Everything wrong with 'Gremlins'

Embed soon.

Fan-made LEGO Joker Funhouse

Via Laughing Squid, with plenty of photos here.

2013 NFL Picks Week 17

Finished last week at 10-6, with several upsets. Overall % stayed at 58, and I will need to go 14-2 this week to finish above 60%. Hey, I can dream, right? Here's where I went wrong Week 16:

Miami, fighting for a playoff spot, was somehow shut out at Buffalo (who had nothing to play for). New Orleans lost against Carolina in the final minute, and I lost that toss-up. Kansas City already locked up the 5th seed in the AFC I believe, so they had nothing to play for and therefore lost to Indianapolis. In another upset, the New York Giants knocked Detroit out of playoff contention with a 3 point win on the road. And in the final upset, Seattle lost to Arizona, who was also fighting for a playoff spot (and still is). And although Green Bay lost to Pittsburgh, they are still in a "win and in" position against Chicago this week. That game along with the Philadelphia Dallas game, and other games with playoff implications, will factor heavily into my pics this week. 0-1 in upsets last week.

Spoiler Alert! Philadelphia will beat Dallas by 2+ TDs, and Green Bay will triumph with Aaron Rodgers back in action. And what do my picks mean for the remaining playoff spots? In the NFC: Seattle, Carolina, Philadelphia, Green Bay, New Orleans, and San Francisco are in, in that order. In the AFC: Denver, New England, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Miami are in, in that order.

Sunday, 1pm
Carolina Panthers at Atlanta Falcons
Washington Redskins at New York Giants
Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings
New York Jets at Miami Dolphins
Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers
Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts
Houston Texans at Tennessee Titans
Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, 4pm
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints
Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
San Francisco 49ers at Arizona Cardinals
Kansas City Chiefs at San Diego Chargers
St. Louis Rams at Seattle Seahawks
Denver Broncos at Oakland Raiders
Sunday, 8:30pm
Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys

no upset picks as of 12:30pm Sunday 12/29

Previous Results
Week 1: 11-5
Week 2: 11-5
Week 3: 7-9
Week 4: 8-7
Week 5: 8-6
Week 6: 9-6
Week 7: 8-7
Week 8: 9-4
Week 9: 7-6
Week 10: 6-8
Week 11: 9-6
Week 12: 7-6-1
Week 13: 11-5
Week 14: 11-5
Week 15: 8-8
Week 16: 10-6
Season: 140-99-1 (58%)

Eagles vs. Bears: Behind the Numbers 2013

TOTAL DOMINATION! Much like last week, though for the opposite reason, I won't be commenting much on this game. Despite knowing beforehand that the game essentially meant nothing to the Eagles, they came out in full force and completely dominated the Chicago Bears (who actually had something to play for). It wasn't even close, and it was 21-0 before you could blink. And I was lucky enough to be at the game.

As you can see, the dominating game by the Eagles is reflected wonderfully by the numbers. Despite each running 63 offensive plays, the Eagles gained double the yards the Bears did (average gain and total). In fact, the only offensive category that the Birds didn't best the Bears in was passing yards, though that was negated when sacks were factored in. Philadelphia did far better in the penalty department than they did last week, and won the turnover battle again (which resulted in 14 points including a pick 6). And obviously the rushing yards indicate that LeSean McCoy had another monster game, but so did Bryce Brown. Everything speaks for itself here.

Are we close to "Eternal Sunshine" memory erasing?

Believe it or not, there is technology being developed to erase memories, just like in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. From UPROXX:

It’s long been held that there can be benefit to erasing memories; after all, if you’re constantly reliving a painful memory, getting rid of it sounds like bliss. And now, there’s actual science that lets us do this.  

The basic idea is to blast your noggin with electricity while it’s transferring memories, like of like yanking the power on a hard drive while it’s transferring files. OK, so that’s an oversimplification, but that’s essentially how memory erasing works, according to Nature:  

"The team later prompted patients to recall only one of the stories by replaying part of that slide show. Immediately afterwards, when the reactivated memory is thought to be vulnerable, the patients received electroconvulsive therapy. One day later, when given a multiple-choice memory test, patients were significantly worse at remembering details from the reactivated story, performing near chance." 

If you were wondering, yes, electroconvulsive therapy is “shocking mentally ill people with electricity.” As bizarre as it sounds, ECT does actually work in specific cases, even if nobody really knows why, and it’s usually paired with drugs to treat depression. It is also the last resort, however.  

