We all love some crazy Japanese game shows. You know, people dressed in bizarre cartoon-like costumes, getting hit in the nuts, getting spun around like crazy, treated like human tetris. You get the drill.

For the benefit of those of us that love crazy, funny, wacky Japanese game-show moments, I've pulled together the 10 all-time Japanese game show videos. Enjoy!

1. Say Something Very Long and Very Fast, or else GET HIT ON THE NUTS!

2. Try to Jump Around Very Rapidly Spinning Circle Surfaces only to get KNOCKED ON YOUR HEAD and then thrown into a pool

3. Run as fast as you can towards a door and hope that you can break through, or else SLAM YOUR FACE in!

4. Try to play soccer with BINOCULARS on!

5. A game of paper rock scissors where you SLAM YOUR OPPONENTS HEAD (I love how one of the contestants goes nuts!)

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/comedy/Funniest_Japanese_Game_Show_Moments_Ever_VIDs';

6. Try to outrun ever faster treadmills only to get slammed on your face

7. Get spun around and have to box someone else

8. Bowling where the contestant is the bowling 'ball'

9. Human Tetris - 'nuf said

10. Try to eat marshmallows with your head tied to a wall with elastic bands

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/comedy/Funniest_Japanese_Game_Show_Moments_Ever_VIDs';

My mood: pretty amused

So, I was out at lunch today and I saw a group of women dressed in stewardess uniforms passing out info about a new contest Orbitz was sponsoring. Here's the short version:

- The first group of people to get 300 people to sign up, got a free trip for the whole group (both flight and 3 days hotel).

The catch is that each person can only invite 2 people per day. So, the thinking goes that it may take some time to invite enough people to fill this up (150 days if 1 person is inviting and gets 100% response rate).

But a second thought (literally, it takes you a second to figure this out), shows that all it takes is 8 'turns' to get to the goal of 300. 2^8 is 256 but you start with 2 already (since person 1 can invite 2 to kick things off, assuming 100% conversion). Also, the more turns you're into the game the easier it is as you can have some invitations not convert and you still have dozens of other 'live' invitation lines. Probably the first 3 turns are critical, and after that you're pretty save with a non-perfect invitation conversion rate.

So, the question is 'how long does 8 turns take?' Interestingly, in this wonderful age of the interweb, 8 turns can go REALLY fast. The contest kicked off this morning 12:01am CT, and by the time anyone realistically got this going, it was probably at least 8am CT. It was pretty much done by 6:30pm CT, around 10 hours later.

All in, under 5,000 people participated in the contest. Probably a lot more would have participated, but the thing went by way to fast.

The cost of this was probably nearly $500k (if not more - comment if you have a better estimate). Just a plane full of people, 3 days hotel stay for each, and the huge advertising agency overhead that went into creating this and pitching it, people to hand out flyers on the street (by the time I got a flyer in San Francisco, the contest was over already!) costs you around that much.

That means that Orbitz paid $100 per sign-up! Sure, they may not have borne the whole cost (partners may have kicked for the flight, hotels, etc.), but nevertheless however you want to value a "positive branding experience" on the web, etc, its unlikely that $100 per person has anywhere near a positive ROI...

Just thought it was a good example of a contest that wasn't very well thought out. Perhaps no one took the time to do the math, or question the basic logic behind it. Or maybe they did, and figured it could be won within the same day it launched, but that would still confuse me as to how this all makes financial sense... Would love to hear from one of the marketing team members at Orbitz or from the ad agency in the comments. I could be missing something big.

For that, Orbitz and its ad agency (Mass-based Mullen) get a ROYAL FAIL for this contest!

Thanks to Romiphoto from flickr for this picture

Disclaimer: I fell for this contest myself, inviting a bunch of friends to join me (I under-estimated how fast someone else would see the loophole and win before me). So, I was one of those people that Orbitz et al paid $100 to have a branding opportunity to...

The thing that Terminator 4 misses the most is our beloved Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, for all of us that miss Arnie here are some highlight reels:

All time best of Arnold in Brazil...

Talking about "the pump" in a very sexual manner...

Arnie smokes a joint to celebrate victory...

Nothing like the old Terminator...

Just when you thought you were done laughing at all the best kitty videos, we decided to pull together the top 5 funny kitty videos of all time! 

Here we go for the all time greatest countdown!

 Number 5: Kitty Dozes Off!

 Number 4: Crazy Talking Cat!

 Number 3:Funny Cats Medley!

 Number 2: The Two Talking Cats!

 Number 1: Who Could Ever Forget the Meow Mix Commercial!

Here's an easy way to help shelter dogs and cats -- play a trivia game where every correct answer means a donation to a shelter! Play now.

I've been seeing more and more of these crazy animal videos surfacing on digg and other sites lately that I thought I'd pull together my all time favorites here. So, here we go, my personal top 3 count down...

Number 3: A Cow Eats a Baby Chicken!

Number 2: Pelican Eating a Pigeon (or is it a duck?)

... and the Number 1 Top Animal Video of all time: Battle at Kruger National Park. The best safari attack video of all time, over 35 million views on YouTube!

