Dancing Skeleton Man

[Media: Video]

Check out this adorable and incredibly lifelike Skeleton Puppet dancing on the street corner. Awww. I like it when the skeleton checks out the hat to see if anyone left any money in there and then bursts into tears.

Link (Thanks Sheri!)

Videogame Pumpkins

[Media: Images]

If only I had time to make my own Videogame Themed Pumpkin this year. There are some really great designs, and the link above hosts a Halo Pumpkin contest that's really worth checking out. 4 Color Rebellion has a great collection of Nintendo themed pumpkins including, my favorite, a Shigeru Miyamoto one. Is it sad that I can recognise a pumpkin carving of a Japanese video game icon?

Link

Shingo Mama: No Oha!

[Media: Video]

Alright, it's time for a little Japanese WTF.

Theme song for a popular segment called "Shingo no Kossori Asagohan" in a popular Fuji TV Network variety show "Sata-Suma". This happy song produced by Yasuharu Konishi from PIZZICATO FIVE is even good for children to dance.

The description I was able to find doesn't explain why the male singer is in a pink frilly dress, nor why James Brown was in the video for about 2 seconds. Oh crazy Japanese show, you are so postable.

Link (via Fazed)

The Weekly Un-Postables

("Choking chicken" toy coming under fire)


Miscellanous:
Waiting Line - Machinima Music Video
Photoshopped Stamps
Katamari Damacy speedruns
Corporate logos photoshop contest
Bruce Lee Screen Test - Video

From Wonderland:
Video Game Swords
Serenity paper RPG
Fashion shoots using Sims 2

From Kotaku:
Pac-Man Joystick
Gundam Bike Helmet
Free DS WiFi at McDonald's
Indigo Prophecy Machinima
The Rock talks about his crappy acting

From Fazed:
Kid gets banned from Forums and cries - Video
RC Car Drifting - Video
The best of SNL's Ambiguously Gay Duo

From Boing Boing
LoTR/World of Warcraft Animation
May I sing Happy Birthday for my dad's 75th?
Disney launches Alice in Wonderland couture line
Hello Kitty airplane

Weekly Roundup

I'm a Human Inbox's Favorite Post of the Week:
F*ckin' Otaku


I think it's safe to assume that I thoroughly enjoyed F*ckin' Otaku in my search for costume ideas. I have my costume pretty much finished at this point, and I've started to take pictures so they'll be up soon, but I can thankfully say that at least it's not as bad as this guy's costume.

Check this out if you want to see horrible examples of Cosplay. This site got 67 clicks this week.

Reader's Favorite Post of the Week:
Romance of the Jedi


Romance of the Jedi took first place this week gaining 160 clicks. The link went down for a while but it's back up, so if you haven't had a chance to see this yet you really should.

Romance of the Jedi takes Star Wars Episode III footage and turns it into a love story between Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan. It's even set to a Cher soundtrack, what more could you want?

Going to Victoria For the Weekend

I'm going down to Victoria this weekend to visit a friend of mine, so I most likely won't be making any posts on Saturday like I usually do. I'm sure you'll all survive just fine though.

Have a good weekend guys.

Ice Age: Gone Nutty

[Media: Video]

I'm sure everyone has seen Scrat, the Sabertooth Squirrel from Pixar's Ice Age. I hated the Ice Age movie, and I seriously only went to see it because of Scrat. It was worth it.

But here's a clip of Scrat that I've never seen before, I think it might have been included as an extra on the DVD. You know the drill, Scrat is obsessed over acorns, chaos ensues and he ends up as one unhappy Sabertooth Squirrel.

Link (via He.Fi)

Heaps of Discarded Objects

[Media: Images]

Take a look at this photo gallery of large piles of similar objects. The picture above is of a large pile of discarded cell phones. I find these sorts of pictures disturbingly fascinating as they show just how much "stuff" we humans end up throwing away. I sometimes daydream and wonder how large would a pile get if we collected all the keys, nail clippings, baseballs, etc in the world.

If you like this sort of thing, you will probably enjoy Edward Burtynsky's material as well.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Halo Developer gives tour of Bungie

[Media: Video]

This is a great video for anyone curious about how a game developer works. Talking to a designer for the Halo 1 and 2 toolset designer at Bungie they go over all the things that Bungie deals with. As a programmer my favorite part of the video was when the guy whipped out a mobile whiteboard and started talking about the code differences between the Xbox and the Xbox 360.

They covered how the office worked, what the team was like, how interviews go, coding practices and differences between coding on an Xbox and an Xbox 360. It's interesting that the main annoyance was that the Xbox 360 has a closer architecture to a Mac than to a PC.

This is a great behind the scenes look at the videogame industry. Don't let my excitement about them talking about code get in the way of you watching this. Just realize though, that this is a long interview.

Link (via 4 Color Rebellion)

RIAA PSA: Best Anti-Piracy Video Ever

[Media: Video]

I'm not sure what the backstory for this video is, but it definitely is not a real RIAA PSA. And yet, the idea of a RIAA squad right out of Lord of the Rings, coming straight to your house and slaughtering your entire family, doesn't seem to far fetched. This is the sort of thing that record producers dream about at night.

Warning: Gore and Violence

Link (via He.fi)

Japanese Giant Hornet Vs Honey Bees

[Media: Video]

This is a fantastic National Geographic video of Japanese Hornets waging war upon European Honey Bees. I never imagined that 10 wasps would take out 10,000 bees in a couple of hours. Near the end of the war, there is literally a sea of severed bees heads. But don't worry, the Japanese Honey Bees have a secret weapon against the Wasps.

The footage in this video is just amazing. I have no idea how they got cameras inside the hives, under the ground and flying alongside the wasps.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Jack Thompson Harassed by Satire

[Media: Article]

Yes, this is another Jack Thompson entry, but this time they're not necessarily about things he's been saying. While Mr. Thompson has been trying to get the Police and the Feds to take out Penny Arcade, a couple of witty parodies and "satire" has been making their rounds.

Specifically, someone delivered fliers in Thompson's neighborhood which were highly critical of the game violence activist. Thompson faxed GamePolitics a copy of the flyer, which has a Halloween theme and begins with the salutation, "Dear neighbor of Jack Thompson," and proceeds to launch into a satirical call for a ban on trick-or-treating ("What is trick-or-treating, other than a very immersive violence simulation?")

You can take a look at The Flyer that's been going around Jack's neighborhood. And PVP has written up an appeal to the Justice League to take out Penny-Arcade (scroll down a little bit after the link).

I have bets on Jack Thompson's house getting egged this Halloween.

Link

Earth Defender Freshmen

[Media: Video]

Check out this sweet Power Ranger Parody. These guys are the Earth Defender Freshmen, and they're inadequetly trying to stop some dude from destroying the earth. The only problem is that he doesn't have any plans to destroy the earth, and he has no idea why these Freshmen keep bothering him.

I love it.

Link (via Pixel Kill)

Goldfrapp: No. 1

[Media: Video]

I'm not familiar with Goldfrapp, but I do like this video of theirs. It's sexy and stylish with a large dash of weirdness thrown in. Only the singer is human in this video, and everyone else has a dog's head upon a human body.

I never thought I'd enjoy seeing dog headed backup dancers in nurses uniforms. The effects are done well enough that I keep wondering how they managed to do it.

On a side note, I am loving the website Clip Tip as you may have noticed this past week. Clip Tip is a music video website, and the choices for videos are usually fairly good. My only complaint is that I wish he/she would stop posting Real Player videos. Who the hell wants to use Real Player? Seriously.

Link (via Clip Tip)

Breakdancing 93 Head Spins

[Media: Video]

Check out this video of some guy doing 93 Head Spins before he finally slows to a stop. Although amazing, all I could think while I was watching him was "Ow, he must have bruised his poor skull". Maybe he should take up figure skating instead.

Link

AT-AT Halloween Costume

[Media: Images]

This is teh h4wt.

This guy made an AT-AT Halloween Costume, and posted the construction of the costume on Flickr with pictures and descriptions of the process. How totally awesome.

I think the proportions make it look like some kind of baby AT-AT. I wish I had time to come up with some forearm rods, so I could put some more weight on the front legs. Then I could've walked around as a quadruped. As it was, I had to keep as much weight as possible on my actual legs, and just place the arms down. This is what accounts for the unnatural backwards bend in my "hind" legs.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Mark Reign talks smack about Nintendo Revolution

[Media: Video]

Normally I wouldn't pay mind to people talking about their dislike for the Revolution, but Mark Reign is such a wanker I can't help it. Mark Reign is Epic's Vice President and he says that the Next-Gen videogames will be all about graphics. Reign believes that there doesn't need to be any other innovation besides better graphics, and thinks that the Revolution will be a "crappy, cheap, I-wish-I-hadn't-bought-it gimmick".

I don't understand that sort of thinking, I don't believe that making games look prettier is the solution to making better games. I think game design, gameplay and unique ideas make better games than graphics. Look no further than Doom 3 and Quake 4.

Everyone else around Reign just looked uncomfortable as he dominated the entire panel with his gushing love for the Xbox 360. Many times during the panel he loudly bashed Nintendo, and fans who owned Nintendo products. Most of the panel didn't say anything until Reign allowed them time to talk, which wasn't often.

What a fricking ass. Watch the video, it is at least a good panel of experts and they all have opinions worth hearing.

Link (via Kotaku)

Donald Rumsfeld Hand Games

[Media: Video]

This is an awesome video from the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Donald Rumsfeld has found a new way to deal with the stress of his job, and has taken to solving Rubik Cubes, filing his nails and playing Poker.

Absolutely genius.

Link

Sony: PS3 Might Not Be Backwards Compatible

[Media: Article]

Now this is just getting ridiculous. Apparently the new slim PS2 is not as backwards compatible as you might think. Some of the older PS1 games don't work on it, not that Sony bothered to let anyone know about that. Now it's being suggested that the PS3 may not work with some PS1 and PS2 games.

It’s hard to say the PlayStation 3 will be 100 percent backwards compatible but as we said earlier this year we aim to make it so as much as possible.