This still needs a lot of research; the memories eventually come back, so this method of memory erasing isn’t perfect. But it seems likely that sooner, rather than later, we’ll all be living in a Jim Carrey movie. Hey, at least it’s not The Number 23.

Eagles vs. Vikings: Behind the Numbers 2013

Umm, I'm not even going to apologize for posting this 2 weeks late. Everyone know how the game ended up, and I'm really not going to comment much on it. It was an all around awful game by the Eagles, and no twisting or analyzing of the numbers will disprove that. Moving on...

Okay, so the offensive numbers are actually pretty close, with the Eagles coming out on top in total yards, average gain, and passing yards. But I digress: we all know the defense lost the game for them. Penalties were a factor as well, with 9 for 94 yards compared to only 3 for 25 for the Vikings.

The Auteurs of Christmas

20 Surprising Things You Might Not Know About 'A Christmas Story'

To celebrate the currently airing marathon of "A Christmas Story", here's some things you may not know about the classic movie:

Click here!

'Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee' Season 3 Trailer

View from the Eagles game

2013 NFL Picks Week 16

8-8 last week, which just isn't gonna cut it (though it didn't hurt my overall too much). It will be tough to raise my percentage considerably these last 2 weeks, unless I win 24 of the remaining 32 games (75%). But before I get on to this week's picks, let's take a look back at Week 15:

I was surprised by how poorly Denver played, as they lost by a TD to San Diego. I can't seem to pick Jacksonville correctly, as they were unable to continue their run with a loss to Buffalo. The Eagles were embarrassed by the Vikings, which came as a huge surprise to me. Miami is playing tough lately, and was able to overcome New England in another upset. New Orleans also played pretty bad, losing to lowly St. Louis on the road. I ended up losing the final 3 games on Sunday, with that ridiculous Green Bay comeback over Dallas, Cincinnati looking like crap against the Steelers, and Detroit losing at home to Justin Tucker Baltimore. I only had one upset pick and was wrong; 7 of my 8 losses were upsets so maybe I should have picked more!

Sunday, 1pm
Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills
Denver Broncos at Houston Texans
Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars
New Orleans Saints* at Carolina Panthers
Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins
Cleveland Browns at New York Jets
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at St. Louis Rams
Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs
Minnesota Vikings at Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday, 4pm
New York Giants at Detroit Lions
Arizona Cardinals at Seattle Seahawks
Pittsburgh Steelers at Green Bay Packers
Oakland Raiders at San Diego Chargers
New England Patriots at Baltimore Ravens
Sunday, 8:30pm
Chicago Bears at Philadelphia Eagles
Monday, 8:30pm
Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers

*upset pick as of 12:45pm Sunday 12/22

Previous Results
Week 1: 11-5
Week 2: 11-5
Week 3: 7-9
Week 4: 8-7
Week 5: 8-6
Week 6: 9-6
Week 7: 8-7
Week 8: 9-4
Week 9: 7-6
Week 10: 6-8
Week 11: 9-6
Week 12: 7-6-1
Week 13: 11-5
Week 14: 11-5
Week 15: 8-8
Season: 130-93-1 (58%)

What does the Philly Phanatic say?

Full size working LEGO car?

If this is legit, it's amazing. Even if not, it's still impressive.

Between Two Ferns: Christmas Fucking Spectacular

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Happy Holidays Edition from Between Two Ferns

Zach Galifianakis makes a creepy Santa

The Mythbusters take on 'Star Wars'

Eagles vs. Lions: Behind the Numbers 2013

Last week's game against the Detroit Lions was called "The Snow Bowl" and for good reason. The first half was basically a blizzard, and the second half had to deal with half a foot of snow on the ground (and it was still snowing). After a sloppy start, the Eagles were able to put together a dominant second half and came away with a crucial win. With Dallas losing Monday night, the Eagles are in now in sole possession of first place in the NFC East, and in great position to win the division. Let's check out the numbers, but keep in mind the conditions of the game played a huge role:

Despite the conditions, the numbers look great for the Eagles. They accumulated nearly 500 yards of total offense, which is quite impressive considering they had a whopping 3 in the first quarter and only 92 in the first half. Passing yards were down for both teams, but that was expected. What wasn't expected was the Eagles finishing one lonely yard shy of 300 rushing yards on the day; LeSean McCoy was on fire late in the game and set a new Philadelphia Eagles single game rushing record (217). Detroit only managed 80 for the entire game. And while Philly didn't fare too well on third downs (25 vs 33%) they played a pretty clean game with only 1 penalty for a measly 5 yards and one turnover (Nick Foles' first interception of the year!). The Birds also ran more plays than the Lions, and averaged a tremendous 7 yards per play to their 3.9. Oh, and they had more than double the number of Detroit first downs (23 to 11). At the end of the day, the numbers here support the 34-20 win that the Eagles recorded.

