Web Zen: Hey don't eat that zen!: "Xeni Jardin:
steve don't eat it
real meat shakes
8500 calorie sandwich
food anomalies
tortilla breadboard
tortilla art
clay oranges
crazy asian drinks
bad candy
Image: tortilla motherboard. web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank)."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Vintage Star Wars ceramic collectible kitsch for sale: "Cory Doctorow:
Check out these amazing vintage ceramic Star Wars household items for sale -- C3PO soap dishes, Yoda bud-vases, and a Taun Taun teapot!
Link
(via Wonderland)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Religious picture book remixed into twisted alien-invader primer: "Cory Doctorow:
The Cuddly Menace is a remix of a saccharine picture-book called 'My Little Golden Book About God.' The author has replaced the revoltingly sweet captions with his own twisted, angry ones, to very very good effect.
Link
(via Waxy)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Life-size Candyland game staged by Nebraska college students: "Cory Doctorow:
75+ students at Hastings College in Nebraska are building a life-sized version of the Candyland game (pictured here: three students posing as the 'Gloppy Chocolate Swamp') next week. This looks like a very ambitious project, and the site claims the inspiration came from 'a philosophy paper about Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.'
Link
(Thanks, Chris!)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Kinetic junk-sculptures straight out of a Road Runner toon: "Cory Doctorow:
Gina Kamentsky builds gorgeous kinetic sculptures out of found objects -- they look like something out of a Road Runner cartoon or a Rube Goldberg illustration. The videos are fantastic.
Link
(Thanks, Madeline!)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
iPod Stereoscope: "David Pescovitz:
Paul Bourke's iPod-Photo Stereoscope is an exquisite retro tech/new media mash-up:
For those wondering what 'stereoscopic' is all about, viewing stereoscopic images give an enhanced depth perception. This is similar to the depth perception we get in real life, the same effect IMAX 3D and many computer games now provide. Stereoscopic viewing of any sort involves independent presentation of a different image, called a stereopair, to each eye. These stereopairs are essentially two different views of the world corresponding to the slightly different views our eyes see because they are separated horizontally....
Images can be downloaded to the IPOD-Photo, the images can subsequently be recalled and presented on the colour display. A series of images can also be presented manually or as a self running slide show with some user selected delay between each image. So to use this as a stereoscopic storage and presentation device one simply labels two IPOD-Photos as 'left' and 'right', the images corresponding to each eye are installed on the appropriate IPOD-Photo.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Flamethrowing hearse: "Cory Doctorow:
This heavily modded hearse has working flamethrowers on the bonnet and a badazz control panel inside.
Link
(Thanks, Michael!)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Artist draws objects based on submitters' descriptions: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Artist Benedict Carpenter asks people to email him descriptions of everyday objects without disclosing what the objects are. Then he draws them based on the description. Then the person who submitted the description tells Carpenter what the object is. Shown here, Carpenter's drawing based on a description of a spoon.
'My body is framed by one long smooth line,
An axis of symmetry down my spine,
My stalk is long, with a quick swell and bend,
And four small birth marks cut into the end.
My body is smooth like a fresh-laid egg,
I look like an octopus with one leg.
My surface was bright like the sun at noon,
Now marked and scarred like the face of the moon.'
(Via Boing Boing.)
Artist draws objects based on submitters' descriptions: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Artist Benedict Carpenter asks people to email him descriptions of everyday objects without disclosing what the objects are. Then he draws them based on the description. Then the person who submitted the description tells Carpenter what the object is. Shown here, Carpenter's drawing based on a description of a spoon.
An axis of symmetry down my spine,
My stalk is long, with a quick swell and bend,
And four small birth marks cut into the end.
My body is smooth like a fresh-laid egg,
I look like an octopus with one leg.
My surface was bright like the sun at noon,
Now marked and scarred like the face of the moon.'
(Via Boing Boing.)
Emma Garman, blogging over at Maud Newton's...: "
Emma Garman, blogging over at Maud Newton's site today, offers a rundown of upcoming book-to-film adaptations. Elijah Wood will star in the film version of Everything Is Illuminated, and will be paid upwards of $500,000 per eyelash.
"(Via blog.)
Star Wars fun: "What Star Wars SHOULD be. Because parody is GOOD."
(Via metafilter.com.)
