to hit the video below to get a feel for just how crazy things can get on two wheels.
