It's kind of sad that Air Supply couldn't make the list. But there isn't any Air Supply song in particular that's terrible; everything that the band released just kind of coalesces together into an amorphous mass of badness.

The same goes for Starship.

C-list bloggers like me aren't held to the same standard. They should really try being less popular - it's far more relaxing.

Is it just me, or does every embedded YouTube video that BoingBoing posts get taken down within twenty-four hours?

@14: Me too.

Reminds me of that peckerhead Darren (both of them) from Bewitched.

I'll tolerate this, but when Casio comes out with their new line of HIV+ blood camera, that's where I draw the line!

Good music. Not a fan of the dopey lyrics, but, heck - they're in high school. I predict that this band will be ruined by a major label within five years.

Letter-Day Saints, huh?

Typos notwithstanding, this ruling is a good, good thing. Let's see some of the rest of our nation's judges follow this ruling and get that precedent working on our side for a change.

Perfect place for those thrift store / cheapo bookstore books. The sort of books and magazines that you like to read in short bursts like "Mental Floss", but won't get choked up about if they warp. And they will warp.

I still find this bookshelf stuff interesting. Hearing the word "steampunk" is starting to make me queasy, though.

Ha! Never mind the fact that a discussion about Comcast can no longer occur in any web forum without this topic being brought up and Comcast's name cursed and spitten upon. I'm sure that they did it for completely altruistic reasons.

I just moved to an apartment with Comcast where Bittorrent blazes for five seconds, then stops still. I'm looking forward to the day when I can leave my torrents running overnight like I used to. . .

This might be the Republican equivalent of the "Barack Obama-sistible!" video. Whether or not it's "satire" isn't the point - it was obviously designed to be corny and unprofessional for the sake of humor.

It's pleasant enough as long as it's meant to be campy.

I've seen Asian paintings with this thing, but they're a great deal more graphic. Still, it's hard to believe that the Japanese wouldn't have the darker side of tentacles in mind as they watched this ad. . .

@Jeff - Interesting. When I listened to this I thought that it sounded like Sufjan's music to Cat's vocals.

I knew a guy in High School who made a taser from an old camera circuit board. The thing holds a good charge, so you just bend the wires and hold the thing with oven mitts. Anybody who touches the wires gets a shock.

One time he picked it up and his heart almost stopped. He picked it up with tongs, smashed it and threw it into the neighbor's garage.

Hmm. . . sounds like you might like Cat Power, or even earlier Regina Spektor. But definitely check out Cat Power, especially "The Greatest".

Of course it's ex post facto. It changes the legal consequences for a law following the institution of that law. A pardon is constitutional but this type of law is not. Technically it's even a felony for a representative to support such a law.

We've gotten so far to the point where we feel that it's the government's role to make everything happy that we don't even consider our own checks and balances.

How patently ridiculous that this would need to be a law.

Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional. I'm surprised that this didn't even come up in the debates. How did this bill get as far as it did when it's patently unconstitutional?

I'd sympathize with Chavez if he wasn't a rock star dictator trying to become infamous through controversial statements.

@Thuper: Cheap shot and a tired argument.

@Noen: No. But it puts the story in context. This story isn't really about a CD bootlegger anymore than one of those "Videogamer Shoots Up a Minimart" stories on Fox News.

It's a story about criminal negligence. Remember the lady who accidentally shut a kid's coat in her car door and dragged her to death behind the car for miles before she realized her error? This strikes me as a similar deal. The guy was new, he made a huge mistake (a mind-bogglingly huge mistake), but I'm sure he's already pretty destroyed about this.

The lady should get a sizable settlement and a pass on her sentence. What a horrible experience. The rush to put security cameras and other useless crap in the cell is just a replacement for the type of responsibility that should prevail in a prison.

I'm not sure that the problem is with the obnoxious paranoid citizen (heaven knows that 10% or so of people are suspicious of anybody different than themselves), but with the officer who pursued the arrest despite no evidence of wrongdoing.

Those nutcases who think that the Muslims have taken over Britain must have quite an explanation for stories like this.

Since when is one's appearance grounds for arrest?

The guy's doing the right thing, but it's obviously not a fantastic choice from a safety perspective. More power to him.

@Travelina: Awesome! We need more spontaneous, non-commercial stuff like this. Whether or not this is considered culture jamming, I like the idea of moving comedy away from the film studios and sold-out theaters and back onto the street.

This is pretty much the best thing of all time. Didn't these guys do the Grand Central Station freeze?

I'd just like to say that "The Mystery of Chimney Rock" scared the holy hell out of me as a child. Hearing the title of the book still gives me a bit of a chill.

He does an excellent job of speaking from the perspective of an industry insider while chastising them pretty severely for their missteps. Whether they incorporate his suggestions or not, they got something to think about.

What about the stuff that Kyle Orland used to do? I've seen scholarly criticism on everything from resource management in strategy games to the psychological effect of menus and information onscreen. You won't find the stuff from Kotaku or Gamespot, but it exists.

I'm not sure if Greg has really been looking in the right places.

Can I be as skeptical about this as the selling of the "original" crucifixion nails on eBay?

The guy seems to think that the dispersing effect of the sound overrides its illegal nature. I'm not a vandal, but if I was unattended at a public place using one of those I'd give it a taste of my Dr. Pepper right down the circuit.

Too bad that we'll never see the Ron Paul one.

The significant type giving the officer the name of the artist for one sentence threw me off.

