a very serious picture

The Snuggie Sutra

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(1)

Chikan Beware

I just found out about this. A Chikan is a man who gropes women on packed subway cars in japan. It has become such a problem there, that they have implemented women only subway cars to prevent this.

(5)

Sweet Tyson 0

Tarkus

0

Original Gangsta

0

It’s this dude’s birthday today.

Party!

(3)

Who My

This is from terrysdiary.

(2)

Silicon Parts are Made for Toys

I googled the word “outstanding” and found this T-shirt. It is real and you can buy it here. There are many interesting things in this store.

(2)

Double Donut…

…eye therapy mask smoothes out tired lines with chocolate and Jojoba  butter.

Jahjah powered.

(3)

LOST Showdowns

I’m finally wrapping up 6 seasons of LOST in just about 6 months and I’m really stoked about finally seeing the last episode (It’s so hard to post/read about this show online and not spoil the ending). This image shows some of the series’ most memorable moments, but it’s really lacking some more Sayid and Linus.

0

Volcano Eruption Odds

This is a photo of people daring enough to look into the eyes of the Pacaya volcano in Guatemala.

This is Paddy Power, a betting site that is taking odds on which volcano will erupt next.

0

Duck Leggings

When did Donald Duck start wearing leggings? (thanks jah jah sphinx)

(4)

T&C Surf Shop Characters

When I was in 4th grade I loved these characters and wore all the T&C  shirts I could get my hands on, but then I also let the drummer from Vicious Midgets shave lines into the back of my head.

From JahJah

(1)

Handerpants

I found this courtesy of thejailbreak.com.

There’s even a handerpants ringtone.

0

The Original Inception

from boingboing

(1)

Crash Landing

photo by Scott Baxter but I got it from “fuck yeah dioramas“

0

Charles Manson Will Be Towed

Jason pointed this out to me.  I tried explaining it to my coworkers on my first week at my job but they weren’t familiar with the Life magazine cover and thought I was nuts.  Every time I see one of these I think Manson is staring at me and talking like the intro to this.

(2)

Yo Cobb!

This one is for anyone who saw Inception. What’d you guys think of it? Worth the hype?

I’d definitely like to see it again to understand some of the scenes a bit more, but overall I really enjoyed it

(2)

The Ruins of Detroit

This is just one of many amazing images from this book  from Steidl.

(5)

The Super Secret Breakfast Club

Is a group of artists who steal breakfast from bad-guys and re-appropriate it for the good of the people.

thank you Jahjahsphinx

(9)

Chewbacca Riding A Giant Squirrel Fighting Nazis.

Maybe this was WWII in an alternate universe?

I got this picture from Geekology.

(4)

The Neanderthal Man

(3)

The Breakfast Club

This is one of several comic book hero album remixes.

(1)

Expensive Beer in Roadkill Clothing

You can buy this 55% alcohol blond Belgian beer if you have between $650 & $900 laying around. I found  this stuff Here.

(8)

Pigeon on Pigeon

I don’t know where Jason found this, but he did.

(3)

Discovery Channel Building

Shark week is upon us!

Photo courtesy of jackcousteau.

(1)

Personal Table Tap

So yea, they have these everywhere in Ireland. Only ones I saw were Guinness and Carlsberg, but that suits me just fine. Every table has a little digital screen displaying how many “milipints” (or whatever) I would continually pull .99 pints. If these ever make it stateside they should also come with breathalyzers attached. More Photos.

(3)

A Poil

You are welcome! (thx to renartleville)

(3)

If Charles Schultz had been Born in Japan…

I find this clever, but is it just me or is the long black tuft of hair hanging off Charlie B’s head totally gross?

I found this in the archives at www.threedonia.com.

(4)

99 Accessories

Married to the Sea

(2)

West Side Story Muppet

Mr. Popular drew this. I like the scar, it really seals the deal for me.

(1)

What is the deal with WERE-creatures?! 0

The Story

This is mystifying to me.  What’s the story?

(8)

Hot Dog

Cuuuuute!

(6)

Hieronymus Bosch Action Figures!

Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych titled The Garden of Earthly Delights has long been one of my very favorite works of art. I had no idea someone made action figures based on these paintings (I am usually the last to know about anything cool.) I am at once totally stoked and disappointed with myself for not thinking of this first.

HEADFOOTER
On the foreground of the shocking central panel stands a creature characteristic of Bosch’s work, consisting of only one head on two feet. His anatomical imperfections are covered by a headscarf. The painter has embroidered upon a classical Greek form in his own distinctive way. In ancient times, omitting body parts was also considered frightening. The character, amusing to us, seems to be taking a carefree stroll through the bloody scene of the Last Judgement.

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(1)

Russian warship makes rare S.F. appearance

I like the story that goes with these photos. I am also fond of the “Relation Cabin” that is on board the ship (photo after jump.)

(more…)

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Cute couple.

(1)

Fun with foreign signs

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Poke Face

OK SO – I thought I made up “You can’t read my Poke face” sung to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face”. But it looks like someone beat me to making a cute little pic of it…

Taken from jah jah sphinx (Sometimes NSFW)

0

Hats of Meat

Am I the last one to see this?! Why haven’t I heard of this sooner? Why do I love it so much??!!

(3)

Kubb

This game is really fun.

(3)

Minimalist TV Show Posters

I recently moved into my own place for the first time, so right now my priority is decorating my walls. I’ve recently found these posters, and I really hope I can get the Dexter poster someday. I think they’re super clever, and you have to be a fan of the show to get a lot of them.

See more here and here.

(2)

World Cup

This is what all the world cup balls throughout history look like.

(2)

MicroJoule

This car gets 8,923 miles per gallon.

Remind me again why we aren’t exploring something like this being more of the norm? Oh that’s right….gotta have room for all those in-car DVD players with video games.

(2)

Trompe l’oeil

A mural entitled Art Imitating Life Imitating Art Imitating Life, at the Cafe Trompe L’oeil, in San Jose, California
I found this here.

Also, here’s the artist’s website.

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Who wants one?

I’m a sucker for Apple products and I’m probably going to be picking up a black one.

(15)

It’s curtains for you…bacon curtains

This photo is from thisiswhyyourefat, which sadly is now defunct.

(8)

How I Feel

I ate a lot of BBQ this weekend: Ribs, Chicken, Tri-Tip, Linguica, Rib-Eye, Filet Mignon, Sweet Breads.

Here are more great Anti Ad campaign images.

(4)

Guatemala Sinkhole!

This giant sinkhole appeared in Guatemala City over the weekend. It’s crazy.

There’s another pic at nationalgeographic.com that compares the depth and width of the hole to the Statue of Liberty. It’s crazy.

[click on the image to make it bigger. it's crazy.]

(4)

Tiny Dancer

Chip was always jealous of his brother Dale for getting to wear the breakaway shirt.

(2)

If I were President

Thanks Jason for bringing this to my attention.

More Consoles Here

(1)

Alternate world

I have recently really gotten into a show called Fringe. I just watched the season two finale last night on Hulu (thus I am a few days behind the times – some folks have already seen this, I’m sure.)

Anyway – in the season finale, we are giving a thorough look into an alternate version of our world, which is very much like our own, just different in some aspects.
One of these differences is The Red Lantern:

Image courtesy Comic Book Movie Fansites

0

Tribal Pathways

(4)

Falling asleep in odd places…

Of all the little fuzzies in the Animal Kingdom, I think cats rule supreme in the category of falling asleep in funny places.

Exhibit A:

Exhibits B-D after the jump. (more…)

(6)

Time Travel

I’ve been watching the new Dr. Who series, usually right before bedtime, and it has been prompting some awesome time travel dreams. What do you think of time travel? Do you find this explanation satisfactory? What do you think the effects of time travel would be on a person? I wonder if they would look haggard after many time travelling journeys.

(4)

Hammertime

Photo courtesy of jackcousteau.

(4)

Is this fun?

I came across this photo and it kind of blew my mind. What do you guys think he is doing? Is it fun? Are those Teva’s or off-brand mandals?

(9)

Galvanizing Nails

Photo courtesy of JahJahsphinx

(10)

Hugs

Go hug your friends today and tell them how much they mean to you. It will feel good.

(13)

R.I.P. Frank Frazetta

Painter/illustrator Frank Frazetta died last night. He ruled.

This pic was the cover of a book from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series, which I read as a kid (and which is being adapted into a film scheduled for 2012 release).

Here’s his L.A. Times obituary in which director Guillermo del Toro and other luminaries give him praise.

(8)

Boldly Going

This is one of many entertaining clapperboard photos from Star Trek.

photo and Link courtesy of jackcousteau

(3)

1942 in Color (Library of Congress)

These vivid color photos from the Great Depression and World War II capture an era generally seen only in black-and-white. Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944. Most of these photos were taken in October of 1942 at Douglas Aircraft Company plant, Long Beach, California. The exception is the final shot of the woman working on electrical wiring. This was taken at Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, California, June 1942.

(more…)

(4)

Comfortable Behind Bars

This photo was taken at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. It always reminds me of that one scene from Back to the Future when “Calvin Klein” meets his future convict uncle in his crib.

(3)

Modern Toilet Restaurant

This is a Restaurant in Taipei: LINK

(4)

Attention Birdwatchers

This is the Eye to Eye Wearable Hummingbird Feeder by Heatstick.

More information here.

(4)

Fresh Out the Oven

On days like today (cold, rainy and windy) I like to bake myself some warm fresh out the oven slippers. Is there anything cozier sounding on a stormy day?

(4)

Deep Fried Pepsi?!

They are really going overboard with the whole frying thing these days. What’s next, deep fried sno-cones?

(10)

Time Traveling Hipster

This is an image from an online Canadian museum. Many Interneters are speculating that the man in the fly stunner shades is a time traveler, however, I just think he’s some sort of welder. Here is the article.

(6)

Polaroid Project

Husband and wife power couple team Jeremy and Claire Weiss of Los Angeles have an on going photo collection called “The Polaroid Project.”  The idea of this unending project is to capture an image of interesting people that come in and out of their life through their work as professional photographers. They use a very old and fancy polaroid camera to take these pics.  There are photos of celebrities, musicians, artists, politicians and other people who work in the arts. You can check it out here.

(2)

Zero Yen House

Many homeless in Japan have created amazing mobile living conditions which utilize solar power.  Go to Zero Yen House to find out more about these amazing constructs.

(3)

Lost Camera

I would like to think most people would return his camera…even if they intentionally stole it.

Click to see the whole picture. It’s pretty big.

(5)

Things not to Juggle

So yea, I nearly chopped off my finger trying to juggle this meat cleaver the other night.  I went to St. Mary’s emergency room and they did a splendid job stitching me up in no time. I don’t think I will try juggling any time soon, at least not with something so very serious.

(11)

Popeye Squirt Gun

This squirt gun is from the 60′s and reminded me of all the other weird squirt guns shaped like animals and cartoon characters from my youth that really didn’t make much sense being turned into a gun.  Any guesses as to where the water plug is on this model?

For those wanting to cut to the chase without a guess, here you go.

photo courtesy of neatorama

(1)

9/11 Have you forgotten?

I personally haven’t forgotten, but this fella is sure to never forget.  How do you think he does with the ladies (or men if he happens to swing that way)?

(6)

Sorry sir, not enough postage on this to get it to Ubu Dhabi…

Description: This city letter carrier posed for a humorous photograph with a young boy in his mailbag. After parcel post service was introduced in 1913, at least two children were sent by the service. With stamps attached to their clothing, the children rode with railway and city carriers to their destination. The Postmaster General quickly issued a regulation forbidding the sending of children in the mail after hearing of those examples.

Creator/Photographer: Unidentified photographer
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Culture: American
Geography: USA
Date: 1900′s
Collection: U.S. Postal Employees
Persistent URL: http://photography.si.edu/SearchImage.aspx?t=5&id=2001&q=A.2006-22
Repository: National Postal Museum

(4)

Another one bites the dust

(6)

Git R Done

Courtesy of cakewrecks.

(3)

Yeah! Wait…

So, I was absent mindedly looking at old sourpuss posts and I found this one which sort of resonated with me:

I wonder what their startup scene is like.

(1)

Illusionist, escape artist, politician

Doug Henning was a Canadian magician, illusionist, escape artist and politician. There are more awesome pics after the jump.
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(2)

Magic Mushrooms…

typically grow in shit, and these here are no exception. These little gems are scattered throughout the city and when I’m feeling downtrodden and tired and in shoe-gazer mode these little guys always catch my eye and remind me that sometimes beauty is all around us…even in the shit.

(4)

Sanitized tapeworms, jar packed

“No ill effects!” Brought to you by Friends For A Fair Form.

(3)

Toes on the Nose

About four or five years ago I had this excellent/bogus idea that it would be really funny to have a pair of shoes that had feet painted on them, so that when I was skateboarding around town it would seem as if I was barefoot.  I guess other people thought it would be a good idea also and have gone one step further with zombie feet.

(4)

A state of Anti-Grace

A follow up to Nick-One-Million’s post a couple weeks back.

(7)

Secret Agents

These people are suspected of recently assassinating a Hamas operative in a hotel in Dubai. They’re secret agents, like the guys who the movie Munich is about. The photos– released to the international press by Dubai police– are from the suspects’ fake passports.

Here’s the news story.

[click on the image to make it bigger]

(3)

Another reason to feel weird about Tom Cruise

If Scientology and jumping on Oprah’s couch weren’t enough, his uppers are a full tooth off center. WEIRD.

(10)

Scrooge Mcduck

I really admire this guy.

(12)

The Brotherhood of the Balancing Pants

(2)

Trading Places

My friend J. Mann just sent me this.  He’s going to set up a page full of pictures.  I told him he could just use veryserious but he wants his own, what should he call it?

On a related note, what do you all think of the movie Trading Places?

My favorite scene is the one where Louis reaches his nadir and dons a Santa suit.

(10)

Last Supper

This photograph is a recreation of an actual last meal requested by an inmate on death row by James Reynolds. There are several others, all very interesting, if not bizarre.

Big Ups to jackcousteau.com for bringing this artist to my attention.

(12)

Olympic Fever, Aboriginal Style!

Is it me or is Ice Dancing absurd?

(23)

This Guy Rules

Evan Lysacek brought home the men’s figure skating gold for the U.S. last night. And he did it while being attacked by glittery snakes.

See how it’s done here.

(6)

State of Grace

Grace Jones was good friends with Arnold Schwarzenegger during the 80′s. Also, this image is an illusion, the pose was impossible for Grace to achieve on her own. I guess it’s some kink of ballet pose. I think it’s an awesome album cover.  She was great in Conan the Destroyer.

(9)

Garfield Minus Garfield

You can find more G-G comics here.

(13)

Derp.

(more…)

(6)

Carnaval de Mazatlán Tradicional

I can’t remember when this picture of these lovely ladies was taken – but it is from a trad, early Carnaval celebration in Mazatlán, Mexico.
(more…)

(2)

Japanese Neon Fights

I just discovered this the other day, although I’m sure it’s been around for a hot minute.  Basically it involves two guys laying into one another with clusters of neon lights. Leave it to the Japanese to take an idea made up by bored warehouse workers to the above level of goriness. Video Here

(6)

Another unrelated [wth] photo…

Not sure what these dudes are trying to get this poor mule to do, but something tells me it doesn’t like water. Or naked dudes.

(4)

Nightmare Bag

picture is unrelated has lots of other cool stuff to look at

(6)

Meiolania

My uncle collects scientific books and I remember him showing me stuff like this pic by Heinrich Harder of a prehistoric giant turtle called Meiolania.  He has all kinds of art here.  I’m used to seeing this sort of thing fighting jungle girls and Tarzans.  If we could bring back extinct animals from the past, you think we should start with these turtles?

(3)

Alcohol Belts of Europe

This is a map of the three alcoholic consumption belts in Europe, from strange maps (there’s a very detailed explanation there including some Roman history talk).     Red is for wine, beige is for beer and blue is for distilled spirits.  I know reality is more complicated than this and that they make beer in Italy, but the whole point of a map is to make reality simple enough to understand.  What would a map like this of North America show?  Are we roughly the same or would there be a breakdown between Canada, US and Mexico?  Would the US itself be monolithic or do different regions have radically different consumption patterns?

(3)

Next big thing?

I’m sure you guys were bombarded with the iPad last week, so here it is again. Aside from being a really neat ebook reader and video player, I can’t see this thing being too practical. But maybe that’s all Apple really intended it to excel in?

(9)

Official BIGFOOT Facts & Photos

Oh yes I did. I’ve posted the official booklet of facts & figures on the BIGFOOT Monster Truck (4x4x4).

Read the whole book after the jump (Bonus stickers at the end – Ooohh Yeahhhh)!

I Found this here.

