Mashable:

The Super Bowl isn’t just the biggest day in American football. It’s also the advertising world’s shining moment.Brands and agencies pull out all the stops to make an impression on the game’s captive audience. Most frequently, they turn to the bizarre and the offbeat, seeking to burn messages into viewers’ brains with humor.And the ads had better be funny; commercial slots are going for a whopping $3.5 million a pop this year.

Any list that includes the “Wassup!” ads but doesn’t include the Budweiser frogs can’t possibly be the ten funniest.

TIME:

A Yale lecture capped at 270 students? And no wireless Internet available? Dial up the anger on the New Haven, Conn., campus.After Alexander Nemerov moved his popular “Introduction to the History of Art: Renaissance to the Present” from the Yale Law School auditorium that easily fit about 450 students to the more cramped Yale Art Gallery auditorium, he not only upset some students and alumni by capping the class size at 270 because of the smaller venue, but also shocked some students that walked into a room void of wi-fi or cell service.

Before you scream, “Luddite!”, read the article. The professor seems to have good reasoning for his decision.

[caption id="attachment_19542" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Helix Nebula, NGC 7293"][/caption] Gizmodo:

In a few billion years, our dear Sun will look like this, a beautiful glowing eye of spent starstuff trash in the shape of Sauron’s Eye. And no ring is going to save us from this one.It’s the Helix Nebula, NGC 7293, 700 light-years away from Earth. Once upon a time it was a star like ours.

I’m going to be so bummed when that happens.

New York Times:

In a sharp answer to Amazon and its expanding publishing efforts, Barnes & Noble said on Tuesday that it would not sell books released by Amazon Publishing in its bookstores.The ban includes books released by New Harvest, a new imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that recently struck a deal to publish and distribute books released by Amazon Publishing’s unit based in New York.It also seemed unlikely that many of the 1,900 independent bookstores in the United States would be willing to stock Amazon books.

To be clear, the B&N ban only applies to books from the publishing arm of Amazon – not all books sold through Amazon.com.

Larry Dignan, ZDNET:

Amazon’s fourth quarter sales missed projections, but earnings were ahead. The big wild card was Kindle device sales, which tripled over the holidays.The e-commerce giant reported earnings of $177 million in the fourth quarter, or 38 cents a share, on revenue of $17.43 billion, up 35 percent from a year ago. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 17 cents a share on revenue of $18.25 billion.

Larry says “Kindle sales surged” and “Kindle sales tripled over the holidays.” But then Larry points out that “As per Amazon custom, no hard numbers were disclosed.” So how do you know sales have surged and tripled?

Adam Davidson, The Atlantic:

In the 10 years ending in 2009, factories shed workers so fast that they erased almost all the gains of the previous 70 years; roughly one out of every three manufacturing jobs—about 6 million in total—disappeared. About as many people work in manufacturing now as did at the end of the Depression, even though the American population is more than twice as large today.I came here to find answers to questions that arise from the data. How, exactly, have some American manufacturers continued to survive, and even thrive, as global competition has intensified? What, if anything, should be done to halt the collapse of manufacturing employment? And what does the disappearance of factory work mean for the rest of us?

In light of the discussion about Apple and overseas jobs, this is an interesting article about manufacturing in America.

IGN Entertainment: We’ve compiled the 20 fight scenes we regard as the most electrifying and just plain jaw dropping that have ever been choreographed and committed to film. Do not go to this story if you have any where to … Continued

The Verge: Point-and-shoot camera sales were down 20 percent last year across the industry, with entry-level shooters declining the most sharply…Dying doesn’t mean dead, though: these cheap cameras still account for as much as 80 percent of camera sales. The … Continued

The Telegraph: Forty-nine per cent of British children aged 12 and under, would be sad without access to the web, while one in five would be lonely. The ‘Digital Futures’ project, which surveyed 1,000 young people in the UK between … Continued

CNET: While supplies last, Target has the Apex Digital LD4688T 46-inch LCD HDTV for $379 shipped. So, what kind of 46-inch TV could $350 (ish) possibly buy? On paper, the TV sounds mixed, I’ll admit. Of course, you’ve got to … Continued

Adrants: Mirroring the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, this long version of a RPA-created Honda CR-V commercial that will air during the Super Bowl follows Matthew Broderick throughout his day as he, like his character did in the movie, calls … Continued

[caption id="attachment_19328" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="Is this the future of driving?"][/caption]Wired:

One landmark study cited “human errors” as the “definite or probable causes” of 93 percent of crashes. Faced with the alternatives — that guy who cut us off without signaling, the mom nursing an Ambien hangover who’s drifting into the right lane, the Bluetooth jockey doing 90 mph — I welcome our new robotic Prius-driving overlords.

I love driving but reading the article makes you realize we might be better off if we let computers take over most of the “heavy lifting” of day to day driving.

The Atlantic:

Over the past week, Norway has been witness to some jaw-dropping light shows, the result of an M8.7 class flare and a coronal mass ejection in a direction pointed toward Earth. Many Norwegians shared their photos of the northern lights — or “nordlys” in Norwegian — on Flickr.

Most people have never seen the Northern Lights in person but if you have, it’s sight you’ll never forget.

Mashable:

In terms of GIFs, we’ve seen everything from mainstream celebrities photobombing major award shows to familiar web trends like cats and Star Wars characters. But when it comes to animated GIFs, one thing is for certain: Humor always wins.

I’m sorry but the above Panda image had me laughing out loud.

Network World:

No need to waste your time sitting through commercials during Super Bowl XLVI when you could be doing other things like eating and drinking and arguing, right? Here’s a sneak peek at some of the geekiest/techiest commercials on tap for the big New England Patriots vs. New York Giants matchup.

Ads from VW, Samsung, GoDaddy and Ferris Bueller is back!

Reuters:

Apple’s Steve Jobs directly asked former Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt to stop trying to recruit an Apple engineer, a transgression that threatened one junior Google employee’s job, according to a court filing.The 2007 email from Jobs to Schmidt was disclosed on Friday in the course of civil litigation against Apple Inc, Google Inc and five other technology companies. The proposed class action, brought by five software engineers, accuses the companies of conspiring to keep employee compensation low by eliminating competition for skilled labor.

Who said Apple and Google couldn’t be cooperative?