Doll Face

A machine with a doll face mimics images on television screen in search of a satisfactory visage. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.

Ferenc Cakó at SICAF 2003

Ferenc Cakó is a Hungarian sand animation artist, notable for his fluidity and economy. A video of his live performance (named Genesis) at SICAF 2003, in Seoul, South Korea, has been widely disseminated online. In this performance, Cakó retold the story of Adam and Eve with brief, successive animations.

Good Old Fashioned Violence

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Video Games really don't compare to getting headbutted in the fresh air.

Strategic Comedy Bombs

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

300 Drunken Aussie Sailors and one comedian.

BBC Horizon - Supermassive Black Holes

A violent end for Earth? In June 2000, astronomers made an extraordinary discovery. One that promises to solve one of the biggest problems in cosmology - how and why galaxies are created. Incredibly, the answer involves the most weird, destructive and terrifying objects in the Universe - supermassive black holes. Scientists are beginning to believe that these forces of pure destruction actually help trigger the birth of galaxies and therefore are at the heart of the creation of stars, planets and all life.

Supermassive black holes are so extraordinary that until recently, many people doubted that they existed at all. The idea of giant black holes the size of the Solar System seemed more like science fiction that reality - such monsters would be so powerful that they could destroy the very fabric of the Universe. But in the last five years a series of discoveries has changed our understanding of supermassive black holes and galaxies forever.

Craig Ferguson stops the show when computer "crashes"

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Craig Ferguson stops the taping of The Late Late Show when his touch screen computer "Is broken". It is an easy fix, much to his embarassment.

Hot Whiskey Cures Everything

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...) Craig gives out New Year's Scottish health tips.

iPhone spanks Microsoft

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Craig puts Microsoft through the fire in this tirade.

How Nations Prosper: Economic Freedom and Doing Business in 2007

How Nations Prosper: Economic Freedom and Doing Business in 2007 - Featuring James Gwartney, Coauthor, Economic Freedom of the World: 2006 Annual Report (Fraser Institute and Cato Institute, 2006), and Simeon Djankov, Lead Author, Doing Business in 2007: How to Reform (World Bank, 2006).

Nations that are more economically free outperform less free nations in growth and levels of prosperity. James Gwartney, coauthor of the annual Economic Freedom of the World report, will review current trends and the latest research on the impact of regulations, the rule of law, and other aspects of economic freedom on the whole range of development indicators. Simeon Djankov will show how excessive bureaucratic procedures and government fees make it prohibitively expensive for the world’s poor to join the formal economy. Reform can make it easier for entrepreneurs and businesses to create wealth. Djankov will show which countries are making progress, how they are successfully reforming, and the potentially large growth opportunities they can expect.

The X-Files Theme

The X-Files is a Peabody- and Emmy Award-winning science fiction television series created by Chris Carter, which first aired on September 10, 1993, and ended on May 19, 2002. The show was one of the American FOX network's first major hits, and its main characters and slogans (e.g. "The Truth Is Out There," "Trust No One," "I Want to Believe") became pop culture touchstones. The X-Files was seen as a defining series of the 1990s, coinciding with the era's widespread distrust of governments, interest in conspiracy theories and spirituality, and belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

The Simpsons and the Powers of Ten

The couch gag is a running visual joke in the opening credits of the animated television series The Simpsons. The couch gag changes from episode to episode, and usually features the Simpson family's living room couch. A typical gag features the Simpson family running into the living room, only to find some abnormality with the couch; be it a bizarre and unexpected occupant, an odd placement of the couch, such as the ceiling, or any number of other situations. In more recent seasons, the couch gags have tended to be more outlandish and absurd. (...)

One of the longer couch gags to date is "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner"'s 45-second spoof of the short film Powers of Ten. After the family runs in and sits on the couch, the camera pulls up through the roof and continues pulling back - past Springfield, the United States, Earth, the Solar System, Kang and Kodos outside their broken spaceship, and finally the entire Milky Way galaxy. As the scene continues receding, the galaxies turn into atoms, which become molecules, which become strands of DNA, which become skin cells, which become Homer's head. Homer then says "woooow" (later changed to "cool" in subsequent airings.) The early part of the sequence is accompanied by Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra on the music track, until Kang and Kodos are encountered, followed by a generally eerie and suspenseful underscoring until Homer's scalp is finally revealed.

Faster than the Speed of Light - Could the laws of physics change?

Perimeter Institute brings great thinkers from around the world to Canada to share their ideas on a wide variety of interesting and topical subjects. These lectures and debates are aimed at non-specialists. No mathematical or scientific knowledge is necessary or assumed. Each event is explicitly tailored for the general public and everyone is welcome to attend. (...)

The laws of physics are usually meant to be set in stone; variability is not usually part of physics. Yet contradicting Einstein's tenet of the constancy of the speed of light raises nothing less than that possibility. I will discuss some of the more dramatic implications of a varying speed of light. João Magueijo is Professor of Physics at Imperial College London. He is currently visiting Perimeter Institute and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in Toronto. He received his doctorate in theoretical physics at Cambridge University, and has been a visiting scientist at the University of California at Berkeley and Princeton University.

Craig Venter: A voyage of DNA, genes and the sea

Genomics pioneer Craig Venter takes a break from his epic round-the-world expedition to talk about the millions of genes his team has discovered so far, in their quest to map the ocean's hidden biodiversity. (Quite a task, when you consider that there are tens of millions of microbes in a single drop of sea water.) He updates the TED audience on his discoveries, from the 2,000 photoreceptor genes found in the Sargasso Sea to the thrill of being under house arrest in French waters. After touching on the potential of environmental genomics to monitor the safety of air, water and offshore drilling, Venter ends with his vision for engineered species that can replace the petrochemical industry by creating clean energy.

Why Darwin Matters: The Case against Intelligent Design

Why Darwin Matters: The Case against Intelligent Design - Featuring the author, Michael Shermer, Director, Skeptics Society; With comments by Jonathan Wells, Senior Fellow, Center for Science and Culture, Discovery Institute.

Debates over evolution range from Pennsylvania to Kansas to the University of California. Michael Shermer, a former evangelical Christian and creationist, argues that "intelligent design" theory appeals to a human predisposition to look for a designer behind life's complexity. But in fact the theory of natural selection is supported by the scientific evidence and is the foundation on which modern biology rests. Conservatives and Christians should accept evolution because it explains family values, social harmony, human nature, and the origins of morality. Jonathan Wells, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design, disagrees with Shermer.

Rich like Bond villains

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety show currently hosted by Craig Ferguson on CBS. It immediately follows Late Show with David Letterman and is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Incorporated in CBS Television City. The program dates to 1995, and has had three permanent hosts. (...)

Exotic super villain pets, elephant seal mating season disrupts Craig's vacation, rabbits storm the European castles - just like the Playboy mansion.