Say what you will about Sarah Palin, but no one can deny her maverick status, giving her kids names like Track, Trig, Bristol, Willow and Piper. Or was it Stack, Swig, Tick, Pillow and Gumper?
Check out this fun little name generator to find out what your name would be had you popped out of Sarah Plain Palin’s va-jay-jay:
(via Jared, via Polit Tsk Tsk Tsk)
Watch out Stjeev, and all you other Warcrafters out there: the government is on to your fiendish schemes! As Noah Shachtman reports in Wired:
“In a presentation late last week at the Director of National Intelligence Open Source Conference in Washington, Dr. Dwight Toavs, a professor at the Pentagon-funded National Defense University, gave a bit of a primer on virtual worlds to an audience largely ignorant about what happens in these online spaces. Then he launched into a scenario, to demonstrate how a meatspace plot might be hidden by in-game chatter.”
Aside from the fact that this story comes straight out of a National Lampoon’s script, Noah somehow manages to find humor in the fact that Washington security types are seriously worried about what goes on in the subverisve WoW. He ends with this choice quote:
“Toavs, for one, believes that spies will have to spend more time in virtual worlds like WoW, if they want to have a hope of keeping tabs on what goes on inside ‘em. Which means, some day soon, we might find secret agents in World of Warcraft, along with the druids and orcs and night elves.”
Beware ye computer geeks: behind every warlock and druid there might just be a fed…
George Washington, General Patton, and Trace Adkins (who?!) are the American Spirits: reminding flag-hating, baby-eating, Bible-smoking, healthcare-sharing Liberals what it means to be an American (gun ownership, poor education, xenophobia, and mindless jingoism?).
Michael Moore is kind of a douche.
But you guys are so not helping things.
F%#k you David Zucker.
F%$k you Dennis Hopper. You Judas.
The “Nicolas Cage Suck Factor” is approximately .75 (75%).
In recent years, the chance of a Nicolas Cage movie sucking is about 75% - only one in every four of his films will not suck.
I was at the movies last night and noticed the poster for Nicolas Cage’s new movie “Bangkok Dangerous” and a couple questions came to mind:
• ”Will Nicolas Cage show up in any movie offered to him?”
• “Since Leaving Las Vegas (1995), which Nicolas Cage movies haven’t sucked?”
Based on the films he’s appeared in since 1995, here is a running list of Sucked and Not Sucked (though not necessarily great, either). This is the data pool I used to generate the “Nicolas Cage Suck Factor.”
Not Sucked:
• Leaving Las Vegas
• City of Angels (almost sucked)
• Adaptation
• Lord of War
• National Treasure (almost sucked)
Sucked:
• The Rock
• Con Air (yeah, I know, some liked it)
• Face/Off
• Snake Eyes (really sucked)
• 8mm (semi-sucked)
• Bring Out the Dead (semi-sucked)
• Gone in 60 Seconds
• The Family Man
• A Christmas Carol: the Movie
• Matchstick Men
• The Wicker Man (semi-sucked)
• Ghost Rider
• Next
• National Treasure II
• Bangkok Dangerous
Update: To be scientifimical about this, post your own Nicolas Cage Suck Factor in the comments below, based upon the movies listed above and we can create a more accurate general public Nicolas Cage Suck Factor number.
Heywood: .67
Rabbi VonSydow: .67
Timbotron: .75
cmdrtebok: 1.00
Rebecca: .71 (she added a movie)
Allison: .80
This is just awesome: The Dark Knight, Sweded, starring 10-year-olds. The editing and sound are brilliant.
(via SayNoToCrack)
• Snowbilly - (adj., n.) A “hillbilly” or “red neck” from Alaska or other northern reaches of the United States. Currently used in reference to Sarah Palin.
• Bandslash - (adj., n.) A genre of fan authored fiction that focusses on homosexual encounters among rock stars (often among band members within the same group).
• ‘Anata to wa chigau n desu.’ - (Japanese phrase) Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said this cryptic phrase (”I am different from you”) to a reporter soon after his recent and unexpected resignation from office. This expression is now becoming the new internet ‘buzz phrase’ in Japan (props to PinkTentacle for explaining/traslating this). Fukuda T-shirts are now selling like crazy in Japan.
