Category Archives: Rants, Raves, Etc

articles, guides & stories about excellent websites, videos, podcasts, screenplays, recipes, apps, photography, entertainment & humor

Video | Masters Of Camouflage – nature’s best camouflage artists strut their stuff in this remarkable video

By admin | Published 11/10/2011

A marine biologist captures nature’s finest underwater camouflage artists performing their almost magical transformations in this intriguing video.

Video of nature's camoflage mastersWhen marine biologist Roger Hanlon captured the first scene in this video he started screaming. Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, studies camouflage in cephalopods–squid, cuttlefish and octopus. They are masters of optical illusion.

These are some of Hanlon’s top video picks of sea creatures going in and out of hiding. Cephalopods have several tricks for blending in with their undersea surroundings: they can change color, pattern and even the shape of their skin.

 

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Websites | AllMyFaves – the ultimate homepage and one-stop-shop for all your online needs

By admin | Published 11/10/2011

AllMyFaves is indeed the ultimate home page, offering an innovative visual exploration of the Internet.

AllMyFaves online web directoryI’ve been using All My Faves for years and have found it a fine resource–a visual table of contents of the online world. Whenever I’m stuck or looking for new places to explore, I head over to this directory that contains countless visual links (icons) to popular sites within dozens of categories. It’s also customizable.

Check out their features and info…

All My Faves online guide directory

Why search?

We like to keep it simple. Why search? is the essence of AllMyFaves’ philosophy. We believe the Internet should be an inspiring, easy and free experience for everyone. We, too, think that there must be an appealing and simple alternative to traditional Internet navigation.

That is why we have taken up the task of simplification so that end-users could find what they’re looking for quickly, whether they are interested in Entertainment, Games, Kids, Shopping, Travel or anything else. With AllMyFaves, users can smoothly cruise on the vast Internet highway without wasting valuable time or having to sieve through irrelevant search results.

Our visual platform not only directs users to their sought-after information fast but also introduces them to new and exciting sites, both of the same and different categories. We achieve this through a strict selection process and a back-and-forth dialogue among the AllMyFaves team members. This way, AllMyFaves acts as a pioneering force of Internet browsing, searching and learning, thereby offering nothing but the absolute best of what the web has to offer.

Today, when much of the searches we perform produce considerable numbers of spam, fraud and aggregation sites, we feel someone needs to step up and sift through the Internet so that Internet users’ experience is a positive, to the point and no-nonsense one. AllMyfaves has a calling and we’re dead set on doing it right. What a better way to do so than by the use of the human brain.

History and Approach

Back in 2006, Shachar Pessis grew frustrated by the cumbersome and convoluted nature of the Internet. To find something on the web, he had to type in URLs, use his ever-increasing list of bookmarks, enter key words in search engine boxes, or be acquainted with an Internet savvy friend who could recommend relevant sites to him. Sure enough, Shachar learned he was not alone: 72.3 percent of adult Americans experience ‘search engine fatigue’ either always, usually or sometimes when searching for a topic on the web (“The State of Search” – compiled by Autobytel Inc. with Kelton Research, October 2007). Discovering new sites was even more challenging and time-consuming, and rarely did Shachar accomplish this in a fast and easy manner.

Shachar shared his discontentment with Roy Pessis, his brother. Together they came to the conclusion that a better alternative must exist, one that applies to and is shareable by everyone, everywhere. The two brothers then held brainstorming sessions and came up with the AllMyFaves concept. They envisioned a virtual directory that includes a list of top and most visited sites in major daily-used subject categories, a list they knew would introduce new and interesting things to others as it grew larger. Shachar and Roy aimed for a simple way by which users can discover new fields of interest without having to think about these beforehand or surfing the Internet with the initial intent of learning new things.

The AllMyFaves’ Internet team scans the Internet for the best and latest sites on the web. Our experts are constantly hard at work in examining the Internet’s various aspects, categories and sites. By doing so, we eliminate all the crudeness of the Internet and offer users a purified, virtually distilled version of the web. Becoming a Faves expert is no easy task; new ‘fave selectors’ who come aboard AllMyFaves go through a personal and ongoing training program in order to perform high quality filtration of the thousands of sites they come across every week. Indeed, we are stern believers in human editing skills versus those of a machine or software.

