Despite not having obtained permission to do so, Newt Gingrich has been using Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" at his campaign rallies.
In this clip from the Colbert Report, Survivor lead singer David Bickler repays the favor by singing copyrighted lines from Newt's book without permission.
And, as you'd guess, he sings them to the tune of "Eye of the Tiger".
(NEWSER) A new trend in company meetings? Have your employees stand. The practice is increasingly popular, especially at tech companies, thanks to the growing popularity of an approach to software development known as "Agile." Standing meetings are typically brief, participants are expected not to ramble on or pontificate, and tardiness is punishedsometimes by $1 fines, sometimes by forcing latecomers to sing "I'm a Little Teapot." In one extreme example, standing meetings were held in an unheated stairwell in order to ensure their brevity, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The intended result? Meetings that are more about productivity, and less about participants playing Angry Birds under the table. Studies have shown that stand-up meetings are shorter than sit-down meetings but still of the same quality, the Journal notes. Employees participateoften by giving brief updates on what they've accomplished since the last meeting and what they will work on before the next onebut practices are in place to keep them from droning on too long, like passing around a 10-pound medicine ball or holding up a rubber rat to show that time is up.
Mike's Thoughts: I like this idea but I'm going to go it one better.
Mandate attendance at EVERY SINGLE MEETING for a week for the highest ranking person in your office. When he/she realizes what a colossal waste of time most of these meetings are, your meeting load will be reduced by about 75%. Stand for the remaining 25% of meetings and I bet you'll get more done in a 20 hour work week than you do now in a 40 plus hour work week.
(Newser) Sure, it's full of keyboard cats and double rainbows, but these days, YouTube is also a serious moneymaking machine. YouTube star Ray William Johnson is showcasing the medium's potential: With more than a billion total views, he's making about $1 million a year through his clips, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. Thanks to a twice-weekly show that gets 5 million regular viewers, the comedianwho mocks other popular YouTube clipscurrently boasts the site's biggest audience. He goes by RayWJ.
So where does all the money come from? YouTube offers partnerships that can bring popular users between $3,000 and $9,000 per 2 million views. "Several hundred" such partners made more than $100,000 last year, an 80% jump from 2010, says a Google rep. "This is a microcosm of what's going on in the overall media landscape. We're moving from a scaled mass media to more hyper-local, niche media," says an industry expert. Indeed, scoring a few million views means a user "rivals second- and third-tier cable networks"and YouTube's 780 million monthly unique visitors represents a far bigger audience than that of traditional TV networks.
Mike's Thoughts: Welcome to Andy Warhol's vision of the future- where everyone is famous for 15 minutes.
NJ CAMEL PICKS THE GIANTS Look out, Patriots -- a camel has picked the Giants to win the Super Bowl.
Princess, who resides at New Jersey's Popcorn Park Zoo, has correctly picked the winner of five of the last six Super Bowls.
Need more proof of her picking prowess? She went 14-6 predicting regular season and playoff games this year, and has a lifetime record of 88-51. Apparently her best season was 2008, when she got 17 out of 22 games right, including correctly picking the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the Super Bowl.
How does she pick the winner, you ask? The zoo's general manager writes the name of the competing teams on his hands, then holds out a graham cracker in each hand. Whichever hand Princess nibbles from is her pick. Apparently, Princess showed no hesitation when she picked the hand with the Giants written on it.
Mike's Thoughts: The New Jersey gaming comission has spent 11 million dollars of taxpayer money trying to establish a connection between Princess the Camel and the New Jersey mob but has been unsuccessful thus far.
BUFFALO, N.Y. Eastman Kodak Co. wants to end its contract for naming rights to the glamorous Los Angeles theater that hosts the Academy Awards as it tries to improve its financial position enough to move out of bankruptcy.
The photography pioneer's financial advisers say the benefits of having the company's name on the 3,300-seat Kodak Theatre aren't worth the contract's cost, according to a motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this week.
Under the contract with CIM Group of Los Angeles, details of which were not disclosed in the court filing, Kodak "pays a significant annual amount for, among other things, the naming rights related to the Kodak Theatre," which opened in 2001.
The theater's website describes a "20-year marketing partnership" that "was one of the most significant non-sports corporate sponsorships in history."
"Kodak is proud of its important role in the entertainment industry, and our long-standing relationship with film makers," said a statement from Rochester-based Kodak, on whose film more than seven decades of the Oscars' "Best Pictures" were printed. "Our motion today reflects our commitment to ensure that we are maximizing value for our entertainment customers, creditors and other stakeholders."
The 132-year-old company filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 19 after years of cost-cutting and turnaround efforts.
