Worth doing.

‘Arrested Westeros.’ I feel like the only person on the planet who doesn’t totally love the new Tumblr that combines “Game of Thrones” screencaps with “Arrested Development” quotes. But YOU should enjoy it. [Uproxx]

Global Smurfs Day is a thing. These people need to get some mothersmurfing lives. [FilmDrunk]

CHINCHILLA MIME! This is the first mime I’ve ever liked. [bunnyfood]

Stupid Dustin Ackley. The results of my foray into fantasy baseball. I can’t believe 117th place didn’t pay out. What a rip-off. [With Leather]

Michael Bay is a visionary artist. This fan trailer of the new Transformers movie suggests that Bay works with explosions the same way Van Gogh used oils. [Gamma Squad]

More below, including an awesome Peter Dinklage “For Your Consideration” ad, more TV news, and a kitty watching Sean Penn.

Read the rest of this entry »

Stop the presses! You guys are never going to believe this, but if you watch more TV, you’re more likely to develop health problems.

Researchers combined data from eight [similar] studies and found that for every additional two hours people spend glued to the tube on a typical day, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes increases by 20% and their risk of heart disease increases by 15%.

And for every additional three hours the study participants spent in front of the TV, their risk of dying from any cause during the respective studies jumped 13%, on average.

The increased risk of disease tied to TV watching “is similar to what you see with high cholesterol or blood pressure or smoking,” says Stephen Kopecky, M.D., a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic. [CNN]

Look for the full results in the next issue No Sh*t Magazine. It’s the article written by Dr. Obvious.

A new study reveals that DVR units in the United States waste a butt-ton of energy every year. DVR boxes that are turned off and not recording a show still sap power from the grid, using the “same amount of energy annually as is produced by nine coal-burning power plants.”

About 160 million digital video recorders and cable and other pay-TV boxes in the U.S. eat up 27 terawatt-hours of electricity a year and cost consumers about $3 billion, according to researchers from the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Inactive boxes that aren’t recording or playing back shows account for about $2 billion of that cost, the study found. Hitting the off button only dims the box’s clock or display, leaving it to continue consuming nearly the same amount of power.

With some form of pay-TV box in 80% of U.S. homes, the technology eats up as much electricity each year as all the homes in Maryland, researchers said. Newer HD-DVR boxes use 275 kilowatt-hours annually, compared with the 17 kilowatt-hours required by a compact fluorescent light bulb. [LA Times]

Well yeah. I would expect the DVR to use a lot more energy than a light bulb. The light bulb isn’t recording “Justified” for me. The light bulb doesn’t allow me to fast-forward through commercials and watch Adult Swim shows at my convenience. So just go ahead and take all the energy you need, DVR. I’ll sit in a dark room without air conditioning before I unplug you.

(image via)

Meme Watch: Best of Hipster Edits. Don’t worry, that’s shorthand for “hipsters being edited,” not “hipsters editing.” Definitely worth your time. [Uproxx]

Depressing fantasies: Colts cheerleaders gather for a sexy calendar shoot along the exotic Ohio River. [With Leather]

Talking X-Men and fantasy box office: not at all nerdy. Listen to the dulcet sounds of fart jokes and Vince abusing the soundboard on the Frotcast. [FilmDrunk]

Funniest comic panels of the week. I checked: there weren’t any boobs. Some pretty good racism, though. [Gamma Squad]

It may be time to finally get Starz. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Olga Kuryalenko will star in “Magic City,” about mobsters in 1950s Miami. [Hollywood Reporter]

Nick Offerman to host TCAs. The Television Critics Association Awards aren’t televised, but it’s always nice to hear secondhand reports of the drunken exploits and rambling speeches. [HitFix]

Julie Benz: lesbian farmer. Benz will guest star on “Royal Pains.” [TV Guide]

Surprise, surprise. Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixera filmed cameos for “Entourage.” Makes sense: Yankees fans are the “Entourage” fans of sports. [Page Six]

(images via bunnyfood)

Rhett and Link are the guys behind I Love Local Commercials. If you’re a savvy Internet veteran, you might recognize them as the guys who would go around and make insane commercials for small local businesses. Now they’ve got a new show coming to IFC called “Rhett and Link: Commercial Kings,” in which they travel the country and document their goofy commercial-making. Below I’ve got a full preview for the show, plus — even better — a one-minute ad they did for a lady with a cat hotel.

And if you can’t get behind the idea of a cat hotel, then you clearly don’t belong here. I like to imagine that it’s a hotel for cats by cats, with little kitty bellhops to carry bags and a snooty Siamese as the maitre d’ and Japanese business cats as the clientele ordering Persian hooker cats to their rooms. The only way that could be funnier is if none of that were true, and the cat hotel was just one old lady taking care of a bunch of cats.

Read the rest of this entry »