Sure, TV is a tough business — but having the show you’ve slaved over for the better part of a year canceled by executives after just one episode? Heartbreaking! Until, that is, you start to look at just what shows have been subjected to this kind of premature death. You’ll wonder how they ever got approved in the first place!

Heil, Honey, I’m Home!

A domestic family sitcom about Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. Whaddaya mean it’s not funny?! Part I is below, and part II is here.

Osbournes: Reloaded

An ill-fated variety show starring Ozzy Osbourne and his fantastically messed-up family! The first thing they do in the first episode? Pick two random strangers from the audience and force them to make out on live TV! Almost makes me miss that Hitler sitcom. (more…)

It’s an all-new 5-day trivia hunt,
with an all-new set of puzzles, prizes, and now, a major sponsor!

Co-puzzle Master Josh Halbur and I are thrilled to announce that How Did You Know? now has its very own Geritol. Yes, the extraordinary video sharing site motionbox.com, which I’ve written about on this site before, is now sponsoring our monthly 5-day trivia hunt.

>> What does that mean for HDYK? We’ve got an investor interested in helping us take the game to the next level. So please, before you do anything else, mosey on over to motionbox.com and see all the amazing services they offer, most for free!

>> What does that mean for you gamers? Better prizes! Each month, motionbox.com will be giving out 3 prizes: a free premium subscription on their site; a Vado 8GB HD cam. Plus, the winner of the cam will get the opportunity to purchase a discounted premium membership on motionbox, as well.

>> How do you win? We’ve got new rules, so pay attention: anyone who submits any kind of answers at all, right or wrong, is now eligible for a prize. So long as you submit, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win the free, premium subscription to motionbox.com, worth $49.99. Next: the $199.99 Vado 8GB HD cam. Anyone who submits all the correct answers within 24 hours of the final puzzle post on day 5, will be eligible for a drawing for the this amazing little gadget that holds up to 2 hours in brilliant HD.

>> So what’s in it for the person/team who finishes first with all the correct answers? Bragging rights, as always, with your photo/bio posted on our site. But also two chances to win the motionbox.com prizes, and, as is our tradition here at the _floss, your pick of any t-shirt from our store.

There you have it! If you’re not a Fan of our Facebook page , be sure to add us so we can keep you updated, and you can get in on some pretty nifty clues throughout the week. If you’re new to our five-day hunt, you can read up on our new Rules page here. If you missed Day 1, that’s right this way, while Day 2 is right over here and Day 3, down yonder, while Day 4 is right over here.

BREAKING NEWS… In honor of Cyber Monday, we’re offering 10% off in our store to anyone who submits answers this month, right or wrong! Just send them over to us here (TriviaHunt@Gmail.com) and we’ll shoot you back the discount code.

Okay… Ready to get your final Hunt on? Click on through.

Thanksgiving is over, and the other holidays aren’t quite here yet, so that can only mean one thing: it’s shopping season. At least, it is for me. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all of the sales and “deals” that will take us through December 26th or so – it’s awfully tempting for someone who likes to shop a little too much.
A couple of my friends and I are kicking off our holiday shopping with a trip to Minneapolis next week – which will, of course, include a stop at the Mall of America. In preparation for the trip, here are a few facts about the biggest mall in the United States.

1. First, a clarification. Whether it’s the biggest mall in the U.S. or not depends on what you’re measuring. If you’re measuring by the sheer amount of retail sales, MOA comes in second to the King of Prussia mall in Pennsylvania (where I used to work!). If you’re going by the size, MOA definitely wins with its 4.2 million square feet. Only 2.77 million of that is reserved for retail, though, whereas King of Prussia has 2.793 million square feet for retail.

2. The mall has its own zip code (55425, in case you’re dying to know).

3. With 4.2 million square feet to cover, more than 500 stores, a theme park, an aquarium, a movie theater, a wedding chapel and lots more, how many parking spaces do you think would be adequate? Well, the Mall has 20,000. But there are plenty of options if you find yourself at the mall with 20,000 other people and can’t seem to find a spot, including hotel shuttles, parking at IKEA (which will soon connect to the mall), plus bus and rail service that will both take you directly to the mall.

4. Before it was the Mall of America, it was the Metropolitan Stadium, where you’d likely find Vikings and Twins before you’d find bargain hunters. The Beatles also played there in 1965.

5. There are a couple of passing references to the old stadium, if you’ve got eagle eyes. Both are found in the Nickelodeon theme park area of the mall if you’re willing to brave throngs of kids to play I Spy. But if you aren’t willing (I probably won’t be), here they are. The first is a bronze plaque that marks where home plate once stood – it’s embedded in the floor in the northwest corner of Nickelodeon Universe. The second is probably quite perplexing if you’ve ever been on the Log Chute and noticed what appears to be a random chair affixed to the wall that has nothing to do with the ride. It shows the spot where the longest home run at the Old Met was hit by Minnesota Twin Harmon Killebrew, who blasted the ball 520 feet from home plate. (more…)

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -Carl Sagan. Here’s the third movement of the growing Symphony of Science, a series of songs that use scientists’ spoken voices auto-tuned to make them sing. In this latest installment, the focus is again on the vastness of the cosmos and our place in it. The video also includes a few clips from my favorite film of all time, Koyaanisqatsi (more on that later this week).