Mike's Thoughts: Kodak has suggested renaming the venue the "We Had Our Ass Kicked By the I-Phone" Theater.
VOLKSWAGEN RELEASES SEQUEL TO LAST YEAR'S 'STAR WARS' SUPER BOWL COMMERCIAL
Featuring an overweight dog that takes it upon itself to exercise (with the help of an instructional workout video).
"The Dog Strikes Back" follows the dog's successful progression, to the point where it caught up to a new, red-colored VW Beetle.
But not so fast, if you thought that was that, the camera pulled back to show creatures in the Star Wars-verse watching the ad on a TV. And when one of the bar guys declared the dog "funnier" than the Darth Vader kid in last year's ad, the Darth Vader kid did what he did best.
"Sorry," the guy says apologetically as things went back to normal.
Mike's Thoughts: Car commercials are taking the early lead in pre-Superbowl hype this year. Wonder if that's a good sign for the economy?
I almost miss the days when nothing got "leaked" before the big game. In some ways, it's better to be surprised.
Billy Joel, who spends his winters at his home in South Florida, made a surprise appearance last weekend at the Dania Beach Vintage Motorcycle Show, taking the stage with a local band, The Whipping Post. Billy walked through the crowd, went over the lead singer and asked if he could sit in, which he did. Taking his place behind an electric piano, he did "Stormy Monday." --Sal Cirrincione
Mike's Thoughts: Honestly, I'm surprised more big-time artists don't do this. What a Thrill for "The Whipping Post". Talk about a story you can tell at dinner parties!
(WOULD YOU BELIEVE)... STEVE JOBS LISTENED TO VINYL AT HOME... BECAUSE IT SOUNDED BETTER THAN HIS IPOD Steve Jobs-- the creator of the iPod-- liked to listen to vinyl records when he was at home.
According to pal Neil Young, the Apple founder preferred the vinyl sound compared to the iPod's digitally-compressed files.
Speaking at a technology conference, Neil Young explained: 'Steve Jobs was a pioneer of digital music. His legacy is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl.'
Young and Jobs had a new format in mind.
While modern formats, like MP3, are convenient, they do not represent the original sound of the music.
The NEW format would contain 100 per cent of the data created in a recording studio rather than the five per cent in compressed formats.
But due to the size of the files, a device might only be able to hold 30 albums and each song would take 30 minutes to download.
While Young admitted there was no practical plan in place to develop the format, he said Jobs wanted to get involved before he died in October from pancreatic cancer.
They "were working on it."
Young added, 'You've got to believe if he lived long enough he would eventually try to do what I'm trying to do.'
Jason Elia of Nashville had the perfect Super Bowl weekend planned with his girlfriend. He bought two tickets to the big game and was going to surprise her with a marriage proposal during the game. His girlfriend was super excited about their trip.
But then, real life got in the way. Jason went to the doctor for some tests and was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
Fortunately he had the love and support of his girlfriend, right?
Wrong.
She dumped him. That's right; she fed him a line about not being able to handle the stress of having a boyfriend with cancer and tossed him to the curb.
Adding insult to injury, she's demanding her Super Bowl tickets.
Jason says she calls him every day demanding the tickets, arguing that he bought them for her so she should have them.
Jason says there's no chance she's getting those tickets -- and is actually giving them away to one of his Twitter follows.
Oh, and since you care about him more than his heartless girlfriend, Jason's prognosis is pretty positive. (NBC Sports)
Mike's Thoughts: There's already some speculation floating around that this story isn't exactly 100% accurate. At this point, there's no way to know what all is true and what isn't.
But if it IS true, this young lady is officially the worst girlfriend in the world.
She actually makes Kim Kardashian look emotionally deep and grounded.
(NEWSER) Apple's Siri can help you order take-out, give you directions, or just make you laughbut not if she can't understand you. Scottish iPhone 4S owners are finding that the voice-controlled digital assistant has a hard time deciphering their signature brogue, the Los Angeles Times reports. In a demonstration for a journalist, one Scot asked Siri, "What's the weather like today?" What she heard: "What's available in Labor Day?" ("I don't even know what Labor Day is," the Scot sighed.)
Siri does have a language setting for "English (United Kingdom)," but even fellow Brits have been known to find Scots difficult to understand. Since Siri's Scottish problem was discovered, a few demonstration videos have been posted on YouTube (watch one at left). Even so, the new iPhone is a top seller in the country. And Apple insists that Siri is still being fine-tuned, and its performance will improve the more it is used. "Once you've been using it for a while, it should pick up your accent," says the Scot who gave the demonstration. "But if you've got a broad accent, you've got no chance." (Siri will soon learn Mandarin.)
