Video Friday: Don't mess with the panda

The internet is wonderful for sharing the insanity that leaks from our collective brains onto film (digital or otherwise).

Without further ado, here are your time-wasters for Friday.
A guitar army.
A NYC cab explodes.
A panda that you should not refuse.
A chance encounter on The Office.
Aaaand, the worst burglar ever.

But, of course, I can't resist posting this snippet about the casting of William Adama for the Battlestar: Gallactica spinoff, Blood & Chrome.

TV tonight

Tonight SyFy Chanel premiers its new reality show Face Off in which contestants will compete to see who makes the best alien face, or something like that.

And FX animated series Archer returns for its second season, and Alan Sepinwall has this review.

As you probably know, this little show called The Office also comes on Thursday nights, and it's just been announced that Will Ferrell will be appearing for a multi-episode story arc in the near future.

Finally, in a non-TV related story: I give my mad props to the continuing ingenuity of drug traffickers.

Thundercats, Ho!

A time crunch had me considering not posting anything today, but then I saw the Thundercats were coming back to TV. Cartoon Network to be exact. Now, I don't normally watch much Cartoon Network, but I will definitely be DVRing this thing.

More important than this new show is the one on which it was based. For me that show ranks third on the all-time list of shows I loved as a kid. GI Joe and Transformers top the list if you're interested. I notice too that those latter two shows have been made into movies. So, what's holding up the Thundercats movie? Glad you asked.

No, it's not real. But it still looks pretty good. Regardless, to stave pop-culture withdrawal here's the original Thundercats intro.

Random Links

I'll admit it: I never watched Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Well, that's not exactly true. I watched the movie, but never got into the TV show. That didn't stop me from following the show's transition into comic book form, however. I still didn't read the comic, but I knew it was there. Now, "Season Eight" is approaching its slayerific conclusion. Buffy has passed on her arcane knowledge to slayers across the globe, creating a kind of Slayer, Inc. Which is interesting because another comic book recently went in a similar direction. Coincidence?

Alas, at the end of January football fans begin hearing the mourning bells, ringing in the end of the season. For most of us the Super Bowl is pure spectacle. For fans of the two lucky teams, there awaits...spectacle also. Still, there is hope. Linda Holmes offers this gripping photo guide to help you give a damn about one of those two teams.

Perhaps you haven't heard but Hollywood has been in the process of going through its vaults and regurgitating every movie with any cultural relevance for the last ten years or so. Next up? Here's your hint: they're "lean, green, and mean."

And, finally, the Oscar nominations were released this morning. For the more cynical among you, Razzy nominations were announced yesterday.

Somehow Scream 4 completely slipped under my radar.

Ditto, X-Men: First Class. Not to say that either needs to be on anyone's radar...

In animal news, Paul the 'Pstychic' Octopus now has his very own statue.

And a new species of crawfish has been discovered. Crayfish, crawfish, crawdad, mudbug, whatever, it's a mini-lobster.

That is it for today, folks.

Big news out today for the third installment of Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise. We now know the villains Batman will face and who will play one of those villains.

Fans of Fox's Fringe will may enjoy this music video of the recent romantic episodes of the dueling Olivias (Anna Torn).

A lot of people have been discussing the political vitriol that's been spewing about our hyper-connected cyberscape. And some have even commented that said vitriol is somewhat less vitriolic since the Arizona tragedy. However, this Archie cover still seems like a stretch to happen in the real world.

This model of Ohio State's famous football stadium, the Horseshoe, is made out of a crap-ton of Legos. Figuratively. But, literally, it's still a lot of Legos.

Tonight you can see the return of what was really one of the top five comedies of last season: Parks and Recreation. Here's a quick review of the season premier. And here is a terrific interview with Amy Poehler.

I don't know what else to say for this...thing...except that it is one crazy frackin' bike.

Also, I have learned a new word today. It is Voorwerpjes.

Finally, I cannot pass up providing this link to a discussion about the extreme polarization of individuals' critical responses to media and art. If my brief description there has put you off, here's the real title, which speaks much better for itself: "Which is worse, epic hyperbole!!! or “meh”?"(big ol' HT to Linda Holmes)

If you watch one video today, make it this one. It's a promo for the new season of Parks and Recreation, and it is NSFW.

So what's green, red, and stronger than the Incredible Hulk? The Compound Hulk, that's what.

Here we see Jack Hanna (no relation) cuddling a very cute Zorilla, which, sadly, is not a combination of a zebra and a gorilla.

And this is a great white shark catching seals in its mouth while leaping from the water. I feel bad for those seals every time.

You may have heard that Boise State has a hideous blue football field, but did you know that Oregon State just installed an equally (?) hideous basketball court?

Tuesday is Monday edition

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, and this story, above all, seemed most appropriate to the WRYBrain audience.

