Even if you don’t care for the musical stylings of OK Go (and if you don’t, I suspect you’re not even human), you have to admire their sheer earnestness and their interest in attaching themselves to cool projects. The group recently appeared on Sesame Street, explaining the finer points of color theory — namely, how primary colors work — with some great stop motion animation and a catchy pop number to boot. I’ll be humming about how you can make orange from red and yellow for the rest of the day.

(via The Daily What)

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In 1938, this curious device made its way through the streets of New York: A Colt 38 revolver which, when its trigger was pulled, simultaneously snapped a picture and fired a bullet. Gives a new meaning to “say cheese and die.”

(Photojojo via PetaPixel)

Battle not with ponies, lest ye become a pony yourself; and if you gaze into the herd, the herd gazes also into you.

(via Topless Robot)

Every once in a while, you’ll run into a geek and have a spirited conversation about video games, Battlestar Galactica, your man crush on Nathan Fillion … and then suddenly your conversation will turn to sports. You think the moment has ended and you’ll spend your next few minutes trying to find someone in the room weirder looking than both of you to mock. Until that nerd says, “As long as [fill in the blank football team] wins this weekend, it’ll be a good one.” And then the bonding begins.

Finding out that the sports writers at the New York Post are really Star Wars geeks at heart? That’s pretty sweet. And now, they’ve given us an epic pull-out cover featuring the ultimate rivalry between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots ahead of their equally epic playoff bout this weekend. Obviously, the Patriots are the EVIL SITH (as a NY Giants fan myself, I still revel in the Giants ruining their perfect season at the Super Bowl three years ago rather than think about the latter part of the current season — because I can) and the Jets are the JEDI HEROES. Kinda odd to see Bill Belichik as Mark Sanchez‘s father (since the former is the head coach of the latter’s ultimate rival … still works for me …), and Joe Namath as Yoda? There is all kinds of “right” with this, but for further commentary, I’ll defer to our brother site, Sportsgrid.

(Sportsgrid)

You’ve seen them around parks. Those people sitting with their laptops on their lap, enjoying the beauty of another day on Earth, working from wherever their heart desires. You’ve seen their smiles, the youthful glow that comes from happiness and time spent outside. But if you’re like me, you’ve never shared that singular joy of working comfortably while outside. The ground is uncomfortable, and frequently damp; many laptops run so hot that actually putting them anywhere near your lap is far too dangerous; and a desk offers many more options for comfortable work than your knees.

Until now.

The Openaire is a laptop case concept by designer Nick Trincia that combines a folding chair and desk into a single messenger bag. A two-piece chair makes up the outer shell of the bag, while the inner section supports not only the laptop but boasts fold-out sections for writing or using a mouse. Though only a concept for now, this idea does seem to have actual market potential in one form or another. Hopefully it will come to life sooner rather than later, so I can show up in the park and blog under the sun.

(Nick Trincia via Bit Rebels)

What happens when you mashup a vintage educational film and a classic episode of Star Trek? Genius. Happiness. Pure joy. A mashup that’s definitely worth your time. File this under “Things I Really Want to Become a Thing.”

(via Miss Cellania via Bits and Pieces)

Stephen Popa, after wowing the internet with a casemod that turned a computer into a remote controlled, tank-treaded robot, has created an even more XKCD friendly computer: one that is also a ridable scooter.

The rig is built in a Thermaltake Element V case, it’s hardware, according to Popa, includes:

a P4 E8400 Core2Duo on a MSI p35 platinum MB, 4GB of corsair ram, 3 raided harddrive, Thermaltake PW 850i Water cooling kit.

The scooter itself had to be extended almost a foot in order to comfortably fit the case, but the majority of those elements that you would expect in an electric scooter (like headlights and signals) have been preserved in operation.  The vehicle runs on a 24 volt battery that now sits inside the PC case, with the charging port disguised as a CD bay.