My Faves

The My Faves feature is one of AllMyfaves’ most exciting components. Although we do our best in making AllMyFaves your one-stop-shop for all your Internet needs, we do recognize the fact that each user is into different fields of interests and activities. Therefore, we’re giving users their own creation powers for free. Once you’ve signed up and have logged in, you’ll have the option of adding your choice of new sites.

Weekly Faves

Updated every Monday, the Weekly Faves are our hand-picked sites for that week. These are the sites we were most impressed by and the ones we wish to pay forward to our users. Think of it as the ‘crème de la crème’ of the Internet on a weekly basis. Accordingly, the Weekly Faves offer users a little bit of everything each week with the added value of introducing new sites and fields of interest to users.

Weekly Games

Same as our Weekly Faves, the Weekly Games are our hand-picked games for that week and we update these every Wednesday. The web offers thousands of online free flash games but only a small percentage of these is actually worth spending some time on. Our games experts play games online all day (hey, someone needs to do the dirty work…) and provide you with only the best ones. We must give you the heads up though: entering the Weekly Games page might result in long hours of participation on your part. To see what games we’ve picked for our previous Weekly Games, you can either click on the Games tab on our homepage or simply click here.

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Recipes | Top Secret Recipes – Domino’s Pizza

By admin | Published 11/09/2011

Here’s the secret recipe for a delicious Domino’s pizza and a video of Todd Wilbur’s new TV show.

Dominos pizza recipe Top Secret RecipeTodd takes on the world leader in pizza, Domino’s Pizza. His investigation takes him to Michigan, the birthplace of Domino’s. Todd only has three days to clone a recipe that took two years to perfect, and with so little time, he has to supplement his own knowledge with some undercover work.

He talks his way into extremely high security areas and works in disguise to uncover bits and pieces of Domino’s guarded recipe. Todd even uses scientific analysis on the sauce with the help of a university professor. There’s cheese, dough and sauce that have to be perfected, and this might just be Todd’s most difficult challenge yet.

Todd Wilbur’s Domino’s Pizza Espionage Adventure

View the full TV episode here

Dominos pizza recipe Top Secret Recipe

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Video | Animals – Ultimate Dog Tease, great talking dog, a must-see

By admin | Published 10/12/2011

The perfectly produced talking dog video, Ultimate Dog Tease, has been viewed by over 63 million.

video ultimate dog tease.It was made by Andrew Grantham, a popular Canadian entertainer. He has taken animal dubbing to a new level with his Talking Animals channel on YouTube. Check it out.

 

 

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Podcasts | The Tobolowsky Files – legendary character actor shares his short stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry

By admin | Published 10/12/2011

In The Tobolowsky Files podcast, legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky shares a series of short stories about life, love, and the entertainment industry.

The Tobolowsky Files podcastI listened to podcast number one a few months ago and became addicted before it concluded. In the next few weeks, I had no choice but to feed my addiction and I consumed all 51 episodes one after another.

His stories are funny, profound, and moving. In his lifetime, Tobolowsky has had some pretty wild and crazy adventures, not to mention the fact that he’s worked with directors like Paul Verhoeven, Harold Ramis, Christopher Nolan and Spike Jonze, just to name a few.

The Tobolowsky Files – episode 51 – sample

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Telling Stories: Why You Should Be Listening To “The Tobolowsky Files”

Telling stories seems like such an easy thing to do. Everybody has them, after all, and everybody can open up and start talking. We tell each other stories every day — someone sees you with a Band-Aid on your finger and you say, “I cut myself slicing a potato.”

That might be why people who are Storytellers, deserving of a capital S even if it’s technically improper to supply one, are not as celebrated as people who write novels or play the violin.Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party

But a truly great storyteller is the farthest thing from mundane; that person is a profound pleasure. And Stephen Tobolowsky is a truly great storyteller.

You may know Tobolowsky as an actor from Groundhog Day or Glee or Deadwood — he’s become famous for not being famous, in that he has literally hundreds of credits at the Internet Movie Database and he’s the star of very, very few of them. But for 50 episodes now, he’s been the star of an exceptional podcast called The Tobolowsky Files.