What that means exactly is unclear, but it's definitely disappointing for anyone hoping to pick up a PS3. Microsoft is faring no better, as the Xbox 360 seems to only be supporting a handful of games in a yet released list. Of course games like Halo 1 and 2 will be supported, but I'm guessing that the majority of the Xbox library will not be supported at all. If that is indeed the case, it might just be easier to keep your old Xbox hooked up to the TV.

Ironically, Nintendo's Revolution seems to be the only console which is going to support full backwards compatibility. Not only that, but the Revolution will support downloads from the NES, Super NES and the N64, as well as backwards compatibility for the Gamecube. There is also mention that some of the older games will receive some sort of enhancements.

It's getting frustrating that Microsoft and Sony are saying that they're supporting Backwards Compatibility and then admitting that they're having a really hard time with it. Let's hope they don't put it as a feature on the box.

Link

Teaching Rock and Roll

[Media: Video]

Believe it or not, this polite middle-aged Asian dude is going to teach us "Rock N' Roll". Actually he's going to teach us how to play the drums, on a keyboard. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it?

Well this guy busts out an awesome drum solo on this keyboard, and thoroughly proves to me that I would rather have him teach me "Rock N' Roll" than Gene Simmons' Rock School. Have you seen that awful show? Ugh.

Link

Sony's Bouncy Ball Commercial

[Media: Video]

Yeah I know I talk a lot about Sony's 100,000 Superball stunt, but come on! Who wouldn't love to see 100,000 superballs go down a huge hill? First I mentioned pictures of the event, and then a home video popped up.

But they've finally released the actual commercial, and it's amazing. Check it out!

Update: Kestrel points out a much longer and better version of the commercial over at Metacafe. Thanks!

Link

Unkle: Rabbit In Your Headlights

[Media: Music Video]

This video was apparently banned by MTV for its violent imagery. It involves a crazed, schizophrenic man walking through a tunnel. He's muttering and yelling to himself, oblivious to the cars around him, and thus he ends up getting run over by cars numerous times.

It's a shockingly good music video, and when I continuously get bored by many modern music videos, this is an example of something done right.

Link (via Clip Tip)

Heavy: Comedy Radio

[Media: Audio]

I've been listening to this Comedy Radio lately and it's pretty fantastic. They've got some great comedians lined up such as Mitch Hedberg, Lewis Black and Dane Cook. There are 20 comedians in total, and some of the performances last over an hour long. I'd skip Chris Rock's performance, but Dane Cook and Lewis Black made me laugh very hard.

Hell, I stayed up an hour too late last night because I was listening to Dane Cook do his thing. Damn you funny people, damn you!

Link (via Fazed)

Star Wars Animated GIF

[Media: Animated GIF]

Check out these two animated GIFs of Star Wars Episode 4 and The Empire Strikes Back. They're both really well done for the format they're in, and they remind me of old adventure games from like 20 years ago.

Fantastic.

(via Boing Boing)

Monty Python Magic Cards

[Media: Website]

Although my search for old lady pictures from Monty Python were largely fruitless, I did manage to find a website which features Monty Python Magic Cards. There really needs to be further description because everything Monty Python has indeed be transformed into a Magic Card of some sort.

I apologise for the slow loading speed of this site, even though it's certainly not my fault.

Ni!

Link

4 Old Ladies Beat Up Grown Man

[Media: Audio]

This here is a audio clip from a radio show about a guy who is driving home calling his friend when he sees an accident. A guy ran a red light, and hit a car with four old Ladies. The guy gets out to go yell at the old ladies and manages to get his ass whooped by four old ladies.

But the best part is the guy who is describing the whole scene. He is totally enjoying watching these old ladies beating the crap out of this guy with umbrellas, pepper spray, purses and a cattle prod. His laughter is totally contagious.

Do you know how hard it is to find pictures of old ladies being tough? You'd think it'd be easier, what with all the Monty Python Skits that involve old ladies.

Link (Thanks Jake!)

Romance of the Jedi

[Media: Video]

How easy would it be to make it appear that Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan are lovers in Episode III?? Apparently very easily. Someone has rehashed the Star Wars Episode III footage to make it look like these two Jedi were in a Gay relationship.

Awesome. Although it's slightly depressing that the trailer does a better job of creating a ficticous (and infringing) romance than George Lucas was with Anakin and Padme.

Update: The broken link has been fixed

Link (via Waxy)

SNL: Nick Burns Your Company's Computer Guy!

[Media: Video]

I love these Nick Burns skits from Saturday Night Live. Nick Burns is the computer guy in an office building, and he is arrogant, rude and anti-social. Nick Burns ignores every rule I've learned for how to help people with computers, and represents the way that most people would like to treat non-computer users.

For example, instead of letting the person follow his instructions he'll yell MOVE!!! and do it for them, after which he proceeds to ridicule them for being stupid.

And yes, that's Jackie Chan in the picture.

Oh, by the way..... YOU'RE WELCOME!

Link

BJÖRK: Cocoon

[Media: Music Video]

This is a strange music video, but then again, it's BJÖRK so what were you expecting in the first place? BJÖRK seems to be naked in this video, that's why it's got a NSFW warning. And she's doing weird finger dancing, which is producing red... Uhhh, red strings? From her nipples. Oh man, now I've scared the hell out of anyone who is reading this. You should still watch it though, it's a cool music video even if I just gave you a lot of very good reasons why not to.

Warning: Not Safe For Work

Link (via Clip Tip)

F*ckin' Otaku

[Media: Website]

This weekend I was doing a lot of searching around for examples for my Sasuke Costume. I wanted to see what ideas other people had used, and how they were pulling them off. I found a lot of great examples, some people can pull off really great costumes. But I also ran into the site F*ckin' Otaku.

F*ckin' Otaku is a site which talks about the worst examples of Cosplay. The people who run the site have a bunch of Top 10 lists pointing out horrible costumes and then talking about them a little bit. The writing for this website is really funny, so it definitely enhances the pictures.

I was reading through this website with a friend, and we were laughing so hard that we were having trouble breathing. Just watch out for each month's number 3s, they're always the most... Disturbing.

Link

Elizabeth Hickock: Jello San Francisco

[Media: Images]

There's really not much information about this project, or the person who did it, but it's really quite amazing. Elizabeth Hickock has created a model city of San Francisco entirely out of Jello! There are little houses, government buildings and even the Bay Bridge.

There's also a little video of the whole table of Jello shaking

Link (via Boing Boing)

4D sculpture with a 3D shadow

[Media: Article]

I won't pretend to fully understand how a 4D object works, but the sculpture and the article remain quite fascinating to me. There is also a Flash Animation of the sculpture. Beautiful.

In the three-dimensional world, there are five regular solids -- tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron -- whose faces are composed of triangles, squares or pentagons. In four dimensions, there are six regular solids, which can be built based on the symmetries of the three-dimensional solids. Unfortunately, humans cannot process information in four dimensions directly because we don't see the universe that way. Although mathematicians can work with a fourth dimension abstractly by adding a fourth coordinate to the three that we use to describe a point in space, a fourth spatial dimension is difficult to visualize. For that, models are needed.

"Four-dimensional models are useful for thinking about and finding new relationships and phenomena," said Ocneanu. "The process is actually quite simple -- think in one dimension less." To explain this concept, he points to a map. While the Earth is a three-dimensional object, its surface can be represented on a flat two-dimensional map.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Halloween Costume Help: Naruto Costume

I'm wondering if anyone in Nanaimo BC, or the surrounding area would be able to help me out with finding at least one item for a costume I'm hoping to make.

I'm planning on making a Sasuke costume, similar to the picture above. The clothes themselves I'll be able to sort out, but the forehead protector is another story. I know that I can obtain a forehead protector from Ebay, but with only a week before Halloween I don't think it'll arrive on time. There's also a shop in Hawaii that sells forehead protectors, and they'll probably arrive in time, but I think I would rather pick one up from a semi-local place if possible. If anyone knows of a shop that might, or does sell these, please let me know.

Also, a wig would be nice because I do not have the hair for the costume (it's growing out, but it's definitely not long enough to pull it off properly), but I can't find anything online that would be suitable.

Update: Anne has been kind enough to pick up a Headband for me so anyone reading this post for the first time can blissfully ignore it.

Update 2: I've finished making the costume, you can find pictures of it here.

The Weekly Un-Postables

(Loh Tsui Kweh Commune - Music VIdeo)

In a music video that was destined to become an "Un-Postable", Loh Tsui Kweh Commune is something that I just had to point out, even if it came with a large warning. This video starts off innocently, it looks like it's going to be a normal video, but it will very quickly change your mind. I was lulled into complacency with the good special effects, and the catchy tunes, but that didn't last long. I saw this video with a couple of friends, and all our reactions were the same: "Oh my Fricking God! No!"

You must understand, this video is NOT safe for work. Hell, it may shock most adults. You've been warned.

Warning: Not Safe For Work

From We Make Money Not Art:
Premature ageing device that puts old wine in new bottles
Bracelet navigates Net

From Boing Boing:
Library of Congress: Most sound recordings aren't available
Photos of bone-chapel in Czech Republic
Search Engine looks for mispelled items on Ebay
Abusive language detector for EULAs
The 50 most notable science fiction films in the history of cinema
EFF cracks hidden snitch codes in color laser prints
Super Mario World Level Editor

Miscellanous:
The Clergy Rate Kevin Bacon's new movie
Master Chief Look-Alike in DOA4
Subsurface Scattering Rendering Demonstrations
The Presidents of the United States of America was shot entirely using an array of cellphones - Video

Weekly Roundup

I'm a Human Inbox's Favorite Post of the Week:
Mitch Hedberg


Mitch Hedberg is a really funny comedian, and if you're interested you should check out this page of video clips of him doing stand up performances. I spent a day or two going through all the videos and enjoying almost all of them. This week it got 25 Clicks.

There was one other post which I feel should get some recognition. Die Toten Hosen: Walkampf is an animated German music video which I spent a lot of time watching and listening to this week. It got 17 Clicks, and I encourage you to check it out if you like animation or German Punk.

