Requiem for a Dream: Puppets on Drugs

All right, so we clearly have a puppet fetish this week (call it our celebrating the Grammy’s), but this one’s too good to pass up.

If you’ve ever made it through Requiem for a Dream, you’ve made it through arguably one of the most depressing movies in the history of the world. Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning tale of drugs, dementia and despair concludes with a severed arm and three people spiraling down into a pit of rage-filled hopelessness.

But how would all that look like…that’s right…WITH PUPPETS?! Continue reading “Requiem for a Dream: Puppets on Drugs” »

‘Space Stallions’ Pays Tribute to the Sci-Fi Cartoon Hits of the 80′s

Like a lot of cult phenom, 80′s sci-fi cartoons are revered at heart by the old farts who can still remember them — and their impact is obvious enough in the intro for ‘Space Stallions’ that they deserve mentioning.

Made in the over-the-top, super-colorful way so many of those cartoons were, ‘Stallions’ was cleverly crafted by a bunch of Danish film students at The Animation Workshop.Here’s the video, as well as an acid-trip back through time to the cartoons that inspired them. Continue reading “‘Space Stallions’ Pays Tribute to the Sci-Fi Cartoon Hits of the 80′s” »

Nintendo Tries Not to Panic, Reveals Damage Control Plans

With their first annual report loss totaling in at nearly a f*cking BILLION dollars (the very first annual loss since they came into existence), Nintendo wouldn’t seem to be doing so well.

At a meeting yesterday at the company’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, it was hard to tell who’s more panicked – President Satoru Iwata or the stockholders. Continue reading “Nintendo Tries Not to Panic, Reveals Damage Control Plans” »

Deja Vu: The Top 5 Biggest Video Game Rip-Offs Ever

In honor of the classic film Groundhog Day — in which Bill Murray’s Phil Connors is cursed to wake up and repeat the same hellish existence of the same day over and over again — here are the 5 games most guilty of giving gamers that creepy feeling of deja-vu.

Some rip-offs you’ve probably never heard of; others even star the console flagship characters themselves (*cough…SEGA…cough*).  All are guilty of being creatively bankrupt. So step back from that ledge my friend, and crank up the Pennsylvania Polka — here are some of the top 5 most unabashed, unashamed, rip-offs of popular games ever. Continue reading “Deja Vu: The Top 5 Biggest Video Game Rip-Offs Ever” »

Darth Vader Really Has to Pee in New Cell Phone Commercial

You’d think he should be able to go wherever he wants, being a Sith lord and everything, but apparently every stormtrooper on the Death Star just came from a celebratory kegger (maybe it’s finally fully operational), as this phone commercial shows Vader waiting to use the can with his own troops.

Yes, you heard right — this is actually an ad for the new Korean cell phone mobile carrier company called Olleh.The product being touted is known as the Olleh lte ‘Warp’, which explains the random scenes in which Vader and his troops warp to get where they need to go. Continue reading “Darth Vader Really Has to Pee in New Cell Phone Commercial” »

Eat AND Game: Hot Pocket Dispenser Attaches to Your XBOX Controller

Life isn’t perfect, sometimes you have to get up to turn on the TV, when your remote is hard to find or beyond a remote distance away. Who can forget those other inconvenient situations, like waking up before noon or having to go outside?

But is there anything more burdensome, any act more obstructive to pursuing our free liberties than having to put down a controller, so that we can pick up a hot-pocket? For you consumers of the lean pocket, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about…you’re on the treadmill or busy buying overpriced Under Armour garments that will cause more discomfort than your first suit. Continue reading “Eat AND Game: Hot Pocket Dispenser Attaches to Your XBOX Controller” »

Supreme Court Rules GPS Tracking of Suspects is Unconstitutional (Without a Warrant)

According to the Richmond Register, several Richmond, Kentucky-area criminal investigations are on suspension, following a decision by the Supreme Court that GPS tracking of suspected criminals is illegal without a court-issued warrant.

The decision follows numerous cases in which Kentucky Drug Task Force officers attached GPS devices to the cars of several known/suspected drug dealers without court authorization. The deciding case, Antoine Jones vs. The United States, came before the Court as a result of continued and unwarranted tracking of Jones, a suspected cocaine trafficker. Continue reading “Supreme Court Rules GPS Tracking of Suspects is Unconstitutional (Without a Warrant)” »

Smell the Fury: New ‘Avengers’ Cologne!

When the superhero blockbusters come pouring out of the cinemas, usually what we have to deal with are crummy fast food chain tie-ins and/or products that invariably end up at Target. It seems only fitting, however, that in anticipation of Joss Whedon’s latest they’d release something so quirky, so weird, so awesome in its originality, so…Joss Whedon-y.

