1-2-3-4

Feist, whose 1 2 3 4 Music Video is fantastic (one take, no edits) takes her act to the big time. Sesame street.

Time to get those creative juices flowing

So that's where it comes from.

The Talking Goat

Waaaaa, waahhhh, whhaaattttt!

2013

And now on to the general election! I saw this new McCain ad today and I thought it was a spoof. Sadly, it isn't.



Also....
Weekends: Longer
Ice Cream: More Delicious
Rainbows: Bigger

EDIT: Look for future traction on McCain as the yarn spinner and story teller vs Obama the truth teller.

Adventure time!

I have been wanting to share this for a long time. It is a short called "Adventure Time" by Pendleton Ward and created for Nickelodeon. I think it's Algebraic!

A history of war through food

Via BoingBoing is a stop-animation short from filmmaker Stefan Nadelman that amazingly, and disturbingly, details a history of war from WWII through the present using only food representative of the countries in conflict. It is extremely violent in a surreal kind of way.

First, I think it is best to look at this cheat sheet that describes what countries are represented by what food stuffs. Kimchi is South Korea and dumplings are North Korea for example, and the U.S. has several fried foods attributed to it. Then watch the video:

Superbowl!

Well the ending may have not turned out as Patriots fans had hoped, that game had to be one of the best Super Bowl performances of all time. And this has to be one of the most insane plays off all time.



Oh my god indeed.

But how about the ads? My favorite three are as follows:

1: Audi R8. Yes it really does sound like that.



2: Bud Light/"Super Pro" proving again that all you have to do is point a camera at Will Ferrell and it will probably be funny.



3:Bridgestone. Extra points for the screaming bug.




EDIT: Forgot this one for Tide:

More video

We had our first lecture for Surgery, Anesthesia, and Critical Care yesterday... Here's how the professor introduced the anesthesia portion:

great video

My favorite is the twelve-year-old :)

Edit: Chris - I also love the 15 year old (he never quite hits the drum) and the 59 year old who looks like Gandolf from Lord of the Rings. Also, I want to talk like that 89 year old when I am that age! Bonus - 87, "Stop banging!"

Study break

Meow?

A shift in presidential politics

Note: The Comedy Central "Indecision 2008" page hosting these videos is down right now, so if they are grey check back later..

You could almost feel the ground shake on Monday when Stephen Colbert officially announced that he was officially thinking about running for president on the Daily Show with John Stewert. Only he needed a more prestigious show. Watch it here:



Then, 15 minutes later on the same network he found a show prestigious enough to make the announcement - his own...



Now he is running only in one state, and as a Republican AND Democrat, but I still think that all current presidential candidates must be trembling in fear. After all, no one loves America more than Steven Colbert and nothing says "I Love America" like being president.

Net Nutrality

There has been lots of discussion on line at least about "Net Neutrality." Currently the internet is regulated by the government so that service providers must deliver any data from any point in the world to you just like any other bit of data. It is blind.

The big providers (ATT, Verizon, probably Qwest) don't like this. They argue that they should be able to provide "premium" web service to their content at the expense of their competitors. I think this is an awful idea and would do nothing to bring the US up to speed in world where we are falling far behind - something that really bugs me. The US down to 15th and get an average of 1.9 Megabits pr Second average. Japan and Korea get 60+ average. Given they are lots smaller and more dense but good luck finding a single 60 Megabit connection anywhere in the US.

Anyway, Net Neutrality can be a funny idea, but I found this photo that some one made showing the dystopia of an unregulated internet.


I think they just cut and paste a cable TV ad, but thats the idea. Say goodbye to the internet as we know it.

Of course, John Stewert describes it better than anyone. Here is a classic clip:

And on a less bitter note

For all the kitty fans out there!

Reason no. 392...

...why Thomas Friedman should not be taken seriously. Via Atrios this is a 2003 interview with him that if you listen to today, you get the feeling that you are listening to an insane man. He is our modern day "Quiet American." To sum up his logic from this interview for why we needed to invade Iraq - it was to burst a "terror bubble" (his term) that had built up during the 90s. Or even shorter, 'we couldn't just sit there and not blow stuff up!'

Here is a good quote from about 5:00 in that shows his skill at being a serious, thoughtful person.

What they needed to see was American boys and girls going house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, um and basically saying, "Which part of this sentence don't you understand?"

You don't think, you know, we care about our open society, you think this bubble fantasy, we're just gonna to let it grow?

Well, Suck. On. This.

Okay.

That Charlie was what this war was about. We could've hit Saudi Arabia, it was part of that bubble. We coulda hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could.

He goes on to say that, well duh I knew they were lying about WMD - I wish they had not done that - but my cause was so good that it was worth it to let them trick every one into war because ultimately it would be worth it!

He should have been laughed out of town for this but it is 2007, and four years later he is still one of America's predominant thinkers.


UPDATE: Here is the clip I was talking about:

Almost NSFW

Thats "Almost Not Safe for Work" for any one reading. Via Cute Overload here is something just too strange...

Where been?

Well I guess bloging has dropped off a bit in the past few weeks. I have started my job at Macalester and things are going great. A lot of change happening there, and they have the energy and the support to make it happen too, it's great!

I am still working at St. Olaf too, and the drive is already wearing on me. My contract expires Aug 31st but it is going to be a hot summer of driving to contend with. Its still good though, not much to complain about.


To get things rolling and in the spirit of car talk, (it is still complicated, more later) I found this video of the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend that had an unusual canadian contestant.

The race here is between a 800+ hp Toyota F1 car and a .01 hp marmot

vs.

As you can see in these publicity shots, the marmot and the F1 car share similar aerodynamic qualities, and although the marmot is much less powerful, it also weighs far less and has the added benefit of all paw drive. Lets see how things turn out in slow motion...

Lobster lobster

Today we got our first package! Our first piece of any mail really. It was a card from our friends Sara and Will out east whom we have gotten to know through their search for a Vet school for Sara to attend, and she chose the U of M! The also have a corgi named Maggie who they also got later on in her life named and she wanted Winnie to know what life was like out east so she sent a lobster! Here is a move I took of Winnie playing with it for the first time. She loves the squeaker.

Telemarketers

Time for some Thursday funnies, with "Tuesday" by Awkward Pictures. What is the meanest thing you can do to a telemarketer? 5:05 long.

Winnie is fast!

So with Winnie's walky dog a success, I took the harness from that and applied it to my roller blades! I got a great video yesterday on my cell phone, but I don't have the USB cable to get it off yet so I re-shot it today and its almost as good. She is a little slower than yesterday if anything.

So here is some Winnie powered speed. I just said go and pointed my skates parallel, I did not move a muscle. Winnie gets so excited she barks at my feet at first, then takes off down the road. I can control her by pulling to the left or right or back on her harness, but she goes forward with no prompting! Video here...