Best of the Best

Eddie Izzard - Unrepeatable - Horror Movies

2010-08-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian, actor and voice-over artist. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime. He has cited his main comedy role model as Monty Python, and John Cleese once referred to him as the "Lost Python." (...)

Unrepeatable is the title of a performance by British comedian Eddie Izzard. It was recorded in 1994 at the Albery Theatre, released on DVD, and follows his first show, Live at the Ambassadors.

Eddie Izzard - Cats and Dogs

2010-08-19T20:15:00.000-07:00

Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian, actor and voice-over artist. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime. He has cited his main comedy role model as Monty Python, and John Cleese once referred to him as the "Lost Python." (...)

Unrepeatable is the title of a performance by British comedian Eddie Izzard. It was recorded in 1994 at the Albery Theatre, released on DVD, and follows his first show, Live at the Ambassadors.

Video Games and the Uncanny Valley

2010-07-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

Episode Four in Daniel Floyd's series of video "lectures," made in association with Edge. Co-written with James Portnow, cofounder of Divide By Zero Games. Loosely modeled after Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Zero Punctuation reviews. (...)

The uncanny valley is a hypothesis regarding the field of robotics. The theory holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers. The "valley" in question is a dip in a proposed graph of the positivity of human reaction as a function of a robot's lifelikeness.

The term was coined by roboticist Masahiro Mori as Bukimi no Tani Genshō (不気味の谷現象) in 1970, and has been linked to Ernst Jentsch's concept of "the uncanny" identified in a 1906 essay, "On the Psychology of the Uncanny". Jentsch's conception is famously elaborated upon by Sigmund Freud in a 1919 essay titled "The Uncanny" ("Das Unheimliche"). A similar problem exists in realistic 3D computer animation, such as with the films Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, The Polar Express, and Beowulf.

Johnnie Walker - The Man Who Walked Around The World

2010-07-24T23:32:00.000-07:00

Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch Whisky owned by Diageo and produced in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended Scotch whisky in the world, sold in almost every country with yearly sales of over 130 million bottles. (...)

In 2009 the advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty created a new short film, starring Robert Carlyle and called The Man Who Walked Around the World, which outlined the history of the Johnnie Walker brand.

160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

2010-07-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian American bodybuilder, actor, model, businessman, and politician, who is currently serving as the 38th Governor of California. (...)

Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon, noted for his lead role in such films as Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnold Strong" and "Arnie" during his acting career, and more recently the "Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator"). (...)

Celebrating the finest actor of our generation with 160 of his greatest movie quotes! First featured on Pajiba.com. Lines taken from 25 of Arnies finest films:
Batman & Robin, Collateral Damage, Commando, Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer, End of Days, Eraser, Jingle All the Way, Junior, Kindergarten Cop, Last Action Hero, Predator, Pumping Iron, Raw Deal, Red Heat, Red Sonja, The Running Man, The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Total Recall, True Lies, Twins, The 6th Day and Around the World in 80 Days.

Symphony of Science - 'Our Place in the Cosmos'

2010-07-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

"Our Place in the Cosmos", the third video from the Symphony of Science, was crafted using samples from Carl Sagan's Cosmos, Richard Dawkins' Genius of Charles Darwin series, Dawkins' TED Talk, Stephen Hawking's Universe series, Michio Kaku's interview on Physics and aliens, plus added visuals from Baraka, Koyaanisqatsi, History Channel's Universe series, and IMAX Cosmic Voyage. The themes present in this song are intended to explore our understanding of our origins within the universe, and to challenge the commonplace notion that humans have a superior or privleged position, both on our home planet and in the universe itself.

The Symphony of Science is a music project created by Washington-based electronic musician John Boswell. The project seeks to "spread scientific knowledge and philosophy through musical remixes." Boswell uses pitch corrected audio and video samples from television programs featuring popular scientists and educators. The audio and video clips are mixed into digital mashups and scored with Boswell's original compositions. Two of Boswell's music videos, "A Glorious Dawn" and "We are All Connected", feature appearances from Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and Stephen Hawking. The audio and video is sampled from popular science television shows including Cosmos, The Universe, The Eyes of Nye, The Elegant Universe, and Stephen Hawking's Universe.

Nike Football Write The Future - Full length version

2010-07-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

Write The Future is an advert for Nike football. The full version is over three minutes in length and features football players Didier Drogba, Fabio Cannavaro, Wayne Rooney, Franck Ribéry, Ronaldinho, and Cristiano Ronaldo as its main players. All of the players play in a scenario during a World Cup match and after significant events occur, the players usually see a significant ripple effect outside the world of football. It airs during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It can be considered a sequel to a previous advert entitled "Take It To The Next Level", which aired in 2008, and features similar people. It features the song "Hocus Pocus," by Progressive rock band Focus.

RedHat Linux commercial

2010-07-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

Red Hat, Inc. is a company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide.

Red Hat has become associated to a large extent with its enterprise operating system Red Hat Enterprise Linux and with the acquisition of open-source enterprise middleware vendor JBoss. Red Hat provides operating-system platforms along with middleware, applications, and management products, as well as support, training, and consulting services.

The Philosophy of Liberty

2010-07-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible is a libertarian book written by Ken Schoolland, a libertarian and professor of economics. Although it is read by many adults, it is aimed at the young audience, hoping to show young people Schoolland's concerns about statist society in ways they can easily understand.

The preface of the book, "The Philosophy of Liberty", has been turned into a very popular short film, distributed on the internet in many formats, including flash animation, video, slideshow or text, in around forty languages.

Black & White Introduction [High Quality]

2010-07-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Black & White is a computer game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts and Feral Interactive. It is a god game released in 2001, which included elements of artificial life, strategy, and fighting games.

The player acts as a god and takes control over villages across several islands. Black & White features a unique gameplay element, a creature that the player can raise and teach. The game was highly anticipated and overall well received. (...)

This is the introduction video of Black & White. A video game released on March 25, 2001. It was developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts and Feral Interactive.

Eddie Izzard - Dentists (Sexie)

2010-07-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Edward John "Eddie" Izzard is a British stand-up comedian, actor and voice-over artist. His comedy style takes the form of rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime. He has cited his main comedy role model as Monty Python, and John Cleese once referred to him as the "Lost Python." (...)

Sexie is the name of the 2003 tour by Eddie Izzard. The tour covered Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Topics covered on this tour include transvestitism, aeroplanes, superheroes, Greek mythology, the planet Mars, the emergency services, sharks, human evolution, dentists, firemen, horses, and the "Baguetti Western" Blueberry in which he starred as a German cowboy. As an encore, Eddie does his most recent "bad impression", Christopher Walken.

Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception

2010-07-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

Michael Shermer says the human tendency to believe strange things -- from alien abductions to dowsing rods -- boils down to two of the brain's most basic, hard-wired survival skills. He explains what they are, and how they get us into trouble. (...)

Michael Brant Shermer is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television (now ABC Family) series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2004, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column.

Say Say Say - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson

2010-07-21T11:18:00.000-07:00

"Say Say Say" is a pop song that was written and performed by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson. The track was produced by George Martin for McCartney's fifth solo album, Pipes of Peace (1983). The song was recorded during production of McCartney's 1982 Tug of War album, about a year before the release of "The Girl Is Mine"—the pair's first duet from Jackson's record-breaking album, Thriller (1982). After its release in October 1983, "Say Say Say" became Jackson's seventh top-ten hit inside a year. It was a number one hit in the United States, Norway, and Sweden, reached number two in the United Kingdom, and peaked within the top ten in Australia, Austria, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

Certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, the song was promoted with a music video directed by Bob Giraldi. The video, filmed in Santa Ynez Valley, California, featured cameo appearances by Linda McCartney and La Toya Jackson. The short film centers around two con artists called "Mac and Jack" (played by McCartney and Jackson), and is credited for the introduction of dialogue and storyline to music videos.

