a GOOD review of Spiderman!!

: ""

(Via .)

Movie posters redone in "grindhouse" style

brilliant - loved grindhouse by the way

Movie posters redone in "grindhouse" style: "Cory Doctorow:



SomethingAwful's latest photoshopping contest is remixing posters for lovable Hollywood to look like grindhouse exploitation films. This may be the apotheosis of the comedy photoshopper's art -- real genius here, laugh-aloud funny, and great execution. Someone should do a book of these -- or turn them into real wall-posters. I'd line my study with grindhouse-style posters for ET and The Prestige and Gosford Park. Shown here, propunker's brilliant Inconvenient Truth remix ('The Movie Washington Didn't Want You To See!!').

Link

(Thanks, Bonnie!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Rectal Itch ad from 1952

especially appropriate - its from my home town ol Longo

Rectal Itch ad from 1952: "Cory Doctorow:



They sure don't make rectal-itch ads like they used to, back in this 1952 issue of Modern Mechanix. I love that they gave the druggist a Dirty Sanchez mustache.

Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Gallery of 1970s Kirby covers

sure wish I still had my comix - sold em for nuttin' in 1976

Gallery of 1970s Kirby covers: "Mark Frauenfelder:

Datajunkie has a gallery of Jack Kirby DC covers from the 1970s. I have every one of the comics shown here, safely tucked away in mylar, with vapor-phase deacidification sheets between the pages. (Just kidding about that last part.) Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Crazy Apple Rumors Site » Blog Archive » Microsoft Celebrates Sale of 100th Zune.

heh heh

Crazy Apple Rumors Site » Blog Archive » Microsoft Celebrates Sale of 100th Zune.: "
- Rogue Amoeba -
Help, I'm being held hostage in a software company.
April 11, 2007
Microsoft Celebrates Sale of 100th Zune.

Just days after Apple’s announcement that it had sold 100 million iPods, Microsoft’s Zune celebrated a milestone of its own.
According to a press release issued by the company today, its 100th Zune was sold to 13-year-old Dieter Ebersbacher in Shreveport, Illinois, and is a sign of its success in the marketplace.
‘The sale of the 100th Zune is a sign that it has captured a secure foothold in the market and it totally doesn’t suck,’ said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Asked to explain the discrepancy between this and its previously announced sales figures, Ballmer said ‘Well, when you take out the units we’ve just stuffed into the channel and then you take out the units that have gone to reviewers… and the units we’ve just outright given away… you’re left with… uh… a hundred. Now. Like, just now.
‘I’ve totally been telling that guy… uh… whatsits… um… Foureyes McFl"

(Via .)

Pikachu of the deep

awwwwwww kewtie

Pikachu of the deep: "Mark Frauenfelder:
This delightful creature is called a grimpoteuthis. It lives three miles under the sea, and resembles a Pokemon character. A few lucky daughters of Hollywood entertainment moguls own them as pets. (That's what I'm guessing, anyway.) Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Vista is Microsoft's Waterloo

if it twere true

Vista is Microsoft's Waterloo: "
Yes, reviewers and users have always bitched about new operating systems from Microsoft. But this time it feels different. This time I think Microsoft really has blown it, and they know it. Try, if you can, to remember the launch of Windows 95, when the excitement began building six months to a year before the product launched, and when people really did line up at stores to get their hands on it, and early adopters were racing around raving to their friends about all the cool stuff you could do with it.

Then look at the Lee Gomes article in the Journal today. For a free snippet see here. Lee says it took nearly 20 minutes for him to open some 'music' (read: porno) folder with 3,500 sub-folders and tens of thousands of files. That's better than on his XP machine, which couldn't open it at all. But on a Mac the same task took 30 seconds.

For more amusement, go read this article by Jim Louderback, a hardcore Windows fanboy. The problems he describes are amazing. You sit there with your jaw hanging open as he describes one nightmare after another. What's most amazing, however, is this quote: 'Still, despite the problems, I do love Vista. It's absolutely the wave of the future.'

That would be depressing, if it were true. But it's not true. I believe that in ten years we will look back at Vista and say that this was when the tide turned against Microsoft."

(Via The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs.)

LOLtrek

tres geek moment

LOLtrek: "Xeni Jardin:

Link to the entire Star Trek episode 'The Trouble With Tribbles' painstakingly redone as a series of still images in the style of LOLcats. (thanks, katre)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Appendectomy through the mouth

Does House know about this?!

