Wow, this story out of Australia is more incredible than the balloon boy saga!

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"The Today Show" had a very complete report this morning on the Heene family and the balloon drama that captivated people across the country yesterday.

So was it a hoax? And what about the dad taking the kid on live television this morning when he obviously wasn't feeling well? Should the family have to reimburse authorities for the chase?

Wow, this story gets stranger and stranger.

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Add this clip to the growing YouTube genre of people fainting/passing gas/vomiting during a live television news broadcast. This happened on Chile's 24 HORAS news channel.

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Buzzfeed put together a great feature "The 10 Best Things That Have Ever Happened Behind Reporters' Backs".

My favorite one tops the list.

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Who would have thought a Joe Biden speech could become musical?

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A Zachary, Louisiana, woman has been charged with walking out of a convenience store with a case of beer stashed between her legs.

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They're right -- Katie Couric does sound better Auto-Tuned.

Pat Robertson, not so much.

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On Wednesday night I posted the "JK Wedding Entrance Dance," speculating that the couple would be on an early morning news show this week.

I was wrong. They appeared on "The Today Show" on Friday and recreated the dance for Saturday's edition.

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A Leland, Miss., alderwoman caused quite the commotion at a recent board meeting. Mala Brooks apparently was upset that she was going to have to pay back $12,000 she used in town funds to stay at a casino's hotel without approval, according to WAPT-TV in Mississippi.

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How many times today do I have to hear that 6 percent of Americans believe the 1969 moon landing was fake? Does that really mean anything?

Keep in mind a 2005 Gallup poll found that 37 percent of Americans believe in haunted houses. That means six times more people believe in Casper than the government faking the moon landing.

Here's how Buzz Aldrin reacted to one conspiracy theorist.

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A biplane plunges out of the sky at an air show and slams into a car -- but no one is seriously hurt. The pilot was performing stunts at Grossostheim, Germany, when he lost control. The wreck tore off the plane's undercarriage and shunted the parked car into a nearby field.

A couple and their daughter were in the car at the time. But they and the pilot suffered only minor injuries, and no one had to be taken to the hospital.

via videosift.com

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Sen. Al Franken provided a moment of levity at Wednesday's confirmation hearing of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor when he asked her about a Perry Mason-related case.

I'm surprised he didn't ask her about the notable cases handled by Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (one of my favorite Phil Hartman characters).

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Yet another example of the perils of getting wrapped up in texting. A Staten Island girl fell down a manhole while she was texting.

So who do you blame: the sanitation workers or the teen?

This report came from WCBS-TV out of New York City.

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Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin and the climate change bill get the Auto-Tune treatment.

I'm starting to think I might prefer the news this way.

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So police in Warren, Ohio, were interviewing a witness when a baby squirrel pops out of her cleavage. She casually puts the rodent back in her shirt.

Best quote: "I was not prepared to see a woodland creature in the interview room."

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What happens if you are a TV reporter and you have to a two-minute segment on a bear sighting, but you have no footage of the bear?

Well, this reporter from WJW Fox 8 in Cleveland came up with a completely ridiculous solution.

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Dallas-Fort Worth television station WOAI reports about an entire family (including two small girls) shoplifting from a Wal-Mart.

And because one of the girls is pushing the cart out the door, she would be the one arrested. I don't think you can go any lower than stealing in front of your kid and then having her take the blame if something goes wrong.

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I guess he was out of Scooby Snacks.

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An apparently suicidal woman was captured on CCTV in Israel being run over by a commuter train -- and surviving.

She lays down on railroad tracks just as a train approaches. It thunders right over her, but after it passes she gets up and walks away.

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Here's a warm-hearted tale of neighbors helping neighbors -- to rob a bank.

Masked gunmen break in to the establishment but have some trouble with the ATMs. Next thing, the bandits have got more accomplices than they know what to do with.

It makes you wonder how they divvied up the loot.

Brazilian Bank Robbery - Watch more Funny Videos

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Consumer Reports says that if you're considering investing in a ShamWow, you mind as well just buy a bunch of sponges.

Sorry Vince the ShamWow Guy. Let's hope Consumer Reports leaves the SlapChop alone.

via videosift.com

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Breaking News! Reporter learns not to stand in a random field.

