Feb 03

Angry Birds Access Code to Be Revealed during Super Bowl XLV

Posted in: Sports, Today's Chili, Weird News

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You know that upcoming 20th Century Fox-branded version of Angry Birds we told you about? Yeah, well, if you’re one of the countless folks tuned into the Super Bowl this weekend, you’ll get a little extra. Twentieth Century Fox and Angry Birds maker Rovio will be offering up a bonus code during a spot for Fox’s Rio (a tie-in that’s also the subject of the new Angry Birds title).
Download the code and beat the level, and you’ll be entered to win a trip to Rio de Janeiro for the March 22nd of the upcoming movie–just be care not to leave your luggage unattended when there are shifty looking pigs on the premises. 
Those not so into the whole pigskin tossing will be able to check the ad out on YouTube, post-sporting event.

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Feb 02

Niche Datings Sites for Valentine’s Day

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News
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It’s nearly Valentine’s Day, which means one of two things: a day of romance, or a depressing night cooped up inside watching reruns of 80s sitcoms on Hulu. But fear not, there’s still time to find true love. True Internet love that is, which, let’s face it, is the best kind.

You can try a site like Match.com, eHarmony, or OkCupid, but, really, what are the odds of finding a love connection in that broad of a pool? What you need is a incredibly niche dating site to help you find that special someone who shares your odd obsessions.
After the jump, we’ve got some of the best sites for trekkies, horse lovers, salad eaters, fitness enthusiasts, sugar daddies, and yes, even sea captains.
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Feb 02

Twitter-Fueled Cross-Country Mercedes-Benz Race Starts Today

Posted in: car, Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, twitter, Weird News

Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race

Four two-person teams have left four cities: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Tampa Bay, and are all on their way to Dallas, Texas in custom-designed Mercedes-Benz cars today, using Twitter for fuel. Their cars aren’t physically running on tweets of course, but virtually they are: the reason Mercedes-Benz says the race is “Tweet-Fueled” is because each of the four cities have to get the support of their home cities to drum up enough support on Twitter to get them to the finish line in Dallas. 
The route is 1500 miles from each city, and they have three days to get there. Along the way, the teams will rely on Twitter activity to “fuel” their vehicles, meaning any retweeting, @-replies, or use of the cities’ team hashtags apply to keep their cars headed down the road. At the end of the day, any “unused fuel” will translate into points that the racing teams can use towards social media challenges they’ll get along the way, like tweeting photos of other Mercedes-Benz vehicles they see along the way or stopping by a local high-school or college to tweet a photo of themselves with supporters. 
The winning team (the one with the most points at the end of the race) will get a 2012 C-Class Mercedes-Benz coupe, and Twitter followers who support the winning team are entered into a drawing for a trip for two to a Mercedes-Benz sponsored event, or one of 20 “Most Valuable Tweeter” awards and prizes. You can follow the race live at Facebook (a little ironic) or by following the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race account.
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Feb 02

Missed It: Yesterday Was “Working Naked Day”

Posted in: Today's Chili, Weird News
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Man, nobody tells me anything. Yesterday was apparently “Working Naked Day,” one of those modern makeshift holidays. Lisa Kanarek a “home office expert” designed the day to celebrate the freedom of working at home–us office workers weren’t encouraged to partake. We’ll save that for “National Workplace Sexual Harassment Day.”

According to this here Fox Business story, people are actually participating in the thing. Craig Wolfe, the president of the otherwise exceeding businesslike CelebriDucks novelty company told the site, “To celebrate Working Naked, I am going to put on my wolf boxers–yes, I really have them–put on my Elvis tapes, and reminisce about all the fun working-at-home stories I have, such as negotiating my dual license with the NBA and Coca-Cola stark naked with shaving cream on my face one morning at home when they called and had me on a conference call.”
Wolf boxers? I don’t know. Kind of seems like cheating, right? Surely there are enough spots on the calendar to also have a “Working in Your Wolf Boxers Day,” right?
So now I’m kind of curious. Did any telecommuting Gearlog readers partake? Send me your stories–but please, no photos.
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Feb 01

Florida Couple Fails to Make World’s Largest Yo-Yo

Posted in: Today's Chili, Weird News

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So, here’s the thing about creating the world’s largest yo-yo–you can spend all of the time in the world making it look as good as humanly possible, but unless the thing actually goes up and down, it’s not actually a yo-yo. That was the hard lesson learned by a couple in Jacksonville, Florida couple.

Beth and Tony Johnson spent the last 18 months of their lives designing the 12 foot, 7,000 pound monster. In order to actually break the record, the yo-yo would have to be released from 75 feet up, bouncing two-thirds of its height three times.

The thing didn’t bounce at all–in fact, it dropped down the rope and hit the ground, breaking in the process.”It didn’t do what it was supposed to,” Beth Johnson told the local news.In the meantime, Johnson seems confident that their attempt will be recognized as the “world’s heaviest yo-yo.”

