Muppet Proposal

Via The AV Club

Sure Its an Ad, But...

This puts me in the holiday spirit.

Snakes & Maths

via Geekdad

Inside Game of Thrones

Holy hell-- this looks great!

But will there be an Electic Monk?

Very few people understand how much I want this to work.

via Bleeding Cool

Before Calvin & Hobbes

Some early Bill Watterson art.

via Robot 6

A Making Of...

First I watched this, then I had to go change my pants and clean myself up.



Via George R.R. Martin's blog.

Dancing with Yourself.

Keri Smith offers Secrets of the Self Employed (or How to be an Amazing [insert profession here])

My favorite:

14. Ignore cool. Successful people do not try to be hip, they just do work that excites them.

NetFlix Origami

Finally something we can do w/ those damn envelopes!

Buffy Reboots on Big Screen

Whedon sighs audibly.

Mari Kasurinen

Amazing! Simply Amazing!

Mawaige

So, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are married.

I'm not quite sure which one to be jealous of.

'Just a Friend' by Biz Markie, Jeff Goldblum and The Roots

The Roots are the best thing about Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Great Short Animation

Cat V. Gator

I had no idea.

http://kitty.cat
There's a TLD called .cat

Another Reason To ♥ Jess Fink

First it was her time travel memoir.

Next came her Victorian era robot porn comic. (Totally NSFW.)

Then she started recapping TNG episodes, in comic form.

And now she does this for Halloween:

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Bill O'Reilly Sucks

Not that that's news, or anything.

Anyway, from Robot 6:

[W]hen the shoe was on the other foot, O'Reilly did a little stomping of his own: He took offense to his portrayal by political cartoonist Mike Thompson and ... well, let’s let Mike tell it:

He then gave out my work e-mail address and instructed his viewers to "let him know what you think." O'Reilly stressed that his viewers should take the high road in their e-mails to me, which is a little like placing a bowl of Halloween candy in front of kids and telling them not to gorge themselves. O'Reilly's smart enough to know what would happen.

Yup, the high road was definitely the road not taken. Thompson received over 2,500 e-mails, many of them in all caps, discussing exactly what people thought of him and his cartoon and what they would like to do to him.

I'm well aware that there's hypocrisy on both sides of the political spectrum, I'm just tired of it. Aren't you?

Do you miss the animated GIF?

Find 10 more here.

via GeekMom

Too True

Via Whatever

Alma

Beware the Ticking

Anyone Else Want One?

Via Topless Robot

Because It's Just Odd

Ladies and gentlemen, Eartha Kitt

Powers of Ten

You all remember The Known Universe, right? This one came first.

It's an ad, but still cool.

Why are athiests so angry?

Greta Christina's "Atheists and Anger":

But I think it's important. One of the most common criticisms lobbed at the newly-vocal atheist community is, "Why do you have to be so angry?" So I want to talk about:

1. Why atheists are angry;

2. Why our anger is valid, valuable, and necessary;

And 3. Why it's completely fucked-up to try to take our anger away from us.

So let's start with why we're angry. Or rather -- because this is my blog and I don't presume to speak for all atheists -- why I'm angry.

A response to some comments:

And as commenters in the rant have pointed out, even the social movement leaders who generally get tagged as the non-angry, peaceful, "good cops" -- Martin Luther King, Gandhi -- were very angry indeed. They just channeled their anger in constructive ways. Which I think is a grand idea. But acknowledging that anger and expressing it is an important part of that process.

Our American Cousin

Thunder Busters

RIP Toxie

What Do Teacher's Make?

Fan-Made Opening Title

THE WALKING DEAD "Opening Titles" from Daniel Kanemoto on Vimeo.

Crazy Cat Man

I'm afraid this could happen to me someday.

Just another reason on a long list of why accordians are awesome.

Great Old Spice

Adam WarRock

Adam WarRock sure knows how to captivate geeks like me!

Item 1: Rapping about This American Life:



Item 2: another great track, called NES Hard:



I'll be watching for his album release.

Brilliant Avengers "Premake"

Here's what happened.

America, meet 4chan

The whole story is here. The important part is that the dialogue below was part of court testimony.

Your Camera Makes You Ugly

I found this article via Wired. It's all the more reason for me to buy the camera I want.

http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-ugly-by-accident/

Get Down with the Blackstar Warrior

Unnesessary Censorship

Reports From the Battle of Endor

#wookielinks twitter hashtag.

The empire set to change name of death star to spherical base due to the negative connotation associated with "death"

and

Empire sloppily retreating out of Endor, 100 unaccounted ewok deaths.

