…Peanuts! Linus sings The Police.

Thanks Rich!

Hugh Atkin sent me another of his satirical videos following up on the great job he did mixing campaign footage of the candidates with David Bowie’s “Changes” (see What Voters Want Is…).

In this video, he mixes a teary eyed Hillary explaining “how she does it”, with Tom Cruise explaining, well, essentially the same thing. Enjoy!

Hugh Atkin sent this spoof based on the David Bowie tune “Changes”.

John sent this from Disney World! (He’s on vacation…I didn’t ask.)

It’s important to be able to communicate with the help, especially if you didn’t pay attention in high school Spanish class…

NSFW around people who understand Spanish.

How three graphic designers re-created D-Day on a shoestring budget for the Timewatch program “Bloody Omaha”. Due to interest in the “making of” video, the complete program will be repeated January 27 on BBC television. In the U.S., the full production of BLOODY OMAHA will be shown on the Smithsonian Channel HD in May, 2008.

Amazing what can be done with just three actors, some props, a camera, four days and some amazing cgi (computer generated images), isn’t it?

Due to rising domestic wages, many American parents are saving money by using unregulated overseas workers. Michael D forwarded this shocking report.

When you spend your life in the water, you tend to develop a good intuition for its subtleties. Dolphins have been observed creating bubble rings by, among other techniques, carefully exhaling air in the middle of the vortices caused by the motion of their fins through the water.

Besides being fun to watch and an impressive demonstration of fluid mechanics, the phenomenon may throw some light on dolphin cognition since the skill to create the rings is subtle and tends to be passed from one dolphin to the next by careful observation and practice.

Also intriguing is a report that dolphins appear to be using sonar to locate the vortex in the water, an impressive feat of audio analysis. More

Scuba divers have long blown bubble rings for fun, watching them rise to the surface. Some I know are quite good at it although I’ve never quite grasped the technique. But dolphins have learned to control the direction of their rings and even divide them into smaller segments. It’s fun to watch them at play!

When getting things done involves making phone calls, you want to spend the least amount of time and money on the horn as possible — and several tricks and services can help you do just that. For example:

I’m usually tuned into Google’s innovative new services but I guess I missed this one. It’s a free 411 service! Instead of calling regular telco or cellular 411 services for information (and an extra charge on your bill), use Google’s new 411 service by calling 1-800-GOOG-411 to get a street address or phone number, even a map of the area via text message. It’s free, fast and easy to use. We’re adding the number to our cellphone, home and office speed-dials! Watch the video, then give it a try!

Lifehacker has compiled a list of Top 10 telephone tricks to help you skip through or cut off long-winded automated voice systems and humans, access web services by voice, and smartly screen incoming calls. I haven’t tried the other 9 but probably will in the near future. Let me know how they work for you!

I always enjoy Apple’s “Get a Mac” advertising campaign and look forward to each new release. Today Apple posted their newest installment touting Leopard’s “Time Machine”, its automatic back-up and file retrieval system that can easily locate and retrieve even long ago deleted files.

The ad features the “Mac” and “PC” guys (Justin Long and John Hodgman) explaining, in simple but entertaining ways, how it works. You can watch the ad below or in various sizes/resolutions on Apple’s site.

And here’s one they used for the 2007 WWDC to introduce Apple’s Phil Schiller. You have to admit, these guys have a great sense of humor!

It’s still the beginning of the new year, so I decided to post a video that somehow fell through the cracks before the ball dropped in Times Square.

Leon Redbone used to be a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and one year helped Johnny welcome the new year by singing Auld Lang Syne. Merv Griffin was also a guest that night and the cutting up between these three great entertainers was nothing short of classic.

Johnny and Merv are gone now but will certainly never be forgotten. Leon, however, is still touring. For his schedule, check his website.

Bob Rivers’ spoof on Al Gore and “global warming”…

Frank Caliendo’s parody of an Al Gore movie sequel from his new show, Frank TV, on TBS.

Thanks Shannan!

About this time every year there are warnings that, according to prophesy, the world is about to end. In fact, there’s at least one book that postulates the world will reach critical mass in 2008. The current world political climate certainly points in that direction.

The latest warnings reminded me of the popular “The End of the World” Flash animation I’d posted a couple times on my AFP site so, just in case the jig is up in the next few days, here again is how it may very well play out. Not work-safe but well done and fairly accurate in a satirical way…

Requires Adobe Flash Player, available as a free download if you don’t already have it.

A new year means, among other things, cleaning out the old and starting fresh. And so it is with my desktop. I have scads of links scattered about that I intended to post but never got “a round tuit.” So before I drag them all to the trash and into virtual oblivion, I thought I might post a couple I thought were worthy but somehow slipped through the cracks:

Holiday Mixer

My mother-in-law, Pat, sent me this AP photo of the S.T. Griswold & Co. “Holiday Mixer.” Seems Griswold decorates one of its cement mixers every year and drives it around the town of Montpelier, Vermont, through New Year’s Eve churning up a unique mix of holiday cheer for local residents. It takes a crew of six a week to decorate the truck with more than 30,000 lights and, yes, the cement drum still turns! More info

Airstream Holiday Light Show

I don’t know how I missed this, but Denny Wilson didn’t. I know you’ve all seen the original video of the house that was decorated with lights and synched to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Wizards In Winter. There have been a few copies - other houses with lights synched to other TSO songs - but nothing as unique as this one:

There. My desktop is clean. I think I’ll take the rest of the day off.

Jeff Dunham’s Achmed the Dead Terrorist sings “Jingle Bombs”…

Via