Ryan Baker //
(1) How would you have made a light socket better? (via MacUser)
(2) 63 billion soldiers killed since November in Activision's "Call of Duty: Black Ops" (via News.com.au)(3) The New Yorker profiles Guillermo del Toro (via The New Yorker)(4) NBC Universal study claims a quarter of global Internet traffic used for piracy (via PaidContent.org)(5) The classic Kids in the Hall sketch "The Dr. Seuss Bible" (via YouTube)(1) Just how exactly did the Egyptian government go about shutting down the country's Internet? (via GigaOM)
(2) Thousands of protesters in Cairo force police to retreat along bridge (via LiveLeak)(3) "Made in America" - Jamestown-based company manufactures tear gas used by Egyptian state security forces (via The Raw Story)(4) Average movie ticket price in the U.S. reached all-time annual high in 2010 (via The Los Angeles Times)(5) Gorgeous cockpit-view video of a plane landing at LAX at dusk (via YouTube)German reggae/hip-hop musician Peter Fox's music video came to me via a friend, and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. You can check out a lower-quality version with English subtitles here, but an all-monkey orchestra is great in any language.
Singer Dinah Washington's 1960 song was combined with composer Max Richter's orchestral piece "On the Nature of Daylight" to create this haunting, bittersweet song, featured on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island."
(1) The latest victim of downsizing? Girl Scout Cookies, now down to only six flavors (via The Wall Street Journal)
(2) Info on St. Louis' "VINCENTENNIAL," celebrating the 100th birthday of city native Vincent Price (via We Are Movie Geeks and Facebook)(3) Creator of Jelly Belly jellybeans introduces gummi human heart, candy urine, candy saliva, candy vomit (via AOL News)(4) Fecal transplants - 'nuff said (via Slate)(5) From the architect of Symphony of Science, here's philosopher Alan Watts on "The Real You" (via YouTube)Originally titled "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land," this 8-minute Disney short received the 1943 Oscar for Best Animated Short. Cartoons of the time were regularly harnessed as propaganda pieces, but this one is particularly noteworthy in lacking the racist caricatures common amongst its contemporaneous brethren.
Okay, well, the poster art manages to tell you nothing about the film while being simultaneously uncompelling, but trust me - watch the trailer:
An atmospheric combination of political thriller and fairy tale, this seems a bit of a departure for director Joe Wright, whose previous films were adaptations of lauded novels ("Pride and Prejudice," "Atonement" and "The Soloist"). The ferocious young heroine does, however, suggest a unique spin for Wright's next project, a live-action adaptation of "The Little Mermaid" supposedly more true to the original Hans Christian Anderson tale than that of Disney's.
Perhaps most intriguing, especially in the wake of the absolute awesomeness of Daft Punk's electronic-ambient soundtrack for "Tron: Legacy" and Trent Reznor's work for "The Social Network," is the fact that the film is scored by the Chemical Brothers, fresh off contributions to the soundtrack for Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan."Focus Features' official site for the film is pretty threadbare, but hopefully we'll wise up and add content over the course of the coming months.And just in case you're a bit rusty on the Chemical Brothers, here's the music video for their song "Let Forever Be."(1) This is what a galaxy 13.2 billion light years away from Earth looks like (via Discover)
(2) The Germans, evidently unaware of something called "SkyNet," build indestructible, fully-functioning robot hand (via Geekologie)(3) Co-Director of Tufts University's Center for Cognitive Studies answers the question "what should replace religion?" (via The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science)(4) French beatboxer does the whole history of hip-hop in 4 minutes (via YouTube)(5) Court bans Dungeons & Dragons from prisons, says game "mimics the organization of a gang" (via Fox News)(1) Class action lawsuit filed against Taco Bell over ingredient "seasoned ground beef," which it turns out is less than 35% beef (via CNN Eatocracy and Beasley Allen Law Firm)
(2) Your fireplace is killing you (via The New York Times)(3) What drug addiction and working out have in common (via Slate)(4) How to do things faster - a must-watch (via YouTube)(5) The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote continue their eternal struggle in the 21st century in Warner Bros.' new 3D, CGI-animated short "Coyote Falls" (via Vimeo)