Colgate new blue minty gel....you'll love it!

I wish I woke up like that kid in the morning. Pretty sure the 23 second mark is the climax of this commercial. Scarrryyy.

Enjoy!

The Great Pop Culture Implosion

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/ff_angrynerd_geekculture/all/1

I just found a pretty great article (by comedian/writer/actor Patton Oswalt) that deeply explores the rapid expansion of popular culture through the exploitation of geek culture.  I’m pretty sure this is what the esteemed Dr. Ian Malcolm was talking about when he famously stated, “What you call progress, I call the rape of the natural world.”

The video above is kind of a lite version of the story he’s telling, but Patton’s full article is definitely worth reading.  Although the constant barrage of nerdlore reference gives this thing a Clockwork Orange–esque linguistic learning curve (consider this blog post a warm-up), if you can get past that it’s chock-full of interesting ideas.  The highlights being:

• the “otaku-fication” of America and its weak and temperamental obsessions…
  
  
• the assimilation of nerd culture into widely-consumed media (“The Lord of the Rings used to be ours and only ours simply because of the sheer goddamn thickness of the books”)…
  
  
• how having “Everything That Ever Was—Available Forever” (or “Etewaf”) via the internet does not bode well for the creative process, and
  
  
•  the concept that “before we can start to rebuild geek culture, we first have to destroy it” as he maniacally proposes a Mad Max-style do-over.

Although to be honest, the man might just be remembering the 80’s a little too fondly.  My buddy Lion-O and I talk about that all the time.  

10 Quotes from MLK

Great collection of the less often quoted writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.



In case you're curious, this is my favorite of MLK's:
"Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek."

Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets

Thank you, Cory, for alerting me to the awesomeness that is this video.

(Someone shout if the video stops working... I'm thinking they'll pull it from YouTube at some point.)

There is only one way to correctly begin 2011...

... and that is ninjas fighting sharks.

Also acceptable - small children hoping beyond hope to catch a glimpse of a stealthy, magical creature who slips unnoticed in and out of our lives each holiday season.  They can sometimes be mistaken.  From M&HD friend Chris this morning:

The other day my youngest son is walking down the street and passes a (presumably) Muslim woman wearing the full tunic and burqa.  He goes “She’s a NINJA.” Anyway, here is a little ninja net nugget for everyone: http://vintageninja.net/

This confusion is of course understandable - do you think it sheer coincidence that Ninja Day also falls at the end of each year?  No - no it's not.