Problem of the day: A bridge connecting mainland China with Hong Kong must solve for the fact that in Hong Kong, people drive on the left. In China, people drive on the right. This picture is a proposed bridge/solution. Pretty, too.

Via GeekPress

A friend and I used to discuss an idea called, "The tank in the ER". At the time, the show ER was doing some ridiculous things on TV and we kept expecting a "Scene from next week" to have Noah Wylie yelling, "Oh my God, THERE'S A TANK IN THE ER!!!!" ER got close a couple times, and I think we all would have been more comfortable if this sign had been posted.



via The Daily What

You know those t-shirts with (usually) 4 names on them? Here's a list of a lot of them. My favorite is Van Halen.

Via Kottke.

If you're in New York on Saturday and want to play paintball with the cast of The Wire, you're in luck! Wait, what? Who cares, go sign up and play with Marlo, Omar, Snoop, and others. The event is a fundraiser for Marlo's (Jamie Hector) non-profit Moving Mountains. Sign up here.

Via @AndyHutchins

Love this picture.

The Serial Comma has been discussed before on Unlikely Words (here and here), so you know I was excited to see Stephen Colbert give Vampire Weekend a hard time for the line, "Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?" I like how they seem to wilt under the pressure.

Stephen: Can I take you to task for something, for a second?
Everyone: Sure.
Stephen: In one of your songs, you have the lyrics: Who gives a fuck about an oxford comma?
Ezra: Yes.
Stephen: I’m here to tell you, I do. Shall we explain what an oxford comma is to the people?
Ezra: Oh. It’s always a little tough to explain… an oxford comma would be a comma that you’d put before the and or the or, at the end of a list.
Stephen: Red, white, and blue.
Ezra: Exactly.
Stephen: I mean, red comma white comma and blue.
Ezra: Do you really need the comma?
Stephen: Yes, you do need the comma.
Ezra: Why do you need the comma?
Stephen: Because otherwise it’s: red, white and blue. Our flag is not red, white and blue. That’s red and baby blue!
Ezra: There are situations where it’s necessary.
Stephen: All situations. All of them except it’s, like, a law firm. That’s every other— No, listen, have you heard of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style?
Ezra: Yes.
Stephen: Heard of that? I refer you to… [opens book] page fucking two: In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term. [snaps book shut in Ezra’s face]
Ezra: Yeah, but I mean—
Stephen: Does that sting? That’s E.B. White, you heard of him?
Ezra: Respect to Strunk and White, but it’s just protocol. It’s not— there’s no real reason.
Stephen: Yeah, it’s language. Why don’t you just take all punctuation out, be like the Romans?
Ezra: Sometimes we do.
Stephen: Really?
Ezra: I mean, we’re a band. Y’know? [shrugs]
Stephen: I weep for our nation. But, I do enjoy your music. Will you stick around and do one of your songs that is properly punctuated?
Ezra: We’ll see.
Stephen: All right, we’ll be right back with a performance from Vampire comma Weekend!

Via Veni Vidi The Unsustainable

Out of the World Cup commercials for the big 3 sneaker companies, this is the most original, and certainly the only one featuring Snoop Dog with a light saber. I like.

They took away our Brontosaurus, which was a bummer, but I tell you, the Medusaceratops lokii more than makes up for it. The Brontosaurus was kind of a ninny anyway.

Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur lived nearly 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Montana. Its identification marks the discovery of a new genus of horned dinosaur.

Medusaceratops had giant brow bones more than 3 feet long over each eye, and a large, shield-like frill off the back of its skull adorned with large curling hooks. Medusaceratops lokii means "Loki’s horned-faced Medusa," referring to the thickened, fossilized, snake-like hooks on the side of the frill. It was named after Loki, the Norse god of mischief, because the new dinosaur initially caused scientists some confusion..."Although the ornamentation on the frill is pretty spectacular, it probably was not used for defense against predators; rather it was more likely prehistoric “bling” used to attract a mate."

Via Buzzfeed

Juliana Hatfield takes the direct to fan model a little further.

For the price of $1,000, I will write an original song tailor-made just for you, to you and about you, and I will record it in the mostly acoustic style of my newest album, 'Peace and Love,'.

She's only doing 20 of these total, and $1K is pretty steep, so this doesn't strike me as desperate.

via Folkinz

There are a bunch of movies coming out this summer and Joe Mathlete is not impressed with Hollywood's originality. What follows is a long, but necessary, excerpt to show you just how devoid of new ideas Hollywood is. If you're writing an original screenplay, stop immediately and find something on which to base it.

Look what movies are coming out this summer: Sex and the City 2 (sequel to a movie based on a TV show based on a book based on newspaper articles), Iron Man 2 (sequel to a movie based on a 2nd-tier comic book), Jonah Hex (based on a 5th-tier comic book), The A-Team (based on a campy 80s TV action show), Macgruber (based on a series of TV comedy skits based on a campy 80s TV action show) Robin Hood (beyond being basically a Bible story in terms of freshness, it’s also for all intents and purposes a sequel to the film Gladiator), Step Up 3D (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Toy Story 3 (sequel to a sequel… in 3D!), Shrek Forever (sequel to the sequel to the sequel to a movie based on fairy tales and fart jokes), Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (based on the sequel to a computer game), The Karate Kid (remake of an 80s movie that spawned several sequels, starring the sequel to Will Smith), Ramona and Beezuz (based on children’s books which have already inspired filmic adaptations), The Last Airbender (based on an animated TV series), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (based on a graphic novel), Nanny McPhee Returns (sequel to a movie based on a series of books), Piranha 3D (remake of a movie that was based on ripping off Jaws), Predators (you know, like the movie Predator, but plural!), Dinner for Schmucks (remake of a French film from a decade ago), Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (sequel to a movie called Cats and Dogs that I’d never heard of until I Googled it so I could write this). That’s not counting films whose plots are just lazy retreads of previous films. And that’s also not counting the Marmaduke movie.

I will say this right now: if there exists a finer metaphor for the creative bankruptcy of the Hollywood film system than a movie based on a half-century old comic strip that has been recycling the same five gags since blacks and whites had separate drinking fountains, I cannot imagine it.

Via JeffRubinJeffRubin.com and @jonahkeri