GROUNDHOG DAY – Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson

The project grew out of the 2005 documentary Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party (which you can watch in full on Hulu or IMDB), which consists largely of him telling stories from his life — both his personal life and his life as an actor who has worked with a remarkable range of folks. After the film came out, Tobolowsky guested on the podcast at the fine movie site /Film (that’s Slashfilm, if you need to pronounce it).

And then, in one of those lovely developments that could so easily have never happened but fortunately did, David Chen, who works at /Film, approached Tobolowsky about a podcast project to release more of his stories.

STEPHEN TOBOLOWSKY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY

 

The formula is simple: Chen introduces Tobolowsky, and they have a couple of minutes of chat, and then before you know it, Chen has dropped out and you are just hearing a story.

In the most recent episode, “The Primary Source,” Tobolowsky talks about having been in a band with Stevie Ray Vaughn when the latter was just a kid people were starting to think was really good. Other things he talks about: having his back waxed on the set of Californication, the dangers of self-Googling (“on a single day, I read articles where I was described as being alternately ‘lanky,’ ‘pudgy,’ ‘doughy,’ ‘balding,’ ‘utterly forgettable,’ and ‘constantly irritating’”), and a remarkable sequence of events surrounding the death of character actor Trey Wilson, with whom Tobolowsky worked on Great Balls Of Fire.

The show is funny, it’s fascinating, it’s filled with little bites of wisdom you’ll take with you (“belief is a very peculiar thing: we tend to put more store in a belief we like than a fact we hate”), and more than anything, it’s surpassingly generous.

That’s incredibly important, because what storytellers can’t be is vain. They can’t be the hero every time out. In fact, they can’t be the hero almost ever. The only truly great storytellers are the ones who are just as interested, therefore, in other people as they are in themselves, and entirely capable of finding humor and weirdness in their own behavior. They must be quick to be humbled, quick to laugh gently at themselves and slow to laugh derisively at others. Monologues are tricky: a whiff of self-importance, and it’s just an hour spent with a blowhard.

I have come to believe that what sets the tone for this particular show is the way the episodes begin. Chen introduces Tobolowsky using one of his many, many credits — often a very obscure one — and Tobolowsky either takes unexpected levels of pride in it, makes it clear that he doesn’t really remember it, or makes some kind of surprisingly kind comment about it. Having done so much work that no one remembers, not even him, doesn’t bother him a bit. In “The Primary Source,” Tobolowsky is introduced as “the man who played Troll in the Walt Disney animated series, American Dragon: Jake Long!” Tobolowsky’s response: “Was I ‘Troll’? … I remember it just like it was yesterday a century ago. I thought I was some sort of dragon on American Dragon.”

It’s just genuinely wonderful. It’s kind and funny and sharp-witted and eye-poppingly observant about people and show business. You can subscribe to the podcast, or just listen to a few episodes online.

Telling Stories: Why You Should Be Listening To “The Tobolowsky Files” by Linda Holmes NPR

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News | Pat’s Papers – carefully edited news collection spanning the spectrum of international news to domestic politics to science to gossip and beyond

By admin | Published 10/12/2011

Pat’s Papers is a carefully edited collection of US news headlines delivered each weekday morning. They cut through the clutter of the news choices on the Web to deliver a summary of stories that span the entire news spectrum from international news to domestic politics to science to gossip.

Pat's Papers news headlinesPat’s Papers is hosted by Pat Kiernan, the anchor of the morning news program on NY1 News in New York City. PP was created as the cross-country equivalent of the NYC-focused “In the Papers” segment Pat prepares each morning for NY1.

Don’t want to wake up at the crack of dawn to read the day’s headlines? He gets up early in order to give you a carefully-edited selection of the day’s news. Though he concentrates on U.S. papers, when a big story extends beyond the border, Pat does too.Pat's Picks newspaper stories

Every weekday morning we send out an early e-mail to subscribers with a preview of our favorite stories so you can get a jump on the news before your commute. Then, we start digging deeper to find smart selections from newspapers all across the country.  As we find interesting stories we’ll post them on the Story Stack.  Around midday, we review the Story Stack for our favorites and send out our final edition Pat’s Picks e-mail.