Reader's Favorite Post of the Week:
Katamari Damacy Ringtone


The Katamari Damacy Ringtone got Kotakued this week, so it got 180 Clicks. Again, if I had a cell phone this would definitely be my ringtone.

As for the post that didn't get directly linked to, the iTunes/iPod Ad Featuring Eminem, for some reason was amazingly popular. I'd like to assume it's because of the art style, but I'm thinking it's more to do with the fact that people just like Eminem. It got 57 Clicks this week.

When the Internet goes Down

[Media: Video]

When the Internet is down, nerves are frayed, tempers flare and everything pretty much reverts to the stone age where people become dazed hoola-hooping monkeys. This has happened to me many times. When the Internet goes down, I become a savage barbarian and ransack the fridge in search of food.

I also wear my tie on my head. It's all true.

Link

The Revolution Begins Now

[Media: Article]

1up has a very good article detailing and discussing everything that is currently known about the Revolution controller. They discuss Nintendo's future, their past and other controllers that have attempted to do motion sensing such as the disappointing Power Glove.

And as much as the philosophies driving Nintendo's next-generation effort run against tradition, in many ways the company is poised to bring back classics genres of gaming (light guns, for instance) and unleash unexpected twists on formulas gamers have become all-too-familiar with -- remember the chick making Mario jump by flicking the controller? As crazy as Revolution might be, it has more practical applications lingering within than most are probably giving it credit for.

This is a very entertaining read, even if you've read pretty much everything about the Revolution.

Link (via 4 Color Rebellion)

Halo: Warthog Jump

[Media: Video]

Although this video has been around forever, it's one of those things I'm putting up because it's fun to revisit.

The Halo Warthog Jump is a video which shows how the physics in the original Halo game were slightly buggy. By placing four or five grenades beneath a Warthog and then detonating the entire thing, you could launch a Warthog vehicle to incredible heights. That's not to mention any people that are sitting within the car.

The video itself is well done and has some good musical choices like "Learning to Fly", "Fly me to the Moon" and "Magic Carpet Ride".

Link

Milk Farmers Rap

[Media: Video]

Unlike most attempts at being cool by adopting the Rap/Hip-Hop Genre, this one actually pulls it off fairly well. You wouldn't think that Milk Farmers could actually adequately Rap would you?

This commercial is apparently overplayed in Ontario, but I haven't seen it so it's funny when it hasn't been overdone.

Link (via Fazed)

Mr. Suicide Bathplug

[Media: Article]

Oh dear, you'll have to have a morbid sense of humour to put this in your bathtub. Who would like a dead doll floating in their bath?

great bathtub accessory. Mr. Suicide floats to the surface when you take a bath. available in pink, yellow, and blue.

Me, me! I would!

Link (via Boing Boing)

Lost Rhapsody

[Media: Flash]

This is for anyone who is a "Lost" fan, of which I definitely am. Take the song Bohemian Rhapsody, animate it using the Lost cast and add in a lot of inside-jokes and you have something which is clever and funny.

Oh, and those of you who aren't Lost fans, don't watch this video. Instead go and find the first episode of Lost on your TV or the Internet, and get yourself familiar with the show.

Link (via Fazed)

Halo 2: We're like McDonalds! Billions Served

[Media: Article]

Bungie has released a number of horrifying statistics surrounding data about how people play Halo 2 online. You will not be prepared for this shit.

Guess how many games of Halo 2 have been played since November 9th 2004. Go on. I dare you. If you said 324,362,454 then congratulations. You win a slightly baffled expression.

Man-hours played in Matchmade games: 184,137,245. That means that the total number of hours spent playing Halo 2 by individual players is over 180 million. [...]It was spent playing Matchmade games. And just in case you're wondering, that is roughly 21,006 years. Way longer than human civilization has existed

The Halo player who has played the most games has played a staggering, mind-boggling 14,919 games, spending an average of six hours per day, and playing around 71 games. Per day.

If everyone had worked a $6/hr job instead of playing Matchmade games, they would have earned $1.1B.

Follow the link to see more detailed statistics about people wasting their time. Hell, I'm actually quite guilty of this. Until homework kicked in, I was spending a lot of time on Halo 2.

Link (via Kotaku)

Dolphin Trainer

[Media: Video]

What do you do when your trained dolphins tell you to screw off? Well the only thing to do is to outshow them, and promise punishments after the performance.

I don't know how the British, alcohol and dolphins mix, but apparently there is a correlation, at least there is with the first two.

Link

Katamari Damacy Ringtone

[Media: Music]

You know what rocks? This Katamari Damacy Ringtone. You know what doesn't rock? That I don't have a cell phone to play this ringtone on.

Actually scratch that, I don't ever want a cell phone, I would never use it except to put nerdy things like this on it. I have to admit though, for a midi, this is a pretty good song. I wonder how many people would recognise the song when I got a call?

Link (via Pixel Kill)

M.I.A: Galang

[Media: Music Video]

M.I.A's music isn't really something I normally would like, but I love the music video Galang. The video looks like it was done in the early 90's, M.I.A's wearing terrible clothes from that era, and florescent colours are everywhere. The background of the music video is done using animated graffiti stencils, which I have a natural attraction to. I also like M.I.A's dance style, she looks absolutely ridiculous, but then again it helps that she's really hot.

This was kind of an odd post for me, because for a while I was sure that I had posted about this music video. After realizing that it was nowhere to be found on this website, I then had to track it down somewhere else, which was hard because the original links have long since been removed. Check it out, I'm sure you'll like it.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Dan Osman: Speedclimbing

[Media: Video]

This is a video of Dan Osman climbing 400 feet up a cliff, with no safety or climbing gear, in four minutes. I'm not the best with heights so watching him jump up the cliff and grab a tiny crack between the rocks with the tips of his fingers scared the hell out of me. Amazing.

Unfortunately, after doing a bit of digging into his career, it seems that he met his end while doing his custom sport called Free Falling.

Link

C-Jump: C++ Boardgame

[Media: Article]

I like this. Being a Computer Science Student myself I think this is a great, albeit strange, idea. I'm going to show my teachers this, I think they'll get a kick out of it. Could you imagine students playing a C++ Board game in the lounge in between classes?

c-jump facts:
* This game is not only about teaching and learning: it's fun and entertainment for the whole family!
* Skiing and snowboarding is a perfect programming analogy.
* c-jump game is ideal for home school education.
* The game is based on the code of a real computer program!

That being said, I can't imagine this game being much fun. Looks like novelty material. I'd probably actually have more fun seeing if I can figure out what the actual program does, and then compile it.

Link (via Wonderland)

Shadow of the Colossus Video Reviews

[Media: Videos]

I have two things I want to mention here. One is that I love video reviews for videogames. Gamespot has been doing a good job of video reviews for a while, and I find that it's refreshing to be able to watch a game in action instead of reading about it. IGN doesn't do many video reviews for their games, but lately the quality of the video reviews has been really good, artistic almost. To see what I mean, check out IGN's video review of F.E.A.R sometime.

Anyway, I just watched IGN's video review for Shadow of the Colossus and it's convinced me that I must go and play this game even though I don't own a PS2. There have been few games that have made me steal my friends' PS2s, and they include God of War, and Katamari Damacy. Shadow of the Colossus was made by the same guys who made ICO, which settles this discussion right now. This game is a work of art, both its world and the animation and fantastically beautiful and there is a sense of aching loneliness to the whole experience.

Gamespot also has a Video Review, which is short and to the point, but still relevant. There is also a Viral Ad for Shadow of the Colossus which feels a little too subtle if you ask me, but it's still interesting.

Go watch the video reviews even if you don't think you're interested.

Link

Geek Fantasies

[Media: Videos]

Jeez, I don't even know where to start. Whew! Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Okay, I'm good.

Geek Fantasies is basically porn for geeks. Take cheesy porn music, porn camera shots, hot girls, and some really cheesy nerdy lines. Like... "Your Magic Missile has been resisted!"

Man, I had such a hard time writing that with a straight face!

The website has 10 Quicktime videos and these girls did a shoot on G4TV sometime this year. The last video on their page is a blooper reel, where a nerd is trying to explain to them how to do their lines all sexy like. Good stuff.

Link (Thanks Steve!)

North Korea: Arirang Culturefest

[Media: Video/Article]

I recommend that you check out these videos of the Arirang performance, and then read the article as well. There's something quite fascinating and vaguely disturbing about these performances, and I can't quite put my finger on it. This is significant because for the first time Korea has been allowing foreigners to come to their country to view this performance. Albeit, under heavy restrictions.

The performance was called "Arirang" - an ultra-patriotic and nationalistic telling of Korean history. Photos and video just can't do justice to the scope and intensity of Mass Games - a socialist art form in which individuals come together in mass. [...]

The performance runs this year for about two months - we were told that 100,000 performers took part in opening night, with a lower number of people after that. It lasted about ninety minutes. "Arirang" was also the theme of the 2002 Mass Games and we were told that performers practiced for a year - this time they took six months to rehearse for the performance.

If you find the videos and article interesting, you might also want to check out a previous post I made about North Korean Gymnastics. There's also a strange Flash Animation made by Korea to highlight that they are allowing foreigners into their country. Very strange.

Link (via Boing Boing)

NES Micro

[Media: Image]

4 Color Rebellion points out the amazing NES Micro:

Hardware hacker extraordinaire Ben Heckendorm has shoved a working NES it into a tiny little container measuring just 5.25" x 2.625" x 1.63".

This is incredibly impractical, but I still love the idea of it. But I don't think I could get away with playing this in class while I'm not paying attention to the redundant information my teacher is telling me. Not like I can with my GBA-SP. Yeah, that's right, I don't pay attention in class.

Link

RIAA in the red, Upper Management Well Compensated

[Media: Article]

Here's some interesting tidbits of information from the IRS. After RIAA's legal battles, their budget has been overblown, and yet the Upper Management is still getting extremely well paid.

According to US Internal Revenue Service filings, the RIAA had an income of $46.4 million, but expenses of $51 million, leaving it in the hole to the tune of $4.6 million.

According to the IRS, the RIAA spent $14.5 million in outside legal fees and $11.7 million in “employee compensation”.

