Henry Phish

I wonder if Kevin Smith will have any real insight into the films he’s reviewing. I’m starting to get tired of the “I once worked on this film. You might have heard of it. It’s called Superman…” routine.

Smith said on his MySpace.com space Tuesday that he had been invited to substitute for the ailing Roger Ebert on the syndicated Ebert and Roeper movie-review show, where he’ll be offering his opinions of the upcoming movies Miami Vice, The Ant Bully, Talladega Nights, Barnyard, and possibly World Trade Center.

Kevin Smith Named Guest Critic on ‘Ebert & Roeper’

Google Trends is a great way to find out what the world is searching for. It connects news stories to search volumes and even provides information on where the searches are taking place.

I tested the site by searching for ethanol. Everyone seems to be researching ethanol lately. I was surprised that Brisbane, Australia was listed as the top city. I had expected a US city to rank at the top of the list. I’m not surprised that Minneapolis, MN, USA came in at the second spot though.

Take a look for yourself:

Trend History for Ethanol

Just when the TV networks claim to be working with Tivo they secretly trip it up.

When ABC News dropped the word “tonight” from its World News Tonight, it said that one of the reasons it was doing so was that new technology was allowing people to watch the program at any time of the day.

ABC Failed To Consider TiVo Viewers When It Renamed Newscast

However they failed to realize that changing the name would cause all of those fancy Tivos to stop recording the show until the shows new name is scheduled to record.

I personally could not play Monopoly without the multi-colored paper bills. How can you intimidate your opponents without that huge stack of white ones?

Monopoly board game players can now pay for properties with debit cards.

Game makers Parker have phased out the standard multi-coloured cash in a new version.

Mayfair? Put It On The Card

Of course the electronic version of the game cost twice as much as the original. That’s interest for you.

Via - Techdirt 

This…is honestly amazing.  I can’t watch it more than once thought caus I might hurt myself just watching.  If this guy isn’t in Circus de Soleil, he should be.  Watch to the very end…it gets scary wierd.

For more…if you think you can stomach it…check out the link below.

Lazaru the Contortionist

As if it wasn’t disorienting enough when a movie is censored for TV, now PBS will also blur the lips of the profanity speaker.

PBS is apparently insisting that any bleep must be accompanied by lip pixelation, so that a viewer can’t make out the offending word on screen.

Hey Lip Readers: Pluck Two

Why do they even bother to show films that need to be censored on over the air channels? I tried to watch Pulp Fiction on Fox once and couldn’t keep track of what was going on. Fortunately, I had seen the movie before. I kept watching the edited version just to see how they would edit.

In reference to Matt’s earlier post regarding swearing in The Big Lebowski, the following replacement line for one of those curses has become quite famous.

In the film The Big Lebowski, John Goodman’s character repeatedly yells “This is what you get when you fuck a stranger in the ass” while trashing a car. It was infamously censored on television as “This is what you get when you have fun with a stranger in the alps!”

History of the word “fuck”

This is possibly the best abridgement of a film I’ve ever seen…at the the very least it’s the first one I’ve seen that didn’t involve a re-inactment by bunnies.  It’s funny though, I don’t remember them cursing this much in the original. 

The Big Lebowski - F_cking Short Version

The original movie was created by the Coen brothers and involved a marijuana smoking, White Russian drinking slacker named the Dude who, thanks to a case of mistaken identity, stumbles into a kidnapping plot with a noirish twist.  If you haven’t seen it, you should…go buy it.

For those of you who are fans of Mike Mignola and the Hellboy series…or if you just want to have Paul Giamatti’s love child…check out the Amazing Screwtop Head pilot over at the Sci fi Channels official site.  The Amazing Screwtop Head was a limited run series about a civil war era spy who could swap his head into any number of fantasic bodies. Together with his robot butler and his patron, Abe Lincoln, he often found himself in fantasic situations in his quest to defeat the evil Emperor Zombie and his lackies.  Like Hellboy, the art work for the series is very much in Mike Mignolas patented style, heavy ink lines and sharp angles.  Also, like Hellboy, the plot is a lot of fun; very much the serial adventure stories that nobody does anymore…at least not well.  It’s fun to see when good art like this succeeds.  I can’t say I’ve read many of the comic books, but I always found the concept facinating and I’d love to see a few more episodes of the show.  Anyway, if you like the pilot, then take the survey and let them know…these kind of shows don’t last long without fan support.

More Info About the Amazing Screw on Head

Here’s something for everyone who is going through withdrawal waiting for new fall episodes of The Office.
The Office Web Episodes

I’ve been having issues with corrosion on the positive terminal to one of our cars. While I was searching for fixes and preventative tips I came across this tale of woe.

To my horror, the corrosion had returned, turning my replacement clamp into a corroded clamp. When I attempted to loosed the wire attachment bolt on the new/corroded clamp, the whole assembly snapped in half. Horror! Now I had a double battery terminal stump contraption with no clamp - useless for its task of completing the car’s electrical circuit.

battery terminal

I don’t suggest you wait until the problem is as bad as this. Mine was able to be fixed with a basic cleaning kit that you can buy at an auto parts store. From what I’ve found the best way to prevent future corrosion is to use Vaseline. It seals the connection and does not impact connectivity.