Links posted in October 2007
October 31, 2007
Mashable , a blog famous (infamous?) for its long link-lists of resources for webmasters and blogheads (50 Widgets for Your Blog, 230 Tools for Running a Business Online, 400 Resources To Make You Smarter, Faster & a Demon in the Sack, Top 10 Blog Awards) has made up a surprisingly unnumbered list of Top Places To Get Free and Legal Music that includes (OMIGAWD!!!) the "MonkeyFilter MP3 Blog Listing (and shrine to MoFi's Own forksclovetofu)". [more inside]
NEANDERTHALS. So that explains it! Us Neanderthals are alive and well and glowing in the dark.
Black Confederate marching for "heritage." It’s a sight that elicits a second glance, maybe a third. A black man marching along the S.C. 28 toward Walhalla dressed in Confederate butternut, carrying a Confederate battle flag...“This flag has nothing to do with hate,” Mr. Edgerton said of the starred red, white and blue St. Andrew’s Cross battle flag he carried. “It’s the flag of Southern heritage, black and white"...“I wish I could report that after five years all my suffering had been vindicated,” Mr. Edgerton said. “But it hasn’t. Not when you have organizations like NASCAR that have banned our flag.”
Exmortis
is a Flash game with some excellent atmosphere. The opening premise is rather familiar in games of this type - you wake up in the woods with a lump on your head, no memory, and a creepy old house ahead of you. Turn the lights down, the sound up, and get ready for a decently spooky atmosphere as you explore the mysteries of the abandoned building.
The sequel is a good followup to Exmortis. Though the game can stand alone, it really picks up where the first one left off, as you deal with the aftermath of events in Exmortis. Squeamish be warned: graphic content and profanity to be found in the Exmortis games.
[more inside]
October 30, 2007
Photo Gallery: 25 Most Endangered Primates Named.
Waitless - time saving tidbits
Some cute and interesting ways to save time. A few are scientifically interesting (quick sorbet) others just fun to try, (parking).
Thank you BBSpot.
Glass work
(Flash)inspired by that of ancient Rome is on display at the Getty. You can actually buy real Roman glass here.
[more inside]
bsimple
is the gallery of conceptual photographer Misha Gordin (some images NSFW). Gordin's work often makes abstractions out of the human form, sometimes photographing multiple models together to create intricate patterns. Some images hint at the darker side of life, such as conformity and isolation even within a crowd.
[more inside]
Blackwater guards offered immunity. Special bonus, tonight only: a profile of and interview with the head of Blackwater. Fair and balanced: More on Blackwater and the military-contractor issue here and here and here.
October 29, 2007
Strong stomachs are a must in this profession. Whether it's scrubbing blood from the cement or picking skull fragments from out of the wall, these hardworking techs deal with the aftermath of violent crimes.
The Endicott Studio
is dedicated to the support and creation of mythic arts. Their online journal explores myth, folklore, fairy tales, and their use in modern art. Their blog presents news, musings, and reviews on arts that have been inspired by mythic themes, and has recently been counting down to Halloween with tales, poems, art, and photography based on the mythos associated with the approaching day.
[more inside]
The Chairman Smiles is a nice selection of Soviet, Chinese, and Cuban posters from the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. If that merely whets your appetite there are many more from Cuba and elsewhere here, and by way of a bonus, Spanish Civil War posters here.
Delusions of Separation
Very few people seem to have noticed that we are a species gone mad, which itself is an expression of the extent of the collective insanity we have fallen into. As more of us are able to illumine, recognize and articulate the nature and dynamics of the deeper psychological process that is creating our experience in the world, the more effectively we become able to deal with our world crisis. As more of us awaken to the deeper, underlying psychological process which animates events in our world, the more we will be able to consciously connect with each other in increasingly more creative ways so as to transform this process, both within ourselves, as well as in the outside world.
[more inside]
October 28, 2007
La piedra de Anamara (The stone of Anamara) While running from the police, you find what seems to be a perfect hiding place. It's not long before you must deal with supernatural forces and mysteries hidden in the mental asylum for children. [more inside]
October 27, 2007
The DM of the Rings
is an excellent webcomic. Though it's created entirely from movie stills, it hits comedic notes that anyone who's played D&D will recognize. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash AD&D roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign. The gamers are easily distracted, obsessed with loot, and have a tendency to quote Monty Python at the drop of a d8. The frustrated DM tries to keep the party on the rails, and the players fight against the railroading. All in all, I think I've gamed with all these people before.