Pat writes about stories that catch his eye on Pat’s Blog. This is also where you’ll find our Front Page Tally—a scorecard that summarizes the stories that were chosen to lead the biggest U.S. newspapers.Pat Kiernan

New York magazine called Kiernan “the media junkie’s morning addiction,” and the Columbia Journalism Review cited him for his influence in shaping the nation’s news. He’s known to national audiences for his work as host of several game shows, including “World Series of Pop Culture.” CNN viewers remember Pat for his light-hearted take on business news on “The Money Gang.”

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Recipes | Top Secret Recipes – Starbucks’ birthday cake pops

By admin | Published 10/12/2011

A Cake Pop solves the ever lasting question of how to make cake portable–it’s whimsical, fun and delicious cake on a stick.

recipe-Starbucks-birthday-cake-pops

What’s not to like about a portable pastry creation? This has been an emerging trend popping up in specialty bake shops, on blogs like Bakerella and even touted by Martha Stewart. Here is Starbucks’ most popular flavor, birthday cake, courtesy of my favorite food spy Todd Wilbur.

Starbucks birthday cake pops recipe

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Apps | Dragon – Fire up texting, emails, tweets without typing

By admin | Published 06/27/2011

I like texting except for the typing. So my pet Dragon swallows my voice and spits out hot text–for text messages, emails, Twitter, Facebook updates, notes and whatevers. Dragon Dictation is a free bird too.

Apps Dragon dictationYep, I like texting except for the typing part and this wonderful app beast, DRAGON DICTATION, helps me out. You talk to Dragon and he swallows your voice and fires out text. Press one of his belly buttons and your words fly off as a text message, email, Twitter and Facebook updates, and notes of any kind. It’s quite easy to use and surprisingly accurate without any training–good Dragon, good boy.

Apps - Dragon dictation screen shotsThis app comes in quite handy when I want to text out while simultaneously juggling tasks like walking the dog, riding a bike, corraling a kid, cooking, or shooting a shoot. Here are some smoking screen shots, videos and details showing how the beast roars.

Stay connected, even when you are Hands-Busy. Dragon Dictation an easy-to-use voice recognition application that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text content for everything from email messages to blog posts. In fact, it’s up to five times faster than typing on the keyboard.

With Dragon you can dictate status updates directly to your Social Networking applications (Facebook and Twitter), send text or email your friends, send notes and reminders to yourself … all using your voice. The new Dragon Dictation 2.0 also features multilingual capabilities, giving you the option to switch between a variety of languages.

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Food | Top Secret Recipes – Jamba Juice Smoothies

By admin | Published 06/26/2011

Here’s the top secret recipe for Jamba Juice Smoothies featuring Banana Berry, Orange-A-Peel, Citrus Squeeze, Cranberry Craze, Peach Pleasure and Strawberries Wild.

Top secret recipe for Jamba Juice SmoothiesThese Jamba Juice smoothies are big, so rustle up a 24-ounce cup or get ready to share. Here are clones for six of the favorites from Jamba’s big list of fruity smoothies: Banana Berry, Orange-A-Peel, Citrus Squeeze, Cranberry Craze, Peach Pleasure and Strawberries Wild. Courtesy of my favorite food spy Todd Wilbur.

 

Top secret recipe for Jamba Juice Smoothies

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Video | Pets – Cat impersonates dog when nobody’s looking

By admin | Published 06/25/2011

Here’s a video of a cat impersonating a barking dog when he thinks no one is watching.

Video of cat barking like dogI finally gave in and let my dog, Enzo, pick a video this time, and he came up with a cat who barks like a dog when no one’s looking. I admitted to Enzo, that it did fool me, and it is good for a quick snicker. Arf!

 

 

 

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Comics | Bottomliners – Close To Home – Speed Bump – NonSequitor

By admin | Published 06/24/2011

My favorite comics from the past few weeks featuring Bottomliners, Close To Home, Speed Bump, NonSequitor.

