Skip to main content

Creepy baby costumes, haunted houses and more in this week’s Staff Picks

creepy baby costumes haunted houses weeks staff picks 10 25 13

Caleb DenisonCaleb Denison: The best and worst boss ever

I didn’t see anything cool this week because I was too busy working my stinking butt off. Actually, that’s not true. I saw a lot of cool stuff while tirelessly typing in the way of 4K demo reels on 4K TV’s, but I can’t show you that here because you don’t have a 4K TV yet. Don’t be sad. If it’s one thing I learned by watching all those 4K TV’s, it’s that they just aren’t worth it yet. Maybe next year, right?

That being the case, here’s a video of Ellen DeGeneres scaring the piss out of her staff members by sending them to a haunted house and recording it for everyone to see. Talk about cheap thrills. Man, Ellen is smart. And funny.

Molly McHughMolly McHugh: Math is hard

I totally identify with this kid telling his dad he finally passed math (maths if you’re British).

I distinctly remember some very long, horrible nights in middle school consumed by math homework. Here’s a surprise: I fit every demographic for someone who’s bad at math. I’m white, I’m a girl, and I’m a writer (what’s up, right-side brainers!). Not that any of the stereotypes are true, but I guess I knew a lot of racists/jerks because at the tender age of 12, I definitely started believing them.

While it was my mother who controlled the household budget (as well as … the entire state of Oregon’s – numbers genius, that lady), I was so viscerally angry at math that she pawned me off on my dad for help. And it was rough. I remember crying once, and telling him how any job that would make me memorize formulas and wouldn’t give me access to a calculator was nonexistent; in the future we would have instant access to the Internet and the ability to look that stuff up at any point.

So I was right about that … but I was still bad at math. But my dad stuck with me and forced me to sit at the kitchen counter and do my stupid homework every night, until I got an A in college algebra and was coerced into taking honors physics.

This kid and the reaction his dad has are priceless and make me wish I’d filmed our nightly homework sessions.

Bill RobersonBill Roberson: Stealing the show

I don’t play an instrument and I was never in marching band, and truthfully, I usually head for the bar/tailgater/snack bar at the stadium when the marching band comes out to play. But when I have stuck around for the halftime show, I also think some of the formations and choreography pulled off by marching bands is pretty impressive. However, this Michael Jackson bit by the Ohio State marching band has got to be one of the most amazing and enjoyable feats of marching band prowess I have ever seen. Combining bits from the Smooth Criminal video and Michael’s famous “moonwalk”, the crowd rightly gasps and applauds this amazing bit of musical footwork. Totally worth 90 seconds of your life, and the glove prop adds just the right touch of hilarity.

Andrew CoutsAndrew Couts: Every man needs this GIF

I’m on the fence about GIFs – and not just because the “jif” pronunciation makes no sense. (“GIF” is just “gift” without the “t.”) But every so often, I come across one that just rocks. And the best of these so far is, hands down, this comprehensive GIF that explains exactly how a car engine works. Created by designer Jacob O’Neal, this nifty infographic takes you from the intake valves to the exhaust using helpful moving images and clearly written details about what every part in your car engine does. It even explains the magic of a hybrid powertrain. I’ll take this over a reaction GIF any day.

Car-Engine

Konrad Krawczyk: A baby Halloween costume that’s actually scary

This video will either make you go into cute overload or disturb you.

Someone apparently made a Halloween costume for their toddler that makes them look like a cross between a real-life stick figure and the classic video game character Mr. Game & Watch. The result strikes an unsettling balance between cute and creepy.

In the 22-second YouTube clip, which seems to be set outdoors at night, the kid looks as if they’re walking from around a corner into a dark alley, which is where the cameraman is located. The kid, resembling an electric eel personified, shrieks and begins to run towards the cameraman. If this were a viral video for some horror movie, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now, some viewers are apparently asking the creator if they can buy the costume for themselves. On top of that, it looks like they’ll eventually accept orders not just for toddler-sized LED light costumes, but for all sizes. Even adults! Click here if you want a chance at getting your own LED Halloween costume, which could arrive in time for New Year’s Eve.

I don’t know what I’d do if I started seeing shimmering, walking stick figures rampaging through New York City at night.

Football and double-stuffed Oreos… keep me strong.

Ryan FlemingRyan Fleming: 50 years of Doctor Who

This November marks the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. If you are a fan, you already know that. In fact, if you are a fan, you probably also know about the upcoming BBC biopic about how the show first made it to air, called Adventures in Time and Space. And if so, then you definitely know about the anniversary episode titled The Day of the Doctor, a 75-minute episode starring the 11th Doctor Matt Smith, the 10th Doctor David Tennant, and John Hurt as… well, somebody Doctor-ish (his exact nature is part of the surprise).

That episode will air on Saturday November 23, and there will be special screenings in 3D in select theaters around the country. Tickets went on sale for most location on Friday, October 25, so pre-order your jelly babies now.

But you probably already knew all that. So have the newest trailer, and drool.

