A rigorous study by North Korean government researchers has declared that the United States is the least happy nation on Earth. North Korea itself came in second behind China. (Thanks Aaron O.!) Read the rest

UPDATE: By popular demand, Sad James Van Der Beek, shocked cat and Sad Keanu are now in attendance (you're welcome, @brianstovall, @andrea_ball, and all else who chimed in).

Additional sad guys one might Photoshop in: Sad Julian Assange, Sad Adrian Brody, Sad Nic Cage, Sad Leave Britney Alone Guy, and Crying Double Rainbow Guy.

Below, earlier iterations with fewer Sad Guys.

(shoop: Xeni) Read the rest

Video link. The fine folks at Everything Is Terrible! have released a smashing collection of one of my favorite movie cliché/SAT word combos: defenestration. Enjoy over 7 minutes of window-breaking excitement! (EiT via RobSchrab) Read the rest

A press release arrived in my inbox a couple days ago in which a CEO, facing a major change in his line of business, promised to continue to work for his customers 24x7x365. I was impressed. It's not every day that a company vows to accelerate its customers to a high fraction of the speed of light relative to the Earth to squeeze seven years into the space of one. What's more, many companies have the same capability. I worry about the fabric of reality, already stretched by firms impacting operations and effectuating paradigms. Our frame of reference will be stretched, snapped, and broken. For details on repair, consult How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. Read the rest

Read the rest

Video link. It's election time, which means politicians are overstating or fabricating their qualifications. One of the most unfortunate forms is overstating one's military service, usually upgrading one's service to one of the elite groups like Green Berets, Rangers, SEALs, etc.

Although the Stolen Valor Act making such lies a crime was declared unconstitutional this summer, a few veterans have taken matters into their own hands.

By far the funniest is Don Shipley, a retired Navy SEAL who shames the shameless in the highly entertaining PHONY Navy SEAL of the week.

(Thanks, former SEAL / current actor Joel Lambert) Read the rest

A group of people involved with the Bay Area hacker space Noisebridge organized an impromptu science fair to be held outside an Insane Clown Posse show, when the band and their juggalo fans recently passed through San Francisco. Doctor Popular at Laughing Squid has an extensive blog report up, with videos and links to photo sets. Snip:

SFSlim tweeted that the group was physically threatened by ICP’s crew and Violent J, one half of the Insane Clown Posse, even bragged about it on his twitterhole. A clown with no sense of humor… who’d a thunk it?

If you don't know what any of this means, start with this Boing Boing post, and then this one. (photos: y3rdua)

Directly lifted from BP's blog, and first mocked on the Rachel Maddow Show:

• Planet BP reporter Tom Seslar flies with an oil-spotting crew over the Gulf of Mexico and sees a deeper appreciation of the relationship between coast and sea and energy and nature than can be had on the ground or in a boat.

• "It's strangely peaceful up here - just right for surrendering to some meditation.

• I'm filled with the wonderment of what's happening below our chopper only moments after it lifts off from an airport in Houma, La."

• "It's likely there will be no alternative to the Gulf as a key source of American energy for decades to come. That's why it is so essential to protect it. Even the most severe critics of the oil industry tend to accept that reality."

"Reporter" Tom Seslar, I have a message for you on behalf of America (and her reporters): go suck it.

Flying higher to get closer to the spill response - 15 June 2010. There's more where that came from. Oh, they have a YouTube channel for this crap, too, specimen above. (BP.com) Read the rest

The pimple detector: Finally, science has invented a portable mean girl to tell you there's a zit on your face. Thanks, Chris Patil! Read the rest

"Celebrate the launch of Windows 7 by illegally downloading your very own copy!" Video link. (Funny or Die, thanks, @serafinowicz) Read the rest

The Yes Men strike again. Posing as members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they held a press conference today to announce that the chamber would abandon its opposition to climate-change legislation now in Congress. Well, that would explain the sneaky spam press release I received this morning which pointed to "chamber-of-commerce.us" instead of the actual website for the US Chamber of Commerce, at "uschamber.com." Wonder if any bloggers or reporters were done in by the emailed version of the Yes Men prank?

Here's a snip from Washington Post article about the meatspace hijinks today:

The event, complete with fake handouts on chamber letterhead, at least a couple of fake reporters, and a podium adorned with the chamber logo, broke up when a spokesman from the real chamber burst in. What followed was a spectacle not usually seen in the John Peter Zenger Room at the National Press Club: two men in business suits shouting at one another, each calling the other an impostor and demanding to see business cards.

"This guy is a fake! He's lying! This is a stunt that I've never seen before," said Eric Wohlschlegel, an official at the actual Chamber of Commerce, who said he'd heard about the hoax event from a reporter who'd mistakenly shown up at the chamber's headquarters.

The fake Chamber of Commerce official, who called himself "Hingo Sembra," did not give his real name to reporters, saying only that he represented a coalition of climate activists.

Pranksters stage Chamber of Commerce climate change event (Washington Post, via @tomzellerjr). Read the rest

You remember that Ralph Lauren marketing image featuring an implausible thin model whose head is bigger than her pelvis? The one that prompted Ralph Lauren's marketing arm to send us a legal threat because we made fun of it?

Yeah, that one.

Well, Natasja Capelle, a freelance designer, has detouched the image to restore the model to something like a healthy, well-proportioned stature. Want to play along? Make your own detouched image, post a link in the comments. The best images will receive (possibly) a legal threat from Ralph Lauren and an entirely virtual but nevertheless highly valuable appreciative ovation from all over the world.

The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see!

(Thanks, Natasja!) Read the rest