IFC is reporting that JADS, a cologne company, has marketed a series of scents based on the 6 different Avengers in the film Continue reading “Smell the Fury: New ‘Avengers’ Cologne!” »

Become Hellboy: Sign Up For the Real-Life BRPD Training Camp!

That’s right, for a mere $300 to $800 dollars, an actual BPRD training facility has opened in Portland. In case you’re not a Hellboy aficionado, BPRD stands for Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, and is essentially comprised of Hellboy’s buddies — Johann Kraus, Liz Sherman, Kate Corrigan, Roger the Homunculus, Abe Sapien, and Captain Ben Daimo. Dark Horse Comics themselves have teamed up with and outdoor education and training company to create the camp, which trains you in skills of survival (duh), martial arts, weaponry, forensics, folklore and mythology, potions, charms, telepathy, physiology of monsters and gadgets of the occult.

How bad-ass is that?

Continue reading “Become Hellboy: Sign Up For the Real-Life BRPD Training Camp!” »

Geeks, Hungry Individuals, Take Down 6 Foot, 300 Pound Stormtrooper Cake

Excuse us if this story is a little late to the party, but we couldn’t skip over what might be the most ridiculous cake (not involving a wedding and/or reality TV show) ever created. Amanda Oakleaf created the cake for the Arisia Sci-Fi Convention in Boston this past week. The final result weighed 300 pounds, stood over 6 feet tall…and was enough to feed 600 fans. Oakleaf, who reportedly is not Canadian, said that the cake might be the greatest sculpted cake ever created — something many critics aren’t even bothering to respond to.

The building of the Stormtrooper cake was an epic event in and of itself. It took our entire wonderful crew of ten people two full weeks of to put this guy together (although the cake wasn’t added until 2 days before it was to be served). Along the way we even had to invent completely new cake making methods so it could be put together modularly onsite Continue reading “Geeks, Hungry Individuals, Take Down 6 Foot, 300 Pound Stormtrooper Cake” »

Fleshlight for iPad Makes Virtual Sex a Little Too Virtual

In the spirit of this week’s porn industry announcement that studios might be packing up their dildos and moving out of town (all as a result of state govt. enforcing mandatory condom laws), the following could prove either good or bad for them: someone has gone to the trouble to create an iPad equipped with a fleshlight-holding case.

The fleshlight is even strategically positioned underneath it and therefore making it quite convenient for you to, uh, take care of yourself while you watch your porn.

As an aside: This is not a real product, yet — and it’s not endoresed by the makers of Fleshlight…though I’d be hard pressed to think that since you’re already f*cking a flashlight, they’d probably be fine with taking it one step more forward. Including f*cking an iPad. Continue reading “Fleshlight for iPad Makes Virtual Sex a Little Too Virtual” »

Awesome (Yet Awkward): Hello Kitty Jet is Designed to Raise Cervical Cancer Awareness

Don’t get me wrong — on no level is raising cervical cancer awareness a negative or an ‘awkward’ thing — so really I should just tout the awesomeness of the following:

In conjunction with Japan Airlines and Tokyo FM Broadcasting, Sanrio — the company responsible for all things Hello Kitty — unleashed a custom designed special jet, dedicated to everyone’s favorite caricatured feline.

But this wasn’t just any Hello Kitty Jet. It also featured a special PSA on its side — according to Mitsuaki Suzuki, director of Japan Society of OBGYNs Continue reading “Awesome (Yet Awkward): Hello Kitty Jet is Designed to Raise Cervical Cancer Awareness” »

NinjaVideo Founder “Rushed to Jail” After Facebook Messages

With the debates surrounding SOPA, and the U.S. Government’s obvious mis-calculations in judging the reaction of the internet community, is it safe to say that the Feds are now AFRAID of its citizens communicating on the internet? You fear most what you don’t understand, perhaps the government is trying to ban something before they make an effort to combat it by understsanding its inner workings?

I pose these questions in reaction to the news that Hana Beshara, the founder of NinjaNet (one of the largest movie streaming sites on the net) has been rushed to jail after being sentenced to 22 months in jail. Continue reading “NinjaVideo Founder “Rushed to Jail” After Facebook Messages” »

The World’s Smartest Man…Doesn’t Get Chicks

Stephen Hawking. A name synonymous with overcoming tremendous adversity, pondering the universe’s greatest mysteries, and inciting scientists, cosmologists and astronomers to decipher the origins of time.