KOMU-TV8 reporter Brandon Lewis got a little bit of a surprise when he was doing his live report on gas prices. He's a real pro--forging ahead with his report despite a good soaking.

Thanks to Watch This Now friend Rafael Olmeda for finding this clip.

Wet KOMU 8 Live Shot from KOMU News on Vimeo.

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Forget about silk and lace. The hot new materials for lingerie are cabbage leaves and onions.

At least they are in Japan, where designers have been showing off their creations in a show that vegans can love.

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Apparently, it's not just Florida getting hit by heavy rain. A Hong Kong property developer this week opened the world's only full-scale replica of Noah's Ark.

The developer says it was built following the description in the Bible.

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When a suicidal man tied up traffic around a busy bridge in China for five hours, a passer-by took matters into his own hands -- and pushed him off.

Chen Fuchao, 26, was squatting on the Haizhu bridge in the city of Guangzhou, threatening to leap. Lai Jiansheng, 66, climbed the bridge, shook Chen's hand and gave him a heavy shove.

Chen plummeted onto a partially inflated air cushion, suffering spine and elbow injuries. Lai, who was taken away by cops, said, "I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action violates a lot of public interes. They do not really dare to kill themselves. Instead, they just want to raise the relevant government authorities' attention to their appeals."

via videosift.com

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How close would you get to a fire at a gas station? The correct answer is, Not very.

That didn't stop an amateur videographer in Perth, Western Australia, who kept filming even after the place went up like a nuke (around the minute mark of this video).

The inferno began after a tanker caught fire as it refueled. When it blew, firefighters ran for their lives. There were still 12,000 gallons of gas in the tanker second compartment, so people living nearby were evacuated.

If that had exploded, or if the station's underground tanks had gone up, all hell would have let loose.

via videosift.com

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Ringing cell phones can be a plague in so many places, like : movie theaters, weddings, funerals. Or even in White House press briefings.

And President Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, decided he wasn't about to suffer in silence when one reporter's device kept interrupting him.

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Texting while driving a bus is a bad idea.

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Auto-tune technology takes the classic 'I have a dream' speech and puts it to a pretty good beat. Pretty cool use of the technology, I think.

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Auto-tuning has been all the rage with Kanye West and T-Pain. What song hasn't been retouched with auto-tuning? Now, here's a pretty great usage for auto-tuning, put the daily news through it! The Katie Couric duet in the middle of the clip is the best:

Here's another news auto-tuned:

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Flying instructor Kyle Davis gave a student a real-life lesson in emergency landing a few minutes after taking off from Winter Haven on Sunday. After the engine shut out for the third time, Davis, who shows nerves of steel, made a split-second decision to put the plane down on Havendale Boulevard, normally one of Winter Haven's busiest streets. Fortunately, there was no traffic. Davis's passenger, a professional videographer, caught the short flight and its amazing climax with a cockpit-mounted camera. The only things missing are the bleeped-out words.

via videosift.com

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Lots of chatter on the Internet about CNN reporter Susan Roesgen's live shot at the Tea Party in Chicago. Some say she's harassing the dude with the kid and demonstrating a clear bias. Others say she's being bullied.

What do you think?

My thought: The real star is the two-year-old. He's just chilling out with his binky. He's probably wondering, "Pops, can you take me to the zoo next time? I'd even prefer staring at a ceiling fan."

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A woman who says she was denied her extra shrimp at a Haltom City, Texas, restaurant called 911.

Yes, this led a local newscast. Got to say I think the camera shot taken from within the takeout box is artful.

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This freaky-looking new two-wheeled car from Segway and GM was unveiled April 7. It's supposed to provide safe, inexpensive and eco-friendly transport at speeds of up to 35mph.

Auto giants General Motors and electric scooter makers Segway say the Project PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility & Accessibility) car is impossible to crash.

Read all about it here.

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This clip made me laugh so hard that my co-workers were giving me funny looks. It's from KTVO-3 in Missouri. The anchors are wishing people happy birthday when...things go awry about a minute into the segment. Listen to the names closely.