Intel "Lunch Room" 2010 Super Bowl XLIV Commercial Ad

2010-07-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Intel's 2010 Super Bowl XLIV spot starring Jeffrey the Robot (...)

Intel Corporation is a technology company, and the world's largest semiconductor chip maker, based on revenue. It is the inventor of the x86 series of microprocessors, the processors found in most personal computers. Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, as Integrated Electronics Corporation (though a common misconception is that "Intel" is from the word intelligence) and is based in Santa Clara, California, USA. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network interface controllers and integrated circuits, flash memory, graphic chips, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Founded by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore, and widely associated with the executive leadership and vision of Andrew Grove, Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. Originally known primarily to engineers and technologists, Intel's "Intel Inside" advertising campaign of the 1990s made it and its Pentium processor household names.

Thomas Sowell on the Housing Boom and Bust

2010-07-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell discusses how we got into the current economic disaster that developed out of the economics and politics of the housing boom and bust.(...)

Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social critic, political commentator and author. He often writes as an advocate of laissez-faire economics. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the American Enterprise Institute. In 2002 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal for prolific scholarship melding history, economics, and political science. In 2003, he was awarded the Bradley Prize for intellectual achievement.

Don't Make Me Get My Main

2010-07-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

The MP3 for this song is on Cranius' newly-released album, "Big Blue Dress". Legs and Cranius submitted this movie to the Blizzcon 2009 movie contest, and they took first place. (...)

"Don't Make Me Get My Main" is a story about a guy who is being camped in Stranglethorn Vale while leveling an alt. He tries to convince his attacker that messing with him is a bad idea because he's a skilled PvPer. Eventually he has to logout and get his main character to come to the defense of his alt.

Human Sacrifice - That Mitchell and Webb Look

2010-07-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

That Mitchell and Webb Look is a British television sketch show starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Shown on BBC Two since 2006, its first two series were directed by David Kerr, who also directed Mitchell and Webb's previous television sketch show The Mitchell and Webb Situation, whereas series 3 and 4 are directed by Ben Gosling Fuller. (...)

In another clip from the final episode of the third series of Mitchell & Webb Look, we get to see God and Arbaham discuss a new idea which turns out to be Human Sacrifice. This clip was taking from S03E06 which aired on 16th July 2009.

Address tae the haggis

2009-12-17T18:39:00.000-08:00

Address tae The haggis by Harry MacFadyen (...)

A Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems including "Auld Lang Syne," which is generally sung as a folk song at Hogmanay and other New Year celebrations around the world. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year. (...)

Everyone stands as the main course is brought in. This is always a haggis on a large dish. It is brought in by the cook, generally while a piper plays bagpipes and leads the way to the host's table, where the haggis is laid down. He/she might play 'A man's a man for a' that'. The host, or perhaps a guest with a talent, then recites the Address To a Haggis:

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dicht,
An' cut you up wi' ready slicht,
Trenching your gushing entrails bricht,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sicht,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmaist! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
"Bethankit" hums.

Is there that o're his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect scunner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his wallie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whistle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thristle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinkin ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

At the line His knife see rustic Labour dicht the speaker normally draws and cleans a knife, and at the line An' cut you up wi' ready slicht, plunges it into the haggis and cuts it open from end to end. When done properly this "ceremony" is a highlight of the evening.

Film School NYFA - They're Made Out Of Meat

2009-12-17T18:26:00.000-08:00

Short film produced at the New York Film Academy and directed by Stephen o'regan. (...)

They're Made Out of Meat is a Nebula Award-nominated short story by Terry Bisson. It was originally published in OMNI. It consists entirely of dialogue between two characters, and Bisson's website hosts a theatrical adaptation. A film adaptation won the Grand Prize at the Seattle Science Fiction Museum's 2006 film festival.

The two characters are sentient beings capable of traveling faster than light, on a mission to "contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe." Bisson's stage directions represent them as "two lights moving like fireflies among the stars" on a projection screen. They converse briefly on their bizarre discovery of carbon-based life, which they refer to incredulously as "thinking meat." They agree to "erase the records and forget the whole thing," marking the Solar System "unoccupied."

The story was collected in the 1993 anthology Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, and has circulated widely on the Internet, which Bisson finds "flattering." It has been quoted in cognitive, cosmological, and philosophical scholarship.

Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

2009-12-17T18:14:00.001-08:00

[A] musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn - Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan's Cosmos and Stephen Hawking's Universe series. For more songs and their MP3s (including this one) check The Symphony of Science and Colorpulse.

Lyrics:

[Sagan]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect
It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes
it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has its own language
For testing the structure and consistency of the world

[Hawking]
For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas

[Sagan}
How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we've waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting

Ulduar

2009-08-31T14:21:00.000-07:00

Here's [Summergale's] first collaboration with Cranius, a highly talented musician and machinima producer, and the incredibly awesome machinima artist Legs. Without their help and huge contributions, this video would likely have never seen the light of day. (...)

"Ulduar" has a bit of a "Romeo and Juliet" theme, where the PvEer (sung by Summergale) is dating the PvPer (sung by Cranius). He's a punk and a bit of a rebel. She's a highly-skilled and geared raider. She wants to bring him along to her playground of choice, the newest most challenging raid instance. He wants nothing to do with it and wants to show her the dark side of PvP.

The Lord of The Rings: Andúril, Flame of the West

2009-08-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson that is based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and the concluding film in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy following The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002).

As Sauron launches the final stages of his conquest of Middle-earth, Gandalf the Wizard, and Théoden King of Rohan rally their forces to help defend Gondor's capital Minas Tirith from the looming threat. Aragorn finally claims the throne of Gondor and summons an army of ghosts to help him defeat Sauron. Ultimately, even with full strength of arms, they realize they cannot win; so it comes down to the Hobbits, Frodo and Sam, who face the burden of the Ring and the treachery of Gollum, and finally arrive at Mordor, seeking to destroy the One Ring in Mount Doom. (...)

Meanwhile Elrond arrives at the weapon-take of Dunharrow and reveals himself to Aragorn. He presents Aragorn with his birthright - the newly forged Andúril, Flame of the West. He urges Aragorn to use this sword, forged from the shards of Narsil, to recall the Dead Men of Dunharrow and use their allegiance to the heir of Isildur (i.e. Aragorn) to stop the attack of the Corsairs ships from the south. Aragorn accepts this counsel and rides off that very night into the Dimholt, along with Legolas and Gimli.

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond

2009-08-26T00:03:00.000-07:00

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 fantasy adventure film directed by Peter Jackson based on the similarly titled first volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Set in Middle-earth, the story tells of the Dark Lord Sauron (Sala Baker), who is seeking the One Ring (Alan Howard voice). The Ring has found its way to the young hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). The fate of Middle-earth hangs in the balance as Frodo and eight companions form the Fellowship of the Ring, and journey to Mount Doom in the land of Mordor: the only place where the Ring can be destroyed. (...)

In Rivendell Frodo meets Gandalf, who explains why he didn't meet them at Bree as planned (he had escaped Orthanc and Saruman's clutches with the help of an eagle). In the meantime, there are many meetings between various peoples, and Elrond calls a council to decide what should be done with the Ring. The Ring can only be destroyed by throwing it into the fires of Mount Doom, where it was forged. Mount Doom is located in Mordor, near Sauron's fortress of Barad-dûr, and the journey to it will be incredibly dangerous. Frodo volunteers to take the Ring to Mount Doom as all the others argue about who should or shouldn't take it. He is accompanied by his hobbit friends and Gandalf, as well as Strider, who is revealed to be Aragorn, the rightful heir to the throne of Gondor. Also travelling with them are the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli and Boromir, the son of the Steward of Gondor. Together they comprise the Fellowship of the Ring.