With that kind of integration, we’re surprised, but relived, that there isn’t a monitor welded to the handlebars.  Trying to perform a physical activity at high speed that is not connected to the video game you are playing is a bodily injury waiting to happen, as we found out when my brother tried to play Mirror’s Edge while jogging on a treadmill.

(via Device Nation.)

Don’t just scare the people trying to rob your house – annoy them away. Thank you, Alarm Monitoring Company. Thank you, so very much.

What happens when you attach five vuvuzelas to an alarm system? The answer has arrived in the VuVutech 5000! UK security experts developed the system which unleashes “135 decibels of vuvzela fury” on intruders. It’s like taking the “most annoying sound in the world” from “Dumb and Dumber” and amplifying it with plastic and machinery. Great.

(via Engadget.)

This image is the first released shot of the main characters of Japan’s next season of Super Sentai, or, as we know it in America, Power Rangers.  Your eyes do not deceive you.  Those are an assortment of “futuristic” cutlasses and flintlock pistols, and a background of nautical maps.

It gets better.

From Orends:

Their weapons are: GoukaiKen, a sword and GoukaiGun, a gun which they can use to fight their enemies! This season’s Red Ranger, GoukaiRed will pilot a pirate ship mecha called, GoukaiGalleon which they can use to form their gattai robo, GoukaiOh.

Yes.  Yes, it is a pirate ship that turns into a giant dude.

It takes years, of course, for the American show to catch up to the developments of its Japanese original, so we can’t necessarily expect it to ever show up on our own shores.  We’ll have to look to Japan for answers to questions like: Do the other Rangers also have their own ships?  Do the ships combine into an even bigger dude?  What kind of bad guys are they going to fight?  Can their mech swim?

And finally, the most important question of all: What does this development say about the ninja/pirate dichotomy?

We’ll take your essays on our desks by Monday.

(via Topless Robot.)

This hacked Kinect plays Super Mario Bros. and its two sequels.

Using an NES emulator, YouTube user Yankeyan has created a entirely ill-advised way to play a Mario game: by actually running and jumping.  His runs turn out pretty much the same way as mine did, when I was eight years old playing Mario at my cousin’s house because we weren’t allowed to have video games and so I was terrible at it.

(via Neatorama.)

Ever wonder what further adventures the boy reporter might have had, in a world beneath which slumbered the alien minds of maddeningly powerful cosmic entities?  Also tentacles? Murray Groat has answers for us.

The whole concept is just oneside of reality, considering the stuff Hergé was just starting to get into with his last few Tintin books: space travel, prophetic dreams, alien contact with earth… the master of the clear line was getting a bit trippy in his old age.

(via io9 | Artist’s page)

(via Reddit)

Via Brian Cronin‘s regular Comic Book Resources column “Comic Book Legends Revealed”, a particularly interesting tidbit:  See, back in 1969, Charles Schultz made a few strips that featured Snoopy writing a novel, and used them to make a series of jokes about narrative and the writing process. And more than a decade later, Len Wein turned it into a Batman comic.

The beagle’s novel begins:

It was a dark and stormy night.

Suddenly a shot ran out!  The maid screamed. A door slammed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon!

It continued:

As he touched her hand, she sighed…

And ended with the line:

And they lived happily ever after.  The End.

Those eight sentences are all we have of Snoopy’s opus, but to his credit, in Detective Comics #500, Wein turns out a pretty solid Batman story based on it.  Yes, even the pirate ship. (Click to embiggen.)

For more comics myth investigation, including legends about Hal Jordan and Two-Face, as well as the relevant Peanuts strips, visit CBR right here.

I’ve never bought an issue of Action Comics before, but that’s all set to change. October’s issue is going to have a very special guest star: Death herself.  And yes, according to The Source, Neil Gaiman approves.

Death is the second oldest of the Endless, and a major character in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, which, though neither Vertigo or DC mention it very often, is a part of the DC Universe.  Apparently, she has a date with Lex Luthor.