Whoever did this would make Bart Simpson proud.

And Lou Briccant, I hope your big party went smoothly.

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What a pretty cool idea. Watching the shuttle launch while hurtling toward the ground. Sign me up.

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Tips for burglars:

1) Don't rob stores drunk.
2) Always have an exit strategy.

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This looks like an April Fool's joke, but it's real. Apparently, there are 18 agencies around the world selling real estate on the moon. And the global recession has now spread into space.

Tough times mean sales are tumbling, and prices at this agency in Prague, Czech Republic, have droppped to about $40 an acre.

In case you're wondering who on earth buys lunar land, this British report names three people you might have heard of: Mick Jagger, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Cruise.

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Holy smoke! A volcano erupts under the sea off the coast of Tonga, sending amazing clouds of smoke, steam and debris into the sky. And these daring souls sailed out close to the eruption to capture some of the awesome power of nature..

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It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without us posting this classic viral video.

So the question is: leprechaun, shadow or crackhead?

For more lore about the Mobile leprechaun go to www.wheredagoldat.com

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This story is unbeWEAVEable.

Best quote: "I've invested a lot of money into this weave and it saved my life."

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A CNN anchor had some difficulties saying the word "peanuts," making for a fun report on Northwest Airlines.

Next time, just say nuts.

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Just minutes after Thursday evening's deadly plane crash in New York, YouTube user SpikeTheCowboy711 picked up his video camera and headed to the crash site.

Here is what he captured:

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British train authorities have released some amazing, and very scary, footage of train near misses.

One guy came so close to getting hit that his shoe got knocked off.

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There are officially only four men in the world who still make wooden beer barrels. Here's one of them.

Watch CBS Videos Online

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"Maybe if more people had a duck in their life, maybe we wouldn't be so mad at each other."

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A dog walked into a Murray, Utah, grocery store and walked out with a rawhide bone.

I guess it's true that every dog has his day.

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A Jacksonville church apparently is upset that one of its former parishioners, a 49-year-old woman, is having relations with her boyfriend.

So the church has sent her a letter that they will be announcing her sins on Jan. 4 to the congregation.

She counters by going on the local news.

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This is a bizarre tale out of Beaumont, Texas. Police respond to a 3 a.m. burglar alarm at a store and find a 4-year-old boy playing with toys.

Watch CBS Videos Online

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A Michigan military mom surprised her 8-year-old son with her early return home from Iraq, just in time for Christmas. Just grab the tissues right now.

For a story on their journey, click here.

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The election may be over, but Sarah Palin is still a viral video sensation.

She went to an Alaska turkey farm to pardon a turkey- a time-honored tradition. But apparently no one told the guy behind her to take a break from killing turkeys.

This clip has received more than 200,000 hits in less than 14 hours.

Warning: This is not a gruesome clip, but it may upset turkey lovers.

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These guys are truly stupid. Where were they running to? Who wouldn't notice three dudes chained together?

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I think this may take more than three minutes, Uncle Jay.

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And he finds he's run out of words to do it, so he's recycling old ones.

Watch and learn, kids:

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Wedding proposals on live television can be fraught with risk, but this one looks like it turned out pretty good.

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Ohio congressman John Boehner's office received a mysterious box that warranted a call to the local bomb squad.

Inside: A tasty treat

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He also tries to recruit Jerry Springer to moderate a debate, which would be totally awesome.

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So about 1,000 people descended upon downtown Grand Rapids, MI, for a pillow fight last weekend.

I know they are just armed with pillows, but some of those guys look like they are out for blood.

Watch CBS Videos Online

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He's out of jail an average of two days before he's arrested again.

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Carly Fiorina, McCain advisor and former Hewlett Packard CEO, did not like the skit. Whatever. I haven't seen an SNL skit forwarded around the Internet so much like this since SNL's "Lazy Sunday."

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I don't understand why anyone would want to pose as a high school student.

Maybe her punishment should be spending a year sitting through high school classes.

Watch CBS Videos Online

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The headline says it all.

This is beyond ridiculous.

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She thought her outfit was "adorable." The judge disagreed and sentenced her to three days in jail.

