Today is the birthday of famed children’s television host Fred Rogers, also known as Mr. Rogers. I just learned that his middle name was actually McFeely (according to Wikipedia and Google’s knowledge graph).
Now, here’s possibly the most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. Warning: you will be disturbed.
Oh, what you find on YouTube.
With the NCAA Tournament fast approaching, people are beginning to fill out their brackets with the hopes of stunning their office buddies with the perfect pick of all 63 games.
Too bad it’s simply not going to happen for you. Sorry, man.
DePaul professor Jeff Bergen is here to give to a clear, concise explanation on why you’ll never fill out a perfect bracket. And not just you – nobody is likely to fill out a perfect bracket. There are simply too many possible outcomes. And you’re probably basing your decisions on which mascot would win in a fight anyway. Or team colors. Don’t lie, we know how you pick brackets.
Reddit, known for its uncanny ability to drudge up content from the depths of the internet and make it trend, is trying its hand at a little bit of original programming in the way of a new series based on a popular subreddit.
The series, Explain Like I’m Five, is based upon the subreddit of the same name which sees users posts questions on complex topics in the hopes that an expert will be able to explain it to them in the simplest terms.
The series, which is funded by YouTube, may not signal Reddit’s head-first plunge into the world of original programming, but it does show that Reddit’s top brass knows that there is marketability in user-generated content, with a little bit of branding.
“For us, it’s more about encouraging the Reddit community and bigger community of producers, filmmakers and animators out there to create content, video, web series, shows…based on Reddit content,” Reddit’s Erik Martin told The Hollywood Reporter.
The ELIF series stars Michael Kayne and Langan Kingsley and is produced by former College Humor content director Jared Neumark.
Reddit has posted three videos to their YouTube channel, and they are all funny and charming. The three videos explore the topics of “The Volatility of the Stock Market,” “The Crisis in Syria,” and “Existentialism and Friedrich Nietzsche.”
Google has released its latest Webmaster Help video. This time, Matt Cutts discusses single-page sites, and how Google handles them. Specifically, he responds to the following user-submitted question:
What does Google think of single-page websites? They are becoming more complex and there are some great websites using only a single page (+lots of CSS and JavaScript) bringing the same user experience as a regular website with many subpages.
“Google has gotten better at handling javascript, and a lot of the time, if you’re doing some strange or unusual javascript interaction, or pinning some part of the page, or something like that, or having things fold in or fold out, we’re pretty good at being able to process that,” says Cutts. “In general, I would run a test first. I wouldn’t bet your SEO legacy on this one single page working well if the javascript or CSS is really obscure or maybe you’ve forgotten and blocked that out in robots.txt. But if you run the test, and you’re pretty happy with it, I don’t necessarily see a problem with that.”
“It’s a different convention,” he continues. “Sometimes it works. Maybe you get better conversions, maybe you don’t. It’s going to depend on what your particular area is, what the topic is, what kind of layout you come out with…but if it works for you, and for users to have that all on one page, for the most part, it should work for Google as well.”
On a semi-related topic, here’s what Cutts had to say about a year ago about blocking Google from javascript and CSS. Here, he talks about Google getting better at handling javascript.
All it takes is a little bit of editing and the cast of Mad Men come alive to discuss…
March Madness of course! Check on Don, Betty, Pete, Peggy, Roger, and Bert discuss their pool, brackets, and all the upsets. Both March Madness and Mad Men are going to be gracing your TV screens soon, so why not celebrate the two together?
[via OfficialComedy]
What do you do if you get caught mining for gold at a nationally televised NBA game?
You own it, that’s what.
[via reddit]
Is your maternal grandfather a fairly good indicator of whether or not you’re going to be bald? Yeah, kind of. But he’s not the only thing you should worry about. Sure, there are some “nurture” elements to hair loss, but a lot of it is “nature,” and therefore you’re screwed, bro.
This terrifying first-person look at a climbing mishap is your nope, nope, and triple nope of the day. Amazingly, the climber is moving at the end of this 100-ft.+ fall.
Not unlike the world created by George R.R. Martin in his series of books now being turned into the HBO series Game of Thrones, high school is a rough place full of evil people trying to get ahead at the expense of their fellow man (and even their closest friends). That’s why a Game of Thrones-set-in-high school short makes so much sense.
