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See ?Bad Taste? For Free
2008-02-27 18:18:00
Peter Jackson’s first feature film, “Bad Taste ” (1987) is available for free, in its entirety on the interwebs. Woo. Quickie description for those not in the know: A team from the intergalactic fast food chain Crumb’s Crunchy Delights descends on Earth, planning to make human flesh the newest taste sensation. After they wipe out the New Zealand town Kaihoro, the country’s Astro-Investigation and Defense Service is called in to deal with the problem. Things are complicated due to Giles, an aid worker who comes to Kaihoro the same day to collect change from the residents. He is captured by the aliens, and AIaDS stages a rescue mission that quickly becomes an all-out assault on the aliens’ headquarters Also, there are a bunch of other very “B” movies on the site, so if you enjoy such things, you’re welcome. Tip of the blog hat to Ajit for spotting this gem, bigger tip of the hat to the internet for making media more accessible ev...
More About: Free , Bad Taste

Wake Up With Math!
2008-02-27 18:17:00
Watch this video at YouTubeI suck at waking up. Lately, I have been better, but I often need multiple alarms, at least one of which must be on the other side of the room- this is the rule. I also have other tricks I play on myself to get up every day- I set the alarm clock to the wrong time, I change my alarm sound often, etc. For Christmas I got this sadistic clock from my mother- it goes off until you find and re-dock the helicopter it launches. All of these techniques pale, pale I say, to the Turing Alarm Clock. This sick little machine goes off, and refuses to stop until you solve a math problem. Watch the video and shudder in the face of something that makes you think before you are even a little bit awake. I wonder what the snooze is like (psychologically that is).  Via Gizmodo. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Wake Up With Math !", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fwake-u...
More About: Design , Wake up

Science Fair Projects? Of Hilarity!
2008-02-26 22:02:00
Dylan just passed this along: A glorious, hilarious, deeply rewarding series of photographs of science fair projects and their proud creators. I laughed at almost every single one of them (there are 41; it will take you a while to peruse), I think you folks will too. Also related- BoingBoing just ran a post on creationist science fair projects. Go pick your favorite one and share it with the world! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Science Fair Projects … Of Hilarity!", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fscience-fair-projects-of-hilari ty&seed_title=Science+Fair+Projects%2 6%238230%3B+Of+Hilarity%21" });
More About: Photography

Festo Air-Ray
2008-02-26 18:47:00
To see why this is cool, you need to see the Air-Ray in action, which can be accomplished by clicking this link. Festo, a company that creates manufacturing automation solutions, created this remote-controlled flying robotic manta ray for, as best I can tell, no other reason than they could. The Air-Ray flaps its wings like a real manta ray in order to fly through the air, the effect of which is really quite pretty. Festo has also created a water-based version of this system, the Aqua-Ray, which I think is equally fascinating to see in action. Via Militantplatypus, but The Future Of Things has a more in depth look at the system, so go there if you want to know the nitty-gritty details on how it works.  The Air-Ray reminds me of Warhol’s “Silver Clouds” installation, which is probably my favorite of all of his works.  I would love to see a room filled with a school of the rays flying around, but I would certainly settle for the opportunity to see just one of the...
More About: Design

The War On Drugs: Street Level
2008-02-26 18:42:00
Watch this video at YouTube So how is the War on Drugs going these days?  Is it going as awesomely well as the War on Terror?  Probably.  This video is a good look at what is really keeping the kids off the drugs these days; stay till the end, the punch line’s pretty good. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The War On Drugs: Street Level", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fthe-war-on-drugs-street-level&# 38;seed_title=The+War+On+Drugs%3A+Street+ Level" });
More About: War on Drugs , The War on Drugs

The AVC In Italy- And Beyond!
2008-02-26 01:43:00
Friend of the AV Club, and often commenter here on the blog AAA Copywriter has decided to add us as a “Media Partner” to one of the sites he is in charge of- Informatica Friuli. What this basically means for us is exposure to a much wider, non-English speaking audience, what it means for them is more content in their network. This is referred to in many languages as a “win-win” situation. And thanks to the wonders of Creative Commons, it is an extremely easy and fair thing to set up- you should try it! You can go see the sidebar widget that we use here in the blog (it’s right there to the right of this post, click on it, it’s keen) already in use on their site, and if you can read Italian there is a very kind and detailed description of us and what we do. We are humbled by the request to add our videos to their site, and hope that they do well over on the other side of the pond. Go check it out and test your mad Google Translate skillz at th...
More About: Blogroll , Italy