Mortified: 500 Miles to Hollywood

This is a funny and touching segment of the series, Mortified:

They are all pretty good in that distinctively This American Life way.

The Geek Alphabet

For your consideration: the geek alphabet.

22 Frames

Following 22 panels that always work

Storm the @#$%ing Castle

Brought to you by Diamondsnake and Moby. Moby?

Green Porno

http://www.sundancechannel.com/greenporno/
By Isabella Rossellini.

If I were a Calamari, I would be a squid. And, everyone would want to eat me.
I would squirt black ink from my anus, so that I can disappear, and propel myself off. By luminescent effect and by changing shape, I can communicate. I can say, "Be Careful!" I can say, "I love you," with my whole three hearts.
I would give the most passionate twenty arm embrace. Twenty... eighteen. Two are not arms, if you know what I mean....

The Guild Season Three - Autotuned

This is all spoilers. It's a complete recap of the season (autotuned).

Watching this just saved me a couple hours (woot). Although I wouldn't mind seeing more of Felicia Day dressed up like that.

Never Get Into a Staring Contest With Animal

Crime Mountains in SF

Plenty more found here.

via Strange Maps

Black and WTF

A photoblog of strange black & white photos.

Thanks Thalisha

Snakes on the... Set

I will preface this by saying that I think Salma Hayek is adorable. I also think she has a little phobia:

How funny is Maya Rudolph, just sitting there while the other two climb all over her?

"Straight Outta Compton" The Roots and Ice Cube-Style

For you fellow hip-hop lovers, check-it:



This is just a pre-taping warm up, too. Also, too bad it is the radio edit version, but watchagonnado?

Friday Cute-Fix: Sloth Edition

Meet the sloths from Amphibian Avenger on Vimeo.

Work Motives

Mad Something

Endless distraction.

seriously.
http://www.google.com/reader/play

Because it is Friday

LEAKED! The LOST finale!

Fanmade LOST Finale Promo

I don't know if anyone else on this blog has been following LOST, but this fan promo did an excellent job of showing the tone of the series.

When the series ends on Sunday: I don't expect all the questions to be answered. I don't expect a neat little bow tied around the plot. I only expect to enjoy the end of the ride, just like I've enjoyed the ride up until now.

Chocolate

Air Jelly

SQUEEEE!

Yes, it's fan made and the music is stupid and the voices aren't great, but still... ANIMATED BONE! IN BEAUTIFUL 2D!

I say again, SQUEEEE!

Oh, and there is a movie that's going to be made, but Smith thinks it's probably going to be 3D.

via Robot 6

What would your name be if Sarah Palin was your mother?

My name? Recoil Mush Palin

Find yours at Poli Tsk Tsk Tsk

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

I Have No Idea What They're Saying...

...but I love the way it sounds. I can't embed it, but you should really check out this Swedish rap by MOVITS!

"I really loved you in Arrested Development."

Two Muppets invade the Lost production offices and get to ask one question:

For My Allergy-Suffering Friends

Pope Song

EWWW!

I wouldn't want this sitting on a shelf in my apartment, would you? (At your house or apartment, I mean.)

via Topless Robot

Geocities Johnny

I bring you Geocities Johnny Logic, thanks to the Geocities-izer.

Reason in the Big Easy

A the whole proclamation and little more found at Friendly Atheist.

Nobody Loves Juggalo Smurf

Comics Alliance give us The Ten Rejected Smurfs You Won't Be Seeing.

Bone(d)?

While I don't believe in banning books EVER, I sometimes understand the motivation behind the desire to do so. But not this time. This one is just plain dumb.

A woman in Minnesota has requested that the comic book, Bone, be removed from the shelves of her son's school library. Now, I have read Bone (thanks again to Ticknart for that!), and there is nothing remotely offensive in that book. In fact, I think there's more offensive and sexually-laden material in an Archie comic. Bone is just a great read for all ages.

My favorite thing is this response from Bone creator, Jeff Smith:

"My conclusion is that some people aren't smart enough to read comic books."

Audrey Art

Audrey Hepburn Portfolio (on flickr)

via Robot 6

Filled With Noodles

I'm sure it gets old, and I'm sure there are drawbacks, but a part of me really wishes that I worked in a place that had to post a sign like this:

BOOBQUAKE!!!

I wholly endorse this idea:

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake.

Found via this delightful comic strip.

Ask your doctor for a reason to take it.

http://panexa.com/

TM in the Real World

My fellow computer science nerds-- look:

A functioning Turing machine! OK, it doesn't have an indefinitely extensible tape, but you get the idea.

If you've just seen Avatar

You know who you are...

Unconscionable

I'll be the first to admit that I am WAY behind on news. I have a pretty strict policy of not following news because of how it affects me. So I apologize if this is old news to you, because I just learned about it.

I had heard about Cynthia Stewart wanting to bring her girlfriend to her school prom and how the school had decided to cancel prom rather than allow it. What I hadn't heard is that, after a lot of run-around and a court battle, a prom was held where she was allowed to bring her girlfriend, but it was a FAKE, with only 7 students in attendance. THE REST OF THE SCHOOL WAS AT ANOTHER, SECRET PROM HELD AT THE SAME TIME.

I am so beyond disgusted about this. Honestly, I don't even know what else to say.

Best Use of iPad

Very expensive cat toy.

Colonel Angus

Douchebag Wonder

Wonder, connected with a principle of rational curiosity, is the source of all knowledge and discovery, and it is a principle even of piety; but wonder which ends in wonder, and is satisfied with wonder, is the quality of an idiot.
-Samuel Horsley

Nathan Fillion Rules

Teabonics

A Flickr set of signs from Tea Party demonstrations.

Planets Screw-up Science!

Well, not really:

The disk spins, rotating around its center like a DVD (though stuff toward the center goes around faster than stuff near the outer edge). The middle of the disk is where the star forms. Farther out, local eddies and vortices can form planets. But the important thing to note is that in this scenario, everything spins in the same way. If the disk appears to be spinning clockwise, say, then the star will spin that same way, the planets will orbit that same way, and the planets will spin that same way. We’re pretty sure this is how things work because that’s pretty much what’s happening in our own solar system.

This theory has been tested by observation and by increasingly complex modeling. Sometimes there are problems with it, but in general new ideas have been added that fix those problems, and over time we’ve been pretty happy overall with the idea that stars and planets form this way.

However, a bunch of newly discovered planets have messed this nice idea up. They orbit their stars the wrong way!

Atheist Barbie

8 Bits of Awesome

Fun With Venn Diagrams

Lovely 8-Bit Horrible

It's been all over the blogonets today.

Not Playing Farmville.

If any of you play it, I'm sorry, but I think you might be a sucker. I am, however, distracted by stories about people who play Farmville. Especially when it gets you kicked off your seat on the city council.

The troubled councilor, Dimitar Kerin, has defended himself by saying he was not the only one in the City Hall watering virtual egg plants. He said he had reached only Level 40, whereas Daniela Zhelyazkova, a councilor from the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, was already at Level 46.

[Via: All Tech Considered]

For Elex

(passiveaggressivenotes.com)

More Trouble With Blaintology

In the spirit of Josh's last post; getting called on your bullshit can be painful, like so:

Would you like to learn more about Blaintology?

When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go on then — kill me,” he said.

Plenty more found here.

Elegant

http://yourworldoftext.com/love
You can go there without the /love at the end, or add your own /evil, /sex, /whatever

Each destination starts as a blank wall, you drag yourself around in there, and you can write whatever you like wherever you like in regular monotype.

It's simple and elegant, and awesome.

BFD

There's something lovable about Joe Biden for me. His spontaneity? His goofiness? His good-natured lack of propriety, perhaps? Whatever it is, I think it's pretty well embodied in this clip here.

I'm also loving that Obama wasn't the least bit offended by it, and that one of his first reactions was to put it on a t-shirt.


(Thanks again to Chris Cactus!)

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World

Since not everyone has read the comics, although they should, the movie looks spectacular!

Also didn't realize they got such an awesome cast to play the seven evil ex-boyfriends.

August is such a long way away.

Some Criticism

The stereotypist (John Campbell of pictures for sad children) takes a look at Star Trek: The Next Generation. He totally accurate and not kind.

Speaking of Numbers...

The Analytical Engine weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard loom weaves flowers and leaves.

Ada Lovelace, Notes on Menabrae’s Memoir on the Analytic Engine

Happy Ada Lovelace Day! Cheers to the original computer programmer!

Nature by Numbers

I have a few quibbles with the inferential leaps people make about the Fibonacci number, phi and related ideas (for instance, fudging examples), but I cannot argue with the quality of the following video — it is a stunning visualization of the the relationship between the Fibonacci sequence, the Golden ratio, the Golden Angle, Delaunay Triangulation and Voronoi Tessellations:

This Made Me Smile

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

How many can you recognize? It's not a competition, just a fun test of your art history knowledge.

FSM Art.

I spent a moment this morning making fun of somebody's "helpful" description of a technical problem, with JohnnyLogic. Part of my railing included a Google Search of the word "This".

