How do you mock over-the-top hype? With an over-the-top announcer. Leave it to Conan to supply a straightforward bit to strike at this trend du jour. Proving that for every Iranian election there are a million-fold tweets about getting your morning coffee.
Click the image to go to the YouTube video.
Read our take on using Twitter in a relevant way and stay out of Conan's cross-hairs.
Michael, Farrah, Ed McMahon, and now Billy Mays.
Just a quick clip when ESPN had Mays spoof himself without having him do anything differently at all.
Not as disappointing as The Phantom Menace, but close. If you like metal and steel and high-maintenance females, and don't have anything to do for about two and a half hours, you'll love Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen, opening everywhere this weekend. Here's the film in a nutshell - Things blow up. People run. Things shoot. People scream. Things explode. People jump in the air. I have a limit on how much firepower should be in a movie. Michael Bay doesn't.
But it's the vulgarity, not the overindulgence of explosives, that hurts the film the most.
20 minutes into the film, it transforms into American Pie. Sam is just arriving on campus with his viagra-fueled parents to check out the crazy dorm life. His mom smokes grass and tells some students about her son's sex life. Dad tries to calm her down, but not before she says "$#!t!" a few times and storms out. It gets better. 20 minutes later the movie transforms into Species. This part, well, you'll just have to see it for yourself. And the randiness isn't just saved for humans. Both dogs and robots, by my estimation, reach second base. Sometimes with a leg. Sometimes with each other. This combined with the crude, unnecessary language made me uncomfortable throughout the movie. I don't recall hearing the F-bomb, but if that's the case, it would be the only bomb not used in the movie.
There are bright spots. For starters - Dwight Schrute. Also the CGI is what you'd expect - top notch and mind blowing. John Turturro is again interesting - minus a brutally disgusting de-trouser scene. Sam's mom steals a few scenes. The rest of the cast do their best given the amount of green screens. And it's a good thing too, because Megatron can't act. Neither can Optimus Prime. The robot personalites are never explored, in turn making us care very little for who wins or loses. Plus it's hard to make heads or tails of who's fighting who in the battle scenes. Instead of focusing on well known characters like Soundwave and the Constructicons, Bay gives too much love to unknown personalities like Megatron's boss and some old beardy robot that has changed alliances.
The plot? I'm not sure there is one. I think it transformed into Megan Fox's lipstick. I suppose it involves saving Optimus. Which is perplexing given that Optimus Prime doesn't seem like an answer to the problem. This is a hero that always seems on the 101 headed for the battle driving as fast as possible to help out. (Also, I can't help hearing Eeyore everytime he talks). The movie is based on a missing piece to a puzzle, or some pyramid access or something. I'm not even sure. But delivering an incapacitated Optimus halfway around the world was the biggest part of the movie. And just as the military helicopter is carefully approaching the landing carring the wounded robot, it unleashed the ropes holding him, dropping him 3 stories on the concrete. This pretty much sums up the film. Never wasting a chance to have something loud crash onto something big.
Like 'Jurrasic Park', 'Transformers' charm came and went in the first film. By the time the seqal arrives, the curiosity and uniqueness is gone. What's left is just scrap metal.
While we can't quite attach lasers to sharks, it looks like the innovators at Altitude have the next best thing. We first saw the concept of the LightLane personal bike path a few months ago when it was entered in a competition. Now it appears the interest in it was so great that the high-powered lasers are being brought to life. 
The device is currently in the production engineering phase of development, but as you can see, the LightLane is well on its way to becoming a reality.
Recent video release of early beta testing 
We do miss the bike icon from the original concept, but likely a small sacrifice for the sake of simple production.
Designer Marianna Ludensky and international yo-yo pro Justin Weber have shot for the moon to create a new kinetic font made from yo-yoing.
Mischer’Traxler harnesses the sun's energy to make furniture. Of course, if the concept were as simple as that, we might say "my, isn't that clever" and continue on our way. But these Viennese designers put a sustainable twist on solar power. The machine turns out one piece a day that is a unique result of how sunny the day was.
The machine sends thread through dye and resin, then wraps it around a mould to form benches, containers and lamp shades. The more sun, the larger the piece. Color also varies with the amount of sun and shadow gracing the strands throughout the day. It's genius in its indigenousness.
They call their machine "The Idea of a Tree" based on the notion that every tree is a precise result of conditions, location and time. So, too, are the pieces created by the machine - one made each day by the whim of clouds and the earth's tilt.
And each piece is stamped with the time and location of its birth, so you would know if that adorable little lamp shade was created during an eclipse.
We were hoping to see some cabinetry as well, but as Mrs. Froeger said, no one knows anything about Hungarian cabinet-making.
As the Lakers wrap up their 15th championship, the story shifts to the victory parade. With L.A. and the whole Golden State facing an immense deficit and looming layoffs of some of the city's civil servants, the $1 million price tag for your typical ticker-tape parade might be just too hard for the City of Angels to swallow.
The city council seems split on the decision. Some think the franchise or the NBA should foot the bill. Others believe that the city has an obligation to put on the parade. One such zealot is Bernard Parks, who said "This is one of those things that happen once a decade."
Really? Apparently math is not one of the prerequisites of chairing L.A.'s Budget and Finance Committee. Because that would mean the Lakers is a storied 150-year franchise.
The team already won. Hopefully the city can find a creative solution that's a win for the fans, too.
Next time you're cleaning out the garage or tossing out a small appliance, think about these two resourceful artists who have taken every man's trash and turned it into treasures. 
CrashBonsai creator John Rooney smashes and melts little living car crash sculptures.
Gordon Bennett's robots bring sophistication to 50s sci-fi.
If you haven't checked out the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer study, we've got it here for you. An interesting read - a lot of what you might expect: Trust in corporations is at a 10-year low; however, consumers do put credence in the employees who advocate for their companies. So put a face (or at least a name) with your logo in your social networking endeavors. It'll go a long way to building your brand. Trust us.
You'll also note that the above study is brought to you via Scribd. This YouTube of the written word is a smart way to give your printed pieces, transcriptions and PDFs a place in the Web canon.
While the web dominates the news and the marketing world, it feels like the Discovery networks are single-handedly proving that television is still king in many respects, and certainly one traditional model that will not be surpassed quite so easily.
Take Animal Planet's latest series, River Monsters. If you didn't catch it this past season, you missed a whale of a tale. Hosted by eccentric biologist/extreme angler Jeremy Wade, the show hooked an average of 1 million+ households across a debut season that only boasted a mere 7 episodes, making it the highest-performing series in network history.
We hear the cynic in you: "Extreme angler? Thanks, but I've got some paint drying." But it's that exact cynicism that makes the show work. As Wade casts off, he relays tales of megafish that are swallowing people and draft animals whole and dastardly Amazonian mini-beasts that bore into unsuspecting swimmers. You think he's either going to catch simply a really big fish or pull up an empty hook and, with an exhausted grin, say, "Was that the great Goonch? We can only wonder." But then Bassmasters meets the Island of Dr. Moreau, and, well, a picture eats a thousand worms.
It took a village...
Who's catching who?
Can AP carry this success into the second season and beyond? It may have to fly-fish for Nessie to get there, but River Monsters has surprised us before.