Appendectomy through the mouth: "David Pescovitz:
Physicians are now removing appendixes by entering the body through the mouth. The procedure, called Natural Orifice Translumenal Endosurgery (NOTES) involves the insertion of tools down the throat and through an incision in the stomach lining. Once the appendix is cut loose, it's pulled out of the mouth. Apparently, there are other variations of the technique, including gall bladder removal through an incision made in the vagina. One big benefit is that these surgeries don't leave any visible scar. Advocates say NOTES can be performed without putting the patient under because there are fewer nerves fibers within the body that transmit pain than on the skin. Recover time is also quicker. From New Scientist:

In many ways, transgastric surgery is a natural extension of keyhole surgery, in which slim surgical tools are inserted into the abdomen via small incisions in the skin, avoiding a large cut in the belly. It has now become routine for procedures such as gall bladder removal.



Transgastric surgery promises to go one better. Much of the discomfort and recovery time after conventional surgery – even keyhole surgery – is due to the incisions made in the abdominal wall. However, because transgastric surgeons reach the abdominal cavity through the mouth, there is no need for an incision, so patients should be back up on their feet much faster, says Jürgen Hochberger at St Bernward Hospital in Hildesheim, Germany.

Link (via Neatorama)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Web Zen: produce zen

a tradition

Web Zen: produce zen: "Xeni Jardin:


potatoes


vegetable orchestra


beet eggs


i hate cilantro


fruit labels


mango


carved watermelons


banana movie


the secret of bananas


my hands are bananas

Web Zen Home and Archives, Store (Thanks Frank!).

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Digg users revolt over AACS key

its a secret but I'll tell you - just don't tell anyone else - promise?

Digg users revolt over AACS key: "Cory Doctorow:


Last night, Digg.com underwent a user rebellion. Digg removed many posts -- and terminated the accounts of some of its users -- for posting a 16-digit hexadecimal number that is used to lock up HD-DVD movies. The number -- a 'processing key' -- was discovered by Doom9 message-board poster muslix64, who was frustrated by his inability to play his lawfully purchased HD-DVD movies because of failure in the anti-copying system.

The AACS Licensing Authority, which controls the anti-copying technology underlying HD-DVD, sent out hundreds of legal threats to sites that had posted the key, including Digg. It appears that Digg took a pro-active stance and began to seek out new examples of the key and delete them immediately, instead of waiting for notice from the AACS-LA. It's likely that their lawyers advised them to take this course of action, since the penalties for posting 'circumvention devices' can be stiff.

Digg's users revolted at this stricture, and saw to it that every single item on the front page of Digg contained the forbidden number. Users accused Digg of taking money from the HD-DVD manufacturers (Digg ran an ad campaign from the company in the late summer of 2006), and complained about the site's deletion of user accounts.

At 9PM last night, Kevin Rose, Digg's founder, posted about this on the Digg blog, and said that he would no longer take material down, even though it could very well cost him the site. It's a brave stance, and it seems to have quieted the Digg users' protests.

I think another way of doing this would be to take down each user post on receipt of a takedown notice, then post PDFs of each takedown notice that he received in their place, which PDFs will contain the magic number. That way, the information stays alive and Digg doesn't get sued. I'm not a lawyer, but this has been the strategy I've pursued with my class blog, which received a takedown for the same number.

In the meantime, AACS-LA's attempts to suppress the number have been an abject failure. Google lists 36,000 pages that contain the number, most of them posted in the past few days in response to the story of AACS LA's letters. So much for keeping it a secret.

So today was a difficult day for us. We had to decide whether to remove stories containing a single code based on a cease and desist declaration. We had to make a call, and in our desire to avoid a scenario where Digg would be interrupted or shut down, we decided to comply and remove the stories with the code.

But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.

Link

(Thanks, Andrew!)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Mouse Mouse is the perfect peripheral for sadists

now thats gross

Mouse Mouse is the perfect peripheral for sadists: "

Well, this is kind of upsetting. Along the same lines as that super-creepy beaver computer that we showed you a little while ago is the Mouse Mouse. Yes, it's a computer mouse made out of an actual mouse.

This is actually worse than the beaver computer because with that at least you weren't expected to keep your hand on the dead animal all day. Can you imagine having your hand on a dead mouse all day at work, clicking the back of its poor head every time you need to open or close a window? It gives me the heebie-geebies. But hey, if you're a more cold-hearted, sadistic person than I am, there are plenty of instructions on how to make one yourself. Sicko. — Adam Frucci

Instructables, via MAKE

"

(Via SCI FI Tech Blog.)

Cookie Monster eats a computer in 1971: Video

confession: I am the cookie monster!! LOL

Cookie Monster eats a computer in 1971: Video: "Xeni Jardin:


Video Link. (Thanks, Gram)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Bee die-off a sign of the apocalypse

but is there honey in heaven?

