Blog: Without A Net | 89.3 KPCC

30th anniversary of Sally Ride becoming 1st American woman in space (video)

Mike Roe — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:35:36 -0700

Dr. Sally Ride, the first U.S. woman to travel into space, speaks to the media at the San Diego Aerospace Museum February 7, 2003 in San Diego. Ride gave her condolences to the families of the lost space shuttle Columbia astronauts and spoke about the future of the space program.; Credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images

NASA made news Monday by announcing a new class of astronauts that was half-female, but Tuesday marks the 30th anniversary of Encino native Sally Ride becoming the first American woman in space.

Ride died late last year of cancer, but she avoided earlier disaster based on the timing of her flight — Ride rode the shuttle Challenger, which exploded after launch a few years later. She was buried in Santa Monica. It was also revealed in her obituary that she had a female partner for the past 27 years, making her the first known homosexual to travel to outer space.

Watch Ride describe the “spectacular view” of Earth from space in this video NASA released last year:

Ride described the launch in her book, “To Space & Back”:

"3 … 2 … 1 … The rockets light! The shuttle leaps off the launch pad in a cloud of steam and a trail of fire. Inside, the ride is rough and loud. Our heads are rattling around inside our helmets. We can barely hear the voices from Mission Control in our headsets above the thunder of the rockets and engines. For an instant I wonder if everything is working right. But there’s no more time to wonder, and no time to be scared.

"In only a few seconds we zoom past the clouds. Two minutes later the rockets burn out, and with a brilliant whitish-orange flash, they fall away from the shuttle as it streaks on toward space. Suddenly the ride becomes very, very smooth and quiet. The shuttle is still attached to the big tank, and the launch engines are pushing us out of Earth’s atmosphere. The sky is black. All we can see of the trail of fire behind us is a faint, pulsating glow through the top window.

"The atmosphere thins gradually as we travel farther from Earth. At fifty miles up, we’re above most of the air, and we’re officially ‘in space.’"

(Hat tip: Brain Pickings)

VIDEO: Funny Or Die announces festival headlined by Dave Chappelle

Mike Roe — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 09:55:26 -0700

Comedian Dave Chappelle speaks to students of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts April 3, 2006, in Washington, DC. Chappelle, an alumnus of the Ellington school, spoke to the student body after the school received $15,000 from the GRAMMY Foundation for the construction of a recording studio.; Credit: Joshua Roberts/Getty Images

The notoriously reclusive comedy superstar Dave Chappelle is headed back on the road. Funny Or Die announced Monday that he’ll be co-headlining Funny Or Die’s Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival alongside comedy band/HBO stars Flight of the Conchords.

The tour kicks off Friday, August 23 in Austin, Texas. The show is making two California stops as part of its five weekends of comedy glory. It hits Southern California first (we win!) on Sunday, Sept. 15 in Irvine, before heading to Mountain View up north on Friday, Sept. 20 to close the tour.

Chappelle has been working on new material, and doing so with Chris Rock according to the Comic’s Comic; Rock’s not announced for the tour, but maybe fans will get lucky and he’ll do a surprise drop-in there too.

Other comedians appearing on the lineup include Demetri Martin, Kristen Schaal, Al Madrigal, John Mulaney, Hannibal Buress, Jim Jefferies and Chris D’Elia, with Brody Stevens hosting the second stage. The site also notes that the lineup may change in different cities, so you’ll likely see a variety of other acts backing up Chappelle and the Conchords’ Bret and Jermaine.

If you’re like me and already have other plans for this show’s Southern California stop, you can also check out another comedy musical act-headline show with Tenacious D’s Festival Supreme in Santa Monica on Saturday, Oct. 19. That show features a number of comedy icons, including Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Eric Idle, Mr. Show, Tim & Eric, several former SNL cast members, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and even Adam Sandler. Yes, that Adam Sandler. Hannibal Buress and Demetri Martin will be part of both festivals.

Watch the Funny Or Die video featuring monster trucks promoting their festival:

Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival w/ Dave Chappelle & Flight of the Conchords! - watch more funny videos

The tour may not include monster trucks, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time. Tickets are already on sale for Tenacious D’s Festival Supreme.