[more inside]
Cronyism American Style Can you believe it? Some third world country elected the wife of a former president as the new prez. What kind of banana republic sh*t is that?
October 26, 2007
Movember is about to begin! Officially the purpose of Movember is to raise awareness of prostate cancer, but for most participants it's a testosterone-fest to see which man can grow the most body hair in one month. Here are some manly men from last year's Movember: I am reasonably confident that the male monkeys can be (and probably are) hairier than that. I plan to grow a beautiful flowing handlebar mo myself.
Curious George damns the power company monopoly
.
$2.85 to pay the power bill via credit/debit on-line? WTF??
[more inside]
FEMA Fakes it Showing the level of competence has not changed substantially since Katrina, FEMA stages a fake news conference to make it look like they are getting things done.
How much do you love your bike?
Curious George goes down the pub again. A London meetup already discussed here and set for November 24th, but a) I'm sick of searching for the old thread and would much rather search for a new thread, and b) this is my none-too-subtle way of reminding you to keep your calendars clear. [more inside]
The Four Rooms of Kharon
is another escaper game, though this time there are four rooms instead of one. The game has a dark, gritty atmosphere with high tech/genetic engineering themes. The game is meant to inform as well as entertain, and has lots of information packed into it for those interested in genetic concepts and famous geneticists. Some commenters on the game had problems with the camera angles. I did not, but thought it worth mentioning that some camera angles are not appropriate for all Monkeys. Player discretion is advised.
Stuck? Frustrated? Want to give the poster a good kick for mentioning this thing in the first place? Don't worry! We has walkthrough.
[more inside]
Don't get your knickers in a twisto
Or pretend to be the Count of Monte Cristo
Celebration should be high upon your listo
And you're surely going to get a little pissto
We all are glad to know that you existo
If you left us you really would be misto
Of this post I hope you get the gisto
It's to wish a happy birthday to kitfisto
October 25, 2007
Worst mayor, EVAR!!!11ONE! Jackson, Mississippi's Frank Melton. via.
Who you gonna call? Canada's Most Haunted! [more inside]
Yummy delicious Tex-Mex. “Cal-Mex is long on burritos and sour cream....In New Mexico, it’s all about green chilies, and in Arizona they are proud to have invented chimichangas — deep-fried burritos. The embodiment of Tex-Mex is a cheese enchilada with gravy.”
The Nocturnes Gallery is a collection of the night photography work of a number of photographers who are serious about evoking images from the dark. Each photographer has a small gallery, each gallery has a link to the photographer's website. Their styles vary, from moody black and white to use of lighting effects, and much between the extremes. [more inside]
Look at this dog. Via BoingBoing
October 24, 2007
Hoverboy: Hero of a Thousand Buckets! [Warning: Flash, Old-People Nudity, Rick Green] A mini-documentary on Hoverboy, soon to be seen again in skies and on comic-books racks near you! [more inside]
Indy Mogul, a site by and for amateur movie makers, produces Backyard FX. A new episode goes live on the site every Monday, and there's a Weekend Extra episode every Friday. Indy Mogul firmly believes that cool-looking effects can be had in amateur movies for a minimal outlay of cash, whether you need to tear off limbs, stage a fight, cook up your own sugar glass, or get a gunshot squib effect on a budget. The episodes show the creation off the effects and a short test-run. The Indy Mogul blog gives more detailed instructions and shopping lists. Some of it could also be useful for costuming and decorating for Halloween. [more inside]
Southern California besieged by wildfires.
October 23, 2007
TV-Links.co.uk Raided The owner has been arrested, as well as some other people involved in the running of the site. They face organised-crime charges, and compensation of up to £100,000,000. [more inside]
What the fuck? Regular swearing at work can help boost team spirit among staff, allowing them to express better their feelings as well as develop social relationships, according to a study by researchers.
Condom Testers Wanted: Apply Inside. "Are you a sexual intercourse enthusiast? Are you the kind of person who doesn't mind winning $1000?" Durex is looking for some fellows with a head to please.