Mac mini: “a Slick Little Budget Computer”: "Edward Baig writes for USA Today, ‘It [Mac mini] resembles a coaster on steroids — or a container for Wonder Bread. The familiar Apple logo is the only obvious sign that the handsome 2-inch-tall, white-with-silver-trim, square box on my desk is a different sort of wonder.’ [Jan 27, 2005]"
(Via Apple Hot News.)
Pirate Pirates of the Caribbean script: "Cory Doctorow:
Someone has produced a fan-script for the Pirates of the Caribbean movie:
Elizabeth : Wait! You have to take me to shore. According to the Code of the Order of the Brethren -
Barbossa: First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate’s code to apply and you’re not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl , Miss Turner .
(Via Boing Boing.)
Top 100 Soundtracks: "David Pescovitz:
MOJO music magazine's list of the Top 100 Soundtracks of All Time is phenomenal. Out of the top 10, the only one I have is Number 4, Miles Davis's 'Ascenseur pour l'échafaud,' and it's one of my favorite jazz albums of all time. I want every one of the rest! Vinyl would be preferable, especially since so many of the albums have stunning cover art.
Link (via MetaFilter)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Business 2.0's 101 dumbest moments in business: "Mark Frauenfelder:
This year's Business 2.0's annual '101 dumbest moments in business' package has plenty of ironic gems in it.
What's the problem? We love a guy who stands behind his product.
James Joseph Minder, chairman of gunmaker Smith & Wesson, is forced to resign when newspaper reporters discover that, before becoming a corporate exec, he'd spent 15 years behind bars for a string of armed robberies and an attempted prison escape.Do as I say, not as I...hey, get a load of those!
After joining the Bank of Ireland as CEO, Michael Soden issues a dictate: No porn surfing on the job. His next dictate: The IT department is to be outsourced to Hewlett-Packard. Shortly after the outsourcing deal goes through, IT staffers, now employed by HP, discover porn on Soden's computer. Soden resigns, leaving the bank and HP scrapping over who should pay his severance, estimated at $5 million.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Submarine hits underwater mountain: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Todd Lappin sez: 'A few weeks ago, my city's namesake submarine, the USS San Francisco, struck an uncharted undersea mountain while traveling in the South Pacific at a depth of 500 feet. At the time, apparently, the sub was traveling at almost full speed. One sailor died in the accident, and 20 more were injured. The Navy has released some photos of the San Francisco, now that she's been hauled into drydock. Wow.' Link (WashPost backgrounder on the accident, and the uncharted mountain. Nice lil' gif of the ship's logo)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
A pronounced deficiency in IQ: "Redneck ebonics triumphs. Merriam-Webster online now gives 'nu-kyu-lar' as an alternative pronunication of 'nuclear.' While dictionaries have become more descriptive and less prescriptive over the years, shouldn't they at least list it as [idiotic variant]?"
(Via metafilter.com.)
The madness of King George: "Xeni Jardin:
An anonymous inauguration coronation day gift from a friend of BoingBoing.
Link to full-size."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Scary looking home-theater receiver: "Mark Frauenfelder:
The back of Onkyo’s TX-NR1000 home-theater receiver looks like something from a stress-induced nightmare. Why so many jacks? Onkyo said it's to 'future proof' the thing. My idea of the future doesn't involve cables.
Link (Via Endgadet)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
More on big dead SoCal squids: "Xeni Jardin:
Following up on this Boing Boing post about the disturbing appearance of large, dying squids on California shores, reader John Jensen says, 'Isn't it funny how sometimes you can hear about something in the media, and then just go right outside your house and see it? For me, this was a drive across town.'
Link to full-size snapshot."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Do these toilet paper rolls make my ass look big?: "Xeni Jardin:
Caption this, please. More from designer Jefferson Kulig at today's installment of Sao Paulo Fashion Week.
Link (Thanks Susannah)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Difference between male and female brains: "David Pescovitz:
UC Irvine researchers have found that men and women have very different brain designs. Women have more much white matter and men more gray matter related to intelligence. Still, there are no real differences in general intelligence between the two sexes. From the UCI press release about the study:
Gray matter represents information processing centers in the brain, and white matter represents the networking of – or connections between – these processing centers.
