Fun Stuff

One of our favourite Super Bowl ads has become animated. The Kia Hotbots ad was one of the 2013 Super Bowl hits, combining slick production, humour – and a sly dig at motoring journalists. The original ad featured a robotised motor show stand attendant – based on Miss USA 2011 Alyssa Campanella – dealing punishment out to a grubby-handed journalist who kicks and paws the car. The ad was produced by Method Studios in Los Angeles, with help from stunt legend Gary Powell, whose credits include major action work like Skyfall and Bourne Ultimatum. The studio kept Campanella’s head and dress, but digitised the rest of her body to create robotic parts with clear panels at the joints giving glimpses of the working systems inside her. While the Hotbot dished out brutal treatment in the first ad, the tagline to ‘respect the tech’ carried over into the second commercial in a storyline where the action between man and robot is so much friendlier it borders on suggestion of man-machine intimacy -- or perhaps that should be interface. Or maybe he’s just taken the Hotbot home to robovac his loungeroom. The three most recent ads continue on the same theme of ‘protecting the tech’ but Kia has moved to a fully animated format. Strangely, since the Hotbot was so seamlessly produced for the first two ads, she’s barely recognisable in the hipster graphics of the cartoon format. We’re curious as to why the change was made. Was there resistance to the near-human aspect of the Campanella Hotbot? Or perhaps resistance to the price of producing more highly complex commercials? And we’re also curious to know which one you prefer… the robotised Ms Campanella, or the cartoon version. Let us know in the comments below.  

But when it comes to the brands Australians most like to trust, it's first-aid products that have won our hearts.Dettol retained the top spot followed by Band-Aid and then Panadol, which have kept the same footing for the second year in a row.Home renovators rate Dulux, which has come in fourth, while it seems it's not only dentists who trust Colgate, in fifth.Read full story at: www.news.com.au 

Tourists were left shocked after a desperate impala being chased by two cheetahs leapt into a car in order to escape the predators. The terrified animal appeared to be seconds away from death when an unexpected window of opportunity appeared -- quite literally.The animal had been chased by the cheetah along with its herd when it realised it was the only one left behind. As the two ferocious animals appeared to have cornered the impala it leaped into a nearby tourist's car which happened to have its windows rolled down.Samantha Pittendrigh, 20, happened to be filming the chase when the impala jumped through the passenger-side window of a Toyota in front of her. She said: “We started freaking out going crazy. We couldn't believe it -- we were absolutely dumbstruck.“We watched the cheetah chasing the impala. We saw a few of them turn around in the bushes towards the road they were running from.’“All of a sudden we saw the impala jump out of the bushes and then someone started screaming ‘it is in the car, it is in the car’.“We heard a girl screaming in the car. The boy sitting outside the car filming looked a lot younger, so it must have been a family.“People in other cars screamed ‘open the door, open the door’.” In the confusion, one of the passengers managed to open a door and the impala is seen just seconds later trotting across the road to freedom.The cheetahs were just metres away but did not give chase. The footage was captured in Kruger National Park, South Africa where, according to park rules, you must stay inside your vehicle at all times. Pittendrigh, who has made several trips to the park, said she was stunned by the scene. 

When you just wanna blow stuff up, fly choppers into fountains, and hoon a parking garage so hard you fly right off the top of it, there are only two places to go: the loony bin, or Grand Theft Auto.OK, so there are many more ways to get highly criminal in a virtual world. But the Grand Theft Auto series has followed us from college to adulthood, and has somehow managed to keep its complete lack of charm and disregard for any sense of order or decency.Those traits are what promise to make GTA V a great game. Well, that and the killer graphics. Check out the gameplay video above for more, and check out the official site here. Grand Theft Auto V arrives at stores later this year, but is available for pre-order now.www.motorauthority.com