Yet according to Geekosystem, in a recent interview, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and bestselling author of A Brief History of Time — which translated theoretical physics/the Theory of Relativity/black hole science into a vernacular the layperson could understand — admitted that girls are, well,  hard to figure out. To be specific: Continue reading “The World’s Smartest Man…Doesn’t Get Chicks” »

Every Presentation Ever FAIL: The Painful Art of Public Speaking

You don’t have to have ever given a power point presentation to relate to the poor bastard in this video — which is, incidentally, witty, well-shot, well-acted, and edited (and as far as those annoying ‘training videos’ we’ve all had to endure upon getting hired at a new job, among the best). But the truly great thing about this short is how unflinchingly accurate it is, and how symbolic it is of every painfully awkward moment you’ve ever had in front of a crowd. Succinctly titled “Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL,” this video gives voice to all the subtle little ways we handle ourselves, and futilely try to avoid looking like a total n00b.

Props to Growing Leaders Inc, an Atlanta-based non-profit organization Continue reading “Every Presentation Ever FAIL: The Painful Art of Public Speaking” »

Pay a Chick $5 to Be Your Facebook Girlfriend!

As far as we can tell, no, this isn’t a joke. Boys and girls, introducing Fiverr — a site where you can hire people to do random tasks for $5 — which is now offering “The Girlfriend Experience.”

No, this doesn’t mean the opportunity to bang porn star Sasha Grey (hold on! it’s still pretty interesting) — it’s just a cash-strapped college student, aka Cathy01, seeking some dough to support herself. And in return for a fiver, or .00000000000000000000000001% of her college loans, she’ll tell your FB world (however small) that she’s your girlfriend Continue reading “Pay a Chick $5 to Be Your Facebook Girlfriend!” »

LEGO TV Brings Animated Superman to Life

If there’s a word to describe this creation it would be somewhere in between epic and amazing. A TV built entirely out of legos featuring an animated superman (with scrolling background) flying through Metropolis…sort of.

The user “TooMuchCaffeine” who created it said that the idea has been:

“Kicking about in my head for months and the arrival of the DC minifigs seemed liked the perfect excuse to actually attempt to build it.” Continue reading “LEGO TV Brings Animated Superman to Life” »

Art Depicts ‘Star Wars’ Droids With Low Self-Esteem

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a lonely Viper scout droid searching through the snowy trenches of Hoth, hoping for a glimpse of Skywalker (only to be pwned by a laser blaster)? To listen to C3PO’s cowardly whining and think of a British robot Woody Allen?  How about that little ghetto box droid who scurries about the boots of Vader — or lowliest of all, the red R2 unit who got overlooked in favor of his bluer, more rotund version? F*cking crummy motivators.

You probably didn’t — as io9 points out, that’s where graphic designer/artist PapaBeatsScissors comes in. He’s gone to some impressive lengths to make some clever designs/PSAs highlighting the immense self-consciousness some of these droids suffer from. Continue reading “Art Depicts ‘Star Wars’ Droids With Low Self-Esteem” »

Massive Anime Fail: “Mobile Gundam” Creators Pull Stupid Licensing Trick, Hundreds Lose Jobs

Bandai’s sort of like the MGM of the anime industry — among the oldest and one of the most (once) respected studios, and a purveyor of classics that are beloved by anime fans young and old. Ghost in the Shell? Distributed by Bandai. Cowboy Bebop? Been there. And Gundam, one of the earliest popular mech-based anime, (alongside Robotech of course)? Yeah, Bandai gave it to us. Yet this week, they were given their official death certificate.

A lot of people blame Bandai Japan’s bullying attitude towards their worldwide distributor, the worldwide/multinational Bandai Entertainment, which led to said clusterf*ck. The details themselves (while hard to dig up) are pretty fascinating Continue reading “Massive Anime Fail: “Mobile Gundam” Creators Pull Stupid Licensing Trick, Hundreds Lose Jobs” »

Spike Jonze Captures Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck’s B-Boy Duet

If you’re like a lot of people, you’re probably familiar with Yo Yo Ma. You know he’s awesome, but still have absolutely no desire to see him in concert as it’d be hard to stay awake.

Fortunately, there’s Spike Jonze, the director who brought you Where The Wild Things Are and the music video with that guy on fire. And of course the video also features Buck, who’s hard to dig up info on but is listed as a “classically trained street dancer” who’s currently enjoying a residence at the Vail Int’l Film Festival.

According to The Boston globe, Jonze had this to say about the event: Continue reading “Spike Jonze Captures Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck’s B-Boy Duet” »