Kanye West's new album Yeezus leaks 4 days early (video)

Mike Roe — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 14:07:12 -0700

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian attend the Costume Institute Gala for the "PUNK: Chaos to Couture" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2013 in New York City.; Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Kanye West’s new album “Yeezus” apparently leaked online Friday, four days before it officially goes on sale Tuesday, June 18. It’s a surprise, given the high security West has put around his production and the fact that he was able to keep the highly anticipated album he made with Jay-Z, “Watch The Throne,” from leaking.

West makes headlines like they were pancakes, but you might have caught some of the publicity for the new album recently, including new song “New Slaves” being projected on the W Hotel in Hollywood last month, along with other projections around the world.

NEW SONG AND VISUAL FROM MY NEW ALBUM BEING PROJECTED TONIGHT ACROSS THE GLOBE ON 66 BUILDINGS, LOCATIONS @ http://t.co/7BZwfPawwZ
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) May 18, 2013

Warning: Contains adult language

West also announced Friday on Twitter that more new music would be shown at different projection locations. “New Slaves” was part of West’s set on “Saturday Night Live” last month, along with “Black Skinhead.”

He deleted all of his tweets as he promoted the new album, with only four tweets currently on the account all there to promote “Yeezus.”

West has played the details of this album relatively close to the vest, but there is a track listing floating around online, which lists a lot of production work from “Get Lucky” hitmakers Daft Punk:

On Sight (Produced by Daft Punk) [Malik Yusef, Rhymefest]
Black Skinhead (Produced by Daft Punk) [CyHi The Prynce, Lupe Fiasco, Malik Yusef]
I Am A God (Featuring God) (Produced by Daft Punk) [Hudson Mohawke, Justin Vernon, Malik Yusef, Rhymefest]
New Slaves (Featuring Frank Ocean) (Malik Yusef, Rhymefest)
Hold My Liquor (Feat. Chief Keef & Justin Vernon) [Alejandro Ghersi, Malik Yusef, Rhymefest]
I’m In It (Feat. Travis Scott) [Justin Vernon, Malik Yusef]
Blood On The Leaves [Hudson Mohawke, Tony Williams]
Guilt Trip (Feat. Kid Cudi) (Produced by S1)
Send It Up (Feat. King L) [Alejandro Ghersi, Daft Punk, Gesaffelstein]
Bound 2 (Feat. Charlie Wilson) [John Legend]

Supreme Court: No patenting Angelina Jolie's breast cancer gene

Mike Roe — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 09:33:06 -0700

Actress Angelina Jolie speaks ahead of a screening of her new film 'In the Land of Blood and Honey' at the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) on May 29, 2012 in London.; Credit: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday morning that natural human genes can’t be patented, striking down patents held by Myriad Genetics. A potential beneficiary: women who carry the BRCA1 gene, the gene Angelina Jolie carries that significantly increases your risk of breast cancer and led her to get a preventive double mastectomy, and which Myriad had a patent on. With more competition, the high costs for testing for that gene could be reduced.

BRCA1 and BRCA2 are genes linked to breast cancer which Myriad Genetics patented in 1997 and 1998; Myriad markets tests for those BRCA genes. A defect in BRCA1 causes an average of a 65 percent risk of breast cancer over someone’s lifetime, while a BRCA2 mutation gives a woman a 45 percent chance of breast cancer, according to Stanford. The patent was initially challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and others in May 2009, and lower courts went both ways on it before the Supreme Court’s decision.

As the Atlantic points out, testing for BRCA has been set to be covered under Obamacare, but to date Myriad has held a monopoly on that testing due to their gene patents. Myriad is even mentioned on the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation’s website, including Myriad’s financial assistance program for those who can’t afford the testing.

Angelina Jolie first announced both the information about her gene and her decision do have both of her breasts removed as preventive treatment in a New York Times editorial. She noted that her mother had died of breast cancer at 56 years old. Jolie had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent chance of ovarian cancer, according to her doctors, noting that the increased risk varies from woman to woman.

Jolie also noted in her piece that the testing conducted by Myriad costs more than $3,000 in the United States. Myriad reportedly spent $500 million on the project that led to those patents, according to Yahoo.

