The Underground — Issue #108
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A robot beat the test that tests if you’re a robot, One Punch Man is a must-see anime, a dystopian novels that feels like it predicts the future, and an infograph that will teach you some cheap, inventive things.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. Robot beats “I am not a CAPTCHA” test. You know that test you have to take to prove you’re a human online? Well, a robot just beat it because we’re all going to die. The robot even has cute little googlely eyes to make it more adorable while it plans its take over of humanity.
The video below shows a robot beating the captcha test. I know it’s probably clever programming, but this was put into place to forbid robots from hacking into websites. It’s annoying, but it really does work… well, I mean, not so much now because of this thing.
2. One Punch Man is an anime you need to check out ASAP. I’m a big fan of anime, but not the weird fan who tries to overwhelm you with it. Okay, sorta untrue because you need to check out One Man Punch. Why? It trashes anime in parody form. The first 12 episodes were amazing, but they also made me laugh because it just ripped some of my other favorite shows to shreds. The opening scene of the show makes fun of Dragonball. I immediately knew what this show was going for.
Premise: In a world of superhuman beings, Saitama is a unique hero, he can defeat enemies with a single punch. But being just one hero in a world filled with them, his life is empty and hollow: he gets no respect from anyone, he displays a laidback attitude to everything and for the most part, he finds his overall hero life pointless… and worst of all, he lost his hair due to intense training. These are the adventures of an ordinary yet extraordinary hero.
Saitama is literally so powerful that life is awful. It’s hilarious because it craps on so many anime shows that spend way too much time having the hero power up to superhuman levels. Dragonball Z spent nearly 300 episodes burning time because the manga was still being written while the anime was being done. So many episodes are basically people standing there and powering up. Why this show is so brilliant is because the main character is unstoppable. Bad guys rant and rave about how awesome they are and he literally says “Ok.”
You can watch all the episodes if you look online, but what you should look for his Superman getting his butt kicked. Saitama is so powerful that, well, that’s the entire joke of the show. He’s so powerful that he’s bored because he has no challenge. I’ll shut up so you can check out the trailer.
3. The book The Road is a beautiful and terrifying look into dystopia.
With each day looking more and more like a time-traveler needs to save us, I wanted to express my gratitude to Cormac McCarthy. The man can write the sh*t out of a novel the the point that I’m jealous. Some of the best films of all time are based on the novels he wrote. Which did he write? He only wrote ten books, but the man wrote some stuff that is truly incredible: The Orchard Keeper, Outer Dark, Child of God, Suttree, Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West, All the Pretty Horses,The Crossing, Cities of the Plain, No Country for Old Men, and The Road. Still doubting? This won the Pulitzer Prize.
Premise: In a dangerous post-apocalyptic world, an ailing father defends his son as they slowly travel to the sea.
I read this book as a means to pass time while getting my car fixed. I had just bought it but had no clue how long it would take to fix my car so I brought The Road. I read the whole thing and had to wipe my face repeatedly. Yep, me sitting at a mechanic and tearing up to a book. You may laugh, but then you will read it and nod. It will will really kick your ass. The Road was actually filmed and captured the look I pictured while reading it.
Check out the trailer:
You can buy the book on Amazon now. Prepare yourself, kids. You can’t unread this piece of art.
4. Check out these tech fixes that could help developing countries. In case you didn’t know, there are a few countries out there that need a bit of help. When you complain about too many ads on TV — people are starving. When you’re complaining about your pizza taking too long to be delivered — people are still starving to death, jerk.
This infographic by the folks at Futurism gives some helpful tip on helping those in developing nations how to make stuff on the cheap. A big thing — if not the biggest — is getting fresh water. This infographic shows how to harvest rainwater with three easy steps. It’s an ancient process, but some of this stuff isn’t known in some parts of the world.
Have a look at some instructive stuff.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com