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Saturday, January 2, 2016

Supercut of people falling and landing on vehicles, set to the finale of the 1812 Overture

This is marvelous - these clips are perfectly synchronized with the cannon-punctuated finale of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. List of films below the video:

(Related: All about the battle of Borodino, on which the novel War and Peace and the 1812 Overture are based)


Film List (in order of appearance, 56 films):

The Dark Knight
Sha Po Lang
Daredevil
Inside Moves
Con Air
The Saint
The Guyver 2
Stone Cold
Superman : Doomsday
Rush Hour 2
Garfield
Kick-Ass
The Matrix Reloaded
Carrie 2 : The Rage
Home Alone : Lost in New York
Crank
The Avengers : Age of Ultron
Die Hard
Hellbound
Darkman
Eraser
End of Days
Transformers
X-Men
Live Free or Die Hard
Edge of Tomorrow
Tribulation
Men in Black
Mad Max Fury Road
Sherlock Holmes
The Untouchables
Unleashed
Hellboy II : The Golden Army
The Avengers
Old Boy
Quantum of Solace
The Incredibles
The Last Boyscout
Friday the 13th
Lethal Weapon
The Fifth Element
Ant Man
Bachelor
Freerunner
Collateral
Looker
Batman
Iron Man
Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom
Fast and Furious 7
Batman Returns
Crank
The Victim
Left Behind III
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
South Park Bigger, Longer and Uncut

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

New Year's Eve links

How (Not) to Celebrate the New Year: advice from 700 AD (hint - if you dress up as a stag or a calf you'll spend 3 years doing penance). Also, advice from 1862: How to Tell Your Fortune for the New Year.

Dave Barry's Year in Review - previous such columns are available here.

Strange New Year traditions around the world.

Some links to avoid becoming philogrobolized
Your Complete Guide to the Science of Hangovers
Infographic on the Anatomy of a Hangover
Hangover Cures From Famous Heavy Drinkers
5 Really Strange Ways to Cure a Hangover
Dark Liquor Makes For Worse Hangovers
How to Cure a Hangover
According to a 2009 study in the Journal of Food Science, the amino acids and minerals found in asparagus extract may alleviate alcohol hangover and protect liver cells against toxins.

Why We Sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve, and here's Mark Steyn singing and explaining What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

Eat your heart out, New York: Boise, Idaho drops a giant potato downtown on New Year's Eve.


ICYMI, Most recent (all Christmas-related) links are here.

Advice from 1862: How to Tell Your Fortune for the New Year

I'm not sure whether it makes sense to generalize on the basis of this one example, but going by this there was not any thought in 1862 of shaping your own future in the sense of making New Year's resolutions - you just got what the world threw at you.

"The evening which of all others is the most adapted for witchery, is New Year's eve. It is a very ill practice to spend this evening at a ball, and it is an acknowledged fact that ill luck, more or less, follows a person throughout the year, who has danced the old year out and the new year in. You should spend New Year's eve with a small circle of near and dear friends, around a punch-bowl, while you seek to inquire what the future has in store for you. In the first place this may be done with melted lead or wax... Take a good-sized piece of lead or wax, (the former is better,) place it in a melting ladle, and dissolve it over the coals, or over a spirit-lamp, into which you have poured a little alcohol. You must then take a vessel full of water, (a bowl is best, that is not too deep nor too shallow,) and pour into it the lead or wax, and from the various figures which it forms in the water you endeavor to tell your fortunes."

Felix Fontaine, The Golden Wheel Dream-Book and Fortune Teller

From Ask The Past (via their blog):
Forget the dancing: your best bet for a safe and merry New Year's eve involves molten lead and witchery. No instructions are provided for interpreting the lead forms, so I'll predict in advance that your 2014 will be kind of formless and globular.

How (Not) to Celebrate the New Year: Advice from 700 AD (or thereabouts)

Ask The Past (via their blog): "If anyone does what many do on the first day of January, that is to say, goes around in the costume of a stag or a calf (which still remains from pagan custom), he must do penance for three years, because this is demoniacal." 

~Burgundian Penitential (c. 700)