'Interstellar' - Christopher Nolan's latest

'Naked Gun' reboot with Ed Helms?

From Vulture:

Variety reports Helms has signed on to star in a new Naked Gun movie, playing the part of Detective Frank Drebin made famous by Leslie Nielsen. Thomas Lennon and R. Ben Garant will write the script. The Naked Gun franchise, which was created by the parody trio of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker (ZAZ), was a modest hit in the late eighties and early nineties, with the second film, Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear, becoming the highest grosser, earning nearly $87 million domestically. There's no word on a director or whether anyone from the original movies, including ZAZ, will be involved. O.J.'s excited, though.

2013 NFL Picks Week 15

Deja vu! Finished Week 14 the same as the previous week at 11-5, which also raised my overall by 1%. I have 3 weeks left to keep up the trend, and hopefully I can make it to at least 60%, if not to 65% to match last year's total. Here's where I went wrong:

Much like last week, the majority of my losses were in 1 score games. The exception? Tampa Bay blowing out Buffalo 27-6; so much for that upset pick. Houston was unable to beat Jacksonville (again). Miami was able to upset Pittsburgh on the road. Seattle lost only their second game of the year, this time to San Francisco on the road; unfortunately Atlanta was unable to do the same at Green Bay. 0-3 in upset picks, which isn't as bad as it sounds considering there were only 2 upsets all week (Jacksonville and Miami). Hopefully Week 15 bodes a little bit better:

Thursday, 8:25pm
San Diego Chargers at Denver Broncos
Sunday, 1pm
San Francisco 49ers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buffalo Bills at Jacksonville Jaguars*
Seattle Seahawks at New York Giants
Philadelphia Eagles at Minnesota Vikings
New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins
New Orleans Saints at St. Louis Rams
Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts
Arizona Cardinals at Tennessee Titans
Washington Redskins at Atlanta Falcons
Sunday, 4pm
Kansas City Chiefs at Oakland Raiders
New York Jets at Carolina Panthers
Green Bay Packers at Dallas Cowboys
Sunday, 8:30pm
Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers
Monday, 8:30pm
Baltimore Ravens at Detroit Lions

*upset pick as of 3pm Thursday 12/12

Previous Results
Week 1: 11-5
Week 2: 11-5
Week 3: 7-9
Week 4: 8-7
Week 5: 8-6
Week 6: 9-6
Week 7: 8-7
Week 8: 9-4
Week 9: 7-6
Week 10: 6-8
Week 11: 9-6
Week 12: 7-6-1
Week 13: 11-5
Week 14: 11-5
Season: 122-85-1 (58%)

26 Interesting Facts About Beer

The Hobbit (South Park season finale)

NEW YORK, December 9, 2013 - Wendy tries to fix up one of her girl friends with Butters on an all-new episode of "South Park" titled "The Hobbit," premiering Wednesday, December 11 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.

Wendy tries to prove a point about how much pressure little girls feel to look like celebrities. Her latest soapbox issue gets her in trouble with everyone at school. It also gets Clyde a new girlfriend.

(SPS)

One way to spice up those NFL player intros

Just wait for it. Be sure to have the sound on, 4th guy in:

Star Wars + Bohemian Rhapsody =

Surprisingly not bad!

How useful were 'The Walking Dead' characters so far this season? INFOGRAPHIC

Via

2013 NFL Picks Week 14

Finally, another great week. I finished Week 13 at 11-5, which was my best since Week 8 (9-4). It raised my overall by 1% to 57 and put me over 100 correct predictions for the season. Let's hope the trend can continue in Week 14, but first I'll go over the 5 incorrect predictions from last week.

