Category: Around the Intertubes

Trisha’s Video of the Day: “FCU: Fact Checkers Unit”

Trisha Lynn

Never let it be said that 1990s heartthrob Luke Perry (Dylan from “90210”) doesn’t have a sense of humor about himself:

Luke Perry thinks his house is haunted in "Paranormal Factivity" (c) NBC/Universal

[Note: I had previously embedded the episode in question here, but thanks to NBC and its penchant for creating pop-ups when you embed their videos, I’ve decided against it. Please click the image above if you’d like to view the video on their own site.]

Based on an original short from 2008, “FCU: Fact Checkers Unit” stars Brian Sacca and Peter Karinen as fact-checkers for a fictional magazine. The series got a second life on the NBC Internet portal as an advertorial for the Samsung Galaxy S, but please… don’t let that put you off from enjoying it. What I like about FCU is that it seems to take itself seriously and not-seriously at the same time. I really appreciate how in the videos, it establishes the personalities of some of the magazine staff as well as lets the guest star shine in an extended bit.

The part about the Galaxy S being able to record a whole night’s worth of video and audio? That could probably be something for the gang at “Mythbusters” to investigate.

Trisha’s Video of the Day: “Guess What’s on the Curator’s Desk?”

Trisha Lynn

Any guesses?

“Guess What’s on the Curator’s Desk?” comes to us courtesy of The Mütter Museum at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, who would like to remind you that ever since humanity has sought to cure what ails it, the instruments we use to do so and the results of that science are truly, truly frightening.

Find out exactly what this and other fascinating finds from this museum are every Thursday.

Thanks to Tubefilter for this find!

Trisha’s Links of the Day: And this is why the law profession gets a bad rap

Trisha Lynn
Joseph Rakofsky has a problem with the Internet...

Too lengthy for Failblog.org and perhaps too technical for the Phailhaüs, I bring to you the story of one Joseph Rakofsky, a 33-year old lawyer who made a huge series of mistakes:

1. Having never tried a case in court before, Rakofsky accepted the job of being the primary trial lawyer for one Dontrell Dean, a 21-year old who was accused of murder in 2008.

2. Rakofsky botched up the trial so badly that a mistrial had to be declared.

And here’s where Rakofsky erred the most:

3. Rather than lick his wounds and attempt to become a better trial lawyer, Rakofsky decides to sue the Internet for defamation, specifically the journalists and bloggers who wrote about or referenced to the mistrial.

In the amended 82-page lawsuit (embedded below), Rakofsky and his attorney Richard D. Borzouye, Esq. name such entities as the Washington Post (who first reported on the mistrial), AbovetheLaw.com (a prominent law blog), Carolyn Elefant (a small-firm law blogger), and even some email addresses and screen names of people who publicly spoke ill of Rakofsky’s competence to try the case, thus defaming him. Continue reading “Trisha’s Links of the Day: And this is why the law profession gets a bad rap” →

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: PlayStation’s latest “game” gets rave reviews

Trisha Lynn

The [Firmware] game features a robust moral choice system, where your actions really do affect the world. Do you accept the User Agreement, or don’t you? This was an agonizing decision, since you never know what could happen later. I remember that unbelievable moment in Firmware 2.0, where I accepted the User Agreement and the Kaz Hirai was harvested for delicious ADAM. Is that right? It’s been so long since I did anything but download Firmware on the PS3 that my memory is a little hazy.

—Jim Sterling at Destructoid makes the best of a necessary console update, in the wake of last month’s credit card security breach of the PlayStation Network.

UPDATE: And… apparently, the influx of PSN fans who updated their firmware and wanted to game crashed the network, forcing parts of it offline again. How is it that Sony didn’t anticipate that?

Trisha’s Short Video of the Day: Simon’s Cat in “Hop It”

Trisha Lynn2 Comments

I don’t know about you, but with both Sarah Jane and an Academy Award-nominated director dying in the same week plus perhaps one of the most depressing Catholic and Christian holidays being today, perhaps you might need a little pick-up. And what better way than with being introduced to a little new animation?

Simon Tofield is a British animation director who started putting up little Flash videos on the ‘net, and his success on the web lead to a book deal and a daily cartoon in the Mirror, a popular British newspaper.