Ok, not a literal date, but that would explain why she’s bringing him flowers.  It would also niche nicely with the effect she has on any mortal she meets before their actual death: they fall in love with her.

According to The Source:

Luthor, as fans of the series know, is in the midst of a storyline that takes him on a winding and dangerous quest for power – a quest that will bring the megalomaniacal villain into close proximity with characters in and beyond the far reaches of the DC Universe.

It doesn’t get much more far out than Death.  Good luck, Mr. Luthor.  Even when encountering the most, ah, social of the Endless, you’re going to need it.  Here’s the full cover of Action Comics #894 (click for incredibly high rez):

So director James Cameron isn’t going to crawl under a rock for another 13 years (the epoch that transpired between Titanic and Avatar): In March, he was spotted filming a “top secret outdoor concert” of the Black Eyed Peas to celebrate Samsung‘s 3D LED TV campaign launch, covered in not-so-top-secret depth by various blogs. Now, it appears, Cameron is on board to direct an entire 3D concert documentary for the Black Eyed Peas’ World Tour.

Band frontman will.i.am, not to be out done by Cameron’s “I’m the king of the world!” Titanic Oscar speech, told VIBE: “Right now, we are planning our 3D tour movie, and James Cameron is directing it – we have the biggest director, because we are the biggest group on the planet.”

According to will.i.am, the concert film will feature a “dope” storyline which James Cameron “came up with”; whether “dope” is a synonym for “engaging” or an acknowledgment that the plot will involve drugs is still unclear. He also outlined the band’s travel itinerary in the interview: “We’ve toured from America and Europe, to the Middle East, South America, Asia and Africa. It’s not like we go, ‘Yo, we are international, you know what I’m saying? London and Paris!’ Nah, that’s just two cities. We want to go across the planet.” Hey, let’s not forget about Antarctica.

The still-untitled documentary is scheduled for release next year.

(h/t MTV; title image via BigPictureBigSound)

Apparently, when OK Go were accepting their Webby, they had a little, uh… confrontation.

I guess it was inevitable.  There’s another band that puts videos on the internet, and some of them videos have been pretty popular, even it was a cover.  They’ve also been on the scene since, like, 1975.

And their drummer is a… well.  You know.

DON’T PANIC.  This is just a loving mashup of two of the greatest things to come out of British Science fiction.  Ever.

Video below.

Do you think the Sonic Screwdriver could also function as an Electric Thumb?

(via ScifiWire.)

Have you always sort of liked Monopoly, but thought it lacked a certain shambling, rotting je ne sais quoi?  Or perhaps you sort of enjoyed Resident Evil, but wished it had the class of the 1920′s Atlantic City real estate scene?

Well, languish no more, because one Nicholas “Neptune” Endean has designed, laid out and printed his version of Monopoly: Resident Evil Edition, proving, if there ever was a doubt, that the Internet has got your back.  No matter what. 

The game features viruses rather than railroads (the utilities are still utilities, albeit with the Res Evil twist), and Chance and Community Chest have been replaced with Umbrella Corporation and S.T.A.R.S. cards.  The four corner squares are unchanged.

Shots of the full game board and sample cards can be found as well as an extrememly detailed description of the design process can be found here.

We can’t decide whether we’re more surprised that this is happening, or more surprised that it hasn’t happened already, really.

In his own words, “As anyone who’s read my blog knows, I’m a big fan of a certain long-running British SF TV series. One that started watching — from behind the sofa — when I was three.” 

“In about 14 months from now, which is to say, NOT in the upcoming season but early in the one after that, it’s quite possible that I might have written an episode. And if I had, it would originally have been called “The House of Nothing”. But it definitely isn’t called that any more.

Countdown. You’ve got about 14 months.”

Picture from Kitty’s Neverwear, blog of the proprietor of Mr. Gaiman’s official merchandise site.

Story from SFX Via Topless Robot.