Gangnam Style hits one billion views on YouTube

Gangnam Style hits one billion views on YouTube.

First video ever to do that. 

I heard about the video on South Park. It seemed to me to be just a perfectly ordinary rap-type music video. It's a bit funny and self-ironic and has some nice girls (I like the faux red-head), but nothing exceptional.  What the heck has made it break all records on Youboobs?

Update: I'm not the only one wondering. Thanks to A for pointing to this explanation, which I like.
I have to admit the thing is growing on me like a fungus. He does have a fearless and consistent sense of humor.
(English lyrics.)
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... Anyway, this version (I think it's the same song!...) has more of the girlie:

Update: aha: it's catchy. The kind that drills into your brain and sticks there until you take it out with a hammer or industrial drugs. You've been warned.

Below: Clint Eastwood must be so proud.

Creature Comforts, on art

[Thanks to Dave]

All from Creature Comforts, which I like a lot. It was an acquired taste for me, because unlike say Wallace and Gromit, there's no action, and the humor is understated. It is actual interviews with ordinary people, set to clay animation.



Some of these answers are quite interesting too.

Shagging on the floor

(See larger by clicking on the youtube logo.)

Fishy tornado

Som Sabadell flash-orchestra

[Thanks to Signalroom]

The automatic research author

(Article) This is either great, or damn scary, or both!
If it really works well, I'd not have expected such a thing to happen for another couple of decades. Even in just one of the many applications he claims, it seems astonishingly advanced.




Computers won’t be replacing humans for writing the great American novel or entertaining the masses on TV, but it is obvious that computers will be an increasing fixture in the analysis and translation of content. This is a perfect complement to human creativity — not something for creatives, researchers, or consumers to fear.

I hope so. I think many people's first reaction is fear, particularly big visions of what happened to typesetters in the eighties soon happening to writers and video game producers and whatnot. But it does seem to potentially have great promise in areas where human production would just be too costly, where the potential market is very small. And the devil's advocate might say: if you can't do your job better than a machine, how much did you really contribute? Of course getting people to actually pay for the additional quality a human touch can add, can be very tricky, sadly.

... No sooner written than I stumble over an example of the sometimes-poor quality of human writing, this article on the very same site, about android sex partners. The writer talks about androids (humanoid robots), but calls them "cyborgs", which is another thing, it's part human, part machine, Robocop for example.

Update:
Bert said:
Wonderful... in some utopian world. Anyone who has done extensive research through literature will tell you that the bulk of the work is identifying and discarding the garbage. I cannot see how a computer would achieve this, except in areas where the amount of source material is large enough to isolate any and all outliers. And even that implies some degree of real understanding of the topic at hand...
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Karaoke the News: So Long, Farewell

Wow. Words don't do justice. "The Daily"'s farewell.

Kite master

[Thanks to Henry]

Not obvious at the beginning, but this is one guy flying 3 kites, the center one from hooks attached to his belt.  Ray Bethell, a resident of Vancouver, B C, is one of the most famous kite flyers in the world.

Just incredible.
Note the ending. Dang nice.
What muscles does he use to control the middle one??

Update:
This one is also really great.

Cat-Friend vs Dog-Friend

I think this is quite funny.
Although I think the makers probably are dog-people, because they make the cat a total a-hole. Which I don't think they are, they are just aloof and generally selfish. I like cats though.