(more…)

(9)

Secret Lair

This is the secret pyramid base of a guy who hates King Kong, I got it from J. Mann who got it here.  Why does the base have to be secret?  Just so King-Kong won’t find it?

(6)

Give me the gold I want the gold

This is a guy touching the world’s largest gold brick in Taipei.  I got it from the “big picture” where there are 30+ more pics about gold, the best (besides this one) being pic #5 where someone is about to eat gold leaf with sushi.

In the sake of full disclosure I should say that I have some gold pieces in a safe deposit box for when the end of the world comes.  I also have a removable gold front and a couple of fillings in my mouth.  I don’t think gold is worth even 1/4 of what it costs.  Am I crazy to own any?  Do you like gold?  Do you own any?

(11)

More Sexy Star Wars

Wookiee what I have here.

(15)

Some one sent me this and I thought it was great.

(6)

DIY Crossbow

You too can protect your home and loved ones with a few simple items you may have laying around the house. Click here for full directions. Someone has to let me know if this works.

(3)

Andy Dick’s Mugshot

Andy Dick was arrested for two counts of felony sexual abuse. Smile!

Check out the full story here.

(11)

The Hook-Up List

It’s clear this has made its rounds online to some degree already.

Chris’s sister Katie narcs him out to their parents for having beer in his room, so he steals her “hook-up list” and publishes it on Facebook. Key components include the April deadline, the “titty-bang” from Laird and Brian cutting his hair.

I first saw this at sojones.com but it looks like they got it from lolfbmoments.com.

Click on the image to see it bigger.

(7)

[Some] Very Serious Graphs

Today I bring you interesting graphs, some are real and full of good info, some are funny and some are just plain silly. Enjoy!

Because it feels like a Freaky Friday. (For some reason that graph kills me!)

There are many more (read:ones you’ll probably find funnier) after the break!
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(8)

Kitty Glitter Slots

Quite possibly the best slot machine I’ve ever come across was at the airport in Reno, NV over the weekend.  Top this one Vegas!

(5)

Storm Hooters

This photo is very conflicting for me. On one hand I like boobs, but on the other hand, storm troopers work for the dark side.  Maybe they just trying to make some space scrilla. I might work for the dark side, if it had job security and payed well.

photo courtesy of jackcousteau.com

(7)

Gloom Dogs

This weekend I was introduced to Gloom Dogs. Gloom Dogs are a creation of the Deviant Art community and I’m guessing that they’re closely related to the furry subculture because they seem to be types of alternate personas, also know as “fursonas.” This Gloom Dog is called “Threnody” and “has no heart, but isn’t sure why.” It also likes fishnet, jelly braces, and exposed rib cages. (more…)

(4)

¡Happy MLK Day, Americans!

I really like the looks on everyone’s faces. What do you think they are thinking? There is definitely a whole lot of love in the room.

(4)

Hippo Birthday Party

I don’t see how people can go around complaining about goats when hippos are way worse and kill people all the time.  I took this pic from jah jah sphinx

(5)

Has the energy craze gone too far? Part 3 in a series. (1)

San Francisco Made of Jell-O

Liz Hickok builds San Francisco out of Jello. See more photos here and here or clock here for her website.

0

Sorry about the delay…here are some unexplainable pics!

(more…)

(4)

to Slayer?

This picture is from Regretsy.

0

Happy New Year! Happy New Goals!

I found this here.
(more…)

0

Cat Resuscitation

This is from an old veterinary book, is this still common practice?

(pic from armagideon time)

(1)

Gettin’ busy on the train.

(4)

Nothing Really Mattress

this was sent to me by Hadas

(1)

Cake ‘n Bells

(1)

Thom Puckey

Check out more of his sculptures here.

0

Birth

Stefan sent this to me a while ago and I meant to post it before Halloween.  Would it be obvious what the costume was if the wearer was walking around instead of upside down?  Also what’s with the socks?

(4)

Buh

(5)

Nintendo Power Glove Handjob

I don’t remember this product whatsoever. I dunno, I had a SEGA Genesis.

This image came from Geekologie.

(7)

Wall of Sound

Just in time for Christmas. Pick one up for all of the aspiring Marty McFlys in your life. I pod compatible!

(4)

7 Ways to Kill an Idea by Scott Campbell

Click image to see it bigger!

(1)

Mr. Rogers deep in thought.

I really like this photo of Mr. Rogers.  The composition is great, and his expression is contemplative and wise.  What do you think is on his mind?

(5)

Jesu-chu

And Mary and Joseph bore a son, and this son was a very special son, whom wise men came to visit from afar, to bring gifts and love. This very special son was…a Pokémon.

Happy Holidays!

I found this at Destructoid.

(5)

Saturn’s Hexagon

WTF, right? Stunning. Much like how Jupiter’s iconic red blush is actually massive violent storms raging in the gas giant, Saturn hexagonal feature at it’s north pole is thought to be weather currents. It hasn’t been seen in 30 years since the voyager mission, since the pole has been in darkness for all that time. With Saturn’s orbit being long, it’s “nights” can last for decades.  Thanks to the Cassini mission, we have another view of this amazing feature of our planetary system. More about it here from NASA.

(1)

Nails Did or Nails Did Not?

Via :  jahjahsphinx

(4)

Maybe now I’ll like Star Wars.

So I’m not really into Star Wars. I’ve tried on many occasions to really care about the series, but I just can’t. However, if this movie was ever made I would be at the nearest theatre in a heartbeat.

I wonder what a zombie Jabba the Hut would look like.

0

Umm? They may have wanted to rethink this one.

Apparently this was a logo used by the Catholic Church for the Archdiocesan Youth Commission in 1975.  Amazing.

(2)

all the colors of the ant rainbow

Scientists dab ants with color markers to identify who is who. (more…)

(1)

All Time Favorite

If you aren’t familiar with his early works, I highly recommend his first album Let’s Get Small, especially his bit concerning “Stanley sockets… not sprockets” for the plumbers in the audience.

Photo courtesy of jackcousteau.com

(7)

Honor Code

Brought to my attention by Joe:

from: topcultured

Is this real?

(3)

Evolution of storage.

My coworker and I were just discussing this sort of thing last week. We were talking about having to back up files on a ton of floppy discs back in the day and how much it sucked. Hooray for technology! Click the picture to make it super big.

(2)

St. Louis Style

St. Louis style pizza and other things by Zettwoch.  Is that real?  Never mind the brain sandwich, the pizza would be hard for me to take.  What’s wrong with StL?

(2)

Dubai, aka The Future

(4)

Are Richard Dawkins and Emma Watson the same person?

Is everyones favorite atheist Dr. Richard Dawkins and Harry Potter’s buddy Emma Watson in fact the same person?

(7)

Chia Obama

The creators of Chia Pets have added the Chia Obama to their catalog of collectible chia figurines. I’m sure some people will find something offensive about this but I just find it pretty silly. Green afro!

(1)

Make Money McDuck-Yeah Yeah Baby Yeah

I can’t explain this or any of the other odd little images on this page.

All I know is that This Scrooge McDuck pic popped up in my “baby duck fail” google image search

La la la la la Happy Friday!!!

(1)

Dino-Love

Tyrannosaurus skeleton casts mounted in a mating position, Jurassic Museum of Asturias. I’m immature, I can’t help but giggle.

(8)

Happy Friday Little Dudebaby!

Have a great weekend!
Stay cool, stay healthy!

(2)

Boobs in Nature

These mushrooms are one in this series of images of things that look like boobs….in nature. ENJOY.

0

FloH Club

I ran across this the other day.  I thought it just a site for old people to get their computer working properly, but then I learned it was a site set up (or for her, b/c old people don’t know how to use computers) by Flo Henderson to help other old people use computers.

This got me thinking, is there so much different technology out there that people new to it have a hard time learning to use it?  I think the most user friendly thing out there is the iphone but then again my dad didn’t know how to set up an itunes account and get all the apps, I had to do it for him.  Even now, he still calls me and asks me how to do things, although I don’t even have the phone. (more…)

(1)

Life after Punk Rock?

[click on image to see it bigger]

(7)

Bare Bear

This bear, along with all the other female bears at a certain German zoo, have lost their fur unexpectedly and look like elephants without it. German zoo workers are baffled as to why this happened but are guessing it has to do with a genetic defect.

Click the read more button to see what this species of bear is supposed to look like with a full coat.

(more…)

(7)

Is it me……

….or does the right photo of The Leaning Tower of Pisa look like it’s leaning more? Apparently these photos are identical.

(10)

Happy Friday, Little Dude!

“I’m like ‘So what, I’m drunk!’

It’s the freakin’ weekend, baby I’m about to have me some fun!”

Toot! Toot! Beep! Beep!

(10)

I kind of love arnold

(3)

Lamebook.com

Check out more of these gems here: www.lamebook.com

0

Happy Halloween!

Have a happy Halloween tomorrow night kiddies!

And remember, it’s probably best to stay away from dudes that look like this. Kisses & candy!

Because I love this day so much….more pictures after the jump!
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wedding cake fun

i am getting married just to have this cake. Yes, it’s a CLASSIC, and if you dont know, now you know. More dorky goodness after the break:

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Colonel sneaks into UN

A look-a-like of Colonel Sanders snuck into the UN to restricted areas on Tuesday.  He managed to get a photo with General Assembly president, Dr. Ali A. Treki of Libya and under the giant UN logo.

The look-a-like was from KFC in order to market it’s new grilled chicken, proclaiming things like “It’s a Grill Nation!” to cameras. After that, the UN camera crews reported him to security who eventually escorted him away.

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No Bammer for Obama

I was hoping to post this photo last week in support of the victory by 13 US states to “legalize it.”

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Are you trying to tell me I can’t bring my swastika, my bullhorn, or my broken wine glass?!

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25 defaced bills.

I’m really bummed that I’ve never stumbled across anything as cool as this when getting change back. How legal is this anyway?

Click here for the rest of them.

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Fun with Minimalism

I am a huge fan of the clean lines and waste adverse school of minimalism, but this product from the swiss blows my mind. It’s a nativity scene….it needs two pics to show it’s brilliance and hilarity (2nd picture after the break). :

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Organic Michael Jackson

With the passing of M.J. it’s only right that we honor his life with an organic hand made cat nip toy made out of recycled materials.

“This Michael Jackson catnip toy has a cute little Michael on one side, and adult Michael on the other.”

By the way, the item sold out on Tuesday.

To check out their other sweet handmade items go to http://www.regretsy.com/

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Scary Food

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Thanks to “foundshit.com” for linking to this post and validating our existence!

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I couldn’t resist.

This pic was so great I had to put it up. You get two pics this week! No explanation, just saw it and thought it was amazing. I am not even gonna google him, I want it to remain a mystery.

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Hot Dog

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Lion Attacks Water Buffalo in Traffic

I think the title pretty much says it all, story and more pics here.

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Craig from Australia

I love this guy Craig. He puts up flyers all over Melbourne Australia asking people if they are into the things he is into, and if so to meet him at a certain time of day. He is into some awesome stuff.  To see a photo gallery of his flyers go here: http://www.theage.com.au/photogallery/2009/03/11/1236447289349.html

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It’s the thought that counts.

Every year Neiman Marcus releases their Christmas book, full of ideas for everyone on your list. They have a section called “fantasy gifts” for those who have nothing better to do with their money during our economic crisis. One of the items in this years book is the ICON A5 sports aircraft. Here are it’s features.

1) An amphibious hull and landing gear to take off and land just as easily on water as on land. 2) The ability to run on automotive gasoline or aviation fuel. 3) A sexy, streamlined two-seat interior with intuitive controls, including 4) FAA-approved flight instrumentation and 5) a state-of-the-art GPS system, so you don’t get lost. 6) A range of 345 land miles or 300 nautical miles. 7) A next-generation lightweight carbon fiber frame. Spy-movie wings that rotate up and fold back out of the way. 9) Removable side windows to dangle your arms out into the wind and sun. 10) A custom, high-tech trailer for fast and easy loading and unloading from land or water. (more…)

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Navel fluff collection

This is the world’s biggest collection of one person’s navel fluff (lint), as certified by Guinness World Records.

Gross, right? I found it here.

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Hundreds makes 1

Korean artist Gwon Osang makes his art from hundreds of pictures that he takes to make one whole 3-D sculpture.

This was one of the coolest pictures I found.  Check out more of his stuff here:

http://www.thisblogrules.com/2009/10/hundreds-of-photographs-make-up-one-3d.html

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Bugs i can love

Dead and anthropomorphized. More images of bugs being people from this artist are here. Very funny.

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So my friend Neil messaged me and sent this pic with no explanation and then just signed off. Neil is awesome.

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“Someday my prince will come…”

Those sweet innocent lyrics that Snow White once sang just don’t seem so innocent after seeing these drawings. An artist by the name of David Kawena has taken it upon himself to reinvent some of Disney’s leading men.  Once again the internet has ruined my childhood and left me deeply disturbed. You can see more of Aladdin and his friends here, and see the artists page here but you will have to dig around more to find them.

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Mooving protest

In this picture, milk farmers in Europe protest the low cost of milk by taking their product to riot police.

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No One Ever Called Pablo Picasso …

“Good artists copy, great artists steal.” I guess that is true with all of the light graffiti that is circulating around the interblasts. These photos are the result of Picasso being inspired by photos of ice skaters with lights affixed to their skates, which were shown to him by Life photographer Gjon Mili. Photo credits also to Gjon Mili, 1949. Click to enlarge.

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Unicorn Costume

Nuff Said.

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Kazuki Takamatsu

When I first saw these images I thought they were some sort of  3D paper art, but they are actually paintings by Kazuki Takamatsu. His website is in Japanese but the navigation is in English for the most part. You can also just google image his name to see more of his work.

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Pineapple heads, human tables, etc…

So for today’s very serious picture I decided to Google an image of whatever phrase popped into my head. The first thing I thought of was “pineapple head”. Lo and behold Google produced a veritable cornucopia of them!

What I didn’t expect to find was a whole world of odd-headed people and something called living tables… (more…)

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Robotic Solutions30

From the people at Tilted Twister, the maker of the Lego Mindstorms Rubik’s Cube solver, comes the Lego Mindstorms Sodoku solver. Directions on how to build your own are on the website. Mouse-mat to enlarge.

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Fishy Feet

This is a picture of fish that eat the calluses and dead skin off of your feet. It is a common practice in many countries for women and was originated in Turkey.  When my GF and I were in Thailand, we sat at the edge of a converted bath while being served cold beer and listening to A Tribe Called Quest remixes while these little dudes did one heckuva job on our tootsies.  The women working at the shop did find it peculiar that I wanted a fish pedicure and in the long run my feet have been through a lot of abuse without my trusted calluses to fend off mother nature and her sometimes cruel ways.

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Invention

You know the story of calculus?  Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz both invented it for different reasons and with totally different methodologies and notations at around the same time.  In Europe people saw Leibniz as the innovator and in England it was Newton all the way.  Both Leibniz and Newton had cookies named after them (I like Leibniz’s cookies more than Newton’s).

I know how both of those guys feel.  There’s a song on the radio called “Birthday Sex” and I thought I’d really cracked the code because I came up with my own version of the song called “Earth Day Sex”.  I had “Earth Day Sex” stuck in my head for a week or so and then mentioned it to my coworker who informed me that her boyfriend had made the same joke. (more…)

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The dudes with the coolest jobs around

So rad!
Happy Friday!
(If you want – turn it into a caption contest…I am too lazy busy to preside over it though) Cheers!

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yup, can’t argue

as i fiddle with windows 7 beta, enjoy working on leopard (no intel mac), and dabble into seeing what linux is up to, this venn diagram pretty much sums up the last nine months since i became a mac user:

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Running Around Like

A chicken with its head cut off. This is a double post of Halloween costume ideas and how I feel. More costumes from the source.

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Meat Baby

I can feel the burger in me, he’s my meat baby, I can feel his  beefy lil legs kicking at me, he’s gonna be a soccer player yes indeedy. Via Thisiswhyyouarefat. com.

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Pics from the road

Sorry dudes and dudettes about not posting for the past two weeks, with moving and getting the band on tour I’ve been a bit scattered. For the next two months I will be traveling around the states and Canada and will post sweet pics from the side of the road. This pic was taken in South Park, Colorado. I think that’s where that show South Park is set.

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Heart Attack Grill

The Heart Attack Grill is a restaurant that caters to those who don’t care about their health whatsoever. They sell quadruple bypass burger that has four hamburger patties. The menu also includes flat-liner fries, and unfiltered cigarettes to ensure that your blood pressure reaches dangerous all time highs. Their website also advertises that you get to eat for free if you weigh over 350 pounds. Their waitresses are all scantily clad in your basic nurse Halloween costume, in case you need medical assistance.