George Carlin - Saving the Planet

2009-08-10T17:46:00.000-07:00

George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian. He was also an actor and author, and he won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums. Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves. (...)

[In this video] George talks about the self important attitude of people who think the planet is headed for total destruction.

Mtn Dew Game Fuel ® World of Warcaft ® Edition "Choose Your Side"

2009-08-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

To help celebrate the launch of Mountain Dew Game Fuel® Citrus Cherry and Mountain Dew Game Fuel® Wild Fruit, Blizzard Entertainment® and Mountain Dew team up for a unique sweepstakes promotion. (...)

World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994. World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, two years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

Wrought

2009-08-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

"The movie was created by me [Legs] and Cranius.

The song used (Wrought) is by the awesome rock band "Peratus". Go listen to more of their music if you like Wrought! (...)

Our interpretation of their song is a tragedy which unfolds as you see flashbacks from the perspective of an undead warrior who recalls how he fell in love with a beautiful blood elf before his undead existence, a forbidden love which was unacceptable to her people."

Paul Romer's radical idea: Charter cities

2009-08-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: "charter cities," city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

Dragon Ball Z - Goku turns super saiyan for the first time

2009-08-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール, Doragon Bōru) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 through 1995, and later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Inspired by the Chinese folk novel Journey to the West, it follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through middle age as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical objects known as the Dragon Balls, which are known to grant any wish. Along his trip, Goku meets several friends and fights against several villains who plan to get the Dragon Balls to grant their wishes and some who aim to conquer the world. (...)

DBZ 80 - Transformed at Last

Goku, enraged by his Krillin's death, turns super saiyan for the first time on planet Namek.

Policy Peril: The Truth About Global Warming

2009-07-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

Competitive Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis explains the truth about global warming in his film Policy Peril: Why Global Warming Policies Are More Dangerous Than Global Warming Itself.

Lily Allen - The Fear

2009-07-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

"The Fear" (also known by its working title, "I Don't Know") is the UK Number 1-lead single from British singer-songwriter Lily Allen's second album It's Not Me, It's You. Originally, "Everyone's at It" was to be the lead single, but it was replaced instead with "The Fear". The song was released digitally on January 23, 2009. The Wideboys and StoneBridge have both remixed this track. (...)

The video was directed by Nez. It begins with Allen singing from inside a caravan with a washing strew on the right with underwear and a teddybear. She exits, however upon returning, the interior of the mobile home transforms into the hall of a country house. She then wanders throughout the ornate house, which contains colourful and expensive-looking rooms. The music video includes dancing butlers, giant dancing presents, dancing balloons, coloured smoke and confetti located around different rooms of the house. The last scene is shot from an aerial view; the camera moves upwards through grey, miserable clouds contrasting with the colourful "party" that Allen was attending throughout the rest of the song. The video was directed by Nez. It was filmed at Wrest Park, Bedfordshire, England.

MATT RIDLEY ON EVOLUTION, ECONOMICS, AND "IDEAS HAVING SEX"

2009-07-23T16:24:00.000-07:00

Matt Ridley, an Oxford-educated zoologist, turned to journalism in 1983 when he got a job as The Economist’s science reporter. He soon became the magazine’s Washington correspondent and eventually served as its American editor.

Ridley has written several acclaimed books that combine clear explanations of complex biology with discussions of the science’s implications for human society. In the reason.tv interview, Ridley discusses some of the themes in The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature; The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation; Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters; and Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, & What Makes Us Human; as well as his forthcoming book which seeks to understand how and why human progress happens.

Paul Feine and Alex Manning interviewed Ridley in the Milton and Rose Friedman Reading Room at Chapman University in Orange, California.

Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

2009-07-23T04:43:00.000-07:00

The solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 was the longest total solar eclipse during the 21st century, not to be surpassed until June 2132. It lasted a maximum of 6 minutes and 39 seconds off the coast of Southeast Asia, causing tourist interest in eastern China, India and Nepal. This was the second in the series of three eclipses in a one-month period, being book-ended by two minor penumbral lunar eclipses, on July 7 and on August 6.

SEAT Leon commercial

2009-07-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

In a lonely tavern 5 different men are recounting seeing something at 8am in the morning, one sees a dark shadow with a deep roar, the next man saw it 7 miles away going out of town, a bearded man saw it on the mountain road and when he blinked it was gone, a man playing darts saw it at the lake as it disappeared into the fog. The last man appears from the darkness and says it looks like there is more than one out there.

He's Barack Obama

2009-07-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

Its a bird! Its a plane! No, he's Barack Obama and hes come to save the day! JibJab puts the rock in Barack with a new, over-the-top satire that debuted in front of the President himself this Friday at the Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner!

Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum in Bric-a-Brac Independence Day

2009-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

What if America had been founded by the characters in the movie Independence Day? Mr. T hosts as Celebrity Bric-a-Brac Theater tells the revised story of the founding of our nation. And there's Daleks.

Nathan "Flutebox" Lee and Beardyman @ Google, London

2009-06-14T19:16:00.000-07:00

The UK's premier beatboxers (Nathan "Flutebox" Lee and Beardyman) performing live at the Google offices in London.

Intel - Ajay Bhatt Is A Rockstar

2009-06-14T03:14:00.000-07:00

Intel just kicks off its multi-year global campaign with the goal of conveying a message that how far the computing industry has advanced with the chip giant's technologies. The first ad that appears on YouTube focuses on the co-inventor of Universal Serial Bus (USB), Ajay V. Bhatt, who holds several patents on the most broadly adopted external bus standard.
The ad begins with him going for a cup of coffee. An adoring fan show his appreciation with his home-made Ajay tee shirt, and several others surround him trying to get an autograph from the Intel Fellow and Chief Client Architect.

Paramore - Decode

2009-06-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

"Decode" is a song by Paramore released as a single from the soundtrack to the film Twilight. (...)

The official music video premiered on November 3, 2008 on MTVu, MTV, MTV2 and on MTV.com and was directed by Shane Drake. The video features the band members walking and performing in the woods, in Nashville, Tennessee (even though in the video, it is clearly supposed to be Forks, Washington). While they play, there are also scenes of the band acting as tracker vampires searching through the woods. Scenes from Twilight are also intercut.

Futurama - Fry's Dog Waiting

2009-06-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

Video Games | Futurama- Fry's Dog Waiting

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

"Jurassic Bark" is the seventh episode of season four of the television series Futurama, airing November 17, 2002. It was nominated for an Emmy Award, but lost to The Simpsons. (...)

When Fry takes Bender to a museum exhibit, he is shocked to find a fossilized dog on display, which he recognizes as his pet from the 20th century, Seymour. For three days he protests in front of the museum by dancing to "The Hustle" by Van Mccoy, demanding they give him Seymour's body back, which proves successful. The professor then examines Seymour's body, and concludes that, due to his unusually rapid fossilization, a DNA sample can be made to produce a clone, and it would even be possible to recreate Seymour's personality and memory.

Fry begins to prepare for the dog and Bender becomes jealous, especially when Fry refers to Seymour as "my best friend". Just when the professor is ready to clone Seymour, Bender arrives. Angry that Fry will not spend time with him, he grabs the fossil and throws it in a pit of lava, believing that destroying it will restore his friendship with Fry.

Fry is furious at Bender and extremely upset at having lost Seymour. Bender realizes how Fry could love an inferior creature and apologies for what he did. The professor explains that the fossil may not have instantly melted, as it was made of dolomite. With this in mind, Bender, claiming to be partly made from dolomite, dives into the lava and recovers the fossil.