This, according to Rex Jung, a UNM neuropsychologist and co-author of the study, may help to explain why men tend to excel in tasks requiring more local processing (like mathematics), while women tend to excel at integrating and assimilating information from distributed gray-matter regions in the brain, such as required for language facility. These two very different neurological pathways and activity centers, however, result in equivalent overall performance on broad measures of cognitive ability, such as those found on intelligence tests.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Claude Shannon, master juggler and juggling robot builder: "Mark Frauenfelder:
The late Claude Shannon is recognized as the father of information theory, but he was also a juggling enthusiast (he liked to juggle and ride his unicycle up and down the halls of Bell Labs), as well as an animatronic maker. My mind is reeling after watching this movie clip of his juggling robots. It's my pick for 'Wonderful Thing' of the week. Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Bon Anniversaire!: "David Pescovitz:
At the end of a perfect night out with our dearest Parisian friends, DMD presented me with this in celebration of Boing Boing's fifth anniversary. I was touched. As he said, it seemed very Boing Boing to use trick candles. Thank you buddy! And thank you all!
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Sutro Baths: "Diving into the past"
(Via Interesting Thing of the Day.)
Neuroeconomics: Biotech Meets Economics: "grimiore1 writes 'The Economist has a story today introducing the concept of Neuroeconomics, which uses brain scanning technology and neuroscience to create new economic models and theories.'"
(Via Slashdot.)
Titan Photos and Sounds: "ahsile writes 'NASA and the ESA have released the first images from Titan. The ESA also has available sounds from the surface.' Reader ZZip writes: 'Apparently a bunch of enthusiasts has compiled the first mosaics from the raw data delivered by the Huygens probe. Meanwhile space.com has more coverage and pictures from NASA/ESA.' Say a silent thank-you to the persistent troubleshooters of the world, without whom none of this would be possible."
(Via Slashdot.)
Analyst: iPod reaching iconic status: "With the iPod leading the way for Apple Computer Inc.'s charge into the consumer market, NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin said the iPod is reaching iconic status. While the iPod Shuffle aims to openly compete with many other players in the MP3 market, the upcoming release of iLife '05 may quietly threaten products of third-party developers."
(Via MacCentral.)
Web Zen: Album Cover Zen: "Xeni Jardin:
punk + new wave 8-tracks |
10 worst covers of all time |
museum of bad album covers |
album cover challenge |
knockoff project |
bollywood |
cover heaven |
unusual cover art |
bizarre records
Image: cover from of an old 8-track tapes. web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank)."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Saturn's moon looks like hollow plastic toy: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Iapetus, one of Saturn's moons, has a 'topographic ridge that coincides almost exactly with the geographic equator,' giving it the look of a cheap plastic toy with mold flash.
The ridge is conspicuous in the picture as an approximately 20-kilometer wide (12 miles) band that extends from the western (left) side of the disc almost to the day/night boundary on the right. On the left horizon, the peak of the ridge reaches at least 13 kilometers (8 miles) above the surrounding terrain. Along the roughly 1,300 kilometer (800 mile) length over which it can be traced in this picture, it remains almost exactly parallel to the equator within a couple of degrees.'
(Via Boing Boing.)
Robot quilts by Kathy Weaver: "Xeni Jardin:
Fancifully folksy quilts that depict robots in an array of odd situations. Shown here, Robot Visits The Farm.
Artist Kathy Weaver says, 'In my work,the robot's setting is that of a tilted stage or shadow box and in this environment the robot is central as a translator of events, an alter ego, a doppelganger. The robot can also be an observer, a soothsayer, a malcontent or a destructor.'
Me, I'm partial to the destructor kind. What say ye now, great oracle of gingham, googly eyes, and cute li'l buttons?
Link. See also Ms. Weaver's 'Guns Are Us' quilt series.
(Thanks, Rob)."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Darth Tater: Mr Vader Potatohead: "Cory Doctorow:
Hasbro's latest Star Wars toy is total genius: a Darth Vader version of Mr Potatohead called Darth Tater! BAHAHAAHAHAHAA.
Link
(via Wonderland)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Serialized eBooks via RSS: "Russell Beattie: ‘Many of us are too busy to read classic books out there, instead choosing ‘page turners’ or books that are more applicable to our every day lives (like a some new marketing book). But we do have time to zip through our aggregator daily, right? So by taking a 500 page novel and distributing it, a few pages at a time, via RSS, we could read a new book in a month or so without even trying.’"
(Via Ranchero.)
My New Favorite Gadget: The iPod shuffle: "Just 12 short hours after purchasing an iPod shuffle, I'm in love..."
(Via MacDevCenter.)
U.S. gives up on WMD search: "The BBC is reporting that the United States has stopped their search in Iraq for weapons of mass destruction."
(Via Kuro5hin.org.)
