Wired’s Gadget Lab says the Kinekt Gear Ring “is like mechanical catnip for nerds.” I don’t know about that nerd reference (we’ve long maintained that nerds and geeks are not the same thing), but this ring definitely makes me tingly in all my geeky places.

Can you say gadget lust?

In the 44 years since the grandest of sporting spectacles began (at least in the United States), the Super Bowl has become more than just a mere football game. It is a national obsession. It is an annual, ritualized holiday celebrated across the land by a vast cross section of people, young and old, from all walks of life.

When you think of the Super Bowl and all the crazy accoutrements that accompany the big game, what immediately jumps to the frontal lobe of your mind? Do those funny (and not so funny) TV commercials that companies have paid millions to run past your eyeballs for 30 seconds jump to the front of the line? What about the endless supply of cold beer quaffed in the company of family and friends?

What about the food? It’s “Super Sunday” and that means the fans are super hungry. There is only one fix for that: fire up the grill.

What turkey and cranberry sauce are to Thanksgiving dinner and hot dogs are to the 4th of July, grilling up a vast assortment of beef, pork and poultry for a house full of crazed fans goes hand-in-hand as one of the most honored and revered of all Super Bowl rituals.

According to the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA), Super Bowl Sunday is the most popular grilling day of the winter. “When you factor in the 70 percent of Americans who cite easy clean-up as a huge perk, grilling for the big game at home is a convenient, no mess way to pull together a feast big enough for a football team or a pack of die hard fans,” says Leslie Wheeler, communications director for HPBA.

Once the host has fired up the trusty grill, many of the guests will all make the obligatory pass by the flames to get a quick gander at what’s cooking.

There it is, a veritable Roman banquet searing away above the flames: rows of beef patties, whole chickens and T-bone steaks are sizzling. Many grill masters will also toss in some corn sheathed in green husks surrounded by a vast array of kabob skewers festooned with more meat, shrimp and an assortment of goodness from the produce aisle to complement the meat.

Super Bowl grill & swills are grazing affairs that see the gathered hordes move from room to room, each one well stocked with a TV showing the game. Each room is stocked with bowls overflowing with chips and dip for those moments when the fan can’t eat another massive helping of grilled meat and instead wants something crunchy. Super Bowl grazing is a delicate juggling act as participants are somehow able to haul around a heaping plate of hot food, hold on to a cold beer, and somehow eat and drink it all at the same time.

For the host, quantity rules, though quality is very important and not to be overlooked. Just like the game, which is the granddaddy of all overproduced, over-hyped mega-events, a real Super Bowl grill & swill is something to be celebrated.

Hosts take their role very seriously, for this is usually not the first time that they’ve opened up their abode for a rampaging flock of fair weather fans, many whom have decided only that day which team they’ll probably root for, to come over and spill food on the new couch and rug.

Super Bowl grill & swills are events as revered as the game itself and as the big day approaches people look forward to that visual, aural and appetite filling spread that falls on a Sunday every winter.

This Sunday as the two opposing legions – one from New Orleans and one from Indianapolis - stomp the gridiron under the Miami sun, sweating and bleeding for the opportunity to hoist the Lombardi trophy under a rain of confetti and cheers, millions upon millions will be right there with them in wild oblivion, with a mouthful of charred meat and a belly full of cold beer on what might really be America’s most truly beloved day as it crystalizes who we really are and what we really love as a nation.

Most music videos are kinda ho-hum, but occasionally one pops out that takes the medium to another realm. Check out the visual feast in the new video for the Massive Attack song “Splitting The Atom” as it is truly striking to look at in that “how’d they do that?” kind of way.

The song is also cool in that groovy, downbeat Massive Attack style.

If you use Twitter, you can go to this site, log in with your Twitter account and watch more Massive Attack vids from the groups new album Heligoland. It sends out a tweet when you watch the vids. Definitely a good way for a band - or any one for that matter that is using video to promote something - to utilize Twitter.

Allegations of plagiarism have yellowed the snow at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, threatening to expose the rotten underbelly of Park City—and the movie reviewing business as a whole. Oft-quoted critic Paul Fischer has emerged from this year’s festival as a sort of noir villain, after being branded a hack by filmmakers demanding legitimate reviews.

In a story published in the Vancouver Sun, reporter Chris Parry cites multiple instances of Fischer lifting chunks of verbiage–nearly word-for-word–from press materials and dropping them into his own reviews.

Take, for example, this snippet from Fischer’s review of Animal Kingdom, a film that recently scooped up a Sundance jury prize:

“When tensions between the family and the police reach a bloody peak, Josh finds himself at the center of a cold-blooded revenge plot that turns the family upside down.”

Now, compare that to this blurb from the official synopsis that was published in this year’s festival guidebook:

“When tensions between the family and the police reach a bloody peak, ‘J’ finds himself at the centre of a cold-blooded revenge plot that turns the family upside down.”

Identical save for one word, “Josh,” Fischer’s review was published at DarkHorizons.com—a popular site that has seen its plaudits woven into film trailers and DVD covers.

