8ball Tshirts Blog

We love being baffled, here at 8Ball. We are huge fans of illusions of any kind, none more so than optical illusions. We stumbled upon a couple of basic illusions in a magazine recently, but we wanted more.

In true 8Ball fashion, we went on the hunt to find some of the best optical illusions out there. And of course, we wouldn’t keep them to ourselves! So 8Ballers, be prepared to be amazed by a few of our favourite optical illusions.

AFTER READING THE INSTRUCTIONS, CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO VIEW A LARGER VERSION.

Life’s never simple

At first glance, the letters in the image below clearly spell out ‘LIFE’.

Now take another look at the outline of the letters. Suddenly, the letters become not so clear!

Can you read this fine mess?

Read the words out loud and all will become clear.

The power of the human mind strikes again!

Bring a bit of colour to this otherwise dull picture

Follow the instructions and trick yourself into seeing a colour picture.

Is that picture alive?

Stare at the image below and the dots will appear to move around. This is a static image – not an animation.

The second coming!

Stare at the image below for between 20-30 seconds. Then look away at a blank wall or a piece of paper. What do you see?

You spin me right round, baby right round…

The lady is spinning anti-clockwise, right? Keep watching and she’ll appear to switch direction.

This may take a while, but it works….honest!

Brilliant animated illusions

These are genius!

Stare at the red dot

Here’s a great illusion that’s doing the rounds at the moment. Stare at the red dot for around 30 seconds. Quickly turn to look at a blank surface and blink repeatedly.

Shocking!

Get up close to your screen and stare at the red dot for approximately 30 seconds. Try not to blink. Then stare at a blank wall and prepare to see something pretty shocking….

Ok, just kidding on that one! There’s no illusion, it’s just plain weird.

We hope these illusions haven’t given you too much of a headache, 8Ballers. There are so many brilliant optical illusions out there, but we simply couldn’t include them all. Let us know if there’s one in particular that you think we need to see. Share the love!

When your eyes have returned to normal, make sure you head over to the 8Ball store and check out our awesome tees.

Director Tim Burton has paved the way for a sequel to his classic 1988 comedy horror Beetlejuice.

It had already been confirmed that writing and production duo Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg were working on ideas for a follow-up to the film, but, in an interview with MTV, Burton has admitted for the first time that he may get involved with the project, and hinted that Michael Keaton may reprise his role as the freelance bio-exorcist Beetlejuice.

Burton said: “I love that character, and Michael [Keaton] is so great in it. I always think about how great and fun that character was, so I just said to Seth, ‘If you have some idea about it, go for it, and then I’ll look at it freshly.’”

He added: “Michael was so great in it. I’m sure he’d strangely tap right back into it.”

Speaking to Moviehole.net in 2010, Keaton himself said “I’d do that in a heartbeat – absolutely, that’s the one thing I’d love to do again.”

Tim Burton is currently working on 2 films – Dark Shadows (a gothic opera scripted by Seth Grahame-Smith) and Frankenweenie (a 3D black and white stop-motion remake of Burton’s own 1984 short film of the same name).

Grahame-Smith is also adapting his book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, for the screen; Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov are producing the film.

As for Michael Keaton, he’s currently filming the Joseph Ruben thriller Penthouse North, in which he plays a charming but sadistic criminal.

Do you think a Beetlejuice sequel is a good idea? Let us know!

And if you haven’t seen our Beetlejuice t-shirts, be sure to check ‘em out…

Fittingly, these Twitter Glitter fireworks come with a clear warning.

It has been all over Twitter for the last couple of days that convicted paedophile, Gary Glitter, had supposedly set up his own Twitter account and was tweeting away to thousands of fans. Apparently, this was to support a forthcoming album, tour and autobiography.

Naturally, this caused uproar amongst the Twitter community, and his name was soon a trending topic. There were a mixture of responses; some of disgust, some expressing forgiveness, some excited about the prospect of a comeback and of course, thousands upon thousands of jokes directed at the disgraced glam rock star.

