Entertainment

Comedy house National Lampoon, which has brought the entertainment world everything from Animal House to the more recent Van Wilder, is courting the babes. A Media Week article details the brand's impending launch of 8228, the latest addition to the online National Lampoon Humor Network, which is a network of gossip and entertainment sites for a female audience.

We're guessing the tone will be a little different from TeamSugar or iVillage.

Expanding its Web presence is inherently a good move for National Lampoon: Van Wilder was a hit on DVD among the college crowd, but the once-iconic comedy … Read more

If you're like me and Second Life and Burning Man are centerpieces of your existence, then Burning Life is just your thing.

This year, for the fifth-straight year, Second Life publisher Linden Lab is devoting some of the virtual world's land for an homage to Burning Man, the annual countercultural arts festival.

The idea is to create a temporary zone in which residents can create fantastical works of art that will last for a short period of time and then disappear forever. There's a big sculpture of a man, and a big temple, and at the end, … Read more

Are you a dork? Do you love TV? If the answer to both those questions is yes, you'll probably want to select HD DVD as your next- generation format of choice, because there are some seriously exciting sci-fi TV shows hitting the format in the next few months.

We already know that Heroes is on the way to HD DVD, which is tremendously exciting for fans of the show who haven't been able to catch it on its BBC HD outing. We're also aware of the impending arrival of Star Trek: The Original Series, series one, which … Read more

Logitech has unveiled two new iPod systems today under the Pure-Fi product line.

First is the Pure-Fi Dream Premium Bedroom Music System for iPod which retails for $250. This iPod speakerdock is supposedly designed specifically for the bedroom and includes a number of unique features that we haven't seen in a device like this before. The unit has one-button access to up to six iPod playlists along with convenient shuffle and repeat buttons. In addition, the unit is motion sensitive--perfect for navigating in the dark--with just a wave of your hand, all of the lights come on. You can … Read more

Ever wish you could come up with the next big thing? The Directors' Bureau's Idea Generator can help you out. It's a Flash app that will tell you how to make a million dollars by randomly choosing a set of words that comprise a potential "idea."

Let's overlook the fact that I wound up with "erotic rubber appliance." Then I re-spun and was given "scary paper book." Okay, now I think we're getting somewhere.

(Via Core77)

Finally, a legitimate reason to use coasters in a bachelor pad.

The Offside Football Coffee Table is the ultimate beverage-resting solution for foosball aficionados.

The tables, designed and handmade by English designer Howard Bushell, are a scaled-down version of the popular pub game. Covered in glass, the solid oak tables feature a mirrored playing surface, magnetic scoring pegs, and stainless steel "players."

These look like beautiful pieces of work. Alas, at $7,600 for the table, hardcore foosball addicts may want to invest in a full-on foosball table for a fraction of the asking price.

[Via Uncrate.]

Poll … Read more

In 1953, Hugh Hefner published the first issue of Playboy. Fourteen years later, Jann Wenner published the first issue of Rolling Stone. Today, both magazines have published hundreds of issues and made an undeniable mark on American culture.

Now, instead of spending months and thousands of dollars on eBay, you can read those iconographic issues on your computer. The Bondi Digital Publishing Cover to Cover series collects back issues on DVD, which can be searched and read with the company's proprietary software. The first two "Cover to Cover" collections are Rolling Stone Cover to Cover: The First … Read more

Urban travel blog Gridskipper has a great new list of geek hotspots in New York City: from bizarre curio shop Evolution, to comic culture megastore Forbidden Planet, to Barcade, which is exactly what you'd think it would be.

The list misses a few, like West Village gaming center Nyclan (coverage here) and the Manhattan outlet of Japan-inspired gallery and retail shop Giant Robot. But overall, this New Yorker thinks it's a decent and diverse selection that clearly indicates there's more for nerds to do around here than go for Water Taxi rides.

As Friday's release of High School Musical 2 looms--to the dread of hapless parents already forced to endure daily doses of Radio Disney--the requisite product merchandizing has been wholly expected. But we didn't know that the locker-themed TV and clock radio we cited earlier were just the beginning of an entire fall line of gadgets aimed at kids and tweens, including cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, HDTVs and enough accessories to choke an elf. (The "Disney Flix Video Camera" pictured here goes for about $100.) Gizmodiva recommends the Hannah Montana-themed line. And we already know, of course, … Read more