In Perry’s article, Sundance Film Festival associate director of media relations Brooke Addicott says that the repurposing of studio- or filmmaker-penned marketing language is rife among bloggers, in particular. With no editor to vet their work, bloggers, according to Addicott, often take the shortcut to glory; favorable “reviews,” in turn, play directly into the hands of the studios.

“We’ve seen some people do that, take the press notes and just print them as part of their work. Generally online bloggers tend to do that because they feel like those are the official descriptions and they can go with them. We’d obviously prefer they didn’t. If you’re going to review a film, you should probably see it and come up with your own take on it.”

And since professional media critics are often the first on the chopping block at contracting print publications, movie bloggers have begun gaining more visibility and traction as legitimate sources for reviews. The moral of this story? All those grains of salt being scattered across Park City’s slippery streets might be put to better use in reading film reviews.

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

No blood. No gore. No dismemberment. A convincing example that beauty can communicate just as effectively as shock value.

Nice work coming out of the UK from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership.

848 Film Critic Jonathan Miller reviews Andy McKenna’s campaign ad from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Let’s face it, campaign commercials for politicians are usually pretty dreadful.

Like a yearly bout with the common cold, every election cycle sees the public assaulted once again by a slew of dumb campaign ads that scrape the same bottom feeding mud that payday advance shops and local auto dealer commercials routinely wallow in.

There are no gray areas or ambiguities in these ads. There is only the good candidate with his great ideas and the evil candidate with his terrible ones and that division breaks down by whomever is paying for the ad.

Negative political ads always use the same tired imagery of sad or mad people, mixed with shots of a scowling opposition candidate and a heavy handed narration that promises endless doom and gloom for everyone if this terrible candidate wins.

Positive ads tend to mine a Norman Rockwellian gauzy alternative universe where a caring and always listening politician takes in the rich, folksy wisdom of his constituents. Usually this circle of friends moment takes place on a front porch or on some blue collar job site. Of course this scene never happens in real life, but if you looked at political ads as having any kernel of truth, you’d think that’s all our elected officials ever did in their spare time (instead of groveling for campaign contributions).

Film critic Jonathan Miller is looking at these ads in a whole new light.

Miller comes at each ad as if it were made for the art house set by Truffaut or Godard, deconstructing (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) these ads sometimes baffling barrage of strange imagery, message and meaning.

Essentially, forget that you are looking at a campaign ad for some hack running for Governor and imagine that the spot you are soaking in is the latest work from David Lynch or Werner Herzog. Brilliant.

Go here to see even more cinematic critiques of campaign ads from Jonathan Miller.

You may have caught wind of a job opening we had last fall for an Assistant Content Manager. We took a different approach, asking people to Tweet us their applications. We ended up with some excellent responses and ultimately a very well-qualified employee.

Our Content Department is expanding and we’re once again on the hunt for an Assistant Content Manager. We’re looking for a content machine who’s social media savvy and ready to hit the ground running.

Again, we’d like you to Tweet your application to us. This has proven to be a great way for us to see how applicants think and that they understand Twitter and the social web. Feel free to take a look at the applications we received last fall and of course the Tweet that lead to a job with BFG.

Click here for a complete job description and let the creativity flow. You’ve got 140 characters.

[Update: The Tweets have begun! This is a collection of some favorites:

-@lala122 has Georgia on her mind.
-@rebeccacullers shows off some interactive skills with 9 reasons to pick her.
-@FilipSzy shows his sense of humor and introduces “Judge Onion.”
-@SethFMichalak shares an attention-grabbing portfolio piece.
-@KaceWrangler takes us inside his social media world via video.
-@A_Trev shares a social media rap video.
-@WilliamTheMac interviews himself in this entertaining video.
-Like our man Gary Vee, @SamTheButcher knows it’s all about passion and shows it off in a video.]

BFG’s Sloane Kelley and Hal Thomas had the chance to talk Twitter and jobs with Jessica Kiss of WJCL and TheCoastalSource.com.

You can read more of Jessica’s reporting on this story here, and you can read the back story of BFG’s use of Twitter to hire their newest employee.

When Facebook and Twitter roll out new features or a redesign, the changes are often met with resistance and complaints. When MyYearbook, the social network for teens, saw a need for a redesign, they took a far different approach, one that the larger networks may actually be able to learn from.

MyYearbook went with a crowdsourced plan that accepted user submissions for a redesign and factored in community voting. The approach lead to a new design that the community favored 3 to 1. The main changes are to the network’s logo and navigation although profiles will undergo some revisions soon, as TechCrunch points out.

This video offers a look at MyYearbook over the years and the new look:

Due to one brilliant review on Amazon.com last year the now iconic Three Wolf Moon T-shirt is now “the official T-shirt of New Hampshire economic development.” There is only one word for this: AWESOME!

“The Mountain’s Three Wolf Moon is a true New Hampshire success story,” said Steve Boucher of the Division of Economic Development. “What started off as a tongue-in-cheek take on a cool T-shirt has resulted in worldwide acclaim for a very creative and growing Granite State business.”

The shirt has been worn by actor Rainn Wilson of “The Office” and Allan Hyde of “True Blood.” It was also worn by the U.S. Marine’s Bravo Company 1st Combat Engineer Battalion.

We’ve been big fans of this meme from the moment we heard about it. Keep howling at that moon!