"This" resulted in the exploration of a page of evidence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Rationalist Anthem

The Movie I've Been Waiting For

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" from Aaron Paul

In Communist Russia, Song Sings YOU.

A backlash to nihilism, perhaps?

(Thanks, Chris Cactus!)

Pumpkin

Rapping From Quarantine

Pardon Richard Nixon

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

Attack!!

TV Science vs an "Actual Science" TV Show

Read the whole comic.

Solar Cell With >90% Efficiency!

Created at Caltech:

"These solar cells have, for the first time, surpassed the conventional light-trapping limit for absorbing materials," says Harry Atwater, Howard Hughes Professor, professor of applied physics and materials science, and director of Caltech's Resnick Institute, which focuses on sustainability research.

The light-trapping limit of a material refers to how much sunlight it is able to absorb. The silicon-wire arrays absorb up to 96 percent of incident sunlight at a single wavelength and 85 percent of total collectible sunlight. "We've surpassed previous optical microstructures developed to trap light," he says.

More Reasons to be Cheerful

It's official: HBO has given a green light to a 10-episode series based on George R.R. Martin's fantasy series Game of Thrones and released the first image from the show, which you can view below. Production begins in June; no premiere date was announced.

The first official picture, below:

This Too Shall Pass Redux

Rube-Goldberg-tastik!

Gay Boyfriend, By Garfunkle and Oates

You can find the lyrics on the YouTube page.

Yes, Men, Cars Can Effect Your Attractiveness

It turns out that cars do have a measurable effect on the perceived attractiveness of men by women. Not the other way, however.

Wes Anderson's Spider-Man

Nerdgasm

For your future viewing pleasure (one hopes), here is a list of 18 upcoming fantasy/science fiction shows coming to the silver screen.

And if the list is not enough, check out the cast to the Game of Thrones series:

Software Composes Original Music

From the article:

Emmy was once the world’s most advanced artificially intelligent composer, and because he’d [David Cope] managed to breathe a sort of life into her, he became a modern-day musical Dr. Frankenstein. She produced thousands of scores in the style of classical heavyweights, scores so impressive that classical music scholars failed to identify them as computer-created. Cope attracted praise from musicians and computer scientists, but his creation raised troubling questions: If a machine could write a Mozart sonata every bit as good as the originals, then what was so special about Mozart? And was there really any soul behind the great works, or were Beethoven and his ilk just clever mathematical manipulators of notes?

There are two excerpts from pieces the software composed a short way down the article

All True Bible Stories for Children

From the homepage:

Some say that, as a parent, Beth Christian was less than perfect.
Some say that as a moralist, she left something to be desired.
But everyone agrees that she knew how to take the Bible's advice -- very, very literally

All True Bible Stories for Children is a record of Biblical lessons, passed from Beth Christian to her daughter. Atheists may find them humorous, some Christians may find them confusing, but it is devoutly hoped that all will find enlightenment therein.

From the intro:

Beth was every biographer's dream, a living collection of entertaining childhood reminisence. Like Scheherezade, Beth related story after fascinating story from her youth, never asking for more than dinner and perhaps a movie in return. Over the years that Beth and I maintained our unusual relationship, I learned a great deal about her formative years, and about the woman who made Beth the fascinating, introspective woman she is today -- her mother, Eve.

To Eve, scripture was the end-all and be-all of spiritual guidance, morality, and practical wisdom. Like her mother before her, Eve turned to her Bible whenever she was faced with a dilemma, and she never failed to find a solution in those holy words.

Eve didn't rely on religious leaders or so-called "scholars" for her interpretation of God's truth. She knew that every letter of every syllable of every word in the Bible was put down just as the Lord intended it to be, and that anyone on a first-name basis with the Holy Spirit can feel their true meaning in their heart.

From Genesis 19:30-38 (The Story of Lot's Daughters):

One day, Lot and his two daughters moved out of Zoar to live in the mountains, because he was afraid to live in town.

One night, the older daughter said to the younger one, "Our father is old and there are no men around to put their penises in us. Let's get our father drunk so that we can get him to put his penis in us and make babies grow in our tummies."

. . .

"To God," Beth's mother told her, "children are the most important thing. It doesn't matter how a baby starts growing in a woman's tummy. Having sex when one of the people is drunk is much better than never having a baby grow in a woman at all."

One of those moments...

...where I'm very happy YouTube exists.

The Exquisite Torture

Via Topless Robot

And They're Hungry

Cake Wrecks seems to claim they're babies, but you ever see that movie Ghoulies?

