Lanny-yap: entertainment

Showing posts with label entertainment. Show all posts

17 March 2014

Jimmy Fallon | Lip Sync Battle

YouTube

Epic lip-sync battle from September 2013 with Jimmy Fallon coming in a distant third.

Thanks, tomB

09 November 2013

Dance Your PhD Finalists 2013

Females of the red jungle fowl mate with multiple males, which can create competition between sperm of different males in order to fertilize the egg. In my PhD thesis, I explored the effect of brotherhood on sperm competition and female choice. Interestingly, the brother of the first male that the female has mated with invests more sperm in the female than the non-brother of the first male mate. However, the female ejects a higher proportion of sperm from the brother of the first mate and favours the sperm of the non-brother, facilitating a higher fertility by the non-brother’s sperm ... Inspired by various sports, the dance movements in this video reflect the competitive nature in the sperm world.

Every year, Science's Dance Your PhD competition challenges grad students past and present to convey their dissertations with interpretive dance.

Link to the finalists' videos via io9

10 April 2012

Dancing Digits

YouTube

Featuring Ice Kream Teddy and Dunzo. Related: the unlighted digits of The King of South Carolina.

26 October 2011

Halloween | Light Show 2011

YouTube

From the creator:

Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO. Four singing pumpkin faces, tombstones, hand carved pumpkins, strobes, floods and thousands of lights. Most all lights have been changed from incandescent to RGB LED, so power consumption is a lot less than in previous years. Also, DMX added to show. All lights, faces and props are custom made (DIY) by me except for the roof line which are CCRs. Controlling channels have gone up 8X from last year. 1144 channels. Light-O-Rama. Riverside, CA.

I think I still like the one from last year best.

YouTube

30 August 2011

The Evolution Of 'Movie' Dance

Scenes, in order:

1. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse 1921
2. 42nd Street 1933
3. Flying Down to Rio 1933
4. The Little Colonel 1935
5. Top Hat 1935
6. Swing Time 1936
7. A Day at the Races 1937
8. Fantasia 1940
9. Hellzapoppin' 1941
10. Stormy Weather 1943
11. Broadway Rhythm 1944
12. Anchors Aweigh 1945
13. It's a Wonderful Life 1946
14. The Red Shoes 1948
15. Royal Wedding 1951
16. Singin' in the Rain 1952
17. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953
18. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers 1954
19. It's Always Fair Weather 1955
20. Jailhouse Rock 1957
21. Funny Face 1957
22. El bolero de Raquel 1957
23. Damn Yankees 1958
24. Party Girl 1958
25. The Sound of Music 1959
26. Never on Sunday 1960
27. West Side Story 1961
28. Band of Outsiders 1964
29. My Fair Lady 1964
30. Zorba the Greek 1964
31. Mary Poppins 1964
32. The Producers 1968
33. Young Frankenstein 1974
34. Saturday Night Fever 1977
35. Grease 1978
36. All That Jazz 1979
37. Airplane! 1980
38. The Blues Brothers 1980
39. Urban Cowboy 1980
40. Fame 1980
41. Flashdance 1983
42. Risky Business 1983
43. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life 1983
44. Footloose 1984
45. A Chorus Line 1985
46. Girls Just Want to Have Fun 1985
47. White Nights 1985
48. Teen Wolf 1985
49. Ferris Bueller's Day Off 1986
50. Dirty Dancing 1987
51. The Little Mermaid 1989
52. Beauty and the Beast 1991
53. Strictly Ballroom 1992
54. Scent of a Woman 1992
55. Reservoir Dogs 1992
56. Addams Family Values 1993
57. Swing Kids 1993
58. Pulp Fiction 1994
59. True Lies 1994
60. Muriel's Wedding - 1994
61. Showgirls 1995
62. Shall We Dansu? 1997
63. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion 1997
64. Titanic 1997
65. Dance with Me 1998
66. She's All That 1999
67. Road Trip 2000
68. Center Stage 2000
69. Billy Elliot 2000
70. Save the Last Dance 2001
71. Shrek 2001
72. Moulin Rouge! 2001
73. Chicago 2002
74. Grind 2003
75. Kung Fu Hustle 2004
76. Napoleon Dynamite 2004
77. You Got Served 2004
78. Shall We Dance? 2004
79. Starsky & Hutch 2004
80. Beauty Shop 2005
81. Mr. & Mrs. Smith 2005
82. The 40-Year-Old Virgin 2005
83. Clerks II 2006
84. Little Miss Sunshine 2006
85. Step Up 2006
86. Take the Lead 2006
87. Hairspray 2007
88. Spider-Man 3 2007
89. Enchanted 2007
90. Stomp the Yard 2007
91. Superbad 2007
92. Get Smart 2008
93. Make It Happen 2008
94. Slumdog Millionaire 2008
95. Step Up 2: The Streets 2008
96. Tropic Thunder 2008
97. (500) Days of Summer 2009
98. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus 2009
99. Toy Story 3 2010
100. Black Swan 2010

I've seen 89 of these!

