You are browsing the archives of 2009 April.

We’re kind of obsessive animation buffs, and as we constantly scour design and art blogs we find some truly stunning works that are slowly killing our computers and filling our archives. Nonetheless, we’re dedicating another Thursday’s 3 Cool Videos post to prettily animated shorts with especially inventive or avant-garde aesthetics. We hope you enjoy these [...]

It’s funny, we’re always disappointed to learn that a character we’ve come to love isn’t actually as original and unique as we thought. Like our uncle Ted, who we thought was just the sweetest guy, but turned out to be a documentary filmmaker making a life-long project about the decline of the modern family. That’s [...]

On this date some years ago, research tells us, the first modern submarine was completed. Not surprisingly, it was the result of a major military research and development project, and a virtually limitless budget. What about the little guys, though? What about the toolshed handymen and wannabe mermaids (to indulge all manner of gendered stereotypes) [...]

It’s been a little while since we invited you, dear readers, to bliss out with us in front of some stunning nature photography. We’re feeling a little hippie-dippy today, though, so we suggest you check out Environmental Graffiti’s compilation of 15 Phenomenal Images of the Aurora Australis. Or, if you’re lazy like us, you can [...]

One of our absolute all-time favorite Onion articles was this hilarious piece about an ill-conceived McDonald’s mascot named the Hammurderer, who killed the restaurant’s other mascots and stole their burgers to satisfy his cravings. Certainly no real restaurant promotion has ever failed so disastrously, but several featured in mental_floss’s listicle of 7 Food Promotions Gone [...]

As we sit in our office, staring blankly out the window at the sunny landscape passing us by, we’re feeling a little like inmates. Appropriately, then, we’re trying to remember how some of our favorite action stars escaped in their prison break movies. Future of Classic offers a helping hand with their listicle of The [...]

If you know us (or if you’ve visited our office), you’re familiar with our addiction to sweet, sweet cereal. Cereal boxes are stacked high on the shelves like so many tomes of classic literature, and piles of flakes, puffs and Os are strewn throughout the place. Our most prized belongings, the rare books collection of [...]

Today, we’re told, is the anniversary of the zipper (the clothing technology, not the amusement park ride), though we weren’t able to find any evidence to back this claim up.In fact, the original zipper was patented on November 7, 1891, so our zipper listicle will have to wait a few months.
Not to worry, though, because [...]

We’ve been planning to buy a car for years now, but every time we’re about to pick a make and model we get really freaked out by what seems the much more important decision: what kind of license plate to get. Every state has dozens, and even then one could easily travel to a neighboring [...]

This listicle might be a moot point what with that perpetual cameo show called 30 Rock, but Best Week Ever chronicles some historic (and obscure) moments in TV comedy crossover synergy with its listicle of The Top 10 Sitcom Cameos Made by Other Sitcom Characters. It’s the formula every rap artist still uses to get [...]

Do you remember that episode of The Simpsons where Lisa has her future told at a country fair, and the whole show is about her impending marriage to an uptight Brit a dozen or so years in the future? Well, at one point they land in London (whose Big Ben clocktower is now digital), and [...]

We’ve come a long way from the days when the only produce we took the time to buy organic was rasberries. Still, you can’t pay for organic fruit and veg with listicles (one day!), so every trip to the grocery store culminates in a heated town hall-like meeting where every member on the produce aisle [...]

Amidst all the terror in the face of the barely advancing tide of occasionally deadly swine flu, few have asked what’s happening with the pigs themselves. Slate has the answers, though, and the pigs appear to be doing just fine, not freaking out like us silly humans. That’s great news, too, because now we don’t [...]

As we all entertain our personal and cultural end-life scenarios – swine flu-related or otherwise – it’s worth noting the various ways this possibility has been turned into blockbuster entertainment, and what it might mean for post-apocalypse civilization. To lead us on this hypothetical journey into an uncertain future, io9 offers a grim but essential [...]

A fun story about knock-off cell phones in China caught our eye in the New York Times yesterday. The article described a thriving micro-industry in which expensive models are reproduced locally and cheaply, then sold for as low as $20 (though with a little haggling you could probably get them down to $12). This got [...]

It’s always funny to read about the pop production processes that go into creating a hit track, and realizing that for the most part record labels have no idea what they’re doing. As a friend working for a major label once put it, “we just wait to see what sells and then try to copy [...]

It must be tough getting arrested and being stuck in a room full of cops with really aggressive and graphic tattoos. Unless, of course, you’re blindingly drunk and/or high, in which case you’d probably think it’s hilarious. That brings us to one of Oddee’s recent listicles, which chronicles some especially photogenic instances of this under-reported [...]

Funny thing about movies as obnoxiously self-serious and bad as 300: they lend themselves very easily to good old YouTube remixing. Case in point, Unreality’s listicle of 10 300 Trailer Mashups, which features some pretty daring parings (D2: Mighty Ducks, A Bug’s Life, Hook, Mean Girls), but it’s the old stand-bys that work the best [...]