Interestingly, Sherman got $1.13 million, but his boss, Bainwol, received a trifling $908,848.

So let's count who's winning in this situation.

1. Customers are getting sued
2. Politicians are getting Lobbied
3. RIAA is in the hole
4. Upper Management got their Christmas Bonuses

In otherwords, the customers and artists lose. The Politicians and Upper Management Win. Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Link (via Boing Boing)

NES Stocking Stuffers

[Media: Swag]

I hope people I know are paying attention. Here's what you can put in my stocking this Christmas. A Coin Bank that makes the "coin sound" from Super Mario when you drop a coin in it, and a NES Controller Mint Box. Who needs their two front teeth? Not me.

SNL: Jingleheimer Junction

[Media: Video]

What a great Saturday Night Live Skit, but you can definitely see where this one is going. U is for Unity. C is for Caring. K is for Kindness and F is for Friendship! We think F should go to the front of the line!! F! F! F! F! F! F!

Link

iTunes/iPod Ad Featuring Eminem

[Media: Video]

This post is a little difficult for me to write. You see, not only do I think most of the iPod Commercials are silly and cliched by now, I also hate Eminem. So why would I make a post recommending that you watch this commercial?

Because it's fricking beautiful.

This ad is a moving street painting. It's full of motion, colour and style. Damn you Apple, don't make me like things I have a natural resistance to.

Link (via Apple Geeks)

Mitch Hedberg

[Media: Videos]

I saw a couple of clips of Mitch Hedberg doing stand up comedy on Comedy Central, and it made me laugh so hard that I had to find other videos of him doing his thing. The link above hosts dozens of video clips and I recommend that you check out the ones labeled Comedy Central Presents Part 1 - 3 first.

The thing is, Mitch Hedberg's jokes are very odd because I know that if I tried to tell his jokes to anyone else, they wouldn't be funny at all. His jokes rely largely on timing, and many of them take about 3 or 4 seconds to sink in. By the time they finally make sense he's moved onto the next joke.

Highly Recommended.

Link (via Milk and Cookies)

Blogging: Top Ten Design Mistakes

[Media: Article]

I found this article to be really good for the most part, and I took some of its advice into consideration. For example:

1. No Author Biographies
2. No Author Photo

I really haven't done either, sometime soon I'll put up a more detailed Biography. I always considered it to be unnecessary, but then again I do like to know information about the Bloggers I read. As for the photo, that only drove me nuts. I have a lot of pictures of me, but I was getting really picky about which "one" I wanted to show on my website. The picture that is up right now, may change sometime in the future.

I also put a Top 10 list on the sidebar of the Blog. The only problem with the list is that the majority of the posts which get a lot of attention are gaming related, and although I do talk about gaming a lot I don't want people to assume that this is a "Gaming Blog". It's not. It's a Blog revolving around my interests and strange sense of humour.

Finally, the article suggests that Bloggers eventually move away from sites like Blogger.com because having a site which has control over your Blog is a bad idea... I agree, I should move this site to something that I have more control over, but that would probably take a lot of reorganization. That might be a project better suited to the Christmas holidays.

If any readers have suggestions for things they'd like to see on this site, let me know. I'd love to hear some comments about the design or content of I'm a Human Inbox.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Katamari Swag

[Media: Swag]

I've got some awesome Katamari Swag for you here. The first is a the T-Shirt, This is How I Roll (via Wonderland)which I think is pretty cute. I'm not a big enough Katamari nerd to actually buy the thing, but I still like it.

And secondly the earrings (via Wonderland). If only I was a girl... But nobody would notice the vague reference even if I were a girl, and I had those earrings. A shame.

A thank you to Alice for her Wonderland Blog, she has been putting up a lot of great gaming swag lately, so go on over and check it out.

Gamers answer Jack Thompson's Modest Proposal

[Media: Article]

Remember that game proposal that Jack Thompson made where he said he'd offer $10,000 if someone made his game? Well it looks like not one but two games have been made that meet his specifications. Actually, one of them mixes up the formula a little bit, but that's beside the point.

The first game is a text adventure game by Old Grandma Hardcore:

Zork Thompson v1.0 is a text adventure with a click interface that has you taking on the roll of a man whose son was killed by one of those crazy video game players. Check out the site where you can read the script for the game or play it. You also can “buy” the game through a PayPal donation, meeting Thompson’s final criteria I believe.

After checking out Zork Thompson, it seems that 3 other text games have been made as well.

The always awesome Kotaku linked to us and Zork Thompson v1.0, so the game is being played by quite a few people! The Wikipedia entry for Jack Thompson now has a section for Jack's Proposal, and it lists other text-adventure games made in response at the same time we published ours, so you guys know what that means: great minds think alike, bitch!

And the other one by Hellfish Productions, is a mod of GTA:SA

the mod "allows players to adopt the role of prominent anti-videogame attorney Jack Thompson as he lives through an insane weekend which changes his life... It turns out that all the time Jack spent studying violent video games has turned him into a Manchurian Candidate. Receiving calls at random that begin with the classic line, 'Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?' Jack immediately falls under a hypnotic spell, transforming into his criminal vigilante alterego Banman to commit violent acts in the name of Thompson's morality. While Thompson enjoys legal immunity as an attorney, Banman has both regenerating armor and bullet time to help him make his way."

Now the only question is whether Thompson will donate the $10,000 he promised. Of course he'll probably claim that he was just joking around, and that he didn't think anyone would take his press release seriously. Obviously he hadn't thought that the mod and indie communities would jump on this one. He thought wrong, and I'm with Kotaku on this one because I think the $10,000 should be donated to Penny Arcade's Child's Play. That would be so incredibly ironic, to have Jack Thompson donating to a Children's Videogame Charity. It would be glorious.

Update: Well it's official. Jack Thompson has declined to donate the $10,000 he said he would. That's largely unsurprising, I mean if he actually did it, I would have to grudgingly give some respect for a man who accepts the results of his commitments.

But what is surprising is that Penny Arcade donated $10,000 for Jack Thompson. In his name. Fucking-A.

Link

Die Toten Hosen: Walkampf

[Media: Music Video]

I found this German music video today and I totally love it. It's got a strange hand-drawn animation style and a Irish Punk sound to it. I'm a major Flogging Molly fan so I certainly like the song (Yes, I know these guys aren't Irish, I'm just drawing comparisons).

Anyway, the animation style rocks my socks, so check it out. The video itself came from the band's website.

Link (via Drawn!)

HowTo make a Dr Octopus costume

[Media: Article]

Take a look at this really funny and detailed account of a man who made a Dr Octopus costume for Halloween. There are a lot of pictures here, showing the making of the costume and the writing is pretty funny. I'm amazed at how long it seemed to take to create the spiderman hanging from Oc's tenticles, I certainly don't have that kind of patience for making costumes.

The DJ took notice and made an announcement: "HAS ANYONE SEEN SPIDERMAN? IT SEEMS THAT SPIDERMAN IS MISSING". This got huge laughs.

All in all though, it looks like Spiderman and Dr Oc can put aside their differences for a couple of pictures.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Bike Messenger Race

[Media: Video]

Ever want to see what it's like to be a Bike Messenger in the city? Ever want to see what it's like to do a Bike Messenger race? Well here's your chance to see video of a race in progress from the perspective of a helmet cam.

I always wondered what city race would be worthy of “Guns ‘n Roses Welcome to the Jungle” and as soon as I saw this footage I knew this was the race – very fast and risky

Watch as these guys pass through oncoming traffic, through pedestrians and moving cars. It's amazing that these guys don't get injured, arrested, or both.

Link (via Milk and Cookies)

Folksinger Covers Baby Got Back

[Media: Music]

This is a large dose of ridiculous. Jonathan Coulton, I admit I know nothing about him, has done a cover of Baby Got Back by Sir Mix-a-Lot and has turned it into a folk song, or in otherwords, it's been white-ified.

I’ve wanted to cover this song for a long time, because it is excellent - there’s a wonderful message in there for those of you who have big butts. In the proud tradition of many white Americans who came before me I hereby steal and white-ify this thick and juicy piece of black culture.

You can view the lyrics for the song here

Link (via Boing Boing)

Toys ‘R US Canada Game Sale

[Media: Sales]

If you live in Canada, I encourage you to go over to the Toys 'R Us Website and check out their massive game sale that they have on right now. They're selling games for $15.00, and it's not just old games but some new ones as well. Also, some of the games that are being sold in-store aren't shown on the website, so you might want to check out the store as well.

Some of the games that were on sale in-store are not even shown on the website, so you better hurry and get to the store to check it out.

-----

But to be honest, I think I'm going to pass on this sale. Although I have enough money to not worry about buying more games, it is the time that I am lacking. I recently bought two new games this week that I barely have the time to play as it is. I picked up Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones for the GBA because I love turn-based strategy games for the GBA. I personally think that strategy games are incredibly well suited to the portable platform, and it escapes me that there aren't more of them. I also picked up Phantom Dust for the Xbox, which is a fantastic game that reminds me of the anime s.CRY.ed and has some of the best destructible environments I've ever seen in a game. That's not to mention that it's a 3rd person, shooter card game... Weird.

In anycase, with school being incredibly busy, and trying to maintain this website, I don't have a lot of time on my hands. If I'm lucky I can sneak in an hour every couple of days to play a videogame. So while I love deals, and cheap games, I also hate having a huge library of games that are on my shelf unplayed. But that's just me.

Link (via 4 Color Rebellion)

The Weekly Un-Postables

(Cardstacker FAQ)

From Fazed:
Harry Potter and the Hogwarts Dance Team - They're good, but it was too weird to give it a full post - Video
Gamers - Mockumentary about addicted D&D Players - Video
Medical Students Prank - Video
Pop and Lock Dancing - Videos

From We Make Money Not Art:
Harnessing artificial tornadoes as an energy source
Mobile Phone Abusers Anonymous - A study of how people interact using cell phones
Robot plane finds rising air to stay aloft

From Boing Boing:
DRM system designed to give away user's credit card number
Canadian recording industry: downloading leads to shoplifting
Identity 2.0 - fantastic presentation on Internet Identification
Computers that imitate the people they talk to are more persuasive
Bedroom slippers with LEDs in the toes
Guy who was busted "for using lynx" found guilty
Southwest kicks woman off flight for wearing parody T-shirt
Bill Gates shouts at Sony CEO that his crappy DRM is less crappy

Miscellanous:
Cork Soakers - SNL Skit - Video
So kids can pray but teachers can't?
Clerk arrested for selling sex toys at an Adult Shop

Reader's Submissions:
World of Warcraft Spyware - I actually really enjoyed this article, but I can't see it becoming a full post down the road. But definitely check it out, it's talking about how Blizard scans your computer every 15 seconds to check to see if you're doing something they don't like. Scary stuff and a must read if you're a WoW player. Thanks Kyle!