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Caption Contest, dos

Please forgive the tardiness of today’s Very Serious Picture. Clearly I needed just a bit more time to bring you all something truly. Very. Serious.

So some of you participated in the Caption “Contest” last week – well done! I want to say that EVERYONE is a winner…but I guess that’s not how the world works. SO. My favortie caption from last week’s “contest” is…A TIE! (more…)

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twister porn

no flying cows in this pic, but probably just as crazy. more here.

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Monopoly City Streets

An online game of Monopoly called Monopoly City Streets was released on the internutz 09.09.09. With many complications, the largest game of Monopoly is off to a shaky start. The game will reset this week, reseting the playing field. If you’d like, check it out on the blog. So far I’ve purchased most of the lake front property in Lakeport, CA.

Click-ity-click to see it bigger.

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Victor!

Victor uses peanut butter or bacon bits to lure the rodent into the trap, where three electrically charged plates sense its presence and kill it instantly. Once the deed is done, the trap automatically rotates and dumps the mouse in a receptacle, resetting for the next customer.

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Colorblind

Who in their right minds would print out USC merch in UCLA colors? Blasphemy! You think they’d realize this is one of the bigger football rivalries and give all this stuff a second glance before printing.

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Caption contest…

The winner earns street cred for being “badass intelligent” and bragging rights for the next week. Happy Friday!

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The Curse of Jessica Simpson

Things have not been going so well for the Dallas Cowboys. They built a super expensive stadium that no one wants to buy super expensive personal seat licenses for. Their team has dubious skill. their star QB has yet to win a meaningful game. Then there is the jumbotron larger than Rhode Island that is so big and so low the NFL rules committee had to make up a new rule for when punters and kickers HIT this multi-million dollar behemoth. Opening day is soon, and they still have problems, like using Windows Vista for their scoreboards. I got this gem from geekologie. All I have to say is: I hope the curse of Jessica Simpson reigns for a 100 years, and LET’S GO GMEN!

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A Long Time Ago …

R2-D2 and C-3PO as seen while Indy is in the snake pit in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

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Cat Barf Fresh

I got a kitten from the SPCA and it’s rad but unfortunately it makes real barf not like this feline here.

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Farmville

I don’t have the patience to plan out my crops and do something like this. That said, I am fully addicted to this game, and if any of you play please add me on fb so I can add you as a neighbor and unlock more stuff.

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Get Your Steak On…

Let us reflect on all of our hard, back-breaking work over this past year. Let us pause to remind ourselves of the sweat-inducing work done by our proud fore-fathers (and fore-mothers). Let us recall the sacrifices made by each and every day by America’s work force…and then, let us get our steak on.

(What’s with sites like dazzlejunction.com anyway? Do they make enough money on ads for a person or people to make sparkling gifs all day long? If so, damn it. I thought this trend would have died out years ago, guess I was wrong.)

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camera porn

I have an internet confession to make. Some may know this because of a certain lazy day river ride i took a couple of years back. I am kinda creeped out by dragonflies. There erratic motion that goes from incredibly fast to stopping on a dime inches from your face; their body structure; their incredibly fast flap rate; their odd copulating in the sky routine; etc etc etc. But i do love awesome cameras and the new canons, which sport HD capture specs, do a great job of freezing those bastards so well, they almost seem cute. seem…

if a dragonfly had the chance, it would eat you and your entire family.

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Losing Money

Prof Fancy Pants says:

Hi Phil,

I’m in Las Vegas and don’t have computer access aside from my phone. Cam you jam up a pic for me? A man wearing a barrel turning his pockets inside out would be appropriate for all the money I’ve lost.

Thanks.
PFP

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Who was that Masked Man?

Two time NBA MVP Steve Nash that’s who, who showed up on the mean streets of Bejing to play some streetball.  Anyone who follows pro ball knows that many stars wouldn’t dare do something like this due to contract situations / stipulations which make sure these cash cows don’t end up breaking an ankle, case in point Monte Ellis for all you bay area fans. Here are some more photos of Nash and his killa stunt via “Ball Don’t Lie”

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Poodle Art

Thanks to Mark (PanasonicYouth on Very Serious) for opening my eyes to the wonderful world of Poodle Art. There’s something for everyone! Even Steelers fans!

But really, I wonder how many of these poodles would jump at the chance to publicly humiliate their owners.

Click here to see the rest of these living, breathing, “art pieces.”

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The Future of Health Care

With the passing of Ted Kennedy, questions about the future of the US health care program are arising. Image source.

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We’ve Come a Long Way Baby!

I can’t figure out if the kid in the upper right hand corner is just excited to play the game or whether he is a brain slurping little zombie.

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Phantom of the Oprah

My friend Matt Hock and I used to be in a band together. He is about one of the best friends a man can get. Since the band broke up he has become a high powered art director for the Berlin Cameron United advertising firm here in NYC. In his spare time he does the wildly famous Matt United blog http://mattutd.com In this blog you will find drawings (or drarings) he does about once a week. He specializes in animalized sports all-stars and transvestite political figures.

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Turtle Girl

Circa 1930

Mon Repos Beach – French for ‘My Rest’ is located just 15kms east of Bundaberg City central. Mon Repos supports the largest concentration of nesting marine turtles on the Eastern Australian mainland and is one of the two largest Loggerhead turtle rookeries in the South Pacific Ocean. [click on image to see it bigger]

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why didn’t i think of this?

how perfect is this idea? and how funny is it that a typo and mistranslation, donkey kong, makes so much sense to us now?

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The Electric Masseur Came Back Again

I had this translated by one of my old roommates.  The translation is “The electric masseur came back again”.  They don’t know where this bag of black Doritos came from because it doesn’t look like something from Japan.

I think the bottom guy looks too happy to have foot pressure put on his balls and he looks like Scuba Steve.  And why does the orange guy have on glasses?

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Woody

Old timey living pictures. See more here.

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Jake Gyllenhaal

When I heard Jake Gyllenhaal was going to play the Prince of Persia, I had serious doubts. It’s one of the two video game characters I hate to admit I’ve lusted over. This promo poster has put all my doubts to rest.

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Mount Bison Skull

Phil showed me this. I cried. That’s a lot of effin’ bison.

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LOL Swastika

No Comment.

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There comes a time

When we can talk about how sweet Michael Jackson was. I figured the hub-bub about his death has died down a bit. It’s time to look at all of the sweet stuff that was in his house, like this picture here. There is even a DVD collection of the auction materials. Source. Enjoy.

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Knowing Is Half the Battle

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Day 19 Contest Winner

My good friends and famed Los Angeles photographer-couple Jeremy and Claire Weiss recently had a contest where they gave away one of their old (but very expensive) cameras. Their company is http://www.day19.com/v6/. You can see the finalists here http://day19.com/text/?p=457.  This is the winning photo.

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The Unhappy Meal

I really hope PETA doesn’t actually market this to kids. After seeing this I think children would be more frightened of Ronald McDonald rather than rethink their diets. But maybe that’s the point?

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the gummi elements

This artist, Kevin Van Aelst, has some really witty science photos and art that i think you will all really enjoy.

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Prison lighter

A collaboration between an incarcerated artist, Angelo, and Temporary Services has created a replica of a prison cell for part of a project called “Prisoners’ Inventions.” I think i might try to make one of these lighters tonight. Click on the links to see other items as well as schematics.

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Shark Week

This kid knows what I’m talkin about…….Chomp!

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life without limbs.

This guy is a motivational speaker for Jesus.

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Zina Saunders

See more of her art here.

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Car Chase

I forgot to post this a couple weeks ago.

On June 17th, 1994, O.J. Simpson was supposed to turn himself into authorites as suggested by his lawyers, at 11AM. By 2PM, Simpson hadn’t showed up to the police headquarters.  Robert Kardashian read a letter by Simpson to the media that sounded like a suicide letter.  The police then started the search for Simpson.  (more…)

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you are not on mushrooms

spotted on an NYC corner, probably trying to get starbucks

or star power. that really is mario coming out of an NYC pipe. (via ninly.net)

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Rex goes for a ride

Wheeee!

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& Sea Monsters

Yes, always…. & Sea Monsters.

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X-Men Relations

1 in 4 Americans has an STD. I wonder if that applies in the world of comics, and if Wolverine is worried. Do Superheroes even need to use protection, or are they immune?

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Map of San Francisco

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I know most of you kind readers don’t live in San Francisco, but I like this map. From SFist.

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Camel Balls

This reminds me of when the American Medical Association pressured Camel Cigarettes to pull advertisements for Joe Camel directed at children.

Is this appropriate for children?

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Most trusted newscaster in America

…and the winner is? Well, duh. for people our age and younger (something called millenials), we trust Jon Stewart with bringing us our news, and with the landscape so numerous, that win is Cronkite-like.  If you have your favorite blog, or even outdated old tech newspaper, you eventually have good uncle Jon to convert the most important issues into amusing sketches in front of the digital fireplace. Take a notice, that Colbert did not make the list. His satire-bending character is not considered news worthy, although his show brings truth to topics in an interesting manner. The delivery matters, and Colbert’s alter ego has been deemed untrustworthy.

If you haven’t already, try to listen to the audio or read the daily show do history, in America: the citizens guide to democracy. It is probably the best thing the show has ever done, this side of destroying Mike Huckabee or Jim Cramer.

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Dirty minds rejoice

Big Wangs Wings in Hollywood California. Insert dick jokes below. Thanks to Ya-el for the photo.

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Vive el Che. Has the “Energy” craze gone too far part 2.

I picked up a can of this in Austria. Fuck my life.

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Davy Jones’s John

This is what the mens bathroom looked like at the airport in Koh Samui, Thailand. I found myself pounding water while I waited for my plane, just so that I could re-visit this soothing location.

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Move Over, Avian Flu!

This week I learned that humans can contract a form of Chlamydia (Chlamydia Psittaci) from birds. Do you guys remember Outbreak?

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Help: Out of Service

I saw prof. fancy pants post and ironically I got this in my email today from a friend.  We need to get some telephone repair people that aren’t afraid of heights.  Or maybe we just need more because of budget cuts.

Have any of you seen “The Bridge”?  It’s a documentary that was filmed in 2004.  The director and his staff stood at various points below the bridge and filmed people falling to their death from the GGB.  They captured 23 of the 24 deaths that year.

I felt numb watching the entire film.  But on the other hand, I felt like these people couldn’t really be stopped.  Just like if someone wants to make an important decision in life like go to law school, or move, or travel, people are going to do what they really want to.

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GG bridge

Here is an interesting figure that i saw Pete G share on the ol’ Google reader. Originally published on SFGate, the online (and perhaps soon to be only version of the SF Chron-dog) and sourced here. It’s interesting that the majority jump facing the city versus the dismal vantage of the ocean horizon, although the only bodies I have seen have been on the ocean side. Finally, you can click the pic to make it biggerest.

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Has the “energy” craze gone to far?

I found this at a truck stop in Baker, California. Has the “energy” craze gone too far? Jerky that gives you energy? I think it’s kinda messed up that they killed an alien for this.

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“Everything else is just a light.”

I bet he wished he had ordered a Bud Light.

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Fortune Cookies

I always get the worst fortunes in my fortune cookies. I even got a blank one once. Click here to view more weird fortune cookies.

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getting nailed

i came across this picture, via the daily dish blog on the atlantic, of Czech photographer Vlad Artazov‘s quirky and clever work. I know some would say it’s NSFW but, you can just tell your manager that its the life’s condition in nail form. go through the entire gallery. you will love it.

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Sex in the City

By tagging the city with various sexual positions, this simple guerrilla campaign for Oohtique.com – an online sex store – encouraged individuals to be more spontaneous with a playful proposition” Have Fun”.

It doesn’t say what city this is in, most likely NYC.  I don’t know how I feel about this.  I know some parts of SF are pretty dirty, so if I saw this I’d think it added something new to a wall that would probably have graffitti already on it.  But in the picture the walls used are nice and look like really nice areas that kids would play in and walk past by with their parents.  If I were a parent with kids that could read and have a slight idea of what sex was, I’d be embarrassed because I’d have to talk to them about sex later that day.

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Karaoke animals

This is an image of a dolphin and a manatee singing karaoke underwater as sent to me by Alexa. Who doesn’t want to sing underwater? So soothing. I think it is from Belize, where she lost her cell phone. Anyone with an extra, pass it her way. Thanks.

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Smoking & Dancing

Brendan I. Koerner knows a little bit about everything.  In between writing his book about a race-fueled manhunt in Burma during WW2 he puts up all kinds of food for thought.  In this case some economists’ answer to the question:  Why do ballerinas smoke?

I hope I don’t ruin it for you but the short answer is: because they don’t care about the future.

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The Future of Sloshball……

could it look like this? Perfect for backyard bashes, the Go Plate ($48/42-pack) assures you’ll never lose your drink again. The reusable and recycled clear plastic food tray fits over bottles, cups or cans for one-handed action. They can be thrown in the dishwasher for multiple parties.

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Aquatic Animals with Terrestrial Animal Names

I stumbled across the “sea pig” on Twitter. Having never heard of one before, it made me start to think of all the ocean dwellers who go by land animal names. I only thought of a few of them, but I’m positive that there has to be more! The ocean is huge! What about animals that spend most time in the water but some time on land? Should those still count?

My List:
Sea Horse
Sea Cow
Sea Monkey

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Shotgun Bachelor/ette Party = Shotgun Wedding

If you’re going to do a shotgun wedding, you might we well do a shotgun bachelor/ette party.

I saw this posted on Flikr with a very long post.  The person was really shocked about it because it sent the wrong message to America about the people in Kentucky.  They added “There’s a large LGBT community in Louisville” as well as “some of the best heart surgeons in the world” and “home of the US hand transplant teams”.  “That needs to change, fast, or else we will end up like Central Ohio, Alabama, Cleveland, Detroit, or any other city/state that has failed over the last decade because life and the world have changed under their feet.” or else “all the smart people will flee to Seattle, Chicago, California, etc.”

I went to the Open Range website and if you print out a coupon on their website, you can have a FREE bachelor/ette party (with a party of 12 or more).

Click on image to see it bigger.

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New superhero mural in the Mission

Sweet mural on 19th and Mission inspired by Chris G Mini Marvels. Photo Credit: Plug 1. Click on the image to see it bigger.

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Cheering up a friend in the hospital.

I had a friend in the hospital, someone paid this guy a dollar to take this picture and cheer her up.

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Fallen Princesses

This photo was taken by Dina Goldstein, who would like to remind us that there is no happily ever after. Disney Princesses were a much discussed topic here not too long ago, so I am posting this as an afterthought. You can find her website here, and click the Fallen Princesses button to view the rest in this collection.

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Volcano Explodes, as Seen From Space

Clicky-click on the picture to see it super-larger-est

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station shot images of a remote Russian island in the North Pacific at the very moment a volcano erupted. Read/see more about the photos and the volcano here.

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16 year old toddler

This is a picture of Brooke Greenberg, age 16. An amazing case of a child staying the same age physically and mentally. You can read more about it here.

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Che’s Granddaughter in Carrot Bandolier

This is Lydia Guevara, the actual granddaughter of Che Guevara, who I must say is quite quite easy on the eyes.

The photo was taken for PeTA‘s “naked” advertising campaign. Go here to see more pics (maybe not 100% safe for work).

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Pay Your Bills With Drawings

Well, not really…but this guy did apparently! I chuckled while reading this but by the time I got to the end I felt kind of annoyed. Click to read the entire email chain.

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Prick With a Fork

Sent to me by a guy at my work: Ainsley Harriot’s new line of sausages has some excellent packaging.

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beards

in honor of me shaving today, i thought i might share with you the winner of the World Beard and Moustache championships. This is not his winning beard. To see that, click here. And look at our US team here. USA USA USA.

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Cephalopods can hear!

I stole this picture from Chocolate Octopus Software, fine purveyors of Sudoku assistants, as a cute introduction to the freaky tales that follow this link. To steal my own wind, cephalopods can detect sound. Octopus are known to eat shark. Perhaps we want to reconsider the food chain.

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Diesel Chicken Loop Upgrade Kit

Efrem found this in a store full of file boxes.

I really wish I was with him, because my diesel chicken loop is in desperate need of an upgrade.

Here’s another box that Efrem saw there.

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Urban Art or Vandalism

This was done by 21-year-old North Carolina resident Joseph Carnevale, who is being charged for misdemeanor larceny charges and the damages of the barrels is estimated around $300. Is this an awesome form of urban art, or is it vandalism?

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Joshua Hoffine

Joshua Hoffine is a photographer who likes to create photos of childhood fears.

You can see the rest of his stuff here.

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Corrupted File

Now you don’t have to obsess over a late paper/presentation.

this is a real business: corrupted-files.com

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Family Fun?

