Al Jazeera meets The Daily Show

On December 17, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, humour, IslamLeave a comment

I liked it almost as much as Huffington.

What an inspired, genius move on the part of the underexposed and under-carried Al Jazeera English network: Offer yourself up with abandon to “The Daily Show” for a long, meaty, hilarious, humanizing clip. Outstanding.

Last night, crack correspondent Samantha Bee (and most senior correspondent, I might add) did a long segment on the new network which culminated in Bee’s hilarious attempt to re-make the network in a manner appealing to Americans (Bee: “Whoa. News hour?”).

The segment drove home the point that Al Jazeera is actually serious about serious news, with a pared-down no-nonsense style heavy on actual news content while at the same time humanizing the network by highlighting its employees, and the mission, which has not been overly popular, to say the least (and, in fairness, Al Jazeera is sort of associated with videos from terrorists who take credit for atrocities and shout about the glories of holy slaughter of American infidels, which sort of works against domestic viewer goodwill).

Anchors Dave Marash and Ghida Fakhry are particularly excellent sports. It’s a brilliant, hilarious segment, and is probably the best commercial Al Jazeera could have in this country. An amazing PR coup.

Eat The Press | Al Jazeera’s Brilliant PR Move: Submitting To The Will Of “The Daily Show” | The Huffington Post – video

JibJab – Year in Review – funny

On December 13, 2006 By Rick McIn government, humourLeave a comment

Wow. The quality of JibJab cartoons is excellent.

“The Web gives us the creative freedom to make videos we think are funny without having to worry about what a studio executive is going to think,” said Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, co-founders of JibJab, in a statement sent to TechCrunch on Monday. “We are in the midst of a media revolution where mega-media conglomerates are losing their grip on the audience and new brands like JibJab are being born. It’s a very exciting time to be creative entrepreneurs.”

Caroling For Pop Culture: Sing Along With “Nuckin’ Futs” – TechCrunch

Click PLAY or watch it on JibJab.com.

Nuckin’ Futs – The JibJab Year in Review | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab

the year of truthiness

On December 13, 2006 By Rick McIn government, humourLeave a comment

Merriam-Webster gets hip. Announces “truthiness” the word of the year.

Truthiness (no need for quotation marks anymore; it’s a word now) is perfect for the times in every way. It is a fake word invented by a fake person, Stephen Colbert, the comedian whose character, Stephen Colbert, parodies cable news talk shows on his own cable show, “The Colbert Report.” …

Webster’s has now sanctioned truthiness with two definitions:

“truth that comes from the gut, not books”, and

“the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts of facts known to be true.”

At the end of his truthiness skit, Colbert says, “I know some of you may not trust your gut, yet. But, with my help, you will. The truthiness is, anyone can read the news to you. I promise to feel the news ‘at’ you.”

The Truth Of Truthiness, Taking Comedy Seriously Is Dumb, A Perfect Job For CBS’ Dick Meyer – CBS News

TV – Top Gear – BBC

On December 12, 2006 By Rick McIn humour, product endorsements, TVLeave a comment

On the way up to skiing last weekend, George played us a 1hr TV show where comedians got to drive (and make fun of) high performance vehicles. It’s unscripted, light hearted, great!

Top Gear is an Emmy Award and BAFTA winning BBC television series about motor vehicles particularly cars. The programme is estimated to have over 350 million viewers worldwide …

Top Gear is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. …

official website

Click PLAY to see the opening credits, or see them on YouTube.

beer advertising meets Lord of the Rings

On December 10, 2006 By Rick McIn humourLeave a comment

You’ve GOT to click PLAY! (Or watch this hilarious ad on YouTube.)

how to decide who to marry

On December 8, 2006 By Rick McIn humourLeave a comment

kids say the darndest thngs

(1) You got to find somebody who likes the same stuff. Like, if you like sports, she should like it that you like sports, and she should keep the chips and dip coming.
— Alan, age 10

(2) No person really decides before they grow up who they’re going to marry. God decides it all way before, and you get to find out later who you’re stuck with.
— Kristen, age 10

WHAT IS THE RIGHT AGE TO GET MARRIED?

