Jeff and Justin with Dong- Wilson not included

(Credit: Joseph Kaminski)

After multiple cancellations and attempts to get him on the show, Mr. Ngo is finally in the 404 studio in New York! We're excited to pick his brain on all the new advancements in the CNET labs, but we get sidetracked by the most random conversations. Dong and I have a special relationship (don't go there): Dong was actually the first person I met when I first started working at CNET! In fact, you could consider him my printer mentor! Thanks, Dong.

Since we have Dong in the hot seat, we take this opportunity to pick his brain about his experiences coming to America from Vietnam. As you can imagine, it took the young Dong awhile to adjust to our idioms and figures of speech, which he illustrates beautifully in a cheeky story involving an attractive blond woman and a big, yellow Hummer.

In addition, Dong surprises us all and tell us that it was actually Michael Jackson who inspired him to learn English! I can just imagine little Dong saying "Who is the Man in the Mirror and why are we asking him to change his ways?"

RIBA the Robot

(Credit: UberGizmo)

Believe it or not, we finally arrive at an actual news story in the second half of the show. This one is about a Japanese teddy bear robot nurse named RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) meant to transport the elderly and handicapped in its creepy outstretched arms. Has anyone noticed that it looks a lot like a certain bear meme?

Either way, we all take issue with the fact that the bear can only hold up to 134 pounds in its foam-padded paws! Clearly this robot ain't picking any Americans up anytime soon. I think we actually have babies that weigh more than that.

Big thanks goes out to Paul Ramsay for inviting us to last night's hypnotism show at the Julliard Academy. It was tons of fun--who knew a group of kids could Riverdance so well!? Maybe you can help Jeff through his knife phobia! If you're not familiar with Paul's work, be sure to check out his appearance on our show. Also, head over to the Inside CNET Labs Podcast to catch more of Dong Ngo's crazy antics.

The 404 had an all-around scattered Turkey Weekend that ended with Wilson getting Justin's deadly disease. With the show once again missing a host, we deflect the quantum of solace and invite MTI to chat it up about free flip flops, depressing holidays, Black Friday, and Japan's largest pseudo-orgy.

Ultimate Bummer Holiday

Straight up, I had a crappy Thanksgiving. What started off as a healthy month ended with a virus compounded by a upper respiratory tract infection and canceled dinner plans. Instead, I spent the holiday in a random E. Vill. diner with a friend, blowing snot into a trash bag full of tissues and generally wallowing in my own filth. But I'm not one to complain; actually, it was a lot of fun and best of all: no post-cookery dishes to wash! Sometimes things work out for the best, but we want to hear about your spoiled holiday plans. If you can top my depressing Thanksgiving story, leave us a voicemail @ 1866-404-CNET or e-mail it to us @ the404{[at]}cnet[dot]com. If we crown yours the saddest of all, we'll send you a copy of Shaun White Snowboarding signed by the man himself to make up for it! Good luck!

Jason Howell, Buzz Out Loud producer and podcast guru, joins the show today, so you can complain to him about anything we say that offends you. As per our m.o., we bring out the worst in Jason, taking him for a tour of the magical land of NSFW. In today's headlines, McDonald's sales are up despite the economic crisis while they serve up Japanese burgers in a "no logo" storefront. Also, the iPhone wants to charge you for tethering, Turkey sues Christopher Nolan and, as always, tons of calls from the public.

Dan the Mantern here. Something you might have missed on the show today: The 404 got a big shout-out from everyone's hyper-liberal political blog, The Huffington Post. Justin, no surprise, was searching the site for mentions of the podcast on Twitter and happened to come across a Huffington Post tweet plugging the show. We severely doubt that Arianna herself tunes in, but we would appreciate if the phantom Twitter-er/404 fan would identify him or herself! As I'm writing this post, the Twitter search function is down, so no jpeg proving this claim, but I swear, I saw it with my own two eyes!

