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Fun Friday!

Here are a few things I’ve stumbled across lately, mostly funny stuff with a couple of “cool” things thrown in just to “keep it balanced”:

– I have a passing interest in stock photography. It stems from when I subscribed to several IT magazines and saw the same hot girl, standing in a server room with her arms crossed and a smile on her face, used in different ads over and and over again. So I was amused to see one site ask why stock photo women laugh when they eat salad, and why black women are so happy to shop. Any guesses?

– Paula Deen gives us her “wisdom” in this recipe for English peas. Don’t want to click the link? The recipe has two ingredients (butter and peas) and I’ll let you figure out the rest of the recipe. More culinary genius from the folks at FN!

– Here is the alleged intro for the Japanese version of 30 Rock:

Looks like an 80s sitcom on CBS, no?

– Speaking of TV, here’s a cool behind-the-scenes look at the CGI used in Boardwalk Empire. Aside from the obvious (but well done) CGI used for backgrounds, the video shows us how they make Richard Harrow into a grotesquely maimed WWI vet.

– The folks at Failblog have a picture of the best anti-shoplifting sign ever:

dexter_antitheft

– Some Charlotte filmmakers are making a documentary about the rise and fall of The Penguin. Check out the teaser:

– And lastly, Android has jumped ahead of iOS in the US smartphone market! Woo-hoo!

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“Cutthroat Steelers”

If you a Steelers fan or statistics junkie (or both), head on your to this post at One For The Other Thumb. Although the article looks at both sides of the football, the numbers for the Steelers 2010-11 defense are pretty amazing:

– The Steelers D gave up 276.8 yards per game, second in the league.

– They also gave up a league-low 14.9 points per game.

– They also gave up only 1,004 rushing yards ALL SEASON, which is the least in Steelers history… all the more amazing when you consider that the former record holders played four fewer games than this team!

– And, not to leave the offense out in the cold, my main man Mike Wallace “only” came in 5th in the league with 1,257 receiving yards… but all the folks above him had 76 or more catches. Wallace had only 60. He has the most receptions of 40+ yards in the league, and tied Steelers legend John Stallworth for most 100+ yard games in a season… and this is only Wallace’s second season!

Check out the article for some good stats about the Steelers!

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Quote of the Day

“Challenge my most cherished beliefs about the place of humankind in God’s creation, and while I may not agree with you, I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it. But dangle a participle in my presence, and I’ll consider you a subliterate cretin no longer worth listening to, a menace to decent society who should be removed from the gene pool before you do any more damage”.

– Jack Lynch
The Lexicographer’s Dilemma

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2011’s first News Dump

– Veteran character actor Pete Postlethwaite has died. It seems like Postlethwaite was in a million films, but he’ll be most remembered for his roles as Mr. Kobayashi in The Usual Suspects and an Oscar-worthy role as Danny in Brassed Off. History nerds will also remember him as Sargent Hakeswill in the BBC’s Richard Sharpe films. Postlethwaite was only 64.

– In happier news, Mila Kunis is single. The actress, known both for her role in That 70s Show and her love of videogames, had dated fellow actor Macaulay Culkin for years. With Scarlett Johansson and Kunis single, losers everywhere are getting their expectations up!

– Ever wonder why new prescription drug names seem to be overloaded with Xs and Zz? Hit up the Freakonomics Blog to find out.

– Someone wants to sell a disused public toilet for £100,000 in the UK. It’s in Sheringham, on the Norfolk coast, and has a hell of a view. It’s estimated that a buyer would also have to pay £50,000 to convert it into a house, on top of any redecorating costs.

– Criterion is a company which lovingly restores older, artistically-relevant films to the latest format… initially laserdisc, then DVD, and now Blu-Ray.  To collectors, the “Criterion Collection” is the gold standard of home video. But what if Criterion lowered their standards? What would their packages look like if they restored crappy films like Driven and Mrs Doubtfire? Check out this site for some funny!

– Lastly, “Easter Eggs” are fun little things hidden in software, DVDs and other types of media. One usually “unlocks” them by pressing keys in a certain combination, either on a keyboard or DVD remote. But the folks over at Cracked.com have found ten really good Easter Eggs hidden in famous albums. From aliens conversations embedded in Jimi Hendrix songs, to spectrographs hidden in Apex Twin songs, to Tool’s “do-it-yourself” song, to Monty Python’s double-grooved record, to Led Zepplin’s changing artwork to Information Society embedding a text file on an album, this list has something for everybody!

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-01-02

  • Testing – sorry! #
  • I *will* finish this Clancy book tonight! #
  • After playing with my new Droid phone for a few days, I can only conclude that it's made out of MAGIC! #
  • If I hear the music from the iPad commercial one more time… #
  • Sad news: Kodachrome is dead http://tinyurl.com/35zpn7u #
  • R.I.P. Brenda Starr http://tinyurl.com/324wltk #
  • It's official: John Fox is gone. #
  • @1outside Why, John Simm, of course! #
  • COME ON, UCF! #
  • UCF! UCF! UCF! UCF! UCF! #
  • As a reminder, since 2008 GT is 26-14 and UGA is 24-15. Plus GT has a conference championship and a BCS bowl bid. #
  • Happy New Year, everybody! #
  • So… they can play hockey in the snow, but not the rain? #
  • Anyone know where to get help with Skype + Droid? #

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Obscure?

Here’s the most obscure thing you will see (or hear) today!

Chas Jankel, born Charles Jeremy Jankel on April 16 1952 in Stanmore, England, was the keyboard player and guitarist for the 1970s British punk band Ian Dury and the Blockheads. In fact, Jankel co-wrote most of the group’s biggest hits! But Dury was always the center of attention in that group, and the band broke up after Dury (just Dury) signed a contract with Polydor in 1982.

Although the band periodically got back together until Dury’s death in 2000, Jankel also had a short solo career in the early 80s. Here’s his song “Questionnaire” from 1981:

The song’s… okay, I guess. But the main reason I posted the video was because I had such fond memories of watching it on Video Jukebox, a music video show on HBO. The show began as a series of “filler” shows of 1-3 videos that ran between films. In December 1981, however, the show got its own half-hour timeslot on the network. And whoever chose the videos seemed to love “Questionnaire”, which ran, like, a million times!