Video of the attempt after the jump.

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Feb 01

Baywatch Star Going Out in Search of Noah’s Ark

Posted in: Today's Chili, Weird News

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Nope. Not Hasselhoff. Former Baywatch star and frequent target for airport security harassment, Donna D’Errico is currently training to fulfill a lifelong fantasy: finding Noah’s ark. D’Errico will be climbing Mount Ararat in Turkey, in order to find the legendary lost Old Testament ship.

“This has been a dream of mine since I was 9 or 10,” The 42-year-old actress said in a recent interview. “I went to Catholic school and was fascinated by Noah’s ark. I would do class projects based on the ark.”

Many have tread the snowy peak of the dormant volcano, but none have come back with definitive evidence of the bible story. D’Errico believes that she can change that. “I’ve been studying this for years and know where the sightings have been. According to my research, the ark lays broken into at least two, but most likely three, pieces. I believe that one of those pieces is in the uppermost Ahora Gorge area, an extremely dangerous area to climb and explore.”

And no, before you get all cynical, D’Errico wants you to know, “I am not doing a reality show. I will document this for myself and my family.”

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Feb 01

The Belly Sauna is, Well, a “Sauna,” for Your Belly

Posted in: Today's Chili, Weird News

So, after kicking off the morning with a post about the “Wrap-a-Nap,” I decided to challenge myself to see if I could find a dumber product before noon. Not surprisingly, the quest didn’t take long. I landed squarely on the Belly Sauna. It’s a sauna! For your belly!

Actually, no. it’s a weird undershirt-type thing than you wear around your waist, under your clothes. Judging from the images on the site and the TV ad, it kind of looks like the wearer has a extra long pair of Hammer pants underneath his or her regular pants.

The theory behind the Belly Sauna goes like this: it’s hard to lose weight around your stomach because all of that built up fat insulates that area, making it too cool to burn off fat. Wear the Belly Sauna around your waist and you’ll sweat off all of that weight in no time.

Seems like bulletproof logic to us.

For only $19.95 (plus $5.95 processing and handling), the secret to weight loss can be yours.

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Feb 01

Wrap-a-Nap: A Snuggie For Your Face

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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I could probably look at pictures of people wearing Wrap-a-Naps over their eyes all day. They alternate between looking like really misguided attempts at creating a homemade Ninja Turtle costume and people who appear to have been recently subdued by some brain-sucking parasite. I’m leaning toward the latter for the above image.

The Wrap-a-Nap, affectionately referred to as the WAN is “a long pillow that hugs your head with gentle pressure, giving you the sweet relief of complete darkness, muffled noise and 360 degrees of pillow protection,” according to its makers. It’s made of fleece and stuffed with a “squishy” filling.

It’s basically a mobile pillow that can also mask your eyes. And it’s completely ridiculous, a fact that its creators have whole-heartedly embraced, judging by the shot of the dude wearing one while on the toilet (after the jump), proudly displayed on the product’s site.

It comes in a number of colors, including Poseidon, Forrest, Bear, Enzo, and (best of all) The Executive. It’ll run you $15, and best of all, you won’t have any idea if people are laughing at you while you’re wearing it.

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Jan 31

UFO Spotted in Utah

Posted in: space, Space Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

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A number of Utah residents reported seeing a UFO above the town of American Fork around 7:15 last night. The UFO appeared in the form of three red lights, which hovered in formation and apparently dropped flares.

Resident Lynette Chidester told the local news, “I don’t believe in extra-terrestrials,” but added that the lights didn’t belong to a helicopter or airplane, “I noticed over the roof of the garage a red light and white light and the red light isn’t flashing like a plane light and that’s what draws my attention to it.”

The local Provo and Salt Lake City airports didn’t report any unusual activity. Mike Galbraith issued a similar report from miles away, “They looked like they were flying in formation perfectly together and then whatever was dropping looked like it was burning real bright.”

Neither the Provo nor Salt Lake City airports reported any unusual activity for the night.

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Jan 28

T-Pain Channels Facebook for a New Tattoo

Posted in: Miscellaneous Tech, Today's Chili, Weird News

T-Pain - Facebook Tattoo

Earlier in the month, we were lucky enough to interview T-Pain at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. He was at the show to promote the “I Am T-Pain” toy microphone that auto-tunes everything you say when you speak into it. On twitter this week, T-Pain announced that he had made his love of technology a little more permanent; with a brand new tattoo featuring Facebook’s iconic “Like” button. 
The tattoo says “You Don’t Have to [LIKE] Me,” and is on his arm. He noted on Twitter: “I get a tatt every time I come to Hawaii. I think this ones [sic] pretty sweet, unless facebook shuts down soon.” All things considered, that should be the least of his worries.
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