Editors' Recommendations

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends has a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they live. We are your…
Perfect coffee through science, emoji mosaics and more in this week’s Staff Picks
Staff Picks 8_23_2013 header

Molly McHugh: Game of Hoops
Obviously you like Games of Thrones, because you are reading this and that means you're a human with an Internet connection. So again, obviously you like Games of Thrones. And if you don't we can't be friends anymore.
But since you obviously like Games of Thrones, your favorite character is obviously Tyrion Lannister. OBVIOUSLY. He is everyone's favorite character and if he's not then again, we can't be friends anymore.
Well turns out our favorite character - er, the actor Peter Dinklage who plays him - partook in some fun extracurriculars, i.e. hula hoop dancing at a gay bar. And not just any hula hoop, an electric one! I'd venture to say that if anything in your life is going wrong, one look at this and you'll feel many times better.
Dear reader, it only gets better: There's video.
In these dark times, this is what we need more of.

Caleb Denison: Please don’t judge me
Every week I’m tasked with the responsibility of finding something cool on the Internet, then writing up some sort of witty blurb introducing it for this, our Staff Picks column. It sounds like the easiest thing ever, doesn’t it? And maybe it should be. But it turns out that I’ve gotten really good at taking what should be the easiest part of my week and making it extremely difficult. I will sometimes spend an hour searching for something I really like because – and I realize this is a major hang-up – I have this crazy idea in my head that what I pick says something about me, and I just can’t have the Internet thinking I’m a dork.
Dammit, I’m too late, aren’t I?
Well, then, since I’m pretty sure the six of you who read this already think I’m a goob or just really don’t care, I’m rolling with a comedian doing Diva impressions to a tune made famous in the 1980’s (oh, he’s an old dork! Nice!) by Bonnie Tyler called “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Yes. My middle-aged nerd status is now complete. Check out Christina Bianco doing some impressive impressions of Divas young and old, including Adelle, Cher, Christina Aguilera (my personal favorite) and, of course, Barbara Streisand. She’s pretty damn good at it.

Read more
The perks of delinquency, 80s dashboards and more in this week’s Staff Picks
the perks of delinquency 80s dashboards and more in this weeks staff picks 08 17 2013 header

Jeff Van Camp: Stephen Colbert confronts the ‘Gay Mafia’
I cover iPhones and Galaxy phones all day long, but when I get home from work, I usually unwind with some Daily Show or Colbert. This is one of the best segments I've seen on the show. Apparently there are parts of the south where a small town can have an openly gay mayor and pass an ordinance banning discrimination of those in the LGBT community. Colbert is, naturally, extremely disappointed in the progress of this "Gay Mafia."
Hopefully we're getting to the point where more people around the country think like this, finally.

Andrew Couts: Everything that's wrong with YouTube
It has been a long time since I last went on a YouTube binge. For whatever reason, my habit of clicking through an endless array of videos, each more odd and obscure than the next, seems to have dwindled away with my fondness for MySpace. In other words, I'm now just busy and old.
Fortunately, YouTube user JelloApocalypse, a self-described "writer and voice actor," has released a brilliant new animated video that makes me appreciate all the time I've not wasted on the world's largest video-sharing site. From the poor design to the wretched comments, the video (above) gives you a sense of all that's wrong with YouTube. The damning summation almost makes it seem as though Google, YouTube's parent company, has given up on improving one of its most popular properties, just to screw with us. Perhaps YouTube's saving grace is that this video is itself hosted on YouTube.

Read more
Barrel rolls, inside Walter White’s house and more in this week’s Staff Picks
staff picks 08_10_2013 header

Caleb Denison: Meet the lady who lives at Walter White’s house
For fans of the show, Breaking Bad, these next couple of days are going to be tough. Frankly, the anticipation is killing me. I joined the Breaking Bad fan club late and intentionally scheduled my binge viewing session so that I would catch up just in time to join up with season six as it began airing, but my plans were dashed when the season premiere was pushed back. I seriously considered suing AMC for emotional damages – for like a couple of seconds, anyway.
In the meantime, I’ve done what I could to keep myself from weaning off of the crack-like addiction that is this TV show. I’ve revisited old episodes, joined nerdy forums and practiced my Jesse Pinkman impression in the mirror (it’s getting really, really good). Then today I discovered this video in which a team from Machinima visits with the lady that actually lives at the “White House.” Seriously, it’s an actual house in Albuquerque, New Mexico – not just a studio stage mock-up – and the lady that lives there is the most patient sweetheart of a woman I’ve seen in a long time. Especially considering she probably deals with way more pizza-throwing assholes in the space of one month than most folks do in an entire week. Please enjoy.

Les Shu: With Street View you can pretend you're a wealthy Emirati
Despite the privacy concerns, Google’s Street View is a pretty neat tool for the armchair traveler. How else can you plop yourself down on the Champs-Élysées and then fly over to faux Paris in Las Vegas the next minute? Google has been enhancing Street View where you can now explore really exotic locales like forests and abandoned places, but the latest virtual tour, I think, is one of the best yet: inside an airplane. But not just any plane, mind you, an Airbus A380.
The double-decker is part of the fleet belonging to Dubai-based Emirates, the largest operator of this mega plane. Not only is it big, but it’s also one of the most luxurious, filled with wondrous amenities – that is, if you’re sitting in one of the premium cabins. For those of us who can’t afford the $10,000-plus ticket for a first-class suite (yeah, suite, not seat), we can now explore this part of the plane via Street View. You can also “walk” through the coach cabin, but why bother?

Read more