I’m not sure what this game is all about. I found the image on some Brazilian (no, not the waxing type) website that I won’t bother to link to as it will undoubtedly crash your browser. Any ideas?

(4)

Suitcake

My bags are packed it’s time to go.

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Say Cheese!

This picture comes to you from one of my new favorite websites, This Is Photobomb (none of the pictures are offensive or anything but some could be considered NSFW). Apparently, “photobombing” is when someone intrudes in one’s photo either intentionally or unintentionally. The chances of capturing some of these things on camera are pretty slim, so it’s nice to have them in one collective place.

What do you think Darth Vader gives up for Lent?

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According to Science Fiction

Todays gem comes from the Surviving the World blog written by Dante Shepard which has some clever observations paired with smug photos. I’m putting money on him being a physicist.

(1)

The Theremin

You play the theremin by holding each of your hands nearer or farther from each of the corresponding wires to control the volume with your left hand and the pitch with your right.  When you touch the lower loop, the volume drops out completely, and when you bring your hand closer to the vertical wire, the higher the pitch rises.  It looks odd, and it’s very tricky to play.  You’d recognize the sound from about a million science fiction movies and quite a few staggeringly popular songs, including the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and the theme from the original series of “Star Trek.”  The most famous person associated with playing the theremin is Clara Rockmore, who was a student and protegé of Leon Theremin himself.  She was the first to play ’serious’ music on a theremin, with astounding results.  Here she is playing her most widely-acclaimed piece, “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns.

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Happy Birthday Marilyn Monroe

She was born today in 1926. Photos of her kind of break my heart.

(4)

Hulk Art Class

Prof. SMASH word press. Why word press no let Prof. use lightbox? Anyway, some people aren’t the biggest fans of Mini-Marvels, but I like this “Hulk Art Class” by ChrisG and Audrey Loeb. I found the image here.

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Chewing Gum Sculpture

I am simultaneously freaked out by this pink beardog and attracted to the idea of taking a bite out of him because I have always had a soft spot in my heart for big league chew, especially ground ball grape.

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Pound It

I think this picture is pretty fitting for today. Happy Memorial Day.

0

America’s Next Top Model

Sweet concept thought up by Cade .  Not just a concept, but a reality.

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How Mjolnir Works

This blueprint was recently recovered from Freddie’s basement by Marvel Comics Group, which gives intimate details of Thor’s magic hammer Mjolnir.

[*more art by this artist here - Alliterative Phil]

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Is this even appropriate?

Is this the sort of occasion one wants to commemorate with an e-card?

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Space Shuttle Atlantis passing by the Sun

Clicky-click on the picture to see it super-larger-est

The Space Shuttle Atlantis is currently on a mission to do one last round of upgrades to the Hubble Telescope. There’s only a handful of Shuttle missions left before the programs ends. This photo was shot through a telescope based in Florida by Thierry Legault.

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hubble trouble revisted

This is an image showing how the hubble telescope originally suffered from TWI, telescoping while intoxicated. Blurry! If you want to learn more, read on. If you want to just look at sharpening goodness, please click the pic

(more…)

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Search terms: goth + goofy

What did you expect? Image source.

(3)

More Estar Gwars (2)

Robocop on a unicorn

This is from a series of Robocop on a unicorn. Art credit to Olav Rokne.

(1)

Stealing Star Wars

I once stole as many of my cousins Star Wars figures as I could stuff in my pants when I was 7. He beat me up good, and I was never able to touch his Darth Vader Case again.

(2)

Gregory Peck and Harper Lee

I saw a documentary of Gregory Peck last year that left me in tears. He was such a wonderful human being. Watching him interact with his daughters was really touching, and made me quite envious. He was a genuinely good person, and it showed in every way. It’s not surprising that his favorite role was the role of Atticus Finch. That character has been a hero to so many people, and we have Harper Lee to thank for that. She turned 83 last week. I feel like it’s an honor to know that the writer of such a beloved modern classic was alive in my lifetime. I hope she had a wonderful birthday!

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Floppy Disks?

Clicky-click on the picture to see it super-larger-est

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No video from me today

Earlier this month the big picture did a post on recent scenes from Afghanistan from which I grabbed this picture.

I thought it appropriate as my cousin Mac just got deployed there this week. Best of luck, Mac! Be safe!

U.S. Marines patrol through a sand storm on March 22, 2009 in remote Qalanderabad in southwest Afghanistan. (John Moore/Getty Images)

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Chu maker

This image is from the Frank Chu “Chumaker” by acme labs. Please feel free to make one yourself.

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Adventure Galley

Captained by Scottish sailor William Kidd, the 287-ton, three-mast Adventure Galley was launched along the Thames River in 1695. As part of a venture planned by New York Colonel Robert Livingston to curb attacks against British ships in the East Indies, Kidd was instructed to hunt down pirates and enemy French ships and steal their treasure and goods. To facilitate the mission, which was funded primarily by prominent English noblemen, the Adventure Galley was outfitted with 34 guns and 23 oars for maneuvering the ship in calm winds. Pirate hunting, it turned out, wasn’t easy. Kidd had agreed to pay back the investment if he didn’t return any treasure, and when finding pirates proved too difficult, he resorted to attacking allied ships. Kidd abandoned the Adventure Galley, which had developed a rotten hull, off the coast of Madagascar in 1698. He hoped to receive a pardon from Livingston in New York, but was returned to London, found guilty of piracy, and executed in 1701.

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Desert Jive

The thing I don’t like about dancing diagrams like this one (taken from the indispensable “that’s my skull“), is that I’m still totally in the dark as to how this dance is done. 

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crazy fish, it’s driving me mad, it’s making me fishy fishy

yes, you can see right through this fish and see its BRAINS! It’s called the barrel eyed fish. go here to find out more about this clear skulled fish.

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Dr. Doom’s puppy rehab

Doom Puppies, first in a series of super villain rehan by Pandaface which came to us by way of the indispensable Michael May:

Doom Puppies 2 by Veryserious.org’s Jake:

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Summer is here

Well, maybe not. But this weather sure makes me think it’s time to bust out that two-piece. I imagine i will be seeing plenty of these this summer by the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

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Scumbags

These should do nicely to deter would be lunch thieves when sharing a communal fridge at work.  If I continue to get my sammies swiped I will know I officially work with scumbags.

(5)

Polar Bear Attack

This is a picture of a polar bear in the Berlin Zoo (not Knut) mauling a woman who jumped into the pit, she survived.  I found it here.

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The Internets

I saw this on the internet and thought it was real for quite some time. Only recently did I learn it was the product of “Photoshop Phridays” at Something Awful. It’s good to know this isn’t real.

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Baby Jeans

My favorite thing about baby jeans is the ratio of back pockets to pant leg, which is basically 50 50: because those little folks have stumps for legs, but still have little butts to fall down on, so it makes the jeans look pretty silly really. Also this style was very popular in the 90′s for those of us who either practices kickflips or went to raves, yah!

(3)

Child Care

Here’s a picture of some excellent child-rearing.  Brought to my attention by Joe by way of Autumn by way of the sad, funny, then sad again and then funny again “Why the fuck do you have a kid?” which is full of this kind of thing.  I like how moms where I live (SF, CA)  will judge each other like “Oh I can’t believe she’s letting that child get direct sunlight!” meanwhile this sort of thing goes on like clockwork.

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Pass the Bottle

I got this from Barry Ritholtz’s “the Big Picture“, it’s an editorial cartoon from the Chicago Tribune in 1934.  I do think it’s funny that the same criticism is levelled against the stimulus program now.

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what’s so funny?

courtesy of the insane culture warrior PZ Meyers:

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Cool and safe

Some old timey picture of a lion riding shotgun. Why don’t we see these kind of stunts anymore?

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toothpaste monster

I decided to focus my photo this week on one of my biggest pet peeves: the flip-top toothpaste caps, which were created sometime in the 80′s to make our lives better, but continue to only bring misery and messiness to the lives of many poor souls around the world. I finally took a stand against this atrocious social construct by issuing a twist only policy in my household, which has allowed much peace of mind, however I will not rest until all caps across our fair land have been disarmed of their flip top function.

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overburden conveyor bridge F60

This is  overburden conveyor bridge F60 at the “Jänschwalde” opencast mine.

It’s one of the largest movable structures around and was built to carry away the dirt that’s covering up the coal in an open-faced mine.  It was only in use for about a year in the early 90s before they shut it down for political reasons.  Now it’s a tourist attraction, like a big sideways Eiffel Tower.  Another f60 pic courtesy of wikipedia shows the scale better.

(Photo taken by Harald Finster. I learned about this from Brendan Koerner.)

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Happy Birthday Herb Caen

Clicky-click on the picture to see it super-larger-est

Today is the birthday of Herb Caen. Caen was a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, and his love of The City earned him a prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Famous for his unique “three dot journalism” style and for coining the term “beatnik”, for fifty-plus years Caen captured the spirit and heart of San Francisco. After his passing in 1997, The City renamed the Embarcadero “Herb Caen Way.”

No doubt that Jake, an avid NPR listener, heard Garisson Kielor’s “Writer’s Almanac” this morning that mentioned Caen’s birthday, but also reminded me of these two Caen quotes:

“Martinis are like breasts, one isn’t enough, and three is too many.”

“Isn’t it nice that people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live there?” (more…)

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Chicken Bones for Voodoo

“Hi phil I have a grant due at 5 pm. Please put up a pic for me. Maybe some horseshoes for luck or chicken bones for voodoo.”
-Prof. F. Pants

Good luck with your grant, Professor, the pic came from here.
-Ed.

(3)

Tigers and Turkey

This image is funny to me because the turkey looks like a caricature of itself running for it’s life, but scary because I can’t even imagine being in the shoes of that turkey, mostly because I would be heckuv uncomfortable running from tigers.

(2)

Houdini vs Robot

I saw this pic somewhere else and it made me curious enough to think about it but not curious enough to actually figure it out.  This is Houdini messing with a robot?  Why does the robot have a sideways barrel for a torso?

(2)

The Bus I Belong On

Clicky-click on the picture to see it super-larger-est

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Geeks

Here are some geek genres as drawn by Scott Johnson. Which are you? You can purchase them here, if you’re into it.

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Periodic Table of Video Game Characters

0

Bathroom

This is a bathroom, pic sent to me by Joe.

I know it’s not my turn today but I wanted to post here anyway to tell you about something going on in the city:

An organization of which I am a member is going to hold an event at Sports Basement to benefit KQED.  If you can read this, I am inviting you:

Go to Sports Basement

Tomorrow Night (Sat. March 21st)
16th and Bryant (SF) (map)
from 5pm-8pm

You will receive free beer and a 10% discount on anything you buy there.

Additionally, another 10% of what you spend will be donated to KQED.  You’ll see me there, buying new handlebars for my bike.

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New Island in Tonga

Tarbot & I have the South Pacific on our minds.

(1)

No video today from me

It’s been a rough couple weeks. I wanted to post the video I shot of my uncle’s funeral procession on Friday and Saturday but I forgot my card reader.  Here is a picture lifted off the Samoa News website

Fuck it, I can’t figure out how to put it up here. Pete…can you replace with one of your pics? Go read the article.

Here is Pete’s description of the services:
“On Friday, 48 hours of services began for Peti’s brother Tony, who
was both a senator in the American Samoan legislature and the
Paramount Chief of the island. Tony received both a state funeral and
a traditional Samoan chief’s funeral. His coffin was carried through
the village by the village men that were led by all the high chiefs of
the region. There was singing and gun shots in the air, a full mass,
followed by a traditional overnight exchange of gifts, then another
mass, and finally a burial with a 21 gun salute in a tomb where 10
other Paramount Chiefs rest.”
Next week I’ll have a video posted.

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21 year old virgins

I was so tempted to post a picture of a really nasty pirahna mouth, but after last weeks beetle pic, i’ll give yall a break. so check out this doozey from geekologie. It’s a graph showing virginity by major @Wellesley College:

As a biochem major, I spent all my time with studio art majors.

Oh and I am going to crosspost this on my blog, Sciencelifeny.com. Of course, veryserious readers are always wecome,  if anyone wants to read up on sciencey things I come across. I owe that site to phil. He is a major help in just about everything anyone can do in life.

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Morning after pill

No, not that morning after pill. You may recognize this as acetylsalicylic acid, a.k.a. aspirin. Happy day after binge drinking.

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Shoe Burger

Lately I’ve been so hungry, that I’ve been daydreaming about the idea of edible clothing.  This is one example, but I wonder what else besides shoes might be good eats.

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Mummy

These are stills from the Mummy starring Boris Karloff.  I got them from Animation Treasures.  I’ve never seen the movie, only the 90s remake with Rachel Weisz.  After seeing these though I realize that I don’t need to watch it, I lived it.

(4)

Frank Miller’s Charlie Brown

You know, for nerds:

(2)

Stem cell research

Click on image to see it bigger.

Religious fanatics got their panties in a bunch on March 9th, 2009 as President Obama lifted restrictions on federal funding for (more…)

(3)

Pretty much sums it up

Kilroy was here.

(4)

Canteen Kate

This is some excellent art by Matt Baker, there are a lot more scans, if you’re into world war II era pin-up girl art romance comics (and who isn’t?) at the “fortress of fortitude“.  I put it up here because my close friend, Jason Mann, is teaching himself to draw and I’d like him to use Matt Baker’s work as an example.  He should also draw like Milton Caniff.

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Boy Scout Training Exercise

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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Well, that is just flat out phallus

This is the phallus of a beetle. I have read before that when earthworms have sex, they tear each other up very badly. Now I see how that is possible. Talk about ruining someone from ever having a healthy relationship after you…

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Cool beans

Cool beans. I use it even though i don’t really understand it.

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FDA approved

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Mark Twain

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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When you make mistakes with tile…

They are a kinda permenant. 

Do’h! Go chefs!

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Trad Toys

Now you have something to do in all of this rain and lightning.

(2)

Flying Dirty

Click on the image and behold bird on bird violence! courtesy of

(3)

how I like to remember Rourke

This photo is from Rumblefish, it reminds me of a time when dudes like this and movies like this were the coolest thing under the sun.  I got to thinking about this movie with all the Mickey Rourke love during the Oscars.  His dog that recently died was named after the Norse God of Mischief.

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Battling Nelson

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

Oscar Nelson, aka Battling Nelson, aka The Durable Dane, was a turn of the 20th Century Lightweight Champion boxer

(4)

Today

Today, in the year of 1885, Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I will be your Huckleberry.

(3)

Lamb under the bell

This is what Lamb under the bell looks like.  We drive for 30min. up into the mountains of Cavtat where they grow the most amazing potatoes I have ever eaten.

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Family Tree

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

Ok. So this is a hyrbid Very Serious Question/Picture. Seen above is Huey Lewis and Bill Murray at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am golf tournament from the SF Chronicle the other day.

If you could hand pick your family tree with famouses, who would be in it?

I’ll start by saying that I would want Huey Lewis and Bill Murray as uncles, Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn as a set of grandparents and Johnny and June Cash as great-grandparents.

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saturn moon

A Saturn moon with so-far inexplainable geographic characteristics. (more…)

(3)

It’s not just for breakfast anymore

I worked almost 15 hours yesterday and I whole heartedly agree with the above.

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Whose bed is this?

(6)

Bookworm

Spitzweg painted this guy to look like Walter Matthau I think.  I ran into a friend of mine and he had an Amazon Kindle to read books with.  I was of course jealous just like I am whenever anyone besides me has anything in their hands.  Another friend told me that Kindles or something like them are the future and that books really have a future only as a fetishized item for people to collect, like records or bottlecaps.  I think I agree with him and furthermore I think this is a good thing.

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A Very Serious Case

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

This photo from the Library of Congress gets a nod only because of its name. Although, I do know that Phil is really into black and white photos of kids dressed up in baggy adult clothing, especially if there is a hand-tinted rose in the scene.

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bike lady

Phil,
can you post a pic for me? I won’t be able to get to it until way
later, sorry. Maybe a pic of someone losing something, like “you
dropped your stuff.”

Thanks,
-Victor

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Phil

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

Last week I shared a picture of Jake. Here’s a picture of Phil that I took. It’s sunny and happy with ominous clouds lurking in the background, kinda like Phil.

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The new doctor who: hot or not?

So the new doctor who was announced earlier this month and it is Matt Smith, who I couldn’t find on IMDB. I think he’s kind of funny looking but I’ll withhold judgment on the choice till I see what he does with the character. He’s going to have a hard time living up to David Tennant’s doctor so best of luck to him! Phil and I were kind of hoping it would be Chiwetel Eljiofor who I think is a lot more handsome than the dude they picked but I guess they wanted to go young this season. We’ll see!

