Comedians Solve World Hunger (Again)

Sarah Silverman makes a suggestion for solving world hunger. The NSFW should be a given, but if not, well, the language is NSFW.



Silverman, of course, isn't the first comedian, nor is she the funniest, to take aim at solving global hunger, here's the classic Sam Kinnison piece from the 80's.

2 Videos

Beautiful video of food prep at Alinea via Eat Me Daily:

Bill Streever was on NPR today talking about his new book Cold and talking about hibernating arctic ground squirrels. Full transcript isn't up yet but here's the gist:

"As [the squirrel] hibernates, he begins to cool off. In fact, he cools off to a temperature that's just below the freezing point of water, so around 30 degrees Fahrenheit," says Streever. "When he hits that temperature — when one would think this animal is, for all intent and purposes dead ... he spontaneously starts to shiver," and his temperature rises.

Of course, You Tube has you covered with this video of the process which is great on many, many levels:

Adoption as Development

The best commentary yet on the Jolie/Madonna strategy of "saving the world one tiny exotic baby at a time" comes from SNL:

If You Don't Know Now You Know

My brother is the only actual artist I know personally and he's already one of the hardest working guys around so maybe he doesn't need the advice but for those of you who are like myself and find your artistry expressed in the more mundane tasks of your day I'm going to add my recommendation to the plethora of others already out there and suggest you watch Elizabeth Gilbert's TED Talk.  Gilbert's writing isn't my particular taste but the good Judge John Hodgman, her friend and fellow TED attendee, nailed it as to why this particular talk is so effective (and interesting to me in particular).:

BUT WHILE SHE IS ADORED in this video, and I adore her as well, the magical thing you may not be able to get through this embedded video is how skeptical the audience initially was of her, and how masterfully she won over this bunch of jaded billionaire/genius TEDTOPIANS through simple, good storytelling.

PS - Come to think of it, David, you should watch this one too.

Gates @ TED

Video for the much talked about Gates presentation at TED is now available.  I can't help but like the guy and even if you don't agree with his methodology you've got to respect his passion and the considerable footprint he has in the development world.

I also noticed via the TED blog that Hans Rosling presented again this year and it sounds like he utilized Gapminder's recently updated HIV/AIDS data sets to do so, I love his presentations so I'll be keeping an eye out for it and hopefully he swallows another sword. 

Obama Backlash?

Years from now when historians look back at the Obama presidency and seek to determine precisely when the backlash began they will point to two historical artifacts.

This song (opens popup player - lyrics are here for those with stout hearts but weak constitutions) by Garrison Keillor from this weekend's A Prairie Home Companion and this video by a parade of . . . . luminaries(?).  (Oh, I strongly encourage you - do not listen or watch either of these.  No, I'm serious.  They.  Are.  Awful.) 

Marbury has the take down.  

Like many, I have been worried about the state of political satire and comedy under an Obama presidency, but apparently his supporters have all co-conspired to fill in the gap - taking one for the team if nothing else, I suppose.

The Uncharted Zone

American Idol premiered tonight which meant that my wife and I parted ways at 8:00.  It's not that I'm above watching American Idol, sociologically it's probably the only interesting reality show left on the air, but I don't watch much TV that's not animated and I have an over developed sense of empathy that makes it very uncomfortable for me to watch people publicly humiliate themselves and if by some chance you haven't seen the show, that's it in a nutshell.  

Any who, as usual when left to my own devices I eventually got around to You Tube and discovered The Uncharted Zone.  It is, by all accounts, both "The Most Important Music Television Show Along The Gulf Coast" and "The Gulf Coast Leader In Music Video Production," offering such services as:

Can follow a story line with actors and/or the artist playing parts.
Can be cool scenes inserted around the song
Can be models looking good throughout the Music Video
Can be different angles of the artist performing

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding and they have quite a feast on their You Tube channel, but might I suggest this sampler counting down their top ten videos of 2008: 

All of this raises three mildly serious questions in my mind.  Are all public access television shows doing this kind of internet crossover?  Isn't You Tube just public access television writ large?  How many American Idol contestants will we see on future UZ top tens?

So, there's this . . . .

An artifact from a seemingly foreign land.  (via)

Oh, if you're wondering, You Tube's first "related video" for this little gem is entitled "Retarded Cats."  Which I also find hilarious.  

I could make a pretty good case for the idea that You Tube is single handedly keeping us as a nation out of a full blown depression by virtue of its ability to cumulatively distract us all long enough so that we wander back from the edge.  God bless those good folks, bless them every one.

Greatest Rickroll Ever?

We had the Macy's parade on in the background sans volume as we were busy in the kitchen today and thus missed the Cartoon Network rickroll the parade and by extension the world (too much?):

It's a strange world out there folks.  (via Waxy)

The Nicholas Brothers

I caught a couple of minutes of the Nicholas Brothers on a PBS feature this weekend and finally remembered to track down some YouTube video*.  This number from Stormy Weather was famously (apparently) described by Fred Astaire as the greatest musical sequence ever filmed, Fred's word carries a bit more weight than mine here but I'll just say that if it was filmed today you would think it was CGI:  

There is something, however, in this clip of them when they were kids which I like even more: 

Oh yeah, here with Michael Jackson:

*Yes, my wife was out of town.

Hodgman

I'm dragging my wife along to see John Hodgman at a book reading tomorrow.  Unfortunately neither his ukulele nor Jonathan Coulton are expected to make an appearance.  

JT Bringin' Turkey Back

This one man synopsis of Justin Timberlake's cancelled SNL hosting gig is at least 40% more entertaining than the actual show would have been:

The Pro-Hole Agenda

Food Security as Bento

Like seemingly everything the Japanese produce, this PSA on food security by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries comes out concise, compact, well designed, and colorful.  In a short four minutes of information packed visual design they touch on issues of food security, country of origin labeling, rural redevelopment, environmental concerns, and global connectivity, just to name a few.  As Waxy mentioned, it would be great to see a similar PSA adapted to the US context.

 

High resolution version here at the Ministry website.

Some Videos

Both from Jesse Thorn.  

And rappers apparently heart animation at the moment.

Scroll, Scroll, Scroll

Nice interview with Pete Seeger in Pitchfork.  This bit is great:

Seeger: I've been lucky to have good health most of my life. Except my brain is goin' now. I can't remember names. I confess I've never heard of Pitchfork. Is it sold in music stores?

Pitchfork: No, it's on the internet.

Seeger: An internet magazine! So you don't have to cut down trees. I'll be damned. I'm living in the past.

I confess to having a soft spot for "If I Had a Hammer."

The Penguin Swiftboats Batman*

* Alternate Title: What the Next 30 Days Will Sound Like

VP Debate Auto-tuned

Bipartisan?  Check.

Auto-tune?  Check.

Genius?  Double check.

(via Waxy)

Sheeran Letterman Video

Here's the video of WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran on Letterman last night for those who missed it.

"The road to the White House runs right through me."

Never leave Letterman hangin'.