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24 Aug 22:52

Attack On Titan Theme Works With Any Opening Credits

by Zeon Santos

Attack on Titan is an anime series with a pretty unique storyline which is introduced by a totally rockin', yet somewhat generic sounding, theme song.

However, if you're using the theme song for a mashup generic is good, generic means the song will work with all kinds of shows, from zombie shows to prison shows to American cartoon shows.

(Video Link)

CountDownToDisaster created a mashup video that shows how well the Attack On Titan theme song works as an intro no matter what the show's genre, but they left one very important genre unrepresented-sitcoms.

Imagine how amazing Perfect Strangers would have looked with this rockin' theme song playing in the background, or a Family Matters intro-Titan style, with Urkel standing there looking all heroic in his highwater pants and suspenders... (Barely NSFW due to language)

-Via Nerd Approved

24 Aug 02:50

BBC and FACT's daleks exterminate Doctor Who fansite, steal domain

by Cory Doctorow

One of the operators of Doctor Who Media -- one of the oldest, most respected Doctor Who fansites -- had reps from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (who produce the awful "You Wouldn't Steal a Car" ads) and the BBC thunder at his door and tell him he'd be served with a warrant if he didn't shut down the site immediately and transfer his domain to FACT. Read the rest

22 Aug 23:49

Help EFF code for freedom!

by Cory Doctorow

April from EFF writes, "Help improve the Electronic Frontier Foundation's free software projects to defend freedom & enhance privacy and security online. Here's a list of all the projects we invite you to hack your heart out on!" Read the rest

22 Aug 23:41

Cybersecurity czar is proud of his technical illiteracy

by Cory Doctorow

Michael Daniel thinks "being too down in the weeds at the technical level could actually be a little bit of a distraction"; Ed Felten counters, "Imagine reaction if White House economic advisor bragged about lack of economics knowledge, or Attorney General bragged about lack of legal expertise." Read the rest

22 Aug 23:26

Ikea may not kill Ikeahackers fan-site after all

by Cory Doctorow


Ikeahackers -- a venerable fan-site that competed with Ikea's newly launched, empty "online community" -- were previously threatened by Ikea and looked to face extinction. Read the rest

22 Aug 23:23

U.S. Copyright Office says it won't register works by animals, plants or supernatural beings

by Rob Beschizza

The draft of its official practices, third edition contains a requirement of human authorship: The U.S. Copyright Office will register an original work of authorship, provided that the work was created by a human being.

Read the rest
22 Aug 21:54

Usagi Yojimbo Stop Motion Short That May Lead To A Feature Film

by Zeon Santos

The ronin rabbit Usagi Yojimbo was created by Stan Sakai in 1984, at the height of the anthropomorphic comic book character craze, but Usagi has always been a bit different than the other critter comic stars.

His tales were less about life as a rabbit and more about the life of a ronin, because in Usagi’s alternate version of Japan's Edo period every character is an animal, so he doesn't have to wear a disguise or deal with mutant problems like his friends the Ninja Turtles.

(Image Via tmntentity)

Usagi was a fan favorite from day one, and his action packed comics are just as fun to read today as they were when they first came out, so why hasn’t Usagi Yojimbo been adapted for the big screen? 

(Video Link)

A film adaptation is finally being discussed, and as this proof-of-concept short film released by Lintika Films reveals it might actually live up to the geeky dreams of Usagi Yojimbo's fans.

Lintika seems to be staying faithful to the source material, but they still have to overcome a budgetary hurdle before the film can actually begin production.