Comics Close to Home

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Comics - NonSequitorNon Sequitur by Wiley Miller

Comics - Speed BumpSpeed Bump by Dave Coverly

Comics - Speed BumpSpeed Bump by Dave Coverly

Comics - BottomlinersBottomliners by Eric and Bill Teitelbaum

Comics - Close To HomeClose to Home by John McPherson

 

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Podcasts | KEVIN POLLAK’S CHAT SHOW – The planet’s best talk show ain’t on TV

By admin | Published 06/13/2011

With no time or language or commercial restrictions to hold it back, KEVIN POLLAK’S CHAT SHOW has blasted off into the stratosphere to become the planet’s best talk show. I’ve gathered some tasty samples of his podcast featuring Jon Hamm, Seth MacFarlane, Jane Campion,  Dana Carvey, Lisa Loeb and others.

KEVIN POLLAK’S CHAT SHOW Jon HammKevin Pollak’s Chat Show, in my humble opinion, is the planet’s best talk show. Since this podcast has no time or language or commercial restrictions, Pollak is free to do and say any damn thing he wants to and he does. To high quality, funny and unique effect. Pollak is quite a talented stand-up comedian and I’ve enjoyed his act for over 30 years going back to his early days in San Francisco where I used to live.

Jon Hamm

Over the past two decades, he has appeared in over fifty films, as well as countless television projects, and has established himself as one of the few stand-up comedians to have a successful dramatic film career. Kevin pollak chat showYou might remember his strong role going head to head with Jack Nicholson in A FEW GOOD MEN.

A Few Good Men tom cruise

 

Seth MacFarlane

This podcast/talk show thing works as well as an audio podcast as a video podcast. In fact, I rarely watch it, and use it mainly as an audio cast I enjoy in the car or walking the dog. Since it’s the thoughts, ideas and talk that counts here, you rarely need to get your eyes into the act.

Each episode, Kevin has in depth interviews with one or two guests from the entertainment industry. It’s common for the segments to go for one or two hours.

Dana Carvey

Another fan, Jake, has some more fine info and observations to point out… KEVIN POLLAK’S CHAT SHOW has no right to work, something its self-effacing host would probably admit to even before that other self-deprecating maverick of talk shows, Craig Ferguson. A no-budget Internet program featuring the comedian and character actor slumped over a Macbook surfing for questions to ask his guests in interviews that routinely stretch past the two-and-a-half-hour mark? It sounds like the stuff of legendary tragedy: half-hubris, half-midlife crisis, all some strange attempt to get the shot at hosting the Tonight Show that every comic wanted and now no one shall ever have again.

Jane Campion

If there’s one thing you can’t accuse Kevin Pollak of being full of, it’s hubris. The KPCS, like Craig Ferguson’s equally, wonderfully scattershot network program, thrives on the understanding that everything could fall apart at any second. Pollak and his crew, among whom are his girlfriend Jaime Fox and, bizarrely, Freaks and Geeks alumnus Samm Levine, have been at this show for more than a year and a half now, yet technical problems continue to abound. Mics are turned up, the Macbook doesn’t load quickly enough, the live stream drops out. Through it all, Pollak keeps a smile; hell, that smile gets wider when something goes awry.

Kevin Nealon

Because he does not put anyone on the spot, because he does not bring them there to address a controversy or pander to an audience that cannot applaud back, Pollak elicits something rare from his showbiz guests: honesty. Just as Cavett could hold a conversation with those who appeared on his program, Pollak rolls with each answer, actually paying attention and not leaping to the next question on the card. The guests loosen up and trust him for this, and by the end of each segment, if the interview subject wasn’t already Pollak’s fan, he or she is now.

Lisa Loeb

So comfortable does everyone become than many lightly spar with him. Neil Patrick Harris can jovially trip him up for his syntax, while Kevin Smith says what was on a lot of people’s minds when he, with mock interventionist concern, leaned in and begged the constantly be-fedora’d Pollak, “Stop with the fucking hats.” It’s a banter not even Craig Ferguson achieves, and when Ferguson came on the show, there was a mutual recognition of respect between them. Each sees potential in the other that just does not exist in other talk shows. Even Conan gets by on his writing charm, not his rapport with the vast majority of his guests.