(1) Twenty-three is the best age because you know the person FOREVER by then.
— Camille, age 10

(2) No age is good to get married at. You got to be a fool to get married.
– Freddie, age 6

HOW CAN A STRANGER TELL IF TWO PEOPLE ARE MARRIED?

(1) You might have to guess, based on whether they are yelling at the same kids.
— Derrick, age 8

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR MOM AND DAD HAVE IN COMMON?

(1) Both don’t want any more kids.
— Lori, age 8

WHAT DO MOST PEOPLE DO ON A DATE?

(1) Dates are for having fun, and people should use them to get to know each other. Even boys have something to say if you listen long enough.
— Lynnette, age 8

(2) On the first date, they just tell each other lies and that usually gets them interested enough to go for a second date.
— Martin, age 10

WHAT WOULD YOU DO ON A FIRST DATE THAT WAS TURNING SOUR?

(1) I’d run home and play dead. The next day I would call all the newspapers and make sure they wrote about me in all the dead columns.
— Craig, age 9

WHEN IS IT OKAY TO KISS SOMEONE?

(1) When they’re rich.
— Pam, age 7

(2) The law says you have to be eighteen, so I wouldn’t want to mess with that.
– – Curt, age 7

IS IT BETTER TO BE SINGLE OR MARRIED?

(1) I don’t know which is better, but I’ll tell you one thing. I’m never going to have sex with my wife. I don’t want to be all grossed out.
– Theodore, age 8

(2 ) It’s better for girls to be single but not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them.
— Anita, age 9

HOW WOULD THE WORLD BE DIFFERENT IF PEOPLE DIDN’T GET MARRIED?

(1 ) There sure would be a lot of kids to explain, wouldn’t there?
— Kelvin, age 8

And the #1 Favorite is……..

HOW WOULD YOU MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

(1 ) Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.
— Ricky, age 10

(Thanks Dave.)

Day of the Ninja – Dec. 5th

On December 5, 2006 By Rick McIn humourLeave a comment

It’s here.

Today is the day we can all be Ninjas.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

DRM (digital rights management) is doomed

On December 4, 2006 By Rick McIn economics, humourLeave a comment

The most influential pundit on the internet is Michael Arrington.

He is all about the money.

And when Michael Arrington says that DRM is dying, companies had better start looking for the next strategy of protecting their market share. Frustrating customers is the best way of losing them to some product without DRM.

“… the age of DRM is coming to an end. Startups that embrace the DRM world are going to have a very hard time finding success.”

Michael Arrington

I’ll go further.

I’m just about to switch from watching video on iTunes (free, proprietary software from Apple) to Democracy (free, non-proprietary, open source software). Apple’s huge lead in video distribution technology has already been surpassed by people who worked on Democracy for fun, part-time.

Long term I can’t see how commercial proprietary software can compete with open source. The inefficiencies inherent in any company stifle progress enough not to be able to stay ahead of an open source competitor which is available for FREE.

For another example, Microsoft Internet Explorer will continue to lose market share to open source Firefox in the browser market.

Even Google, who got big by copying principles of the open source movement, is doomed long-term.

Looking forward to see if I’m right.

I want to join Lovely

On December 2, 2006 By Rick McIn government, humourLeave a comment

The Kingdom of Lovely (official website) is a micronation which claims the flat of its creator and ruler King Danny as its domain.

… In July 2006 Lovely had 421 citizens registered on its website, although everyone who signs up to view the forum is (knowingly) included as a citizen.

The Latin motto is Die dulci freure (sic – the correct Latin is fruere), meaning “Have a nice day”.

Lovely (micronation) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

King Danny petitioning the U.N.