Nature illustrations of Ernst Haeckel: "Mark Frauenfelder:
I had dinner with Bruce Stewart and Shawn Connally at their home tonight. Bruce is O'Reilly's editorial director and Shawn is Make's managing editor. I noticed a couple of amazing framed prints on the wall in their library, and Bruce told me he took them from a book by Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), a German biologist who drew fantastic illustrations of animals, plants, and micro-organisms.
Apparently, Haeckel sort of made up certain details in his illustrations to bolster his wacky theories about evolution (he pushed the idea that 'ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny,' that is, as na unborn animal develops in the egg or womb, it goes through all the evolutionary stages that its ancestors went through). The book Bruce showed me is called Art Forms in Nature, first published in 1904. I was knocked out by the beautiful drawings of sea creatures and other weird animals, and the way Haeckel arranged several life forms on the page is wonderful. Here's a page with a bunch of Haeckel drawings (There's also a link on the page to a 261 MB PDF file, which I assume contains a bunch of his work.) Thanks for letting me know about this incredible artist, Bruce!
Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Quote of the day: pyramid scheme: "Xeni Jardin:
'Don't cheerleaders all over America make pyramids every day? It's not torture.' -- Defense lawyer Guy Womack speaking about alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, during the trial of accused military personnel. Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Art of Andrew Brandou: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Andrew Brandou's beautiful paintings of animals are on exhibition at La Luz de Jesus gallery in Los Angeles. Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
The Dhammapada: "'Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.'"
Predictions for 2005: "If idle hands are the devil's tools, then boredom at work must be his machine gun. In that spirit, here is this years (embarrassingly early) entry to a continuing K5 tradition, Predictions 2005, plus a look back at least years predictions."
(Via Kuro5hin.org.)
Surfing a Tsunami: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Rogier sez: 'Most people would do anything to get out of the way of a tsunami. But daredevils with a death wish would like to RIDE one, and they're keeping their surf boards ready. Officials in Hawaii are still a bit freaked out by the memory of 400-plus surf enthusiasts showing up on the beaches of Oahu ten years ago, trying to catch a killer wave. To prevent a repeat, a public-safety DVD has been distributed through Hawaiian surf shops this fall.
'The message is sure to get lost on this guy, who was caught on film riding a monster wave that would give mere mortals heart attacks (though from the looks of it, it isn't nearly on the magnitude of the walls of waters that wiped out tens of thousands of people in South East Asia yesterday). Link
UPDATE: Peter Orosz sez: 'Professional big wave surfers can ride waves that are taller than normal tsunami waves (the biggest wave ever ridden was in Hawaii on January 28, 1998, when Ken Bradshaw rode a wave with an 85-foot face on the North Shore of Oahu at Outside Log Cabins). Natural big wave spots like Waimea Bay in Hawaii, Teahupoo in Tahiti or Mavericks in California can produce waves 50-80 feet high, while yesterday's tsunamis were no higher than 30 feet (as far as I recall from CNN's report). The destructive power of tsunamis result from the immense amount of water in motion: the earthquake sets the entire ocean moving. In many places, a tsunami is not an actual wave but a rapidly rising tide that surges inland.
'Apparently, it's quite difficult to measure waves and there are several methods. According to Surfline, Bradshaw's 1998 wave was 'a 45-foot wave with an 85-foot face', whatever that means. Billabong has a contest called XXL with a cash award going to the person who rides the biggest wave of the season, and according to their site, the world record holder is Pete Cabrinha with a 70-foot wave ridden at Peahi/Jaws on Maui this April. This page gives a guide to estimating wave height and describes the different methods used.'
Nick sez: 'I think (though I'm not 100%) that this is referring to the fact that
waves have both crests and troughs. The 'height' of a wave should be
defined as how high the crest reaches above the standard ocean level,
while the 'face' of a wave should be what one sees when one looks directly
at it, namely the entire distance from trough to crest. If ocean waves
were shaped like perfect sine waves then one would expect the trough to be
as deep as the crest is high, so a 45-foot wave would have a 90-foot face.
Of course they're not but a 45-foot wave with 85-foot face would seem to
make sense.'
Christian Anthony (Video Editor, Surfline) sez: 'The link you have under the 'Surfing a Tsunami' story to the big wave video is misleading.
'It's labeled as 'Surfing Hurricane Ivan Waves' but Hurricane Ivan was on the East Coast and did not produce waves of that height, nor are there spots on the East Coast that break like that. That video on the site has been ripped off from the Billabong Odyssey movie and is from Hawaii, specifically a break called Peahi (or Jaws).