We very much doubt that the vast majority of those jokes were in any way making light of the unspeakable crimes committed by Glitter, but a way of voicing opinions in a very ‘social media kind of way’. Besides, however wrong you may think it is to crack jokes about serious issues, there’s absolutely no getting away from them in this day and age.

One response that caught our eye in particular, came from comedian Peter Serafinowicz. Here’s what he tweeted directly to @OfficialGlitter:

Serafinowicz had suspected that it was a fake account, but couldn’t resist posting his gibe at Glitter.

Anyway, it has since been revealed that the account was in fact a fake, and the creator, who goes by the name of Ben, claims that it was all just a social media experiment. Late last night, the account’s 15,000 followers were directed to a tumblr. page for a full explanation of the hoax. The page no longer exists, but here’s a brief quote:

‘I set this Twitter account up as a social experiment to highlight the dangers and safety of children using the social networking sites and to discover and question public morality.’

At present, unlike Facebook and various other social media sites, Twitter doesn’t have restrictions in place to prohibit sex offenders from opening accounts. Perhaps this is the issue that ‘Ben’ wanted to raise, but did he go about it in the right way? Well, he certainly made his voice heard.

At least we can rest assured that, for now, there won’t be a new album, tour or a book.

On hearing the news about the account being a fake, here’s what Wynne Evans, the infinitely annoying opera singer from the GoCompare adverts, had to say:

So what’s your view on the whole matter? Was it a legitimate social experiment or nothing short of a tasteless joke? We’ll leave that for you to decide.

Sarah Burke, one of the world’s top freestyle skiers, died yesterday aged 29 after suffering cardiac arrest and irreversible brain damage. She sustained her injuries when she crashed in a freak accident during a training run on a half-pipe in Park City, Utah, 9 days ago.

Burke was a pioneer in the world of superpipe skiing. In 2001, she came 1st in the half-pipe event at the US Freeskiing Open, and she became the first world half-pipe champion after the event debuted at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in 2005. She also won 4 gold medals in freestyle skiing at the Winter X Games, and was the first woman to successfully land a 1080 jump.

She was even responsible for getting the superpipe event added to the 2014 Winter Olympics, but, tragically, she won’t be around to take part in the event she was strong favourite to win.

Peter Judge, CEO of Canada’s freestyle team, said:

“Sarah, in many ways, defines the sport… She’s been involved since the very, very early days as one of the first people to bring skis into the pipe.”

David Mirota, the team’s high performance director, added:

“She was a great, positive person for the whole team, the whole sport.”

Burke will be sadly missed by her fellow athletes, her fans and her family, but also the man she married in 2010, fellow freestyle skier Rory Bushfield.

Whether you’re into skiing or not, there’s no question that Sarah Burke was someone who lived life to the full and a great example to many people.

We dug out a couple of clips as a reminder of exactly what she was all about…

If you’re serious about music, you will appreciate the massive influence The Doors have had since their formation in 1965. With seminal tracks like ‘Light My Fire’ (1967), ‘The End’ (1967) and ‘Riders on the Storm’ (1971), and their pioneering psychedelic stage shows, they helped to take music in a whole new direction.

The band’s enigmatic frontman, Jim Morrison, died in mysterious circumstances in the summer of 1971. The official story says he died of heart failure, aggravated by heavy drinking, in the bath at his Paris apartment, but others claim he died of a heroin overdose in the toilet of a nightclub he was running and that drug dealers covered this up by moving his corpse.

Whatever really happened, he lives on through the music, poetry, films, artwork and spoken words he left behind.

But his death didn’t signal the end of the band – they continued as a three-piece, going on to release 2 poorly-received albums before splitting up in 1973.