Myriad had previously drawn a distinction in a statement, saying that no one’s tried to patent genes in someone’s body. “Rather, Myriad created synthetic molecules of DNA in the laboratory that are used to test patients for increased risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Those synthetic molecules are different from what is found in nature or the human body.”

Here’s who the Susan G. Komen foundation suggests gets tested for the BRCA genes:

A personal history of breast cancer at age 50 or younger

A personal history of triple negative breast cancer (breast cancer that is estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative and HER2/neu receptor-negative)

A personal or family history of male breast cancer

A personal or family history of bilateral breast cancer (cancer in both breasts)

A personal history of ovarian cancer

A parent, sibling, child, grandparent, grandchild, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or first cousin diagnosed with breast cancer at age 45 or younger

A mother, sister, daughter, grandmother, granddaughter, aunt, niece or first cousin diagnosed with ovarian cancer

A family history of both breast and ovarian cancers on the same side of the family (either mother’s or father’s side of the family)

Ashkenazi Jewish heritage and a family history of breast or ovarian cancer

The Supreme Court’s decision only affects natural DNA; synthetic DNA can still be patented. Thousands of genes have been patented, according to the Hastings Center.

VIDEO: Disneyland's original construction as seen in vintage archival video

Mike Roe — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:42:31 -0700

Tony Baxter presents a collection of rare and mostly unseen footage from Disneyland's long history at the 2011 D23 Expo in the Anaheim Convention Center.; Credit: wdwnt (via YouTube)

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a fly on the wall during the construction of Disneyland? Or perhaps a mouse in the wall?

Imagineer Tony Baxter’s presentation from 2011’s D23 expo gives a tour of the process behind constructing the iconic Anaheim wonderland. You get to watch the attention to detail that helped set Disneyland apart from your average podunk amusement park — as Boing Boing points out, it features “scenes of Imagineers lovingly adding scorchmarks to the sails of the Pirates of the Caribbean galleon with a blowtorch, construction workers tightrope-walking on the Monorail beam” and more. There may be a lack of safety precautions as Imagineers rip open holes in sails with one hand while they hold a blowtorch in the other.

You could argue it almost borders on madness — they brought in an astronomy expert to make sure the details on the Moon were just right, as an artist sits by and paints more of the details of Space Mountain.

While it’s Baxter’s presentation, he opens with about 15 minutes of black-and-white footage in a film that he lets speak for itself from before Disneyland’s opening, then transitions into color footage that he narrates and provides context to himself from the park’s early days.

Watch the footage up above to see the sails raised for Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney chilling out in the Adventureland Swiss Family Treehouse and much more.

(Hat tip: Boing Boing)

VIDEO: E3: Sony launches PlayStation 4 while trolling Microsoft's Xbox One

Mike Roe — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 10:48:03 -0700

Sony video on how to share used games on the PlayStation 4, mocking restrictions on sharing games that are part of the new Microsoft Xbox One.; Credit: ZybakTV (via YouTube)

Sony officially launched the Playstation 4 on Monday, and they’re coming after Microsoft’s Xbox One — hard.

For starters, the new PlayStation 4 costs $399, putting the PS4’s price point $100 under that of the Xbox One at $499. However, what may be most notable is all of the things Sony was quick to point out the PlayStation doesn’t do.

You can see some of that in the ad up above, with Sony out-and-out mocking the way that Microsoft is putting restrictions on how players share games, including only allowing them to give a game away once and only allowing them to be given to people who are on your Xbox friends list for at least 30 days.

“We’re equally focused on delivering what gamers want most, without imposing restrictions or devaluing their PS4 purchases,” said Sony Computer Entertainment America President Jack Tretton, not-so-obliquely referring to various Microsoft features that have received a negative reaction for being overly restrictive on what gamers can do with their games and how they can use their consoles.

In a portion of the presentation peppered with numerous applause breaks, Tretton said that the PS4 wouldn’t impose any new restrictions on how players use their PS4 games. And those applause breaks aren’t from the general public — they’re from an audience of reporters and gaming industry representatives.

