Mentos world record

just because they can

Mentos world record: "
Love the mint. Be the mint.

"

(Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.)

Headless man sues over missing PKD robot, loses

just a little head too

Headless man sues over missing PKD robot, loses: "Two years ago, Hanson Robotics' incredible Philip K. Dick robot head went missing. David Hanson had left it in the overhead bin on an America West airplane and it hasn't been seen since. Hanson sued the airlines but the case was recently dismissed. The summary judgement is a laff-riot. Here's an excerpt, posted at the Total Dick-Head blog:

Plaintiff David Hanson (‘Plaintiff’) has lost his head. More specifically, Plaintiff has lost an artistically and scientifically valuable robotic head modeled after famous science fiction author Philip K. Dick (‘Head’). Dick’s well-known body of work has resulted in movies such as Total Recall, Blade Runner, Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, and a large group of admirers has grown following his death in Orange County, California, in 1982. His stories have questioned whether robots can be human (see, e.g., Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)), so it seems appropriate that Plaintiff reincarnated Dick as a robot which included the Head, valued at around $750,000. (Motion 1:9-10.)

Link


Previously on BB:

• PKD robot still lost Link

• PKD robot MIA Link

• Philip K. Dick robot Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Blue Flame by Run with the Kittens

lol

Blue Flame by Run with the Kittens: "

Nick denBoer says: 'Check out this video I did for the Toronto band, Run With The Kittens.'

Slightly better version here: Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Mudpuppy Magnet Monsters in a tin

Mudpuppy Magnet Monsters in a tin: "


Mudpuppy's Magnetic Monster figures tin is a great gift for the monster-loving kid in your life -- it's a set of lovely illustrated magnetic monster body-parts to mix and match into your own gruesome creations. Comes with four reversible backgrounds for enacting monstrous dramas of your choosing -- and the tin is just the right size to stick the backgrounds on and build monsters upon -- great for car trips and the like. I found mine at the wonderful, friendly kid store Hello Sunshine in Toronto, but they don't seem to have it in their webstore, so here's a US retailer that'll sell you one over the web, for those of you not local to the shop.

Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Robots made from sans-serif fonts

Robots made from sans-serif fonts: "


Jonathon Yule's Invdr features a lovely gallery of robots made from various sans-serif fonts.

Link
(Thanks, Jake!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Duct tape saved Apollo 17 moonbuggy, while on the moon.

Duct tape saved Apollo 17 moonbuggy, while on the moon.: "

On the NASA website today, a tale in praise of the many merits of duct tape when one is on the moon with a busted buggy:

The date was Dec. 11, 1972. Astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt had just landed their lunar module Challenger in a beautiful mountain-ringed valley named Taurus-Littrow on the edge of the Sea of Serenity. (...)

Cernan:
'Okay. I can't say I'm very adept at putting fenders
back on. But I sure don't want to start without it. I'm just
going to put a couple of pieces of good old-fashioned American
gray tape on it...(and) see whether we can't make sure it
stays.'

In
spite of his thick gloves, Cernan managed to unroll and tear
off the needed pieces, but moondust foiled his first repair:

Cernan:
'???good old-fashioned gray tape doesn't want to stick
very well.' (At a post flight briefing he explained:
'Because there was dust on everything, once you got a
piece of tape off the roll, the first thing the tape stuck
to was dust; and then it didn't stick to anything else.')

His
second attempt succeeded, however. 'I am done!'
crowed Cernan. 'If that fender stays on ... I'd like
some sort of mending award.' And with that, they were
off.

Link. Image: The Apollo 17 moonbuggy fender repaired with duct tape.


"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Jessica Rabbit "untooned"

Jessica Rabbit "untooned": "

On the heels of the popular Mario and Homer 'untooned' comes Jessica Rabbit. From the post at Pixeloo:

Perhaps 'untoon' is the wrong word for this but the exercise here was to take the exact cartoon proportions of Jessica and create her with realistic lighting and textures. As was done with Homer and Mario. I think because of her smooth skin the cartooniness definitely still comes through a lot more than Homer.

Link (Thanks, Tony Persons!)


Previously on BB:

• Untooned Homer and real world Mario Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

If ABC ran the Lincoln-Douglas Debates

If ABC ran the Lincoln-Douglas Debates: "The Lincoln-Douglas debates, as conducted by ABC:

LINCOLN: In my opinion, slavery will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Excuse me, did an Elijah H. Johnson attend your church?

LINCOLN: When I was a boy in Illinois forty years ago, yes. I think he was a deacon.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Are you aware that he regularly called Kentucky ‘a land of swine and whores’?

LINCOLN: Sounds right -- his ex-wife was from Kentucky.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why did you remain in the church after hearing those statements?

LINCOLN: I was eight.

DOUGLAS: This is an important question George -- it's an issue that certainly will be raised in the fall.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you denounce him?

LINCOLN: I’d like to get back to the divided house if I may.

Link

(via Making Light)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Drug dealer vintage tax stamp

Drug dealer vintage tax stamp: "


This 'Special Tax Stamp,' issued by the IRS in 1951 to a 'retail dealer in opium, coca leaves, etc.,' is up for auction on eBay. Starting bid is $7.95. Link (via Seven Deadly Sinners)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Oregon: our laws are copyrighted and you can't publish them

Oregon: our laws are copyrighted and you can't publish them: "Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,

The State of Oregon is sending out cease and desist letters to sites like Justia and Public.Resource.Org that have been posting copies of Oregon laws, known as the Oregon Revised Statutes.

We've sent Oregon back two letters. The first reviews the law and explains to the Legislative Counsel why their assertion of copyright over the state statutes is particularly weak, from both a common law perspective and from their own enabling legislation.

The position of the Legislative Counsel is that their public access obligations have been fulfilled by their web site. However, their web site has over 500,000 HTML errors, does not meet Section 508 accessibility requirements, has no metadata, as our second letter points out.

Particularly galling is the fact that Thomson West has also made a copy of these statutes and has done so without a commercial license, but the Legislative Counsel explicitly told Tim Stanley of Justia that they weren't going to send cease and desist letters to West. Evidently, it is much easier to pick on the little guys.

Oregon is not unique in asserting copyright over state law, but they are definitely one of the more aggressive in this kind of FUD campaign. Justia and Public.Resource.Org have decided this is an important issue to resolve and we're going to hold firm on this. Anybody else who is making a mirror of the Oregon law should drop me a line and let me know.

Link

(Thanks, Carl!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

PCW #1103

PCW #1103: "One of my favorites...

-Krishna"

(Via PC Weenies - RSS2.)

Science fiction stuff in vintage ads photoshopping contest

Science fiction stuff in vintage ads photoshopping contest: "


Mark Rayner's hosting a photoshopping contest wherein contestants are invited to shop science fiction products and services into vintage ads. A magical combination.

Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Long-lost 1930s John Carter of Mars animation

Long-lost 1930s John Carter of Mars animation: ""

(Via Boing Boing.)

Dick Cheney's shades reflect a strange being

Dick Cheney's shades reflect a strange being: "


The White House website hosts a photo of Dick Cheney 'fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho,' wearing a pair of reflective glasses. Eagle-eyed William Gibson noticed that there's something awfully weird reflected in them: mutant hybrid sex-slave? Tentacle creature? Elder god?

Link

(Thanks, Bill!)

Update: in this higher rez version, the Schwa has cleverly disguised itself as Dick's arm -- thanks, Evan!

"

(Via Boing Boing.)