The classic cartoon Underdog is making a comeback in two very different ways.

First, there’s the Disney film that has taken Underdog to the live-action realm starring Jason Lee as the voice of the canine superhero in the title role.

Here’s the recently-released teaser trailer:

I can’t imagine this movie is going to do any better than the live-action Scooby Doo films that came out a few years ago. The slogan “One Nation, Under Dog” is inevitably going to offend someone. Personally, translating a great cartoon dog to a live-action one offends me enough… though I can’t say that the CG Garfield was any better. Some things should just be left in 2D.

The other comeback for Underdog is via Mezco, a toy company. They’re developing a new line of figures based on Underdog that are wonderful 3D representations of the original 2D characters. They premiered some of them at Toy Fair:

Link to the full gallery of images

I’m much more excited about this Mezco figure line than about the live-action film. I’ll definitely be grabbing at least one of those cool Underdog figures.

worth1000.com hosts Photoshop competitions and regularly posts some amazing results. In recent years, internet posts like those shown above have blurred the lines between fiction and reality. Like in movies, with completely digital characters like Davy Jones being rendered so life-like, similarly photoshop photos are difficult to distinguish from real ones.

Oh, by the way, all of the above photos are real. The 9-foot 646 pound catfish was caught in Thailand, the F-16 sonic boom shows actual water droplet condensation clouds and the St. Maarten airport is 40 feet from the beach.

Have you ever visited moon.google.com to look at the map of the moon? Take it down to the level of the normal street level Google maps and you’ll get a little surprise.

From msnbc.com:

When André-Tascha Lammé was granted a judgment of $3,500 last month in a Sacramento, Calif., small claims court, he heard gasps.

“You could hear people in the courtroom saying, ‘You can sue telemarketers?’” he said. You can. In fact, you can make some decent cash for your trouble.

Lammé started getting pelted with calls from mortgage brokers last year, just as his adjustable rate mortgage was about to reset. Like many consumers, he quickly reached the boiling point over the frequent interruptions. But unlike many consumers, the computer programmer took the time to educate himself – perhaps owing to the spirit of his grandmother, a lawyer for several decades – and quickly discovered the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
“It specifically deals with unwanted calls,” he said. “For each violation, there is a $500 penalty.” Who gets that money? The call recipient. Lammé read on and found he didn’t have to hire a high-priced attorney to pursue the penalty fees – he could file the case himself.

So far, Lammé has won $6,000 in judgments against telemarketers in three cases. He’s not a lawyer, but by filing in small claims court, he’s spent no more than $100 in court fees and scarcely more than an hour of his time on any case. Now he wants you to do it, too.

Funny, after reading this article I can’t wait for the next call to come in. I can use the money…

Link to full story

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I’m not sure where this originally came from, but being in the newspaper business, I wish I’d thought of doing this trick.