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The Internet Will Make You Smarter. Unless You're Dumb. Then It Will Make You Dumber

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Pajiba Love | Comments (14)

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You know how our government’s economic system is designed to to encourage the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer? Turns out, the Internet is similarly designed to make the smart smarter and the dumb dumber (see Yahoo Answers). (Mother Jones)

Over on Warming Glow today, I run down the 15 Most Promising Shows of the Pilot Season, which includes four of my favorite showrunners: Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs”), Greg Daniels (“Parks and Rec”) Shawn Ryan (“Terriers”), and Jason Katims (“Parenthood”). Oh, and Kevin Bacon is making a serial killer show. (Warming Glow)

On the one hand, how cool would it be to be an extra in “Game of Thrones”? On the other hand, it takes half the day to get dressed, and you still only get paid “extra” wages. (Neatorama)

Over on Hairpin, Annie Breslaw totally saw Connie Britton in her coffee shop, and while she didn’t speak with her, here are the many things she could’ve said. (Hairpin)

Unreality has 5 little-seen movies from 2011 that were worth watching. I completely agree with 3. I will not, however, cosign Meek’s Cutoff. (Unreality)

R. Lee Ermey (you know, from Full Metal Jacket) not only has his own website, he has his own goddamn app. It’s every bit as awesome as you think it might be (via MisterPatches) (R. Lee Ermey)

You may not immediately recognize her name, but you’ll defiinitely recognize her husband’s name, and she’ll be starring in the season finale of “Justified,” according to that husband. (IMDB)

Unlike all the other crazies who have risen and then fallen from the GOP Presidential ranks, Rick Santorum’s crackpottery actually seems to be helping him. He continues to rise, even after this latest discovery: That he once gave a speech suggesting that, thanks to Obama, Satan has his sites firmly set on the United States. (Wonkette) In addition, Santorum also says that gay marriage is like marrying your brother. Or your niece. (Buzzfeed)

This is interesting. Nick Offerman, a.k.a., Ron Swanson, is joining the cast of an upcoming Diablo Cody film. “Give me ALL the bacon and izzeggs, homeskillet.” (FlmSchoolRejects)

Ooooh. Look, according to Levi’s, Hotness comes in ALL shapes and sizes, as long as that size is not above six. (Copyranter)

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If Burning Man came in a LEGO set (the smell of hobo grease and ball sweat not included) (Nerd Approved)

What do you get when you combine Mardi Gras and Sci Fi, besides Princess Leias Gone Wild? You get Chewbacchanal, a parade organized by The Intergalactic Krewe of Chewbacchus. I am NOT making this up, people. (Gamma Squad)

This is super cute: One of Maya Rudolph’s “SNL” bumpers over the weekend was a tribute to her mother, Minnie Riperton. (Vulture)

The header photo comes via Mr. Adam Scott, who claims *wink wink* that it’s from a pilot he worked on in 2003 called “Philly Justice.” (Twitter)

Finally, here’s a flying baby.

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Here’s six more flying babies. (Curious Brain)









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Comments

Those babies are TERRIFYING. Can you imagine? They'd be puking and pooping and drooling all over you...from ABOVE. And crying. Like pigeons but *worse*.

Save me, Adam Scott!

Posted by: figgy at February 22, 2012 1:25 PM

Kevin Bacon taking on a TV show probably has a lot to do with two factors: 1) his wife's TV show is now over and 2) fifteen episode season.

I groaned when I heard the US was remaking Friday Night Dinner because I could only get through three episodes of the original, but with that talent both in front of and behind the camera I guess I will need to check it out. The premise is so generic (quirky family sitcom but with adult children) that it could go anywhere.

Posted by: Three-nineteen at February 22, 2012 1:45 PM

I wonder if the extras on Game of Thrones get to keep their costumes. The things are fitted for them, after all.

Also, Black Death was a surprisingly good movie.

Posted by: FabMax at February 22, 2012 1:55 PM

Two of my friends were in Chewbaccus last year (as Hank and Dean Venture) and the krewe somehow got mixed up with the krewe of the Box of Wine parade, it was a giant drunken nerd party in the streets. It was incredible.

Posted by: yy at February 22, 2012 2:27 PM

Actually, the parade's called Chewbacchus. The ball is Chewbacchanal. I'll stop now. I just miss Mardi Gras. =(

Posted by: jamiepants at February 22, 2012 2:34 PM

Philly Justice: A show about a group of lawyers dedicated to protecting the rights of race horses in the tough city streets of Philadelphia. With special guest star Mister Ed as Huggy Bear.