As good as 11 wins was, it could have been better. The 5 losses were by a combined 19 points, or about 4 points per game on average. All 5 were within 1 possession, with the largest deficit being only 7 points. Baltimore was able to hold on at home against Pittsburgh in a toss-up. Minnesota upset Chicago in OT. Jacksonville was able to win its 2nd in a row, beating Cleveland on the road. Buffalo was unable to beat Atlanta at home in a toss-up, and likewise for San Diego losing to Cincinnati. 1-3 in upset picks.

Week 14 picks below:

Thursday, 8:25pm
Houston Texans at Jacksonville Jaguars
Sunday, 1pm
Miami Dolphins at Pittsburgh Steelers
Detroit Lions at Philadelphia Eagles
Oakland Raiders at New York Jets
Cleveland Browns at New England Patriots
Minnesota Vikings at Baltimore Ravens
Kansas City Chiefs at Washington Redskins
Buffalo Bills* at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Indianapolis Colts at Cincinnati Bengals
Atlanta Falcons* at Green Bay Packers
Sunday, 4pm
Tennessee Titans at Denver Broncos
St. Louis Rams at Arizona Cardinals
Seattle Seahawks* at San Francisco 49ers
New York Giants at San Diego Chargers
Sunday, 8:30pm
Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints
Monday, 8:30pm
Dallas Cowboys at Chicago Bears

*upset picks as of 8pm Thursday 12/5

Previous Results
Week 1: 11-5
Week 2: 11-5
Week 3: 7-9
Week 4: 8-7
Week 5: 8-6
Week 6: 9-6
Week 7: 8-7
Week 8: 9-4
Week 9: 7-6
Week 10: 6-8
Week 11: 9-6
Week 12: 7-6-1
Week 13: 11-5

Season: 111-80-1 (57%)

Eagles vs. Cardinals: Behind the Numbers 2013

4 in a row! The Philadelphia Eagles won their 4th consecutive game, with the last two at home. They held on to beat the Arizona Cardinals by a score of 24-21, and once again sit atop the NFC East tied with the Dallas Cowboys. In reality the division will probably come down to that week 17 matchup, so the Eagles do control their own destiny. Enough of that; the Birds actually beat a team with a winning record, and will look to do the same next week. Let's once again dissect the numbers from the game, in which trends, both good and bad, have continued:

Once again the final score was closer than the game actually was. The Eagles may have only won by 3 points, but this game was essentially over after the first drive of the 3rd quarter. Wow, I sound like a broken record, but it's been the case the last few games. And much like the last few games, the numbers were closer than one may think. In fact, Philadelphia was outgained and outpassed, achieved one less first down, and fared worse on third downs. Astonishingly Arizona actually ran less plays than the Eagles, which may be a first for the season. Normally the Birds capitalize on their plays, but in this game they gained about a yard less per play. On the upside they did fare slightly better than the Cardinals in the penalty department (5 for 48 yards vs. 6 for 55) and were able to force 3 turnovers, which resulted in 7 points. (Keep in mind the penalties for both teams came at key moments and cost their respective teams.) Despite the evenness of the numbers the Eagles outscored the Cardinals, which is the most important stat of any game.

Titties and Dragons

NEW YORK, December 2, 2013 The doors to the mall will finally open THIS WEEK and ONLY ONE GAMING DEVICE WILL BE THE WINNER on an all-new episode of “South Park” titled “TITTIES AND DRAGONS,” premiering Wednesday, December 4 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on Comedy Central.

Princess Kenny’s charm has brought more and more support to THE PLAYSTATION CAMP. Cartman and Kyle HAVE NOT WAVERED IN THEIR LOYALTY TO X-BOX. BUT NOW, THE WAIT IS OVER. It’s time for everyone WHO HAS LINED UP to seize their opportunity for Black Friday sales. it’s going to be a bloodbath AND ONLY one side will be left standing.

(SPS)

Morgan Freeman: Painting or Photo?

Take good look at the portrait of Morgan Freeman below. If you had to guess, would you wager that it is a photograph or a painting? You may be surprised at the answer. Find out after the jump!

Why are bad words bad?

We'll have to wait until February 9th for more 'The Walking Dead'

From Vulture:

When it comes down to it, the only thing worse than the prospect of too many zombies is the prospect of no zombies at all. AMC revealed that The Walking Dead will have its mid-season premiere on Sunday, February 9, meaning you'll likely have to turn to your loved ones or religious belief system or other source of deep strength in order to make it through the next two months. Good luck, everyone.

Ron Burgundy anchors a real news broadcast

Clip below, with the full broadcast at the link (won't embed).

KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson