When it comes to medical news that involves brain surgery, YouTube and a banjo there is only one medical expert to turn to... Dr. Eric Lanford. Actually, he's not a doctor, nor has he played one on TV, but when it comes to diagnosing viral videos there is no one more capable. This weekend Doc L. (as we like to call him) talks to the star of a clip that is getting thousands of hits. His name is Eddie Adcock and the first time we saw him he was playing the banjo while laying on an operating table with a doctor elbow deep in his brain! Scrub in and join Dr. Lanford in the "News To Me" operating room tonight to meet Eddie and his surgeon. Find out how he ended up pickin' and grinnin' and having brain surgery at the same time!

The links to the full video of Eddie's operation and everything else you saw in this weekend's "News To Me" are right here:

Banjo Brain Surgery:
Watch the full clip on YouTube.
Visit Eddie Adcock's official website: eddieandmarthaadcock.com.
Learn more about Eddie's surgeon, Joseph Samir Neimat.
Find out what else they are working on at Vanderbilt Medical Center.

iReporters speak out on Obama's election:
Have you uploaded your reaction to the election yet? Click to iReport.com and speak up!

Star Trek Deep Space 9 voter:
iReporter Jeremiah Long got dressed up in his Starfleet uniform to cast his vote. Check out his early voting experience and his "demands" for President-elect Obama on his iReport profile page.

Burglars kick in the front door, security cams catch them in the act:
Almost 30 thousand people have watched this clip on YouTube... and it paid off!

Visit Sgt. John Hames and the Johnson City, TN Police Dept. on YouTube.

CNN.com Most Popular:
- Bridge Jumpers – bumped, airdate TBA
- Car that could break the land speed record
- Chiuahuah whose ears make "radio" sounds – bumped, airdate TBA
- Cop caught "gettin' busy" on security camera

Webhits:
The Singing Road:
Lancaster, California's Musical Road.
Here's a map from roadsideamerica.com to get there if you'd like to drive it yourself.
There are also "musical roads" in Japan and Korea.

"Simon's Cat" in real life:
First watch the animated short "Cat Man Do" by filmmaker Simon Tofield (you can see the whole "Simon's Cat" series here). Then, all the way from Vienna, Austria check out a typical night for Robert Buehringer and his cat on YouTube.

Shrimp on a treadmill... – bumped, airdate TBA
...with the Benny Hill music.
...with the Chariots of Fire music.
...OK Go mashup.
...with the song from the musical road.

Whatnot:
Firemen actually lift a car off the ground using only the pressure from fire hoses in this YouTube hit!

That's the list! Hope you found what you were looking for. Thanks for watching "News To Me!" Thanks for visiting the blog (we'd love it if you'd leave us a little note to let us know you were here)! See you next weekend!

iReporters play a huge part in this weekend's show! Thanks for cranking up those cams and letting us hear what you thought of the Vice Presidential debate, and for taking us along for the ride as you went searching for gas in the Southeast United States! The links to those full iReports and the rest of the stories you saw on "News To Me" this weekend are below.

Clearly you have opinions, clearly you have cameras, and clearly you want your voice heard! So your challenge this weekend: speak up and let us hear what you thought of "News To Me!" You are already sitting in front of your webcam... why not fire it up and review the show? There's a special "News To Me" iReport link below. Click it and let your inner critic come out!

Meanwhile, the raw footage from and direct links to everything on this weekend's show are right here :

The great veep debate:
Who do you think won the Vice Presidential debate? iReporters sound off.

Southeast gas crisis:
We may be short on fuel, but we're overflowing with video from iReporters searching for gas!

Women Against Fantasy Sports:
Are you a fantasy sports widow? Learn how to fight back at womenagainstfantasysports.com.

"The Resident" on Wall Street:
Get to the heart of the financial crisis with The Resident.

Best of CNN.com:
- Bull stampede
- Man punches shark
- Woman held hostage by a pig

Send us your videos:
"News To Me" has it's own special page at iReport.com! Got something we should see? Upload it there!

