Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Black & White Introduction [High Quality]

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)

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

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

"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.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Intel "Lunch Room" 2010 Super Bowl XLIV Commercial Ad

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

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

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.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Human Sacrifice - That Mitchell and Webb Look

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.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Address tae the haggis


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



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)


[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

Monday, August 31, 2009

Ulduar


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

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.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

The Lord of the Rings: The Council of Elrond

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.

Monday, August 10, 2009

George Carlin - Saving the Planet


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.