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So Brazilian news reporter Lasier Martins was doing a live report when he touches an electrified, mutant grape.

Seriously.

via videosift.com

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One of my favorite clips from the Republican National Convention: Balloons attacking NBC News reporter Andrea Mitchell.

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An odd report out of Modesto, California: A man goes into a Denny's and tries to amputate his arm with a butter knife.

I wouldn't have been able to eat the rest of my Moon Over My Hammy if that happened in front of me.

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It happens. But usually when they're out in hurricane-force winds.

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The truth is out there, WGN reporter. You just need to try harder to find it. Try leaving the airport, for starters.

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A quick way to have your getaway weekend ruined: have a cow fall on your car.

Here are my questions:
1) Was there foul play involved?
2) Why wouldn't the couple go on camera? Who are they afraid of?

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Seems a little extreme- almost like a "Seinfeld" episode.

Lesson: Don't deny the peoples their Dan Brown. That DaVinci Code drives them crazy.

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It's informative and slightly subversive! And fairly accurate.

If you aren't familiar with Uncle Jay, he's got a new segment on the Web every Monday. If you want to see more Uncle Jay, go to his website. But don't go too often, because it could put me out of a job.

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It's becoming clear that people are actually reading this blog.

Watch This Now got a call this afternoon from a spokeswoman for "The Morning Show with Mike and Juilet"--a chatfest broadcast across the country. She wanted to explain the mystery of spaghetti cat.

First, here's the clip:

She wanted to clarify that the show intentionally put up the photo of the pasta-eating feline. Apparently it is known in the biz as a "bleep photo." When someone says a dirty word on the show, we can now expect to be treated to the cat's photo.

The photo apparently came from a pet segment the show is putting together.

Remember, knowing is half the battle.

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I guess coffee stands with female employees in bikinis are popular in Washington state.

A few questions:

1) Why do the baristas keep going to the window when they see the car?
2) Why didn't anyone on the road notice this guy's license plate was covered up with women's underwear?
3) Did he secretly want boiling water poured on him?

Watch CBS Videos Online

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Apparently in the middle of a Los Angeles TV morning show, someone snuck in a photo of a cat eating a hearty Italian meal. No joke.

"The Soup" on E! fills us in:

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A dash of brandy added with a pinch of intrigue.

Watch CBS Videos Online

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Yes, really. It was on CNN.

The unanswered question: What started the fight? Any guesses?

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A serious topic doesn't show up often here. But I think this video released Wednesday along with a Vanity Fair article is going to spark some pretty interesting debate. Is waterboarding torture? Is there a difference between simulated drowning and drowning? I offer no opinion here. Just this video with Christopher Hitchins:

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Maybe you've seen the video with me taste-tasting berries.

And while that's all well and good, here's a video with far more interesting people trying out the berries on the Graham Norton show in the UK. Juliette Binoche seemed to like it, but Gordon Ramsey, sort of predictably, does not.

That's kind of been my experience with other people, too. Some friends will get a kick out of it, some won't taste much difference at all, and some even get personally offended: "You've made my burger taste like a doughnut!" or "You've ruined my alcohol-drinking experience!"

Just goes to show that taste is, well, up to one's individual taste.

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Last December, some Italian artist apparently decided to dump thousands of plastic balls to protest the end of garbage pick-up in Naples. Thankfully for YouTubers everywhere, this protest was caught on film.

At the end of the clip you see the sanitation workers cleaning up the mess (and honestly, if I were an Italian sanitation worker, I'd track this artist down and whack him with my shovel). But I think they're missing a real opportunity here -- just turn the plaza into a giant ball pit, like at the mall or Chuck E. Cheese's.

Now that's a tourist attraction!

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From FOXNEWS.com:

The military has released gripping video footage of a February B-2 bomber crash in Guam that the Air Force has concluded was caused by moisture.

The crash was caused by distorted data in the aircraft's flight control computers, according to a report released Thursday. Air Force investigators blame the distortion on moisture in the system, which caused the computers to calculate the wrong airspeed.