“When a gamer buys a PS4 disc, they have the rights to use that copy of the game, they can trade in the game at retail, sell it to another person, lend it to a friend or keep it forever,” Tretton said — drawing a stark contrast to some new restrictions Microsoft is putting in place with its new system.

One feature of the Xbox One that had drawn strong criticism, the need for it to go online at least once every 24 hours or else players would no longer be able to play games, got specifically called out.

“PlayStation 4 disc-based games don’t need to be connected online to play,” Tretton said. “If you enjoy playing single-player games offline, PS4 won’t require you to check in online periodically.” He then added a cherry on top: “And it won’t stop working if you haven’t authenticated within 24 hours.”

Those in attendance even broke into a chant of “Sony” in the middle of those points, showing the outright hostility that seems to have met some of the Xbox One’s new features.

Which gaming system are you looking forward to more?

VIDEO: Tony Awards welcome Broadway stars whose TV shows were canceled back from LA

Mike Roe — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:41:53 -0700

Laura Benanti, Andrew Rannells and Megan Hilty are forced to eat crow in a group number, returning from Los Angeles to Broadway at the 2013 Tony Awards alongside Neil Patrick Harris after their shows were canceled.; Credit: Boom Fiyah (via YouTube)

While the Tony Awards has a Manhattan-based vibe since most of the Broadway shows featured on it have yet to make their way through the rest of the country, the West Coast played a big role in one of host Neil Patrick Harris’s songs Sunday night — a medley that ended with a tune beginning, “Kiss L.A. goodbye.”

Andrew Rannells, who made his name on Broadway in “The Book of Mormon” before going on to star on “The New Normal,” made an appearance alongside Harris, leading into a group number featuring Broadway stars-turned-TV-show-stars-turned-canceled-TV-show-stars Rannells, Megan Hilty of “Smash” and Laura Benanti of two shows that got the axe — 2011’s “Playboy Club” and 2012–13’s “Go On.” They came back from L.A. and were forced to face returning to theater after getting their taste of Hollywood stardom.

Meanwhile, Harris took shots along the way, jokingly rubbing their noses in the fact that he’s been on the highly successful “How I Met Your Mother” for almost a decade.

They used some classic Broadway hits to explain how they felt:

Rannells tweaked “America” from “West Side Story” to be about wanting to be on a TV show;
Under Hilty, Gypsy’s “You Gotta Have A Gimmick” became “You Gotta Have A Series”;
“The Ladies Who Lunch” from “Company” was turned into a drunken tirade about how "television sucks" by Benanti;
Finally, “A Chorus Line” from “What I Did For Love” became a group song with all four explaining their reasoning for leaving Broadway for Los Angeles.

Fun fact: All four of those canceled series came from NBC. What star of the Great White Way will they make depressed next?

Check out the spectacular stuntwork-filled opening number and the first of multiple appearances throughout the show of Mike Tyson (really, I promise):

You can also watch Harris once again pull off the trick of doing an original closing number with specific details from the show you just saw, this time to the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys song “Empire State of Mind,” with an assist from actress Audra McDonald:

You can read the full list of 2013 Tony Awards winners below:

Best Play: "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike."

Best Musical: "Kinky Boots."

Best Book of a Musical: "Matilda the Musical."

Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theater: "Kinky Boots."

Best Revival of a Play: "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Best Revival of a Musical: "Pippin."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play: Tracy Letts, "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role in a Play: Cicely Tyson, "The Trip to Bountiful."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical: Billy Porter, "Kinky Boots."

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical: Patina Miller, "Pippin."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play: Courtney B. Vance, "Lucky Guy."

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play: Judith Light, "The Assembled Parties."

Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical: Gabriel Ebert, "Matilda the Musical."

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical: Andrea Martin, "Pippin."

'Bathing Beauty' Esther Williams dies; watch video of her best underwater moments

Mike Roe — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:02:12 -0700

American movie star Esther Williams poses with a board as she is going to compete the "Ironing board derby" between Catalina island and the Californian coast Aug. 25, 1947.; Credit: CORR/AFP/Getty Images

“Bathing Beauty” Esther Williams, the Inglewood-born swimming champion who took her swim moves to film in 1940s and ’50s musicals, has died at 91.

