Ridonculous Thursday, September 25, 2008

This makes me think of some special people out there. You know who you are.

Face punches!

A Truly Useful Mapping Tool Wednesday, September 10, 2008

As any kid who grew up in the US knows, if you were to dig a hole and not stop digging until you reached the other side of the planet, you'd end up in China or Australia, right? Well now you can find out just how wrong you were! This is off the charts for sheer awesomeness: an interactive mapping tool for finding antipodes – that is, for finding exactly where you'd end up if you dug a tunnel to the other side of the planet from a given spot. I found it via a Discover magazine article.

And you know what? Funny... not a single spot in the lower 48 states is directly opposite any major land mass at all. Okay, that's not 100% true... a spot in northern Montana maps to a small island near Antarctica, but that's it for the continental US. Northern Alaska maps to the edge of Antarctica and a tunnel dug in Bermuda would land you just off the coast of Perth. In order to get to China, apparently you'd have to start in Argentina.

But interestingly enough, a tunnel dug in Madrid would put you right in a hamlet called Weber, New Zealand. And Weber is right near a hill named Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu, which translates roughly as "The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one".

Now you know.

A is for Apathy Monday, August 25, 2008

You might call it the alphabet for the apathetic, cool art from an angsty college student at Head Injury Theater.

• A is for Apathy, the Fire Burns Low
• B is for Burnout. Four years of this?
• C is for Computer. A thing of evil.
• D is for Day Job, Distraction and Depression.
• E is for Emo Drama. No one loves me.
• F is for Fans who scare me sometimes.
• G is Girls. Curse their curves.
• H is for Hysteria.
• I is for Inbox which scares me into seclusion.
• J is for Jared. I am my own enemy.
• K is for Krull. I am the chosen one.
• L is for Lazy.
• M is for Malignant; my tumor's name is Steve.
• N is for Neurosis. You'll never find me.
• O is for the Others. Their weird, but they have a great dental plan.
• P is for Prison (and a Pretty mouth).
• Q is for Quitting.
• R is for Routine. R is for Routine. R is for Routine...
• S is for Sex. Yes, please!
• T is for Thetans. The Scientologists are gonna get me.
• U is for Unemployment. "Spare some change?"
• V is for Vacation. Again, you'll never find me.
• W is for Warcraft. A lifetime lost to digital fish.
• X is for Xanax. And drinks make me forget.
• Y is for Ye Olde Website, why can't I be digital?
• Z is for Zombie Jesus. Five years ago I felt original.

His art reminds me a bit of one of my all-time favorite comic artists, Bill Sienkiewicz - perhaps it's the fact that he's not afraid to splatter the ink. Sienkiewicz's Elektra: Assassin blew my mind in high school. "Remember, America. Not wind like a watch, but Wind, like the air..." Perhaps a full post on Elektra: Assassin is in order...

Infernal Sculpture Monday, August 11, 2008

Awesome work; the stuff looks very wet and organic. Check out Mark Powell: Sculptures from Beyond the Gate., but be forewarned: eew, eew, EEW.

Markus Neidel: Way of the Sheep Monday, July 28, 2008

Markus Neidel: Way of the Sheep evokes a surreal blend of horror and joy. What's especially intriguing about this virtual painting is the way that it takes unique advantage of being run on a computer in order to produce a seamless and infinitely scrolling nightmarescape.

The sheep that you count as you drift off to sleep fall into the dreamworld. They tumble past the guardian rats into a dark metal pipe, where a robot then shears the wool from them, creating piles of fluffy clouds on the left and pink pigs on the right. From there, a grinning confectioner pours piggy pink coloring into a vat with the fleece to whip up and sell as phantasmagorial cotton candy to troglodytic children for a dollar. The happy children tumble obliviously into the lair of the insects that drain the pink sweetness from their brains and grow their own, new, white fuzz on their bloated abdomens, which is sheared and knitted by a massive machine back into the sheep that you count as you drift off to sleep....

The First Rule of Chessboxing Sunday, July 06, 2008

...is that you do not talk about Chessboxing.