Mike's Thoughts: I tell you who could fix this damn problem- Groundskeeper Willie!
Urinals in the shape of The Rolling Stones mouth and tongue logo -- based on Mick Jagger's mouth -- are popping up in Europe. You can now do number-one in Mick's mouth at the Goldman Hotel in Frankfurt, Germany, the Rolling Stones Fan Museum in Luechow, Germany and the Rosenmeer restaurant in Rosheim, France. When asked if the urinals were licensed by the band, their spokeswoman told us, "Don't know anything about this one."
And, of course the urinals are not without controversy, from, believe it not, women. A report out of Germany says upwards of 12 women have demanded that the urinals be removed from the museum because they are not accurate recreations of the famous logo as the tongue is missing. "If it had been based on the emblem of the Stones with the tongue, it would have been okay," says one protestor. "But the tongue's been left out and they really look like women's mouths." The museum owner says he has no plans to remove them. "They were damned expensive and they're staying where they are ... That's final."
Mike's Thoughts: Putting aside the total absurdity of the design for a moment, who in the name of God's green earth gets UPSET because the gigantic mouth shaped urinal they're peeing in isn't an "accurate representation of the logo"???
Call me when you find something of value to be upset about.....
(Newser) The Muppets are firing back at Fox News' claim their new movie is anti-oil. Asked about the accusation at a UK press conference, the Huffington Post reports that Kermit the Frog called the notion "categorically not true. If we had some problem with oil companies, why would we have spent the whole film driving around in a gas-guzzling Rolls Royce?" Added Miss Piggy: "It's almost as laughable as accusing Fox News of, you know, being news."
NEWSER) Air travelers in San Francisco, rejoice: You can now relax between the dreaded security pat-down and the slow shuffle onboard your flight. San Francisco International Airport has set up a yoga room that includes a soothing blue light and loaner floor mats, MSNBC reports. "The room gives modern travelers a space that fosters and supports quiet and reflection," says the room's design director. "Those aren't emotions that people typically encounter at the airport."
Early kudos are coming in for the sanctum in Terminal 2: "Relax passengers between flights? ... How wonderful!" says a nurse consultant onJetwithComfort. A blogger on Yogadork even expresses some East Coast envy: "Now if only Jetblue would incorporate inflight asana and chai breaks. JFK, your move." For those who prefer to save the lotus position for back home, SFO also offers a quiet "reflection room" (no floor sitting) and, of course, the usual airport bars.
Mike's Thoughts: Yoga between flights seems like an awful lot of work plus extra germ interaction.
My idea is candy machines that dispense Xanax. Not only effective, they take up a lot less space too.
An Oklahoma student's photo of a substitute teacher sleeping on the job landed in the hands of administrators and led to a swift punishment ... for the student!
The ninth-grader, who was not identified, snapped the shot, which shows the male teacher slumped with his eyes closed, and posted it online. School officials saw the picture and jumped into action, calling the boy on the carpet for "using a telecommunications device" during the school day -- a violation of district rules.
One parent fumed over the suspension, saying, "They probably took it to an extreme because they caught a teacher doing something they weren't supposed to be doing."
MIke's Thoughts: What a joke! Seems like adults today bitch about how kids don't respect their elders and respect authority. That may be true. But how can we expect them to respect us (collectively) when we allow stuff like this to happen?
The teacher should be suspended and the student should receive no punishment for blowing the whistle.
A London man is about to have a cow -- because he created a ball of glue that looks like Homer Simpson, and has found someone willing to spend 300 grand on it!
Christopher Herbert says he came across the sticky blob while cleaning out a cupboard, and was set to toss it when his girlfriend noticed it looked like Springfield's most famous resident. He then decided to list it for sale "as a joke" -- one that quickly turned into a potentially huge financial transaction.
Herbert admits, "I didn't think anyone would actually bid for an old bit of dried glue, even one that looks like Homer Simpson."
Mike's Thoughts: Anyone who spends 300 grand on a ball of dried glue deserves a beat-down from Nelson Muntz.
The Super Bowl is more than a week away, but Eli Manning has already beat Tom Brady -- at least among married women with cheating hearts. According to an AshleyMadison.com poll, more females said they'd rather cheat with the Giants QB than the Patriots QB. The ladies reasoned that Eli would be "less of a hothead" than Tom and easier to relate to.
Mike's Thoughts: Since when does "easier to relate to" factor into a decision like this?
Brady is better looking, has more money, and more Super Bowl rings.