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Hotness v. Discipline

Stolen from the language log, who was sharing a post from the crooked timber site. I’m sad to say I rank last. How ugly.

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For those moments

BACONBACONBACONBACONBACONBACONBACONBACONBACON!

(2)

Beato

Edward Henry Windred apparently liked to paint pigeons.

Here is Beato, who looks pretty much like the pigeon I plan on adopting:

And if you follow these links you can see Rags, Black Cock(!) and a group portrait.  These all seem to be racing pigeons.  If you want to adopt a pigeon, go here.

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Jake

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

Here’s a picture of Jake that I took recently. It’s dark and moody, just like him.

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obama products

Why does socialism look a lot like rampant capitalism?

update: alternate title for this post: commander in ch-ch-ch-chia.

(2)

Bio-sensing

Read more about the bio-sensing pill here and the above image here.

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Who’s the Boss?

Tommy Lee Jones, that’s who.  I guess in Japan drinking coffee drinks makes you tough.  This kind of reminds me of  “Lost in Translation”: an aging star trying to make some ends selling western beverages to the eastern populace.

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“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

It’s all over the news, the plane crash that crashed in the Hudson river. This photo, shot with an iPhone, broke the story and was first published on a twitter feed. The way people get their information, including breaking news, has changed and newspapers haven’t found a way to fit in.

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i know what you are thinking

You want one don’t ya? Photographer Thierry Bouet took pictures of a bunch newborns. I can’t help to see a strong resemblence this guy has to a certain soon to be FORMER US PRESIDENT? If you don’t see it, maybe you should take in, multiple times, Dubya’s last press conference. It had it all, including the undeniable final conclusion that this mistake of history didn’t care about people, governing or the mistakes he made.

It’s long, it’s torture (dont forget, it’s a yummy shake shack burger compared to the real torture his administration committed) but it is an important moment to see, in a Frost/Nixon kind of way.  I don’t know whose blinder, him or those newborns. Bush’s last press conference 

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Burger Truck

The only thing better than visiting a great burger joint is when a great burger joint visits you.

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Streisand

Last week it seemed like Phil was begging for some “material.” Well, here it is. Enjoy.

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Danger

This was taken by David Proeber, a photographer.  I got it from Peter who got it from.  He heard a police chase behind him on the highway and pulled over to get out of the way.  Instead of going past him, the guy that was being chased pulled over and jumped over the median.  Proeber made the smart call and figured he was about to be carjacked and got into his car and sped off.  He heard shots fired as he left.

That suspect looks like a hardboiled man.  He looks like someone you don’t want to mess with, ever.  I think if it was a movie, he’d be played by Lee Van Cleef.

Proeber’s account

More of his pics

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The Fall of GM

From here

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Do Robots Dream of Electric People?

I wish i knew who painted this picture, because it deserves props. I just watched the new HD digital transfer of Blade Runner last night (man i can’t believe that movie is over 20 years old) and I am on a robot art kick. That movie proved to me once again that CGI has destroyed modern movies.

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Digitized LIFE archives online

In another smooth move by Google, LIFE photos from the 1750s to present have been archived here. Pretty cool.

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we’ll be OK

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Teddy R and a railroad car

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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what the world needs now

is hugs, sweet hugs. I am a big fan of the hug. I love giving them. I love getting them. Give more hugs.  Give a hug to a sad person, a happy person, a friend or stranger. and give it for free.

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Happy new year, soldier!

Here is a nice pic of some happy chaps from the VMI boozing it up on NYE. Have a safe and happy one.

(2)

Surf Spidey

This Van Lives Down by Ocean Beach.  I visit it on Sundays like some people visit church.

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happy holidays!

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Coffee For Breakfast

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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a sexy christmas?

To celebrate the “virgin birth” a little bit of nookie in your stockings.

this is a christmas album cover. the lineup? not so sexy

1. Baby, It’s Cold Outside – Vanessa Williams/Bobby Caldwell
2. Please Come Home For Christmas – Aaron Neville
3. Snowflakes Of Love – Toni Braxton
4. Wishes – Kenny G
5. Mistletoe Jam, The (Everybody Kiss Somebody) – Brenda White-King/Luther Vandross
6. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas – Gloria Estefan
7. I’ll Be Home For Christmas – Dean Martin
8. Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt/Henri Rene
9. I Love The Winter Weather/I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm – Tony Bennett
10. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? – Diana Krall
11. Blue Christmas – Elvis Presley
12. Merry Christmas, Baby – Christina Aguilera – (featuring Dr. John)

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Did you notice the creepy clown cop with the nightstick?

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

Here’s another terrifying view of Santa and his “helper.”

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artist sleeps with the fishes

This ghostly underwater image is courtesy of sculptural and conceptual artist Jason de Caires.  Here is an interview of him and more examples of his organic and beautiful work.

Courtesy of Don’t Panic

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You can’t win

I’m currently reading “you can’t win” by Jack Black (the dude in the photo). I’m not sure if i can do this here, but i think discussion of this book deserves a podcast all of its own.

(4)

Gamerator

Half game cabinet half kegerator, this beautiful device has the ability to pour draught beer while providing gaming enjoyment simultaneously.  I especially love the little beer plate which has replaced the coin slot.  After spending my youth pumping millions of quarters into cabinets like this one, it’s refreshing to find one that gives back. Me want.

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dodgy man dodges shoe

I can’t help but feel bad for him. However, this kind of stuff happens on a daily in the Korean government.

(4)

Something New in Auto Tops

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

“George R. Wharff of Old Orchard Beach, Maine, and Joseph Fossard returning from Florida. When they lost their top, they thatched it with palm leaves which seem to answer every purpose. Gyp, their companion on the trip, has traveled 10,000 miles on the front fender as shown in the picture, 5/2/22″

(2)

we must target the ANT

I watched a nature show about ants last night, and i am naming it number two candidate to take over the world after we leave or mess up. Number one is bears. The ant is insane. 10,000 species, all social and part of a classification called a super organism, because they literally act as one. They are strong. They are fast. They domesticate other insects as livestock, something that only humans have found to do. They have classes, ranks, and when you put them in a centrifuge al la “the right stuff” they can withstand G forces 50 times that of a human. They build massive mounds. They can spit folic acid. They fly. They eat other rival ants. We must destroy them.

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Military spending

What part of the world military spending is on research?*

*This isn’t cheapening the question of the day because there is no definitive answer.

(2)

Justice Heros League

This was the type of Christmas present I dreaded, because it was the type of present my drunk father would get me instead of the cast iron Voltron with spring-loaded plastic missle choking hazard.

(2)

uncle jesse

what does it mean to be stamosed?

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Board Meeting

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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Wait, yes he can, too?

You know the president-elect is popular when french protestors are using your slogan and poster design to further their cause. These posters of the french president are popping up all over paris, but people don’t know where they come from. The messages that accompany the images are positive ones: “Make polluting companies pay: Yes we can”, and “Save each household €1,000 a month: Yes we can”. This is much better than Berlusconi’s not well thought out comment “yes, he’s tan” comment.

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Neu5Gc

Neu5Gc (N-glycolyneuraminic acid) is an exogenous sialic acid that humans ingest primarily via red meat and milk products. Once upon a time, when humans and apes were starting to diverge (or whatever magic jesus was pulling out of his hat) humans stopped producing this sugar, however, recent studies have shown significant levels of Neu5Gc in human carcinomas. The current hypothesis of Nissi and Ajit Varki (UCSD) is that chronic inflammation from antibody-antigen recognition due to this molecule could be a cause of cancer and atherogenesis. Plainly put, research is starting to draw a direct link between eating meat and dairy products and cancer. Now all the vegans can say, “I told you so.”

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Serpentor

This is a print by Robert Burden, he lives in San Francisco and he paints all sorts of toys from our past really well.  Some of my other favorites are the more obscure toys: the bionic six motorcycle and the snow man from thundercats.

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semi NSFW

only in japan – world’s largest orgy.  although…i imagined it differently…more of a human pile up.

for more information, go to…

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2006/10/13/world-record-in-japan-largest-orgy/

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Shopping Crowds

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

In the news today…Wal-Mart Employee Trampled to Death by Customers. Stay classy, America.

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Lame duck, incompetent turkey

Until the ridiculous pardons come rushing in, here is one rare time you will hear any mention of current president Bush in the press. as a wonderful symbol of his administration’s attention to detail, they sent this card as an invitation to the White House to America’s Jewish community.  and yes, that is a christmas tree.

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Turkeys

Here is a graph of the amount of turkeys raised each year. The projected number of turkeys to be raised for consumption for the year 2008 is 271 million. That’s a lot of turkeys. Additional information on eatturkey.com tells us that the consumption of turkey meat per annum is approximately 5.5 billion pounds of meat. With about 1.4 grams of tryptophan per pound of meat, that’s almost 17 million pounds of tryptophan. That’s a lot of tryptophan.

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Wii gadget girl

Now I know why these things are selling like hotcakes.  I recently came across this web site which has scantily-clad women modeling high tech gadgets, this is what it and they look like: sorry for those already hip to this.

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eat your wheaties

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Railroad Bull

Click on the image to view super-largerest!

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the wondrous world of ‘burns, beards, and ‘staches

Which one of these facial hair decisions is going to land me a lucrative job in science media and science policy?

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Tommy Elfs

I received a link to some sweet Swedish dance band pics. I was trying to decide who I would be more into. Was it the “Thor~Erics?” The “Thorleifs?” Or was it the “ThorSilwens?” I eventually gave up and settled on the guys I’d be most likely to drink Sparks in the street with, the “Tommy Elfs.” There is not a whole lot on the Tommy Elfs (shouldn’t it be elves?) on the internet in English, but i did find one more sweet pic. Consider this a bonus. I’m definitely into them. Thanks to YT for the link.

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Stairs to where?

Where do these stairs go? and more importantly when was drinking 3 drinks equal to being an 86 year old?

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high tech

bomb sniffing rat. so the internet says. i think it can read minds.  big ben’s (from the movie willard) got nothing on this one.

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Devil Dog

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My bro Pete W told me last Monday was the Marine Corps 233rd birthday, so I present the Marine Corps mascot, from around 1923. I snuck in a second photo because I think he so cute.

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foul balls, take 2

what can i say? i love foul balls.

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Styles of the Future

This pic, and the link, are from the New Yorker by way of Barry Ritholtz’s indispensable The Big Picture.  Ritholtz has been more right than most people about the state of the economy in the recent past, but he doesn’t beat his chest about it too much.  He gets labelled a doomsayer when he is more of a Bullshit-caller.  He’s smart and funny and writes about macroeconomic issues simply enough that I can understand them, with a little bit of effort.  The article excerpted below concerns a plan for picking stocks.  Ritholtz suggests saving enough for the barrel.

“[stock performance] was based, he said, on the formula for the circumference of a circle—the idea that 2πr might apply to the financial cycle—and, in combination with various Fibonacci fractal techniques, it had made him a lot of money. You could slice up history into what he called pi cycles, each lasting exactly three thousand one hundred and forty-one days, or 8.6 years. You could subdivide these, by the hours on a clock, say, or the signs of the zodiac, and detect mini-cycles of 8.6 months. He rattled off a series of inflectionary dates and occurrences: the Nikkei high, in late 1989; the ruble collapse, in mid-1998; the historically tight credit spreads in early 2007. By God, he was onto something.

Did anyone ever really dress in barrels?  How is it cheaper than just wearing rags?

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Florida Boardwalk

I have never seen anything like this before, but if Magnum P. I. & Dancing Coke are involved I will spend my entire veterans day riding tiny transformers until I throw the F up.

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is this sexist?

i think it’s cute, i’d get it.

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Rob Roy

Click on the image to view largerest

As the nation titters on the edge of its collective seat waiting to hear if President Elect Obama will adopt a shelter dog for his daughters Malia and Sasha, I present to you First Lady Grace Coolidge playing with Rob Roy on the White House lawn.

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barack’s gonna steal ya candy

i love political cartoons. and this year has been full of some really out there doozies. they are never subtle, often funny, and ridiculously heavy handed. in the waning days of the election, the redistribution charge had some gems. here is one of my favorites. progressive tax billed as socialist redistribution. god i am glad this over.

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Go Team!!!

In keeping in line with DDS’ post of basket balls while considering the historic election we all were a part of, i present a high school photo of our President Elect. This election means so much for the US of A for many different reasons. Personally, I believe the election was a strong indicator of our desire, as a country, to see progress. And, again personally, I’m ready for some.

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It ain’t over till it’s over

Harry S. Truman has the last laugh as he holds up a copy of the Chicago Tribune at Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri, on November 3, 1948, after winning the election the previous day. He was so widely expected to lose that the Tribune ran this incorrect headline.

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The Deserter

Brian Cronin has an excellent series about political cartoons through history.  When it falls upon me to post a picture, I usually put a link to something that he put up, because he always finds the best stuff.  This is “the deserter” by Boardman Robinson.  I think this originally appeared in the Masses.  If you don’t know about that mag, that’s ok, but please follow the link to the wikipedia entry and read it so that we can talk about it next time we see each other.

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Halloween in the Castro, 1982

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Halloween celebrators in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood in 1982. That’s gotta hurt. From the San Francisco Public library.

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that’s not so bad an idea??

I hear they have these in Japan, and those guys are obssessed with toilets. Maybe they should put this in restaurants? it would save space AND maybe people would be more likely to wash their hands? and it saves water.

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Gelati-gate

As if i didn’t need another reason to hate Aussies.

As if i didn’t need another reason to not visit Australia.

As if this didn’t totally gross me out.

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Let The Games Begin!

The 08-09 basketball season starts tonight. It may be Sheed’s last chance to bring a ‘ship back to Detroit. This is a photo of RA after the 04 championship season in which he had custom wrestling belts made for himself & all of his teammates.

For those of you who are Warriors & Knicks fans…….better luck next year. JK…..Bless! Bless!Bless!Bless!

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Uranium Sacks

I got this from Tarita, but I think I may have put one of these pics up here before.  I don’t care i like it anyways.  This is an anatomical study of Godzilla, there are more pics of some of the other monsters here.  I always like scientific explanations of impossible things.  Unstable molecules!

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Samuel Gompers casts his vote

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American Federation of Labor founder Samuel Gompers casts his vote on election day.

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sometimes the internet just runs with something…

i love it when image memes like jeep brah and the mosh girl go nuts on the internet. this website has a hilarious spoof collection of this image from the last ebate, when john mccain lost his bearings and made a hideous face. this is my favorite.

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Sun

Pictures of the Sun I took from Peter, who got them from Boston.com

You can of course click on the picture to view it more closely.  There are many more here.

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mannequins

For all those mannequin lovers out there.

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Turtle

I wish I had brought my camera with me here so I could post a picture of me holding a turtle instead of one I found on google imágenes.  Don´t eat turtle soup!

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Side-saddle on a Motorcycle

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Thank God it’s over

And McCain wanted to have 20 of these crap fests? Where neither of the candidates deviated from the points from the last debate , even though the economic crisis has gotten worse. If anyone is still undecided … I just don’t know what to say about you ….

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Hands

Why do cartoons only have four fingers?  Is it because it’s easier to draw?  Because it looks better?  I’m not sure.  The subject is discussed further at the ASIFA, where I got this picture of a Disney model sheet of Mickey Mouse hands.  Do the newer Disney cartoons like Aladdin only have four fingers, or just the less realistic ones?

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Sold Out

This is a famous cartoon by Rollin Kirby and it seems appropriate given the instability of the stock market recently.  I got this from the Rollin Kirby profile that Brian Cronin did as part of his “stars of political cartooning” series.

(click on the picture to make it more embiggened)

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22 panels that always work

This was written by Wally Wood, a comic artist from the old times.  It’s good storytelling advice, 22 panels that can be used in any situation.  I think movie directors should take note also.  This guy killed himself in the early 80s, which I just found out now.

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Caesar, the US Navy Mascot, 1924

Click on the image to view largerest

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What was worse?

Yesterday, the presidential candidates were asked, what was the worst thing that happened to America. McCain said the Great Depression and Obama, Slavery. Being ridiculously biased, I got to go with Slavery. So begins Slavery vs The Great Depression serious picture series. Here we have a pretty poor looking family around 1933. Looks pretty crappy. I can’t imagine these people ever living off of credit and above their means, which some cite as one the causes of the depression then and possibly the upcoming depression now.

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You, in lego.

Ever want a replica of yourself in lego? Nathan Sawaya can make one for the measly price of 60 000 USD. Pictured is one made of Stephen Colbert (although i’m sure he didn’t fork out the cash for it).

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In Honor of Alone Time

I’m pretty hyped on this room, except for the weird doll ball on the floor.  It seems like a good place to get some work done, or to go completely mental.  I’m sure if Prof. FancyPants had chalkboard walls like these they would be covered with equations….or sharkstronauts eating hotdogs.