More Reasons To
2008-02-25 18:20:00
Two videos that should convince you, if nothing else, that Laurence Lessig is an extremely well spoken and educated man with his finger on the pulse of what is going on right now all around us. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "More Reasons To ", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fmore-reasons-to&seed_title= More+Reasons+To+" });
More About: Politics

I Do [Love Space]
2008-02-22 18:36:00
As a follow up/addendum to the post earlier this week about a couple planning on traveling to Mars comes this slightly more realistic news item (as in, likely to actually succeed). Cindy Cashman and Mitch Walling plan on riding a yet-to-be-ready rocket from Rocketplane Inc., a Virgin Galactic-esque space tourism startup that offers quick jaunts into the upper atmosphere (and I guess slightly beyond) for a fee. To cover the costs of their trip, they plan on selling the rights to their wedding to a reality TV show, so expect to see a lot more about this one. They have set up a terrible website for the venture, but details are really scant right now, so I guess you’ll have to just do what I plan on doing- wait and see where this one ends up. Spulch spotted this one, so thank them not me. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "I Do [Love Space ]", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fi-do...

Good Copy, Bad Copy
2008-02-22 18:19:00
If you are at all interested in copyright issues (who isn’t right? Ladies??), this is the documentary for you. And if you are like me, and you think about this stuff all the damn time, go join the Facebook group dedicated to trying to convince Laurence Lessig to run for Congress. The world is changing in really big and so far mostly positive ways right now, it is an exciting time to be alive. Oh yeah, and this documentary is pretty good and brings up some good points on how broken and in need of improvement our copyright system has become. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Good Copy , Bad Copy", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fgood-copy-bad-copy&seed_tit le=Good+Copy%2C+Bad+Copy" });
More About: Entertainment

Last Night, Space Was Cool Again
2008-02-21 20:36:00
The Moon was eclipsed, we blew up one of our own satellites (…yay?). SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Last Night , Space Was Cool Again", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Flast-night-space-was-cool-again &seed_title=Last+Night%2C+Space+Was+C ool+Again" });

To The Moon Alice, To The Moon!
2008-02-21 18:57:00
Sick and tired of waiting around for NASA or someone else to finally land a Man on Mars? Yeah, so are Tom and Tina Sjogren. What are you going to do about it? Oh, wait some more? Well the Sjogren’s are going to launch their own mission to Mars. That’s right, they are planning (details TBA) on sending themselves to Mars by 2014, whether or not they can return seems to be one of those “TBA” details. They feel that the feat would require ~$100M to fund, which they think they can mostly acquire through sponsorships. The couple is no stranger to extreme expeditions, having scaled Everest and both Poles without assistance in the past. But seriously, this is some hardcore sh!t- they are basically approaching interplanetary travel as they would face scaling a mountain or visiting the South Pole. I seriously, seriously hope they succeed where the bureaucratic NASA is unlikely to even begin to venture for decades to come. If you know me or read this blog ofte...
More About: Space , Moon , The Moon , Alice

Shadow Monsters
2008-02-21 18:05:00
Watch this video at YouTube This video is not as good as the one here or here, but you’ll get the gist enough from this version to decide if you want to see any more (I could not for the life of me find any good embeddable clips). Shadow Monster s is a program that takes shadows cast by its users and superimposes monster mouths and eyes and teeth and spines and other ghastly appendages onto them in real time. Basically it makes making shadows awesome, so much so that I would really love to see this developed into a home application. Using a webcam and tv or computer monitor, it is not inconceivable that something like this could be developed for the PS3 or or PC.  To see more, go visit the website of the creator of Shadow Monster, Philip Worthington. It is really interesting and well made, and I just realized that Worthington has created several art projects in the past that I liked, such as Art Bar and Wearable Warnings, and one that I was aware of but did not really car...
More About: Design , Technology , Monsters

