Of Interest

The Alchemist of Comedy Harold Ramis, the man behind Ghostbusters, Animal House, and Caddyshack, died at 69. To me his greatest film was Groundhog Day, which I would also rate as one of the greatest movies ever.

GQ had a wonderful interview with Ramis just a few years ago covering a variaty of things from his career, including his general bewilderment at why Bill Murray, once a dear friend, had been mad at him, refusing to speak to him since the making of Groundhog Day. Well worth the read.

"He earned his keep on this planet," said Murray on the passing of Ramis. Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd also gave statements. Read them all here.

Phil The Weatherman Roger Ebert put it as one of his great films, and said of the film: "Groundhog Day" is a film that finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is. Read his review.

Buddhists love Groundhog Day, considering it a perfect summery of their beliefs. Here one Buddhist decided to find out what made Harold Ramis tick.

12 facts you may not have known about the film.

The Public Schools Are Failing Or so we have been told for about 30 years now to the point where we accept it without question. But are they failing? And where does this myth come from? (hint: greedy corporation)

But even if the schools aren't failing, it might be time we rethink them a little. Here is an animation RSA made taken from part of an excellent talk on the subject by Sir Ken Robinson.

Here's the full talk.

Bearded Hipsters The beard is back, rapidly gaining popularity in the US, expecially among hipsters. It's becoming so popular that hipsters with patchy beards are forking over $8500 for "facial hair transplants" to help thicken their beards.

But let's face it, there is nothing manlier than facial hair, or so says The Art of Manliness. Here is their list of 20 Manliness beards and mustaches in history.

The Triple Axel As we reported on a few days ago, Former Prime Minister Mori critized Mao Asada for falling during her performance and failing to win Japan her second gold metal of the Olympics. Now Mori is claiming his remarks were misconstrued.

Also on The Japan Times, a writer further critizes Mao, claiming her stubborness at not retooling her skating program after it became clear she could no longer reliably land the triple axel is to blame.

Mao gives a measured response to both.

I didn't shut down the government Remember the American government shutdown? You probably remember Ted Cruz, then, and his involvement. But don't blame him for the shutdown--he now claims he fought against the shutdown and it was Obama who wanted it.

Speaking of delusions of the far Right, I wonder what Fox News has to say about climate change...

I Hate Blackboard Are you a teacher? Do you know one? Then you may know of the absolutely worthless classroom software called Blackboard. Dave Noon's Lovecraftian rant just about sums up the experience.

Cthulhu Chick makes an epub file containing the complete works of Lovecraft available on her site. Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.--In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

What if Dr. Seuss wrote The Call of Cthulhu?

Mayan or Coptic Do you like languages? Here are 5 reasons to make the next language you learn an endangered one.

It's not endangered, but learn how to speak fluent Japanese without saying a word.

Me or nature We love man vs nature stories. But why?

Dirty Cops The internet has been exposing a lot of bad police activity lately. Here is the latest: The cops drive the wrong way down a one way street, swipe a parked car, then arrest the man seated in the passanger seat, blaming him. Read about it here.

"Google is evil." DuckDuckGo is becoming more and more relevant since Snowden shared the NSA files last July (2013). To be more precise, they’re becoming 200%-500% more relevant as people look for more search privacy. More here on DuckDuckGo; you should take a closer look if you haven’t.

If you’re interested in privacy for messaging as well, click here to see the next hot start-up in Europe, “Threema”. "Threema’s key feature is its true end-to-end encryption — German users probably don’t want to use a Facebook-owned app anymore."

The European peanut butter. Nutella went from relative obscurity in the 80s to being found in many places shelved next to the actual peanut butter. But who knew there are a lot of ingredients from a lot of countries.

"Real or fake?" Nowadays it’s too easy to fall for news that isn’t real. Read the following two titles, then decide which one is real, and which one is fake, before clicking the links:

So-called Christian has an erection.

When Jesus returns he’ll be carrying an AR-15 assault rifle.

Ted Nugent would be proud. In real news, it appears there is an upward trend in the US for naming children after guns. Yes, so if you can separate your palm from your face, click here for more.

Interested in a gun-related baby name? Check out this list, and please note 32.