Bobby Slayton

http://youtu.be/h8UH2xgLAYU

I don’t know how long Pollak intends on following this bit of whimsy, but I hope he never tires of it. Freed of commercial obligation and note-making executives, KEVIN POLLAK’S CHAT SHOW is one of the most refreshing and revealing celebrity talk shows I’ve ever heard. As with Conan, Pollak has the reverence for the old school and the desire to the push the boundaries. But where Conan devoted everything to get the TONIGHT SHOW, Pollak made his own path, and as dynamic and satisfying as his show is in its own right, what it says about the potential of moving everything about the entertainment industry — even that which some dismiss as pabulum — online.

Kevin Pollak parodies Christopher Walken

Pollak was amazed that he landed the L.A. Times when he held up a copy a year and a half ago, but why wouldn’t a major Los Angeles paper write about him? In his own way, Larry King Game, hats and all, Pollak could help change Hollywood’s landscape. When you look at it like that, the fact that it’s entertaining as hell almost seems a side note.

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Music Video | OK GO – The largest and most stupendous Rube Goldberg machine ever created “performs” with the band OK GO

By admin | Published 06/05/2011

Ok Go, and arts group Syyn Labs, build the most stupendous and creative Rube Goldberg machine ever and synch its “performance” to a great song.

The band, OK Go, and an LA based arts and technology collective, Syyn Labs, collaborate and build the most gigantic and elaborate Rube Goldberg machine I’ve ever seen or imagined. This is quite a fascinating and visually arresting music video.

The video was filmed in a two story warehouse, in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, CA. The “machine” was designed and built by the band, along with members of Syyn Labs over the course of several months.

Check out Dylan Tweney’s excellent article about the music video project for WIRED magazine…

How OK Go’s Amazing Rube Goldberg Machine Was Built  By Dylan Tweney

In music, timing is everything. When you’re dancing with an enormous machine, it’s even more important to get the timing correct, down to the microsecond.

For its latest video, released on YouTube Monday night, pop band OK Go recruited a gang of very talented engineers to build a huge, elaborate Rube Goldberg machine whose action perfectly meshes with the band’s song, “This Too Shall Pass,” from the band’s new album, Of the Blue Color of the Sky.

Behind-The-Scenes Look At Creating The Thing

For nearly four minutes — captured in a single, unbroken camera shot — the machine rolls metal balls down tracks, swings sledgehammers, pours water, unfurls flags and drops a flock of umbrellas from the second story, all perfectly synchronized with the song. A few gasp-inducing, grin-producing moments when the machine’s action lines up so perfectly, you can only shake your head in admiration at the creativity and precision of the builders.

Those builders were Syyn Labs, a Los Angeles-based arts and technology collective that has a history of doing surprising, entertaining science and tech projects that involve crowds of people, at a monthly gathering called Mindshare LA.

OK Go developed a reputation for making catchy, viral videos four years ago with the homemade video for “Here It Goes Again,” which features the band members dancing around on treadmills. The company ran afoul of music label EMI’s restrictive licensing rules, which required YouTube to disable embedding, cutting views to 1/10 of their previous level. Now, the new video is up — and it’s embeddable, so the band seems to have won this round with its label — and is already generating buzz on YouTube and on Twitter.

Planning for the video began in November, when Syyn Labs secured a warehouse in the Echo Park area of L.A. But it wasn’t until January that work really got going. The video was shot on Feb. 11 and 12. “A Rube Goldberg machine is in its essence a trial-and-error thing,” Adam Sadowsky, the president of Syyn Labs, told Wired. Sadowsky explained how many tiny details needed to be just right for the machine’s timing to work out.

For example, the wooden tracks used to guide metal balls at the beginning of the video had to be cleaned and waxed to keep dust from slowing down the balls and making them stick. And the angle of that board was set at a precise 3.4 degrees of incline, which was perfect for the timing but sometimes led the balls to jump the track.  (more)

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Top Secret Recipes | CPK Thai Crunch Salad

By admin | Published 06/04/2011

The top secret recipe for California Pizza Kitchen’s delicious Thai Crunch Salad courtesy of my favorite food spy Todd Wilbur.