Cumulative Advantage
2008-02-20 18:54:00
This is a great read about how and why things become popular, using a theory called cumulative advantage. The gist: anything that is really popular got so via a combination of luck and timing. Of course there are many more aspects to any hit, be it fashion, technology, or entertainment, but the underlying assertion: …when people tend to like what other people like, differences in popularity are subject to what is called ?cumulative advantage,? or the ?rich get richer? effect. This means that if one object happens to be slightly more popular than another at just the right point, it will tend to become more popular still. As a result, even tiny, random fluctuations can blow up, generating potentially enormous long-run differences among even indistinguishable competitors ? a phenomenon that is similar in some ways to the famous ?butterfly effect? from chaos theory. Thus, if history were to be somehow rerun many times, seemingly identical universes with the same set of competito...
More About: Entertainment

Fire Table
2008-02-20 18:02:00
How cool is this design! The Hunting and De Hoop Fire Table table has a place in the center to hold a candle, and the sides are semi-transparent to allow the candle’s light to glow all around. The center of the table is also cut out so it will heat anything that you put on top (tea, fondue, etc.), which makes it even cooler. I’d like to see this one in person, but my spidey sense tells me it’s a winner. Via Cool Hunting. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Fire Table", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Ffire-table&seed_title=Fire+ Table" });

?Crushed?, Directed By Andy Cochrane
2008-02-19 18:40:00
I directed this 30min film in early 2002 as I was leaving film school, before the AV Club was even thought of, so it is not one of our shorts, but it is one of mine. “Crushed” is the story of how badly technology can screw up your life, especially if you try to hide behind it (it centers around a crush email that nearly destroys ). While this is not an autobiographical film, it is definitely a good peek at where my head was at 5 years ago, and stars a few AV Club regulars like Mark Rogers, Sean Bury, Bridget Brno, and Marty Quinn. I’ve been meaning to encode this properly and post it on the web, mostly so that it exists somewhere that those who want to see it can. “Crushed” is important to me for many reasons: It was the first ‘real’ short film with dialogue that I ever made, and was the closest to ‘real’ directing that I had done up to that point. It took almost 2 years to finish, and should not have. This film led to a co...
More About: Movies , Andy

Long Tail Videos
2008-02-19 18:39:00
This is an interesting post that takes Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” theory and applies it to creating, distributing, and hopefully profiting from films. If you are not aware of the theory, you should go get educated, it is one of the leading economic strategies/theories in practice today, and I personally feel it is a pretty accurate one. The long tail certainly applies to viewership of videos on the web, whether or not it applies to videos that cost money to watch, I do not know (a business model- that pesky little thing that we are all looking for). But it is worth thinking about; I certainly do. The above image is actually a snapshot of the stats for one of our videos, by the way, and it shows a pretty perfect long tail distribution of views over time, as all of our videos have so far. Pretty cool to see in action, and definitely lends some weight to the application of the Long Tail to videos! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Long Tail Videos ", url: "http://min...
More About: Movies , Business , Internet

The Elephants Are Going Mad
2008-02-18 18:15:00
As we humans multiply at our ever-increasing suicidal rate, we are encroaching into the habitats of wild animals more and more. Our presence in their domain is pretty much never positive- we have made more animals extinct than we will really ever be able to count, and yet we continue to expand. There are lots of reports these days of wild animals and humans coming into contact in extremely negative ways, often with mutual loss of life, but none is as interesting as what is happening with the elephants. It seems that elephants recognize that they are being squeezed out, and they are fighting back: (more…) ShareThis

Incapacitating Flashinglight
2008-02-15 18:15:00
This flashlight uses super bright LED lights flashing in rapid succession to stop bad guys (hopefully) in their tracks. The light works on two fronts: The flashes temporarily blind a person, as any bright light would, and the light pulses, which quickly change both in color and duration, also cause… psychophysical effects. These effects, whose ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Incapacitating Flashinglight", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fincapacitating-flashinglight 8;seed_title=Incapacitating+Flashinglight " });

Bloglight: WordPress Candy
2008-02-15 18:10:00
This week, I would like to direct your attention to WordPress Candy , a site about WP blogs. But it is not a blog about blogs or blogging, really it is a design-centric appreciation of all of the good work that is going on right now in the massive and diverse WordPress community. WP ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Bloglight: WordPress Candy", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fbloglight-wordpress-candy&s eed_title=Bloglight%3A+WordPress+Candy" });
More About: Wordpress , Design , Blogroll