Weekly Roundup

I'm a Human Inbox's Favorite Post of the Week:
War Photographer


Ah, this week's choice is an easy one for me, although I think few people have actually taken the time to watch this music video. War Photographer is a music video about rock and roll vikings who launch attacks between ships using their ass kicking guitar solos. That's not to mention that their boats eventually turn into Viking Mechs, and pull out monstrous face-melting solos. Yes, there are Viking Mechs. You love it.

Only 8 Clicks this week. Shame on you!

Reader's Favorite Post of the Week:
Incredibly Large Black and White Nude Webpage


Shame on you again! Look at how many of you took a peek at the 1,801 nude pictures and had your computer destroyed, 51 of you! There was at least one smartie pants who used a download program to download all of the pictures to his computer. Actually... I probably would have done the same if I wanted to look at all of the pictures. Hmmmm...

National Institute on Media & Family Puts Distance From Jack Thompson

[Media: Article]
(Click here to read the full comic)

Man, Jack Thompson has been getting no love from anyone these days. I've got a number of stories to point out here. The first one is that the National Institute on Media and the Family, although concerned with issues of videogame violence has written an open letter to Jack Thompson asking him to stop referring to them. This is a pretty fascinating and blunt letter, and I encourage you to read the whole thing after the link.

Even though we have no formal relationship your use of my name and your inclusion of my name in correspondence have created the impression that we condone these tactics. We do not. The result is that our position and reputation as a research based, non-partisan, solution-focused organization has been jeopardized. Consequently, I ask that you[Jack Thompson] cease using the Institute's or my name in any way that would give the impression that we support your efforts. I also ask that you remove the link to our website that appears on your site.

Sincerely,

David Walsh, PH.D.

But that's not all. Penny Arcade also has some Jack Thompson news. Their latest comic outlines the "discussion", and they've made a few posts about the issue. Gabe sent this email to Jack Thompson, which provoked an angry phone call.

10 grand is pretty weak man. Through our charity www.childsplaycharity.org gamers have given over half a million dollars in toys and cash to children’s hospitals all over the country.

It'd be interesting to know, what exactly was said. If Penny Arcade goes into greater detail I'll make an update here.

Link

Blue Marble: NASA Earth Pictures

[Media: Images]

Check out these beautiful pictures from NASA showing incredibly detailed pictures of our planet from 12 months of the year. There are also some animations showing off certain sections of the globe while the seasons change.

Although I could view the 8km photos, my computer died an awful death when I tried to view the 2km photos, which are well over 20 Meg jpeg files. But that's probably because my computer could use an upgrade or two. Damn you NASA, damn you!

Link (via I Hate My Cubicle)

Metal Gear Movies

[Media: Video]

The Kotaku reader Berklee has a site in which has all the Metal Gear Solid movies edited into continuous movie files. He just finished editing Metal Gear Solid 3, and has the previous two up there as well. It's worth checking out. Personally I'm only going to watch the first two because I'd like to play number three before I watch it.

Although isn't it a little ironic that someone made movies out of a videogame that felt more like a movie to begin with? Was there ever an actual videogame in there to begin with?

Link (via Kotaku)

A Day in the Life with Bruce Campbell

[Media: Video]

Ah Bruce Campbell, one of the most famous B movie actors. This is a pretty good video interview with him, and he talks about a lot of interesting things such as his career, Army of Darkness, Hollywood and B movies, his books and conventions. He seems to get a little grumpy when talking about overzealous fans, but it's still pretty funny.

Oh, and he wants you to know that if you ever trespass on his property that he has rocket launchers. As in, more than one of them.

Link

Microsoft Gaming Inovation: Play Anywhere

[Media: Video]

The Video says this is a Microsoft User Interface Prototype called Play Anywhere. It seems to be some sort of projection device, which is also interactive. The video shows the device projecting images onto a surface, and someone comes along and starts interacting with it. He could place objects on the table and images would be projected onto them, which then interacted with other projected objects on the table.

I love interface demonstrations, and this one is pretty good but I'm doubtful that it will ever become a real product.

Link (via Giant Mecha)

Princess Bride Musical

[Media: Article]

Is there word of a Princess Bride Musical on the wind? It seems so:

Composer Adam Guettel and screenwriter William Goldman will collaborate on a musical version or the hit fairy tale film "The Princess Bride," the New York Post reported.

The Princess Bride remains a favorite movie of mine, and I'm always amazed at the kind of appeal this movie achieves between both girls and boys. There's romance, there's comedy, action and fantasy. There really isn't anything not to love about this movie. Well maybe except for that kid from the Wonder Years.

I remember a little while ago I was in Blockbuster and I overheard two guys talking about Princess Bride:

Guy 1: Hey, The Princess Bride! Remember that movie? It totally rocked.
Guy 2: Actually I've never seen it. It looks gay.
Guy 1: What? You're kidding right? How can you say you've never seen this movie? That's seriously impossible dude. You're the gay one for never seeing this movie.

Well said, Guy number one, well said. In anycase I would love to see a musical based on The Princess Bride. Sign me up. On another note, I've never read the book which the movie is based on. I should probably do that.

Link

Innespace: Dolphin Watercraft

[Media: Website]

This Innespace website features a submersible vehicle that is shaped like a dolphin. It can go underwater, skim along the surface, leap into the air, and do barrel rolls. It's even been in a movie, although I'm not sure which one.

The Innespace Dolphin is a fully functional show ready watercraft, able to perform sustained dives, huge jumps, barrel rolls, and many other amazing acrobatic tricks.

There's a number of good pictures at the site showing off the craft, and there's a Video showing it in action. Wouldn't you love to have one of these?

Link (via Fazed)

Duck from Duck Hunter Made Out of Blocks

[Media: Images]

This guy made a 3D model of the Duck from Duck Hunter and created a model of it out of wooden blocks. He also has plans to hang this duck on the wall along with golden NES zappers.

Blocks used in 3D model: 1785
Blocks used in build: 1240
Approximate Weight: 17-20 ilbs
Length: 24"
Width: 17.25"
Height: 21"
Approximate Number of Hours to Create: 35-40

Pretty sweet, make sure to check out the full pictures after the link.

Link (via Waxy)

Robot Chicken

[Media: Video]

I know I remember hearing people talk about Robot Chicken, but the exact source escapes me. To be honest, I really don't know much about the show, but after watching this episode I think I'm going to have to start paying more attention to it.

The easiest way to describe Robot Chicken is that it's like a 5 Alive commercial except with action figures. It's random, it's weird, it's ADHD. This episode features shorts like: The Unicorns missing Noah's Arc, weird robot/coyboy/princess marriages and a race which features every recognisable racecar from TV and movies including the Mario Brothers from Mario Kart.

Link

The Smurfs Get Bombed

[Media: Video]

This Smurf video has been around for a while but I didn't posted it because I didn't find a a working one until now. UNICEF made this video of the Smurfs to talk about the effect of war on children, and to blow up the damned Smurfs.

The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom- shaped houses until, without warning, bombs begin to rain from the sky.

Link

ESA Putting on Massive Gaming Auction

[Media: Article]

The ESA Foundation is putting on an auction to help children's charities, and they have quite a lineup of items up on Ebay. There are some awesome highlights like a 6-Foot Statue of the Master Chief, a 6 person tour of Nintendo America, a Xbox 360 signed by Bill Gates and Luke Skywalker's Lightsabre signed by George Lucas.

The list is really long so I won't post it here, but there are items that aren't going to destroy your wallet as well. Make sure to check them out.

Link (via IGN)

Who Wants to Be An Owned Millionaire?

[Media: Video]

Although the picture has nothing to do with the video, it has everything to do with being owned. This video shows a guy on Who Wants to be a Millionaire who loses out on a $500 question. I love the commentary by the guy who is watching the show. The answer is a VERB you fool!

Owned. Seriously owned.

Link

Where's the Geek Porn

[Media: Article]

I really liked this article, talking about why there isn't porn about smart girls, about girls who are big nerds, that are real, that are complex and that are interesting.

You can have the whole cheerleading squad,
I want the girl in the tweed skirt and the horn-rimmed glasses:
Betty Finnebowski, the valedictorian.
Oh yes.
First I want to copy her Trig homework,
and then I want to make mad, passionate love to her
for hours and hours
until she reluctantly asks if we can stop
because she doesn't want to miss Battlestar Galactica.
Suma cum laude, baby!
That is what I call erotic.

The porn industry doesn't pander to what everyone considers erotic, and I completely agree that there should be porn centered around geeks needs, afterall there's pretty much every other kind of porn already. I think there needs to be a Suicide Girls for the Geek crowd.

And you can help . . .
If you're an intelligent woman is interested in breaking into the adult film industry, and if you can tell me the name of Luke Skywalker's home planet,
then you are hired.

But the last line made me laugh a lot. Hell, I'd certainly be impressed if a girl knew the answer because even I had to pause and think about it for a moment.

Update: It seems that this is a transcript of an MP3. You can download it here

Link (via Boing Boing)

I/O Brush

[Media: Video]

The I/O Brush takes digital pictures and movies of whatever it points at, and then allows the artist to brush that image, or clip onto a digital canvas. Doesn't sound very exciting but the video shows the creativity and playfulness that can be attained using this new tool.

Great fun, check it out and groove along to the happy music.