Meet the case of Abdallah Higazy. Egyptian national. Confessed under FBI questioning to being involved with the 9/11 plot - they found a device used to communicate with pilots in his hotel room after all. Then a pilot turns up and asks for his radio back. [more inside]
Daniel Essig creates book-based art. He uses a binding style known as Ethiopian-style Coptic bookbinding, which dates from the fourth century. His sculptural books are mixed media, incorporating handmade papers, unusual woods, fossils, mica, and found objects. [more inside]
October 22, 2007
Atari founder: Modern games 'unadulterated trash'
"Video games today are a race to the bottom. They are pure, unadulterated trash and I'm sad for that," said Bushnell
"Social games represent something that has been missing," he adds. "Most of the board games are purchased by women for families. It is this gaming world that can be re-energized. We used to have families sit down and play a game together. A lot of video games today are very isolated. You don't see mom and dad, sister and brother, sitting down like they used to play, say, Monopoly," says Bushnell. "That represented good mentoring time for families that just isn't happening now."
[more inside]
How to build your own Sputnik. Doesn't say how to launch it into space though.
I CAN'T BELIEVE NO ONE HAS YET MENTIONED TODAY'S HOLIDAY: IT'S CAPS LOCK DAY!!1!1! [more inside]
Al Magnus is a photo montage artist whose work has a surreal, lovely, dream-like quality. He plans his scenes, photographs the elements and scans them, and composites them into his montage digitally before printing. His images are planned in advance, some of them taking as much as two years to assemble all the photographic elements before work on the montage begins. [more inside]
October 21, 2007
Delhi deputy mayor dies after monkey attack
Terrorists may be using American cheese to destroy freedom.
The Simian Dictionary of Sir Richard Francis Burton. [Via an excellent post on MeFi.]
Vincent
is a short animation by Tim Burton about a young boy who wants to grow up to be Vincent Price, and is narrated by Mr. Price himself. Classic Tim Burton story and animation.
"She danced in her mother's womb and she was dancing when she was born. As God is my witness and the devil her father, she will dance your dead back to their grave..." So says the grandmother in El Despertar, an animated short film about zombies and Flamenco.
Halloween's not far away. Are you prepared with Candy?
October 20, 2007
Nightmare Escape You're in a sealed room. In front of you, bloody footprints lead to a message written in blood: You are the next. Looks like it's time to find a way out of here. For the terminally lost, a complete walkthrough is behind a spoiler tag here at Jay is Games. [more inside]
Ellen DeGeneres dog drama sends America into a spin Really!? WTF!? Is this what galvanizes America these days? [more inside]
October 19, 2007
bmovies.com! I don't normally swipe MeFi posts for here, but the awesomeness is just...just... [more inside]
Dr Crippen
is a name that has been synonymous with murder for nearly a century. Notorious for murdering his wife and fleeing Britain on a ship with his lover disguised as a boy, this American doctor was the first person to be apprehended via the aid of wireless communication, in this case radio telegram.
He was hanged in 1910 after a British jury found him guilty of murdering his wife, Cora, who had vanished earlier that year, and whose remains were identified as those found under the cellar floor of his London house.
Except he was innocent.
[more inside]
Bullets silence one of the South African apartheid regime's most outspoken critics.
Peace, Lucky Dube...
*sigh*
Trick or Treat! and Stuff Yourself Sick: I-Mockery presents the Ultimate Guide to Halloween Candy, from Oozing Eyeballs to Gummi Ghouls to the infamous Box of Boogers. [more inside]
A New Little Poo-Flinger!
The London Zoo debuts a tiny new primate: a black-tailed marmoset baby no bigger than a wee mousie.
Okay, so marmosets aren't strictly monkeys, but they're kissin' kin, and the SQUEEEEE factor is pretty high on this one. Loads of pictures in the main link, plus the usual Page 3 Girl teaser (SFW).
A Kyoto geisha preparing
by putting on her makeup. (This and all other links here are YouTube) It's a little long at a bit over 12 minutes, but it seemed a good inspiration for those who might be looking for last-minute costuming ideas for a Halloween shindig.
Further inspiration:
Low-budge zombie, Budget zombie/ghoul makeup, Showgirl makeup, Flapper makeup, A tiger face, and applying basic latex prosthetics.
[more inside]
Best Latin
has some nice resources, including the excellent Audio Latin Proverbs and the strangely pointless Roman Sudoku. They haven't got news in Latin, but you can get that here, here, or (monthly rather than daily) here.
Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon
is making waves.