Not good enough. An olympic performance of a lifetime, and when you don’t earn a medal, you’re criticized by the head of the Tokyo 2020 committee, Yoshiro Mori. Mori, also a former Japanese Prime Minister, didn’t only go after popular ice-skater Mao Asada. Mori was also critical of Japanese ice dancers Chris and Cathy Reed, who were born in the United States but compete for Japan. “They live in America,” Mori said. “Although they are not good enough for the U.S. team in the Olympics, we included these naturalized citizens on the team.” Nice.

Moving on and upward. Be prepared for a hair-raising video that might leave your palms sweaty. A pair of Russians climbed the 650 meter tower while still under construction, even up the crane still mounted on top. More backstory and an interview with the duo can be read here.

"Must think in Russian. So goes the line from this film.

But there is a study that suggests thinking in a foreign language actually encourages greater logic, and consequently less risk in our choices.

Here are some more examples of how we might think differently in various languages.

"I’m feelin’ all right." …♪ It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday, the Regular crowd shuffles in… Just in time for some Karaoke. But who invented “the empty orchestra” anyways? This guy did.

Karaoke even enjoys being on national TV in Japan. Here’s fairly typical programming drivel showing a fairly typical karaoke experience. Bad ♪♪ included.

Putin's Bad Day The Sochi Olympics aren't painting Russia in good light, Ukraine is falling apart, Pussy Riot is again making headlines, and the Russian hockey team lost. All in all, a bad day for the former KGB agent.

In Communist Romania, good TV was hard to come by. Read the story of how a VCR and collection of underground VHS tapes from the West affected one family.

Speaking about the Sochi Olympics, did you ever wonder what it would be like if David Attenborough narrated curling?

Too Much Time on My Hands If you think our modern calendar with its months of different lengths and its leap years is complicated, just take a look at these from some other cultures.

Now You're Playing With Power There is something magical about the old 8-bit intros to NES games. In this era of extremely realistic graphics on PS4, the much simplier openings of the NES era have a charm that can't be matched. Here is a three hour video of NES start screens. I only made it about 10 minutes in, but it was a pleasent 10 minute trip down memory lane.

If you are into Japan, beautiful visuals, and unique gameplay, and if you have an iOS device, you can't go wrong with the just released Tengami. Here's a preview and here's a link to the game on the app store.

The More You Know Where did Earth's water come from?

Presidents Day Confusion This past Monday (the 17th) was Presidents' Day in the US. But... what is President's Day for? Is it for Washington (born Feb 22), Lincoln (born Feb 12), both, or for all presidents? Uhm... all of the above? Turns out the day is for Washington's Birthday, but... it's complicated. Snoopes has the lowdown.

According to this Wikipedia article, the holiday is still offically called Washington's Birthday. Most people mistakenly know it as Presidents' Day because of advertisors pushing that name and government not in a hurry to discourage using the day to celebrate all Presidents.

A Farewell If you are an American, you probably had to read Washington's Farewell Address when you were in high school and/or college. And if you are the typical American, you have probably completely forgotten everything about it in the years since. You should take a few minutes to read it again.

If that's a bit too tough to get through (and let's face it, they wrote a little strangely back then), you might try xkcd's modern translation.

The Myth Man There is a lot of mythology surrounding Washington. Turns out, a lot of what American's learn about the man isn't all that accurate. He didn't have wooden dentures(although he did have bad teeth), he never chopped down a cherry tree, he didn't utter the words 'So help me God' when taking the oath of office, nor did he once throw a silver dollar across the Potomac River and he didn't wear a wig.

But he may have ridden a horse made of crystal and spread the Deleware1

Indian Myth Speaking of mythology, India's Hindu mythology is among the most colorful in the world. It is also very popular on TV.

If you have Chrome (it will only work on Chrome), you can watch a stunning web animation showing the story of Ramayana, one of the great Hindu epics.

Deepak Chopra retells the beloved Indian story of Savitri and Satyavan, putting his own spin on the ending.

Apple's 5c mis-step The iPhone 5c didn't do nearly as well as hoped. In fact, if you believe some reports, it didn't do well at all. Why? Ken Segall, former Apple ad man, explains his thoughts.

Wipeout Animated gifs have made a comeback these past few years and become relatively popular. Here are some wipeout gifs from the Sochi Olympics.

And now, your moment of zen.

