Henry Phish

A friend of mine stumbled onto this site the other day, and the concept is pure genious. It’s called http://www.howstuffworks.com/, and it will give you the answers to everything from How Kryptonite Works to How Lock Picking Works. However, my favorite entry concerns my favorite show, “Lost”.

According to the article, How the DHARMA Initiative Works (Careful, there are spoilers), the numbers actually coorespond to the world coordinate system. If you plug the numbers 4 8 15 16 23 42…actually “4.815 162.342″…into Google Maps, it displays a point in the ocean northeast of Australia and southwest of the Marshall Islands.

Try it out here. You may need to zoom out a little to see it.

Remember that sketch, how not to be seen? 

If you’re a fan of Monty Python and Star Wars, you will definitely get some amusement out of this video…though on the subject of creepy things, the last thirty seconds of this sketch takes the cake. 

This thing is pretty amazing.  It’s a demo reel for a 3D artist…though I’m not exactly sure who.  Still, it’s worth taking a look.  You’ll be amazed.

Plant Reel 

Here’s a piece of good news. Now my Tivo will have something new and tasty to eat instead of frozen stale reruns.

Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox series Futurama, ordering 13 episodes to debut in 2008. The deal builds upon the cable channel’s acquisition of the 72-episode library last fall.

We’ll have to wait until 2008, but I’m sure it will be worth it.
Via - comingsoon.net

As Google is fond of demonstrating, information is power.  That said, a lot of companies have been banding together to maxamize their resources.  AOL bought Time Warner in order to use it’s content…in turn, Google bought a nice chunck of the AOL/Time Warner conglomorate for itself.  On a smaller front, Paramount has partnered with the blogging search engine Technorati in order to drive content…and visitors…to their site.  It’s a much more agressive approach to grass roots marketing than most studios have taken in recent years, as the article points out, it’s difficult to get people to write quality stuff about your product…it’s a lot easier just to steal it.  Honestly, it looks like a good deal for everyone envolvled and you can bet there will be a few more deals like this in the future for Technorati and other blogger search engines.

Paramount Partners with Technorati

So this is why we have to watch 15 minutes of ads before they show the movie.

Revenue from advertising shown on movie-theater screens rose 20.6 percent to $527.8 million in 2005, the Cinema Advertising Council said Monday.

Pre-Trailer Ads in Movies Producing Big Revenue for Theaters

And that’s not all. Theaters also report approximately $75 million in revenue for other ads.

I still can’t figure out why tickets cost so much they seem to be generating profit from all sides. They’re definitely not paying all of that money to the counter workers.

Let’s put this in perspective.  In 2006 the number 2 and 3 grossing films (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and The Chronicles of Narnia) made a combined $580 million domestically.  This about equals the revenue generated from the ads shown prior to all movies in 2005.  In 2006 Sin City made $75 million in domestic box office this about equals the profits from other ad sources.

2005 Yearly Box Office

…an idiots guide to art.  Actually it’s an article about a certain exhibit in London that has become the focal point of a discussion on the state of modern art.  In all honestly, the discussion is nothing new, but it’s always fun to point and laugh.

Thought to have Merit 

This afternoon I went to a Wendy’s for lunch and discovered that they no longer offer biggie sizes. This is fine with me since I always decline. Instead I was offered to choose between Small, Medium, and Large.

So I selected Medium and receive a giant soda. That’ll teach me not to read the fine print on the menus.

The company has decided to go back to the more basic “small, medium, and large” descriptions, with the current “biggie size” becoming “medium” and “great biggie” changing to “large.” Medium portions will be demoted to “small” size. What this means, essentially, is that absolutely nothing has changed as far as the quantity of these offerings, all that’s changed is the name.

Wendy’s ditches the term “biggie”

So beware next time to go to Wendy’s the real Small and Medium no longer exists. All they really have now is Large, Larger, and Largest in disguise.

I still like their food. I just wish they were more direct.

Who would have seen this coming? A party listed as celebrating 6-6-06 would get out of control.

Some residents complained to township officials about public urination, blocking of roadways and other incidents during the celebration on the once-in-a-lifetime date.

However, not everything was bad about the event. It did raise awareness of the city and generate higher than expected sales.

“Our goal was to sell 300 T-shirts that day,” said Colone, who owns Screams Ice Cream in Hell. “The shirt company did 2,500 shirts that day. Nobody was prepared for this.”

Organizer takes heat for problems at party in Hell

Earlier article: Hell Michigan and 6/6/06

This is an interesting video on the issue of internet neutrality.  Perhaps you’ve seen in your local papers the bi-line “The Internet: Right or Privilege.”  Basically, the gist of the argument is that certain groups want to control the internet and impose additional charges for its use.  Personally, I don’t know why people are worried, I mean just look at all the companies that provide access to the internet: Comcast, AOL, Qwest, and look at all the different ways you can get access: digital cable, DSL, ISP, Satellite.  If one of these companies tried to force a price change then all the other companies would counter.  It’s not as if there is a lack of competition, and these companies are not known for working together.  In the world of commerce, it’s all about survival.  For instance, if digital cable decided to charge based on number of sites visited, then a lot of people would simply jump ship and switch to DSL…who by the way is losing the battle for net superiority anyway (due to Qwest’s aweful customer service, overpricing, and the increasing data transfer rate of digital cable)…or an alternate provider.  I mean why would they want to jeapordize their customer relationship just to make a quick buck?  The truth is that short of the federal government imposing an internet tax…which they have mentioned from time to time but will never impose…there really isn’t any call to be alarmed.  Last I checked, in a capitalist country, companies still have to follow the laws of supply and demand.  For them to try to impose something on consumers that they neither want nor need is simply folley…they will simply go somewhere else. 

Anyway, take a look at the video, it’s kind of cool, and uses clips from Elephants Dream.