What’s better than a crackling fire on your computer or TV screen to set the holiday mood? How about Internet totem of comic masculinity Nick Offerman sipping scotch next to that crackling fire?
Having recently served as a spokesman for Lagavulin Scotch Whiskey, Nick Offerman stars in a series of sponsored web videos called “My Tales of Whiskey.” To ring in the holiday season, Offerman (and Lagavulin) attempted to modernize a Christmas tradition, the Yule Log, by adding … himself. Instead of staring at a long video loop of logs burning in a fireplace, holiday spirit enthusiasts can watch a long loop of Offerman sitting by a roaring fire in a leather armchair, peacefully sipping a glass of scotch.
Anyone familiar with Offerman, either through famed TV show Parks and Recreation or his standup comedy, knows he’s the perfect person for this job. Just watch him majestically enjoy that drink for 45 minutes and feel the warmth emanate from your screen, then you’ll understand. (Note: If you can warm yourself with heat coming off your monitor, it might be time to consider replacing it.)
A yule log can be great. If you grew up with a fireplace, it can evoke thoughts of home and incite fond memories of times gone by. Very few of us, however, have ever had the pleasure of drinking scotch with the legendary Ron Swanson, Offerman’s character from Parks and Recreation. By giving his fans the opportunity to visualize that quiet, happy moment, Offerman has elevated the Yule Log from a nostalgic trifle to something aspirational. As you sit around the fire with your family next year, you may raise a glass and toast, “Next year with Ron!”
Ok. Maybe that’s a bit much. But you have to admit this is at least a little more interesting than watching wood burn on TV.
China just gave Hollywood a cautionary tale about AI filmmaking. Sanxingdui: Future Past, billed as the country's first fully AI-generated movie, hit theaters on October 23 and bombed at the box office.
According to Futurism, the film's reported $1.5 million production budget landed on more than 10,000 screens. Yet it pulled in only about $181,000, averaging roughly $20 per screen, making the budget difficult to recover.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?