It's Shoveling Time What kind of shovel do you use to shovel snow? A plastic plow-shaped shovel? Would you believe the best kind of shovel for the job is an old coal shovel? At least one author things so.

I Spy Is Edward Snowden traitor or patriot? Either way, he was on German TV recently.

The US isn't too happy with this, and they are trying to black out his interview.

You can see it here.

Fast Food Nation The modern American diet sucks. Here are some charts to explain what is wrong with the American modern diet.

Food Addiction could explain why 70% of America is fat.

False Idols The Rightwing idolizes Ronald Reagan. They really should take another look at him. He wasn't quite as far-right as they remember, in fact there are many things about him that would shock them.

They might also learn some lessons from Ike.

Think Different One of Apple's most famous ads is the Think Different ad. Here's the story behind it.

The English Empire For better or for worse, English has become the global language. More and more businesses all over the globe are making it their companies' offical language. The economist has a good piece about this trend

Good English ain't easy--ahem I mean, using English well isn't easy. One of the tougher things to use is preposition-phrase modifiers, as an online magazine illustrates with a poorly worded title.

Emoticons are People Too As a culture, we've been using emoticons since they were created in 1982. Now scientists say we have started to react to them in the same way as we react to real faces.

In the West we typically use :) (or some variation) as a smile, but in Japan a smile would be this → ^-^ (or, again, some variation). See more examples and read some thoughts on reasons for the difference.

Epic Facial Hair Chances are you don't think of facial hair when you think of Japan. In fact, you probably picture clean shaven salarymen with neatly parted hair. But Japan actually has quite an interesting history with facial hair, specifically the mustache.

Wait, did you catch that photo of Gaishi Nagaoka? Let's see that again. Wow--now that is some epic facial hair.

The Art of Manliness has a list looking at the 20 manliest mustaches and beards in history

Where Have I Been? A few days ago, on Feb 12th, comedy legend Sid Caesar, who Mel Brooks described as "the best comedian who ever practiced the trade", died at age 91.

One of Sid Caesar's most popular and best remembered talents was his double-talk routine where he mimicked the sound and cadence of foreign languages so well it could fool all but the most fluent in those languages. Here's how he learned that skill

The world's most expensive 20th century book: "SUMO" is publisher Tachen's $15,000 homage to renown photographer Helmut Newton. And it only weighs 66 pounds (30 kilograms).

Here's a short on how it was made (warning: nudity).

America has marginalized some of its sharpest minds. "One reason is the anti-intellectualism in American life, the kind that led Rick Santorum to scold President Obama as “a snob” for wanting more kids to go to college, or that led congressional Republicans to denounce spending on social science research. ...They have also marginalized themselves." Professors, we need you!

Happy 450th birthday, Galileo!

"And yet it moves."

So you wanna code? The next question is which code is write (pun meant) for you?.

Here's a nifty iOS app for learning the basics of coding.

No excuses. 1 in 4 Americans are scientifically illiterate, or at the very least think the Sun orbits the Earth.

With nearly 5 million hits, I’m sure this religious website has nothing to do with such faithful ignorance. #palmonface

And how does Creationism hurt students? Where do we begin ;)

Money for nothin’ and chicks for free …or at least work with purpose when you do. Have you ever considered consolidating your talent like a team?

And where time is also money, read more here on managing that better.

So a crow and a heron were in this bar… …or perhaps taking a walk according to this beautiful Japanese woodblock print.

Corvid curiousity wasn’t just for the Japanese. Inuit lore is rich with stories.

Art meets music meets a mobile experience. Radiohead’s Thom Yorke announced a new app. Download links are embedded in Thom’s announcement.

Björk was the first to do this a few years ago. You can grab that here.

Valentine’s is for the dogs. Well, this is partly true. Lupercalia is said to be the original holiday before Christianity absorbed it.

But you can read this liturgical version of Valentine’s Day if you so desire.

Polar Vortex Polar Vortex has been the newest buzz word this winter season in America. This weather phenomena has been responsible for bringing a lot more snow and winter misery than usual to much of the States. But what exactly is the polar vortex and what caused it?

Whatever it is, it's having some impressive effects. A few weeks ago Niagara Falls froze.

As of Feb 5th, the Great Lakes were 77% covered with ice. Lake Superior was 92% frozen.