The professor begins the cloning process and his computer informs him that Seymour died at the age of 15, meaning he lived for twelve years after Fry was frozen. Fry has the cloning process aborted, believing that Seymour will have moved on with his life and forgotten about him. A flashback then shows that Seymour waited for Fry in front of Panucci's Pizza, where he worked, and never left that spot for twelve years. In the final shot an aged Seymour lies down and closes his eyes.

Authors@Google: David Friedman

2008-09-15T22:52:00.000-07:00

David Friedman visits Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss his book "Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World." This event took place on September 3, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

In his brand new work, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, the famed economist David Friedman presents a variety of technological revolutions in the next 20 years and their implications. If dead could be brought alive, genes of the unborn could be picked and matched to a perfect combination, and robotic flies are the future of surveillance cameras, then what does this all mean for the traditional values and ideals our society is based on? Our passive consumption of evolving technology could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play.

David D. Friedman is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, California. After receiving a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of Chicago, he switched fields to economics and taught at Virginia Polytechnic University, the University of California at Irvine, the University of California at Los Angeles, Tulane University, the University of Chicago, and Santa Clara University. A professional interest in the economics of law led to positions at the law schools of the University of Chicago and Cornell and thereafter to his present position, where he developed the course on legal issues of the twenty-first century, which led to his writing Future Imperfect.

"Fake" Arnold Schwarzenegger pranks George Takei

2008-09-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

"Fake" Arnold Schwarzenegger (voice of Josh Robert Thompson) fools "Star Trek" legend, George Takei, into believing he's talking with the REAL Governor of California. Voted "Top 10 of 2006" on "The Howard Stern Show."

Phantom of the Opera - Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley

2008-09-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the book written by the French novelist Gaston Leroux. The music was composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart and additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe directed by Hal Prince, choreographed by Gillian Lynne, lighting by Andrew Bridge and designed by Maria Bjornson.

The musical focuses on a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius known as "The Phantom of the Opera", who terrorizes the Paris Opera House. It opened on the West End in 1986 and in 2008 surpassed its 9,000th performance there. It is the second longest-running West End musical in history and the longest-running Broadway musical. It was made into a film in 2004 and, according to its official website, it is the most successful entertainment project in history, grossing more than £1.8bn ($3.2bn) by 2007.

Large Hadron Rap

2008-09-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

Rappin' about CERN's Large Hadron Collider

University of London External System (2)

2008-09-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

The University of London External System (until recently the University of London External Programme) is the external degree granting division of the University of London. (...)

When the first "London University" was established in 1828, the institution, Scottish in curriculum and teaching, was non-denominational. As such, given the intense religious rivalries at the time, there was an outcry against the "godless" university. The issue soon boiled down to which institutions had degree-granting powers, and which institutions didn't.

The compromise solution that emerged in 1836 was that the sole authority to conduct the examinations leading to degrees would be given to a new entity called the "University of London". As Sheldon Rothblatt states, "thus arose in nearly archetypal form the famous English distinction between teaching and examining, here embodied in separate institutions."

With the state giving examining powers to a separate entity, the groundwork was laid for the creation of a programme within the new university that would both administer exams and award qualifications to students either pursuing instruction at another institution, or pursuing a course of self-directed study.

Richard Dawkins - Beware the Believers

2008-04-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

My name is D to the I to C to the K, Yeah I'm the Dickie D,
I gots my PhD and comin' your way on the Youtube to bust your world view so just listen to me and don't you argue.

You see, this battle's been ragin' since Zeus was on the bottle,'tween Science like Democritus and Faith like Aristotle, who said the mover was unmovin' like some magic trick but that's no good logic, my posse is far too quick for this religious sthick.

Cos science is the only way to know y'all, you stand with me y'all, or you can fall y'all

So go ahead and take your pick...

ES: Yeah you tell him Rick ...
Darwin : Cos if you don't know me ...

RD: YOU DON'T KNOW DICK!!

Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!

SH:On the shoulders of midgets we built up this machine,
DD:YEAH!!!

RD: Science silenced that watchdog wingnut Paley
growing stronger and harder almost daily, storming Wilber by force as we framed the discourse that faith and science are split in schismatic divorce.

Then Darwin took to the seas to see what no one had seen, and ever since then we've been increasingly keen, they may never adore us, but they'll no longer ignore us, give it to 'em PZ hit these BLEEP with the chorus!!!

Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's still smarter than you he studied biology!

Then there was Darrow dukin' it out with the straight and the narrow, a ragin' bull in the ring, he did his thing, and took it on the chin like he was Bobby De Niro.

We might have lost at Scopes, beaten down by the dopes, and the stooges of popes, but in losin' we coped, becomin' more than we hoped, creationists slipped on the soap of their own slippery slope.

What was impossible, improbable, is now wholly unstoppable untoppleable, the Dick Doc'll roll up as you creationists foldup

you haters talkin' bull,
don't you know that this Dick is un-cock-frickin' blockable ...

Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's still smarter than you he studied biology!

Now the machine of our making, sees culture ripe for the taking,

Cos I'm the rappinest, rabidest atheist who unlike the Catholic, Muslim or even the Jew, believes that no God but science could ever be true, hell if I was dyslexic I'd even hate "dog" too.

Time to open your eyes, get yourself wise, the age of science will rise to be religion's demise, and while you churchies all cry, shouting 'why God oh why,' I'll still be poppin' my collar earning more dollars than Allah.

Hollah!

Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's still smarter than you he studied biology!

Chorus : Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
The Dick to the Dawk to the PhD,
he's still smarter than you he studied biology!

University of London External System

2008-04-26T23:15:00.000-07:00

The University of London External System (until recently the University of London External Programme) is the external degree granting division of the University of London. (...)

When the first "London University" was established in 1828, the institution, Scottish in curriculum and teaching, was non-denominational. As such, given the intense religious rivalries at the time, there was an outcry against the "godless" university. The issue soon boiled down to which institutions had degree-granting powers, and which institutions didn't.

The compromise solution that emerged in 1836 was that the sole authority to conduct the examinations leading to degrees would be given to a new entity called the "University of London". As Sheldon Rothblatt states, "thus arose in nearly archetypal form the famous English distinction between teaching and examining, here embodied in separate institutions."

With the state giving examining powers to a separate entity, the groundwork was laid for the creation of a programme within the new university that would both administer exams and award qualifications to students either pursuing instruction at another institution, or pursuing a course of self-directed study.

Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

2008-04-05T00:05:00.000-07:00

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

"Journeys" are special University Lectures in which Carnegie Mellon faculty members share their reflections on their journeys -- the everyday actions, decisions, challenges and joys that make a life.

Bill Gates Unplugged

2008-04-04T23:59:00.000-07:00

Carnegie Mellon was the final stop on Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' recent tour of several nationally recognized universities.

As founder, chairman and former CEO of Microsoft, Gates revolutionized personal computing in the digital information age. His talk at Carnegie Mellon concluded his farewell lecture tour as he transitions from Microsoft into his new role in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission it is to bring innovations in health and learning to the global community.

Microsoft is one of the university's top corporate supporters, partnering with Carnegie Mellon in many ways. More than 300 university alumni currently work at Microsoft offices around the globe. Carnegie Mellon is also home to the Microsoft Research-sponsored Center for Computational Thinking, launched in March 2007 in an effort to stimulate collaborative research and educational partnerships. With a lead gift of $20 million, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made possible the Gates Center, one of two groundbreaking buildings that will create Carnegie Mellon's new School of Computer Science Complex.

Physics and History: Fractured in Modernity

2008-03-31T02:14:00.000-07:00

Experimental physical science and modern universal history came into the world about the same time, around 1550, and developed symbiotically for 250 years or more. The lectures discuss their coevel origin, parallel development, and subsequent separation.

John L. Heilbron is an American historian of science best known for his work in the history of physics and the history of astronomy. He is Professor of History and Vice-Chancellor Emeritus (Vice-Chancellor 1990-1994) at the University of California, Berkeley, senior research fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, and visiting professor at Yale University. He edited the academic journal Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences for twenty-five years.