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Honoré Daumier

My favorite political cartoonist is Art Young, but I stumbled upon this brutal caricature of the French legislature of 1834 by Honoré Daumier (click on the picture to enlarge).  Why can’t we have stuff like this now?

There’s a lot of information and more work by the guy posted by Brian Cronin (who knows a lot about this sort of thing) here.

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Dogcatchers

Click on the image to view largerest

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Eleanor Roosevelt turns 70

Before we give credits and lauds to candidates for completing whole sentences tonight, let’s all remember how awesome Eleanor Roosevelt was. Here she is celebrating her 70th birthday. Swwwwoooonnn!

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Jesus H Christ?

I got this picture of a recreation of Jesus’ face from religioustolerance.org.  I always imagined that the real life Jesus looked more like Jeff Goldblum or maybe a younger Paul Krugman.  Here’s an explanation of how they came up with the face:

Starting with the assumption that Jesus resembled a typical peasant from 1^st century CE Palestine, Richard Neave, a medical artist retired from the University of Manchester in England, and a team of researchers “started with an Israeli skull dating back to the 1st century. They then used computer programs, clay, simulated skin and their knowledge about the Jewish people of the time to determine the shape of the face, and color of eyes and skin.” ₂ Mike Fillon followed the research and wrote an article about the portrait in “Popular Mechanics” magazine. ₃ He said during a CNN interview that: “There are very strong rabbinical laws in Israel that you cannot tamper with a skull or any bones, so they needed to reconstruct the skull. Using a cat scan, which is very common in hospitals, they were able to recreate the skull precisely and make a cast of it. Then they put small wooden pegs, based on anthropological data, to figure out what the muscle structure and the skin would look like, and so they layered that on using clay-like substances.” ₄

The result is shown in the left portrait above: a person with abroad peasant’s face, dark olive skin, short curly hair and a prominent nose. His height would have been on the order of 5′ 1″; he would have weighed about 110 pounds. Alison Galloway, professor of anthropology at the University of California in Santa Cruz , said that: “This [portrait] is probably a lot closer to the truth than the work of many great masters.“

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The Future comes with a big table

Joe Alexander of the Milwaukee Bucks meets with Corey Maggette of the Golden State Warriors from San Bruno, California and members of the media from Guangzhou and Beijing, China during a teleconference using the Cisco TelePresence system on September 22, 2008 at Cisco Systems in Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

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educational clothing

courtesy of Hamburger Eyes!

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Bank Presidents–1923

Click on the image to view largerest

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i went to my last game at shea last night

“Mookie Wilson still hopes to win it for New York … 3-2 the count … And the pitch by Stanley … And a ground ball trickling … It’s a fair ball. It gets by Buckner! Rounding third is Knight … The Mets will win the ballgame … They win! They win!”- Bob Murphy, WS game six,  Oct 25th 1986

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Nevermind

Shall i use the word seminal to describe the above album that came out today in 1991? Credited for changing the face of rock music, let’s not forget that that kid is now 17 years old. Let’s hope he finishes high school.

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The Days of Summer

The days of summer are behind us along with the table tennis tournaments & fishing trips to the old watering hole.  Soon enough it will be time to forge the hay maze and carve up some pumpkins during dusk.

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Pyongyang

This picture is from a set of pics taken in North Korea that I got from Tarita.  The rest are here.  I’ll talk about how I think government needs to take a larger role in American life, but generally I’m talking about marginal change.  I think we need federalized educational standards and funding, socialized medicine, tighter regulation of financial markets (that’s right, this is topical!) or something like that.  I’m certainly not advocating a Cuban or N. Korean style state, it’s just that Sweden and pre-Reagan revolution USA don’t look so bad now.

We seem to be headed inevitably towards an era of more government involvement in the US economy.  The pendulum doesn’t swing in one direction forever.  I don’t know if you guys read the papers but we are all (except for Stefan, who pays his taxes in the UK) stakeholders in AIG now.  The bailout is the kind of thing they call a seizure or a nationalization if it’s done by Lazaro Cardenas, Ayotollah Khomeini or Hugo Chavez but it’s pretty much accepted as necessary by all politicians.

Extreme free-market ideas that had been really dominating for the last 25 years are up for reexamination.  I believe when they say that this is a bigger deal than 9/11, the war in Iraq and kim kardashian’s upcoming appearance on dancing with the stars, everything.

I mean we currently have the Republican party candidate, who used to take his economic advice straight from Phil Gramm, calling for more regulation and the firing of the head of the SEC (whatever good that’d do now, it’s like replacing your fire alarm during a fire, to overextend the metaphor that every economic expert uses to describe this crisis).  The number of zeroes in the price tag has really changed some minds.

So, to tie it back to the picture, we’re not in Pyongyang yet and that’s good, because these women don’t look like they’re enjoying themselves.  What about you all?  How big a role do you think government should play?

(AP Photo/Xinhua, Zhang Binyang)

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LOL Duck

more animals

Usually, I engage in some Fritch Jake-baiting with my Friday picture. Today I go after Phil.

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the reverse platform shoe

This is Lincoln at the battle of Antietam, where 23,000 soldiers in one day lost their lives.

Damn, he was tall, and add that hat on for good measure? No wonder he had such good vision; he could see over everyone.

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Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and gravy. Good, bad or ugly?

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Daredevil VS. Johnny Punk!

Somehow these ads are more nostalgic for me than some of the comics themselves. For those of you who are not familiar with these, they are ads which used to run in comics for what seemed like all of the 80′s, with many different pies and heroes chronicled.

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hopeless romantic

saw badlands for the first time.  martin sheen does “mildly crazy” the best.  and sissy spacek is the cutest.

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Volunteer, Mexican Army ~1911

Click on the image to view largerest

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fouled balls

I love baseball and one of the best parts about being in the stadium is the free souvenir you get when chance plays with a bat and ball. I have had some near misses in my time, but never have i even put a hand on one. I am proud to announce, to the audience of very serious and the world, that last night,  i became the winner of a  Shea stadium commemorative pepsi potato gun salute tshirt courtesy of the Shea stadium party patrol. being the effete elitist i am, i avoided the scrum, and  the shirt bounced off of ten people and landed right in front of me, packed tightly for delivery by way of a taut latex band.

5 min later a foul ball came screaming at my head, and if it was not for the gentleman in front of me ticking that meteor off his ring finger, i would probably not be posting anything very serious today. At moments like those, your brain takes a snapshot of the moment and even right now, i can see the looks on everyone’s faces when those objects were rocketing at them. it was a total range of emotions: fear, happiness, hope, anger, determination, obliviousness, shyness. so i said to myself, i wonder what good foul ball pics are on the web. heh, not enough!  I now present you, FOUL BALL STORIES.

This guy was not as lucky as me….

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HM Fort Roughs aka Principality of Sealand

HM Fort Roughs, aka Principality of Sealand, aka Haven Co. (a data haven) is an interesting little place with a cool history. Finally, as of 2007, it has opened up its borders to tourism and might even still be for sale.

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My New Best Friend

Asahi Beerbot; stores and more importantly pours your beer for you while you watch football from the couch.

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deutsch focaccia

As requested by Phil, I finally tried Berlin’s pizza with tuna fish on it.  Not bad.  Quite pretty actually.

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Tak It Ezy

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Like the sign on the tree says, you “Tak It Ezy” this weekend

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I HATE MOSQUITOES

QUIT BITING ME! Look at this thing spreading West Nile Virus or something.

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Teenagers please!

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows an accumulation and subsequent loss of gray matter, the cells used for processing information, along time in this image. The reason this is interesting is because as teenagers lose gray matter, they begin to gain cognitive abilities. The write up of this research at Harvard Magazine claims that neural reorganization is the culprit. Many scientists think fMRI lacks the rigor of other methods of imaging.

Is the reorganization of gray matter to white matter really the cause of an increase in cognitive abilities or are these dudes full of it?

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Brazilian Police

These guys are NOT “good police.”

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White House Dogs [c. 1929]

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A while back I showed you the White House cat. Today you get to meet the White House Dogs. Meet King Tut, Whoopie, and Englehurst Gillette; the dogs of President Herbert Hoover.

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the road to obama’s presidency

tonight Obama gives probably the hardest speech that anyone is going to give in a long time. he has a history of making good speeches, so there is anticipation , especially considering his LAST national convention speech, the one that put him on the map (last episode of seinfeld anyone?). He has a lot to accomplish in it. he arguably has to keep changing tone and targets. its a daunting task.  I do believe he will deliver for the most part.

Today, i would love to celebrate this momentous occasion by celebrating figures who worked tirelessly to demonstrate that strong black men can succeed in positions of authority. In “A Very Serious Picture” we celebrate Star Trek’s Deep Space Nine’s Captain Benjamin Sisko.  Sisko played  a major positive role in the Federation’s victory in the Dominion War and the establishment of Bajor as a critical planet in the history of the Federation. To you Ben, baseball lover,  Defiant Commander,  and all around great fictional guy, WE SALUTE YOU!!

gobama.

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Tree man

Dede, a 35 year old resident of West Java, has an unusual condition of warts that have emerged due to a weak immune system coupled with HPV. Hence the name tree man. He is being treated by a western doctor using mostly topical ointments of Vitamin A. The photo essay is here. Photo: REUTERS/Supri.

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Formula For Trouble

That would be a formula for trouble… if our president was a golden retriever.

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Soft Drinks

(Click on the pic to get a better view)

This is the result of a massive study to figure out what people in different regions call generic soft drinks. I my taxes helped pay for this survey. I can’t figure out what might be some of the “other” responses that people gave.

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Cephalopods are the best

Click on the image to view largerest

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Could have gone even faster if my shoe laces were tied

I love sports images so much. If I had to pick a totally different career from what i started off with, it would be taking pictures of athletes doing amazingly magical things. Has a name ever been as appropriate for a sports star as Bolt, the winner and the world record holder for the 100m and 200m sprints? The Jamaican in the Beijing games is the first runner since the ’84 games to win both sprints, and is the first to do them both in record time, in the same Olympics! It was’t even CLOSE. As the picture shows. It was the biggest lead ever in the 200m. That picture, where you don’t see a challenger in the frame, is a Secretariat like .66 seconds. AMAZING. this image is courtesy of the ny times.

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Post-historic animals

The credit for the idea behind the laser tooth tiger, a post historic animal, goes completely to jmann. There has been some debate as to what the actual laser teeth of this future fossil would look like. In this rendition, composed by one micah v., we see the laser teeth bear some semblance to light sabers. Personally, i think they would be more like laser blasts, but i am only a fourth year grad student and have yet to take the procrastination through photo shop class. Feel free to submit your own versions.

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Inflatable

BERN, Switzerland—Paul McCarthy’s Complex Shit, a giant inflatable dog turd, escaped from its moorings at the Zentrum Paul Klee last week and brought down a power line and broke a window before landing on the grounds of a children’s home 200 meters away, the Guardian reports. Although the unintended flight happened on July 31, details emerged only yesterday.

(from Artinfo, sent to me by Victor.)

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insane in the membrane

Recently watched the vbs.tv special on North Korea. Very interesting and sheds some light on a country in poverty that is totally blinded and manipulated by their dictator.
vbs guide to North Korea

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Destroying Whiskey & Beer

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c. 1923

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siamese galaxies

this is too cool. these are spiral galaxies millions of light years away crashing into each other.

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Happy birthdays

Today Castro turns 82. Happy birthday comrade. Happy birthday to everyone else, too.

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Boxmaster

When I arrived in London I was immediately aware that it was my destiny to vanquish the mighty Boxmaster. I did not take lightly the claim that one must remember to lift with ones legs when doing combat with the Boxmaster; so I trained……HARD! When I was finally ready to fulfill my destiny I ate the shit out of that bitch…..HARD! Bloated and beleaguered after the battle I was told by an onlooker that tradition states once a hero defeats a monster he forever keeps with him its name, and thus I have become the Boxmaster.

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lost humor

text from BBC news: Actor and comedian Bernie Mac has died at the age of 50. He was admitted to hospital in Chicago last week and died early on Saturday morning due to complications arising from pneumonia.

So sad!

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Saddle Sofa

I bought a new saddle today. I hope my ass will thank me for it.

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Science is culture

It sure is an exciting time as the European science community puts history’s largest atom smasher/particle accelerator/supercollider online this week. As much of the world has it’s eyes on china, the more relevant moment in recent human history may be occurring in a pastoral country side.

It’s sad because the US used to lead when it came to massive adventurous projects like this but, alas, it’s one other thing we no longer can claim superiority. The state of science in America is not irreversible though. Here is to hoping budgets increase for the scientists instead to rebuilding countries we’ve destroyed.

This is one of the many stunning pictures of the innards of the collider,. This particular part is an experiment that will track how silicon is affected by the subatomic particles that may appear when the hydrogen atoms are smashed open. And those are people with helmets down there.

full size image

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Rage and violence

The home and automobile of two professors were firebombed last week in Santa Cruz. This is latest in a series of animal related acts of violence upon the faculty. I don’t do research on animals, however, i do see it as a necessity in the quest for medical research. Now, the ATF and FBI are crawling the halls of my building. So much for a safety break… Photo credit: Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel

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Airport Couch

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over-sexxed

A warm winter and wet spring left the young oysters especially vulnerable to Oyster Herpesvirus type 1…

slightly more info here:

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Monkey, riding a Rhino

Click on the image to view largerest
From the recently Flickr-ized George Eastman House collection. Taken in the Sudan sometime between 1900-1919. Rhymenocerus.

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The original tropic thunder

don’t get me wrong, i love robert downey jr in those ads, and he is probably going to be excellent in tropic thunder, buuuut to balance that out, we are gonna need more black dudes playing white guys. like 1000 more roles like that. dave chapelle should play all of them.  this is a 1908 minstrel show ad, by the way. that looks just like my great uncle.

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Robo-tuna

Vorticity Control Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (VCUUV). Probably not as tasty as real tuna, but pretty cool. Check out the paper here.

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Wurstkoffer

(click on pic to enlarge)

Okay my German isn’t that great maybe Caroline or Stefan can help me out but I think the slogan at the end means “German Sausage, everything else is cheese”.

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age old debate

I concur!

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Tyger, the White House Cat

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Tyger, the White House Cat during Calvin Coolidge’s term. c. 1924

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Coney Island will always be just like this

it’s like looking into a mirror!! the photographer jim crocamo aptly noted: “how do you make a caricature of a caricature?” He has so many of these wonderful oddities from one of the countries oldest amusement parks.

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Panty patents

This drawing comes from a patent for underwear. My new past time is looking at the various patents that are available for viewing through google patents. No, i don’t have too much time, thank you very much.

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Stock Exchange

This is the outside of the stock exchange in Islamabad.  In Pakistan, just like here, there have been recent heavy losses in stocks.  The difference is that there, the people all go to the stock exchange and break everything and burn things.  I think their way of dealing with it is probably psychologically healthier.  There must be no better feeling than racing a motorcycle through streets filled with burning stock certificates.  I bet the market learned its lesson and now the stocks will rebound.

I got this picture from Barry RIthholtz’s the Big Picture, who got it from the NY Times.  There are more Pakistani stock exchange pics, many of them way better, here.

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the final frontier

above: Infrared image of the core of the Milky Way galaxy

In theory, at the center of the galaxies exists a supermassive black hole; it contain hundreds of thousands to billions of Solar masses. We are not alone.

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Surface Supplied

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the toyota pious

I am a big fan of green technology, but Toyota has been getting some bad press concerning its very popular prius line. this week it has been reported that the hybrid is being built in sweatshop type conditions. famously ridiculed in a south park episode, prius drivers have gained the reputation of loving the smell of their own farts. Toyota is taking the latter charge in stride, and has made these ads to play on the Toyota pious label. a prius owner can do no harm.

here is more from the ad line.

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Hot freaks

All jokes about preceding hairlines aside, i haven’t been to a fair or carnival in a while and i’m curious if there are still human exhibits, aka the freak show, or have we come too far as a society to point and gasp at bearded ladies?

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El Diablo

Didi Senft is a German who goes to the the last bit of each stage of the tour-de-france and hops around in a devil costume.  He’s been doing this for 25 years.

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Puritan

I like it when a picture asks more questions than it answers.

NY, NY 1981, pic by Raymond Depardon, but I found it when Peter showed it to me.

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Lake Tahoe, c. 1866

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MUST DESTROY OLYMPICS

i love this picture. this isnt swamp thing. its a courageous Chinese national trying to clean the Beijing bay of these monstrous seaweed. its choking the waterway that will be used for Olympic yacht races. check out the video to find out where these suckers came from! http://current.com/items/89072757_algae_attacks_china

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Stoches

Not sure what led me to this picture. I think i started with McCain joking about sending Iran cigarettes to kill them. Then there was a thought about cigarette constituents. Then I stumbled on this beaut that must be someone attempting to set the world record. I guess staying in the closet until the whole pack was gone didn’t work too well with this guy.

