xkcd – A webcomic – Secretary: Part 1

Click for the other four parts

Change … true … vote

The war in Iraq, lack of affordable healthcare, Hurricane Katrina, financial turmoil, job insecurity …

… these are some of the things that have affected the characters played by the original cast of a mildly annoying beer commercial during the Bush years.

Low key but strangely effective … true

Take On Me, the literal version

Thanks to Gid for recommending this alternative version of Aha’s classic song.

Obama versus McCain dance-off

This really is unusually good as a funny video edit, and it’s good in its own right as a dance video to boot.

Dancing John McCain previously on KDnC

Tips for Positivity

Some tips for positivity have just been sent round work. Here with my helpful additions:

1. Refuse the Snooze — Get up as soon as your alarm goes off as a positive kick start to the day

…and get the hell away from that ugly person you woke up with. What were you thinking?

2. Wake up with an Attitude of Gratitude

“I feel like shit, but it could be even worse: I’m glad I’m not that guy.”

3. Smile at your reflection in the bathroom mirror

“What? That’s my reflection?”

Monkey Jazz: outstanding beatboxing video

Prepare for your jaw to drop. Filmed locally at the Cube Cinema, this is mr_hopkinson’s remarkable edit of an even more remarkable one-take performance by beatboxer Beardyman:

Beardyman and mr_hopkinson have been featured previously on KDnC.

The Power of Rectal Massage

Dan Ariely, economist and author of Predictably Irrational, interviews fellow Ig Nobel Prize winner Francis Fesmire about the latter’s published research report which announced a very innovative cure for persistent hiccups. Brainy and hilarious! Worth it for the last question.

Wall Street’s Doctor Doom

The current financial crisis has made a previously obscure academic essential reading. Business-cycles expert Nouriel Roubini of New York University has been predicting the current disaster since 2006. In February 2008, he wrote an article titled “The Rising Risk of a Systemic Financial Meltdown: The Twelve Steps to Financial Disaster”. So far we’ve been through most of what he predicted, step by step. Updates have continued on his site RGE Monitor, which is a subscription site although free access is currently possible. As of the latest bulletin he is predicting a full-on crash and recession: “The US and advanced economies’ financial system is now headed towards a near-term systemic financial meltdown”. Meanwhile, the Guardian article about Iceland, “the island that tried to buy the world” shows what happens when a whole country lives on credit which suddenly dries up.
To cheer you up a bit, the B3ta boards weigh in on our financial woe.

Amanda Palmer sings “I Google You”

One of the highlights of Amanda Palmer‘s extraordinary gig here in Bristol earlier tonight was this song with lyrics by Neil Gaiman. Nowadays you can’t have songs about sitting in a smokey bar pining for your lost love – the smoking ban makes that an anachronism. We need a new song for people who have just been dumped, and this is it…

Previously featured on KDnC: “I Google Myself” (rap)

Best troll ever: Oprah’s army of penises

Trolling the media for laughs was taken to a new level a couple of weeks ago by a member of Anonymous posting on Oprah Winfrey’s message boards. Claiming to be a member of an organised pedophile group, he snuck the meme “over 9000” into the message. We were treated to the sight of Oprah herself, with a straight face, warning her viewers about the “over 9000 penises” of this shadowy group.

The inevitable avalanche of cut-up videos has hit Youtube. This one by our friend ChanologyASSIST:

And you’ll not get this tune out of your head for the rest of today: