Yo dog, I heard you like to catch balls, run around, jump and otherwise act silly, but you're kinda failing at all those things in this video. What's up with that, dog?
Well, at least they look cute.
Via Boing Boing
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A hilariously named photo finishing business called "True You Retouching" edited photos of average women, as seen on the left, in the industry standard for people on the covers of magazines. Realistically, these models would not be on the cover of a fashion magazine unless they were public figures known for other reasons. This is ostensibly how their photos would be altered if they were famous authors or political figures featured as cover models, for instance (although something tells me these edits might be the tip of the proverbial iceberg).
See the rest of the series here. What are your thoughts, readers?
Shown here in what is just a rehearsal, musical group Louisville Leopard Percussionists play a medley of three Led Zeppelin songs, "Kashmir," The Ocean," and "Immigrant Song" on xylophones, marimbas and drums, definitely bringing it on home with their performance.
The group consists of 55 student musicians, ages 7 through 12, all from the Louisville, Kentucky metro area. Each group member achieves proficiency on several instruments including marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, drums, timbales, congas, bongos and piano.
The group likely was thrilled when none other than Jimmy Page linked to this video from his Facebook page on Friday, with the message “Too good not to share.” Now that is the stuff of a "band geek's" dreams! Congratulations, kids! -Via Dangerous Minds
This ad for the French cable channel Canal+ from the ad agency BETC Paris gives a little twist to the old story of why there are no unicorns in existence today. Yeah, the setting is still Noah’s Ark. Read more about this minute-long epic film at AdFreak. About one second of the video may be NSFW, but fine by barnyard standards. I hope that doesn’t give away too much. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
The following is a Whodunit by Hy Conrad. These mysteries are from The Little Giant® Book of Whodunits by Hy Conrad and Matt LaFleur. Can you solve the mystery before you read the solution?
(Image credit: Flickr user David, Bergin, Emmett and Elliott)
"The car alarm often goes off in hot, humid weather," Elliot Zypher told the inspector from the burglary division. "When it went off last night, I had no idea the car was actually being robbed. This has always been such a safe area."
The detective looked around at the large houses and well-tended lawns and had to agree. "Do you usually leave expensive necklaces out in the car?"
"That was my fault, inspector," answered Elliot's sister, Zelda. "I had just brought the necklace back from the jeweler. We were halfway through dinner when I remembered where it was. Neither Elliot nor I had the energy to go get it. I went right from dinner up to my room. With the windows closed and the air conditioning on, I could barely hear the horn start blaring. I assumed it was the usual false alarm."
Cassandra, a cartoonist in Canada, has long hair. She's previously shown us the funny differences between our hair expectations and reality. Now she's offering these harsh truths about what it's like to have long hair. It looks beautiful, but it's terribly inconvenient.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
Okay, I’m a guy, right? So the very term "chick flick" goes right up there with visiting the dentist, getting a colonoscopy, reading Jane Austin or worst of all-time: watching Sex in the City (cruel and unusual punishment).
But let's be fair here, I enjoy a few chick flicks- Splendor in the Grass with Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty is actually a really good, enjoyable film, the best performance of both Natalie and Warren's careers- in my humble opinion. I also liked Bridges of Madison County, Clint Eastwood's chick flick (an oxymoron if there ever was one). But my all-time favorite chick flick would definitely be A League of Their Own (1992).
A woman's sports film, possibly the rarest of all genres in Hollywood, the film tells the story of the All-American Girls Professional Ball League, a professional group of women baseball players. Although the film is the story of the entire women's baseball league (there really was an AAAGPBL in America from 1943 to 1954), it actually is the story of two sisters.
Dottie Hinson and Kit Keller are a pair of ball-playing sisters from the sticks, who get discovered by a scout, obnoxiously but wonderfully played by Jon Lovitz. (Lovitz is a real scene-stealer in his role as the baseball scout and actually was supposed to have a bigger role in the film, but something, unfortunately, came up, and his character was written out after a few great early scenes.)
Dottie (played by Geena Davis) the older, more mature sister, is happily married and although greatly talented as a ball player, the game is just a lark to her. Marriage and her husband are the center of her life and universe. (Interestingly, this film, along with Thelma and Louise, are, far and away, the two finest films of Geena's career, each a popular and well-known movie. However, she won her Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for The Accidental Tourist, a film hardly seen, remembered, or cared about by anyone.)
Younger sister Kit (Lori Petty) is not nearly as gifted as her older sister, but baseball is her life and gives meaning to her existence. This yin/yang battle of priorities, is, as we all know, the eternal battle of modern women: career versus relationship. The film shows both sides fairly and the director (this is Penny Marshall's best film, Big notwithstanding) is fair, not politically correct, and shows each side of the proverbial coin.