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beefing over beef

South Korean protesters ain’t something to f**k with.

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Olympic Security

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Terrorists shudder at the gentle whir of the 100 Segways the Chinese government purchased for use by the elite anti-terror police officers corps during the upcoming summer Olympics. From the UK Daily Mail.

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a good ol’ fashioned brothel

it’s an old timey brothel! from a klondike mining town. my friends have been ruminating on when we’ll leave this planet to terraform mars. There is no doubt in my mind that the best way to tell we finally made it over on the red planet, would be when its gets its very own red light district. triple cleavage for everyone!

for more very interesting prostitution news, check out what happens when the pope visits a country!

http://nz.entertainment.yahoo.com/080701/8/6h8n.html

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Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais

Brazil’s elite military police force, Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE) seen in action. Facists or heros? You get to decide, check out the Tropa de Elite for a semi-fictional account. Photo from diario de um PM.

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victory!

so impressed by this kid. go spain!

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Brave Little Toaster

This is the brave little toaster, from the film of the same name.  This is the greatest movie ever made where the protagonist is an appliance, unless you count Wall-E.

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Hawaiian Swimming Team

Click on the image to view largerest

Circa 1924, from the National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress).

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what karl rove REALLY means…

”Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” -Karl Rove

“You are viewing a picture of a Racist Cartoon created in 1906, which portrays a stereotypical view of Blacks at that time. The image was created by the US Lithograph Company. It portrays three African American men checking out a beautiful white woman. The black men are portrayed lusting after a white woman, which as a typical stereotype of the day.”-www.sonofthesouth.com

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Jacques

Keeping in line with last weeks post, today, June 25th, marks the passing of Jacques-Yves Cousteau in 1997.

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locomotion

So yesterday I said I would tell you what the best part about my amusement park would be, well here you have it:  handcarts.  After the first railroad line was completed, I’d fill it up with handcarts and charge a different group of people (It would be a different audience I’m sure) to handcart around.  There would be some special handcarts that would seat four but only two could pump the thing, that way people could take turns or you could take some senior citizens out for a ride.

There would be animatronic buffalo that you could shoot from the handcarts.

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locomotive

This is an early painting of a locomotive from 1844 by Joseph Mallord William Turner (why did everyone go by 4 names back then?) called Rain, Steam, Speed.  Stolen from ILLUSTRATION ART.  I have a good idea for a theme park, the way it’ll work is you charge people to come out to the desert and reenact the building of the railroads, you dress them up in coolie outfits and hurl racial insults and physical abuse on them and make them sleep under the stars at night.  Tomorrow I’ll post the best thing about the amusement park once it gets finished.

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Seth Bullock and Theodore Roosevelt

Click on the image to view largerest

From DigitalDeadwood.com:

“Bullock met Theodore Roosevelt as he was bringing a horsethief, named Crazy Steve, into Deadwood for trial. They shared coffee and beans over the tailgate of a chuck wagon on the rangelands near Belle Fourche. TR believed that Bullock represented the best the West had to offer and their friendship grew rapidly. During the ’90s, Bullock continued to maintain close contact with Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt, the newly elected Vice President under President McKinley, appointed Bullock as the first Forest Supervisor of the Black Hills Reserve. In 1905 President Roosevelt appointed Seth Bullock as United States Marshal for South Dakota. Seth was reappointed in 1909 by President Taft and continued in office for one year under President Woodrow Wilson.

Bullock enjoyed escorting Roosevelt’s sons on hunting and camping trips to the north of Deadwood. Seth even joined TR on a journey to London where Roosevelt showed him off as the “ideal typical American.””

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bacteria makes the other gas

scientists have made a strain of bacteria that digests garbage and excretes petrol.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece

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Oh-lay!

Bull gores Spanish bullfighter, Jose Tomas, at Las Ventas, Madrid on June 15, 2008. Discussions of animal cruelty to follow. Image source: Reuters/Susana Vera.

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Cruijffje!

In honor of the Euro tournament, a cartoon of European player of the century (last century) Johann Cruyff. I think this is about him when he moved to America, flipped off a non-uniformed goalie and took the trophy while his friends dressed up like Indians.  It appears to have been drawn by the guy who drew Tintin also.

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minimalism

Sorry about in the infrequent posts!  I have been without internet for the past few weeks.  This my kitchen in Berlin.  We just moved into an apartment, when it comes to amenities in Berlin apartments…they are few and far between.  We had to ask for the stove and sink.

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Men Overboard

Click on the photo to view BIGgerest!

This amazing, fantastic, baffling photo appeared earlier this week on one of my favorite websites, Shorpy.com. It has everything….Sailors, dancing, semaphores, a victorola, a random goat

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wait, so was smokey the bear on vacation?

the original, “you let the terrorists win when you dont buy SUV’s”.

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The Duke

Today, June 11, 1979 marks the anniversary of the passing of John Wayne, super-patriot and beau-hunk extraordinaire.

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Piglet Cosmonaut

I got these from Tarita, who got it from photoshelter, these are only the first two pics.  Do yourself a favor and see the whole thing.  For Soviet science talk, listen to this week’s BBC show about Profim Lysenko. it actually made me laugh out loud when they talked about the English guy who experimented on mice.

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Crime

I took this pic from pappy, it’s the crime ghost egging on some violence.

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Graf Zeppelin over the US Capitol

Click on the photo to view BIGgerest!

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helmets are not supposed to do that

1 person dead, all those other people injured, by a guy who was drunk at 8 am plowed through a bicycle race fund raiser.  he claims to be an american citizen and he’s in a mexican jail.  sleep with one eye open, clutching your pillow tight.

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It’s official

A day of mixed emotions. O-dawg is facing the mac. Hill-dawg concedes (although she possibly won the popular vote). Gays are given the go ahead to marry by the California Supreme Court. Liberal colleges must be having one hell of a party today.

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angry workers

these korean workers are protesting their company’s president and his new radical policies to improve their company’s financial picture. yikes.

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our money’s no good

Above: the rate of the dollar to the euro. HARSH!

I’ve just moved to Berlin. Aside from monetary disappointments, it’s amazing here. Gorgeous weather (for now). Still doesn’t seem real to me, that I’m living (attempting to anyway) outside the U.S. I miss San Francisco, but I am excited to get settled here.

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Uncontacted

This is an AP photo by Gleison Miranda (Funai) showing indigenous people near the Peru-Brazil border that have never had contact with the outside world. They are trying to shootdown the airplane with bows and arrows. Read about it here.

Click on the photo to view a bit larger.

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Whole Chicken

Here’s some cannibalism for you.  I’m pretty sure I put up another picture of this a while ago. There’s a whole set of this sort of thing on flickr called anthropomorphic cannibalism.

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More monsters!

I had a hard time deciding which monsters i want to post last time around, so i decided to finish with the cute ones.

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U.T.F.O.

I found this album cover I think on The Onion’s website.  I don’t know anything about these dudes except I think they did the Real Roxanne, but I can’t believe they got away with a title like that in the 80s.  A skeezer is a prostitute, a real dirty one.

I guess it was like when L’il Jon was able to say “skeet skeet skeet” on his song and noone complained cause it was some urban slang or how when you listen to the Spanish language morning show they get to say any dirty stuff they want to cause it’s in Spanish.

Also this proves that society isn’t becoming steadily more depraved year by year.

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Deadwood Coach, 1889

Click on the image to view super largerest

Library of Congress, of course

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I love this guy!

I know its overly stereotypical, but you should have seen the two guys driving this truck…

i love unions!

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Evolution

Here’s a picture from the 1930s which I find to be creepy. I feel bad for anyone in the 1930s who invested heavily in chest straps, thinking they would be the clothing trend of the future. I’m sorry for all the outages and problems on this here page lately. It’s due to my hosting company needing a good thrashing, but I’m not going to bore you with the details.

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Model citizen

I knew she was real!

Text from www.sfgate.com: Hello Kitty — Japan’s ubiquitous ambassador of cute — has built up an impressive resume over the years. Global marketing phenom. Fashion diva. Pop culture icon. Now the moonfaced feline can add “government envoy” to the list. The tourism ministry on Monday named Hello Kitty as its choice to represent the country in China and Hong Kong, two places where she is wildly popular among kids and young women. Associated Press photo by Koji Sasahara

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Dispute

(Make a click on the picture to see it more enlargenated) This is Dispute at Serra Pelada goldmine, by Sebastião Salgado, 1989. Salgado was an economist who became a photographer, so his work is in some ways informed by his training. I am sure others know more about the guy than me and can comment, I just think it’s an excellent picture.

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Huh?

Click on the image to view super largerest
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(adolescent) sex sells?

courtesy of :http://www.slate.com/id/2190209/

Apparently, in China, this is a billboard for Disney inspired undergarments. Now, what is going on here? I am very curious if this could be a case of different strokes for different folks.

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Monsters!!!

Who is afraid of monsters?
(click to enlarge and appreciate)

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photoshop at its finest

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Guns

These are handguns being bulldozed in a big line that goes on forever. This picture was on freedarko.com, where I read about basketball. There was no explanation of it and it’s made my mind wander as I imagined what the situation was. Iraqi army demobilization? Did they trade the guns for Janet Jackson tickets like we do here in the US? I think I’m going to find video of this.

Comments Off

Cowboy

Click on the image to view super largerest

Cowboy near Sturgis, Dakota Territory around 1888. By J.C.H. Grabill. From the Library of Congress, dude.

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to be a fly on the wall

of this advertising session that came up with this ad.

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God’s temple

Ever gotten a tattoo or piercing that was the most amazing thing until five years later?

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ignorance is bliss

no more bad news.  hopefully this makes you smile!

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Gag Session

Here we have a picture of some cartoon makers at Warner Brothers in the middle of a “gag session”. This is yet another pic I took from ASIFA, this time from a post about writing. One thing I like is the pin-up on the wall behind them.

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Mealtime

“Negroes in the lineup for food at mealtime in the camp for flood refugees, Forrest City, Arkansas”

From the Library of Congress. By celebrated FSA photographer Walker Evans

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NYPD solidifies trust in communities with guard towers

Ok, let me first state that i really dislike the NYPD, as if my black skin didn’t make that obvious enough. The city has been made safe for white people for over ten years now, and it has come at the so so so low cost of minority civil rights, but who’s really counting here? Well, to increase visibility in minority communities (especially ones that are in the gentrification mode) the nypd wants to extend a hand of friendship by putting these gestapo type watch towers that deploy and are functional in minutes! wooo! where did this technology come from? deer hunters…

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Hydrated?

I am a firm believer that one can diagnose their health by evaluating their excretions. Are you hydrated?

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Clown

This is a picture I found on my computer when  I was cleaning it out.  It’s called “screenshot9.png.jpg” and it appears to be a black and white picture of a sad clown with a metal collar.  Can anyone tell me where I could have gotten this from?  Is it a still from a movie?

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch

As if we didn’t have enough reminders of how our existence is ruining the earth, but this is INSANE.  The above picture is a product of our litter in the ocean.  The biggest villain after us is PLASTIC.  VBS.tv did at video series on the GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH, which resides somewhere in the Pacific Ocean between San Francisco and Hawaii.  There’s some online literature, most say its “an island twice the size of Texas;” however, this information is slightly misleading.  Nothing drives the message home like the video series shown on:

http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505

Please watch it!!

Love, Caroline

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Horace Mann (as photographed by Mathew Brady)

Horace Mann in a daguerreotype most likely shot by Mathew Brady (it was produced at Brady’s studio). This portrait was made in 1849.

Last week Phil asked about the image quality of early photography. Camera Obscuras have been around since the late 1600s (although it was invented by an Iraqi around 1100); by the time people figured ways to capture Camera images, the optics had already been worked out.

Early photographs were recorded on glass or metal plates, both were prone to breaking or scratching. The photographers had to prepare their own plates by brushing on a layer of chemistry, which led to inconsistencies and brush strokes etc. glass/plates.

The chemistry at the time wasn’t especially sensitive to light which meant the exposures had to be very long, like 30-60 seconds. Portrait studios had metal harnesses that would strap to a subject’s body to keep them still during the photograph. Even the slightest movement could result in a blurred image, but it was far easier and more affordable to sit 30 seconds for photograph than to sit for weeks for a painter.

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beijing’s olympic stadium

this is an amazing structure.

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Giant squid

Giant squids, good, bad or both?

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Family Tree

I found this picture, which is a family tree for Donald Duck. It’s big, so you have to click on it to realIy look at it. I always liked Donald Duck in the cartoons cause he would lose his temper and hit himself in the head when things didn’t go his way.

I noticed that Huey Dewey and Louie’s dad skipped town and changed his name. I feel like he should get an honorary membership into the Fatherhood Hall of Fame for leaving his baby’s mother and hiding behind a branch so that Donald has to look after the nephews. What’s the story with their parents anyway?

Also, Donald has actual blood relatives who are Geese and Coots, or at least have last names that suggest that’s what they are. That’s gross. Geese, coots and ducks are totally different species.

Furthermore Jake Mcduck (on the left side, Donald’s great-uncle) has an awesome beard, especially for a bird.

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expatriot

Above: Berlin, Germany.

Dear Colleagues,

I’ll be moving to Berlin at the end of May. If you have any suggestions or words of advice, I would love to hear them! Sorry to use this platform for my own needs, but I’m terrified and very excited and hope you have grounded words of wisdom for me. I’ve been to Berlin once a few years ago for a few days. I loved it. Now as my tenth anniversary in San Francisco approaches, I’m leaving the nest as rent continues to climb climb climb! I love this city, and I’ll probably be back. Just need to uproot myself for a bit.

Bitte,

Caroline

PS. I know the dollar to euro conversion SUUUUCKS. What timing, huh?!

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General Buford

General John Buford and his aides-de-camp. From a glass plate negative shot sometime during the Civil War. From the Library of Congress.

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heaven is a beer truck

somewhere…

yes, that is the beer store. courtesy of J. Conklin

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Happy birthday, LSD!

On April 16th, in 1943, Dr. Albert Hoffman accidentally ingested LSD-25 and fried balls. Turn on, tune in, drop out. If that doesn’t sell LSD, what could?

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Fighting Methodist

This is some art from a book called Oyster War that cartoonist Ben Towle is working on about a boom in oyster production in Chesapeake Bay at the turn of the century (last century I mean) and its effect on a nearby Methodist colony. I think this is one of the Methodists. I put this picture up because I like his fighting style and the way he dresses.

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nice cover

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The Law Won

Prisoners breaking rocks in the, umm, hot sun. Location and date unknown. From the Library Of Congress

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Tempting

Probably on its way to a Thursday happy hour at the hospital, these huge platters of curry goat, basmati rice and salad were dropped right in the middle of the ambulance drive way at NYU Medical. Being a big fan of Indian food, I was tempted just for half a second…JK! I don’t know about you, but if i dropped this in the middle of a driveway, I think I would make an effort to clean it up?

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Mother goose

This image is taken from entries by Willy Pogany deposited in the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archives. I would like to point out that, “nobody asked you, sir.”

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Making of Steel

Boris Artzybasheff drew this, it’s part of a series of pictures of an anthropomorphized steel mill done n the 1950s. Their faces are the strangest part to me.

Artzybasheff was a Russian guy born at the very beginning of the 20th century who made a career in illustration here in the US. This was back when illustrators made top dollar, he was real versatile and could switch his style up. He drew illustrations for the tourist board of Bermuda, covers for Time magazine, whatever.

I found this at the Animation Archive and whoever put it there commented that this would have looked amazing had it been animated. I agree with that.

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elephant’s self portrait

why? how? anyway….just watch the youtube video, link below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LHoyB81LnE 

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Skid Row, Modesto, 1937

by Dorothea Lange, from the Library of Congress.

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FMILF

Being a huge american history fan (and in particular, the enlightenment/colonial era), i am really into HBO’s “John Adams” mini series. If you haven’t watched it, you are really missing something. Laura Linney plays stalwart wife of our second president, Abigail Adams, and I find myself fantasizing about what it would be like to do one of the Founding Mothers, especially if they look like Laura Linney… To my disappointment, I have not found a picture of Mrs. Adams that could possibly come close to Linney on a bad day (a day when she falls face first into afterbirth). I may have to move on to Martha Washington, who in old age, still looked quite the hottie.

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Out of the hen house

A pic from 1917 from Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Aug. 22, 1917.

