The Mary Sue

Red Bull Being Blackmailed By Extortionists Threatening To Contaminate Cans With Feces

by Ian Chant Mar 15th

Energy drink and vodka mixer Red Bull has announced that it is being blackmailed by a person or group of people who have threatened to place cans of the sugary caffeine supplement contaminated with feces on store shelves. While the threats have been coming for several weeks, the Vienna-based company's checks of grocery store supplies have found no contaminated cans so far. Though considering how many cans of Red Bull are carried in groceries, gas stations, and convenience stores around the world, we're not sure how thorough those checks could have been...

Red Bull Releases Ridiculous Rube-Goldberg-esque Kluge

by Glen Tickle Nov 12th

Red Bull did another sports thing! This is The Athlete Machine, a collection of Rube Goldberg devices connected by a series of impressive feats of derring-do performed by what we assume are well known extreme sports athletes. After Felix Baumgartner's jump from space, it seems Red Bull figured the best way to top something huge is by linking smaller, slightly less awesome things together into a sort of extreme sports Voltron.

Watch Felix Baumgartner Jump From 120,000 Feet, Break the Sound Barrier

by Rollin Bishop Oct 9th

At 8:30AM ET, Felix Baumgartner will launch up into the stratosphere in preparation for his jump. Baumgartner will be eventually jumping from a height of 120,000 feet -- 18,000 feet higher than the previous record for such a jump. Though the time might change due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, the livestream above will continue rolling to capture whatever it is that Red Bull is able to record during the attempt. One only hopes that some of the video from the cameras attached to Baumgartner himself make the cut.

Surfing With a Flare Looks Neat [Video]

by James Plafke Aug 31st

Surfer Bruce Irons doesn't feel surfing is awesome-to-the-max enough with the huge waves and sharks mistaking the silhouette of a surfer sitting on the board for the silhouette of seal or larger fish, otherwise known as lunch, so he decided to throw a ball of flame into the mix. He surfs with flares, which looks really, really neat as the crest covers the surfer, leaving only a glowing ball of flare shining through the water. Don't mind the Red Bull branding on the video, the flare-surfing is worth a watch.

(via Viral Viral Videos)

Packaging Minimalism

by Robert Quigley Dec 21st

Design firm Antrepo recently undertook an experiment that they called a "minimalist effect in a maximalist market": They took the existing packaging designs (left) for a number of products, including Pringles, Nutella, and Red Bull, removed some of the clutter and gratuitous graphics (center), and then, for maximally minimal impact, stripped away even more to create a "more simple variation" (right). Sometimes the center picture looks better than the ultra-stripped down design on the right, but in almost every case both beat the cluttered, noisy packaging that actually exists. Which of the variations do you like the best?

The Norse Hollywood Dining Vikings Eat Pirates and Shit Ninjas

by Susana Polo Aug 29th

The Norse Hollywood Dining Vikings (Facebook page here, natch) have made a pasttime of dressing up like vikings and carousing their way over to wherever vikings shouldn't be. Like... a laser lights show, the Red Bull Flugtag Races, a chain of gay bars, or IKEA (although Jonathan Coulton would probably disagree). The group started with professional blacksmith and prop-maker, "occasional viking," and "the reigning 'Pirate of the Year' for Pirates Magazine," Tony Swatton; who told AOL News:

"At some point, [a friend] and I decided it would be fun to dress up like vikings and go to restaurants and do reviews," Swatton said. "The next night, we went to Griffith Park Observatory where they were doing a laser show about the northern lights. There were 15 of us and we all had our weapons -- axes, spears, everything -- and we heckled everything."