Mark Brown - The Journey Continues ft Sarah Cracknell

2008-03-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

In December 2007, BBC radio began playing "The Journey Continues" by Mark Brown featuring Sarah Cracknell. The song consists of extensive samples from a composition by Elena Kats-Chernin entitled Eliza's Aria, well known to UK TV viewers as the music from the computer-animated 'For the Journey' commercials for Lloyds TSB bank. Release is scheduled for February 2008 on Positiva. The song peaked at #11 in the UK after being released.

The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate

2008-03-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Mises Memorial Lecture, The Anti-Capitalists: Barbarians at the Gate, given by Larry Sechrest at the 2008 Austrian Scholars Conference, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn Alabama; 15 March 2008.(...)

Larry J. Sechrest is a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute, and Professor of Economics and Director of the Free Enterprise Institute at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Arlington, where his undergraduate work was in history and philosophy with graduate work in economics and finance. He is a Foundation Scholar with the Foundation for the Advancement of Monetary Education in New York City and also serves as a Trustee of the Free Radical Foundation in Wellington, New Zealand and on the Board of Advisors of the Defense of Freedom Foundation in Newport Beach, California.

Steven Pinker: The stuff of thought

2008-03-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

In an exclusive preview of his new book, The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker looks at language, and the way it expresses the workings of our minds. By analyzing common sentences and words, he shows us how, in what we say and how we say it, we're communicating much more than we realize. (...)

Steven Pinker is a prominent Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and author of popular science. Pinker is known for his wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.

Tech Talk: Linus Torvalds on git

2008-03-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

Linus Torvalds visits Google to share his thoughts on git, the source control management system he created two years ago. (...) Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish software engineer best known for initiating the development of the Linux kernel. He now acts as the project's coordinator.

Total Lunar Eclipse - February 20, 2008

2008-03-06T17:33:00.000-08:00

A total lunar eclipse occurred on the evening of Wednesday, February 20, and morning of Thursday, February 21, 2008. It was visible in the eastern evening sky on February 20 for all of North and South America, and on February 21 in the predawn western sky from most of Africa and Europe.

The total lunar eclipse is the first of the two lunar eclipses in 2008, with the second, the August 16, 2008 event being partial. The next total lunar eclipse will occur on December 21, 2010.

What is Anti-Americanism? The Case of France

2008-03-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

Speaker: Sophie Meunier, research fellow in theWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Six Feet Under Last Episode

2008-03-06T17:26:00.000-08:00

Six Feet Under is an American television drama created by Alan Ball that was originally broadcast from 2001 to 2005. It was produced by Alan Ball, Alan Poul, Robert Greenblatt and David Janollari. The series centers on a family-run mortuary, Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, and explores the lives of the Fisher family following the death of the family patriarch (the title being a colloquialism/euphemism for death, six feet being the traditional depth at which a body would be laid). The series is set in modern-day Los Angeles. (...)

The show received critical acclaim from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and The New York Times, among other media, and has garnered praise from fellow television producers and funeral directors. In total, Six Feet Under won three Golden Globe Awards and nine Emmy Awards. The series won the Golden Globe award for Outstanding Drama Series and Best Supporting Actress for Rachel Griffiths in 2002. Frances Conroy went on to receive the award for Best Actress in a Drama for the Golden Globes in 2004. The show also won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Ensemble for a Drama Series two years in a row (2003–2004).

Authors@Google: Michael Shermer

2008-03-06T17:22:00.000-08:00

Michael Shermer discusses his book "Mind of the Market" as part of the Authors@Google series.

How did we evolve from ancient hunter-gatherers to modern consumer-traders? Why are people so irrational when it comes to money and business? Bestselling author Dr. Michael Shermer argues that evolution provides an answer to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary economics. Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics, Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies, why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both examples of a larger phenomenon of complex adaptive systems. Along the way, Shermer answers such provocative questions as: Do our tribal roots mean that we will always be a sucker for brands? How is the biochemical joy of sex similar to the rewards of business cooperation? How can nations increase trust within and between their borders? Finally, Shermer considers the consequences of globalization and what will happen if nations allow free trade across their borders.

IBM Linux ad: Prodigy

2008-03-06T17:08:00.000-08:00

Linux advertisement from IBM, released in September 2003: "The Future is Open"

Both ads were produced by Ogilvy, but this year's version looks more like continuation of Stanley Kubrick's film "2001" than a series of ESPN highlights. Linux has morphed from being a starting player on the IBM team to being the franchise player. It is portrayed in the new ad as a young boy, a prodigy absorbing knowledge from a variety of masters, and making it available to everyone.

Sylvia Nasar, author of "A Beautiful Mind" advises young Linux that "One little thing can solve an incredibly complex problem." Muhammad Ali instructs him to "Speak your mind. Don't back down." John Wooden, the greatest basketball coach of all time, tells him "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that's teamwork.

Michael Shermer on Charlie Rose on Pseudoscience

2007-12-03T05:07:00.000-08:00

Michael Shermer discusses Carl Sagan, science, pseudoscience, and the paranormal on PBS's Charlie Rose, during his book tour for Why People Believe Weird Things. (...)

Michael Shermer is a science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating and debunking pseudoscientific and supernatural claims.

Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television series Exploring the Unknown and since April 2004 has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column.

The Greatest Action Story Ever Told

2007-12-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

MADtv parody of The Terminator series featuring Jesus Christ.

Star Trek Moments: Best of Both Worlds Cliffhanger

2007-11-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

"The Best of Both Worlds" is a two-part episode from the third/fourth seasons of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. (...)

"The Best of Both Worlds" is a significant and highly regarded two-part episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that was written by Michael Piller and directed by Cliff Bole. Part I first aired during the week of June 18, 1990 as the third season finale and ended as a cliffhanger and fandom speculation began to mount about the fate of Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D (...)

Borg drones start attacking them, but just before the away team is beamed back, they are horrified to see an assimilated Picard.

Although unable to save Picard, their actions force the Borg to drop to impulse and give the Enterprise a chance to use their weapon. Riker asks if the weapon is ready, and Geordi confirms. Shelby, though, wants to try to save Picard, though there are only minutes left and the Borg appear ready to return to warp. Suddenly they are hailed by the Borg ship. "Picard", now Locutus, appears on the viewscreen, and delivers an ultimatum:

"I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life, as it has been, is over. From this time forward, you will service us."

Faced with the prospect of losing his captain or risking the future of humanity, Riker orders Worf to destroy the cube - "Fire."

Silicon Valley Linux Users Group - Kernel Walkthrough

2007-11-24T18:07:00.000-08:00

The Silicon Valley Linux Users Group hosts weekly sessions to walk through the code for the Linux Kernel, allowing newer users and developers to better understanding the operating system.

Rowan Atkinson LIVE: Fatal Beatings

2007-11-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is an English comedian, actor and writer, famous for his title roles in the British television comedies Blackadder and Mr. Bean.

Atkinson has been listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest acts in British comedy, and amongst the top 50 comedy acts ever in a 2005 poll of fellow comedians.

(...)

A father of a child had been called for a meeting with a teacher who is about to tell a
tragic news regarding his son.

Milton Friedman - Greed

2007-10-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

Milton Friedman was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. An advocate of economic freedom and personal liberty, Friedman made major contributions to the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history and statistics. In 1976, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for his achievements in the fields of consumption analysis, monetary history and theory, and for his demonstration of the complexity of stabilization policy.

In this excerpt from an interview with Phil Donahue in 1979, Friedman discusses greed and capitalism.

Authors@Google: Phillip Zimbardo

2007-10-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it? Renow-ned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains how---and the myriad reasons why---we are all susceptible to the lure of "the dark side." Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women.