I was surprised there was no mention of our gibbon comrades. Ubuntu 7.10 was released yesterday, to great acclaim.
October 18, 2007
The vital statistics of Asterix. An interview with Uderzo.
Sex, Nazi, burrito and Viagra: Who Googles what?
Clambake!
In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show.
Some studies speculate on spuds.
[more inside]
The Art of Mourning is a collection of memorial and sentimental jewelery, funeralia, and art, ranging from hairwork to mourning brooches to miniatures. It also has information about the symoblism used in these forms of memorial art. [more inside]
Naomi Klein on capitalism. ...across the planet, "some of the most infamous human rights violations of this era...were in fact committed with the deliberate intent of terrorising the public to prepare the ground for the introduction of free-market reforms". Where this über-corporate vision has not been imposed by force, it has been imposed by blackmail at a time of crisis. One of the ugliest examples Klein exposes is the use of the tsunami - an almost biblical wave that washed away 250,000 people - as a pretext to impose a Friedmanite vision.
Word play for the hungry [more inside]
The Artwork Of Katherine Dinger (Lot of pictures, takes some time to load, some are somewhat NSFW depending on your boss) She is amazing! Katherine Dinger creates mostly digital paintings. She keeps a blog. These are absolutely stunning.
October 17, 2007
The Personal Ads A scene from the play The March of the Kiteflyers performed by the Jobsite Theater. The company is based in Tampa, Florida.
The real Raymond Carver. Tess Gallagher, the widow of Raymond Carver...is spearheading an effort to publish a volume of 17 original Carver stories whose highly edited versions were published in “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"...Carver was credited with popularizing a minimalist style. But...Gordon Lish, Carver’s first editor at Alfred A. Knopf, had heavily edited, and in many cases radically cut, the stories...to hone the author’s voice. At the time, Carver begged Mr. Lish to stop production of the book. But Knopf went ahead and published it...
The Musée du Luxembourg
has a Giuseppe Arcimboldo blockbuster.
Previously.
Star Wars -- Episode ??: A New Season.
"The Surnateum is far more than a website designed to entertain and enlighten you. It is the virtual front-end for one of the most astonishing collections of authentic magical artefacts and strange stories gathered from around the world by the Collectors and Curators for more than a century." The museum is divided into departments, such as Cryptozoology and Teratology, Sacred and Secular Relics, and Demonology. [more inside]
October 16, 2007
The monkey he got drunk and sat on the elephant's trunk...
I'm kind of fussy about my bananas and tend to throw away ones that have gone slightly spotty. Doing a bit of googling I came up with the following, *hic*, use for those over-ripe 'nanners.
Cabanon Press the comics of Tom Gauld and Simone Lia. [more inside]
The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory is so badass.
Photography - it's about Light. Sometimes cliches exist for a reason.
The Merchant of Venice hand-sculpts lovely masks from leather. Each mask is a work of art. [more inside]
October 15, 2007
Nicaragua Abortion Policy
Blog post on how women are dying in Nicaragua because the Daniel Ortega is appeasing the Catholic Church by allowing no abortions. Even when the woman's life is at risk.
Dinosaurs!
that look an awful lot like elephants.
The servant of the Lord is currently planning a new trip to the Congo, to bring back pterosaurs.
Oh, and Let's Shut Down Landover Baptist, because it makes Baby Jesus cry. (Get your Baby Jesus Anti-Fornication Thong here!)
[more inside]
The wittiest Brit. Glaring omission: the quidnunc kid. So, monkeys, who's on your list of the funniest folks ever, Brit or otherwise?
Indexed. Graphs, Venn diagrams, and charts of everything important in life. On index cards. Just look at it. [via 43 Folders]
Classic cafes - fast disappearing, but celebrated in this excellent site. See also. [more inside]
Probably NSFW. This Russian music video is absolutely batshit. Pickle costumes, fursuits and a clone of Sir Nose all combine to make a surrealistic and incomprehensible video.
LOOK AROUND YOU. Look around you. Just look around you.
What do you see? A tree. A weather-vane. A discarded lollipop-wrapper. A traffic shop.
All of these things, and any other things you may care to mention, have one thing in common. Can you work out what it is?
