How to make fire with ice

They didn’t teach you this in Scouts or Guides: how to use a piece of ice to start a fire. Tim Jones, a survivalist from Oklahoma, offers an inventive way to start a fire using a smooth block of ice, the sun and a dry patch of grass.  

If you need fire and you’re lost in the woods, just find a piece of ice that can be polished smooth and used like a magnifying glass to catch a ray of sunlight and spark a flame. Think of the old trick of using a magnifying glass to burn ants, only this application could possibly save your life (or at least help warm you up).

Jones, who describes himself as a survival teacher and outdoorsman from Kingfisher, Okla., regularly makes and posts videos that demonstrate wilderness skills. His most recent video showed viewers how to make deer jerky the old-fashioned way.

Other videos on his YouTube channel include lessons on how to purify creek water, forage for food, make a fish trap and sharpen a machete while in the wild.

The most popular video is his January 2010 tutorial on making fire from ice, which has garnered 1.3 million hits on YouTube and recently got a lift when it was featured on Discovery News and Internet trends website BuzzFeed.com.

In the three-minute video, Jones discusses the need to look for “crystal-clear” ice free from dirt or other obscuring elements. The survivalist uses a metal tool and his bare hands to cut out an egg-shaped chunk, which he then hand-polishes until it melts into a sparkling, sun-catching frozen orb that is a mite larger and thicker than his hand.

Jones perches the icy magnifying glass between two logs so that it picks up and focuses rays of sunlight onto a spot on the ground where he’s placed some tinder. Almost immediately there is a whoosh and a burst of flames, which die down to a small but steady fire.

Jones says you don’t need tinder to help kick-start the flame, although it certainly helps. What is required is the aforementioned clear ice, a sunny day and dry grass.

Oh yes, and warm hands.   

 

Save Ferris! (from the Super Bowl)

Honda just released the full version of its Super Bowl ad starring Matthew Broderick reprising his Ferris Bueller character.

The company released a short trailer recently and this commercial is a two-and-a-half minute spot recreating some of the best scenes from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It's sure to cause nostalgia in those who love the classic John Hughes film, but something about it leaves me a little cold.

It also appears to be a clear response to Volkswagon's The Force video, which was beloved last year, and will have a sequel this year. Perhaps that worked better because that ad used our nostalgic feelings about Star Wars to create something new. Besides, there are already too many jokes in the film about  downgrading from a Ferrari to a CR-V.

Judge for yourself.

 

 

Robot computer, 1963-style

AT&T this week released a rarely-seen short film titled "Robot" that Muppets creator Jim Henson made for Bell in 1963.

It was intended to explain computers and data communications — and the relationship between humans and machines — to business owners at seminars.

As the computer in the film heartlessly blows away a fluttering bird with a blast of steam, it educates  viewers with phrases like "Correction: the machine does not have a soul. It has no bothersome emotions. While mere mortals wallow in a sea of emotionalism, the machine is busy digesting vast oceans of information in a single, all-encompassing gulp."

 

 

A Newt and a Vermin are a big hit

The Gregory Brothers, veteran creators of musical-video hits online, have done it again, weaving two very different recent speeches from the U.S. presidential campaign into a pop tune on “Get Money, Turn Gay.”

Hollywood star Joseph Gordon-Levitt co-stars with artfully edited vocal snippets of Republican primary hopeful Newt Gingrich and fringe candidate Vermin Supreme, whose words are AutoTuned into pop-worthy lyrics. Supreme, a performance artist, was colourful to start with, sprinkling glitter on fellow candidate Randall Terry to “turn (him) gay.” Gingrich scores, rap style, with a debate clip about children doing light janitorial work and getting paid “cash money.”

It's not as big as past Gregory Brothers creations such as “Bed Intruder” and “Backin Up Song,” which have garnered well over 100 million views between them, but the longevity of Gingrich's campaign has surprised some commentators. The video's life might well be extended by that.

Fans are the stars in new Star Wars

Now that George Lucas has suggested he’s retired from filmmaking, it has fallen to fans to remake his best-loved movie of them all.

The fan remake entitled Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut is the culmination of years of crowd-sourced efforts. Groups of Star Wars fans around the world each remade 15 seconds of the first Star Wars film, and now the results have been compiled into one entire, and entirely strange, new version.

Filming locations for any one scene from the original jump between backyards, living rooms and beyond. (The scavenging Jawas’ home is depicted as an enormous recycling bin.) Luke and the other characters change genders occasionally and regularly veer in age from childhood to their late forties and back again; R2-D2 is played by a wastebasket, a cylindrical laundry hamper and more.

Even more amusingly, filming styles switch in a flash between live action; computer animation; puppets, variously made of cloth, plastic or paper lunch bags; and stop-motion animation featuring Lego figurines. Oh, and Han shot first — proof, if it were needed, that the fans are in charge of this one.

My first hardcore song! An 8-year-old's ode to her dog

4.6 million views and counting: Eight-year-old Juliet, the daughter of Australian music producer Rob Sharpe, makes the most of her summer holidays in Australia to come up with an alternately scowling and adorable job on her first hardcore-punk song.

Says the promo uploaded with the video: “Juliet takes you on a journey of her love for her dog, Robert and how her pet fish stink even tho Juliet has zero sense of smell.”

Join the Bark Side

Last year, Volkswagen 'won' the Super Bowl ad competition with their lovely commercial featuring a young Darth Vadar trying the Force out around the house. What was really interesting is that the company released the spot online before it aired, which seemed counter-intuitive, considering how much ad time during the big game costs, but it didn't matter, as the early buzz and the winning idea resulted in a win for the brand.

It looks like car company is going back to the Star Wars well, releasing this teaser for their real ad coming in a few weeks. Beyond Star Wars, they are smart to feature kids and now, loveable dogs - and even a few who are cosplaying (!) - singing a very familiar tune. Again, it's brilliant because now we can't wait to see the real ad that follows this up.

 

Hello, is this the movie you're looking for?

You can never go wrong with Lionel Ritchie.

Particularly when one of his smoothest tunes has been mashed up and 'sung' through some clips of some of most famous movies of the past few decades. It's like the "We are the (movie) world" of easy listening tracks.

It's a great show piece for the magic of editing.

 

Hello from ant1mat3rie on Vimeo.

Golden Voice marks a year of sobriety

A bit more than a year ago, YouTube made a sudden star of a homeless man found panhandling on the streets of Columbus, Ohio. The Columbus Dispatch’s cameras found that Ted Williams had, like so many others, a weathered cardboard sign and a story of drug and alcohol abuse — but he also had an astoundingly rich, deep, friendly voice that sounded like it was coming from an FM radio receiver, even when he stood beside you.

Destiny was calling, or at least Entertainment Tonight was. The show took him to Hollywood to get the former radio announcer voice-over work and, the show asserts, help get him into rehab. This month the show caught up with him to mark one year of sobriety, and found him gainfully employed and living in a pleasant condo, using his closet as a studio to record voice-overs for the New England Cable News channel.

ET finds himself marvelling at his fireplace, his girlfriend and his good fortune, that remarkable voice intact. “What a difference a year makes,” he said. “It’s a Hallelujah moment every day I wake up.”

When a Jedi master just doesn’t feel motivated

“With great powers eventually comes great laziness,” says the maker of the video that proceeds to show us what would happen if every regular shlub or Master Dave — played by Dave Ackerman — had Jedi powers.

The video is the latest weekly upload by user Warialasky, a self-professed lover of action films and video games, and maker of humour/action videos such as "Rubber Band of Brothers" and "Imaginary War Zone."

Here, meanwhile, is the Jedi.