Journey finds new lead singer on YouTube:
Visit Journey at their official website journeymusic.com.

Interpret your dreams:
Find out what your night time thoughts mean at dreamcrowd.com

Personal astrology:
astrodienst.com

What would you look like as a different race?
Find out in the perceptionlab.com

Thanks for watching!!! Now use your cellphone, video camera, web camera, anything with a lens and a connection to the interweb and upload a video review of "News To Me." We got a ton of awesome reviews of the Palin/Biden debate, so we know you have video cameras! Use yours to let us know what you like or didn't like about "News To Me" this weekend. Who knows? You could end up on the show! Do your best TV critic imitation and upload it on our special iReport page.

By now we’ve all seen the JibJab videos that mercilessly skewer our noble public servants, but have you ever wondered who’s behind these funny films? We did and – keeping with the mission of "News To Me" – we set out to meet these guys and pull the curtain back on their laugh lab.

We didn’t know what to expect. Is JibJab the masterwork of some mad genius slaving all night long by his monitor’s glow? Or is it the work of a huge team of over-educated, intellectual wisecracks who outsource the animation to Korea?

The JibJab jokes cut both ways – so are these guys really politically unbiased? Is that even possible?

After our interview – which airs this weekend – we asked the JibJabbers to give us a behind the scenes tour and… whattya know!! They did. Check out the video:

By Mandy Molloy.

Hello NTM blog fans!

It’s Mandy the summer intern! At the beginning of the summer I wrote a blog post to introduce myself and share some of my embarrassing intern moments but now I am writing to say goodbye!

Yes, it’s true my internship has come to an end, and I am so sad to see it go. Soon I will be moving back to the great city of Athens, Georgia to start my junior year and to watch the soon-to-be SEC CHAMPS, THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS, travel to victory! No haters please!

The summer has gone by extremely fast and I have enjoyed every second of my internship. I think fans should have a meet-and-greet with the "News To Me" team because they are amazing! There have been a lot of great stories on NTM this summer and a few of my favorites have been: vbs.tv’s Shane Smith’s trip to North Korea, Jonathan Harris’s rare experience as seen on thewhalehunt.org, and of course Kyle Macdonald’s hard-to-believe story of the one red paper clip. If you happen to miss a show… well lets face it you won’t… but if you do check out the hotlinks section of the blog or our archive to get caught up on the stories!

Well people my infamous interning path has come to an end and as I turn in my now expired badge I leave CNN with hope that one day (fingers crossed) I will return once again!

Coordinating Producer Mike's message to Mandy and our "awwwww-worthy" group picture :

Left to right. Top row: Grayson Thagard, Mandy Molloy, Michael Kane. Bottom row: Aaron Rustom, Charles Gilbert.

Mandy,

It’s been a blast having you on the team and I look forward to working for you someday.

Have fun, study hard and Go Dawgs!!

Best of luck (not that you’ll need it) .
Mike

Just a head's up for the blog readers... "News To Me" has a really cool interview coming up this weekend. Oh SURE, Brian Williams got the exclusive with Amindinijad. Nice, but could he get Gregg and Evan? Eric did.

Last week Eric was almost ticketed for jaywalking while shooting "News To Me." This week, we actually let him behind the wheel of a moving car while we shot the show. Thankfully, we managed to make it though this shoot with no police intervention, (though we did take out extra insurance just in case).

Now that we're home from our little North Georgia road trip, we've got to unpack our duffel bags which we FILLED with links to all the places we visited in this weekend's show. Pretend like you work for the TSA, put on some rubber gloves and dig through our link filled luggage :

Running with the bulls:
Think you'd like to give it a try? We've got three great iReports to check out here, here and here before you book that trip to Pamplona.

Truck and trailer smash into bank:
Check out the video here, and then check out the photos of the aftermath here.

The whale hunt:
Surf over to the Webby Award winning site thewhalehunt.org to experience this innovative approach to new media storytelling.

