It's amazing what people can do with a lot of free time and a little ingenuity

James Brown

Here's a classic James Brown performance:

It's impossible for me to watch this without thinking of the arguably more famous Eddie Murphy Delirious bit about James Brown (warning: adult language):

Happy Festivus

Let the feats of strength begin:

Aaaaaand, we're back

The game featured in this real 1970s commercial doesn't sound like fun at all:

Photoshop for free

Lifehacker has a post today about Sumo Paint. Essentially it's a clone of Photoshop, with two major distinctions: (1) it's used through your web browser, and (2) it's free. Good stuff.

I'm not sure what her uniform is for but I sure hope it doesn't involve firearms

And then there's this train wreck:

"At least I have chicken"

Bear with me for a minute. I'm not sure if I ever saw the Leeroy Jenkins video before, but if I did, I had no idea what was going on. But I'm told that it's an Internet phenomenon (9 million YouTube viewers can't be wrong) so I did some research.

Here is the back story (lifted from Wikipedia): "The Internet phenomenon started with the release of a video clip online to the World of Warcraft forums. It features a group of players discussing a detailed battle strategy while one of their number, Leeroy, is away from his computer [heating up chicken for dinner]. Their plan is ruined when Leeroy returns to his computer and, ignorant of the strategy, immediately charges headlong into battle shouting his own name as a battle cry. His companions rush to stop him, and his subsequent actions ruin the meticulous plan and the encounter ends in failure for the group. His response to the other players' reactions, 'at least I have chicken', was also much parodied."

Understanding that, the video truly is hilarious, even though I have no idea how World of Warcraft works or what these nerds are talking about:

And now I understand what people mean when they say "he didn't prepare for the court hearing and just Leeroy Jenkins'd it."

Pirates seek to acquire Citigroup

Details here.
Money quote: "Head pirate, Ubu Kalid Shandu, said 'We need a bank so that we have a place to keep all of our ransom money. Thankfully, the dislocations in the capital markets have allowed us to purchase Citigroup at an attractive valuation and to take advantage of TARP capital to grow the business even faster.'"

Ministry of Silly Walks

Some of the old Monty Python Flying Circus skits are appearing on Youtube, including this famous one:

The Tao: your one stop destination for Hitler comedy

Still bitter about last season:

Warning: strong language and poor spelling in this one.

When I was 11 years old I was probably still air guitaring Raffi

Definitively proving that people will buy anything

How much would you pay for A-Rod's underwear?

Thanks to Michael for the tip.

The Big Lebowski: ne plus ultra of Orthodox Judaism in popular culture

I'm always amazed at the enduring, and completely inexplicable, popularity of the Big Lebowski. This New York Times article is just the latest example.

The movie also gave us one of the better t-shirts available these days:

An angry University of Washington fan

Demotivators

A terrific website for demotivating yourself and others.


Thanks to Steven for the pointer.