Real Life Mario Kart

An engineering marvel has been made: real life Mario Kart. Developed by a bunch of nerds in Texas for their YouTube channel, the feat is enabled by decking out real-life go-karts with on-board computers that control the kart’s acceleration, steering and brakes activated by RFID tags. Drive over a “power up” section on the course and the RFID chip might (for example) tell competitor karts to slow down and yours to speed up.  If that wasn’t enough, they’re also fitted out with mushroom launching pneumatic cannons. To see the video click here. 

 

Samsung Shoot Interrupted by Bear

An incredible video has surfaced that shows a wild grizzly bear interrupting the filming of a Samsung washing machine ad on location in B.C. Racking up 750,000 plays in under a week, many have called the video a hoax. Either way, it’s likely to do better than whatever they were shooting. Definitely a must watch.

 

Agency Lands Client by Way of LinkedIn Bomb

A Kentucky agency has landed a new client by a novel, yet potentially suicidal practice they’ve dubbed a “LinkedIn Bomb”. Targeting two senior marketers of A & W restaurants, the agency had all staff press send on a personalised welcome message they had written to the marketers at the same time. Fortune favours the brave. For more click here. 

 

Help, I Have the Flu

We all like to lay blame on people who we think have given us the flu. Now, thanks to “Health Remedies”, there’s an app to help substantiate our allegations. Called “Help, I Have the Flu” the Facebook app scans your friends’ Facebook feeds in search of  ‘run down’ keywords and suspicious high-risk behaviour such as late night posting and partying. It’ll then give you a list of the most likely culprits to either lay blame or avoid.

 

McDonalds “TrackMyMaccas” App

In an effort to help convince the Australian public that their food is ‘real’, McDonalds Australia has launched TrackMyMaccas, an app that tells you exactly where the ingredients came from in the burger you’re eating. First the app uses image recognition technology to identify what burger you’re eating. Then, it matches your phone’s GPS coordinates and time stamp against their supply chain data to deliver real time information about the farms where the burger’s ingredients have come from. To top it off, they deliver the information in 3D animated, augmented reality right beside your burger. For more on this app click here.