10 August 2011

Stephen Colbert | Episode IV: A New Hope

YouTube

In June, Stephen Colbert's request to form a Super PAC (political action committee) was approved by the Federal Election Commission. This is the first ad funded by that Super PAC -- Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow.

20 July 2011

The Dancing Squid Bowl

YouTube | TDW

As I understand it, the squid is dead; the legs move because sodium ions in the soy sauce stimulate muscle contraction.

15 July 2011

Vintage Ventriloquism

Click images to enlarge

How To Be A Retronaut | Dangerous Minds

11 January 2011

Dexter's Victims

Click image to enlarge

dehahs on DeviantArt via Gawker.TV

For tomB

04 January 2011

The Soup's Clip Of The Year | Dunka Doo Balls

YouTube

Over The Limit is a cable show that takes viewers along with police as they deal with "rowdy revelers and all manner of miscreants who appear to be over the limit and over the top." This clip was selected by The Soup as its Clip of the Year.

Click Gawker.TV to see the other four top clips.

30 December 2010

Muppets With Human Eyes

By Wonder-Tonic via Urlesque

30 October 2010

Thrilling Halloween Display

YouTube | TDW

Wow.

The fellow who created the display responds in YouTube comments:

Thanks all for the kind and not so kind words. I can tell you I have nothing to do with the entertain/studio/whatever business. I'm a DIY kind of person that just loves Halloween. I do it for the kids and that’s what makes be keep doing it even thought its overwhelming. Its takes several weeks to set up and many months to program. Honestly, hardly anyone comes by to see it except for Halloween, which brings in a couple thousand kids. And I don’t mind cause I like my neighbors. Happy Halloween!

08 September 2010

Happy Hump Day | Blues Maker

For those days that everything is so messed up that all you have left is the blues.

At first glance, Blues Maker is just another entertaining, interactive site. You choose lyrics and bluesy harmonica riffs and combine them into a song. But when I finished my song, I noticed something curious: all the songs are about the bad luck dished out by hurricanes that have recently devastated the U.S. and Caribbean and end with a political message: And the saddest part of this blues, is that it's all about what men have done.

Curious, I did a little online research and discovered that the site is translated into English from Portuguese and is sponsored by Le Monde Diplomatique, a French-based international news organization.

According to its website, "LeDiplo" is "a major international paper that is truly independent, that sees the world in fresh ways, that focuses on places no other publications reach." According to Wikipedia, it's "a monthly newspaper offering left-oriented analysis and opinion on politics, culture, and current affairs."

Link via Everlasting Blort

14 May 2010

Le Cochon Danseur

From the Internet Movie Database:

A pig dressed in fancy clothes flirts with a pretty girl, but she humiliates him and tears off his suit; she then makes him dance for her affections.

Pathe | France | 1907

YouTube via World Oddities

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RECOMMENDED: The Death of Expertise

From Amazon: People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and by increasing access to every level of education. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy-or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age.

RECOMMENDED: The Magic of Reality

From Amazon: Richard Dawkins, bestselling author and the world’s most celebrated evolutionary biologist, has spent his career elucidating the many wonders of science. Here, he takes a broader approach and uses his unrivaled explanatory powers to illuminate the ways in which the world really works. Filled with clever thought experiments and jaw-dropping facts, The Magic of Reality explains a stunningly wide range of natural phenomena: How old is the universe? Why do the continents look like disconnected pieces of a jigsaw puzzle? What causes tsunamis? Why are there so many kinds of plants and animals? Who was the first man, or woman? Starting with the magical, mythical explanations for the wonders of nature, Dawkins reveals the exhilarating scientific truths behind these occurrences. This is a page-turning detective story that not only mines all the sciences for its clues but primes the reader to think like a scientist as well. Click the pic to buy the book at Amazon.

RECOMMENDED: Decoding Your Dog

From Amazon: "More than ninety percent of dog owners consider their pets to be members of their family. But often, despite our best intentions, we are letting our dogs down by not giving them the guidance and direction they need. Unwanted behavior is the number-one reason dogs are relinquished to shelters and rescue groups. The key to training dogs effectively is first to understand why our dogs do what they do. And no one can address this more authoritatively than the diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Behavior, whose work, the culmination of years of rigorous training, takes them deep into the minds of dogs in an effort to decode how they think, how they communicate, and how they learn. In Decoding Your Dog, these experts analyze problem behaviors, decipher the latest studies, and correct common misconceptions and outmoded theories. The book includes:effective, veterinary-approved positive training methods, expert advice on socialization, housetraining, diet, and exercise, and remedies for behavior problems such as OCD and aggression."