In other news, I'm planning on updating the look of things around here in the near future. As you no doubt noticed, there are now bookshelves lining the margins of the blog. These bookshelves, however, are far cooler. (HT to Sassydaze)

Everybody knows that 3D is the biggest, bestest, thing to happen to movies since Avatar, and this guy claims to have made that experience possible without the glasses. Fast forward to the 1 minute mark to see what the trade-off for a glasses-less experience is.

Here we have a new teaser trailer for HBO's highly anticipated mini series Game of Thrones. I never read this series of books, but from the trailer I can guess that it is not a very happy story.

In a move of shocking bias, The King's Speech has received the most BAFTA nominations.


Since I sit at a computer a lot I think a lot about my chair and how much I'm going to regret this desk job thirty years from now. So this Dutch chair, called the "Wigli Stool" has me thinking....

You've no doubt heard that Regis Philbin is leaving daytime TV. But have you heard that Sarah Palin has a Battle Hymn? Both true stories.

Video Friday

Since 49 of 50 states had snow on the ground this week, this video should serve as a good tutorial on how not to get snow off your roof. (HT the Two-Way)

Google and Android have an app that turns your phone into a Babel Fish.

Watson, IBM's Jeopardy-playing AI, beat the two best Jeopardy contestants in a practice bout.

Musical artist Eskmo's video transforms a NYC street into MC Escher's paradise. (HT to lonelysandwich)

Some students have built a robot (ahem) that will soon supplant pastry chefs around the world.

And I really cannot resist reposting this great video from Monday in which a very confident Brit with some haute-tech portrays the last 200 years of civilization in five minutes.

These last few aren't videos, but, still may be worth your time.

Alan Sepinwall reveals some details about the departure of Steve Carell from The Office. (SPOILERS BEWARE)

These pictures of cinema's newest superheroes are (not quite literally) flying around the interwebs.

Finally, check out XKCD. It is especially good today.

Have a great weekend.

Sky Net Watch alert level raised

Germany's beloved octopus, Paul, died late 2010, but fear not my Teutonic-critter-loving friends! Behold, Heidi, the cross-eyed opossum.

Just when you thought Kanye West couldn't get any...well, anymore anything, he starts wearing a watch with his own face on it. Stay classy, Kanye. Stay classy. (HT to MonkeySee)

This, from the comic book to movie deal front: the Ant-Man cometh. This is the face of recycled pop-culture, people. Because, nothing, I mean nothing, screams "I'm relevant!" more than a man who can...you know, I'm not even sure what Ant-Man can do....

In the world of literature, the Monitor offers this list of five books that it suspects critics will be lavishing their attention on this year. (Note: none are by Jonathan Franzen.)

Meanwhile, I'm sure that even protozoa have heard that Verizon finally sealed the deal with Apple to break up AT&T's stranglehold on the iPhone. Still, there's at least one person who won't be converting because of her "graceless monkey fingers."

Click here to see a dozen excellent renderings of "Chicktopus." (This is NPR's chicktopus, not to be confused with the Chowder version.)

Finally, Sky Net Watch has been elevated to level beige (there are 99 levels for anyone keeping count) following the recent news of the rebuilding of the Philip K. Dick robot head. It is SUPER CREEPY.

And, despite Electric Power Research Institute's promise that their "Transmission Inspection" robot will "not look like a person," it has an HD optical camera, lidar (that's radar with light), and can function autonomously. Whatever happens, let's not allow the PKD head and TI 'bot hook up. Deal?

Hump Day, Schmump Day

We're back, and to begin Robert Krulwich (of whom I've spoken before) wondered about the recent "spate" of animal deaths. It has been reported already that such patterns are not entirely unusual and Krulwich offers an excellent link to an infographic on informationisbeautiful.net, which displays the media-driven fears around the world. Cool stuff.

Anywho, on to more geekery:

Alan Sepinwall offers this bit of review from Press Tour about Fox's new dino-show Terra Nova. 

Kottke offered up this piece about the ubiquitous sci-fi hallway. Think about it: Alien, hallway; Event Horizon, creepy-ass hallway with spinning lights; Star Trek: tiny hallways they call Jeffries Tubes. But, let's face it, if you're on a spaceship, there are bound to be hallways, am I right? Might as well talk about the omni-present hallway scenes in submarine movies.

Apparently, the entire world's (current) population could fit into the state of Texas. Great. Just one more feather for their ten-gallon hat of state pride.

In comic news: Marvel has announced that Cap' (Captain America, that is) will be taking on the very real and very disturbing trend of soldier suicides. Those comics, they'll surprise you.

And Image released today the first issue of Infinite Vacation, which is getting some good press. Image, as you may know, is the publisher of the immensely popular The Walking Dead. While Nick Spencer the series' writer also pens the on-the-way-to-becoming-immensely-popular Morning Glories, which has not yet released its first collected trade.