-Via Cartoon Brew

22 Aug 21:52

Glitch Dungeon

by Rob Beschizza
Screen-Shot-2014-08-21-at-9.30.11-AM

A free puzzle platform game where, in any given room, certain code might not work, leaving you able to fall without dying, float without falling, etc. Frustrating fun! [via] (more…)

22 Aug 21:50

Kids Reenact Emmy-Nominated TV Shows

by Miss Cellania

(YouTube link)

The Emmys will be presented this coming Monday night. The nominees for Outstanding Drama series are all shows that children should not watch: Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, True Detective, House of Cards, Mad Men, and Downton Abbey. That’s why they had to memorize lines to re-enact representative scenes from those shows in this parody video from Mom.me. The kids did a wonderful job, but the incongruity of the young actors in those familiar adult roles is just too funny! -via Viral Viral Videos

20 Aug 23:30

A video about cybersecurity that you should really watch

by Cory Doctorow

Dan Geer's Black Hat 2014 talk Cybersecurity as Realpolitik (also available as text) is thoughtful, smart, vital, and cuts through -- then ties together -- strands of security, liability, governance, privacy, and fairness, and is a veritable manifesto for a better world. Read the rest

20 Aug 23:25

Gilbert Gottfried Reads the Independence Day Speech

by John Farrier


(Video Link)

In the 1996 movie Independence Day, aliens invade the Earth, intent on exterminating the human race and devouring the planet's resources. The aliens slaughter human military forces wherever they encounter resistance. But on July the Fourth, America leads a great worldwide counterattack that ends in victory.

That counterattack begins with President Thomas Whitmore, played by Bill Pullman, giving an impassioned speech to military forces gathered at Area 51. That speech is embedded below. Gilbert Gottfried, a comedian noted for his commanding and stentorian voice, recently read that speech.

In retrospect, it is clear that Gottfried should have played that role, not Pullman.


(Video Link)

-via Uproxx

20 Aug 23:25

Australian surveillance law will legalize snooping on and hacking the entire Internet

by Cory Doctorow


The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation wants the power to break into any computer on the Internet and to spy on any person in the world: Liberal MP Philip Ruddock says "We are now looking at how you find out what people are thinking about even before they do it." Read the rest

19 Aug 21:59

How the US government exerts control over ICANN

by Cory Doctorow

Michael Geist sez, "The debate over Internet governance for much of the past decade has often come down to a battle between ICANN and the ITU (a UN body), which in turn is characterized as a choice between a private-sector led, bottoms-up, consensus model (ICANN) or a governmental-controlled approach.

Read the rest
19 Aug 00:14

Michael Bay’s Up

by John Farrier


(Video Link)

It’s a non-stop thrill ride of explosions and anger. You can feel the tension rip out of the screen as Carl Fredricksen takes on the world and finds triumph through hardship and grief. Be sure to watch to the end of this great trailer by YouTube user MrStratman7.

-via Pleated Jeans

14 Aug 20:36

FedEx Delivery Fails Compilation

by Lisa Marcus

YouTube Link

This compilation video has been making its way around the Internet. It's worth a laugh, in that any of us might ever expect a Federal Express package to arrive intact. How much is insurance? I'll take it. Via Viral Viral Videos.

14 Aug 03:40

Libraries can't afford to ignore Itunes' awful licensing terms

by Cory Doctorow

Jessamyn writes, "Itunes-only music is licensed for personal use. This does not include libraries' ability to offer it for lending. Kevin Smith, Duke University's Scholarly Communications Officer, outlines the real problems libraries encounter when trying to obtain legal access to digital-only files that have restrictive licensing." Read the rest

13 Aug 19:27

Doraville SWAT team's online video says everything about U.S. police militarization

by Rob Beschizza

Catchy tune, Doraville SWAT. Read the rest

13 Aug 19:18

Brooklyn Law Clinic students scare away patent trolls

by Cory Doctorow

The school's clinic is run like a law office and offers free counsel based both on need and on the interestingness of the cases for law students. Read the rest

13 Aug 19:17

Paperback Writer vs. My Sharona

by David Pescovitz

"My Paperback Sharona," a mashup of The Knack and The Beatles, by Go Home Productions. (via Laughing Squid)

