geekosystem

When Hasbro announced that it would hold a vote to replace one of Monopoly's tokens with a new one, I made some suggestions for better pieces. It looks like they ignored my brilliant suggestion of putting a jet pack in the game, because today they've announced the results of their election. We have the results, and Hasbro's over-the-top animations announcing those results after the jump.

Haven't been online for a while? Here is a concise, effective summary of the Internet at large by xgabberx. Enjoy.

In an Internet singularity most welcome, videos of adorable animals playing video games are rising to the forefront. This time, we have a cute kitty playing Fruit Ninja on an iPad. The cat is pretty good, but doesn't get nearly as mad as this bullfrog, or as suspicious as this bearded dragon when playing video games.

No, these aren't likely to be gracing the head of a kawaii-neko-chan cosplayer anytime soon. However, they might just help robots get a little bit better at dealing with sound. Currently, most robots that have microphones rely on either strategically placed ones, or a network of audio inputs to capture sound. However, nature has already demonstrated a pretty fantastic design with cup-shaped ears to help focus in on sounds. In the research behind these ears, called Active Soft Pinnae for Robots by Makoto Kumon and Yoshitaka Noda, an accurate assessment of a sound's location can be made with only two audio inputs. Also, because the ears can move independently of the robot, they're more efficient at locating sounds. The upshot is that with ears like these, robots could home in on sounds better, and look cuter doing it. Though they do look eerily familiar, don't they?

A stray cat longs to become a famous cat on the Internet in the hopes that it will lead to a warm home and a loving family. Of course, in this lovely silent animated short by Guy Collins, things go a bit off the rails and it's unclear where fate will take this little cat. Where, indeed?

It's Father's Day, but we've already covered that pretty extensively with our premiere Troll Dad collection. So instead, here is a video of a cat that barks like a dog. Now, I've heard cats make some pretty strange noises before, but I've yet to see one that barks like a dog. Or, stranger still, ceases barking like a dog and begins meowing as soon as the human shows up. Clearly, these felines are up to something. (via BuzzFeed)

This baby is going to lose her mind when she grows up and finds out about the Internet.

(via reddit)

In this somewhat harrowing video, a cat successfully fends off an alligator. After the first 50 seconds, you're like, "huh, how is there another minute-and-a-half left in this," and then at the one-minute mark, you're like "whoa, that's crazy," and then at the 1:30 mark you're like "how is there another 40 seconds left in this," and you're pretty much right this time. You may, however, find yourself rewatching from the 1:10 mark over and over again. (We did.) (via IHStWotI)

Sadly, this is actually an advertisement for European billboard company EuroAWK, and not the work of some very enterprising (and very lucky) vandal, but it's still an excellent mashup. (via Reddit)

If you've followed the unsettling saga of the middle-aged woman who threw a cat into a garbage bin (and who's currently under police protection due to death threats), you may be interested to know that the cats have gotten their revenge in the video below, which is almost certainly real.

Today in technology news: cats -- or at least one cat -- are apparently very intrigued by the iPad. Eric Rautio's cat, Iggy, is entranced by the iPad apps Noby Noby Boy and Magic Piano [warning: Apple Store links], so much so that he gets into playing them, with his paws. Rautio says that the iPad screen is fine, though: "cat's claws are not as strong as glass."

As with the 2.5 year old vs. iPad video of Todd Lappin's daughter, this can be taken as yet another test of people's sentiments about the iPad: Is it so simple and intuitive that even a cat finds it appealing and can interact with it,* or is it so dumb, it works as a cat toy? Alternatively: Just a funny video of a cat playing with an iPad.