Zimbardo, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University, is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. For the first time, he tells the full story of this landmark study, in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into "guards" and "inmates" and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners.

Steven Pinker: A brief history of violence

2007-10-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

In a preview of his next book, Steven Pinker takes on violence. We live in violent times, an era of heightened warfare, genocide and senseless crime. Or so we've come to believe. Pinker charts a history of violence from Biblical times through the present, and says modern society has a little less to feel guilty about.

Steven Pinker is a prominent Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer known for his spirited and wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind.

Authors@Google: Bjorn Lomborg

2007-10-21T04:28:00.000-07:00

In Cool It, Bjørn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world's temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply—which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

Bjørn Lomborg is the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2004 and has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Economist. He is presently an adjunct professor at the Copenhagen Business School, and in 2004 he started the Copenhagen Consensus, a conference of top economists who come together to prioritize the best solutions for the world's greatest challenges.

John Stossel's 'Stupid in America'

2007-10-20T01:49:00.000-07:00

"Stupid in America" is a nasty title for a program about public education, but some nasty things are going on in America's public schools and it's about time we face up to it.

Kids at New York's Abraham Lincoln High School told me their teachers are so dull students fall asleep in class. One student said, "You see kids all the time walking in the school smoking weed, you know. It's a normal thing here."

We tried to bring "20/20" cameras into New York City schools to see for ourselves and show you what's going on in the schools, but officials wouldn't allow it.

I, Pencil

2007-10-20T01:37:00.000-07:00

I, Pencil is Leonard Read's most famous essay. The full title is "I, Pencil. My Family Tree as told to Leonard E. Read" and it was first published in the December, 1958 issue of The Freeman. It was reprinted in The Freeman in May 1996 and as a pamphlet entitled "I...Pencil" in May 1998. In the reprint, Milton Friedman wrote the introduction and Donald J. Boudreaux wrote the afterword. Friedman (the 1976 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) used the essay in his 1980 PBS television show Free to Choose and the accompanying book of the same name.

"I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the point of view of an Eberhard Faber pencil. The pencil details the complexity of its own creation, listing its components (cedar, lacquer, graphite, ferrule, factice, pumice, wax, glue) and the numerous people involved, down to the sweeper in the factory and the lighthouse keeper guiding the shipment into port.

Debunking myths about the "Third World"

2007-10-06T03:28:00.000-07:00

You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world" using extraordinary animation software developed by his Gapminder Foundation. The Trendalyzer software (recently acquired by Google) turns complex global trends into lively animations, making decades of data pop. Asian countries, as colorful bubbles, float across the grid -- toward better national health and wealth. Animated bell curves representing national income distribution squish and flatten. In Rosling's hands, global trends -- life expectancy, child mortality, poverty rates -- become clear, intuitive and even playful.

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

2007-10-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is a fictional beast from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. According to Tim the Enchanter, it "[has] a vicious streak a mile wide!", as well as "nasty, big, pointy teeth!" The creature has become known as the vorpal bunny, although this name does not appear in the film.

The Cave of Caerbannog ("Caer bannog" being Welsh for "turreted castle") is the home of the Legendary Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh, and is ostensibly guarded by a fearsome predator of an unknown description, because no one who attempts to enter the Cave or face the monster has ever lived to tell the tale.

The beast appears to be a cute, fluffy white rabbit, surrounded by the bones of the fallen. Despite Tim's warnings, King Arthur orders one of his knights, Bors, to decapitate the rabbit. Bors approaches it, sword drawn, and is immediately decapitated by the rabbit to the sound of a can opener. The knights attack in force, but are driven into retreat as the rabbit leaps and attacks, killing Gawain and Ector.

Principles of economics, translated

2007-10-06T02:37:00.000-07:00

Yoram Bauman has appeared at venues ranging from the New York Improv to the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting. He is a regular at the Comedy Underground in Seattle, where he runs Non-Profit Comedy, a political-ish comedy benefit show (featured in the Seattle P-I). When not performing stand-up he consults on climate change and other environmental economics issues and teaches at the University of Washington.

Comedian movie trailer

2007-10-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hal Douglas is an American voice actor best known for his work on movie trailers and television commercials.

Douglas is known in the film industry as the "In a world …" guy because many of his trailers have begun with these words, and his voice has immortalized them (although Don LaFontaine claims to have actually created the catchphrase). In addition, Douglas has been the promotional voice for the former WB, A&E and The History Channel. As of 2007, Douglas records promotional narrations for ABC along with theatrical trailers, but no longer does voice overs for the CW, the merger of The WB and UPN. His voice can also be heard as the "trailer announcer" in the 2006 movie, The Holiday. He can be seen parodying himself in the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld's film Comedian.

Authors@Google: Tyler Cowen

2007-10-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Tyler Cowen is a professor of economics and director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He writes for MarginalRevolution.com, the #1 economics blog according to blogpulse.com. Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics, called this blog "awesomely good, every day." Cowen also writes a monthly column for the business section of The New York Times, and contributes to many other publications.

In DISCOVER YOUR INNER ECONOMIST: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist , economics professor Tyler Cowen shows how many of our needs, whims, and wants can be understood through markets. Want to vent some anger? A bar in China lets you pay to beat up the staff. Want to talk to aliens? For $3.99 a minute a company will broadcast your phone call directly into space.

This event happened September 14, 2007 at the Google NY office.

Asimo Commercial

2007-10-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

ASIMO (アシモ, ashimo?) is a humanoid robot created by Honda Motor Company. Standing at 130 centimeters (4 feet 3 inches) and weighing 52 kilograms (119 lbs.), the robot resembles a small astronaut wearing a backpack and can walk on two feet at speeds up to 6 km/h (3.7 mph). ASIMO was created at Honda's Research & Development Wako Fundamental Technical Research Center in Japan. It is the current model in a line of eleven that began in 1986 with E0.

Officially, the name is an acronym for "Advanced Step in Innovative MObility". As of 2007, there are 46 ASIMO units in existence. Each one costs less than $1 million to manufacture, and some units are available to be hired out for $166,000 per year.

Authors@Google: Robert Frank

2007-09-14T18:31:00.000-07:00

Author Robert Frank discusses his book "The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas" as a part of the Authors@Google series. This event took place on July 23, 2007 at Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA. (...)

Robert Frank is the Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Management Professor of Economics at Cornell University's S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management. He is a monthly contributor to the "Economic Scene" column in The New York Times.

Creationism with Ricky Gervais

2007-09-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

Animals is a stand-up show written and performed by the comedian Ricky Gervais. As the title suggests Gervais uses aspects of the animal kingdom as his central theme. The show toured in 2003 and is now available on DVD.

Animals is one of three stand-up shows that Gervais has performed: the other two being Politics and Fame.

Metallica - Unforgiven II

2007-09-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

"The Unforgiven II" is a song performed by Metallica. It was written by James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett, and appears in the album ReLoad, as a sequel to "The Unforgiven" (which appears on Metallica).

It has been performed live only once: at a 1997 Billboard Awards when Metallica received the Artist of the Year award.

The Lord of the Rings - Through the Mines of Moria

2007-09-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson. It is the opening installment of the Lord of the Rings film trilogy, based on the similarly titled first volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's epic literary fantasy, The Lord of the Rings. Jackson began the project in 1995 as a two-part adaptation of Tolkien's work. (...)

The Fellowship set out and try to pass the mountain Caradhras, but they are stopped by Saruman's wizardry. They are forced to travel under the mountain through the Mines of Moria. After journeying partway through the Mines, Pippin accidentally gives away their presence to a band of orcs. The Fellowship then encounter a Balrog, an ancient demon of fire and shadow, at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm. Gandalf confronts the Balrog on the bridge, allowing the others to escape the mines, while he falls with the creature into the abyss below.