Baboon rampage:
You may be used to seeing a critter or two in your neighborhood, a possum, raccoon, deer. Maybe even something a little more exotic in certain areas of the country, like an alligator or coyote. But baboons?

Pedal powered phone:
If you would like to make a call, please deposit 200 calories for the first 3 minutes. Get the full iReport here.

Caption this!
Congratulations to Dan who submitted the winning caption for our "Giant Soccer Players" Caption This contest, "It seems that steroid use just isn’t a problem in baseball anymore." Good one dude!

Now's your chance to give it a shot... our NEW Caption This contest is up and running... let the pun's begin!

Henri the cat:
Visit filmmaker William Braden's website willbraden.com to see the full short film that LA Weekly said is “A Hilarious parody of European existentialism, on a budget probably no pricier than a week’s supply of cat food.”

Take a look at a special blog-only bonus video featuring Will reciting some of his favorite cat haiku.

Little girl stuck in vending machine:
It sounds pretty terrible, but it sure does look like she's a having fun to me. YouTube.com

Texting while driving... on a MOTORCYCLE:
We love this video! Props to Mandy the "News To Me" summer intern for turning us on to it! Check it out on YouTube.

Bodega tour
Take a very funny tour of your friendly neighborhood bodega, and find out what 'quarter water' is on InternetsCelebrities.com.

The emergency party button:
Oh sure... Office Depot thinks they're so cool with their "Easy Button." Dude, that ain't nuthin' compared to what happens when you hit "The Emergency Party Button!"

That's all for this weekend! Let us know what you thought of the show, or let us know about a person, blog, site, video or gadget you'd like to see featured next week!

You LIKE US, you REALLY like us! Thanks to y'all, last weekend, "News To Me" had its best ratings since moving to prime time! Needless to say, we're pretty happy about that. Apparently Eric's fan told some friends to watch, and then they told some friends and so on and so on and so on...

In an effort to keep that ratings ball rollin' we worked overtime to put together an even better half hour of YOUR stories, YOUR pictures and YOUR videos for this weekend.

Being the "active viewers" that you are we know you want MORE, NOW! OK. The links to most of the stories we featured on this weekends show are on the next page.

Into the fire:
Meet iReporter Alekz Londos

Flooding:
iReporters really stepped up to send in some really personal video and pictures of how the flooding was affecting them and their communities in and around Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. Here's just a sample of some of your amazing work: iReport.com

Giant Confederate flag:
Watch iReporter Dan Rohas full report at iReport.com

Win a Mac notebook computer or one of 9 Panasonic video cameras:
Produce and upload your own iReport promo to the iReport.com Promo Challenge.
Need some inspiration? Check out Eric's submission right here. He can't win the prizes... but YOU CAN!

Solar boat race:
Watch iReporter Remco van Schellen's full video at iReport.com

The Redneck Mommy:
She actually made Eric blush during part of their interview... which part? We're not sayin'. Check out her very funny and frank blog at theredneckmommy.com

Make your own special effects:
These guys can show you how: indymogul.com

Most Popular on CNN.com:

Taser Parties:
CNN.com
packingjolt.com

Pig that wears boots:
Awwwwwwwwwww. Seriously, AWWWWWW: CNN.com

Backflipping cadet:
CNN.com

"News To Me" Caption This contest:
There may be a "News To Me" t-shirt in it for you if you can Caption This!

Webhits:

Animator vs. Animation:
It's no Wal-E, but it sure is creative! alanbecker.deviantart.com

Noah takes a picture every day for 6 years:
Noah's video
Ben's parody video

Fast food freestyle:
Here's the full "homemade" drive through rap video: YouTube.com
And here is the "Madison Avenue" version: YouTube.com

Down on the cubefarm:
No need to "prairie dog" your neighbor in the cubicle next door... iReport.com goes inside your crazy/cool workspaces: iReport.com Assignment: Creative Cubicles

Hit the "Add a comment" link below and let us know what you thought of the show! Thanks!

