Desperate for new Flight of the Conchords material? Yeah, me too. The above video kind of fits the bill, as it's a new video for an old song, "Ladies of the World," featuring Jemaine in a mustache, some incredibly sweet roller skating moves and outfits, and plenty of ladies. Hopefully it'll last us 'til whenever the second season starts.
Let's get the facts of this thing out of the way. Here's it all neatly summed up by Wired's GeekDad:
Last year, J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers filed a lawsuit against RDR books seeking to block the release of The Harry Potter Lexicon, the print version of a fan-created online encyclopedia helmed by school librarian Steve Vander Ark. While RDR has assembled a defense team including Stanford Law’s Fair Use Project to fight the suit, Vander Ark, who apears to have aroused the ire of much of the vocal fan community, has recently received a vote of support from a seemingly unlikely ally.Author Orson Scott Card blasted Rowling in Greensboro’s news and opinion weekly The Rhinoceros Times saying:
"Can you believe that J.K. Rowling is suing a small publisher because she claims their 10,000-copy edition of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a book about Rowling's hugely successful novel series, is just a "rearrangement" of her own material.
Rowling "feels like her words were stolen," said lawyer Dan Shallman.
Well, heck, I feel like the plot of my novel Ender's Game was stolen by J.K. Rowling.
A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader. He trains other kids in unauthorized extra sessions, which enrages his enemies, who attack him with the intention of killing him; but he is protected by his loyal, brilliant friends and gains strength from the love of some of his family members. He is given special guidance by an older man of legendary accomplishments who previously kept the enemy at bay. He goes on to become the crucial figure in a struggle against an unseen enemy who threatens the whole world."
I fully believe Rowling is being a bitch by stopping the Potter Lexicon; there's no reason to stop someone from publishing what is more or less a big Harry Potter fan book other than money, and Rowling already has a jillion dollars. So not cool. But for Card to call her out for copying Ender's Game? Also a dick move.
Hey, Orson—"a young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities"—that plot has been used with minor tweaks from the days of King Arthur (best exemplified in The Once and Future King) and Cinderella. It's pretty much the based for the Lord of the Rings, Eddings' Belgariad and about a zillion other fantasy stories, and your whole little diatribe is nearly a perfect match for Mobile Suit Gundam (minus the experienced older man), which came out in 1979. Oh, and a little movie called Star Wars seems a bit close to your description as well.
I fully think Ender's Game is a better book than Harry Potter, but Card did not create the "special child" in fantasy literature—but calling out Rowling for being unoriginal and citing a mess of plot devices used for centuries as your own? That makes you an ass.
Why does this bra need solar power? To power that electronic billboard, of course, which allows the wearer to create message of her (or his, I guess) own making. The solar power and green color are supposed to promote environmental awareness, as are the reusable plastic cups stored on the bra's cups, which will usefully lessen the need for plastic bottles and disposable cups for any girl willing to dig down her blouse when a beverage is presented. I have to admit, I'm genuinely impressed by this bra, as I would have totally assumed Japan's environmental awareness bar would have stopped at being green and being placed on the Japanese girl with the largest rack. (Via Pink Tentacle)
Holy smokes! Hasbro just sent out a press releases saying they've gotten the rights to all the Sunbow-produced cartoons based on their properties, which totals more than 2000 episodes, 30 properties (including, somehow Mr. Potato Head and Connect Four—was there ever a Connect Four cartoon? Madness!) and most importantly, the original G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons.
If I have to spell out why this is awesome, it's because this almost certainly means that Hasbro will be releasing the G.I. Joe and Transformers cartoons on DVD in some pretty nice sets in the near future; I don't think it's any surprise that this acquisition was made during G.I. Joe's 25th anniversary and just before Transformers' 25th anniversary next year. They'll almost certainly be better than the inredibly-hard-to-find and now out-of-print ones Rhino did. You can read the press release here, but unless you're a fan of the My Little Pony cartoon, I think I got all the good stuff.
I'm 99% certain that this incredibly awesome piece of Star Wars merchandise is supposed to be an R2-D2 ice bucket sold with a Han Solo in Carbonite ice cube tray accessory. But I would gladly pay $33 just for a Han Solo in Carbonite ice cube tray, and the R2-D2 ice bucket would be a lovely freebie. Right now it's only available for order in the UK here, but surely Jesus wouldn't be so cruel as to deny us Americans the chance to own one of the greatest Star Wars products of all time. Right?
...right? (Via Gizmodo and Green Head)
When I saw Iron Man on opening night, my desire to buy an Iron Man action figure was so great I immediately drove to Wal-Mart to pick one up. Unfortunately, every other man-child (and regular children whose moms let them see PG-13 movies) had had the same idea, so all that was left was the crappy Tony Stark transformation figure, which looks nothing like Robert Downey Jr. I've been searching for a regular Iron Man figure for nearly two weeks now, and that stupid Stark figure is always the only one left.
Suffice to say, Hasbro's Iron Man figures are doing pretty well, and news of a second wave should be no surprise. Since they're weren't any other armors in the film, where has Hasbro turned? The comics. Above you see Captain America Armor Iron Man, who appeared on the cover of the What If? Civil War. I would love to make fun of the fact that's it's a movie figure with a comic theme, or it's a goofy, pandering idea, but frankly it's so awesome I just want to buy it. Well played, Hasbro. See the other two figures after the jump.
When you think of unchecked libidos in space, chances are you think of one Captain James T. Kirk and the original flavor of Star Trek. Well, this YouTube video makes a very convincing case that the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation was just as depraved and horny as Kirk. Enjoy. (Via Milk and Cookies)
By Jackson Alpern
The comedy relief character—it’s a concept at least as old as Shakespeare…possibly older, depending on how funny you find Oedipus banging his mother. But its purpose as a storytelling device is obvious—to take a little bit of the tension out of a really serious or scary story so the audience doesn’t get too overwhelmed or desensitized.
When it works well you get characters like Hudson in Aliens or Hiro on Heroes—genuinely funny and relatable characters who add to the story and nearly steal the show from the main characters. When it doesn’t work well, you end up with an unfunny, obnoxious drain on the audience’s patience that has them checking their watches every time he’s on-screen. And it almost never works well.
Nine times out of 10 these characters are simply annoying as all shit, and below you’ll find 10 of the most annoying to ever look into a camera and plead to the audience, “Laugh, you bastards!” And Jar-Jar isn’t #1! Now you want to know who is, don’t you…?
Valued and ruggedly good-looking TR reader Highway Gimp sent me this gem, which I can't believe I haven't seen before. A Star Wars anti-smoking ad makes sense, but to have R2-D2—the most kid-friendly character in the original trilogy and a goddamn robot, it might be noted—be the one who smokes? Pure bliss. The fact that Artoo takes a moment to argue the benefits of smoking with Threepio? Also awesome. But the delightful icing on the cake of pure madness which is this commercial is the final moment, where a scared, sad C-3PO begs for Artoo to confirm his nonexistent humanity, only to get one awkward beep. Just fabulous.
I'm really sorry to run two dick-centered headlines in a row, but Sony has left me no choice by creating the most disturbing advertisement for anything ever. You can see the safe portion of the PlayStation 3 ad above, and please rest assured what's below is disturbing beyond words, even if those words are HE HAS A THUMB FOR PENIS. Jesus, it's small and weird looking and very well photoshopped which makes it worse and he's still got pubic hair and I just want to cry and cry and tear out my eyeballs and please, please please don't hit the jump to see the whole thing, lest your face melt off, Ark of the Covenant-style.