A quick side-note to the above: below the Infinite Vacation announcement on Image's page, you'll notice that The Walking Dead is in its second week of "Weeklies," which is the weekly release of every single issue of TWD. So, if you really don't want to buy the trades, hardcovers, or new mega-collection, you can do this instead. I'm just sayin'. It's an option.

The return of Sky Net Watch

Let's start the week off right, shall we?

First, this is an awesome (and short) video demonstrating the power of infographics. And, to top that off, here's a link to find even more of that kind of stuff. (HT to Roger Deetz for the latter link.)

Remember when adults would tell you that video games would rot your brain (this was after they abandoned the pretense that TV would do that)? Sure, it might, but playing video games could also earn you a cool million bucks.

So you probably heard that a person named Oprah has launched her own (heh) TV network, called OWN. And she had a lot to say about it, and by a lot I mean a fifteen minute monologue about herself.

WIRED offers these thoughts on the nature of being a geek, and how basically everyone is a geek now, and how that poses some problems for genuine creativity.

Finally, big news day for Sky Net Watch: First, Alex Trebek (who everyone believes may actually be a robot) will host Jeopardy as an actual robot (really a "machine"), named Watson, faces off against the two best-ever Jeopardy contestants.

And, second, I give you the "thought-controlled exo-skeleton." "Controlled by thoughts," you say? Well then, let's not have Watson and this exo-skeleton meet, I say.

Tea-time Edition

If you didn't get to see the solar eclipse the other day (and let's be honest, who did, right?) then you may be interested in this very special picture of it.

And in more astrological news, Star Wars is coming to Blu Ray. 'Nuff said.

This one's for all my Horned Frog friends out there. It appears that in Ohio billboards have been put up congratulating TCU on its Rose Bowl on New Years Day. Why Ohio? Just ask Ohio State's Athletic Director.

In the gadgets-I-would-actually-buy department, a crafty inventor has finally released a motion-powered gadget charger. Meta-gadgets...nice.

 By far one of the most original games of last year, returns this month with a sequel: LittleBigPlanet 2. The user-created content looks fantastic, and here's a little video of some of the best.

Since I'm being completely self-indulgent, I'll finish with this link to my favorite band of the last several years, The Decemberists, whose new album, The King is Dead, will be released on January 18th. Until then, listen as many times as you want for free at NPR.org, who btw have a die-hard and brilliant duo picking through music 24-7. I'm talking new songs and albums everyday, people, so get on board.

Because...well, just because

We start today with some really excellent diversionary material: web comics. Alt Text has kindly provided a list of some of the best ones around right now.

And just to cap that off, yesterday, I was happy to discover Dr. McNinja. Oh yeah, he's a doctor and a ninja all right.

Today, I'm privileged with the rare opportunity of transitioning from ninja web-comics to paleontology via this radical headline: "Prehistoric ninja bird evolved nunchuck-like wings." Hell yeah it did.


In other news, here's a wonderful video featuring Josh Groban singing Kanye West's tweets, which is only slightly less hilarious than kanyejordan. Maybe. HT to Kottke.

You may have already read this...in the future.

On his blog Robert Krulwich (one of my all-time favorite science reporters) breaks down a series of studies performed by renowned psychologist Daryl Bem. The studies purport to demonstrate the existence of Extra-Sensory Perception, and/or the fluidity of time.  The results, if reproducible, could be truly staggering.

In other news, this is an awesome picture.

This is actually a cow, not a panda.

And if you love Pixar, this is an awesome compilation reel, which has been rapidly making its way  about the interwebs.

New Year's Resolution Edition

Happy holidays, and happy new year!

It was a wonderful and tiring week and a half. Many pictures, beers, and meals later, and I'm still not ready for work, so let's get to it....

Here's a look at WOW (that's World of Warcraft for the uninitiated) hooked up to the XBox Kinnect motion-capture module. Now you can actually burn half a dozen calories during your eight hour dungeon crawl. Workout resolution, check.

Readers of the Millennium series (you know, Stieg Larsson's The Girl Who... books) may be interested in this comparison of the series' heroine Lisbeth Salander to red-headed literary diva Pippi Longstocking. Think it's a stretch? The Monitor begs to differ.

Personally, I've always been fascinated by the idea of hacking computers, so maybe it's just me, but news that a group of hackers purports to have discovered the PS3's "root key" fascinates me.

Everyone's favorite social networking site has a newly estimated value of $50 billion. That's a lot of "likes" people.

Those who know me well, know that I am a word nerd and proud of it, so it is unsurprising indeed that I absolutely love this map of American English Dialects (HT to Kottke).

And, finally, it's the first Monday of 2011 (pronounced twenty-eleven, apparently), so it's time to dig through your old stuff to make room for the new stuff, and your computer's desktop and hard drive are no exception. Lifehacker offers these (basic, but somewhat helpful) tips for organizing your digital life.