[more inside]
Graveyards of Illinois is where we start our small tour of cemeteries and funerary art. To our left is Bohemian National Cemetery with its beautiful domed chapel, Odd Fellows Monument, and larger-than-life statuary. Another impressive Illinois graveyard is Acacia Park Cemetery and Mausoleum, known for its obelisks and its Masonic connections. [more inside]
Incredible horse, amazing horsemanship
De Orpheo a Merlin de Rafi a Pablo
The most beautiful horse in the world
[more inside]
October 14, 2007
66 celebrities who blog. But who cares about them when we have Mr Stephen Fry pontificating at truly inordinate length?
Long time, no see A farmer in Shaanxi has photographed a wild South China Tiger. Feared extinct in the wild, it's the first time since 1964 one of the rare beasts has been spotted.
Fear.net has made the move from reviewing and providing clips of horror movies into making their own. Their first effort, Devil's Trade, is complete, and offered for free online. It tells the tale of a cross made from pieces of a cursed tree, and the effect of the curse on the current owner of the cross. The current project is 30 Days of Night: Blood Trails, a tale of vampires in New Orleans. Episode 6 just recently premiered. [more inside]
October 13, 2007
How mother moose outwits the bear - Pregnant moose seek out human company when they are about to give birth, to escape the threat of bears. From the Beeb & Biology Letters.
Sweet Land of Liberty (short video) (NSF non-Americans)
Strange Horizons
is a weekly webzine of speculative fiction, including short stories, articles, art galleries, reviews, and poetry. The 'zine is published every Monday. It was founded in 2000, and has extensive archives to peruse.
Apex Science Fiction and Horror Digest, a quarterly magazine, maintains an online archive of articles, short fiction, interviews, and reviews from past issues. Their area of interest is primarily dark sci-fi and horror.
[more inside]
For Some, a Little Raison D'Etre A lovely story about a long-running French class.
October 12, 2007
Dangerous Graffiti Vandal Apprehended Age: 6 - Medium: Chalk - Punishment: $300 fine
Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security...No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely.
Do you know the way to San Jose?
I found this googling for map images for an animation I am going to do in after effects. Wow. Maps of every age, location and description.
"There could be some benefit to millions of years without sex after all" Comforting news from the world of microfauna.
GI Jonny,
a series of videos on the BBC with accompanying website, is intended to raise awareness of HIV. The first, for example, sees action-figure G.I. Jonny using his 'protector shield' to deflect the foam from Captain Bareback's crotch cannon, laying his foe low with his powerful fisting action, and spying the Commando Bandits through his magic brass eye.
This has raised a furore - perhaps not altogether unintentionally?
99 Rooms is a collaborative effort among four artists of different types - painter Kim Köster, Richard Schumann and Stephan Shulz on photography and animation, and sound designer Johannes Buenemann - that is more interactive artwork than game. Köoster painted murals on the walls of abandoned buildings in East Berlin's industrial sector. The murals were then photographed, animated, and given soundtracks. In each room, you find what allows you to advance to the next scene. It can be a simple click anywhere on the screen, pulling levers or throwing switches, or a number of other triggers. If you get impatient, the space bar will advance you to the next room. The presentation is morbidly beautiful. [more inside]
Curious George: I
Hate Norton Anti-Virus. It's time for the annual shakedown and I don't wanna.
What do you use for AV? Anything good?
[more inside]
October 11, 2007
tma/svetlo/tma
by Jan Svankmajer (YouTube), a surreal claymation video from the Czech master. (NSFW if your boss will have problems with clay genitals).
The Periwig-Maker, a story about a wig maker and a little girl in a plague-ridden London.
In Grey Matter, a man creates a strange replica of himself, which takes on life.
And just for fun, a rhino dancing flamenco.
October 10, 2007
It's the little beanies and the lollypops that make things special! [more inside]
Mr. Keaton will help you hang your pictures for some reason.
Curious George: Setting up auto-send emails? I want to do what action networks do! [more inside]
Star Wars Trumpet. I was having a pretty crappy day until I saw this. There is no better cure for the blues than Star Wars Trumpet Dance Routine!
Found Item Clothing. Ever wanted to dress like Val Kilmer in Real Genius? Or advertise Elsinore Beer like the McKenzie Brothers? or show your support for the undead with a ZombAid shirt a la Shaun of the Dead? Well now you can, thanks to the wonders of the internet and creative licensing. [more inside]
The Bat Company
offers four Flash games for your haunting enjoyment: In Ghost Story, their first, you set off to investigate a house of old murder and your father's more recent erratic behavior and mysterious death.