'Last week there was a really big swell that hit Peahi and all the professional big wave riders were on it. You can see the video here.'
Alberto sez: 'You know about Laird Hamilton, cross-board virtuoso? He's invented the foilboard, which he uses to surf the huge swells that cross the oceans for miles. Although at the reported 450 mph of the Sumatra 2004 tsunami, I'm not too sure even he'd be able to catch-up. (He also surfs monster waves once they break on shore, but with a more-conventional surfboard.) He has a bare-bones website that offers a couple of DVDs of his jaw-dropping exploits (Flash interface alert, with and unkillable soundtrack of wave sounds).'"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Lemmings' suicide myths started by Disney nature photogs: "Cory Doctorow:
Lemmings are widely considered to be suicidal beasts, throwing themselves en masse off cliffs. It turns out that this isn't true, but rather a legend begun through some unethical trick photography executed by Disney nature photos in the fifties.
The myth of mass lemming suicide began when the Walt Disney movie, Wild Wilderness was released in 1958. It was filmed in Alberta, Canada, far from the sea and not a native home to lemmings. So the filmmakers imported lemmings, by buying them from Inuit children. The migration sequence was filmed by placing the lemmings on a spinning turntable that was covered with snow, and then shooting it from many different angles. The cliff-death-plunge sequence was done by herding the lemmings over a small cliff into a river. It's easy to understand why the filmmakers did this - wild animals are notoriously uncooperative, and a migration-of-doom followed by a cliff-of-death sequence is far more dramatic to show than the lemmings' self-implemented population-density management plan.
So lemmings do not commit mass suicide. Indeed, animals live to thrive and survive. Consider a company like Disney, where one rodent, namely Mickey Mouse, was Royalty. It's rather odd to think that Disney could be so unkind to another rodent, the lemming..
(Via Boing Boing.)
iMac G5: “Worth Switch from PCs”: "‘If a new desktop computer is the object of your holiday hopes this season, look no further than the new G5 iMac from Apple,’ writes Mike Wendland for Billings Gazette. ‘I said it when I first tested it and I’ll say it again after two months of use: This is the finest personal computer I’ve ever used, hands down. Nothing comes close. If you have ever thought of switching from a Windows-based PC to a Mac, this is the deal-clincher. It is a stunning machine to look at and to use.’ [Dec 21, 2004]"
(Via Apple Hot News.)
Jonathan Swift: "'A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.'"
Folk Etymology: "Lazing your way to a bigger vocabulary"
(Via Interesting Thing of the Day.)
Government idiocy an international problem: "In a time when the President of the United States can't pronounce the word nuclear, when our public schools do one incredibly stupid thing after another, and our appointed officials can't seem to stay out of hot water for saying something dumb, it's nice to know we in the USA don't have the market on stupidity cornered."
(Via Kuro5hin.org.)
The 8 bits of Christmas: "Xeni Jardin:
Holiday-themed chiptunes from 8bitpeoples: 8 classic carols performed on 8 different videogame consoles and home computers. Link (Thanks, Marc)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Meat-scented air fresheners for your car: "Xeni Jardin:
Link (Thanks, Jonno)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Chewie the Rookie Wookie: "Xeni Jardin:
BB reader Isaac says,
'Remember the days before George Lucas so tightly controlled the Star Wars franchise? The days when there could be a Star Wars Christmas Special on TV? Cleaning out my garage, I found an old 45 RPM record from 1977: The Rebel Force Band, performing 'Chewie the Rookie Wookie' (sort of Motown) and 'May the Force Be With You' (imagine a lounge singer doing a version of 'Sunrise, Sunset' - that's what it sounds like). Of course, nowadays something like this would never get off the ground; it's just not as sophisticated as Ewoks, Jar Jar Binks, or that Jake kid.'
Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Call of Cthulhu silent film nearly done: "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Malcolm says,
The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society have nearly finished making a 1920s/30s style black and white silent film of 'The Call of Cthulhu', and they've put a quicktime trailer on their site.
It looks really bizarre: they seem to have done quite a good job of mimicking the visual style of films of the period, particularly the horrifying rituals of the cultists.
(Via Boing Boing.)