Our reservoir of embarrassing stories about Jeff is bottoming out, so we're happy to welcome his old chums from BeenVerified.com to refill the glass. Josh, Ross, and Jay are ushering in a new generation of background checks for employers and job seekers, but today they're not afraid to use their powers for evil to dish the dirt on our fellow co-host. They also help us weigh in on virtual larceny, the problem with young whippersnappers, how to answer a professional call of doodie, and Josh spouts praise for his favorite luxury gadget: the $5,000 toilet.

We spend the first half of the show talking to the guys about their brand-new company, BeenVerified. They're no strangers to starting innovative sites, and this one is no different. In an age where employers are starting to perform pseudo background checks through social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace, BeenVerified takes it a step forward and offers a background checking service for employers and job seekers alike. After talking to Josh, Ross, and Jay, we're afraid to see how many skeletons in our respective closets, but here's the beauty of the site: users must approve the release of their information to the public before anyone can see it, so if don't want to be exposed, just say no! Of course, seekers will benefit from being an open book in general, so let that freak flag fly. Best of all, you can apply it to other transactions in your personal life, for example, screening Craigslist meetups, online daters, and nannies. Listen to today's knee-slappin' show and check out the animated short below for more about BeenVerified.

Our surprise guest today is Bristol Palin, daughter of would-be VP Sarah Palin! We regrettably rescind our drooling over yesterday's picture of the Governess--it's fake! Today's show is chock full of Google goodness, atom smashing, motherfrakkers, and a tried and true geekout on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie! Special bonus: Senor Space Beer returns to The 404!

And now for a subject near and dear to my heart. After releasing a positively craptastic CGI effort, the folks over at Playmate Toys unofficially announced that the sequel will be a back-to-basics live-action movie! To me, this is definitely a step in the right direction. Not to sound like an old whippersnapper, but kids these days just don't understand the time and effort that goes into costuming. Movies like Batman and the original TNMT benefit from the added realism of live action costumes, and all these new movies that rely on present form CGI won't hold their own (at least visually) in the next five years, especially if the movie is preceded by a cartoon. Who wants to see a CGI version of their favorite cartoon like Ninja Turtles? If they're coming to the big screen again, I want to see REAL-LIFE versions of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Rafael! Check out this list of awesome cinematic FX characters to keep your hopes up for TNMT II. TURTLE POWER!

Episode 176

Wilson can't make it to the show again because of his ongoing illness, so everyone send us a voice mail wishing our buddy well wishes and a speedy return back to The 404! Dan the Mantern takes time out of his busy schedule of doughnut runs and paper stapling to fill in and give us some laughs on this overcast Monday. We recap our weekend adventures, talk about the dangers of kidnapping a virtual lion, send our condolences to the hungry worker bees at Google, protect ourselves from exploding iPods, and perform reveal the first ever sushi DNA test!

First thing we do every Monday is recap our weekend adventures. This weekend, I visited a few friends in Beantown USA, home of hockey rivalries, several ivy league universities, and the mammoth Brontosaurus burger, seen here. My buddies threw a BBQ in the front yard of their house (weird, I haven't actually been inside a house in awhile) and grilled up these huge burgers- I swear, for a second there I thought they had found the remains of Bigfoot in a cooler. Jeff tells us about his mini vacation boat party on the Jersey Shore, and Dan just makes us feel old.

Speaking of young love, the first story of today's show is about Second Life, everyone's favorite home away from home. A woman was caught breaking into her virtual ex-boyfriend's house, tying up his dog, and attempting to taze him into submission. To top off an already ridiculous story, the 55-year-old ex-boyfriend's character in Second Life is a lion. Yeah, he wasn't even human. You know your life is going down the toilet when you can't even hold down a virtual relationship with a giant cat. The woman is charged with breaking and entering and attempted assault; the judge sentenced her to 50+ years of real life.

Many more hilarious stories on today's episode including a lengthy discussion about the worst bands in the history of music (POD, Nickelback, and Creed to name a few), exploding iPods, and sushi DNA testing.

EPISODE 170

Episode 146

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