Factory of Fear casts you as a detective investigating a disappearance at a site once used for mysterious experiments.
[more inside]
October 09, 2007
What Hey, My Noncle! Right ribald merriments concerning the deeds of scoffing fellows and jesting maidens to bewilder and amuse you! The edgiest humor the 16th century has to offer!
Curious George: Website Redirection Troubles I have been instructed to redirect a website I built to another website. Easy enough, right? Nope. [more inside]
How Baboons Think - "Reading a baboon's mind affords an excellent grasp of the dynamics of baboon society. But more than that, it bears on the evolution of the human mind and the nature of human existence. As Darwin jotted down in a notebook of 1838, 'He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.'" [more inside]
Hong Kong horror
For someone raised on Western horror traditions, horror stories from the East can seem very strange. Doubtless the reverse is true as well. For comparison's sake for all of us Western Monkeys, A Chinese Ghost Story, parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
and 10 (all links YouTube).
[more inside]
It's Alive! Aiiiiive!!!
Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth.
MuwHAhahahaaaaa!!!
[more inside]
October 08, 2007
Digital redecorating I learned about Digital Blasphemy's 3D rendered desktop wallpapers years ago, when the entire site was free, and was impressed with the quality and artistry of the work offered for there. The site still has a free gallery, and links to other 3D artist sites. [more inside]
The Age of Apoplexy. Passionate disagreement isn’t sufficient; bad faith must be imputed to one’s opponents: skepticism of affirmative action equals racism, antiwar sentiment equals anti-Americanism (or terrorist sympathy), criticism of Israel is by definition anti-Semitic, and so on. More and more people think they’re entitled to the right not just to ignore or disapprove, but to veto and banish.
Crime and Punishment.
A collection of early 20th century crime-related photos, including some occasionally frightening, occasionally depressing, but always fascinating mugshots. [via ectomo.]
Make a Dalek Chocolate Cake [more inside]
October 07, 2007
Peanuts, by Charles Bukowski. On Progressive Boink, but found via usenet.
Plants for a Future
I was poking around wikipedia reading up on native Inca cuisine when I stumbled across this site. It's a searchable database of underutilized edible, medicinal, and otherwise useful plant species.
Froot loops unite! This website is a rock solid website. It is about business, money, investments, and New World Order, One World Government, Banks, Blue Country, Orange Country, Brown Country, Green Country, Gold Country, Purple Country and Green Country. [more inside]
David Bolinsky talks about truth and beauty in science, particularly on the molecular level (flash video). One of the medical animators who worked on Cellular Visions: The Inner Life of a Cell (previously), he also provides some commentary about the first three minutes of the Cellular Visions animation. [more inside]
Curious George goes to Homecoming
.
Remember High School? Remember Homecoming?
[more inside]
October 06, 2007
Our Photoshop Skillz suck This guy might just be omnipresent.
METALOCALYPSE - DETHWATER [more inside]
RIGHT VS LEFT I'm able to view a change of direction at will. Which one are you?
Ron Mueck is a former special effects artist and muppet designer turned hyperrealist sculptor. His process is complex(large video warning, dialup users beware), but the results are impressive. (Only first link guaranteed SFW.) [more inside]
5 months in jail. But dude, the ostrich totally beat him up first!
October 05, 2007
LTH Forum a Chicago based culinary chat site. Many reviews with photo goodness. Curious George - What's the best restaurant review site in your town?
The appendix has a purpose, after all... It produces and protects good germs for your intestines. YAY! Now that's sorted out, let's all vote on what the new most pointless part of the body is.
Basketball Jones. "I wouldn't be talking to you if it wasn't for basketball," Jim Jones Jr. says. "It spared my life." The words are not an empty cliché. They are true. Basketball kept this family alive, and now [his son] Rob and basketball are helping restore honor to the family name. Why? Because the name "Jones" can be found in the history books and in news coverage from 29 years ago, linked to an infamous place called Jonestown.
Fundamentalists Hate Noah's Ark - The story of Noah and the Ark leaves much to be desired, from many different fields of knowledge.