Babes in space: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Fun gallery of old science fiction pulp covers featuring babes organized by category: Babes with Blasters, Babes in Bondage, Babes of Myth, Alien Babes, Babes with a Grip, Robobabes, Babes in Charge, Experimental Babes, Babes under Glass. Link (Thanks, Avi!)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
1965 Ski Mask HOWTO: "Xeni Jardin:
If your grannie knits you one of these, run like hell, then call the cops. Excerpts from a 'roll your own ski mask' article from a mid-'60s issue of McCall's Magazine. You know, they have fetish websites for this sort of thing nowadays. Link. The horror. The HORROR. (thanks, Cameron)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
OmniGraffle 3.2b1 - Create diagrams, flow charts,...: "OmniGraffle 3.2b1 - Create diagrams, flow charts, and more."
(Via MacUpdate - Mac OS X.)
2004 Asshole of the Year Awards.: "As 2004 comes to a close, it's time to consider the year's most vile, dimwitted, and disgusting personalities. The nominees are..."
(Via Kuro5hin.org.)
Tom Wolfe's critics have been licking their...: "
Tom Wolfe's critics have been licking their chops even before I Am Charlotte Simmons was released, and the fact that he was given the Bad Sex award by a group of British literary critics undoubtedly filled them with much glee. Jessa pointed out last week that the sex scenes were intentionally bad, and wondered why the judges, who should know better, didn't get that. Tom Wolfe wonders the same thing.
It has often been said that Americans have no sense of irony. Now the American author Tom Wolfe has turned the tables, saying that the British literary judges who awarded him a prize for the year's worst sex in fiction simply did not understand that his description of a first encounter was meant to be ironic.
'There's an old saying - 'You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her sing',' he told Reuters. 'In this case, you can lead an English literary wannabe to irony but you can't make him get it.'
I'm a Wolfe partisan, so feel free to bust out the grains of salt, but I love his response here. And who the hell says that Americans have no sense of irony? Unless that statement was meant to be ironic. Or maybe the judges really are aware that the sex scenes were intentionally bad, so they ironically awarded the Bad Sex award to Wolfe, who failed to pick up on the irony. Or maybe Wolfe did pick up on the irony, and his annoyance is meant to be ironic.
My head hurts.
"(Via blog.)
Introducing the sarcasm point. Oh...: "
Introducing the sarcasm point. Oh yeah — I like this idea¡
"(Via blog.)
Bespoke M&Ms: "Xeni Jardin:
The M&Ms website includes an online service for ordering your very own personalised M&Ms. The printing dos and don'ts are a fun read, though -- don't even think about mentioning landmarks. Dirty words are prohibited, so are terms that might raise copyright issues for the candy maker. I tried BUTT SEX IS AWESOME in 'classic wedding pastels', but to no avail. Damn you, chocolate censors! High carb free speech must prevail! Link (Alex)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Memetics: "The science of idea propagation"
(Via Interesting Thing of the Day.)
Playlist debut issue available as free PDF download: "Playlist magazine has made its debut issue available as a free PDF download from its Web site. Playlist looks at digital music, the technology and musicians featuring industry news, future trends, in-depth features and interviews with music artists. The magazine's Web site also publishes in-depth features online like its recent comparison of all of the music services available today, as well as daily news relating to the digital music industry."
(Via MacCentral.)
The AARP says, toke up!: "AARP poll finds older Americans favor medical marijuana. With a medical marijuana case in front of the Supremes, and with a dozen states now with medical marijuana laws on the books, AARP decided to take a poll. Here's what they found:
'Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use.'
My father (a senior citizen) takes prescribed Marinol (synthetic THC) as an appetite stimulant; my wife, a cancer survivor, got through chemotherapy largely on the strength of the weed I was able to buy on the street in New York. [MI]"
(Via metafilter.com.)
Web Zen: Holiday Zen: "Xeni Jardin:
a wonderful life in 30 seconds |
xmas weebl |
xmas beatles |
holiday saw music |
santa mosh |
hooray for santy claus |
christmas remixed |
holiday 2004 sampler |
beckham nativity |
smores nativity |
advert calendar |
10 least successful holiday specials |
holiplay |
polar rescue |
snowball fight nyc |
unsilent night |
alek's christmas lights |
harbin snow and ice festival |
12 leaves of festivus |
how to dispel the myths of hanukkah | and from the archives:
holiday zen 2003 |
holiday leftover zen 2003 |
winter zen 2002
Image: still from 'It's a Wonderful Life in 30 Seconds re-enacted by bunnies.' web zen home, web zen store, (Thanks, Frank)."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Saving the World with Hostess Twinkies: "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Isaac says,
'I was going through some old comics from the 1970s, and I stumbled upon a series of ads that I had forgotten about - Marvel and DC both had full-page ads in which their superheroes shilled for Hostess Fruit Pies, Twinkies and more! (Holy Flaky Filling, Batman!) There are links to ten different ads I've scanned and posted.'