It's not just America that's receiving bad weather; Japan is getting in on the action too: Tokyo was recently hit by the biggest snowstorm to come that way in 45 years. Some photos of the event.

The Climate is Changing In case you are wondering, no the polar vortex doesn't mean climate change is a myth. Quite the opposite: Climate change likely is causing it.

There is no pause button on Global Warming.

Climate Change has been blamed for the poor conditions in Sochi for the Winter Olympics. This begs the question: Do the Winter Olympics have a place in a warmer world?

Is it really climate change that's causing some of the bad performances at this year's Olympics, or is it... AT-ATs?

What's in a Name Tomi Sugahara recently celebrated her 100th birthday. This by itself is not so strange in a country known for long life; what makes Tomi's birthday newsworthy is her unusal way of writing her name: using an old Japanese script known as hentaigana.

Japanese English is a thing where English words take on a unique Japanese meaning than in many cases is quite different from the original meaning. Here is an interesting survey about Japanese English that people didn't realize wasn't English.

Lois Loves Kissing Silver Age comic books are a hoot. Silly, ridiculous, fun, innocent--basically the complete opposite of the violent, oversexed comics of today. Do you remember that time Lois saved Superman by making out with a bunch of other heroes?

There's a lot more where that came from. Buzzfeed collected 21 of the strangest ones.

You know what, Superman is kind of a dick.

Why So Serious The Shining = Batman??

Gobbling Up Each Other At one time there were a lot of cable companies. Today, just a few. Now the largest of them, Comcast, wants to buy the second largest, Time Warner, for $45 billion.

The former FCC commissioner isn't happy.

On the plus side, the merger could be a good thing for net neutrality.

Swiping the Candy The mega-popular Candy Crush Saga borrowed heavily from a game which was released two years prior, CandySwipe. Citing potential customer confusing, Random, the maker of CandySwipe opposed the trademark King filed for Candy Crush. King's response? Buy a completely unrelated game that pre-dated CandySwipe and used the word candy and petition the court to have Ransom's trademark for CandySwipe cancelled.

Ransom is run by a single person who can't afford to fight King. Here is the founder's open letter to King.

The Star Wars Club What would you get if you crossed classic 80s teen movies with Star Wars? Star Wars 80s High School, of course.

We all know how The Empire Strikes Back should have ended, right?

Back when the Olympics Were Fun The 1932 Winter Olympics were the third Winter Olympic Games ever held. Looking at footage from them, it appears they were both more dangerous and more fun than the current games.

How have Olympians changed from 1924-now

The Science of Sleep Why do we sleep? Science gives us few answers on this matter. The truth is, we just don't know. But we do know a lot about what happens when we are asleep and how this affects us.

No, really, why do we sleep?? There are a few theories.

The modern idea of sleeping all night for 8 hours is just that, a modern idea. Your ancestors slept in two separate periods within a 12 hour range.

We Have the Technology A doctor in California claims he can change brown eyes to blue.

If his technique works as advertised, how long before everyone in South Korea has blue eyes? Plastic surgery is quite popular there.

I don't want surgery for blue eyes or a new face, but this...?

Are you a fan of Flappy Bird? If not, you are evidently one of the few who avoided it. At its peak, before the author removed it from the App Store, it was generating $50,000 a day. Here is the Flappy Bird story.

So if it was making so much money, why did the author remove it? Guilt over having made a game that was addictive.

Did you manage to download the game before it was removed from the App Store? You may be able to sell your phone for thousands of dollars.

Nipple fortune telling?? You may be unsurprised to hear this comes from Japan.

Justin Bieber gets a lot of hate. Judging from some of his recent behavior, that hatred may not be entirely undeserved. Blake Griffin of the LA Clippers recently took issue with some of his shenanigans, in a story that is sure to make all the Bieber-haters happy.

In other Bieber-hate news, the petition to have him deported gained over 100,000 signatures, meaning the White House has to respond.

How much would an iPhone have cost in 1991? Would you believe over 3 million dollars?

Microsoft finally has a new CEO.

Windows 8 was a disaster, among other things costing Steve Ballmer his job. Just what happened?

Last Tuesday was Foundation Day in Japan, an anniversary of the founding of Japan by the first emperor, the somewhat mythological Emperor Jimmu. It was the perfect excuse for nationalists to flood into Japan's war shrine, Yasukuni.

