We Have Moved

Dear Reader,

We have moved our blog over to the tumblr platform. You can see the new site here: www.stuffsmartppllike.com

If you are an RSS subscriber to either the blog or the podcast chances are that you will not see an interruption in your content. However, if you don't want that leave that to chance, you should update your subscriptions:

RSS feed
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There may be some bumps in this transition period, but please bear with us. We believe you will like the new look and functionality. See you on tumblr.

-The Editors

The Aniston Effect: a Tale of Two Halves of a Career

Today, the Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston flick Wanderlust premiers in theaters. This film marks Aniston's 13^th feature film in the post-Friends era. Believe it or not, Aniston's cinematic career spans all the way back to Leprechaun (1993).

Personally I think most of Aniston's films range from average to pretty terrible, with more films fitting in the latter category. However, this is just my own impression of her work. I have no data to back this up. What's more, in order to make an assertion about the quality of her work I would need a baseline to compare it to (e.g., average quality of all movies released, average quality of films released by former Friends cast members) and depending on the yardstick, Aniston could come out better or worse, so it's not really a question worth asking.

On the other hand, I can evaluate the quality of her body of work over time using data from critic and fan sites to determine if there are any interesting patterns in the data (e.g., trends in quality and box office revenue). That is what I aim to do with this post.

On building a lego scale model of the Death Star

Some might say why? Some might say who cares? I say it's an empirical question.

(Source: Wired)

Trailer Thursday extra

Hey gang!

Usually "Trailer Thursday" is set aside for a film trailer. But I wanted to get in and share a videogame that's due out later this year (September 21st to be precise).

Borderlands 2: A game that I am only partially familiar with, is releasing what appears to be a  pretty fun and exciting sequel. Borderlands did a great job of mixing first person shooter action with some RPG elements in a fantastic apocalyptic wasteland. The second iteration appears to be much of the same, but the trailer truly has me hooked. If you ever wanted to know what gets my gamer engine running, its silly intertitles and dubstep; and this trailer has both of those in spades.

Live Bill Maher #crazystupidpolitics tonight on Yahoo! screen

Love him or hate him Bill Maher has opinions and is not afraid to use them. Tonight he's also doing something very interesting -- live streaming his stand-up special "Crazy Stupid Politics: Bill Maher Live from Silicon Valley" tonight at 7:30pm PST/10:30pm CST at Yahoo! screen.

This special marks the launch of Yahoo! screen's comedy channel, which will feature short videos ala "Funny or Die." I'm going to try to tune in. If you are also watching hit me up on twitter @edomaniac.