If you liked this episode, you’re in luck. The creators say that the next one will drop on March 17th.
Oh, and I’m sure you know this date like the back of your hand, but Game of Thrones Season 3 premieres on HBO March 31st.
Old Spice has just introduced their new chief director of marketing to the world, and he’s a wolfdog. This is going to go places, I can feel it.
“Sometimes you gotta eat people, America. That’s how business works.”
YouTube, the leader in online video, is not without its fair share of serious competition coming from the likes of Vimeo, Hulu, and more. Now, it appears that its latest rival may come from someone who was once very close to the service.
In fact, the challenge may come from one of its co-founders. Speaking over the weekend at a Q&A session with Digg’s Kevin Rose, YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley tipped that he was working on a new sort of video site – one more focused on creators and collaboration.
“I wish [SXSW] was a month later because I could unveil the new product,” said Hurley in a recent interview. He said that the new service will be “primarily video-based…and gives flexibility for people to work together and create content.”
Hurley made sure to say that he wasn’t looking to kill YouTube and that “there’s always going to be a place for YouTube.” His new site will simply focus on being a “platform better suited for collaboration.”
Hurley is the co-founder and former CEO of YouTube. IN 2006, he and Steve Chen sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion. He stepped down as CEO in 2010.
[AdWeek]
Best living comedian and creator of the brilliant show Louie, Louis C.K., has a new special debuting on HBO next month. HBO just released the first promo for it, and it’s dramatic as hell.
Oh My God premieres on April 13th at 10 pm EST.
So, make sure you tune in. Also pie:
HBO special airs April 13.Here’s a thing youtube.com/watch?v=KEtAfA…. Also new show in baltimore louisck.com Also pie.
— Louis C.K. (@louisck) March 8, 2013
“Mother, why do I have to die?’
“Well, Timmy, it’s because our cells stop replicating. And so that we’re not riddled with cancer by the age of two. Oh, and because I passed it down to you and you’re a ticking timebomb. Any more questions?”
Ever wondered whether AC or DC hurts more? Thankfully, this guy decided to do the legwork so you don’t have to. Unless you really want to – but I can’t condone that. Ok, fine. Go lick a battery you masochist. That’s all I can suggest.
The first YouTube mashup that successfully and hilariously reframed a classic film/TV show to fit a different style that I remember seeing was called “Shining,” and it used clever editing and a certain Peter Gabriel song to make the classic horror film look like a family comedy.
Ever since, I’ve loved this sort of thing. With the right music and editing, you can transform any piece of media into something completely different.
Take for instance this new trailer for Breaking Bad that re-imagines it as a mid-90s sitcom. It’s wonderful.
Breaking Bad has a long and storied history of being mashed up. For more, you could check out Pinkman, the Seinfeld mashup. Or maybe this amazing mashup with an old Mentos ad.
[via YouTube]
No, the internet couldn’t just leave it alone. Two minutes of goats yelling like humans wasn’t enough. Inserting a screaming goat into that one Taylor Swift song, and subsequently every other song under the sun also wasn’t enough.
Now, we have humans yelling like goats yelling like humans.
God, what is my life?
If I had a toddler, I would hope that I would have the courage to troll it this hard.
“Could you make me nachos? / Well, you’re in a bad mood / I got cramps.”
And with that little back and forth begins the Amazing Spider-Man saga you didn’t see in theaters.
According to one Australian mining outfit, doing the Harlem Shake on the job is a fireable offense.
ABC News is reporting that at least 15 miners at the Agnew Gold mine in Western Australia were canned after posting their own version of the Harlem Shake to YouTube. The 15 fired miners include participants in the video as well as those who simply watched it take place.
According to Barminco, the company that runs the mine, the Harlem Shake constituted at safety hazard and did not represent the company’s “core values of safety, integrity and excellence.”
You can watch the totally innocuous underground Harlem Shake below and decide if you think it deserved this kind of response:
Not only were the miners fired from their current gig, but Barminco also banned the workers from being “subcontracted by Barminco at any site domestically and globally.”
All of this for 30 seconds of (admittedly ridiculous) fun.
If you think that the firing was a little over the top, you can express your support for the miners on the Reinstate the sacked WA Harlem Shake Miners Facebook page.