Do you know the guys in the pic above? In this weekend's show we brought you the pretty incredible story of Kyle McDonald who you may remember as the "One Red Paperclip" guy. His new venture is whoaretheseguys.com where (as the name suggests) he is trying to find out who these guys are! Has the mystery been solved? Do you know who they are? If you do, tell Kyle... and be sure to tell him you saw the guys on "News To Me."

Of course Kyle and those guys weren't the only things in this weekend's show, far from it! Keep reading for the links .

1.4 billion dollar B-2 bomber crash:
CNN.com

Office worker goes nuts:
Break.com

Home torn apart by flood waters:
CNN.com

Chicago tornado:
iReport.com

Lighting strike caught on tape:
iReport.com

Jeanne Stawicki – the woman who summitted the highest peaks and completed marathons on each of the seven continents:
Seven in 2007

The iReport Promo Challenge:
Submit your entry into the iReport Promo Challenge
Watch Eric's iReport promo

"Doppler" Doug Stokes
Watch Doug's complete iReport
Check out Doug's band

Who Are These Guys:
Find out about Kyle McDonald's journey from paper clip to house at oneredpaperclip.com.
Try and figure out who the guys are at whoaretheseguys.com.

iPhone alternative:
Loading Ready Run

That's it for now! Please take a seconds and let us know what you thought of this weekend's show by hitting the "add a comment" link below. Thanks!

We were down to the WIRE on this show. Seriously... I think we were still editing the last block while the first block was already on the air! OK... that's an exaggeration... but still, we worked the deadline hard to get this show on.

So much new stuff came in last-minute. The interview with Dr. Shostak for example... we didn't get his alien expertise on tape until Wednesday night! If you consider that one minute of our finished show equals about one hour in editing... that's a pretty fast turnaround!

Speaking of fast turnarounds... check out the list of links to all the good stuff in this weekend's show .

Alien in the window:
The Larry King Live interview: CNN.com
The SETI Institute: http://www.seti.org

North Pole swim:
Check out all of iReporter Lars Noring's videos here: iReport.com

Tom Campbell – The Shark whisperer:
TomCampbell.com
SaveOurSeas.com

iReport promo challenge:
iReportChallenge.com

Space toilet:
Ontario Science Centre

Caminito del Rey that crazy cliff path in Spain:
Here's a link to the full 6 minute clip on brightcove.TV

Senator Mike Gravel & Obama Girl:
Here's the full video (featuring a special appearance by Anderson Cooper) on YouTube.

Purple 53:
Check out Angel's blog at purple53.com

Tree climbers:
nau.com
Uncage the Soul Productions at UncagetheSoul.com

Weezer's viral video tribute:
The song is called "Pork and Beans" and you can see it on the band's website weezer.com

Whatnot – Pain at the Pump song:
Remember when I said we were down to the wire on this show... well, as this blog post was being written we STILL weren't sure if this last link would even be IN the show! Lucky for you, you are not only a viewer, you are a blog reader and so you can check out iReporter Brent Burns' "Pain at the Pump" music video at iReport.com even if it DOESN'T make it into the show!

That's all for now... have a great weekend and let us know what you thought of the show by clicking the "ADD COMMENT" link below.

Photo taken by Rochester Sentinel photographer Mike Kenny (three days after Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin was killed in action) – From left Connor, Nicholle, Kennedy, and Darby.

I was thinking about the first time I realized I was working on a special show, and how great it is to help share “your” stories with the masses.

And no story has moved me as much as this one:

Last year, we aired a special Memorial Day show with tributes to fallen soldiers. Viewer Nicholle McLochlin had sent in a picture of her with her three children. The caption with the photo simply read, “Three days after my husband’s death”.

Her husband was Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin. He was an Army Ranger who was killed in an ambush while serving in Afghanistan.

We knew right then we wanted to give Nicholle a chance, in her own words, to tell the world about the great husband and father that her family lost.

This Memorial Day weekend we’re honoring those men and women in the armed forces. And we will revisit the story of Sgt. Major Jeffrey A. McLochlin and his family. I encourage all of you to watch and see why we do this.

Meantime, check out this website for more on this fallen hero.