Bee die-off a sign of the apocalypse: "Mark Frauenfelder:


This week's always-wonderful 'Harper's Weekly Review,' lists some of the possible reasons for the alarming global honey bee die-off. (Creative Commons-licensed photo of bee by aussiegall)

Researchers
investigating the collapse of honeybee colonies in
Europe and the Americas identified several possible
reasons for the catastrophe: poor diet; radiation from
mobile phones that disturbs bees' sense of navigation so
they cannot fly home; increased solar radiation due to
the thinning of the ozone layer; bee AIDS; stress from
cross-country travel in trucks; falling queen fertility;
the microsporidian fungus Nosema ceranae; or imidacloprid,
a pesticide sold under the brand name Gaucho and banned
by France in 1999 for spreading 'mad bee disease.'
Investors were advised to put their money in gold and corn
futures to profit off the recession that may result from
the disruption of the food chain caused by the vanishing
bees. Grapes, which self-pollinate, and olives, which are
pollinated by the wind, will not be affected by the bees'
disappearance; Christians pointed out that the Book of
Revelation predicts that a famine sparing grapes and olives
will precede the apocalypse.

Link

Reader comment:

Peter Dearman says:

This is a lengthy in-depth news feature I just wrote on the vanishing bee crisis. It contains over 30 linked footnotes to news reports, opinions and such.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Dress your kid like a Wookiee

looks good enuf to eat - arrrr

Dress your kid like a Wookiee: "Cory Doctorow:


The Star Wars Shop's kids' costumes bring the cute, and none more so than the Chewbacca costume pictured here.

Link to Chewbacca costume,

Link to Leia costume,

Link to Yoda costume

(via Wonderland)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Scans of 19th c. science book: "The World before the Deluge"

must be true science - has pictures

Scans of 19th c. science book: "The World before the Deluge": "Xeni Jardin:

Snip from description:

The object of 'The World before the Deluge' is to trace the progressive steps by which the earth has reached its present state, from that condition of chaos when it 'was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the the deep,' and to describe the various convulsions and transformations through which it has successively passed.

Shown above: 'Ideal Scene of the Lias Period with Ichthyosaurus and Plesiosaurus.'

Scanned pages of 'The World Before the Deluge' by Louis Figuier (1872 revision of a 1862 publication) are online at 19thcenturyscience.org: Link. 518 + 8 pages, illustrated with 235 figures. Scroll down to 'PLATES' for illustrations of 'ideal landscapes' of various geological epochs.

Spotted at Bibliodyssey, where there's more background here: Link.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Sony sacrifices goat for Playstation game

No, nothing violent or dangerous here - its paagan buddy

Sony sacrifices goat for Playstation game: "Mark Frauenfelder:


Sony recently staged a goat sacrifice in honor of their PlayStation 2 game, God Of War II, complete with fur outfits, topless women, blood, and entrails.
Link to Daily Mail article | Link to Gizmodo article (Thanks, Jim!)

Reader comment:

Sony representatives did not decapitate the goat at the party. Instead, they purchased a pre-decapitated goat for the event.

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Richard Evans Schultes's Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants

I seem to rtemember this.. as in a dream...

Richard Evans Schultes's Golden Guide to Hallucinogenic Plants: "David Pescovitz:
BB pal Vann Hall surprised me with news that in 1976, pioneering Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes wrote a Golden Guide. Appropriately, the subject of Schultes' Golden Guide was Hallucinogenic Plants. For those who don't know, the original Golden Guides were a fantastic series of profusely-illustrated educational books for elementary and high-school age students. Usually about nature or science, the books were most popular in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and are now collectables, depending on the title. Copies of Hallucinogenic Plants are available on AbeBooks from around $50 for a paperback in fair condition to $500 for a scarce hardcover. Fortunately, Erowid has a scan of the entire book online. From Schultes's introduction:

Hallucinogenic plants have been used by man for thousands of years, probably since he began gathering plants for food. The hallucinogens have continued to receive the attention of civilized man through the ages. Recently, we have gone through a period during which sophisticated Western society has 'discovered' hallucinogens, and some sectors of that society have taken up, for one reason or another, the use of such plants. This trend may be destined to continue.



It is, therefore, important for us to learn as much as we can about hallucinogenic plants. A great body of scientific literature has been published about their uses and their effects, but the information is often locked away in technical journals. The interested layman has a right to sound information on which to base his opinions. This book has been written partly to provide that kind of information.



No matter whether we believe that men's intake of hallucinogens in primitive or sophisticated societies constitutes use, misuse, or abuse, hallucinogenic plants have undeniably played an extensive role in human culture and probably shall continue to do so. It follows that a clear understanding of these physically and socially potent agents should be a part of man's general education.

Link

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Pink Floyd on polka

oh gawd - no noooooo

Pink Floyd on polka: "David Pescovitz:


Polka Floyd of Toledo, Ohio, translates Pink Floyd into polka.


Link (via Laughing Squid)

"

(Via Boing Boing.)

Creative photos by Chema Madoz | haha.nu - a lifestyle blogzine

set opf very imaginative photos - gives one paws

Creative photos by Chema Madoz | haha.nu - a lifestyle blogzine: ""

(Via .)