California Pizza Kitchen’s delicious Thai Crunch Salad

Thai Crunch Salad

Shredded Napa cabbage, chilled-grilled chicken breast, julienne cucumbers, edamame, crispy wontons, rice sticks, peanuts, cilantro, julienne carrots, red cabbage and green onions tossed with lime-cilantro and authentic Thai peanut dressings.

CPK Thai Crunch Salad recipe

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Comics | Free Range – Stone Soup – Speed Bump – In The Bleachers

By admin | Published 06/03/2011

My favorite comics from the past few weeks.

Comic stone soup

Stone Soup

Speed Bump

In The Bleachers

Free Range

Free Range

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Websites | Video: Funny or Die – When Harry Met Sally 2, the Landlord & its outtakes

By admin | Published 04/20/2011

Here’s a few fine videos from Funny Or Die. A new one with Billy Crystal and Helen Mirren, a classic you’ve likely seen before, and the outtakes you may not have caught.

When Harry Met Sally 2, Funny or Die

If you’re not familiar with Funny Or Die, I’ll tell you it’s a comedy video website that combines user-generated content with original, exclusive content. Will Ferrell started the site and it’s is a place where celebrities, established and up-and-coming comedians and regular users can all put up stuff they think is funny. At the same time, the site hopes to eliminate all the junk that people have to pick through to find videos. So at the site, you get to vote on what videos are funny and what videos deserve to die.

When Harry Met Sally 2 with Billy Crystal & Helen Mirren

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The Landlord

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The Landlord Outakes

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Funny Or Die was created by the guys at Gary Sanchez Productions (Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy) and a bunch of Silicon Valley dudes and ladies. Michael Kvamme, an aspiring young comedian, came up with a concept for a new kind of comedy site and told his dad, Mark Kvamme of Sequoia Capital to write a check.

Some of the other comedians you’ll find here include Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Michael Cera, Ron Howard, Ryan Reynolds, Sarah Silverman, Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis.

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Video | Dogs – Denver, the famous guilty dog, in her viral video and TV debut

By admin | Published 04/20/2011

Over 8 million people have viewed this amusing video. What I like about this one is that it isn’t a silly, goofy or pratfall filled affair. It’s subtle and low-key, so I’m frankly surprised it got such a huge response.

Guilty dog video

 

 

 

 

 

Denver The Guilty Dog

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Denver takes a bow on Good Morning America

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Podcasts | BrainStuff – get smarter in a few minutes and have a humm-huh? moment or two

By admin | Published 04/20/2011

Marshall Brain explains the world’s everyday mysteries and other puzzling phenomena in BrainStuff, a podcast from HowStuffWorks.com

Brain Stuff podcastThis is one of my fave podcasts and It comes in five minute increments so it’s easy to fit it in anytime. I’ve embedded a few samples for your listening pleasure: How did the moon get there? What is Schadenfreude? Can we make gasoline from bacteria? Why are West Coast waves bigger than East Coast waves? What is mayonnaise?

How did the moon get there?

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What is Schadenfreude?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Why are West Coast waves bigger than East Coast waves?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

What is mayonnaise?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Can we make gasoline from bacteria?

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Recipes | Top Secret Recipes – Bonefish Grill BangBang Shrimp

By admin | Published 04/20/2011

Bonefish Grill proudly refers to this appetizer as the “house specialty” and for good reason. It’s a most delicious dish with bang-up flavor especially if you enjoy your food on the spicy side. Courtesy of my favorite food spy Todd Wilbur.

Bonefish-Grill-Bang-Bang-ShrimpBonefish-Grill-Bang-Bang-Shrimp

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Comics | Free Range – Close to Home – Speed Bump – Free Range – Bliss – Bottomliners

By admin | Published 04/20/2011

Bliss comic stripMy favorite comics from the past few weeks.

 

 

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Bliss 1Bliss by Harry Bliss

Bottomliners by Eric and Bill Teitelbaum

Speed Bump 1Speed Bump by Dave Coverly

Close to Home by John McPherson

Free Range by Bill Whitehead

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