Singing Tesla Coil at Duckon 2007

2007-09-02T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear. So just to explain a little further, yes, it is the actual high voltage sparks that are making the noise. Every cycle of the music is a burst of sparks at 41 KHz, triggered by digital circuitry at the end of a "long" piece of fiber optics.

What's not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it's firing.

This Tesla coil was built and is owned by Steve Ward. Steve is a EE student at U of I Urbana-Champaign. He and Jeff have been going to Teslathons, which is where they met. It's been suggested that a good name for this coil would be the "Zeusaphone". "Thoremin" has also been mentioned, though personally I think we need Theramin type inputs for that.

Neverwinter Nights 2 Trailer

2007-09-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

Neverwinter Nights 2 (NWN2) is a computer role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari. It is the sequel to BioWare's Neverwinter Nights (NWN), a successful game based on the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Where NWN was based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition rules, NWN2 is based on Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition rules (also known as the Revised 3rd Edition), changed to adapt to real-time gameplay.

The Court Jester - The Pellet With The Poison

2007-09-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

The Court Jester is a 1956 comedy film starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone, and Angela Lansbury. The movie is co-written, co-directed, and co-produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama. The film was released by Paramount Pictures in the VistaVision widescreen format. Danny Kaye received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical. The film contains the famous exchange: "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true" (mainly between Kaye and Mildred Natwick as Griselda) (...)

Immediately upon being knighted, Hawkins is challenged to a duel to the death by Griswold, who appears to truly love the princess. Help is given to Hawkins in the form of a poisonous potion made by Griselda, but Sir Griswold is also told of it by a courtier who overhears of the plot. In a scene full of tongue twisting English, both combatants approach the King, each trying desperately to remember which cup contains the poison, with the result that the king decides to abandon the ritual of drinking a toast before the joust and get straight on to the fight. But a storm is rising, and Hawkins' armor, struck by lightning, has become magnetized. Griswold is pulled from his horse by his morning star which sticks to Hubert's armor, and Hubert wins the joust.

Charlie Rose - An hour with Milton Friedman

2007-09-02T18:22:00.000-07:00

An hour conversation with Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman about his life, his contributions to economics, the Republican Party and his view on the direction of the United States and the world.

Enya - Caribbean Blue

2007-08-31T19:12:00.001-07:00

Enya, birth name Eithne Patricia Ní Bhraonáin, was born in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland, and is a four-time Grammy Award-winning singer, an Academy Award-nominated songwriter, and Ireland's best-selling solo artist and one of that nation's best known musicians. As a musical group, Enya represents a partnership between three people: Enya herself, who composes and performs the music; Nicky Ryan, who produces the albums, and Roma Ryan, who writes the lyrics in various languages. Enya is an approximate transcription of how Eithne is pronounced in her native Irish, in the Donegal dialect. (...)

Caribbean Blue is a hit song from her 1991 album Shepherd Moons.

Deep Space Homer

2007-08-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

"Deep Space Homer" is the fifteenth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season. It is also the source of the Overlord meme. The episode was written by David Mirkin, who was an experienced producer of the show, with "Deep Space Homer" being his freshman writing credit for the series.

In spite of Homer being chosen to go into space, he is very nervous about going. He runs from the space shuttle and talks with Marge on the phone, and she says that Homer ought to take advantage of going into space. He agrees and gets into the Corvair space shuttle, with its name a reference to the car that was widely considered to be unsafe. The launch is also a Nielsen ratings smash. When on the shuttle, Homer smuggles potato chips ("Careful! They're ruffled!") on board. He opens the bag, but is unaware that they will clog the instruments. His appetite seems to save the day as he floats after the chips in zero-G to the tune of The Blue Danube, but he flies into an ant farm, destroying it, sowing panic across the world as the ants are set free thanks to Kent Brockman's rather premature assessment of the situation.

Although James Taylor comes in to make a modified adaptation of "You've Got a Friend", the disaster continues on board, with Kent Brockman reporting that the space shuttle has been taken over by giant space ants. The ants destroy the navigation system but, luckily, James Taylor suggests that they blow the bugs out the front hatch. The astronauts do, but Homer fails to put on his "shuttle belt" and is sucked out of the hatch. Buzz pulls him inside but due to the vacuums' sheer force, Homer breaks the handle. He inadvertently uses the carbon rod to seal the door shut. They return to Earth, landing at a journalist convention.

Metallica - The Unforgiven

2007-08-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

"The Unforgiven" is one of the slower songs on the self-titled album, Metallica (also known as the Black Album). It also has a sequel, in the form of "The Unforgiven II", from the album ReLoad. (...)

The drum & horn intro was essentially taken from an un-identified Western movie and then reversed so its source would be hidden, as Hetfield later explained on "Classic Albums: Metallica - The Black Album". The band has never disclosed what movie the sound was taken from, although it is strongly reminiscent of a segment of Ennio Morricone's "The showdown" from the movie "For a few dollars more".

"The Unforgiven" was played live as part of Metallica's Nowhere Else To Roam world tour which lasted from 1991-1993, in support of the Black Album. It was played again on the Madly in Anger with the World world tour in 2003-2004 and the Escape from the Studio '06 tour. It has most recently been played as part of the 'Sick of the Studio' tour.

Authors@Google: James Randi

2007-08-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

James Randi is an internationally known magician (as The Amazing Randi), psychic debunker, and winner of a MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant." He was a founding fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). He is perhaps best known for offering $1,000,000 (via the James Randi Educational Foundation) to anyone who can successfully demonstrate psychic powers under conditions mutually agreed on by the challenger and himself. Starting with a $10,000 prize over 25 years ago, no claimant to psychic powers has ever won the money.

Randi has pursued "psychic" spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water "with a memory," and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public's eyes in the name of the supernatural.

The Bastiat Collection

2007-08-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

In this Mises Institute thirty-minute interview, Dr. Mark Thornton, the compiler and general editor of "The Bastiat Collection," explains Bastiat's significance, and tells the fascinating story of how this definitive collection came to be. He further explains its significance for the future of liberty. Frédéric Bastiat was a French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly.

Opeth - Harvest

2007-08-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Blackwater Park is the fifth full-length studio album from the Swedish progressive death metal band Opeth. It was originally released on February 27, 2001 under Music For Nations and Koch Records. The album is a further continuation of the styles explored on Still Life, incorporating and further expanding on the band's signature sound, which features the merger of death metal, progressive metal and folk music elements.

Blackwater Park was the first Opeth album to be produced by Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, who also provided backing vocals in some of the album's songs. The album was a critical and commercial success for the band, introducing them to a new range of fans. Many Opeth fans and critics alike consider Blackwater Park to be Opeth's magnum opus.

A special edition was later issued in 2002 with a second disc consisting of two bonus tracks (which were also released separately on the limited edition Still Day Beneath the Sun vinyl record single) and a music video for the song "Harvest". The release was limited to only 2000 copies.

Mercedes-Benz commercial - Alonso, Hamilton and Häkkinen

2007-07-21T19:19:00.000-07:00

Taking a tongue-in-cheek approach, the TV commercial shows the two Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 drivers engaging in ‘fierce daily competition’. In the spot, the current Formula 1 front-runner, Lewis Hamilton, wins a race just seconds ahead of the current second-place driver, Fernando Alonso. He celebrates his triumph while he’s still sitting in the cockpit, with a broad grin and a wave of his hand. But only a short time later, as the two racers are driving back to their hotel in a Mercedes-Benz C 63 AMG and a CLK 63 AMG Black Series, Hamilton is momentarily distracted by an attractive woman who happens to be passing by. Alonso quickly takes advantage of the situation and leaves his surprised colleague behind at a traffic light. The game continues when they arrive at the hotel reception desk, on the way to and from their hotel rooms, in the gym, and in the sauna. In all of these arenas, neither of the two is prepared to give way. Despite the blistering heat and their exhaustion in the sauna, each of them wants to be the winner. In the end, the driver who steals the show is the experienced professional Mika Häkkinen, who comes from Finland and therefore knows everything there is to know about saunas. But these outstanding sportsmen would not be the champions they are if they didn’t know how to “lose” with a smile once in a while - even if it’s only at a sauna.