Lights Out was a suspense and horror radio show that had its debut in 1934. It was one of the first shows to develop distinct sound effects and scripts specifically aimed at an audience that could only listen and not watch the action. [more inside]
October 04, 2007
Bookjetty is an integration platform that helps you search Amazon (.com, .co.uk and .ca) for books you want... to borrow from your local library. It covers over 300 libraries worldwide, using the Z39.50 client server protocol. [more inside]
Free Burma
October 4th is International Bloggers' Day for Burma
[more inside]
Reason #681 for loving Jon Stewart.
Play with your food
The Art of Food Carving as collected by Ivan Minic. Some very pretty and intricate stuff to be found here.
If you prefer something larger, there's always watermelon carving.
The Egg Man prefers to carve and sculpt eggshells of different kinds. I'm especially fond of his filigree eggs.
[more inside]
Any of you chaps up for tea & scones? October 21 or 22? [more inside]
October 03, 2007
Flight of the Bumblebee (YouTube videos ahead.) As God intended. On an electric guitar at 201 bpm. On a 7-string bass. On the accordion. On 8 pianos. On the marimba. Played by Europe. Played (in a manner of speaking) by high school students on a banjo, baritone saxophone, an E flat clarinet and an accordion.
SF/Bay Area Meet-uppery Your presence is required in the city of San Francisco, in the county of San Francisco, in the state of California, in the country of United States, on the planet of Earth, third planet from the Sun, which is a yellow dwarf star near the inner rim of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which floats in space somewhere left of Ceti Alpha V. [more inside]
"I am now a heavenly body..." An asteroid is named after the fabulous George Takei. (He just keeps getting more and more awesome -- you Americans should make him your King or something...)
Flesh for Fantasy
The Living Canvas paints patterns of projected light on nude models. (Images obviously NSFW)
Kim Joon fully paints nude models and poses them for some beautiful and amazing photos. (NSFW)
At Flesh and Color, Dewayne Flowers also does photographs of painted nudes, in categories like metallic and skinscapes. (NSFW)
Tatiana Parcero at Cartographies paints old maps and other images with an old world flavor on her models.
Sam Harris Said WHAT? One of the most famous of those danged "atheist thinkers" has some suggestions that Dawkins and Hitchens ain't gonna like... but it gives me some food for thought that's very - chewy. [more inside]
October 02, 2007
First Concert Memories.
What people remember is all the stuff around the concert; begging your mom to let you go, sitting next to intimidating weirdos, rocking your concert T-shirt the next week at school, etc. These are the memories that endure.
From the blue.
Haunting 101
For some, it's not enough to buy a cardboard witch to hang on the door for their spooky holiday decorating. They're coating armatures (and, accidentally, themselves) in monster mud to build the Grim Reaper or a well. They sculpt tombstones and make glowing water (YouTube). My favorite is the flying crank ghost(YouTube).
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October 01, 2007
The Birotron Keyboard
was inspired by the Mellotron but ran via 8-track tape cartridges. The story of it's creation on the cusp of electronica is a great read. And there's a famous musician in it, too. (Not the keyboard.)
via, as usual, The Blueotron
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain in their rendition of Wuthering Heights (yootoob) [more inside]
Madman Bush 'Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing'
Seymour Hersh: The Surge means basically that, in some way, the president has accepted ethnic cleansing, whether he's talking about it or not. When he first announced the Surge in January, he described it as a way to bring the parties together. He's not saying that any more. I think he now understands that ethnic cleansing is what is going to happen. You're going to have a Kurdistan. You're going to have a Sunni area that we're going to have to support forever. And you're going to have the Shiites in the South.
Miss Moneypenny dead. So long, Lois Maxwell.
Historic squee as the Zoological Society of London puts its photo archives online.
Learn Chinese through pop music! Or the BBC, if that's more your cuppa. Or the very imaginatively named Free Chinese Lessons. [more inside]
Welcome to the Monkeysphere The old "One death is a tragedy; One million deaths is a statistic" quote explained in practical terms by a humor website... with monkeys. Gotta love it. (You have no choice)
Gothtober The Gothtober Countdown Calendar is a curated time-release flash-based online museum of 31 works of art by 31 different artists. The official run of the show is from October 1st to the 31st, a new piece being revealed with each day of the month. [more inside]
Radiohead to release 7th album. In ten days. As a download. For any price you like. [more inside]
You Convert It
is a nifty little tool that lets you convert Documents, Images, Audio, Video, and of course Units into other forms. I find this really useful.
(I searched, please don't let this be a double.)