Video of the crash:

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Here at WTN headquarters, we're always mulling over how to better get the word out about the blog. Most of our ideas are a bust, probably because we're not thinking big enough.
Take, for instance, this Indonesian writer marketing his new book, called "Marketing Revolution." The revolution apparently involves flying several times over poor Indonesians and dumping money on them.
Maybe we'll try this at the beach on Saturday:

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A tip for television reporters: Do not do live shots after wrestling events.

Nothing good can happen unless you enjoy being kissed by a hillbilly Santa Claus.

Reporter Gets Kissed By Homeless Dude - Watch more free videos

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Sameer Mishra of West Lafayette, Indiana is about to become an internet superstar. The 8th grader was a hit at -- and won -- the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. In the video below he misheard the word "numnah" as "numb nut."

A story on the spelling bee can be found HERE.

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Kids, this is not -- I repeat, not -- a good way to end the school year.

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So Kim Kardashian, one of those famous people who is famous for being famous, is trying on clothes at a Los Angeles boutique with her sisters while discussing the plight of Burma.

This video just seems wrong.

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Did Godzilla visit Duluth? That's my only explanation.

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This being the United States, with its insular culture, dying old media, and third-rate education system, it's vital for our celebrities (and Wikipedia) to step up and educate us about far-flung places like Burma, Tibet, Darfur, etc. since our politicians, teachers and journalists have failed so thoroughly.

Burma, now officially called Myanmar, is getting some of the usual press a remote nation gets after a catastrophe. At least 10,000 people are dead because of a cyclone that hit the country over the weekend.

But for the next 30 days, an unlikely group of celebrities like Will Ferrell and Sarah Silverman are heading a web campaign to bring attention to the decades-long struggle for democracy in Burma. It may sound silly, but Ferrell and Silverman strike just the right notes in these kickoff videos.

They're comedians first, and they never lose sight of that:

And check this out: Burma: it's all dictatory:

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Now, how about this: The Webby Awards were announced Tuesday, and while we here at Watch This Now didn't win anything, it turns out we've featured many of the winners on this very site.

Which doesn't exactly make us winners-by-association, but we feel very cutting-edge right now.

Stephen Colbert of "The Colbert Report" is the Webby Person of the Year. Hopefully this will dull the pain of finishing third in the "100 Most Influential People of the Year."

Here's the link to my recent Colbert entry.

The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am got a special Webby nod for his pro-Obama "Yes We Can" clip, which Tim Collie posted here back in February. Here's the link to that one.

And finally, director Michel Gondry got props for encouraging people to remake their favorite films and post them online -- also known as "sweding." You can check out all of Andrew Tran's "swede" posts in the "swede" section here, or just click on the category link on the right side of the blog.

Congratulations to the winners!

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As the mother of an 11-month-old, let me say for the record that I would not engage in this particular activity.

That said, knowing what I know about my own son, I would strongly advise those spectators on the ground to wear some sort of plastic sheeting, or at least carry an umbrella. I can't imagine a naked baby wouldn't have some sort of accident while being tossed from a tower onto a sheet.

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The instant I saw TV interviews with the 7-year-old joyrider from Palm Beach Gardens I knew he was going to be a viral sensation. Sure enough, a WPBF-Channel 25 clip of the young fellow already has more than 700,000 hits on the Internet.

His declaration "I like doing bad things" is going to be with him for awhile.

But it seems everyone has overlooked the interview done by our news partner, WPTV-Channel 5. Kelley Dunn interviews the young fellow as he makes ice and talks about wanting to go on a high-speed chase. Once you get to the site, click on the Video Player on the right.

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Can you imagine 41 hours in an elevator? I think after about 30 minutes I'd start yelling for someone to come get me, right now.

Anyway, here's the link to the Orlando Sentinel entry, and tell them Watch This Now sent you.

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For some reason I don't imagine there is a "running of the grooms."

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So a UFO was spotted near O'Hare Airport in Chicago and one of the local news reporters went to get "Man on the Street" reaction.

This guy may not be an alien, but he's definitely not on the same planet as the rest of us.

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This video of a robotic dog from a company called Boston Dynamics is creepy. At first, I thought it was a real dog that someone had rigged to look like a robot. Then I realized this is a robot. But this thing climbs hills, and slips on ice and recovers!

The future is arriving faster than you think.

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