Scriptedfate

Somebody leaked the video for Daft Punk's "Get Lucky!" (Thanks, Gabe Adiv!)

(Finders Creepers via Obvious Winner)

[Via MUO]

[Via Miss C | The Chive]

picadorbookroom:

In honor of Children’s Book Week, here’s a photo of an awesome kid.

motionaday:

Nightvision

Monday: Taiyo Yamamoto

In 1954, archaeologists excavating an eighth-century Viking settlement on Helgö Island in Sweden turned up a 10-centimeter statuette of the Buddha.

It’s thought to have originated in northwestern India around 600. How it made its way to Sweden is unknown.

I can’t find the original source, but it’s too good not to share.

(seen in r/StarTrek)

memewhore:

tardisblue-alphared:

im crying because did disney miss the part where she DIDNT WANT TO DRESS UP FOR THE CEREMONY IN THE MOVIE? NO? OK WERE GONNA IGNORE THAT.

BOOOOOO!!!!

XD

XD

XD

You'll have seen the pictures of a giant rubber duck floating down the world's iconic waterways, from the Thames to Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong -- it's Florentijn Hofman's brainchild. What you may not have seen is what the duck looks like after it's been deflated, and that's even better -- a kind of puddle of duck, which has a Beatrix Potter-y ring to it until you see it and then it has nothing at all about it that suggests Ms Potter's works.

florentijn hofman's giant rubber duck: the aftermath (via Making Light)

It’s the tags that get me.  XD

Justin Peters at Slate.com says Toronto Mayor Rob Ford "most closely resembles" the mayor on TV's The Simpsons, Diamond Joe Quimby. "Both men are heavyset. Both are often at odds with constituents, colleagues, and the press. And both are prone to saying outrageous things in public. I’ve prepared a 20-question quiz of quotes from Ford and Quimby. Which mayor said which wildly inappropriate thing?"

Star Trek star and noted homosexual George Takei responds to bigots who believe in restricting the right to love to straight people only: an image gallery on Imgur. Oh, snap, oh glorious snap.

awesomephilia:

Summer is Coming (via)

HAAAAAA.

Same thing we do every night Captain Hammer. Try to take over the world!!

This awesome Pinky and the Brain / Dr. Horrible mashup shirt is only $10 if you grab it today!

Product Page ($10/Today Only)

You guys all know that I’m a big fan of Poutine, right? I mean, I’ve had Poutineville’s Monster 15-pound poutine a few weeks ago, and I even wrote about how to make this French Canadian delicacy at home back in 2007, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to go and buy a bottle as soon as the product hits the shelves.

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the product will only be available in Canada.

“We recognize the buzz we receive when we launch fun flavours like Turkey and Gravy Jones Soda and Bacon Jones Soda,” commented Andrew Baumann, Jones Soda’s Marketing & Social Media Manager. “With continued requests for these past flavours and calls to keep coming out with more, we decided to create this new, unique flavour as a nod to our Canadian heritage. With a nice balance of rich, savory gravy over a starchy potato base, and accented with those fatty, cheesy notes you expect in a plate of poutine, we believe we’ve developed the perfect liquid version of this undisputedly Canadian delicacy.”

The Poutine flavour will be available in select regions across Canada and most notably in Quebec (where Poutine was invented in the 1950s), as well as Ontario and Vancouver.

Oh, and one last thing, if anyone from Jones Soda ever read this, please send me a few bottles to review? Please? :)

[Source: Business Wire]

Always reblog.

Here is a picture of a fourth-grade “science quiz” that comes from a school that teaches young earth creationism principles, and believe it or not, it’s apparently NOT a hoax. Someone wrote to snopes.com reporting that this quiz belonged to his 10-year-old daughter.

I didn’t know that this was being taught to her until we heard a radio commercial together about the Discover the Dinosaurs exhibit was coming to the TD Convention Center.

The Commercial starts out, “After 65 million years, the dinosaurs have returned …” She commented immediately that it was only four thousand years ago. When I corrected her, she snapped back, “Were you there?”

I have since taught my daughter differently, but I am sure she is confused now and plan to make sure she understands that teachers are people too and can be factually wrong.

The test showed up [at] home a day later to my disgust.

[Via IFLC | Snopes]

gyzym:

angelgazing:

theragnarokd:

devildoll:

chickletgirl:

Pike Place Market, Seattle, March 5, 2013. When I asked about the sign, the vendor explained that a little boy walking by had described Brussels sprouts that way, so they updated it. (For the record, I love Brussels sprouts.)

i love vegetables

when i was a kid i loved vegetables

but all of my life i have hated Brussels sprouts

I hear they’re really good given a quick stir-fry with bacon! gotta check some day.

My favorite recipe for Brussels sprouts will forever be:

1) Throw out Brussels sprouts.
2) Order pizza.