Goodbye, Shirley Temple, darling of the American Depression. Who over 40 hasn’t seen her wonderful smile?

Watch her here.

February 12, 2004, same-sex marriage passed in San Francisco. “No regrets,” reflects then-mayor Newsom Gavin in this interview.

“That’s a part of the deal,” says Justice Clarence Thomas on the slights people endure everyday. He was specifically claiming how “society is too racially sensitive”.

Tell that to Laurence Fishburne, I mean, Samuel L. Jackson.

Death penalty moratorium in Washington State. Citing an imperfect system, Gov. Inslee announced the suspension today.

Canada’s CBC has more in-depth here on the US and capital punishment.

Prodigies and IQ scores: can the mind of a prodigy be quantified? Some psychologists think so.

Based on some opinions, this girl should have already shown her brilliance.

Are video games addictive? They sure were for George Yao

Rugby fans tend to mock American Football, pointing out their sport also allows tackles but doesn't use wussy helmets. Truth is, the helmets of the NFL make the game much more dangerous than Rugby. And it is becoming a big problem.

The NFL has been criticized for not doing enough. Here's a history. What do you think?

One of the few things most Americans can agree on--maybe!--is that we hate the TSA, think the organization is a tremendous waste of money, and is worthless: little more than security theater; doing almost nothing to actually protect us. At worst, we fear they may be abusing their power and the porno scanners. Turns out we were right in all cases, according to a confession by an ex-TSA agent.

Going flying soon? You may want to peruse the Insider's TSA Dictionary.

By peruse I mean read carefully and in detail. Many people mistakingly believe this word means the opposite.

At least TSA allows you to take hard liquor on your flight.

Beloved deaf Japanese composer Mamoru Samuragochi has been compared to Beethoven in Japan. Turns out he isn't deaf and doesn't write his own music.

The Star Wars extended universe is massive. And Disney doesn't seem a fan. But maybe that's a good thing.

Free Star Wars icons? Hells yes!

Questionable comedy part 2: Yesterday we talked about Seinfeld, and today we have Blazing Saddles. It remains a comedy classic, but would it pass a political correctness test in 2014? Haha! Probably not! Pass the popcorn please.

Со́чи 2014…or SOCHI 2014: Branding and transliteration aside, is it really worth the cost? Check out this cost comparison that says we could’ve gone to Mars 20 times!

Despite the outrageous cost we were reassured by Russian officials the death toll will be low at the winter games.

Biblical literalists beware: Archeologists have found and reaearched information that shows the Bible was written later than assumed. Camel bones and Jerusalem could upend young earth scientists…aka creationists.

There’s always the discovery of an 800,000 year old human footprint on the beach to debunk 6,000-year old theories.

Speaking of “watermarks”, Aperture 3 can watermark your photos on export! Now nobody can steal your cat photos!

Interested in changing your camera system? The big change requires much consideration. Here are some excellent points.

Speaking of big changes, how about moving from your old PC to an iPad? Weigh the pros and cons.

If you’re a heavy iPhone user, or iOS user for that matter, improving your iPhone experience would improve your new PC-less suite, too.

If someone asks you what the healthiest breakfast drink is, you are likely to say orange juice. And you'd be wrong. Not only is modern orange juice not healthy, it is actually not much better than soda.

Speaking of soda, it isn't very good for you. You knew that, right? But you may not know just how bad it is.

Also on the health front: Do you let food "stand" for a while after nuking it in the microwave? If not, you should or you could get sick.

Do you know how to think critically?

An old Greek guy had a few ideas about critical thinking.

Every Apple reference made in The Simpsons and Futurama.

It's not just Apple that makes it into Simpsons--Google does too: Some pretty biting commentary on Google Glass.

A short and powerful (if a tad extreme) video illustrating the danger of not knowing how to read and being stupid. a bit different than the PSA videos I watched when I was a kid. (Warning: NSFW)

These are the kinds of PSA commercials I remember from my childhood A little tame compared to the Aussie mini film.

Seinfeld has coffee with Don Rickles. Even at 87, Rickles is sharp and hilarious.

Seinfeld recently took some heat over the fact that most of his guests on his web show are white. He didn't take the question well.