• Urushiol - (n.) The oily compound produced by members of the Toxicodendron family of plants (Poison Oak, Poison Ivy, Poison Sumac), which causes irritation and swelling when in contact with skin and mucous membranes. This is a good word to know if you want to be a smartass in the forest.
• Grey Goo - (n.) An end-of-the-world scenario involving nanotechnology that self-replicates and eventually overtakes the surface of the Earth, destroying all life in its wake.
A recent release from the Neistat Brothers:
Clowns already have a bad rap.
And all it takes is one bad clown to besmirch the floppy shoes.
And this time his name is “Trim-Trim the Clown.”
He did creepy things.
The name alone should be a give-away.
Why so serious?
(via L.A. Times, via Susan)
Proof that bacon is so awesome that even lettuce will eat it.
This is Wendy’s “Baconator” being attacked by lettuce.
One of many clever corporately-developed-yet-indie-looking web advertisement videos.
(via Marketing Daily, via Advertising Age)
The L.A. Times recently published an article about the growing concern over ShotPaks - alcoholic beverages that come in plastic pouches.
Apparently these pouches of alcohol are marketed toward kids. And this concern is understandable, because kids and teens will drink anything packaged like a shampoo sample.
And bottles confuse them.
And if it is a choice between drinking the unnoticed bottle of Frangelico or Grand Marnier in mom and dad’s liquor cabinet or drinking a plastic pouch of Purple Hooter, what other options do they have? Since 1933 - when they stopped serving beer and gin in public schools - pre-teens have had to struggle to get their drink on.
Another concern: The lack of decent wines marketed toward children.
The best I could find was Sofia Coppola’s Blanc de Blances Mini. It has the same size and feel of canned juices for school lunches combined with the awesome bendy straw of a Capri-Sun. And of the finer canned sparkling wines coming out of the Lawrenceburg, Indiana area, Coppola’s Blanc de Blances is certainly at the top of the list. It goes well with peanut butter and jelly, Chee-tos, and chocolate pudding cups.
Next week: Better marketing strategies for pre-teen cigar and pipe smoking.
Last week, Joel Levinson won the $100,000 grand prize in Klondike Bar’s video contest: “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?”
The winning video was selected by Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone of Saturday Night Live and Lonely Island fame.
(via MediaPost’s ‘Marketing Daily’)
Alternate Title: “Breaking and Entering and Seasoning.”
Fresno: “A burglar who broke into a home just east of Fresno rubbed spices over the body of one of two men as they slept in their rooms and then used an 8-inch sausage to whack the other man on the face and head before running out of the house, police said.”
. . . at least they hope it was an 8-inch sausage.
(via The Fresno Bee, via Angie)
Continuing on my election kick, check out “We Need a President (It’s Obama!)” from Bay Area artist Eklectyk, and members of the Napalm Clique. The viral video caught on pretty quickly with local media and blogs, and the video’s director even had a request for a copy from Oprah at the DNC.
• Which Walter Reed was the photo backdrop for John McCain’s recent nomination acceptance speech?
• Which Walter Reed was supposed to be the backdrop?
(via L.A. Times, via Susan)
Regardless of political affiliation or affinity, plenty of people are interested in making political statements - especially in the middle of a Presidential campaign (go figure!).
As for me, I’m more interested in hilarity, and the following video from The Daily Show is damn funny. If you don’t have an uninterrupted 3:28 minute block, go straight to the 2:17 mark, where the comedy kicks into high gear. Otherworldly irony available at 3:17 minutes:
“Freedom of choice? That’s different than being pro-choice.”
(from Dee)
This guy was driving in front of me today.
Thank God that guys at $10/hr who can’t spell ‘anthrax’ are looking out for us all.
This weekend (Sept 6 & 7), the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California is hosting a Jetpack Show!
I just got back and already made a sweet, sweet video for you all (live jetpack action!):
Jetpack Facts:
• “Jetpack” is without question the coolest compound word in the English language.
• “Jetpack” as an adjective means “better than awesome.”
• “Jetpack Pilot” would be the coolest thing to have on a business card, ever.
• Samuel L. Jackson with a jetpack would be unstoppable.
• Rumor has it that “Jetpack” will be the top celebrity baby name in 2009.
