I still have no idea what the Ad Council does, or why they do it, but I really don’t care after watching this hilarious PSA commercial promoting arts education. Whatever it is they do, as long as it features a wall-smashing Johannes Brahms distributing a hearty Guten TAAAAAG!, I’m sold.

YouTube Link. [via BoingBoing]

UPDATE: As Susan Jacobsen (apparently of the actual Ad Council) points out in the comments, the Ad Council is an important non-profit organization dedicated to the creation and distribution valuable public service announcements tackling a wide range of issues, many of which have become iconic campaigns over the years. This info is for those of you people who didn’t already know. You know who I’m talking about. For shame.

I, for one, am absolutely thrilled that someone from the Ad Council actually took time to read, and comment on, It Makes Your Nose Tickle. This makes the first IMYNT reader who isn’t A) a family member, or B) myself.

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Geeks and techies around the globe are looking forward to the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 3 web browser, scheduled for official release on June 17th. In addition to the rollout, the Firefox marketing community at SpreadFirefox.com (which I am conveniently a member) is looking to set a Guiness World Record for most software downloads in 24 hours (since no previous record of that kind has been set, it shouldn’t be too hard to achieve).

I’ve been using a portable version Firefox 3 RC2 for the past few weeks and I must highly recommend the download. All of my friends and family are faithful Firefox converts, thanks to me, and I’m sure to be installing this latest major release for them as well. When its finally released tomorrow (June 17), head on over to GetFirefox.com to upgrade!

SpreadFirefox.com Download Day 2008

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Some generous humanitarian has posted fourteen pages of some of the best Tonight Show “Headlines.” They are best read all at once, and in order… by page three I was rolling on the floor with laughter-tears streaming down my cheeks… in the office… during business hours.

Link [via BoingBoing]

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This is surveillance footage from inside and outside a bank as an F5 tornado ripped through Parkersburg, Iowa Memorial Day weekend with winds exceeding 200mph. Several angles from the interior of the bank show windows exploding and debris flying in every direction. The exterior security camera captured the tornado leveling a house that was located across the street from the bank. No one was inside the bank at the time, though this series of storms killed eight people in the Parkersburg area.

Interior Bank Security Camera Footage – Weather.com

Exterior Bank Security Camera Raw Footage – Weather.com

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Sigur Ros, the Icelandic band best described as what Radiohead would be if they were even more innovative, has announced the release of their newest album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (English translation: with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly) due to hit shelves on June 24th. If you can’t wait until then, they have also kindly released the first track from the album called Gobbledigook as a free mp3 download availiable at SigurRos.com. There you can also watch the NSFW music video for the track, featuring the same tree-dwelling nudists that grace the cover of the new album.

From the Sigur Ros MySpace bulletin:

Inspired by the unfettered feeling of the acoustic performances filmed during Heima [their most recent Live album and concert film], Sigur Rós decided to adopt a looser approach in the writing and creation of their brilliant fifth album. The material for the album was written, recorded and mixed entirely in 2008 and is being released just one month after its completion. The album glows with the perfect imperfection of live takes, the sounds of fingers playing guitar strings, cracked notes, and a stark, upfront presence not found in previous Sigur Rós recordings, moving away from reverb-soaked guitar sounds towards something altogether more affecting. The record also contains some of the most joyous music the band has ever recorded.

www.sigur-ros.co.uk – Official Sigur Ros Site
sigurros.com – Free Download of Gobbledigook
myspace.com/sigurros – Sigur Ros MySpace Profile

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Head over to nin.com to grab the new Nine Inch Nails album “one hundred percent free” and herald in the death of the traditional recording industry! Just enter your email and Trent will send you a link to download the album in a variety of formats and including a PDF with artwork and album credits. The Slip is also licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license, meaning you’re free to share, remix and redistribute it in almost any non-commercial way you see fit. On the minimalist blog post announcing the release, Trent proclaims “thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me.” Cheers!

theslip.nin.com

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This morning at 4:37am a magnitude 5.2 earthquake shook the Midwest and Southenrn Illinois. Local news channel WAVE-TV was on the air as their studio began to shake during the weather report. Its funny, as the weatherman nervously continues through his weather report as studio lights shake overhead and external cameras bobble around, and his female co-anchor considers hiding under her desk.

View Video [USA Today]

Additional videos from the studio [WAVE-TV]

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In addition to providing all their music as high quality, unrestricted, DRM-free mp3s, you can also find some freebies at the Amazon.com Music Download store. Unlike those other freebies you download, these freebies are totally legit… no need to worry about the RIAA knocking down your door and violating your nether-cavities.

Sure, a bunch of the freebies are duds, but with some patient searching you can find a gem. Case-in-point, I urge everybody to grab a copy of “Dead Sound” by The Raveonettes from their newest album Lust Lust Lust. I first heard this duo on Letterman and got hooked to their distortion-laden ’50s style rock-n-roll mixed with a modern Indie sound and vocal harmonies. See kiddies, I can sound like I’m hip to the music scene, too.

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Robot technology sure has come a long way since those plastic toy’s that shot sparks out of their mouths that we use to play with as kids. The following are three videos from the interwebs displaying what happens as these androids cross the “Rise Of The Machines” threshold.

Our first entry from Japan is a bulky, human-shaped robot that can jump up to its feet from lying flat on its back, all Jackie Chan-style. Unlike Jackie, this robot hasn’t quite mastered the standing-up and kicking ass part, to which we should be thankful.

Are people with Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) equally afraid of robot snakes? Now is the best time to find out, since the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University have developed just that: robot snakes! These wriggly guys can shimmy up walls, swim through water and even scale the inside of a drain pipe. The best part in the video comes when it climbs a dude’s leg!

Finally, as the creepiest of the creepiest, comes the BigDog developed by Boston Dynamics for the US Department of Defense. This four-legged robot is more of a mule then a dog, in both size and function, designed with the idea that it will help soldiers carry heavy loads over rough terrain. And rough terrain it can handle, indeed! Its advanced sensors help it stay upright under any condition, even when forcibly kicked in the side by someone in this demonstration. Skip to the middle of the video to see it slip and slide over a patch of ice, to which I could not stop laughing simply because it looks like a real animal! You almost feel bad for it as it struggles to regain its footing!

Via Gizmodo, Gizmodo, Gizmodo

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Add another desktop wallpaper site to the pile: Social Wallpapering is a community desktop background site featuring almost 3,000 (and growing) high quality images for standard, widescreen and dual-monitor setups. Most images are photographic, with a few digital and 3-D illustrations thrown into the mix. Social Wallpapering is a cut above the rest, featuring easy to use filtering and even an RSS feed to subscribe to the latest uploads.

www.socwall.com

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