Didn't LaughingSquid have something like this happen awhile back regarding a Best Buy parody? If sites can't be sued for linking to pirated movies and music as long as they aren't the ones sharing, how can something like this be construed as legitimate libel?

Unorthodox people like this pretty much make life worth living. I hadn't discovered Tiny Tim until today, but he reminds me strongly of Emo Philips. Of course, Tim's falsetto shtick stopped when he wasn't performing but I feel strongly that Emo is for real.

Sure. I can name about thirty artists who broke out into the mainstream solely on the basis of a hit single, while their album quality remained steady (or even fell).

Even groups with no concrete "hit single" (think Arcade Fire) explode from a couple of glowing reviews.

I won't lie - critical acclaim often leads me to investigate a band far more patiently than I normally would. It's difficult to try something new when your effort hasn't already been validated by another.

Not to mention the fact that most blogger's image and formatting systems are about as advanced as a ten-year-old WordPerfect shell. You have to go into the HTML at every turn to fix things.

Why not adopt a subtler euphemism - one that doesn't refer to people? It's still pretty clear to onlookers that you're saying something unpleasant about others.

How about using the euphemism "addlepated dongleberries" as a term for "Southern racists"?

"Human error" sounds about as plausible as "wardrobe malfunction".

Huh. I did a Cloverfield poster parody of my own, but couldn't be bothered to add the Statue of Liberty. Bonus points for recognizing that I took the background from the original poster for "King Kong". . . oops.

http://ffttcomics.blogspot.com/2008/01/fftt-26-its-still-alive.html

Interesting, but I disagree somewhat with his conclusion. Perhaps the world has seen advances in film since Reed's memo, but some of my favorite films have been ones to successfully combine blistering satire, light-hearted comic relief and wrenching tragedy into one piece. Even these Shakespeare pieces that Reed cites do the same, presenting serious philosophy and drama while overblown with fart jokes for the toothless farmers in the front row.

I think that Reed confuses genres with a "world". We would get confused if the Addams Family visited Oz, not because of differing styles but because both worlds are intended to be isolated, independent spheres. So - don't even get me started on the "Batman Meets Superman" story arcs. Blah.

"READ CAREFULLY. By opening this magazine you agree to follow certain standard irrevocable TERMS and CONDITIONS now and forever, inheritable by your future prosperity and until the end of time."

Awesome. Just don't let your insurance company know about it :).

Smart aleck Mormon-bashing talking points aside, Huckabee seems like a nice guy. His comment revealed somewhat of a lack of professionalism but should appeal to southern Baptists (and member of other religions) used to hearing such comments from the pulpit.

And the floating cross? Whether intentional or unintentional, the first poster had it right: the man is Christian and probably trying to make the point that he's the RIGHT kind of Christian (i.e. HIS sect goldarnit). I didn't even notice the cross the first time but in retrospect it's so obvious that I can't believe they didn't intend it.

When I was in the Philippines this happened every day. There was literally a row of makeshifthouses on each side of the traintracks whose front doors were just inches from the path of the train. Twice a day a few minutes before the train was due people took their home-made fishcarts, wagons, etc. off of the train tracks and everybody stood to the side to avoid the oncoming vehicle.

Drunks often fall asleep on the tracks and are crushed.

Alchemist's post (edited for grammar and spelling:

---
I think [that] it[']s pretty obvious that you are a [M]ormon. Why don't you [disclose] this instead of textually[-]fellatiating [M]ormonism?

Mormonism is a 19th century analog to Scientology.
---

I am LDS. I was not trying to hide this fact; I think it was pretty clear from my post that I'm a member of the LDS Church.

Though I do not feel particularly-inclined to defend my faith on a point-by-point basis (debate on this issue is pointless - we're both too entrenched in our respective positions to convince each other), I will submit that your allegation is completely false. Absolutely backward.

What a pointless thread.

Mormons find themselves in a difficult position as much of their doctrine (or rather their doctrine of a modern prophet and revelation) put them at odds with "traditional" Christianity, and their status as a growing denomination invite the attacks of those particularly prejudiced against religion in general.

I know next-to-nothing about Mitt Romney and don't feel particularly predisposed toward another Republican at this point, but the ignorance so often seen among the rabidly anti-Mormon is appalling. I'm not referring to Mark Frauenfelder's post or even the Kraukauer book (read between the lines and its a fascinating read), but to those whose diatribes border conspiracy theory.

Trying to draw a connection between Scientology and Mormonism based on the (false) report that Dianetics is Romney's favorite book is untenable (Actual statement: "The Bible" is his favorite book, but Battlefield Earth is an "enjoyable" sci-fi- novel.).

Accept the obvious: The average practicing Mormon lives a life like any other practicing Christian - attempting to emulate the example of and follow the teaching of their Savior. Attempting to make points about Mormons from horrible instances like the Mountain Meadows Massacre or discontinued practices like polygamy are no better than attacking Catholicism because of the Crusades or Dark Ages or condemning protestants from tragedies in Ireland.

CORRECTION: The screen flashes during downtime as well so I'll bet it's the real deal.

While I believe that this feat is possible, watch how the background rapidly changes brightness as tricks are being done but NOT during downtime.

It's possible that this is merely a reaction of the camera to a fast-moving subject but I think that it's more likely that they are using a sophisticated form of stop-motion. I used to do tricks like this all the time only the video-editing features on my camera (i.e. "force-push" household objects, make an object float in the air or make things disappear and reappear).

I could probably replicate something like this using trickery but I don't have the patience or skill for it.