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One of Facebook's biggest science pages is becoming a TV show
Science TV shows are enjoying a small renaissance, it seems. Virtually in sync with the first episode of the Cosmos reboot, Facebook page and stand-alone website I F-ing Love Science (yes, we know how that's really written) has announced that it's getting a TV show on the Science Channel around the third quarter of the year. Late night talk show host Craig Ferguson will present the series, while page founder Elise Andrew (shown at center) will contribute behind the scenes. The TV deal is a testament to IFLS' online influence -- its Facebook page alone has over 10 million likes, and over 50 million people get the site's social updates every week. The show may only reel in a portion of that internet audience, but it still represents a victory for those who want more science in their living rooms. [Image credit: Elise Andrew, Twitter]
Craig Ferguson's The Late Late Show switches to high definition at the end of August
We ask, and we receive. A few months after Craig Ferguson topped our poll asking who is still watching standard definition television comes word that The Late Late Show is going high definition. CBS plans to flip the HDTV switch August 31, complete with an updated show opener and theme song. There's nothing better that we can think of than seeing that beautiful, beautiful face in HD...wait, we may need to reconsider this.
Grand Theft Auto IV takes late night comedy world by storm
Comedy starved night owls are probably already aware of the attention that Rockstar's latest crime drama has received on the late night entertainment scene. We chuckled at the Daily Show's coverage of the game's midnight release, but thoroughly LOLed at Conan O'Brien's previews (embedded after the jump) of the toned-down version of Grand Theft Auto IV (if only Stephen Bishop's classic "It Might Be You" really were available on Liberty City's airwaves).However, we didn't truly board the ROFLcopter until we saw the above skit from The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson (the former unitesticled boss on "The Drew Carey Show"). Perhaps it was the visit from "Saturday Night Live" veteran Tim Meadows that made it our fave, or perhaps it was their subtle send-up of the criticism the game has endured due to it's adult content. On that note, if there's anything funnier than the actual media coverage of Rockstar's mature blockbuster, we've yet to see it.
NBC and NPR feature iPhone humor
Thank goodness that mainstream comedians have jumped in with bits on the iPhone introduction; us funny geeks are deeply grateful that the cavalry has arrived. While CBS's Craig Ferguson weighed in with an iPhone/Zune comparison, the competition at Late Night with Conan O'Brien gave us Thursday's slightly risque iPhone advertisement above (it's a sonogram! It's a prophylactic! It's Mace!). Today, NPR's tongue-in-cheek news quiz Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me! featured an impression of Steve Jobs' now-legendary prank call to Starbucks (4,000 lattes) by newscaster Carl Kassel. The coffee quote comes in the show intro and again in the "Who's Carl This Time" segment (about 45 minutes in) -- too bad the player misidentified it as the launch of the "Microsoft Phone." Host Peter Sagal suggested that the second version of the iPhone needs to come with a vital nerd-friendly feature: a woman who would be really, really impressed with it. Sagal also asked the panelists how cell companies would compete with the iPhone: best answer was from Adam Felber, who suggested that Verizon would introduce a new music player where you could play your favorite song "by pressing only a dozen buttons, and get to listen to almost half of it before it drops out." Wait Wait is a personal favorite of some TUAW team members (we love panelists Felber and Paula Poundstone), so check the schedules page for your local broadcast time or haul down the podcast from iTunes.Thanks, Eric!
Found Video: iPhone "spanks" Microsoft
Claiming that the new iPhone is the most important innovation since curly fries, comedian Craig Ferguson gives a hilarious smack down of Microsoft. It's a short bit (only about a minute and a half long), but chock full of giggles for Apple fans. Is Microsoft really as lacking in innovation as Ferguson suggests? Of course not. But he certainly made me laugh while he laid out his case.Thanks Chris Hileman
