Offbeat posts

In 60 seconds, Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, and their friendly carjacking cohorts can boost a high-dollar ride for sale to their fictional employer/nemesis. This is nothing compared to the things that happen on the web in any given 60 second period. The folks over at ixtract put together a visualization that demonstrates some of the millions of activities that happen on the internet every minute. They include: 12 websites hacked 14 Spotify songs uploaded 20 victims of identity theft 50 blogs created 70 domains registered 100 LinkedIn accounts created 320 Twitter accounts created 411 Facebook…

Golf is a game of the affluent. It’s a game of manners. It’s a game of pomp and circumstance. It’s a game of skill and more physical aptitude than most realize. Now, it can be a game of geeks. Granted, they still have to be affluent geeks if they want to cruise through 18 holes on the hovercraft golf cart that golfer Bubba Watson and his sponsors at Oakley created. “Bubba’s Hover”, as Oakley is marketing it, looks like more fun than a putting green to golfers and non-golfers alike. Water hazard? No problem. Hover right over it. “It takes you everywhere you want to go,” Watson said. “Through sand traps,…

While popular programs like The Walking Dead let you believe your biggest obstacles during a zombie apocalypse would be biters and unfriendly survivors, in reality it takes a lot more than that! Zombie apocalypse survivors need a lot of skills to make it through the initial onset, as well as the months and years ahead. Perhaps the most important skill is water purification. You might think a large cleaver or baseball bat with nails in the end is vital to survival, but in fact you won’t make it through the first few days without clean, safe water. Knowing how to find and purify water would make you…

April Fool’s Day is pretty annoying for the unprepared. The flood gates of false announcements, buyouts, and new products fill the feeds and often get people excited or discouraged until they remember the date. It gets bigger every year. Some companies such as Google play multiple tricks on people. Others do even worse – making announcements that aren’t so far fetched that they actually get some people to believe them for a time, embarrassing them when they spread the words to their friends. I’ve been a victim of that in the past. Never again. This year’s round includes some standard cleverness,…

In recent years, the popularity of SteamPunk seems to have lost its steam a bit in popular culture, but those who still love the mix of modern technological insights with 19th century style and sensibilities hold to the fictional beautification of society as if it were a full-blown movement. As art forms go, SteamPunk is most often manifested as a part of science fiction literature. It usually involves an alternate timeline where technology and fashion adhered to brass, analog innovations, and steam power to push into the 20th century and beyond with roots in the British Victorian era as well…

Leave it to Doctor Who to squeeze two intriguing lines into a single 41 second teaser. One might even argue that there’s a third. First, the Doctor says, “You are the only mystery worth solving.” Doctor Who fans (AKA real geeks) love a good mystery and if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for us. Then, they cut to a scene that has the Doctor uttering words we never thought we would hear. “I am the Doctor and I am afraid.” Whatever it is that could scare him, we’re dying in anticipation to find out more about it. Here’s the teaser: …

There are many videos, both parodies and serious ones, that give a particular angle or treatment to the exceedingly-popular HBO series, Game of Thrones. As the start of season three nears, we’ve already broken down the real trailer, laughed at the mashup with The Princess Bride, and been blown away by the stunning Minecraft treatment. Now, we get to see what might be considered the best of them all – the 1995 re-imagining of the intro. It starts off with an ancient lead in from HBO, then we launch into a perfect compilation of the previous two seasons. Appropriate 90s music plays uncomfortably in…

In a country 11 years removed from the last major terrorists attack that is working through economic problems, why would a virus that has been eradicated in the wild for over 30 years prompt the government to spend nearly half a billion dollars to acquire enough antiviral to treat two million people? It’s a question that many are asking. The answers all sound pretty fishy. The smallpox virus once terrified the majority of the world. With a death rate of 1 in 3, it’s over thirty times more deadly than the worst forms of flu. Even today, it strikes fear into those who remember the 1940s and 1950s when smallpox…

“I gotta have more cowbell!” It has become one of the most popular skits in Saturday Night Live history. When Chistopher Walken played The Bruce Dickinson in a skit that had Will Ferrell playing Gene Frenkle from the band Blue Oyster Cult, the need for more cowbell was born. It was a good skit, but the absurdity of enhancing the song with the obnoxious sound of the cowbell really hit home and made it memorable. In social media, that’s the whole point. When you look at the various posting styles that businesses employ on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and others, there’s something normally missing. Few…

“I brought you a special present,” Peter Falk tells a tiny Fred Savage. There haven’t been many shows that have as passionate of a fan base as Game of Thrones. With season 3 coming in two weeks, the promos, speculation, and anticipation have been almost as annoying as the weeks leading up to an Apple product release. Almost. Here’s an exception. Those who have seen The Princess Bride know that the whimsical tale of love, honor, revenge, and a prince named Humperdinck is actually two stories – one of the Princess and her long lost Prince, and one of a grandfather and grandson bonding around the telling…