If you’re a fan of the original song (“A Glorious Dawn” featuring Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking), you can now buy it on vinyl from Jack White’s record company. It’s only six bucks (shipping included!), and the B side features replicas of the Voyager Golden Record’s engravings. It’s made of vinyl, not gold, though.

You can download free MP3s and learn more at SymphonyOfScience.com. See also: We Are All Connected.

Complete lyrics after the jump.

(more…)

Last week, we mentioned the Grand Opening of our new Ohio retail store and invited any Cleveland-area _flossers to stop on by.

Stop on by you did—over 200 people paid Toby, Melanie, Nanette, Dana & Leo a visit this weekend, far exceeding (my) expectations. There were even readers waiting in the parking lot when Toby & Melanie arrived on Saturday morning. People came to Chesterland from as far away as Boston and Winston-Salem, NC (though, to be fair, they had originally come to see their families for Thanksgiving).

This holiday season, the store will be open from 10am-6pm Monday through Friday and noon-4pm Saturday and Sunday. I can’t promise cake or chocolate or appearances by research editors/regular bloggers Sandy and Kara, but office dog Leo will give you an enthusiastic welcome.

Neatorama picked up this wonderful story about Concrete Canvas, and I’m just thoroughly fascinated. Scientists have created a cloth that’s lined with concrete. But here’s the genius of it: the cloth doesn’t function like concrete until you add water to it.

That means you essentially have a building in a bag. You can fold up a concrete cloth tent, carry it to wherever you’d like to set it up, and then water it to make a solid structure! It seems like Concrete Canvasses could be a perfect solution for creating quick housing relief in the advent of disasters, or shelters in wartime. And the potential applications haven’t gone unnoticed; the creators have been winning all sorts of innovation awards recently, but you can read more about their invention here. Link via the always fascinating Neatorama.

Box Office Mojo is the go-to site for settling arguments about how much money movies have made. One of their charts is “All Time Box Office: Domestic Gross (Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation).” Think you can name the Top 10 movies in this category released between 2000 and 2009? I’ve put 5 minutes on the clock. Good luck!

Take the Quiz: The Highest-Grossing Movies of the Decade

This week’s Lunchtime Quizzes are sponsored by AIPTEK, makers of the world’s smallest HD camcorder.

While I’d long assumed that carrier pigeons had been shelved with other antiquated mail systems (like the pony express and the pneumatic tube), I was stunned to learn that the birds are still being used today! Of course, the process has gotten an upgrade. Instead of sending letters and wartime messages, the birds are being used to carry thumb drives!

According to a Daily Mail article, Rocky Mountain Adventures — a company that runs white water rafting tours in Fort Collins, CO– puts their carrier pigeons through a rigorous 7 month training program. And the birds end up being a real time saver. Instead of having to drive the tourist’s photo files over winding roads from the base of a river to the company headquarters, the company just sticks a memory card to a bird and pats it on its way.

Of course, while I love the idea of pigeon mail, if that was my disk of photos being sent, I’d be nervous. The company loses 5 birds a year to hawks and eagles. Read more at The Daily Mail.

While I’d read that raising chickens had become more and more popular with folks in hip places like Portland, OR and Victor, ID, I was surprised to see this piece from GOOD, where photographer Todd Parsons found evidence of chickens making their way into the big city. From his essay:

“In urban settings all across the country, a growing number of city-dwellers young and old are exploring the wonders of raising and farming backyard chickens. Recently, the photographer Todd Parsons scoured the San Francisco Bay Area for evidence of this burgeoning movement. “

His photos are beautiful, but these are two of my favorites. Of course, I’m not convinced I’m going to start chicken farming in my apartment just yet. I’m more of a shepherd at heart.

You can the full gallery here at the wonderful GOOD Magazine.

In the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back (often considered the best of the Star Wars films), Han Solo saves the life of an unconscious Luke Skywalker by slicing open a dead Tauntaun and spending the night on the deathly cold planet Hoth inside the smelly carcass.

Every year, Think Geek comes up with some goof products they unveil on April Fool’s Day. On April 1st, 2009, the coolest possible Star Wars product ever was a featured item, -the Tauntaun Sleeping Bag. Oh yeah, crawl inside a smelly animal just like Han and Luke and stay warm and alive for the night! Alas, it was an April Fool, but that didn’t stop everyone and their brother from wanting one.
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It wasn’t the first (or second) time that Think Geek had to produce an April Fool product after the fact because of popular demand. You’d think they would have learned their lesson from the Personal Soundtrack Shirt that started as an April Fool joke the year before which they had to go and invent to satisfy customers. This time, getting the product made was an even bigger challenge because they had to get licensing from Lucasfilm. A notice appeared on the item listing within a couple of days:

ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we’ll try!

Lucasfilm’s blessing came a couple of months ago, and serious production began. The first and second shipments have gone out, and you can get in line for yours when they become available. The bag looks like the animal, except for being comfortable and the right size for a human. You open it by pulling a little light saber zipper pull, just like Han sliced the Tauntaun open in the movie. Inside, you see the Tauntauin’s internal organs printed on the fabric! Climb inside and rest on the pillowy Tauntaun head. The bag is big enough for an adult, and machine washable (yes, it smells much better than a carcass). Get a look at some of the features in this unboxing video. Whether you’ll get yours in time for Christmas is iffy, but so far it looks like people are buying these for themselves, and not for their kids. $99 from Think Geek.