Williams had been aiming to swim in the 1940 Olympics, but World War II got in the way of that when it led to the cancelation of the Olympics that year. She ended up getting discovered working as a department store model and went on to appear at the World’s Fair in San Francisco, where an MGM talent scout spotted her and helped bring her to film, despite a lack of any sort of acting background.

After breaking out in “Bathing Beauty,” she continued to appear in romantic musical comedies that somehow involved swimming, like “Easy to Wed” and “Dangerous When Wet.” Some of her other films with colorful titles telling stories I’ll leave to your imagination: “Texas Carnival” and “Pagan Love Song.”

The MGM film “That’s Entertainment!” took a look back at the studio’s stars, including telling the story of Esther Williams and the stars she worked with in her prolific career. Those stars included Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Red Skelton.

The 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter” featured her joining in song with Khan himself, Ricardo Montalban, to deliver a Christmas favorite — “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Swimming proved surprisingly dangerous work — she ruptured her eardrum numerous times, almost drowned and even broke her neck during a diving sequence in 1952’s “Million Dollar Mermaid.”

Some of her swimming scenes weren’t quite so dangerous — here she is talking to and swimming with a fake duck in another 1952 film, “Skirts Ahoy.”

In 1955’s “Jupiter’s Darling,” Williams plays a Roman woman who somewhat improbably helps Hannibal swim the Tiber River to scout out Rome before he attacks.

Williams eventually tried reducing the swimming in her films and did some non-swimming roles, but audiences just wanted to see her back in the water.

As “Funny Girl” star Fanny Brice put it, “Esther Williams? Wet, she’s a star. Dry, she ain’t.”

She ended up retiring after marrying her “Dangerous When Wet” co-star, Fernando Lamas, in 1962 — her third husband. Lamas also directed her in her last movie, 1961’s “The Magic Fountain.” She explained her choice to leave film in a 1984 interview:

“A really terrific guy comes along and says, ‘I wish you’d stay home and be my wife,’ and that’s the most logical thing in the world for a Latin. And I loved being a Latin wife — you get treated very well. There’s a lot of attention in return for that sacrifice.”

Here’s one last look at the charm of Esther Williams on the game show “What’s My Line?”

Esther Williams' complete filmography:

“Andy Hardy’s Double Life,” 1942
“A Guy Named Joe,” 1943
“Bathing Beauty,” 1944
“Thrill of a Romance,” 1945
“Ziegfeld Follies,” 1946
“The Hoodlum Saint,” 1946
“Easy to Wed,” 1946
“Till the Clouds Roll By,” 1947
“Fiesta,” 1947
“This Time for Keeps,” 1947
“On an Island With You,” 1948
“Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” 1949
“Neptune’s Daughter,” 1949
“Duchess of Idaho,” 1950
“Pagan Love Song,” 1950
“Callaway Went Thataway,” 1951
“Texas Carnival,” 1951
“Skirts Ahoy!,” 1952
“Million Dollar Mermaid,” 1952
“Dangerous When Wet,” 1953
“Easy to Love,” 1953
“Jupiter’s Darling,” 1955
“The Unguarded Moment,” 1956
“Raw Wind in Eden,” 1958
“The Big Show,” 1961
“The Magic Fountain,” 1961

Robert F. Kennedy assassinated 45 years ago this week (archival photos, video)

Mike Roe — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:49:55 -0700

Woman reading newspaper, an "extra" edition of the Herald-Examiner, containing the headline, "Kennedy Shot."; Credit: Herald-Examiner Collection

This week is the 45th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The brother of President John F. Kennedy won the California Democratic primary on June 4, 1968, but just after midnight, he was shot by assassin Sirhan Sirhan.

Sirhan was immediately arrested. Kennedy died early on June 6 at the hospital.

Click through above to see photos of Kennedy in Los Angeles and the aftermath of his assassination from the L.A. Public Library's archives.

Watch video of CBS's coverage of the evening, beginning with Kennedy's primary victory, with chaos breaking out around the 46-minute mark as Kennedy was assassinated.