RECOMMENDED: The Sixth Extinction

From Amazon: "Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.'

RECOMMENDED: When Strangers Meet

From Amazon: When Strangers Meet argues for the pleasures and transformative possibilities of talking to people you don’t know. Our lives are increasingly insular. We are in a hurry, our heads are down, minds elsewhere, we hear only the voices we already recognize and rarely take the effort to experience something or someone new. Talking to strangers pulls you into experiences of shared humanity and creates genuine emotional connections. It opens your world. Passing interactions cement your relationship to the places you live and work and play, they’re beautiful interruptions in the steady routines of our lives. In luminous prose, Stark shows how talking to strangers wakes you up. Threaded throughout are powerful vignettes from Stark’s own lifelong practice of talking to strangers and documenting brief encounters, along with a deep exploration of the dynamics of where, how, and why strangers come together. Ultimately, When Strangers Meet explores the rich emotional and political meanings that are conjured up in even the briefest conversations and unexpected connections with strangers. Stark renders visible the hidden processes by which we decide who to greet and trust in passing, and the unwritten rules by which these encounters operate. When Strangers Meet teaches readers how to start talking to strangers and includes adventurous challenges for those who dare.

RECOMMENDED: Shrink-Rap: Three Psychiatrists Explain Their Work

RECOMMENDED: The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons

From Booklist: "Science writer Kean explores the vagaries and inconsistencies of the human brain via diverting stories that chronicle medical science’s fits and starts. To say these are diverting is, however, an oversimplification since their subjects—primarily unfortunate individuals with brain injuries—command sympathy if not empathy. Yet Kean’s focus is on their contribution to the field of neuroscience along with, in too many instances, the misguided misinformation of the medical professionals who treated them. Take the case of France’s King Henry II. When he lost his right eye plus a bit of his brain to a poorly aimed jousting spear, his physicians’ limited knowledge of the brain’s physiognomy cost him his life. Then there’s President Garfield’s assassin, Charles Guiteau, whose undiagnosed bipolar mind was further addled by syphilis and who, naturally . . . thought himself fit for politics. To pick up one of these stories is to lose oneself in them. Where does the brain end and the mind begin? Curious readers will find both brain and mind fully revved up while engaging with this powerfully appealing and thought-provoking work of neuroscience history."

RECOMMENDED: American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

From Amazon: According to award-winning journalist and historian Colin Woodard, North America is made up of eleven distinct nations, each with its own unique historical roots. In American Nations he takes readers on a journey through the history of our fractured continent, offering a revolutionary and revelatory take on American identity, and how the conflicts between them have shaped our past and continue to mold our future. From the Deep South to the Far West, to Yankeedom to El Norte, Woodard reveals how each region continues to uphold its distinguishing ideals and identities today, with results that can be seen in the composition of the U.S. Congress or on the county-by-county election maps of presidential elections.

RECOMMENDED: Gulf War Vets: The Richest Of Resources

From Amazon: "We are now poised as a country either to repeat the mistakes of the Vietnam era or to create the services and supports that our returning veterans deserve." This research focuses on the importance of using an integrated change management approach to bring together the civilian, corporate, and military communities to support veterans of the Global War on Terror, specifically those veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using force field analysis methodology and original survey research, the study includes a review of the current literature on Gulf War Era veterans in the areas of the labor market, diversity, employee assistance, human resources (HR), behavioral health, disability, and career management. Survey respondents … identified nine forces they believe have a large impact on change in corporate policies, practices, and programs related to the employment, engagement in productive work, and retention and advancement of veterans. The[y] … also identified the seven factors they believe are most important in effecting a change in corporations' approach to employing Gulf War Era veterans … Employers, labor market experts, educators, and human services professionals must be prepared to welcome these veterans home and support them as they navigate the social, political, and economic turbulence challenging our country now and in the coming years. Click the pic to buy the book at Amazon.

Interests

Absurdity, ambiguity, anomalies, bacon, behavior, bonobos, brain science, consciousness, conversation, design, evolution, expressive arts, extremes, food, frontiers, gadgets, hermetics, humor, ingenuity, irony, maps, martinis, mental health, monkeys, mysteries, mysticism, nonsense, oddness, paradoxes, phenomenology, rocks, semantics, sf, social justice, spirituality, technology, tilt-shift and time-lapse, the visual presentation of data, anthropo-, bio-, eco-, etho-, ethno-, psycho- and sociology

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