The name Margaret Hamilton may make you think of the actress who portrayed the Wicked Witch of the West, but this Margaret Hamilton is the software engineer who kept the Apollo 11 mission on track to the moon. The photo above was taken in 1969 and shows Hamilton with the mission software. In a recent interview, Hamilton tells us about her role at NASA, a little about women in programming, and how she coined the term “software engineer.”
Software during the early days of this project was treated like a stepchild and not taken as seriously as other engineering disciplines, such as hardware engineering; and it was regarded as an art and as magic, not a science. I had always believed that both art and science were involved in its creation, but at that time most thought otherwise. Knowing this, I fought to bring the software legitimacy so that it (and those building it) would be given its due respect and thus I began to use the term “software engineering” to distinguish it from hardware and other kinds of engineering; yet, treat each type of engineering as part of the overall systems engineering process. When I first started using this phrase, it was considered to be quite amusing. It was an ongoing joke for a long time. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas. Software eventually and necessarily gained the same respect as any other discipline.
Since 1986, Hamilton has headed her own software company. Read the rest of the interview at Medium.
(Image credit: NASA)
Thomas Sanders walks around town inventing stories about the people he sees going about their lives. Sometimes the main characters are a little freaked out by his interpretations, and I can see why. Their reactions are more amusing than the actual stories. -Via Laughing Squid
If you’re one of those people who feel that women can’t fight as well as men then this video will surely rock your worldview.
This amazing footage was shot at the World Wushu Championships back in 2009, and features a choreographed Wushu style battle between two mighty quick female combatants who make most action movie stars look like they’re moving in slow motion.
Even though the combat routine has been carefully rehearsed one wrong move can spell disaster, and both combatants go all out during the routine, assuming their opponent will be prepared for whatever comes their way.
Modern wushu is derived from Chinese martial art styles such as kung fu and traditional wushu, created in an attempt to standardize these martial arts into a competitive sport.
-Via Happy Place
This new video by Los Angeles musician and rapper Flying Lotus is the stuff of Halloween nightmares. Animated by David Firth, this NSFW video full of twisted images, violence and gore contains, as the warning states, "scenes that some viewers may find disturbing." -Via Juxtapoz
Ambition is a short film to advertise the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Mission. Rosetta met up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August, and will deploy the the Philae lander to land on the surface of the comet on November 12th. It will be a major event in the history of space exploration.
Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger) and Aisling Franciosi star as master and apprentice talking about the mission as ancient history. The film was produced by Platige Image and directed by Tomek Bagiński. -via Digg
See also: more on the Rosetta Mission.
When actor Robin Williams past recently, it was quite shock to us all. A man who had spent so many years making us all laugh so consistently was in pain inside, and that can be hard to look back and reflect upon.
Though there are many who said they did not see that side of the actor and had no idea it was coming, it is clear to see during his final interview that there was a sort of emptiness to how he portrayed himself. He seemed flat and like his mind was elsewhere. As if getting each word out was a struggle. It is not the Robin Williams we were all used to, but it also shows us that maybe the signs were there, and we just didn't have the courage to see them or ask him if he needed help.
Though this may seem morbid to post, let me reassure you, it is with the utmost respect for all of you that I do. Let Robin Williams be the trigger that leads us all to lean in to someone we care about and ask them if they are okay. Life is tough, and it beats down the best and brightest of us. Let this be the tragic precursor to change, is all I saying.
Because even with the brightest and funniest, as this video proves, sometimes the signs are there. We just choose to ignore them because it scares us.
Botto Bistro is an Italian restaurant in Richmond, California. If you use the review website Yelp to preview restaurants before eating, then you probably won't visit it. Its average rating is only 1 star out of 5. But that's exactly what the owner, David Cerretini, wants.
Cerretini explains to Adweek that his plan is a response to what he sees as blackmail by Yelp:
Cerretini claims Yelp called him 20 times a week asking him to advertise. He did, to the tune of $270 for six months. But when he stopped advertising, he claims his reviews turned negative and one of his best reviews even vanished. That, according to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, is something Yelp is legally entitled to do.
So, Cerretini hatched his 1-star plan. Next to a sassy sign explaining how much it charges for extra marinara sauce ($3 for just a splash, $4 if you want some to smell), Botto Bistro lists its various offenses—from charging for bread to lacking ranch dressing—and suggests patrons give it a 1-star Yelp review in return for 25 percent off a pizza.
Beyond press, it has generated some of the best Amazon-esque reviews on Yelp. The site sent Botto Bistro a threatening little letter, but Cerretini refuses to back down, claiming he's attracting higher-paying customers who are quite loyal. Not to mention, damn funny.
In his site's delightfully sassy FAQ section, Cerretini explains that he's trying to negate the power of Yelp over businesses. So far, his plan appears to be working.
-via That's Nerdalicous!
Global warming: a topic that is often hotly contested. Science video blog Veritassium has compiled this video to present some facts for perusal. At the very least, it might be handy to bookmark for when the holidays hit and you're looking to cool down the arguments between your relatives who are political polar opposites, before they come to blows. -Via Science Dump
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