This fridge magnet fills you up

Ordering a pizza is a lot easier than making a meal for yourself. Yet there are those who wish it were even easier. For them, the VIP fridge magnet from Red Tomato Pizza.

The Dubai pizzeria has rolled out a video spot touting its new fridge magnet containing a button that, when pressed, orders your favourite pie for you over the Internet. (Top customers will get the magnets free from Red Tomato preset with their fave, but they’re reprogrammable via Bluetooth.)

Boston Pizza ran a recent ad campaign around “one finger cooking” — that is, ordering online. Here, even the computer is eliminated. Perhaps not coincidentally, both campaigns seemed aimed at men uninterested in cooking, but any impulse eater could succumb to temptation with the pizza magnet around. At least the button rests inside a small box, minimizing the risk of an order accidentally placed by a leaning shoulder.

Grooming robot on the cutting edge

Modern people are willing to let machines fold, mould and cut almost every tool and widget we use in everyday life. But when it comes to letting robot arms with blades work on our very bodies, we’ve been much warier. But maybe not for much longer.

In this video a gent named Tim sits and submits to a haircut from a robot barber — actually, the unliving stylist’s formal title is Multi-Arm Unmanned Ground Vehicle, from Intelligent Automation. It has three arms, three cameras, and 29 degrees of freedom to give “remote operators the ability to perform complex manipulation tasks with relative ease,” according to the company.

So we see the guy can control the robot and command it to shave Tim’s head — admittedly, it does a rather unattractive job of it all — without drwing blood or even knocking off his safety goggles.

The company notes that if the robot can do this, it can wield other tools, inspect suspicious packages, tie knots and so forth.

Tim, sat in the robot’s barber seat to raise money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which searches for cures to childhood cancers. It makes for a good, if elaborate, explanation for a bad trim. Robots are bound to get better at this, though; for all we know in a couple of years this is the sort of thing your Roomba will do in your sleep.

Tiny dancer steals show at wedding

He's young but he has moves. A video of a toddler's version of jiving is stealing hearts around the world. The little boy has the dancefloor all to himself as he hops, shimmies and shakes to Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" while a crowd cheers. 

According to the info provided with the video, the boy's name is William Stokkebroe and he was inspired by the performances of his parents Kristina and Peter Stokkebroe and other members of Danish dance school studie43.

Pep talk

“It’ll be fine. You can do this.”  Who hasn't given themselves a pep talk like this? 

A fourth-grader psyches herself up for her first ski jump in this POV video taken with a helmet cam.

With her nervous breathing, shaking voice and her proclamation, "Here goes something, I guess," along with a few false starts, you can't help but root for this littler skier.

She said yes

A wedding proposal at a major league sporting event. Ho hum.

Except this one, during a break in the Toronto Maple Leafs-Ottawa Senators game on Saturday, is from a Sens fan to a Leafs fan — and they’re both women.

During a break in play, Alicia, clad in a Leafs jersey, was brought out to the ice. As Bruno Mars' "Just the Way You Are" played over the loudspeakers, her Sens jersey-wearing girlfriend Christina went down on one knee.

According to the mascot, "She said yes."

 

A surprise Game Boy music mashup

Audiophiles, listen up. There’s a new use for an obsolete game console. A person calling himself Sebastian Bender mashes up sounds to create a melodious blend of Game Boy music, and as the video title suggests, not the kind you’re thinking of.

For those too young to remember, the seemingly indestructible Game Boy is Nintendo’s super successful handheld video game device in the’90s. For those who grew up with it, just look at its possibilities!

Teased by Mad Men

With no new episodes since October 2010, fans of suave (and newly engaged!) ad man Don Draper have been not-so-patiently waiting for the start of season five of Mad Men.

With less than two weeks to go, the fitted suit and pencil skirt set have been anxiously watching every promotional video and photo for any hint of a clue as to what the men and women of Madison Ave. will be up to when the show returns.

And, while the details remain sparse, the latest video promises that the fiery Betty Draper is back – along with the style, romance, jealousy, family dynamics, discontent and classic cocktails that have become Mad Men hallmarks.

‘I misbehaved” says the stylish housewife in the promo – which fans can only hope is a promise of more bad behaviour to come.

Mad Men returns with a two-hour premiere March 25 at 9 p.m. on AMC.

Simpsons Game of Thrones intro

Hey, are you a fan of The Simpsons? How about Game of Thrones? Yes? Well, do we have a video for you.

Sunday's episode of the long-running cartoon opened with an homage to the hit HBO fantasy-drama Game of Thrones. The town of Springfield is transformed into Westeros and the coveted Iron Throne is the Iron Couch.

The Game of Thrones-themed opener is delighting fans (including Stargazing blogger Malene Arpe) who must wait another month for the second season to start. In the meantime, Toronto fans can visit the just-announced Game of Thrones exhibit at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Three Little Pigs, the news cycle

This advertisement for the Guardian's open journalism project was released on Feb. 29 and has since garnered critical praise from the journalism community and beyond.

It imagines how media might cover the story of the Three Little Pigs in print and online. As the familiar story goes, the Three Little Pigs fight back against the huffing and puffing Big Bad Wolf by building a house of brick that withstands the wolf's assaults. When the wolf decides to get in via the chimney, the pigs surprise him with a fatal vat of boiling water. This is where the media steps in, with a screaming A1 headline "Big Bad Wolf boiled alive." As the news cycle continues, it's clear that the story has (in journalism parlance) "legs"-- or in this case, perhaps, "hooves".

Who does it better? Sherlock Holmes versus Doctor Who

It doesn't matter if you're devoted to Doctor Who or if Sherlock Holmes is your homie — everyone wins in the musical contest currently buzzing on various fan blogs and trend-tracking websites. 

An expertly edited tale of one-upmanship, this song features the two cult figures of British TV "singing" to the Irving Berlin song "Anything you can do (I can do better)". 

The duet was originally written for the musical Annie Get Your Gun.