So I don't overwhelm this blog

I collected more videos on my own blog: http://crumpled.com/blog/2010/02/some-of-best-music-videos-ever-part-1.html

Michel Gondry's Video for Around the World

We recently got the work of Michel Gondry from Netflix, and I've been on a music video kick, so I'm going to overwhelm this blog. I'm stuck in the server room doing an epic file transfer.

Daft Punk - Around The World (Michel Gondry)
by doporto

I created a tag called best ever because I think that these are some of the best music videos ever made.

Michel Gondry's Video for Sugar Water

by Cibo Matto.

This video is amazing.

Cibo Matto - SUGAR WATER
by zectarien

I think this was possible because of a propensity to make flip books
You could do a story on one side of the page, and then flip the book over and write another story, or the same story differently, synchronizing events from one side of the page with events on the other side of the page.

Watch this video at least to the mid point to give it a proper chance, then I dare you to stop. (actually, no, keep watching.)

BOOM!

On Bad Astronomy

Face Drawing Robot

It's all tangents, I tells ya!

Mazes and Monsters Redux

Accused campus killer Amy Bishop was a devotee of Dungeons & Dragons - just like Michael “Mucko” McDermott, the lone gunman behind the devastating workplace killings at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield in 2000.

That's right kids, D&D is teh evil. And did you know:

"Some experts have cited the D&D backgrounds of people who were later involved in violent crimes, while others say it just a game."

Really, "some experts"-- that is some lazy-ass reporting. All I can say is [CITATION NEEDED].

Teach the Controversy!

Who Plays the Watchmen?

Comics Alliance thinks up Watchmen based board games!

Helpdesk to the World

I love The Oatmeal, but this comic makes me want to both laugh and cry:

7-Minute Song About the Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

OK Go- This Too Shall Pass

Do you have to be a band geek to enjoy this? Because I really did, but I was a band geek, so my sample is tainted.



(Thanks to Rude Cactus for the link!)

Dust in the Wind

The guys over at Muppet Studios are doing a damned good job keeping themselves relevant.

You Used Me Like a Pipebomb!

I'm not sure why, but this had me nearly crying from laughter.

Baggage

Goddamed FOX News.

In case you can't make it out, the sign in question reads, "Tea Bag The Libs Before They Tea Bag YOU!" This appears in the latest Captain America comic. #602.

Seems to me, I've seen a sign like this in real life. Oh, that's right, a similar one appeared at a Tea Bagging rally last year.

Seriously, comics can't make this Tea Bagging movement look bad, the fact that it holds up Sarah Palin as an example does that.

Ghost In The Sealab

A thing of beauty:

The Classics

Star Trek: Online!

The whole comic.

The wonderfully verbose Eric Burns-White, he of Websnark, posted a review of Star Trek Online, including screen caps, while beta testing a few weeks ago. Today he wrote about how the game should run to continue to be as great as it, apparently, is.

I'm not a MMORPG person, but the trekkie in in me really want to be.

Boomdeyada!

OK, for geek points, and without looking stuff up, who do you recognize from this video?

The Last Airbender Teaser

Looks really cool, doesn't it.

Of course I don't think anyone's problems with Shyamalan's movies has been the art direction or cinematography. The hard part with this will be condensing the 20 half-hour episodes of Book One: Water into two hours worth of movies. How many of you think we'll be getting at least one training montage?

Via Topless Robot

Oh, NO! NOOOOOOO!

[Last spring] Warner Brothers had picked up the rights to Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos series of sci-fi books. It looks like they've found their director - Scott Derrickson of The Day the Earth Stood Still most recently.

You bet your ass that's my emphasis.

The short article.

Why couldn't it have been an eight to twelve hour miniseries on HBO covering all the books?

Hourly Comics Up!

The forum for many of yesterday's hourly comics is here.

The picture comes from one of my favorites, so far.

Vinyl Fantasy 7

Mashups of various artists and the original music of Final Fantasy 7.

Vinyl Fantasy 7
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2010/02/vinyl-fantasy/ (what it is)
http://teamteamwork.bandcamp.com/album/vinyl-fantasy-7 (where to “buy” it)

Pee Wee is Back! Sorta...

Pee-wee Gets An iPad! from Pee-wee Herman

SF vs WBC

It was at the protest in front of Twitter last Friday. Also, SF showed up for the protest at Fiddler on the Roof, but WBC didn't.

What Was J.D. Salinger Writing?

Could it have been...

From Sunday's Sheldon.

A Very Potter Musical

For Those Interested

Monday is Hourly Comic Day.

History of the Robins

Oh, sure, there's still that girl Robin who was but wasn't killed to add, but these four comics from JBadgr are pretty great.

via Robot 6