With Fourth of July right around the corner, and millions of hamburgers about to hit the grill, all the heavy-hitters in the cooking world are putting forward their best hamburger recipes.

We picked out featured recipes and techniques from the top food magazines, TV shows, and websites, and found these top 5 recipes that will take your hamburger grilling to a whole new level:

image courtesy of pointnshoot (Flickr)

1. The Food Network (which also has the #1 cooking site) is in the fray with their take on “All-American Recipes.” Food Network has grilling chief Bobby Flay in its all-star team, and their featured burger recipe is the Hamburger with Double Cheddar Cheese and Grilled Vidalia Onion and Horseradish Mustard.(recipe)

The cheese here are thick slices of white cheddar AND yellow cheddar. Which are then topped with horseradish mustard (which is an easy mix of Dijon mustard and prepared horseradish) and grilled Vidalia onions.

If you want a tutorial from the Food Network on how to grill burgers, check out this video:

2. Food & Wine Magazine featured this recipe in their weekly e-mail: Scallion-and-Brie-Stuffed Burgers (full recipe). This recipe tops the burger with brie cheese for a creamier flavor.

The best thing here is the “special sauce.” Topping this burger is a Spicy Scallion paste which is really a mix of thinly sliced scallions, garlic cloves, a few spices for a kick, all mushed together with olive oil.

3. Epicurious.com's (from the same people behind Gourmet and Bon Appetit) featured burger for the 4th comes from their home page, and is the Jalapeno Cheeseburger with Bacon and Grilled Onions (full recipe).

The “special sauce” here is a creamy ranch sauce with a little green chile in a mayo and sour cream base sauce and some additional spices. The actual patty here is also pretty interesting, adding to a bit of Worcestershire sauce to the mix as well as some jalapenos.

If that wasn’t enough, there’s a Worcestershire-coffee glaze that tops it off. With a Worcestershire-ketchup base, the teaspoon of ground coffee adds a hint of smokyness to every bite.

The cheese here is sharp white cheddar. Bacon and grilled onions top the mix.

Epicurious also brings us an excellent video on how to form and grill hamburgers, points off for not letting us embed it.

4. Saveur’s weekly newsletter also featured Independence Day, and among the top grilling recommendations of this upscale magazine were the lamb burgers with mint sauce (full recipe).

As the name a key differentiator here is in the patty, going for lamb rather than beef. But its really the mint sauce that brings it all together into a rich, meaty, and somewhat refreshing bite. The mint sauce is simple – a mix of sugar, white wine vinegar, water and mint. For extra mintyness garnishing with a mint leaf is an option.

5. The folks at America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated took their usual scientific approach to grilling burgers, and feature a Well-Done Bacon Cheeseburger that is cooked well done but avoids being tough paddies with little flavor.

The solution they found was not in making the meat fattier since it did not lead to the meat retaining the moisture. Instead was to pack the burgers with a panade (the bread and milk paste used to pull meatballs together), and added flavor by throwing in some garlic and steak sauce in the mix. Another interesting tip: to avoid the burgers from puffing up on the grill like most burgers do, they suggest making “a slight depression in the center of the paddy” which will even out as the burgers cook.

Visit here for more food and wine stories and groups like this one.

And for a bit of afternoon fun, take the What Kind of Wine Are You Quiz.

Your heart has to be with the Kenney family. Today the news came out that Senator Edward Kennedy's recent stroke was caused by a malignant brain tumor (news below). Is this the latest episode in the Kenney curse?

John F Kennedy (JFK) Assassination:

Robert Kennedy (RFK)Assassination:

John F Kennedy Jr. Airplane crash:

Also Michael Kennedy's death in a skiing accident in Aspen in 1997 and David Kennedy's death back in 1984 from a drug overdose in Palm Beach.

The latest to be aflicted with the so-called "Kennedy curse" could be Senator Teddy Kennedy who has previously escaped death after driving off a bridge in 1969 (his aide Mary Jo Kopechne did not survive) and after a plane crash in 1964 that claimed the life of his aide Edward Moss.

Here's the news, from the Associated Press:

"BOSTON -- (AP) -- Doctors for the Massachusetts Democrat say tests conducted after Sen. Edward Kennedy suffered a seizure this weekend show a tumor in his left parietal lobe. His treatment will be decided after more tests but the usual course includes combinations of radiation and chemotherapy.

The 76-year-old senator has been hospitalized in Boston since Saturday, when he was airlifted from Cape Cod after a seizure at his home.

His wife and children have been with him each day but have made no public statements.

His doctors said in a statement released to The Associated Press that he has had no further seizures, is in good spirits and is resting comfortably."

Guillermo Vargas tied a street dog to a rope in an art gallery and starved him to death. He considered this his artistic masterpiece in 2007.

The exhibit lasted for several days, with the visitors of the exhibition watching on as the dog slowly withered away in starvation. Eventually dying.
But this is not all – the Arts Biennial of Central America (in Honduras) has invited Vargas to repeat this cruelty in 2008 in his exhibition at the biennial.

Make a difference today and sign the petition: http://www.experienceproject.com/mk/walls...