Allthyngs

A little while ago John posted an article about how North Korea is the type of country George Orwell had nightmares about. If you didn’t see the article/were too lazy to read it, here’s a tastefully designed chart of facts explaining just how batshit insane North Korea (and Mr. Jong Il) is.

This is possibly one of the most useful websites I have ever found. You can convert any youtube video to an mp3, you can select any part of the video and also edit its tags for iTunes, you can use it for songs that you can’t find or don’t feel like buying, or for comedy routines or something you want to listen to later. It doesn’t always work, it can be slow, and some videos require a few tries. When it works, however, it’s really awesome.

Check it out at Dirpy.com

Free your mind, explore the spaces of your soul. No? It’s all very zen. Anyways, here are some short animated movies of Allan Watts quotes animated by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The movies aren’t dirty or crude, but rather insightful and pleasant. They are funny, just not in same way South Park is.

Check them out at Freshminds.com

Thursday night, Jon Stewart spent almost 15 minutes doing a spot on impersonation of Glen Beck. It was wild, scary, and hilarious. Fan’s of the Daily Show are use to Jon’s characters, but this was a whole new level. He really showed his command of acting this time. If only he could have given as good a performance in the Faculty.

Check it out at Thedailyshow.com

People have been playing music in basements for a long time. Most of the time it’s crappy, but every once in a while good bands get back to their roots and play in underground spaces. From the Basement is a website that has high definition videos of performances by some awesome bands like Radiohead, Beck, Damien Rice, and Gnarls Barkley just to name a few. The bands play with no audience in small spaces that displays their talent. You can tell that they are having a lot of fun playing. Click around the videos there are a lot of good ones.

Check it out at Fromthebasement.tv

I go to Bowdoin, a small college in New England, and we have a lot of bizarre stereotypes. The first time I walked on campus I noticed that a lot of the boys rolled up their jeans a little too high so that their Tevas would poke out. We also have a lot of lacrosse bros who listen to too much Dave Matthews for anyone’s good. This video is technically about Middlebury, but the stereotypes it points out definitely apply to all of the other tiny liberal arts colleges in the area. Bowdoin doesn’t have a Quidditch team, but we are still G’s throwin some free granola.

This speech is from the year 2000, and it’s been floating around the internet for a while now, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the greatest speeches of all time. This speech proves Conan is as wise and enlightened as he is ridiculously hilarious. I’ve watched this speech a half dozen times over the last half dozen years, and every time it leaves me feeling like a better person. Let’s see Jay Leno pull that off. Watch the video, bookmark it, and then watch it a few more times down the road.

God damn, this is what the iPad should’ve been. Ever since the iPad was unveiled, I’ve been trying to figure out how I want technology to work in the future, how I want to interact with it and all that, and this is EXACTLY what I want. Microsoft has unveiled yet another in their recent line of extremely awesome and futuristic things that has totally restored my confidence in them. This one, called “skinput,” lets you use your arm as a touchpad. Check out the video because it’s insanely awesome, especially the part where a guy plays Tetris on his hand. Only one problem… how do I masturbate with it?

Read more about Skinput on Engadget.

Grooveshark is an internet radio site that lets you pick the songs you want to hear, which is really cool. You can listen to whole albums or selected songs, and you can even make a playlist that wont suck. There are a ton of bands on the site, but it’s mostly just newer bands, which is the one draw back. Definitely check it out though, because it’s a great way to listen to music. They even have apps you can use on your phone for a few bucks a month.

Listen away at Grooveshark.com

Yesterday, Grant shared with you a story called Nightfall which he thought was a pretty good Isaac Asimov story. Well, I’ve got a story that blows that story out of the water. In fact, my story is gonna kick his story’s ass so hard, one day someone will write a story about the beating that’ll be the best story of the three. Anyway, The Last Question is the real best Asimov story of all time, according to a little guy I like to call Isaac Asimov himself, who called it the best thing he ever wrote. It’s a bit lengthy but oh so worth it. If you like The Last Question, you should read Asimov’s The Last Answer too. It’s not like a sequel or anything, but it touches on some pretty similar themes.

Check out The Last Question here
And then read The Last Answer here.

Chances are you’re familiar with Isaac Asimov, whether you’re aware of it or not. He’s widely considered one of the top science fiction writers of all time, pretty much defined robots as we know them in fiction, and is indirectly responsible for the longest Converse commercial of all time (iRobot). Nightfall, one of his most famous short stories, tells the tale of a planet that experiences night only once every few thousand years. As well as inspiring the best thing Vin Diesel has ever done, Nightfall was voted the best science fiction story of all time in 1964. Although many notable works of science fiction have been written since then, Nightfall remains one of the greatest to this day.

Check it out if you have some time to kill, you can read the whole thing online here.

Like all things Australian, Dub FX is awesome. Using only his supernatural beatboxing skills and some echo-pedal doohickeys, Dub FX redefines the one-man band. Suck on that, Dick Van Dyke.

Check out his website for more: http://dubfx.bandcamp.com/, and for God’s sake buy his CD.

You know Bar Refaeli, the hard working bikini model you can find in this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue? Well to reward herself for doing all that grueling bikini wearing, she’s taking a beach vacation. I don’t know about you, but I think she deserves it. Here are some pictures of her having what’s probably a much awesomer vacation than you’ve ever had.

You can find the full photoset at Splash News Online

Sorry John, but it’s true, you guys shouldn’t get to vote. Watch this extremely hilarious video and try to tell me that people who live wherever this was filmed are just as well informed about the budget deficit and health care reform as I am. Although, he was pretty confident that he knew his rights.

Most of these pre-release movie interviews with the actors just go through how awesome it was making the movie, how much the actors love the director, and so on.  It’s all pretty much just marketing for the movie and some fodder to whet the pallet of viewers.  However, in this interview Paul Rudd and Jason Segel, who may or may not be baked out of their minds, take on an almost unbelievably young journalist, giving him the most incoherent, but hilarious interview of his life.

You may have seen this video before, but this is one of those things you can’t see too many times. 40 of the most inspirational speeches ever delivered mashed into 2 minutes; this video demonstrates beautifully that a speech doesn’t have to make any sense to be ridiculously inspiring. If you need some quick energy, this video will do it when you’re out of cocaine. Also check out some of the full versions of the speeches below after the jump (click “read more”), so bookmark this page in case you ever get tired again.

She does, just watch. It’s the most beautiful argument I’ve ever seen, I promise it’ll leave you speechless. It’s the kind of argument I think you have to watch two or three times to really appreciate though. It’s also much more effective coming from Hayden than when Pope Benedict made the same argument last summer [...]

There are some things in life that end way too soon. Fun sized candy bars, roller coasters, childhood, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. This video is one of those things. I really hope it doesn’t get snubbed at the Oscars this year, because it really deserves wins in several major categories.

Good Morning, Megan Video
Pictures from the Video

Kevin Hart is an underrated star. Not too many people include him among the premier comedians of the day, but he truly is a funny guy. I first saw him in that Low-Budget classic “Soul Plane” and was quite impressed with his awkward, yet strikingly amusing humor. He showcases his talents here in this excerpt from his “I’m a Grown Little Man” show, as he discusses his negative experience with an ostrich. This one keeps me laughing.

This is easily the funniest video I’ve seen on the internet this week, and the more you love Jersey Shore the funnier it will be. The question is– well actually I have about a million questions about how this video was made, but this is the biggest–did the kids already have accents, or was [...]