13 Aug 14:38

1.1m comments received by the FCC about keeping the internet open, visualized

by Rob Beschizza
Screen Shot 2014-08-13 at 9.03.08 AMWith common arguments grouped into clusters.
13 Aug 14:37

Ronin: freeware ninja murder sim

by Rob Beschizza
MURDER Tomasz Wacławek's "Ronin is already both one of the most innovative action games I’ve played in years and a superbly clever fighting game in itself," writes Konstantinos Dimopoulos.
13 Aug 14:25

Huge patriotic statues, crowdsourced from 3D printer owners across America

by Cory Doctorow


We the Builders creates massive, 3D printed busts of the likes of George Washington by asking 3D printer owners to print out small pieces of the overall statue and then gloms them together in large, collaged pieces. (more…)

12 Aug 14:33

Village People's "YMCA" with faux ambient sound, no music

by David Pescovitz

Fantastic re-edit of the audio in the Village People "YMCA" video to make it music-free. More Muisicless Musicvideos and Silentless Movies by Mario Wienerroither.

12 Aug 14:24

The Apparently Kid Gets Songified

by Zeon Santos

The Apparently Kid, aka Noah Ritter, recently took the net by storm when he stole the show during a news interview by rambling away in the cutest way possible, making sure to use his favorite word apparently as much as possible.

(Video Link)

Noah is cute, he uses big words, and now he’s been songified thanks to the efforts of The Gregory Brothers, the masterminds behind the classic songified hits Double Rainbow and Bed Intruder.

I would not be surprised if this song becomes the biggest hit of the summer, because it's mighty catchy!

-Via The Awesomer

12 Aug 14:21

Compilation Video of Puppies Sneezing

by Lisa Marcus

YouTube Link

Puppies: they're such adorable creatures that there's not much they can do that isn't a little cute. Case in point is this compilation of puppies sneezing. Some of them seem startled by this sudden bodily function. Via Tastefully Offensive.

06 Aug 20:31

Every X-Men Film in Less Than 3 Minutes

by Miss Cellania

(YouTube link)

Mashable has a series called TL;DW (too long; didn’t watch) in which you can save a lot of time by not watching movies or TV. There have been somewhere around seven X-Men films, and if you want to skip most of them in order to watch one out of order, or all of them, here’s what you’re missing. -via Viral Viral Videos

04 Aug 22:13

The amazing Renaissance Art GIFs of James Kerr, aka Scorpion Dagger

by Xeni Jardin

tumblr_n732ffVTLZ1rt28efo1_500

Scorpion Dagger, aka James Kerr, makes these fantastic GIFs more or less every day. "They're digital collages made mostly from northern and early renaissance paintings," he says.

Read the rest

03 Aug 14:44

Remove All the Jokes from an Episode of Friends And It's a Completely Understandable 3-Minute Story

by John Farrier


(Video Link)

The eleventh episode in the sixth season of Friends is called "The One with the Apothecary Table." It's 22 minutes long. But YouTube user Tunglebrek removed all of the jokes and almost all of the laugh track so that it's just 2 minutes, 43 seconds long. The plot remains entirely coherent with two clearly discernible story arcs (an A story and a B story).

He's also done similar work with an episode of The Big Bang Theory (1 minute, 28 seconds) and an episode of Seinfeld (3 minutes, 3 seconds). What other shows would you like to see subjected to this treatment?

-via 22 Words

02 Aug 23:18

Incredibox V3

by Miss Cellania

You may have seen, or even used the music generator Incredibox before, but it’s worth a revisit as they are now up to version 3. Select your musicians to provide beats, effects, melodies, and harmonies. Then you can switch them around, mute them for different combinations, and change your song as it goes. You can also shared your composition or listen to some that other people made. -via Metafilter

01 Aug 22:46

Most social science results have never been replicated

by Maggie Koerth-Baker

Replication — where researchers re-do experiments to see if they get the same result — is a really important part of the scientific process. And it's hardly ever done in social science.