How Twitter-friendly are Gov. Jerry Brown and President Obama? (interactive)

Mike Roe — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 13:30:35 -0700

California Gov. Jerry Brown looks on during a news conference at Google headquarters on September 25, 2012 in Mountain View, California.; Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

President Obama tends to speak in short bites, and Yahoo News points out that, of 50 major Obama speeches they analyzed, over half of each speech’s lines came it at 120 characters or less. He’s the first president in the era of Twitter, and those tweetable, Twitter-friendly lines make it easy for his major points to spread on social media.

How does California’s own Gov. Jerry Brown compare? Looking back, his 2011 Inaugural Address came in at 53 percent tweetable. By the time his 2011 State of the State rolled around, he was up slightly to 56 percent.

A year later, though, Brown took that up another level, jumping to 70 percent for the 2012 State of the State. He peaked in 2013 with 73 percent this past January.

The trend upward is continuing. At a commencement address last month at the University of California, Berkeley, Brown’s speech came in at 77 percent tweetable. Could he hit the 80 percent mark by 2014?

As the governor's press secretary Evan Westrup put it in an email to KPCC, "Sometimes less truly is more."

As Yahoo put it, “Most people tweet from their laptops or smartphones. Barack Obama tweets directly from his mouth.” Is this merely a sign of the times and short attention spans, or is there some more craft to it? You only need a few good lines to be in Twitter-friendly territory to make sure they spread, so don’t expect to see a 100 percent tweetable speech anytime soon.

Personally, I’m going to #start trying to #speak in only #hashtags. (That sentence was 27 percent hashtags.)

This story has been updated.

A bad Farmville crop — Zynga lays off 18 percent of staff, closes LA office

Mike Roe — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 13:49:08 -0700

A screenshot from the Farmville video game.; Credit: Graham Stanley/Flickr Creative Commons

San Francisco-based gaming company Zynga is laying off 520 employees — 18 percent of its staff — including closing its Los Angeles, New York and Dallas offices, according to a report from AllThingsD. Zynga confirmed the news in a press release.

The company that rode to success on the backs of Words With Friends and the game all your parents play, Farmville, is looking to readjust. “While our Farmville Franchise continues to perform well, other games are underperforming,” Zynga said in a press release. It looks like all those requests to Facebook friends didn't help enough.

Zynga also made news when they bought the popular game Draw Something and its developer for $180 million, before that game saw a marked drop in popularity.

The company expects the layoffs to be completed in August, with staff being cut from across the company. Zynga says the changes will let them save between $70 million and $80 million. Still, Zynga’s projecting a second quarter loss between $28.5 million and $39 million.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus issued a letter to staff expressing sadness at the layoffs.

“Today is a hard day for Zynga and an emotional one for every employee of our company. We are saying painful goodbyes to about 18% of our Zynga brothers and sisters,” Pincus wrote. “None of us ever expected to face a day like today, especially when so much of our culture has been about growth.”

Pincus argues in his letter that the company’s scale is wrong for what it’s trying to do and that restructuring will let it have more of an impact on mobile and multiplatform gaming.

“By reducing our cost structure today we will offer our teams the runway they need to take risks and develop these breakthrough new social experiences,” Pincus wrote.

He also noted that laid off employees would receive “generous severance packages.”

You can read Pincus’s entire letter below:

To our Zynga Community,

Today is a hard day for Zynga and an emotional one for every employee of our company. We are saying painful goodbyes to about 18% of our Zynga brothers and sisters. The impact of these layoffs will be felt across every group in the company.

None of us ever expected to face a day like today, especially when so much of our culture has been about growth. But I think we all know this is necessary to move forward. The scale that served us so well in building and delivering the leading social gaming service on the Web is now making it hard to successfully lead across mobile and multiplatform, which is where social games are going to be played.

These moves, while hard to face today, represent a proactive commitment to our mission of connecting the world through games. Mobile and touch screens are revolutionizing gaming. Our opportunity is to make mobile gaming truly social by offering people new, fun ways to meet, play and connect. By reducing our cost structure today we will offer our teams the runway they need to take risks and develop these breakthrough new social experiences.