(Via Boing Boing.)
Nerdy-craftsy Xmas projects: "Cory Doctorow:
This blog-post rounds up some amazing, craftsy-nerdy Xmas decor and sweet novelties, like this gingerbread motherboard.
Also on offer, this gingerbread laptop,
and this
tree decorated with motherboards.
Link
(via Engadget)
Update: Juan sez, 'The PCBs depicted are NOT motherboards as cory states, but are in fact memory modules, and a CPU as star.'"
(Via Boing Boing.)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Jack Chick creationist comic "Big Daddy": "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Tommy York says,
Recently, at a school rally of mine here in San Francisco, I came across the booth of the Christian club at school, AGAPE. I decided to pick up a few little comics of theirs, and I came across this one - one the denounces evolution, procedes to denounce the whole theory of the 'atom' too, and by disproving evolution, of course, shows that the only logical alternative is that Jesus is the creator. Propaganda like this in public schools seems a bit off to me.
Update: Reader Lance Simmons says, 'There's a much better copy of Big Daddy at the publisher's site.' Link. See also these previous BoingBoing posts on Jack Chick's Christian comix: Link, and Link 2."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Fortean photography: "David Pescovitz:
I love Fortean Times's online gallery of strange photos and illustrations. Along with antique spirit snapshots, stigmata statues, Bigfoot, and dervishes, they have a nice selection of 'simulacra photos.' In Fortean terms, simulacra photos depict 'spontaneous or natural figures or images. These can occur in nature as well as in the chance conjunction of artefacts.' For example, the seed capsules of snapdragons in this photo. Readers are invited to send in their own shots to the print magazine's Simulacra Corner. Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Jane Austen: "'We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.'"
A modern myth of creation: "The History of the Universe."
(Via metafilter.com.)
Novelty tongues for dogs: "Cory Doctorow:
The Humunga Tongue is a doggy fetch-ball with an enormous, hilarious rubber tongue attached to it, so that while your hairy pal is masticating it, it looks like he's got a huge, Gene Simmons-esque tongue. High-larious!
Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Kids' forensic facial reconstruction kit: "Cory Doctorow:
The Discovery Channel has released a CSI-branded 'facial reconstruction kit' toy so that kids can play forensic scientist, reconstructing notional corpse faces. Man, I wish I'd had one of these as a kid.
Link
(via Wired Magazine)
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Bodies proportional to motor and sensory brain regions: "Cory Doctorow:
Two images of notional 'homunculi' -- the first, a Sensory Homunculus, shows 'what a man's body would look like if each part grew in proportion to the area of the cortex of the brain concerned with its sensory perception' (on the left). The other, the Motor Homunculus, 'shows what a man's body would look like if each part grew in proportion to the area of the cortex of the brain concerned with its movement.'
Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
The Most Hated Advertising Techniques: "If you are getting ready to do any sort of advertising on your Website, you might want to familiarize yourself with the contents of this page before getting started. A few minutes spent here could save you a bundle in the long run with avoiding lost revenue. The page is a descriptive of the most hated advertising techniques. While you may not even agree with all of what they are saying here, there are some…
Direct and Related Links for 'The Most Hated Advertising Techniques'
"(Via Lockergnome Web Developer.)
'Lost' in the Black Lodge: "How's Hurley? How's Hurley? How's Hurley? How's Hurley? Written by Jason Snell."
(Via TeeVee.)
Station Break: "Lost" Star to Head Homeland Security Department: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shocking government observers, President Bush today named actor Terry O’Quinn to replace Tom Ridge as secretary..."
(Via TeeVee.)
Are All of Santa's Reindeer Girls?: "Apparently, reindeer experts are saying that while both male and female reindeer grow antlers every summer, the males drop theirs by early December -- which means, given that the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh on Christmas Eve are always depicted in full regalia, that every one of them, even Rudolph, must be a girl. Can this possibly be true?"
(Via Urban Legends and Folklore.)
Snowman 0.1 - Snowman for your desktop.: ""
(Via MacUpdate - Mac OS X.)
Burton "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" trailer online: "Xeni Jardin:
Oh my, this does looks promising. Link to trailer, and link to movie website. (Thanks, Tony)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Great inexpensive kids' toys from Whimsyload: "Mark Frauenfelder:
My friend Scott recommended Whimsyload.com as a place to buy toys for my 1.5-year-old. He recommended three items:
Wooden Man, Crazy Box (shown here), Bird Clock."