So, Do You Guys Like Statistics?
2008-02-13 19:00:00
Fun Fact: If Rudy Giuliani gave all of the money he spent on his campaign to all of the people who voted for him in this year’s primaries, each voter would receive $142.83. Today’s fun fact was brought to you by Schadenfreude, and, hell, why not, the Windsor Pneumatics Foundation. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "So, Do You Guys Like Statistics ?", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fso-do-you-guys-like-statistics& #38;seed_title=So%2C+Do+You+Guys+Like+Sta tistics%3F" });

Andy Goldsworthy
2008-02-13 18:07:00
Andy W. told me about Andy Goldsworthy last year. Goldsworthy is an “environmental artist” whose work is extremely ephemeral- he creates sculptures in nature, using all natural elements such as stone, wood, flowers, ice, and leaves. He is considered the first of the modern “stone balancers” (you’ve seen their handwork anytime you’ve gone ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Andy Goldsworthy", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fandy-goldsworthy&seed_title =Andy+Goldsworthy" });
More About: Andy

Senators Love Telecoms More Than Your Privacy
2008-02-13 05:49:00
It’s pretty sad that I wasn’t even surprised when the Senate approved immunity for eavesdropping Telecoms today. What really disappoints me, though, is how many Democrats voted for the immunity. And we’re not just talking about a few nameless senators here. The vote was 31-67, and the list of approving democrats included Dianne Feinstein ...SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Senators Love Telecoms More Than Your Privacy ", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fsenators-love-telecoms-more-tha n-your-privacy&seed_title=Senators+Lo ve+Telecoms+More+Than+Your+Privacy" });
More About: Politics

Super Mario Bros 2 + Drums
2008-02-12 20:22:00
Watch this video at YouTube The above video shows Italian drummer Andrea Vadrucci accompanying the music of Super Mario Bros 2 with some mad drum skillz. His video for the original Super Mario Bros is equally impressive. You can find more of his drum videos on his YouTube page. /Chris SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Super Mario Bros 2 + Drums ", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fsuper-mario-bros-2-drums&se ed_title=Super+Mario+Bros+2+%2B+Drums" });
More About: Games

Sorry I?m Late
2008-02-12 05:50:00
  Happy “Cheney Shot an Old Man in the Face” Day, everybody! SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Sorry I’m Late ", url: "http://mint.theavclub.tv/feeder/?FeederA ction=clicked&feed=Articles+%28rss2%2 9&seed=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.theavclub.tv %2Fpost%2Fsorry-im-late&seed_title=So rry+I%26%238217%3Bm+Late" });
More About: Dick , Harry

Enter The Matrix
2008-02-08 18:54:00
Watch this video at YouTubeThis is one of those quickie posts I promised to do more of. Behold the Matrix Goggles- a University project from Russia (with some love) that uses a video camera, a head mounted display, and some fancy-pants video processing software/hardware to create the above distorted perception of the world. ...
More About: Enter , The Matrix

Armchair Justice ep#4: Britney Spears
2008-02-08 18:13:00
It has been a while since I brought the iron gavel of the Armchair Justice down to bear on a topic, some would say too long on this particular case. I would like to now officially call the case of “The World vs. Britney Spears ” officially closed. The girl is unstable and does ...

Nike: ?Leave Nothing? Update
2008-02-08 04:08:00
You know how I said I would have to wait until someone did an official VFX breakdown for that big Nike ad I worked on last fall? Well, they got around to it, so I can finally link to it.  There is a bunch of insight into how this ad was executed, and some ...
More About: Design , Leave , Update

Mitt Romney?s Equation To Save America
2008-02-08 02:32:00
As I was listening to Mitt Romney ’s speech announcing that he is dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination this morning, I was struck by how out of alignment with my own beliefs this man is. After a 15minute rant, he pretty much laid out his entire plan for improving America , and ...
More About: Save

Under Armour Commercial
2008-02-04 21:42:00
Watch this video at YouTubeI did not get to work on this one, but it was done by a lot of my co-workers as I worked away on other projects. Came out looking pretty well, IMHO- certainly a lot of work went into it.
More About: Television , Commercial , Armour

The Future Of Power Is Looking Bright
2008-02-04 18:00:00
I just realized how many links I have been hoarding on the topic of power production advancements, trying to work up the time to write a post worthy of each. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so I’ll have to do it roundup style, sorry for the brevity, but I think it ...
More About: Science , Power , Future , The Future , Bright