In 2002, organist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger got back together under the name ‘The Doors of the 21st Century’. Ian Astbury, former frontman of The Cult, was drafted in as the new lead singer, and Angelo Barbera became the new bassist. Drumming duties were initially handed to Stewart Copeland (The Police), but he broke his arm falling of a bicycle and left the band following a legal battle. He was replaced by Ty Dennis, before Densmore filed an injunction against the band using the name they had chosen. In 2005, Densmore and Jim Morrison’s estate won an injunction stopping them from using The Doors’ name.

But it looks like preventing the bastardisation of the memory of a truly great band is no longer top of Densmore’s to-do list – he has now teamed up with Skrillex, hugely popular purveyor of what many people regard as little more than digitised flatulence at 140 beats per minute.

We don’t have a problem with dubstep, we just think this Skrillex chap lacks a touch of subtlety, and might also benefit from exposing himself occasionally to the sun’s life-giving rays.

When Skrillex collaborated with Korn on their new album, we weren’t especially surprised, but this latest hook-up is just not right. See for yourselves…

Apparently, it was created for the Re:Generation documentary, in which 5 DJs ‘reimagine’ various forms of traditional music.

We think this proves that, sometimes, it’s best to just leave things alone. Do you agree? Let us know!

And before you leave… we have some great tees inspired by The Doors – be sure to take a look.

Attention all Hoff fans! If you were hoping to catch the man himself at one of his live shows later this year, you could well be out of luck. The actor/musician and producer of legendary documentary Baywatch, recently pulled out of a string of live shows in venues around the UK. But don’t panic – there’s nothing wrong with him, he just didn’t sell any tickets. Apart from the London show, that is. That show will still be going ahead.

What is wrong with people? Had we heard about it sooner, we would have jumped at the chance to see David Hasselhoff: An Evening With. It’s been billed as a chance to, “come and see The Hoff perform his pop hits, alongside excerpts from his Broadway & West End musicals and the iconic shows Baywatch and Knight Rider”. What’s not to love about that? You know, his pop hits such as….that one about getting in a car, and that one that goes….actually, what the fudge are his songs? Oh, there was that one he sang when the Berlin Wall came down.

Ok, we’re starting to see why it didn’t sell any tickets. But credit where it’s due – The Hoff has had a pretty successful career. He is the official World Record holder for being the most watched person on television, largely due to his starring roles in Baywatch (shown in 140 countries) and Knight Rider (shown in 82 countries).

He’s also a big star on YouTube, boasting millions of views for his infamous burger video (we’re not making light of that – in fact we thought it was pretty tragic and we’re glad he’s over the boozy episode in his life).

So, if you’re in the London area on March 2nd and you fancy being taken on an “entertaining, heartwarming and hilarious ride through three decades of his remarkable career”, then, according to reports, there are plenty of tickets left. Get involved.

Before we leave, here’s another chance for you 8Baller’s to witness the historic moment when The Hoff single-handedly brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989.

God Bless you, Hoff.

If you don’t make it down to the show, make sure you pay homage to The Hoff with one of our awesome Hoff tshirts.

With the Olympic Games fast approaching, it seems that everyone’s gone sports mad. Excuse the sweeping statement, but generally, Britain is a sport-loving nation. Even if we don’t actively take part in sporting activities, the chances are that we enjoy spectating some form of sport, and with the pending 2012 games being one of the hottest topics of the moment, this has never been more true.

So, we thought we’d stick to the sports theme today and bring you some of the best sports clips from the web. A video that surfaced recently and went viral pretty much instantly, inspired us to dig around for some more epic clips. The clip in question is that of a ridiculously good rally from a women’s volleyball match in China. Take a look for yourselves.

That was pretty damn impressive, we think you’ll agree, but be prepared to be amazed even further by these awesome clips. Enjoy!

Table tennis at it’s best

A bright future in football for this little kid

Safe hands

This guy’s got the skills

Is that even possible?

We hope you enjoyed our little compilation of great moments from the world of sport, 8Ballers. Let’s just hope there will be more moments like these in the 2012 Olympic Games!