Posted by: John W at February 22, 2012 3:20 PM

Bless you Three-Nineteen for getting through three whole eps of Friday Night Dinner: I watched one, called the friend who had recommended it to see if he needed medical help and never watched again.

Posted by: PaddyDog at February 22, 2012 4:21 PM

I tried to read that Internet is poison / fertilizer article. I really did. It just ... no. There's no there, there.

The problem with that interweb piece is there's no there there. Yes, it's a potentially provocative theory, and certainly a headline - wooo! But it's the thought-equivalent of expanses of unfettered boob of noone you'd particularly like to see. Now, I'm all for elegance and naughty bits - and I am relentlessly shallow - but girlfriend, acres of milky bosom aren't enough. Find a dress that fits your form and good Godtopus, that hair.

Or, I don't know, put some science in the "science", and use your words. Words mean things.

I mean with the enough makeup, lighting and lens magic La Lohan can look, briefly, like something other than a prematurely-aged superfund site on legs. I guess articles that have to work that hard make me tired.

The problem, I think, is the company I keep. Yesterday AM I herd a talk by a guy who runs a med-tech commercialization thing-y for a major U. Tomorrow there's an incubator b-plan workshop, and tonight I *may* go to a web startups thing-y. Yes, I do this kind of thing for fun.

Thing is, smart people wrestling with actual facts are really compelling. There's something terribly fuax about the so-called science-y stuff that's all startling and insight-y. When the people spouting off are paid to spout vs. betting on their own understanding, well, it's entertainment not knowledge. Have the clown put a bit of their own money down on their grand new insights and, well, most of them won't is all you need to know.

Posted by: BierceAmbrose at February 22, 2012 4:31 PM

Flying Babies....it all makes sense now!

Every time we're elected to babysit the nephews, they always manage to escape, elude an otherwise confound the Mrs. and me. I just figured that while other parents take their toddlers to such activities as "Baby Salsa Dancing" and "Lil Guppies Swim Lessons" or even "Sprout Art Class", that my brother and sister-in-law just took them to "Baby Ninja School". It had explained so much that they were able to get into so much mischief so quickly if they really were just assassins-in-training-pants. But the truth is so much worse...

I always thought they looked a little off but I figured my brother just had a recessive gene he passed on or maybe he ate a thermometer as a kid and it damaged his swimmers. I didn't realize the reality; their kids are refugees from Krypton. I had no idea that they probably just found their "sons" in a burning field somewhere. Instead of formula, no doubt their little cells have been gobbling up our yellow sunlight!

I had chalked up their lack of discipline to my brother being a hippie. I guess he just doesn't want them to heat-vision him in retaliation. Come to think of it, I wonder if that means the cat really wasn't hit by a car after all?

That does it, I'm covering my house in lead paint!

Posted by: bleujayone at February 22, 2012 5:50 PM

I could only get through three episodes of the original, but with that talent both in front of and behind the camera I guess I will need to check it out. The premise is so generic (quirky family sitcom but with adult children) that it could go anywhere.

Posted by: raplica hangbags at February 22, 2012 6:32 PM

As a fabulously bald-headed woman, I'm just as disturbed by the implication in the Levi's ad that, while hotness comes in all shapes and sizes, it requires a luxuriously buoyant ponytail. Come over here and give my fuzzy noggin a rub and tell me that's not hot!

Posted by: Edwina the Magnificent at February 22, 2012 6:42 PM

Good to see someone acknowledging the excellence of 'Margin Call'. It honestly explains the 2008 financial crisis better than any documentary could because it incorporates individual human action into the mix, rather than just the things that one can measure and see. Plus, anything in which Jeremy Irons gets to play someone as ridiculously evil as he was in that is going to be a good time. One of the year's best movies.

Posted by: Mitchell Hundred at February 22, 2012 10:27 PM

I share a birthday with a lot of nutters, Rick Santorum is one of them. Incidentally, John Wilkes Booth shares a birthday with me, too. I don't think he'd like that factoid very much.

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at February 25, 2012 9:23 PM

Thanks for the data on The Internet Will Make You Smarter. Unless You're Dumb. Then It Will Make You Dumber, it will be genuinely helpful.

Posted by: Wally Ramsfield at March 2, 2012 4:45 AM