Blind Date - Olde English Sketch Comedy

2007-07-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Pi or π is a mathematical constant and a transcendental (and therefore irrational) real number, approximately equal to 3.14159, which is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean geometry, and has many uses in mathematics, physics, and engineering. (...)

The mathematical constant e is the unique real number such that the value of the derivative (slope of the tangent line) of f(x) = e^x at the point x = 0 is exactly 1. The function e^x so defined is called the exponential function, and its inverse is the natural logarithm, or logarithm to base e. The number e is occasionally called Euler's number after the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, or Napier's constant in honor of the Scottish mathematician John Napier who introduced logarithms.

"Tribute to Brandon Lee" edited to "Saliva"

2007-07-20T05:32:00.000-07:00

The Crow is a 1994 American film adaptation of the comic book of the same name by James O'Barr (who himself makes a cameo in the film).

It was directed by Alex Proyas and starred Brandon Lee, and gained instant notoriety even before its release, when Lee was accidentally killed during filming. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), the film has gained a cult following over the years.

Candidates@Google: Ron Paul

2007-07-15T01:47:00.000-07:00

2008 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul in discussion with Google executive Elliot Schrage as part of the company's Candidates@Google series. (...)

Ronald Ernest Paul (born August 20, 1935) is a 10th-term Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a member of the Republican Party, a physician, and a candidate for the 2008 presidential election. He has represented Texas's 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997 and represented Texas's 22nd district in 1976 and from 1979 to 1985. He earned the nickname "Dr. No" because he is a medical doctor who votes against any bill he believes violates the Constitution.[1] On March 12, 2007, Paul announced his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election seeking the nomination of the Republican Party.

James Randi exposes Uri Geller and Peter Popoff

2007-07-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

James Randi, stage name The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. (...)

Uri Geller, an Israeli-British performer and celebrity famous for his claimed psychic powers, was unable to bend any tableware during a 1973 appearance on The Tonight Show where the spoons he was to bend had been preselected by Johnny Carson. Earlier in his career, Carson had been an amateur stage magician, as had James Randi who advised Carson on how to thwart potential trickery. Randi explained in a 1993 Secrets of the Psychics for the NOVA television series: "I was asked to prevent any trickery. I told them to provide their own props and not to let Geller or his people anywhere near them." (...)

Peter Popoff, is a German-born U.S. televangelist who has spent most of his adult life claiming to treat physical ailments through the use of faith healing. These claims were debunked in 1987 when noted skeptic James Randi and his assistant, Steve Shaw, researched Popoff attending shows across the country for months to discover radio transmissions of Popoff's wife. The transmissions were made by his wife, Elizabeth Popoff, off-stage reading information which she and her aides (Volmer Thrane, the brother of his manager Nancy Thrane, and Reeford Sherrill) had gathered from earlier conversation with members of the audience. Popoff would simply listen to these promptings with his in-ear receiver and repeat what he heard to the crowd. After tapes of these transmissions were played on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Popoff's popularity and viewing audiences declined sharply, and his ministry declared bankruptcy later that year

James Randi exposes James Hydrick

2007-07-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

James Hydrick was a self-described psychic who claimed to be able to perform telekinesis. Following a nationally televised demonstration of his abilities, he was exposed as a fraud on a subsequent show and eventually Hydrick confessed to an investigative reporter. (...)

Magician and paranormal skeptic James Randi demonstrated the pencil trick on the television program That's My Line, hosted by Bob Barker. In a follow-up episode, Randi and Hydrick both appeared. When Randi performed the simple control of placing small pieces of styrofoam "peanuts" on the table around the phone book (to show if Hydrick was actually turning the pages by blowing on them), Hydrick's "powers" suddenly failed him. Hydrick attempted to explain that when the foam was heated by the stage lights they developed a static electric charge which, when added to the weight of the page, required more force than he was able to generate to turn the page. Randi and the judges, though, declared that this theory had no scientific basis. After an hour and a half of Hydrick staring at the pages (the show was edited for time) without any results, and indignantly claiming that his powers were real, he finally admitted being unable to complete the challenge. The judging panel (which included a parapsychologist) stated that, in their opinion, no supernatural phenomenon had taken place. The failed stunt resulted in the television show That's Incredible receiving a Pigasus Award, and effectively ended Hydrick's television career in a humiliating fashion.

Lego Millenium Falcon Stop Motion

2007-07-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

Animated lego pieces putting together the Millenium Falcon (...)

The Millennium Falcon is a fictional spacecraft in the Star Wars universe commanded by smuggler Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and his Wookiee firstmate, Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew). The highly modified YT-1300 light freighter first appears in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and subsequently in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The Falcon also appears in a variety of Star Wars expanded universe materials, including books, comics, and games.

Massive Attack - Special Cases

2007-07-03T07:25:00.000-07:00

"Special Cases" is a song on English trip-hop collective Massive Attack's fourth full-length album, 100th Window. It was released as the first single from this album on February 24, 2003. Featuring Sinéad O'Connor on vocals, it was for many fans of the band their first exposure to the new album.

In addition to a radio-edit mix of the original song, the single release contains a remix by Canadian electronica artist Akufen, as well as "I Against I", a song performed with Mos Def that appeared on the soundtrack for the 2002 movie Blade II. 12" vinyl releases contained an additional remix of "Special Cases" by Vladislav Delay, who is credited as "Luomo" for this release.

The song was also made into two separate videos. The Enhanced CD contains one of these, and the other video is on a rare DVD release of the single.

National Lampoon's 72 Virgins

2007-07-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Two idiot college students unwittingly join an Al Qaeda cell in order to get the 72 virgins promised to terrorists when they die. From the makers of Animal House, Van Wilder, and the Vacation movies; National Lampoon's 72 Virgins!

The return of the Soviet Union

2007-07-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

"Simpson Tide" is the nineteenth episode of The Simpsons' ninth season. The episode first aired on March 29, 1998. The episode title puns on the film Crimson Tide. Guest starring Rod Steiger as Captain Tenille, Bob Denver as himself and Michael Carrington as the Drill Sargeant. This was the last episode Al Jean and Mike Reiss show-ran together, both would return in season 13 with Jean as show runner and Reiss as produce (...)

Homer fails to find his way back to Springfield, and ends up going entirely the wrong way, ending up in Russian waters. This is interpreted by the United States government as an attempt to hi-jack the sub, and the media brands Homer a traitor. This event creates a political schism between the USA and Russia; the Russian government reveals that the Soviet Union still exists, and that its fall was merely a ruse. As such, the diplomat switches his name plate to "Soviet Union" mode, and curious changes occur in Russia. Tanks emerge from within floats depicting teddy bears in a parade in front of the Kremlin, goosestepping troops parade, the Berlin Wall reappears from nowhere (still with guards and dogs on it) and Lenin returns from the dead saying as he comes back "Must... crush... capitalism!".

The Call of the Entrepreneur

2007-07-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

The trailer for a new documentary being released by the Acton Institute that focuses on the stories of three entrepreneurs. A study of the call to create wealth and the benefit of business and free markets to society.

A merchant banker. A failing dairy farmer. A refugee from Communist China. One risked his savings. One risked his farm. One risked his life.

Why do their stories matter? Because how we view entrepreneurs—as greedy or altruistic, as virtuous or vicious—shapes the destinies of individuals and nations.