Energy drinks are taking over the coolers in Quick Marts and 7-11s. Each different brand tries to come up with an edgy or cool color scheme or design to catch your attention and make you purchase it instead of your favorite soda or bottled water.

Red Bull was one of the first energy drinks to become hugely popular. In order to keep their share of the beverage market, they’ve come up with a few different advertising schemes including the cartoon commercials that closed with the tag line “Red Bull gives you wings.” Since then, they’ve hosted their annual Flugtag events around the nation. Teams create a “flying machine” and launch it and inevitably crash land into a local body of water. I had friends who watched the flying/flopping creations in Nashville last year.

Less familiar to most Red Bull drinkers and everyone in general is the company’s contest to create works of art using empty cans of the mood lifter. Over the past three years, creative minds have come up with some amazingly elaborate pieces. Check them out here at their site. You can see all the top entries there and bios of the brilliant minds who put them together.

It’s not too late to enter the contest for 2008, but you’ll have to hurry. The deadline is April 6.

More cool art here and other functional items from recycled stuff here.

Tags: art, recycle, cans, aluminum, Red Bull, Flugtag

Fashion designer Marc Ecko’s designs draw from a variety of inspirations, but there’s nothing as cool as his Black Rhino clothing articles.  After all, the Black Rhino collection is the home of the incredibly awesome Black Rhino Jason Hoodie, inspired by Jason Voorhees and the classic 80’s slasher movies in the Friday the 13th series.  […]

Throughout history, there’s been one constant.  People are going to do whatever they can to make themselves more beautiful.  Whether it’s a tattoo of an Internet superstar like Tay Zonday, a tooth tattoo, an eyeball coloration, or even an amputation disguise, there’s no shortage of ideas on what people can do to the body to […]

As lights get smaller and more powerful, you’re going to start seeing them in more and more places.  For example, check out the Galaxy Dress from CuteCircuit.  This formal-style gown made of crinoline, chiffon, 4,000 Swarovski crystals, and 24,000 LEDs is a pretty impressive combination of form and function.  Assuming you want to function as […]

Canada’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Remembrance Day.
Tags: moment of silence, 11:11 on Novemeber 11, Remembrance Day, tributes, veterans

Twenty years ago today, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.  The wall, separating East and West Berlin, was a symbol of the Cold War between the free world and the Soviet Union.  Google has a great selection of images from Life Magazine detailing the history of the wall, and there’s also a […]

From the outside, Emma Cahill looks like your average school girl.  She just turned 16 and attends St Mary’s Convent School in Worcester, England.  She is active in sports and has many friends, but there’s one thing different about Emma.  At 6′5, she is the tallest teenage girl in the UK.
Fortunately for Emma, her unusual […]

The New York Marathon ran this weekend.  Surprisingly, the winner was an American; in fact, Eritrea-born Meb Keflezighi is the first American citizen to win the marathon since 1982 (the year after I was born).  However, with an estimated 42,000 runners in the marathon this year, not all of them are hardcore professionals.  There are […]