THE TRICK TO BRUSSELS SPROUTS IS TO ROAST THEM. Put that shit on a baking sheet, drizzle that shit with olive oil + salt + pepper, and roast at 400 for 35/40 minutes, or until they’re all crispy-looking and brown. Are they better with bacon? Yes. Are they even better with pancetta, which, fuck it, is basically fancy bacon? Yes. Bacon is a stuff-improver. Are they best, whether you use bacon or not, if you stick your (oven-mitted) hand in there and shake your tray a few times while they’re cooking, and sprinkle a little more salt on them right when they come out of the oven? HELL FUCKING YES THEY ARE. 

But seriously, Brussels sprouts don’t have to taste like little green balls of death; they can be all rich and layered and flavorful and shit. Roast those little bastards. Roast them, I tell you. 

This is possibly the most timely post on tumblr, because I just had roasty salty brussel sprouts for dinner tonight.  Mmmm.  So tasty.

From Youtuber Paul Rivot:

My 90 year old grandmother tries the Oculus Rift. We were using the Tuscany demo.

[Paul Rivot | Oculus Rift]

Comments

edwardspoonhands:

tessaviolet:

tessaviolet:

vulpesversutus:

You stop that.

HAHAHA.

HOW DID THIS GET 7000 NOTES.

10,000…

16,123…

	Berlin - Original song for 12 cellos (and a kick drum) - ThePianoGuys Pre Order Our BRAND NEW CD/DVD here!! (includes Berlin): http://amzn.com/B00C33M2EE Use Promo Code "PIANODLX" Pre Order Our BRAND NEW album here!! (includes Berlin): http://amzn.com/B00BWLKTOS Use Promo Code "PIANOTWO" Download all our songs here: http://thepianoguys.com/newstore/audio Subscribe to ThePianoGuys channel:http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c... Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PianoGuys Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PianoGuys ALL THE SOUNDS YOU HEAR WERE CREATED BY 105 CELLO TRACKS (and a kick drum) Filmed all on location in Berlin, Germany Story behind the music and the video: What do Bach, Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms, Schumann and many more of the world's greatest classical composers have in common? They are all from Germany! While we were on tour there we wanted to drink in Germany's musical genius. It was an amazing experience. We had a chance to tour Europe twice in the same month. Prior to our first trip we had been brewing an original tune. We wanted to write a cello "hook" that could grab people and that could be looped throughout the tune. We then started building more cello loops and moments with unprecedented sounds from the acoustic (wood) cello, carbon fiber, steel, and electric cellos. When the dust settled we had four minutes of layered, edgy, sort-of dubstep-with-a-U2-influenced goody-bag. We were excited but a little unsettled and we couldn't figure out why. It was incomplete. We then left to Germany. We had some incredible adventures while we traveled and performed there. Upon return we had a week between our two Europe trips and we were determined to finish the song. Al and Steve were a little discouraged after having put so much work into a song and feeling good about it, and yet not knowing exactly what it needed. This is a good moment to say again how grateful we are for our supportive families. They are the true "Behind the Scenes" of ThePianoGuys that make everything possible and give us the happiness we draw our inspiration from. If it weren't for Rachel (Al's wife) and Julie (Steve's wife) this song would have failed. They gave us the encouragement and the ideas we needed to sprint the last mile. We had one day to finish it up. That morning inspiration struck Al and Steve at the same time in different places -- we still have the iPhone voice memo recordings (recorded at less than an hour apart) that we used to sing the capstone melodies that came to us. When we met at the studio we simultaneously announced we had the melody the song needed -- only to find out that the song needed BOTH melodies -- separately in different places and then together as a duet at the end of the song (see if you can pick out both melodies). As we listened to the final product we couldn't help but feel the picturesque classical vibe mixed with a pop/dubsteb vibe was an abstract depiction of what we felt as traveled through and performed in Berlin. We decided just days before we were to board the plane again that the song would be called "Berlin" and that we should film it while we were in the city -- a place so richly steeped in classical heritage, history, and vitality. Filming in front of its incredible landmarks was such an unforgettable experience. The video shoot had its share of challenges and blessings. Paul was the only cameraman—he was jetlaged and didn't get a wink of sleep the night before (he even fell asleep while filming during one of the takes -- and we still used the take!!). We didn't have much time so we filmed 13 hours straight in pure COLD and snow (we're still thawing out!) But we felt blessed by the all-day cloud cover, no problems at the locations (except getting kicked out of the subway -- but that made the process more fun!), an intuitive, extra-mile-cab driver, and just the right amount of time to get the shots we needed. Thank you to all of those that helped us make this video possible! Saskia, Frankie, Garrin, Shelley, David and all the awesome peeps at Sony Germany and Sony International! Filming locations: East Side Gallery (Berlin wall) Banks of the river Spree, overlooking Oberbaum bridge) Nähe Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) Nähe Siegessäule (Street near Victory Tower) Tiergarten (Snowy forest park) Brandenburg Gate Gendarmenmarkt, Marktgrafenstraße (Berlin Concert Hall) Rosenthaler Straße (Alleyway) If you've read this far in the description then you can truly say "Ich bin ein PianoGuy!" :-) Credits "Berlin" written by Al van der Beek & Steven Sharp Nelson (A PianoGuys Original Composition) Published by Classicool Music (BMI) administered by Razor & Tie Music Publishing, LLC. Performed by Steven Sharp Nelson: Acoustic, carbon fiber, steel, and electric cellos; cello-percussion Al van der Beek: percussion Recorded, mixed and mastered by Al van der Beek at TPG Studios in Utah, U.S.A. Video produced and filmed by Paul Anderson Video edited by Tel Stewart/Paul Anderson/Shaye Scott	From: ThePianoGuys Views: 605088 33161 ratings
	Time: 05:04	More in Music

There were two sessions in a row on Wednesday afternoon at this year’s GDC. The first was a panel of women in the games industry, discussing the causes and results of the #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe phenomena – the reasons to be and not be in the games industry. The second was Feminist Frequency’s Anita Sarkeesian, talking about the positive and negative consequences of her Kickstarter campaign, and the way forward from here. I came out of the first – vivid, passionate declarations of purpose from the likes of Leigh Alexander, Mattie Brice and Brenda Romero – feeling certain that the industry and its audience was on a wave of significant change. An hour later I came out of the second – Sarkeesian’s challenging and demanding story of recent horror – re-grounded to the current reality, introspective, and further determined.

There is a clear message: Rock, Paper, Shotgun will never back down on the subject of sexism and misogyny (nor racism, nor homophobia, for that matter) in games, the games industry, and the games journalism industry. Good times are ahead – we can see them.

(more…)

edwardspoonhands:

THiS WALL OF TEXT IS ABOUT BUSINESS AND ONLINE VIDEO IF YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THAT STUFF KEEP SCROLLING I WILL POST MORE CAT GIFS SOON

For those of you who don’t know, John and I were recipients of part of YouTube’s “Original Channel” funding initiative. We used that money to start Crash Course and SciShow. We were extremely excited to get the chance to have some real capital to spend on content, and the result has been great…we are extremely grateful to be a part of this program.

It was a great thing for us…but it might have been a bit of a dopey idea.

There were a lot of recipients of this money, and many of them were major media companies trying their hand at online video that received some fat checks, up to $5M a piece, to launch TV-like channels. What we all found out is that, no matter how hard you push them and how much money you spend on them, YouTube doesn’t work like TV…and funding it that way is daft.

Of the 114 channels that YouTube funded as part of this initiative, my educated guess is that exactly one earned back its advance…SourceFed, the four-times-daily news show from Phil DeFranco’s studio. Hardly traditional media…SourceFed is gritty, low-budget, written by its hosts, and edited by a tiny team.

Most of the channels that did well had comparatively small budgets and were run by people who had made online video before. Some great content got made, some of my favorite channels wouldn’t exist without the initiative. SciShow and CrashCourse are not doing terribly, at this rate, we’ll earn out our advance in about three years.

To be clear though, the vast majority of these channels will never earn out their advances. 

But some lessons were learned (or are being learned) by this initiative, and they are valuable. I don’t know if they’re worth $300M, but as a recipient of a small fraction of that, I really have no place to complain.

Here are some of those lessons:

1. Spending more money to produce the same number of minutes of content does not increase viewership. Online video isn’t about how good it looks, it’s about how good it is.
2. People who make online video are much better at making online video than people who make TV shows. This probably seems obvious to you (it certainly is to me) but it apparently was not obvious to the people originally distributing this money.
3. When advertising agencies tell you they want something (higher quality content, long-form content, specific demographics, lean-back content, stuff that looks like tv) it’s not our job to attempt to deliver those things. In a world where the user really does get to choose, the content created to satisfy the needs and wants of viewers (not advertisers) will always reign supreme (thankfully.)

YouTube is now experimenting with much smaller grants (a tenth to a fifth of the size of the original grants) awarded largely to people who have experience making online video (the new MentalFloss channel is funded by one of these grants.) This indicates that they’ve learned the first two lessons. 

With regards to the last lesson, allow me to submit to any YouTube employees out there that the ad agency doesn’t have the power in this equation. YouTube is a young company, it does not need to convert 100% of its value to dollars. Please, let the advertisers figure out for themselves how to tackle this very new medium instead of trying to shape the medium to meet their needs.

Seems to me, that’s the strategy that got Google where it is today.

Hank is so smart, I wish I could sit down with him and talk about stuff every day.