What I like about this short is that it reminds me that hand-drawn animation will always have a place in the great animation lexicon and that there’s great value in the love of simple, classic silent-movies.

Check out all the books here.

Trisha’s Quote of the Day: When Top Gear goes too far

Trisha Lynn

Richard [Hammond] has his tongue so far down the back of Jeremy [Clarkson’s] trousers he could forge a career as the back end of a pantomime horse. His attempt to foster some Clarkson-like maverick status with his “edgy” humour is truly tragic. He reminds you of the squirt at school as he hangs round Clarkson the bully, as if to say, “I’m with him”. Meanwhile, James May stands at the back holding their coats as they beat up the boy with the stutter.

–Steve Coogan (1.50.9 on a hot track), taking the piss out of the Lads of Top Gear UK for their recent comments about a Mexican-made supercar.

Trisha’s Short Video of the Day: A Wrinkle in Time in 90 Seconds

Trisha Lynn2 Comments

Back when I was in elementary school, the one book I had a love/hate relationship with was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. We read it in our GATE class because it was a Newbery Award winner and one of the first science fiction books aimed at children.

I thought the plot of the book was rather cool, but I wasn’t great at sticking to the same chapters as the rest of the class or turning in the vocabulary homework. As a result, the D- I got that semester was the lowest I ever received and I got into trouble with my parents.

If I’d made a video like this when I was a kid, I wonder if my teacher would have raised my grade? Continue reading “Trisha’s Short Video of the Day: A Wrinkle in Time in 90 Seconds” →

Trisha’s Short Film of the Day: “Idiot with a Tripod”

Trisha Lynn

Normally, I’d be posting this from either Manhattan or Brooklyn in New York City. However, thanks to this year’s December Snowpocalypse (or my other favorite, Snowmygod), I’m typing from my parent’s kitchen table where I will be mostly stationed for the next two days until my re-booked flight takes off on Thursday morning.

Call me crazy, but despite the awesomeness of being with my family, I really wish I were back on the East Coast experiencing the blizzard and its aftermath with the rest of my co-residents. Luckily, at least one New Yorker was inspired to make art from the storm: Continue reading “Trisha’s Short Film of the Day: “Idiot with a Tripod”” →

Trisha’s Take: Using the Force as a force of good

Trisha Lynn
Katie poses with her very own custom Star Wars drawing by Scott Zirkel (c) Carrie Goldman

When Carrie Goldman wrote about her daughter Katie who was teased when she brought her Star Wars-themed water bottle to school because “Star Wars is for boys, and not girls,” and the Internet and cast and crew members from “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” proved that was most definitely not the case, I kept a close eye on the story.

Even though I’m not specifically a Star Wars fan, I do know what it’s like to be bullied or teased for looking and sounding or just being different from the other kids I grew up with. When I was younger, I lived in a pretty suburban area in Orange County, California. From when I was in kindergarten to when I was in the sixth grade, I had quite a few strikes against me: a) I’m Asian, b) I was smart, and c) I had (and still do have) a bit of a speech impediment.

Even now, as a grown woman working in a somewhat posh office in downtown Manhattan, I often feel awkward because I don’t dress like the other women who work in the office, and almost all of my geeky pop culture references go completely over the heads of the other people I work with. To throw in some more pop culture references, in an office full of Joan Holloways, I am a Peggy Olsen.

Having said that, I think even adult geeks can take heart from Goldman’s most recent update about Katie: Continue reading “Trisha’s Take: Using the Force as a force of good” →

Trisha’s (Long) Video of the Day: “Runaway” by Kanye West (NSFW, lyrics)

Trisha Lynn1 Comment

I am not an ardent fan of hip hop by any stretch of the imagination, but I do appreciate it when something a hip hop artist does is neat, cool, or utterly mad.

I’d say that this maxi-music video from Kanye West, featuring “Runaway” and other tracks from his new album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy qualifies as being utterly, utterly mad.

The short film/long music video debuted on October 23 in a massive publicity campaign which spanned MTV, MTV2 and BET; luckily, it has also been uploaded to the Internets in a commercial-free version: Continue reading “Trisha’s (Long) Video of the Day: “Runaway” by Kanye West (NSFW, lyrics)” →