Adam Savage, the guy from Mythbusters, had a phone bill from AT&T for $11,000. Apparently he was in Canada and got heavily charged for light data usage. Just like any other phone company on the planet, AT&T sent him the bill, expecting just a call on it’s customer service line from a person famous for blowing things up.
Sadly, AT&T failed to recognise that Adam had over 50,000 Twitter Followers watching whatever @donttrythis said.
To those that don’t know, that’s a lot.
Eventually the noise got to someone vaguely important at AT&T whom stepped in and sensibly (for a phone company at least) cut the charges down to a far more manageable size. Cue cheering from huddled masses of Twitter followers…

The use of Twitter: Mobilizing thousands to do what only one voice cannot. Let’s just hope that Adam doesn’t use his new-found powers for evil…

[via Computerworld.com via Switched]

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve last talked to you, Man to Country, but I think it’s time that I said something…
Earlier this year, Barack Obama ecame your president. Your leader. And whilst most of the world rejoiced in the fact that no longer will we have to put up with “Dubya” in charged, others felt there was a reality distortion field of Steve Jobs levels in effect. Indeed, I was a bit sceptical, thinking that Obama was just an ordinary man and would do as normal politicians do but in a big white house, and that not much would change.
However, something has changed. Obama swatted a fly in an awesome manner. This showed impromptu competency, something missing from US governance for the last decade.

This is awe-inspiring, and I can only apologise for not trusting popular opinion sooner…

[via @KevinRose]

Watching it, I think some things are there for show. Such as the trowser pulling up without hands. And the bed acrobatics. Sadly, it doesn’t encourage me to get ready for work faster…

[via Japan Probe]

There’s a father and daughter team out in Moscow that trains cats and runs the Moscow Cat Theater (and it really, truly exists, the New York Times, along with a quick Googling, proves this…) It runs like a circus, with “high-wire” acts, balancing, etc.

Yes, it sounds crazy, and if there weren’t video, I wouldn’t have believed it. What I want to know is, what possessed someone to do this in the first place?

[via Derren Brown Blog]

BBC Internet Blog: How to say: “Web 2.0″?

[Chicken Head Tracking - Pennywhistle Productions]

Theory: Videogame movie starring beautiful women like Holly Valance, Devon Aoki and Jamie Pressly fighting each other on an island in an underground tournament whilst wearing skimpy clothing. And there’s an ulterior motive of the tournament, where the evil host wants to record all of the experts (in skimpy clothing) assembled’s fighting styles to sell to the highest bidder. And there’s volleyball. And skimpy outfits. It’ll be fun!

Practice: There is little or no reason to watch DOA: Dead or Alive except to stare at the stars covorting around in bikinis or otherwise (example – Valance coming out of a shower in a towel, then puts on her underwear in a fight scene). Indeed, the fights themselves seem a bit underwhelming and have the most tenuous of plotpoints.
If you’re watching it for the story, then you really need to get out more. It’s less story and more “excuses” for things to happen. Such as a fight on a boat against pirates. In swimwear. Or the oriental palace, leaving the clan by jumping over a wall which has a sheer cliff face on the other side, and whilst plummeting, allowing the oriental garb to tear away revealing modern clothing and an automatically opening hanglider. Or the volleyball being there just to fill up screentime with good looking women in skimpy outfits.

Is it a videogame movie? Yes.
Does it continue the trend of videogame movies? Yes.
Is it worth pointing out that the movie could be ignored except for the Holly Valance towel/underwear scene because for the most part the movie isn’t worth most people’s time unless they’re out to see women fighting, in skimpy outfits? Yes

Your first thought is probably “Dude, OMGWTFBBQ!”. Don’t worry, that was mine too. It’s an advert in spoken Japanese (Except the end catchline), subtitled, ending with a giant rubber duck destroying Japan because it hates water. It’s random, but it sure got my attention. There’s even a website with a few games to play, with instructions from the main stars of the advert.

Note to the drink Oasis: Any chance of Rubberduckzilla t-shirts? That would be awesomeness…

Well… VW have created a website (GTI Project) where you “test drive” a new Golf GTI. And by “test drive”, they mean “Control the acceleration of a slotcar that has a camera on it that you view from”. And just like real life, you can fly off the track with too much power and then waste a ton of time waiting for an engineer to put you back on the track. There’s even a contest to be able to “own” the car that’s being advertised for 3 months.

My current time: 23.92 with no crashes. Current fastest is nearer 13 seconds. It’s so damn difficult and addictive…

[GTI Project]

(Yes, it’s a thinly veiled attempt at getting a free t-shirt, you can’t blame me for that, surely!)