Link (via Fazed)

Tack Jhompson

[Media: Comic]

CTRL-ALT-DEL has done an open-comic to Jack Thompson, referring to an offer made by Jack Thompson to donate $10,000 if someone would create his game proposal

[Jack Thompson will] write a check for $10,000 to the favorite charity of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc's chairman, Paul Eibeler [...] if any video game company will create, manufacture, distribute, and sell a video game in 2006 like the following:

Osaki Kim is the father of a high school boy beaten to death with a baseball bat by a 14-year-old gamer. The killer obsessively played a violent video game in which one of the favored ways of killing is with a bat. The opening scene, before the interactive game play begins, is the Los Angeles courtroom in which the killer is sentenced "only" to life in prison after the judge and the jury have heard experts explain the connection between the game and the murder.

Osaki Kim (O.K.) exits the courtroom swearing revenge upon the video game industry whom he is convinced contributed to his son's murder. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" he says. And boy, is O.K. not kidding.

O.K. is provided in his virtual reality playpen a panoply of weapons: machetes, Uzis, revolvers, shotguns, sniper rifles, Molotov cocktails, you name it. Even baseball bats. Especially baseball bats.

I recommend checking out the link. I swear, Jack is going senile. Creating a game about video game violence which sounds as violent as Grand Theft Auto? Are we seeing Jack's sense of humour here?

Link

Crying Baby

[Media: Video]

I wonder how many parents can relate to this video, I'm guessing a fair amount of them. This little tyke is a genius. He only cries when people are around to see him, so his Dad grabbed a video camera and hid behind the corner. The kid would stop crying, but as soon as he saw his dad he'd fall to the ground and start bawling his eyes out again.

Classic stuff here.

Link

Edward Burtynsky: Chinese Industrialization

[Media: Website]

Edward Burtynsky has an amazing website cataloging the Industrialization of China. His photos are quite beautiful and starkly disturbing as they depict man's influence upon nature and the harsh images of pipes, metal and chemicals. And yet, even when shown, broken ship hulls, nickel tailings, strip mines, marble quarries and landscapes of oil drills, it is still reflects a strange sort of dangerous beauty.

Take a look through these, you'll be amazed.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

10 Xbox Prototypes Get Stolen

[Media: Article]

According to the news magazine Spiegel, ten top-secret prototypes, AKA "development kits," for the new Xbox 360 console have been stolen from MS. The console isn't released until December 2nd in Europe, which is just in time for Christmas. The devices came to Germany from Hong Kong together with other MS products on "Air Delivery pallets" in a neutral packaging. From a storehouse in Düren, they were supposed to be shipped to game developers. Just a few days after the theft, pictures of the new consoles surfaced on the Internet. Meanwhile the Austrian Bundeskriminalamt in Viena and the public prosecution authority Bonn are investigating the case. So far (some) homes and offices in Niederösterreich (Austria) and in Troisdorf (Germany) have been raided (searched), and three consoles have been confiscated. The remaining seven devices remain lost.

You know, I've never really understood the mentality of stealing videogame equipment. Sure, it'd be awesome to have an Xbox 360 Prototype. Sure it'd be awesome to be able to have something before anyone else can. But I get the feeling that these people feel justified in doing stuff like this, like they're "sticking it to the man".

Not cool.

Link

Hoodie which turns into a Mask

[Media: Image]

Here in Britain, closed-circuit cameras are everywhere: the average Londoner is said to be photographed some 300 times a day. Equally ubiquitous are the signs that demand that you take off your hoodie's hood or your motorcycle crash-helmet so that it won't interfere with the universal surveillance.

Although I quite like the look of these hoodies, and the idea that they're for counter-surveillance, I doubt that people are actually going to use them properly. I showed these pictures to a couple of people before the post, and their first reactions were that these were for people who were going to try to break the law.

What do you think?

Link (via Boing Boing)

Mario Bath Salt

[Media: Images]

For whatever reasons, having Mario Bath Salts sounds like a lot of fun. Kotaku discovered these little bath toys in Japan, and bought a couple with the promise that he'd try them out.

He's now got a couple of pictures documenting the process. Don't worry, the only one you see in the bath tub is Mario. Hmmmm, that didn't end up sounding so good.

Link

World Beard and Moustaches 2005

[Media: ]

I absolutely love beard competitions. There's something charming about how pleased and proud these men are of their facial hair. They have a lot of fun at the competition and it shows in the pictures from the event. You can view an extra gallery here, and there's a number of pictures on the official October 2005 competition website.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

USA Forced to Give up Root Control of Internet

[Media: Article]

This is an interesting issue, one that I believe many people will pay little attention to, but it will probably have historical value years from now. The United Nations have decided that the US should not retain control of Root Control of the Internet, something that the US seems quite unhappy about. Personally I feel it will have little effect on individual Internet users, and this is a measure to give the larger global community more control over how the Internet is handled. But it definitely sounds like the US is very grumpy right now.

Old allies in world politics, representatives from the UK and US sat just feet away from each other, but all looked straight ahead as Hendon explained the EU had decided to end the US government's unilateral control of the internet and put in place a new body that would now run this revolutionary communications medium.

The issue of who should control the net had proved an extremely divisive issue, and for 11 days the world's governments traded blows. For the vast majority of people who use the internet, the only real concern is getting on it. But with the internet now essential to countries' basic infrastructure - Brazil relies on it for 90% of its tax collection - the question of who has control has become critical.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Stop-Motion Hovering

[Media: Video]

Actually the video is called something else, but I don't really want to use its title. Let me make this clear, the song in this video is awful, and immature, but it's the Stop-Motion hovering that I'm pointing out here. They do a great job of making it look like they're happily floating around in the air.

They must have gotten their daily exercises by doing this video. Nicely done.

Link (via Fazed)

Kanye West and Mike Myers Bump Into Eachother

[Media: Video]

After Kanye West's little impromptu speech about Bush disliking the colour folks on live television, it's good to see that both Mike Myers and Kanye West have a sense of humour about the whole incident. They both appeared on Saturday Night Live to do this little skit that left Myers crying about his Canadian Citizenship.

Sorry I was a bit late on this one, it disappeared on IFilm for some reason.

Link

War Photographer

[Media: Music Video]

Check out this stylish Viking battle music video in which the ships attack eachother with guitar solos. Taking a cue from School of Rock, these musical barrages eventually turn into, quite literally, face-melting solos.

Done in an odd Flash Animation style, the visuals follow the music perfectly, and tell a nice little story. Even if you hate the animation, you'll probably like the actual song.

Link (via Drawn! and Cold Hard Flash)

Plants with Eyes

[Media: Video]

This is a fantastic video showing alien-like plants that have eyes growing on them. These plants look like sea creatures such as Mussels, Anemones and Sea Sponges, but they're growing on leaves and trees.

The interesting thing is, is that all the plants are real plants, captured with a hand camera and then re-edited to make them look like they're alive with eyes. It's amazing to see the camera moving around naturally in sync with the CG work.

Mmmmmm, creepy oculars.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Incredibly Large Black and White Nude Webpage

[Media: Images]

I'm really not one to post about pornography, with the exception of The Weekly Un-Postables, but this site is notable for it's massive connection-breaking size. I'm serious, if you click this link your Internet Connection will have its back broken and will lay whimpering on the ground for mercy. Whoever designed this website decided that it was a good idea to put hundreds upon hundreds of pictures all on the same page. Crazy.

In anycase, the quality of these pictures is really high. They're all in Black and White, depicting gorgeous women and the photographer obviously has a lot of skill. But seriously, I dare someone to look at every single picture. It simply is not possible.

Warning: Not Safe For Work

Update: A reader commented that there are 1,801 images here, all on one page.

Link (via Your Dirty Mind)

The Weekly Un-Postables

(For the Shoe Collectors)

From Boing Boing:
RIAA releases malware that deletes software
Hollywood's DRM lab: doomed and dumb
Fuck This Book - Innapropriate Stickers
Warner Music CEO: Price-fixing is for iTunes, too
Interesting words from around the world
MPAA/RIAA subvert democracy with super-broadcast-flag bid - Again
Bees that cook their enemies to death.
Canadian recording industry: downloading leads to shoplifting
Carbonated dairy products

From We Make Money Not Art:
The riderless motorcycle
Gun vending machine
Sonic Invaders - An Audio Videogame

From Fazed:
Art Project showing Women in normal houseclothes and then naked - NSFW
Touching Story about Barn Swallows - Make sure you read the comments
Batman to the Rescue? - Weird Video
Dog steals lit Roman Candle - Video

Miscellaneous:
Matrix Mouse - Video
Lady Holds up Creditcard for the Camera - And then gets her number stolen, duh.
Guess the Non-Fake Orgasmer - A Gameshow... Video, Probably NSFW

Reader's Submissions:
Azure pointed out this concept egg-shaped car where the entire cabin spins around so that you're suddenly facing in the other direction. Thanks Azure!

Weekly Roundup

I'm a Human Inbox's Favorite Post of the Week:
Limebarb: Custom Cosplay

It appears this week's theme is costumes. I totally loved the site Limebarb which creates custom made Cosplay outfits. They have a huge gallery of Anime and Videogame costumes and most of them are modeled. Limebarb enjoyed 38 Clicks this week.

But to be honest, I again had a hard time picking a clear winner for my choice, so I feel inclined to again point out Raiding the 20th Century a documentary, song-like exploration of remixing and sampling. I've been listening to it for the later half of this week and I totally love it, I encourage everyone to give it a try.

Reader's Favorite Post of the Week:
Mario Costume

The Mario Costume got 235 Clicks this week after being linked to from Kotaku. Personally Mario is still giving me the Jeebies(but not the Heebies).

The Face of Dr. Claw... Revealed!

[Media: Image]

Now here's a doozie. I'm sure everyone watched the cartoon Inspector Gadget when they were growing up, or at least I did. Inspector Gadget's arch nemesis, Dr. Claw, never showed his face, was always part of the appeal. Apparently DIC made a Dr. Claw action figure and they decided to give him a face. So if you're really curious as to what Dr. Claw looked like, you can check it out on this webpage.

The time has come to reveal to you the legitimate face of the evil Dr. Claw! BE WARNED, dear viewer, that once you've seen it, there's no turning back. No reclaiming your childhood imagination. The mystery will be gone forever, & all you'll have left is the clear, & possibly disappointing, image of the truth.

Warning: May destroy your childhood

Link (via Fazed)

First 9 Minutes of Serenity

[Media: Video]

I mentioned the movie Serenity before, but now you have a chance to watch the first 9 minutes of the movie for free. Although the intro is good, I'd like to reiterate that the major strength of this movie lies in its characters, dialog and humour, not in the special effects and the action.

So if you haven't seen the movie yet, maybe this will change your mind.

Link

Allard criticises Revolution Controller

[Media: Article]

J Allard, VP of Corporate Xbox has been criticizing the Revolution Controller as something that developers wouldn't support or have much interest in. He then goes on to say that despite interest in having a harddrive in the Xbox 360, they decided not to put it in.

"We did a lot of research with gamers, talked to a lot of game developers and said, 'Should we put an accelerometer in there and do the tilt thing?' And there wasn't that much enthusiasm around [a Revolution-like Controller] it."

He went to concede that some developers may have been disgruntled to learn that not all Xbox 360 consoles would come with a hard drive as standard, telling Edge Online: " Sometimes doing the right thing means doing the hard thing."

"Are there developers who are disappointed? Yeah, sure...

Is it just me, or is Allard being incredibly hypocritical? He slams Nintendo for doing something guts for consumers, and yet praises Microsoft for doing a similar move. You're sounding a bit more whiny than usual Mr Corporate Cool.

Link

Captain Capitalism

[Media: Video]

This Flash video totally rocks. What starts out as a kids story reading with Dick Chaney and highly intelligent questions from the children about the inner-workings of the US government, turns into an "educational" message about obscenities.

Captain Capitalism shows up after Dick Chaney tells one of the kid's mothers to "Go F*ck Herself", and teaches the kids about what obscenities are. Everything is bleeped out, but it's still fantastically funny. Check it out, but it may not be safe for work because there's a lot of bleeped out swearing going on here.

Warning: Not Safe For Work

Update: Whoops, I messed up the link for this, sorry about that it's fixed now.

Link

Canadian GB Micro Ad

[Media: Video]

Check out the Canadian commercial where mice are humping Gameboy Micros. I guess they've found their target audience... In mice.

Link

Zelda Animation Screentest?

[Media: Video]

I really don't know what this is exactly, but it is definitely weird. The video says it's a screen test of some sort, but that's about all I know. There's some pretty weird stuff going on here. Zelda's voice changing, his eyes googling out, his sword shooting some sort of strange goo. Mr. Tingle is obviously quite gay, and there's some guy in a Hawaiian shirt whose shirt keeps changing between each scene.

I don't know what to tell you. It's just very odd. There's also a second video here.

Link

Sony Loses Right to Sue Non-Pirate Modders

[Media: Article]

The Australian Courts have decided that it is not illegal to circumvent copyright protection on consoles to allow customers to play imported games.

Of course, it's still illegal to duplicate PlayStation games - that's never been in question, and continues to fall under the same regulations about piracy and copyright protection which have always been in place. But the simple act of playing an "unauthorised" disc - which can, remember, also include an imported game - is not illegal.

"It's a victory for consumers, but also for business people," a lawyer for Stevens commented after the judgement. "It will likely increase competition in the market and possibly reduce the prices in the market for gaming."

This is great news, and slightly ironic since that Sony also lost another important court case called the "Betamax Case", which allowed users to use their VCRs in legal manners. This is also important because it might open the doors to other DRM (Digital Rights Management) cases such as making backups of purchased music and software. A lot of the "protection" that content producers use, actually hinders the customer from accomplishing legal activities. So it is great that the courts have decided that DRM outsteps copyright holders copy rights. I hope this decision moves to other countries such as Canada, the US and Europe because it really is getting entirely out of hand.

Link

The world's shittiest mixtape

[Media: Video]

Ah here we go, prepare to feel the embarrassment. So here's the story:

At a recent Crash Test, Aziz Ansari challenged his roommate Zach to see who could come up with the shittiest mixtape. Each contestant was to choose five songs. Their other roommate, Merlin, would act as judge. The loser would have to walk around the city blasting all ten songs from a boombox

This guy is carrying around a huge boombox blasting really cheesy and bad music. I couldn't help but feel embarrassed for him, but he was a good sport about it and even sang and grooved along to some of the songs while making a public fool of himself.

Link (via Fazed)

Raiding the 20th Century

[Media: Music]

Raiding the 20th Century by DJ Food is a pretty awesome undertaking. It's an one hour long MP3 which attempts to encompass the art and history of remxing. By taking spoken quotes and a massive amount of samples of remixed songs, this project takes you through a landscape of sound and variety. I haven't personally listened to the whole thing yet, but it really is quite wonderful so far.

You can download the torrent or you can find a couple of direct links on DJ Food's website.

Below is a list of artists and songs for Part 1 of 5, you can view the full list here

Pt 1 - Time Machine

20th Century Fox theme intro
Negativland - Downloading (Seeland)
MCSleazy / Franzie Boys - Triple Take (Half Inch Recordings 12")
DJ BC - Surebladi (mp3)
Danger Mouse - Encore (CD)
Wayne Butane - Elderly (Sucks Bigtime)
Big City Orchestra - Bulldog (The Beatlerape)
Jay-Z - Encore (accapella) (Roc A Fella)
The Beatles - Glass Onion (2 versions) (Apple LP)
Avril Plays The Beatles (mp3)
Loo and Placido - Safari Love (mp3)
Jrb - Busta vs Steptoe & Son (mp3)
Loo & Placido - Kids Will Rock You (mp3)
Braces Tower - Special Child (mp3)
Exactshit - Crazy (CDR)
Cropstar - Crazy Prado (mp3)
Tacteel vs Britney - Overprotected (CD-R)
Will Smith vs Mr Trick - Nod Ya Head (Boot Camp 7")
Osymyso - Intro inspection (Radar 12")
fLeXuS - It Ain't Nothin' (CD-R)
unknown - Spandau Fillet (mp3)
Go Home Productions - Turn Out The Light Slave And Give Me Some Rhythm
(mp3)
Go Home Productions - Work It Out With A Foxy Lady (mp3)
Beyonce - Crazy In Love (poj mix) (mp3)
Skkatter - Diddy (mp3)
Wobbly - Yo Yo Yo Yoyo, Hey... (Wild Why)
Frenchbloke & Son - Sound of da S Club (CD-R)
Lemon Jelly - Soft Rock (LJ 7")
dsico - Bille Jean Dancehall Edit (mp3)
People Like Us - Nobody Does (ubuweb mp3)
2 Many Djs - Smells Like Booty (mp3)
fLeXuS - White Love (CD - R)
Evil Twin - The Lady & The Lake (CD-R)
Justin Timberlake - Like I Love U (Ochre remix) (mp3)
Osymyso - Intro Expansion Pt 2 (mp3)
Go Home Productions. - Ray Of Gob (Half Inch Recordings 12")
Madonna - WTF? (mp3)
Player - Angel of Theft (Blood 12")
Osymyso - Wegoddim (mp3)
Flashbulb - Mama Said Knock You Out (mp3)

Link (via Boing Boing)

Halo 2 Rage

[Media: Video]

If you've ever played on Xbox Live, or any PC game for that matter, you'll have run into one or two people who find it impossible to stay calm, and remain courteous. I'm sure everyone's met a 14 year old who swears like a sailor, it's a little shocking.

This video shows how bad it can get. This guy screams swear words every time he dies, and totally spazes out. This video is considered not safe for work because of all the swearing, and screaming. This is kind of harsh stuff.

Warning: Not Safe For Work

On a slightly related note, here's a video of a Halo 2 player kicking some serious ass. Sticking players with grenades from across the level, getting Kill Frenzies (5 kills in a row within 4 seconds of eachother), and moments where he gets about 5 awards on the screen at once. The video smacks of ego, but it's still pretty cool.

Link (via Fazed)

Upgrading your iPod Nano to 200 GB

[Media: Article]

When your very compact iPod Nano just doesn't have enough harddrive space on it, what's the first thing you do? Slap a 200 GB harddrive onto it, that's what! Actually, the entire process is much more complicated than that, but the benefits are definitely worth it.

Now you have 200gb of storage space, fill it up with songs! We found in our benchmarking results that the addition of the ATA hard drive adversely affected battery life. However, we believe that this is a small price to pay for an over 50x increase in storage capacity. Using Apple's own bitrate calculations, we can now store over 150,000 minutes of music! You'll never listen to the same song twice. This is such a great advantage over the original model that we urge all iPod Nano owners to upgrade immediately.

Of course the battery life will drop due to the increase in harddrive space, but that's not much to worry about right?

iPod Nano Retail: - 8 Hours 23 Minutes
Upgraded 200GB iPod: - 6 Minutes

Link (via I Hate My Cubicle!!!)

Sonic Hand Grenade

[Media: Article]

The Sonic Grenade is probably the best way to get someone up if you don't mind them hating you for the rest of the day.

[T]he Sonic Alarm makes the whole 'getting them out of bed' exercise a very simple, and indeed amusing, operation. Looking like an old-fashioned comedy hand grenade, the Sonic Alarm will wake pretty well anything up. Simply pull the pin, yell an emphatic "fire in the hole" and lob the grenade into the sleeper's room. After ten seconds a very annoying and piercingly loud noise (there are three volume settings) will blast out from the alarm. That's not all however, what makes this especially great is that to stop the alarm the sleeper has to find you so you can put the pin back in. It's stupid, and brilliant, and will be the bane of every over-sleeper on the planet. Parents are going to love this, though the soon to be rudely awoken might not.

If you like this concept, you might also like the puzzle alarm clock as well. When the alarm goes off, the top breaks into puzzle pieces and it has to be reassembled before the alarm goes off.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Link Vs StarFox

[Media: Video]

A hidden in-game joke has appeared in Zelda: Ocarina Of Time using a GameShark to unlock... StarFox's Ariwing? Using the codes that come with the video you can replace a certain game model with the airwing, you can then proceed to attack the airwing like any other enemy in the game. After Starfox is dead, you'll be treated to a little cut scene and the game will end prematurely.

I think Nintendo had some spare time on their hands.

Link (via 4 Color Rebellion)

A Calvin and Hobbes Retrospective

[Media: Article]

The Washington Post has a great article talking about what made the comic strip, Calvin and Hobbes, so wonderful, because of the release of the The Complete Calvin and Hobbes Collection which contains every Calvin and Hobbes Comic ever made. The article also talks about the creator, and the history of the comic strip.

It turned out Watterson wasn't interested in doing anything other than the strip. After the first couple of years, no interviews. No "Calvin and Hobbes" dolls -- even if Hobbes was, at least as adults see it, a doll himself. (There's no telling how much a Hobbes doll could have made. The syndicate originally had licensing rights, but Watterson's opposition was so vehement that Salem ultimately "caved in completely'' and gave all the rights back to Watterson. "Otherwise, I'd be on the beach somewhere right now,'' Salem says.) No animated specials. No calendars, notebooks, pencils, backpacks or lunch boxes. (Those car decals of a Calvinesque brat whizzing on one thing or another are rip-offs.)

In searching for a picture for this post I ran into a webpage called The Rules of Calvinball, which states and doesn't state, all/none of the rules of Calvinball.

The Calvinball Field should consist of areas, or zones, which are governed by a set of rules declared spontaneously and inconsistently by players. Zones may be appear and disappear as often and wherever the player decides. Zones are often named for their effect. For example, a corollary zone would enable a player to make a corollary (sub-rule) to any rule that has been, will be, or might be declared. A pernicious poem place would require the intruder to do what the name implies. Or an opposite zone would enable a player to declare reverse playibility on the others. (Remember, the player would declare this zone oppositely by not declaring it.)

Link (via Apple Geeks)

Hinokio

[Media: Video]

Hinokio, which sounds awfully similar to the name Pinocchio, is an interesting looking Japanese movie. A boy who is disabled and doesn't want to go to school instead controls a robot from his room to attend classes in his place. Check out the trailer, it looks pretty good.

Although hopefully it's not too simular to Bicentennial Man. *Shiver*

There's also a slightly different Apple Trailer.

Link (via We Make Money Not Art)

Futureshop Videogame Sale

[Media: Sales]

Futureshop seems to be having a sale on until the 6th of October. There's a lot of games and even systems that are going for cheap. For instance:

Xbox System - $20 off
PS2 System - $50 off
GB Micro - $31 off
XBox Live - $31 off

There are a number of games up for sale as well, just go through the games section to see them.

Link

You will tell me how to get to Sesame Street!

[Media: Image]

This picture of Vader with an Elmo stranglehold is funny enough, but the link also contains a number of submitted captions to go along with the picture. I think anyone can agree that Vader would be a formidable presence on Sesame Street.

Link (via Boing Boing)

Peter Jackson Executive Producer of Halo Movie

[Media: Article]

Rumours that Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, would be directing Microsoft's Halo movie have been proven false in light that Jackson will instead be an Executive Producer. Jackson's Weta Digital Ltd. and Weta Workshop Ltd. will be doing the special effects.

I agree with Kotaku that after Jackson's King Kong movie wraps up, he may get more intimately involved in the actual directing of the movie. That's a great thing really because I normally never really have high hopes for videogame movies.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the picture, it seems that Microsoft sent their scripts with guys dressed up as the master chief.

Link

Google Zeitgeist

[Media: Website]

I probably should have posted about this last week, but better late than never. Google Zeitgeist is a section of Google which shows the top 15 most popular Google Searches each week. It's kind of depressing that the top 3 searches were about celebrities before hurricane Rita is mentioned. But it is nice to see that the Nintendo Revolution won spot number 4! Way to go! Gaming interfaces and celebrities over natural disasters!

1. kenny chesney
2. kate moss
3. britney spears baby
4. nintendo revolution
5. hurricane rita

Link

Two Handed Ikaruga

[Media: Video]

When Ikaruga becomes too easy, (which it never was for me, it chewed me up and spit me out), you can always play two ships at the same time, one with each hand. And then you can totally rock the game. Come on, everyone does it.

Link (via Fazed)

Limebarb: Custom Cosplay

[Media: Images]

Limebarb is a pretty huge website which will create custom made Cosplay outfits for you. There's a gallery of costumes that they've made before, but they're willing to create one from scratch if you can't find the one you want on there. There's definitely a lot to find, ranging from your favorite TV show like Naruto and Bleach, or videogames like Final Fantasy.

The picture on the left is Rikku from Final Fantasy, and then on the right is of course Princess Peach, which I think is a much better version than the Mario and Peach Costume I pointed out earlier. The wig alone is pretty fantastic.

Link

Nicholas Cage Names Son After Superman

[Media: Article]

Nicholas Cage has named his newborn son "Kal-El", which is Superman's original name. If you don't believe me, just do a search for Kal-El in wikipedia, and that's what you'll get. It's kind of funny because ABC News reported on this, but didn't seem to notice the reference that the name was making.

Do you think this kid will get picked on at school?

Link (via Boing Boing)

The Power Rangers Work For the President

(George Bush doesn't care about Black Rangers!)
[Media: Images]

This page is pretty silly, but it made me laugh just the same. This is a pictorial storytelling of Hurricane Katrina as if it were an episode of Power Rangers. Bush calls the Power Rangers to stop the Hurricane and... Well... Yeah, like I said, it's silly, but worth taking a look at.

Link (via Giant Mecha)

Seinfeld - The Frogger

[Media: Video]

Press The Buttons has pointed out the episode of Seinfeld where George wants to take a Frogger Arcade home with him because he's got the highest score on it, but he must keep the power connected to it or the score will be erased. Everyone's probably seen this at least once, but it's still a good scene.

Another thing that PTB points out is that someone went to the trouble of debunking this episode saying that what they did wouldn't work. Of course, nobody actually cares if it would work or not, all it has to do is be funny.

Link (via Press The Buttons)

Worst Job Ever

[Media: Video]

Explaining much of anything about this video would ruin the punchline. Infact, the original link kind of does ruin the joke so that's why I'm linking to the video directly.

In anycase, this guy totally hates his job. He doesn't want to get up in the morning, he's depressed because he has to go to work, and the picture above shows his seething hate for his desk. Near the end of this video, his mind is a broken husk, destroyed by the cheerful dedication towards the company's customers.

Link (via All Dumb)

Lemon Jelly: Nice Weather For Ducks

[Media: Music Video]

Anyone who has been reading this site knows I have a thing for awful music videos. A couple of examples of this are:
Unicorns LA
My Friend Dario
Russian Dance Contest

Nice Weather For Ducks is a little different though. It has high production values, the animation is pretty good, but it's still a strange beast. The animation has shadow animals, and a Darwinian-like, lava-lamped, flying man singing about swimming ducks. At one point a disco ball breaks out and all the animals and the bearded man bust a move.

Strange? Yes. Totally awesome? Only in my opinion.

Warning: Questionable Taste in Humour

Link

Serenity Impressions

[Media: Video]

I've started to realize that any enthusiasm I express, usually kills the enjoyment about the movies I recommend. So when attempting to recommend Serenity, I will keep it very simple.

Serenity, based on the TV show Firefly, has action special effects and suspense. Sure it's got all of that, and it's good. But that's not why I recommend going to see the movie instead it's the writing, the characters and the dialogue that makes the movie. These are real people, with motivations and reactions that make sense. And the witty banter that passes between the characters surpasses all other elements of the movie, something increasingly rare in movies today.

Here's a good example. Near the end, just when a scene is about to get mushy and corny, it instead turns from being romantic drivel into spot-on humour. Every cliche that would be present in any other movie is destroyed by being funny. Every time you think the captain will do "the right thing", he'll instead go and do the logical thing, which makes him look like a complete asshole.

It doesn't matter if you've seen the show or not, Serenity explains everything you need to know without feeling like you're missing something. If you have seen the show, it picks up where the show left off and completes the storyline. The trailers might show off a lot of flashy special effects, but you'll leave the theatre laughing because of the dialog.

Link

Momma Said I Could!

[Media: Video]

This video is in French, but it's really easy to understand. This kid is basically doing a whole bunch of bad things and his excuse is "Momma Said I Could!", and everyone lets him off the hook with this excuse. But what kind of Mom keeps saying yes to everything her kid wants to do?

Well you have to watch the video to find out.

Link

The Weekly Un-Postables

(The "Work Blind" Curtain)

From Boing Boing:
Billion-dollar Robinson Crusoe treasure discovered by robot
Penguins mating in minefield
Giant squid caught on film for first time
Shanghai bans net.slang
Old Daily Show sets auctioned for charity
Playmobil security check point

Miscellaneous:
No Complaints About Manitoba's Video Game Law
Princess Peach Game is Sexist
Shark repellent wetsuit
Gigantic Pink Rabbit
Gigantic Toy Collection
Porn Blooper - Really Not Safe For Work. If Sex offends you, don't click this, otherwise I think you will laugh really hard.

Reader's Submissions:
Knock On Wood - Thanks Kyle (my brother). This is pretty cool, but it doesn't fit with the feel of my website. This is a video of a guy playing a double necked guitar.

EFilm - Heather sent this to me, unfortunately I didn't really understand what I was supposed to look at on this website. It looks like a digital effects studio...

Weekly Roundup

I'm a Human Inbox's Favorite Post of the Week:
The Shining - Remixed

I actually had a really hard time picking this week's favorite, but I think I'm going to have to bow down to this remixed version of The Shining. It's a brilliant and masterful demonstration of remixing, taking a well known movie and turning it into something completely new. This video has been gaining incredible attention in the last couple of days. Waxy.org reports that he burned through 560GB in one day supporting that file, while the New York Times has written up an article talking about the response that this video has gotten.

The Shining - Remixed received 25 Clicks this week.

The other post that I was considering for this week was Creating Retractable Wolverine Claws for Halloween which I thought was delicious.

Reader's Favorite Post of the Week:
Generic Names for Soft Drinks

I'm a little surprised that you guys were so fascinated by a pop map! Well it looks like this post got 36 Clicks this week.