You play chess with timed moves for four minutes, then box three minutes, then sit back down, and continue your game. There are six rounds of chess and five rounds in the ring, but you can win early with a knockout or checkmate.

This has got to be one of the greatest ideas ever. I love the idea that you have to best your opponent both physically and mentally. Winning that match must be thoroughly satisfying. Concentrating on chess after being smacked in the head many times can't be easy.

The loser said he was simply too punch drunk to fend off checkmate.

"I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That's why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king," he said.

We may have finally found the definitive way to separate the weak from the strong.

Telly Without Context Tuesday, June 24, 2008

You need to watch Neave Television so you can see the man with the musical suit, a woman playing an organ, HAL asking for his wife to use your toilet. And stuff.

Click to surf.

Amazing Quadrupedal Robot Wednesday, March 19, 2008

I just found the most amazing video of robot locomotion you have ever seen. It's called "BigDog" and it's a four-legged machine developed by Boston Dynamics, with funding from DARPA. It negotiates slippery and uneven surfaces, even jumps over obstacles, moving in such a lifelike way that you have to see it to believe it. Watch.

Bathroom Cyborg Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Via the Dilbert Blog: CNN reports that a woman's agoraphobia caused her to sit on a toilet for 2 years, resulting in her ass fusing to the toilet seat. Literally.

It's a Bird... It's a Plane... Sunday, March 02, 2008

...it's a geostationary banana over Texas!

Cereal Killers Thursday, February 28, 2008

Awesome breakfast boxes: Cereal Killers.

Hulking Out Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Here is a list of every reason Dr. David Banner ever became The Incredible Hulk on the classic T.V. show. Some highlights:

• #47: Being stuck in a cab in New York rush hour traffic - "You don't understand, I have to be there by 4:00!" - "Hey, mac, it's rush hour, we ain't gettin' there til five, so relax." - "BUT I HAVE TO BE THERE BY FOUR!!!"
• #17: Receiving a lethal injection, and then having the person say, "Oh. I just gave you a lethal injection. Sorry, David."
• #20: Dealing with a pesky operator in a phone booth ("I DON'T HAVE TWENTY-FIVE CENTS!!!")
• #106: Being fed poisoned sushi

My dad used to tell us that he was the Hulk. I never saw him turn green, but I can attest to him having anger management issues. Poisoned sushi woulda really pissed him off, too.

Now Those are Some Impressive Moustaches Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Here is a fine sampling of content from the aptly-named blog, Mustaches of the Nineteenth Century. Modern mustaches like The Silver Cthulhu and El Bigote con Estilo are impressive, but The One True Moustache of Baron Munchausen remains the Holy Grail of the Philtrum.

There's a Doggie In My Monitor Saturday, January 12, 2008

There's a doggie in my monitor! Via the del.icio.us hotlist.

It Found its Mark Eventually Wednesday, January 02, 2008

From a list of incredible coincidences, this one is mind-blowing:

In 1883, Henry Ziegland broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl's enraged brother hunted down Ziegland and shot him. Believing he had killed Ziegland, the brother then took his own life. In fact, however, Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet had only grazed his face, lodging into a tree. It was a narrow escape. Years later, Ziegland decided to cut down the same tree, which still had the bullet in it. The huge tree seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland's head, killing him.

The story is retold here, in a list of other unusual deaths.

Jesse Jubilee James Thursday, November 29, 2007

"The Life and Death of Jesse James" is downright fascinating reading, a twisted tale of Internet love gone horribly wrong.

Obviously Right-Brained Thursday, November 08, 2007

This clever little animation is making its rounds at my job, so I figured I'd share. It's an animation of a dancer spinning, and according to the article some people see it spinning clockwise, and others counter-clockwise, and this is supposed to tell you whether you're right-brained or left-brained.

That's what they claim, but to be honest, this looks to me like it's obviously spinning clockwise. Most optical illusions will shift if you concentrate or look at it askance, but not this one. The woman is absolutely and only spinning clockwise.

Anyone who says differently is a left-brained communist.