Because we’re making these moves proactively and from a position of financial strength, we can take care of laid off employees. We’re offering generous severance packages that reflect our appreciation for all of their work and we hope this will provide a foundation as they pursue their next professional steps.

Although these are hard decisions, I’m confident that our strategy of building leading franchises and supporting them with the largest network is the right one for the long term. I’m encouraged by our recent progress. Running With Friends is a great example of the quality player experience we can deliver, already receiving an average 4.5 app star rating from 22,700 players in less than one month after launching. Our FarmVille franchise teams continue to innovate and deliver ground breaking new social experiences like County Fair which, despite only being available on the web, is engaging 39 million monthly players.

I want to thank every one of you for the spirit, creativity and energy that you’ve invested in Zynga. You’ve reintroduced a generation of people to gaming and through these games offered them new ways to connect with their families, make new friends and even sometimes find love.

Everyone will be affected by these changes and I’m sure there will be many follow up questions to this email. If you have specific questions relating to your project or team, please talk to your manager. For any other feedback or thoughts feel free to email me directly.

Mark

LA's OK Go releases an iPhone game that has nothing to do with their music: Say the Same Thing

Mike Roe — Thu, 30 May 2013 14:24:44 -0700

(L-R) Musicians Tim Nordwind, Damian Kulash and Andy Ross of OK Go perform at the after party for the premiere of Sony Pictures Classics' "Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" at the Supper Club on April 20, 2011 in Los Angeles.; Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The new mobile phone app Say the Same Thing delivers on a simple premise: Can you and a friend both say random words, then figure out what those have in common to find the word “in between” those two words? You have to, as the game explains, say the same thing.

The band has a real hipster pedigree — it comes from the minds of Los Angeles’s own OK Go, a band known for their highly choreographed videos which feature everything from offroad driving to a modern Rube Goldberg machine.

Watch the band demonstrating how to play:

For a limited time, you even have the chance to get in line to play a game with members of the band themselves. Here’s your chance to try thinking like a rock star, though sign up quickly — that feature’s about to come to an end.

The game was programmed by OK Go guitarist Andy Ross, who studied computer science and has previously worked as a coder on political site OpenCongress and has been working on apps for the past year, according to the band.

Say the Same Thing had the distinction of being the 50 billionth app downloaded from Apple’s App Store earlier this month, and it’s available for both iPhones and Android phones.

It’s long been a popular warmup game in the improv comedy community in its real-life form, widely known as “mind meld.” Now, local funny people are tweeting game images like this:

My improv coach is better than your improv coach...... twitter.com/jjscomedy/stat…
— Jonny Svarzbein (@jjscomedy) May 29, 2013

The band created a Tumblr for people to share examples of the paths they took to saying the same thing, WeSaidTheSameThing.tumblr.com.

OK Go isn’t just making apps — they have a new album they’re working on that they say will be released either this fall or winter.

Watch TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha play with OK lead singer and guitarist Damian Kulash, along with talking game strategy:

Watch some more of OK Go's signature videos:

Have you downloaded the app? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

Katy Perry and Robert Pattinson crash Santa Barbara wedding rehearsal

Mike Roe — Tue, 28 May 2013 12:30:29 -0700

Singer Katy Perry speaks at the 2013 Delete Blood Cancer Gala honoring Vera Wang, Leighton Meester and Suzi Weiss-Fischmann on May 1, 2013 in New York City.; Credit: Jennifer Graylock/Getty Images for Delete Blood Ca

Katy Perry and Robert Pattinson decided over the weekend to attend a Santa Barbara County wedding rehearsal — for people they didn’t know.

“Katy and Rob were just sitting next to each other watching the wedding rehearsal in the main courtyard area,” Stephanie Sands, an actual guest at the rehearsal, told People Magazine. Perry was wearing standard celebrity-issue low-key attire, according to Sands, rocking a hoodie and “big sunglasses.”

Sands also told People she had no idea why Pattinson or Perry would be there. “They were not affiliated with the wedding party and were not seen mingling with guests.” Sands also said that it didn’t appear they were dating, with no public displays of affection.

The wedding rehearsal was at the San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, California.

POLL: Does this JC Penney billboard in Culver City look like Hitler?

