Inferior to—but still reminiscent of—the darkly fantastic Chocolate Bunny by Lernert Engelberts & Sander Plug is this Cadbury video featuring much egg devastation. Check related videos for more eggsterminations (I like the one with the piano wire).
If you enjoyed previously mentioned Perfect Balance, you’ll also dig the new trials and Assembler 3. (via jay)
Here’s an interesting facet of the Russian criminal justice system I wasn’t aware of, gleaned from a recent New Yorker article on the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya (abstract only, unfortunately):
It is an emotionally powerful feature of Russian criminal law that the “side of the victims”—_stonora poterpevshykh_—is represented on an equal footing with the prosecution and the defense. The counsel for the victims is allowed to call and question witnesses, submit protests to the court, make closing remarks. It’s an ambiguous institution: where the prosecution wants a conviction, and the defense wants an acquittal, the victims want justice—or, as the victims and their lawyers in this case kept saying, “the truth.”
The trailer for Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are is up. The trailer, at least, does a nice job capturing the feel of the book. I hope the movie lives up to it!
James Surowiecki explains why nobody wants the bastards to get their bonuses, even if it would (theoretically) be better for the economy:
Myriad experiments in behavioral economics have found that people are willing to pay to punish members of a group whom they believe to be shirkers or free-riders. In other words, people are willing to make themselves worse off (they have to pay their own money) in order to ensure that others don’t get undeserved rewards. Economists call this “altruistic punishment” (because the punishers are putting the interests of the group ahead of their own interest), and argue that it played an important role in fostering cooperation. So even if people believed that getting the AIG bonuses back would be a net loss for the economy, chances are they’d still want to do it.
Identical to the previously mentioned $30 NeoCube are the $20 BuckyBalls. Can’t decide how I feel about this. Competition is good, saving $10 is good, you can’t protect an idea, just an expression of the idea, etc. But still. Anyway, very cool toy. I’ll have to get one, I’m just not sure from who.
NYTimes, Pathogens in Our Pork, on the appearance of MRSA in our food supply:
We don’t add antibiotics to baby food and Cocoa Puffs so that children get fewer ear infections. That’s because we understand that the overuse of antibiotics is already creating “superbugs” resistant to medication.
Yet we continue to allow agribusiness companies to add antibiotics to animal feed so that piglets stay healthy and don’t get ear infections. Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States go to healthy livestock, according to a careful study by the Union of Concerned Scientists — and that’s one reason we’re seeing the rise of pathogens that defy antibiotics.
Attempts to change this have been blocked by agribusiness, as you can only pack animals into crowded, unsanitary conditions if you pump them full of antibiotics.
Patricia Marx’s Memo from the C.E.O starts strong…
It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. We are happy to report that Bring Your Child to Work Day has been renamed Bring Your Child to Do Work Day. We hope you will contribute unstintingly to the Gummy Bears Overtime Fund.
Now for the harsh realities. We will no longer be serving complimentary cold cuts and soda on Cold Cuts and Soda Day. Stairs will go up, but not down. Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets.
… and just keeps building.
For a relaxing, soothing game experience, give Music Catch 2 a spin. To blow stuff up, try Death vs. Monstars. (via zoomdoggle)
I wanted to do something with Twitter, so hatched plovr. It scans Twitter looking for people who need help, and helps you help them (you can reply via the plovr Twitter account, without belonging to Twitter yourself, or you can click through to Twitter and lend a hand as yourself).
If you have a minute, check it out, maybe help a stranger while you’re there!
Best Sesame Street outtakes ever: Ricky Gervais and Elmo. Also, from Gervais’s blog:
Did Sesame Street which is possibly the most fun show I’ve ever done. There were loads of outtakes but the producers are worried about releasing them as they may get the show taken off air.
and…
The next day I did my appearance on Sesame Street which I am honestly considering declaring a career high light.
Kevin Clash is amazing. He totally holds his own, and stays in character. Can’t wait for the episode to air!
When it comes to impromptu file sharing, “drop.io:http://drop.io was already the bee’s knees, but those folks are truly on fire lately, first rolling out"playlist.io”:http://drop.io/blog/asset/playlist-io (“screencast”:http://drop.io/file/playlistio), and now drops support"real time collaboration":http://drop.io/blog/asset/your-drops-are-now-alive-private-filesharing-and-collaboration-goes-truly-real-time (“screencast “:http://drop.io/file/streaming). This is what happens when talented people set out to make the tools that they themselves want to use.