(Via Boing Boing.)
Salad bar hacking: "Mark Frauenfelder:
This is the best thing I've seen in a long while. Robyn Miller sez: 'This is a photo from a Chinese PDF manual. The manual explains, via text and a lot of fun photos, how to cram as much food as possible on one of those tiny Pizza Hut bowls at the salad bar. They're only allowed one trip. My cousin lives in Beijing. When he goes to Pizza Hut, he says this is what most people are busy building.' (Click image for enlargement)"
(Via Boing Boing.)
In Defense of Clapton's Layla: "Recently, GuitarWorld magazine published a list of top 100 of the worst guitar solos, riffs and licks of all time. I am a big sucker for this sort of thing, so I swallowed the $7.95 price to purchase it, with a good expectation of what would be included. Just as literary scholars have a canon of great literature, the guitarist community has a canon of really awful guitar solos - including, for instance, Neil Young's infamous one-note Cinnamon Girl solo, anything by Van Halen, and anything played by Kurt Cobain. When I turned to the list, I suffered a cruel, horrible shock."
(Via Kuro5hin.org.)
Robot-ized amplifier and speakers: "Mark Frauenfelder:
This robot stereo and loudspeaker system is beautiful. Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
New Blade Runner DVD blocked by... Univision?: "Xeni Jardin:
BoingBoing reader Mike Harris says,
Jerry Perenchio, now-CEO of Univision, was one of two bond-completion guarantors for the film when it was first shot. Because it went over budget when first filmed in 1982, the guarantors assumed ownership of the film by contract, and Perenchio refuses to authorize Warner Brothers to release what they and Ridley Scott want to release: a three-disc box set with 'a new and polished director's cut with previously unseen footage and scads of bonus features.'
(Via Boing Boing.)
Jesus long in the tooth: "David Pescovitz:
Jesus was spotted inside the mouth of a devout Christian in Phoenix, Arizona. Magically, Jesus's presence was only revealed by a dental x-ray. Perhaps the man has been eating too many grilled cheese sandwiches.
Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
Giant pouched rats sniff out landmines: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Tom sez: 'Who needs an electronic nose to sniff out buried landmines? The Belgians prefer African giant pouched rats. And no, the rats do not get blown to bits.'
The idea of using rats for the detection of landmines came up through a search for a cheap and efficient mine detector tool, which would be able to detect both metal and plastic landmines.
'Added bonus: the rats can detect tuberculosis from sputum samples!!' Link
(Via Boing Boing.)
Cost of war in Iraq JavaScript counter: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Here's a neat little JavaScript counter:
(Via Boing Boing.)
Not a pisser: "David Pescovitz:
Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917) was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 artworld big shots in Great Britain.
Link
"
(Via Boing Boing.)
MSN Spaces = soylent green: "Xeni Jardin:
Updated. Today, Microsoft launches their free hosted blogging platform, spaces.msn.com. What effect the service will have on Blogger, TypePad, Userland, and the like is, predictably, a subject of great debate. The service is free, and seems aimed squarely at home users. BoingBoing reader alfie checks the W3 validator site and says, 'MSN Spaces seems to be completely ignoring markup standards. Well done chaps.' Link. Reader Christopher Carfi hosts a discussion about the launch on his blog, here.
Reader Paul Pellerito says,
'MSN Spaces User asciident notes that at the bottom of every MSN Space is (c)2004 Microsoft Corporation. And according to their terms of use:
For materials you post or otherwise provide to Microsoft related to the MSN Web Sites (a 'Submission'), you grant Microsoft permission to (1) use, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, reproduce, edit, modify, translate and reformat your Submission, each in connection with the MSN Web Sites, and (2) sublicense these rights, to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law. Microsoft will not pay you for your Submission.'
Wired News story, Forbes coverage, and here is the Microsoft press release.
Peter Orosz says:
MSN Spaces, Microsoft's new blogging service, censors stuff! We're all gonna die! This is a screencap taken by a friend of mine who apparently tried to register at MSN Spaces. His blog's description reads 'A Corporate Whore', which the service promptly bounced. Yikes!
(Via Boing Boing.)
Corgi Toys art gallery: "Mark Frauenfelder:
Nifty Corgi Toys art gallery. Link (Thanks, Todd!!"
(Via Boing Boing.)