Mike Roe — Tue, 28 May 2013 10:31:15 -0700

A Culver City billboard from J.C. Penney that some are saying resembles Hitler, especially when blurred as in the image on the right.; Credit: Imgur

Click here to check out the update, including the billboard being taken down.

Previously: Several customers have taken to the Web to complain about a J.C. Penney billboard that’s next to the 405 Freeway in Culver City. The problem: It kind of looks like Hitler.

Uh, no thanks, JC Penny. I don't think I want your HITLER teapot. twitter.com/BenariLee/stat…
— Benari (@BenariLee) May 24, 2013

The billboard promotes a kettle with features that, if you’re either not paying attention or paying way too much attention, resembles Adolf Hitler’s uniform, haircut, trademark mustache, and even has a spout that could resemble a Nazi salute.

A thread on Reddit’s Los Angeles subreddit noted the similarity, particularly when blurred. Someone actually posted about it last week, but could only describe what they thought they saw without realizing it was this J.C. Penney billboard.

The kettle being advertised is the Michael Graves Design Bells and Whistles Stainless Steel Tea Kettle.

This also happens to come just a month after the company's CEO stepped down.

Does this JC Penney billboard in Culver City look like Hitler?

11 great videos from YouTube Comedy Week, including 2 from Lonely Island and 1 from Arnold

Mike Roe — Sat, 25 May 2013 15:58:43 -0700

Actors Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogan attends 'The Big Live Comedy Show' presented by YouTube Comedy Week held at Culver Studios on May 19, 2013 in Culver City.; Credit: Mark Davis/Getty Images for YouTube

YouTube held “YouTube Comedy Week” this past week, promoting lots of familiar faces, some less familiar — and then there's the ones familiar only if you’re part of the hardcore YouTube community, where “Reply Girls” is a part of your regular vocabulary.

Warning: Some of these videos contain adult language.

They hyped it up with former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger at least faking enthusiasm for everyone from Tim & Eric to the Lonely Island. You even get Arnold contributing to a Harlem Shake video.

The Gregory Brothers: “DJ Play My Song (NO, LEAVE ME ALONE)”

You might also know the Gregory Brothers from their work producing the Auto-Tune The News videos. This new song from the group, featuring the Korean star who YouTube built, Psy, plays on the trope of a song with someone asking for the DJ to play their song — but without getting much of a positive response.

Craig Robinson’s Surprise Love Song Serenade

“The Office” and “Hot Tub Time Machine” star Craig Robinson, who’s also known for his skill tinkling the keys, takes his show on the road to serenade the surprised women at a salon.

Video Response To Taylor Swift’s Video “22” from Conan O’Brien

Conan O’Brien makes his very own YouTube reply video, going from a critique of Taylor Swift’s “22” video to revealing his own dark past.

Convos With My 2 Year Old

Find out what happens when you reenact actual conversations with a 2-year-old girl when that girl’s played by an adult man.

Reggie Watts — Reg Rolled

The Rickroll phenomenon, with people linking to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up,” was one of the first online viral video phenomenons, and comedy musician Reggie Watts brings it back for a mushmouthed reimagining of the undeniably catchy tune.

Life On The Road | Learn Guitar With David Brent

“The Office” may be gone, with the British “Office” even more full of worms, but Ricky Gervais isn’t afraid to bring back his iconic character David Brent for a YouTube guitar lesson.

Sarah Silverman’s Perfect Night featuring Will.i.am

Want to go out and party? Sarah Silverman DOES NOT. Listen to her explain her perfect night, in song, with the help of a Black Eyed Pea.

The Lonely Island

The Lonely Island normally saves their best material for “Saturday Night Live,” but with Andy Samberg leaving the show and the show having its season finale last week, they dropped some new tunes with YouTube’s Comedy Week.

First they dropped “Diaper Money,” offering a hip-hop take on being an adult:

Then they followed that up with “Semicolon” featuring Solange, showing what may be a fundamental lack of understanding of punctuation:

Finally, some improvised comedy from Los Angeles’s own Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre:

Be sure to check out tons of other videos, along with live shows shot this week in Culver City, as part of YouTube Comedy Week.