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The future

This is originally from an issue of Life magazine from 1911 but I got it from Paleo Future, which shows various images of what the future was predicted to be like in the past. Many of them are pretty far off but this one is spot on it seems like. If you click on the pic you can see that the man is basking in stored sunlight, spying on his son, listening to the Opera on the recordigraph and huffing fresh air from Newport, Pike’s Peak and Atlantic City (nasty). I don’t care for the snooty robot butler. If I ever had a robot butler it wouldn’t look human, I’d find it unnerving.

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brewskie, ey!

found in Courtenay, Vancouver Island, B.C.

how is this not in California already?

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The Cannibal

Yesterday Phil and I went for an epic bike ride. Naturally, we talked about the aesthetics of cycling in days of yore, wool jerseys, Paris-Roubaix and Eddy Merckx. Here’s Merckx winning the world championship in 1971. There’s a lovely more recent portrait of Merckx here that you should check out too.

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the Barbershop

(more barbershop charts here. -phil)

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Get Happy

Science magazine recently published an article demonstrating that spending money on others promotes happiness. True for you? Read more here.

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hamburger

I was going to put up the pic of the war widow in the graveyard or the other, similar one, but I figured it would take away from the general air of frivolity I try to maintain. So, without any further fuss, we have here a hamburger dress, or a picture of one, stolen by me from Thadd’s “shared items”. I think I would like it more if she had an onion belt or a handbag that looked like a large order of fries.

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juking the stats

says who huh??

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Last Day of Alcatraz

On March 21, 1963, 45 years ago today, the guards at Alcatraz escorted the last prisoners off the island to San Francisco Airport to be transfered other prisons. Here, a guard looks on the empty cells of the notorious federal prison. From the San Francisco Public Library.

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super couples

This is a picture of a 5 year anniversary Iraq war protest Wednesday in the very conservative town of Lancaster, PA. That guy holding the “silence is consent” sign is a vietnam veteran and father to my close friend. Next to him, the blonde woman, is his wife, mother to my close friend. This image of them together, protesting, warms my heart.

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The Luther Burger

This is the Luther Burger, said to have been a favorite of Luther Vandross (RIP), although I’ve also heard of it as being something one of the Neville brothers ate. It’s a bacon cheeseburger on a krispy kreme doughnut rather than a bun. I’d like to add that’s it’s really well photographed and looks like it’s on Martha Stewart. There’s a review of how it tastes here.

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Hippo

This is a picture of a hippo from a mural called “animal circus” by Aurelius Battaglia, a cartoonist and illustrator. I know I put a lot of pics from old cartoonists up here but they interest me lately. I am going to switch to Lindsay Lohan upskirts next week probably.

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Crisis

This is a Russian cartoon in honor of the financial meltdown currently in progress. I think I took it from Barry Ritholtz, but I forget. As always, my advice is to invest in guns and water purifiers.

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Emperor Norton on a bicycle

I have bicycles on my mind these days. Here’s old timey San Francisco eccentric Emperor Norton riding a bicycle courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library.

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ouch!

spring training baseball is in full swing!

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Crafts

We all like food. After seeing tons of plastic sushi this weekend, i thought about doing a photo essay. So has the rest of the world. I found cool felt sushi here.

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Brock Samson

The Venture Brothers is one of the greatest things ever put on television. It’s about a grown-up Johnny Quest character, whose life has in many ways been a massive dissapointment, his two sons and their strangely maternal bodyguard.

Stephen DeStefano does character design for the show and he’s made up a how-to-draw tutorial for the production artists. This page is about how to draw the bodyguard, Brock Samson.

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dedicated to TOMO

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Group Photos

“”Hennessy’s 5th Ave. in Richmond dist. Irish bar. ‘Irish eyes are smiling.’”" 1974
Photo by Mary Kramer from the San Francisco Public Library.

Group of men leaning against a wall on Market Street, 1968
Photo by Mary Kramer from the San Francisco Public Library.

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Charles Addams

I have been looking for classic Charles Addams comics. He is the creator of the Addams family. I can credit the far side, the simpsons and chas addams for shaping my sense of humor.

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This doesn’t need a description

You might want to check your chin for drool.

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Uncle Dirty

This is a picture of Uncle Dirty, from a photo essay about him made by one of his nephews, or great grandnephews or whatever you call it and the forwarded to me by my friend John. He’s a lifelong bodybuilder from Brooklyn who now lives in Jacksonville with his wife (unlce dirty, not John), his life revolves around parading around in public wearing a stuffed thong. He has other equally strange hobbies. He seems like a pretty happy guy and he’s oddly inspirational, as strange as that might sound.

I’ll give you a link to the photo essay but please bear in mind some of it is a bit graphic so those readers with a delicate constitution or under close workplace supervision should use discretion.

(update – the guy’s account is suspended. Be patient and I’ll find the new link)

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heebie jeebies

text from sfgate.com –
The nutshell: In 1959, nine experienced Russian cross-country skiers — seven men and two women, led by a man named Igor Dyatlov — headed to the Ural Mountains, to a slope called Kholat Syakhl (Mansi language for “Mountain of the Dead,” ahem) for a rugged, wintry trek. On their way up, they are apparently hit by inclement weather and veer off course and decide to set up camp and wait it out. All is calm. All is fine and good. The weather is not so bad. They go to sleep.

Then, something happens. In the middle of the night all nine suddenly leap out of their tents as fast as possible, ripping them open from the inside (not even enough time to untie the doors) and race out into the sub-zero temps, without coats or boots or skis, most in their underwear, some even barefoot or with a single sock or boot. It is 30 degrees below zero, Celsius. A few make it as far as a kilometer and a half down the slope. All nine, as you might expect, quickly die.

Here’s a link to an article describing the event…
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2008/02/04/004.html

and wikipedia’s as well…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_pass_accident

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Lincoln’s Second Inauguration

Click here to view larger

The Library of Congress recently discovered new photos of Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration in 1865. Imagine, wet plate photography, the most widely used technique until George Eastman invented film in the 1880s, was only about 10 years old when this image was made making it one of the earliest American photographs.

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Cities

This picture isn’t a microchip, but it sure looks like it. It’s an aerial view of a Tokyo neighborhood on the cover of Science: “By 2030 the number of urban dwellers on earth will have exploded to 4.8 billion people, roughly 60 percent of the projected world population, whereas only 13 percent lived in cities in 1900.” That would just be pretty difficult on infrastructure and cities that can’t have sprawl, wouldnt it?

read some more: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/319/5864/739

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Indian Runner Duck

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William

This isn’t really about Victor, who seems like an alright guy and has a good victory dance. I am thinking about William.

What kind of fancy lad is William? And what business does a watch have in a baseball game? I think that William’s family owns the salt mine that the other boys’ fathers labor in.

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O.G.

The original mission hipster (ps. I hate that word, but it’s necessary for this post). Saw the sequel, A Few Dollars More, last night. It’s been over 15 years since I’ve seen A Fistful of Dollars, but I remember really enjoying it. The monk (as he’s called in A Few Dollars More) plays cool and aloof better than any twenty-something on this coast or the other. Wardrobe and all…

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Camillus S. Fly

So I just took an epic road trip from Texas to my new home in San Francisco, CA. My wife and took the opportunity to tour through parts of the US we had never been too. You can see the photos/read about our adventures here. After dropping by Tombstone, AZ I talked to my dad–he told me that Camillus S. Fly (often CS Fly) was my great grandmother’s cousin and was the photographer in Tombstone at the time of the shootout at the OK Corral. His studio was next to the OK Corral and he made portraits of many of the participants like Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Fly also documented the Apaches that lived in the area, and photographed the surrender of Geronimo. I drove past the spot where Geronimo surrendered on Hwy 80.

Some Apaches:

View Larger

Geronimo’s Surrender:

View Larger

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add your own caption

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Goodbye fair prince

Fidel has officially stepped down. This really sucks for all of us that never had a chance to visit Cuba. I’m not sure if it will remain the same. I chose an older, more flattering picture that has a guest appearance by Khrushchev.

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Harper Goff’s Steamboat

Here’s a lovely picture of a steamboat by illustrator Harper Goff. If it looks real Disney-like it’s because Harper Goff designed a good deal of Disneyland and did production design for movies also.

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waterboarding can’t be that bad, right?

i mean it can’t be torture cause the church sanctioned body the inquisition used it , and we all know how they were into prisoner rights and due process. these guys in this picture should be smiling more!

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Oh, really?

I’m fine with selling fanny packs, but really, did the model need to pose shirtless? I also want to point out how the fanny pack has evolved. Notice the cell phone pocket. Buy or look at more here.

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San Francisco 1971

This is a giant picture of the city of San Francisco, where I live, taken in 1971, before I was born. It doesn’t look giant, I know, you have to click on it to enlarge it cause of the way blogger works.

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tuff guy

I can’t remember how old I was, I’m gonna guess around 7 or 8, I wanted to go to the beach super bad one day. My dad was too busy, so he sat me in front of the TV and popped in Jaws 1 and 2 in the VHS player. Needless to say, I didn’t want to go the beach anymore. But this guy became a hero that day.

Roy Scheider
Nov 10, 1932 – Feb 10, 2008

…and one more photo because I just can’t help myself….sorry!

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Miss Bernhardt with a deep sea diver

Miss Bernhardt, full-length portrait, seated, facing slightly right, with person in deep sea diving gear standing alongside. From the LoC archive. Click here to view larger

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the Power of Zen

For non-sports fans, and non- football fans, it’s probably hard to understand what the big deal is. Why should the city of NY, on the brink of a national recession, spend millions of dollars to clean up ticker tape and property damage from 2 million + screaming ecstatic fans? There is something special about public joy and public happiness. The Brazilians get it. As ridiculed as it is, Burning Man gets it. Something about being happy among strangers is good for the human race and I wish there were more parades, more celebrations of this sort for things that everyone (save for New England) can appreciate.

The scene was more than surreal. I stood about a football field away from ground zero. Babies and small children were everywhere. Whole families were there. I was smashed closer to people than i have ever been, which is saying much since I travel on New York City subways. Yet, as if the crowd had somehow absorbed the immense amount of calm and Zen that Eli Manning has been long criticized as a fault in his game and leadership skills, the crush of human bodies was like a giant group hug.

That’s definitely the most personal impression I have taken from the past four years of the Eli era. The dude never let NYC get him down. There was a reason that the Giants were so good on the road vs. so pathetic at home. The pressure of winning in NY is nothing to scoff at. It’s like your first piano recital in front of 70,000 moms and dads, aunts and uncles, mother-in-laws and second cousins twice removed. He didn’t let the disappointment of millions of people create doubt in his belief what he was capable of: super bowl champion and mvp. It’s an unreal amount of inner Zen to accomplish what he did and I appreciate it.

oh yeah, take that Boston.

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There will be blood

Did you vote? If not, you may be responsible for the battle royal that Reuters is calling a bloodbath. In case you didn’t know, neither candidate won the primary election for the Democrats. Big Mac took down the Republican nomination. Todays lesson? Non Republicans need to find some solidarity if we don’t want one nation under a Big Mac.

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Voytek (4)

asian sensation

can be found at the korean market in oakland, called koreana. not sure what the cross streets are, but it’s near the 19th st bart station.

it was spicy, indeed! (no chickens were involved in the making of this drumstick)

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Army Medical School Class

I love old timey group shots like this.

Click here to view larger.

From the Otis Historical Archives of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, in Washington DC on Flickr.

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would you buy meat from this guy?

i love how Ron’s mouth has a ring of blood around it. this photo is over 15 feet high and i got to say, i dont get how he’s convinced kids for years to eat his burgers.

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Insane in the membrane

Elizabeth Parsons Ware Packard was institutionalized by her husband for over three years. The result were many books chronicling the nastiness of the system. This picture is taken from a blog about a play about the books.

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Steel

This is from an animated film made for the steel industry years and years ago. I have a lot of things to say about it, but I will hold off for now and say them on the message board or in comments.

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church ‘n state

Mount Davidson is the highest natural point in San Francisco, California, with an elevation of 925 feet (282 meters). Mt. Davidson’s most notable feature, aside from its height, is the 103-foot (31.4 meter) concrete cross situated at the peak of the hill.

The cross itself has been the subject of much debate among the residents of San Francisco as they have tried to weigh its obvious religious status against its position as a historic landmark. In 1991 the American Civil Liberties Union, American Jewish Congress, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sued the city over its ownership of the cross. After a long legal battle and loss at the California Supreme Court, the City auctioned 0.38 acres (1,538 square meter) of land, including the cross, to the highest bidder in 1997. The cross was sold to the Council of Armenian-American Organizations of Northern California, and has since served as a memorial of the 1915 Armenian genocide.

PS. From the park entrance, it’s a nice short hike to one of the BEST full circle panoramic views of the city.

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Chuck Norris Has Nothing On Chuck Yeager

Chuck Norris Has Nothing On Chuck Yeager. Thanks for the photo, NASA.

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would you give this company money?

From the streets of Astoria, in front of phil’s favorite chicken and rice stand, who raised their prices on New Years.

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More from the LOC

Pete really gave me a huge time waster when he presented the LOC pictures on flickr.com last week. I really like a lot of them. Here is a picture of an office worker who was recruited to paint planes. You can get lost in history over there.

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Snowman

I hope that the title of this didn’t make you think that it was going to be a picture of Young “They call me the snowman, cause I got that snow, man. Yeeeeeaaahh” Jeezy. It’s from a story that a guy told on NPR awhile ago about how the super of his apartment complex was apparently tricked out of thirty-thousand dollars by investing in the variety show rights to a snowman who could bench-press 450 lbs.

The priest and the doctor are the narrator’s idea of how if a snowman was really alive, it would be so cataclysmic for society and would need to be addressed by science and religion and that a variety show would be the least of our concerns.

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wha happen’d?

bigger is not always better…

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Rebels Eating Tortillas

Rebels eating tortillas (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress.

Rebels eating tortillas

[between 1910 and 1915]

The Library of Congress is now on Flickr!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/

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NYC Holiday Tumbleweeds

Every January and NYC curbs become the destination of the dead hopes and dreams of the holiday season. In my neighborhood, they are starting a tradition of taking old xmas trees and having a ceremonial wood chipping party in the park. The chips will apparently be used for mulch.

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Fistulated Cows

Sad but true, the cow with a window is a reality. Is this necessary to understand the digestive process of cows?

Image source here.

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Art Young

The caption says “eleven hours a day” and the thing being stuffed into the man’s mouth is labelled “profits”. This is some real talk by Art Young. I think it’s strange that there is a factory where they make child labor.

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urban art

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You’ve seen it before, but…

Sorry duders, I know you’ve seen this image a thousand times. And it’s no secret that I love browsing through the Libary of Congress online image catalog. This reason why I post this Dorethea Lange image is because it’s public domain, you can download a high res 55mb scan of it, and print out for your wall. Or you can bring it into Photoshop and adjust the toning or do whatever you want with it. Although copyright protections are vitally important, it’s equally import to have a fair system that allows for copyrighted work to enter into the public domain.

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ending homicide

This picture, titled “arrest” is a penn station incident from 1982, or when the C+C Factory (Crack and Criminals) ruled NYC. i got it from this ny mag article about how current rates of homicide in nyc keep going down, and 2007 saw them dip below 500. The article then poses some solutions to drive the number to zero. One that i have seen made by other social scientists is legalizing drugs, since most of the murders are drug related. interesting.
The Killing of Murder

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This day in history

On this day in 1493, Columbus, sailing near what is now the D.R. mistakenly claimed to have seen three mermaids. They were in fact manatees. Do they look the same to you?

For more information check out here.

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The Trusts

I like old political cartoons and I think for the next few weeks, I am going to start putting them up on Tuesdays along with full discussions of them.

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shock

Benazir Bhutto
June 21. 1953 – December 27, 2007

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Motorcycle Patrol, Yellowstone 1919

From the National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection

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the beard that bit back

I watched Letterman’s beard make jokes in HD last night. I appreciated him explaining how the writers/workers fight has gone and why he returned to the air, but it seemed hollow to me. On the eve of the Iowa polls opening up, I find it quite telling that Mike Huckabee had no idea that he was breaking picket lines by appearing on Leno.

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Tatiana R.I.P.

With the passing of 2007, we saw the passing of Tatiana the tiger at the S.F. Zoo. I think it is incredibly sad that Tatiana had to be kilt for being a tiger. Did the dudes who were taunting her get what they deserved? Will Tatiana get her wings? Tatiana, we miss you.

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New Year’s Eve, New York, 1907

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Elephant safety

Image source: Canadian Safety Council

Elmer the safety elephant was first introduced crica 1947 in an effort to reduce auto accidents involving children. You can find more information here.

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delicious treat

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Gorillas Murdered in the Congo

I hope I don’t sound too cynical, because it’s not my intention. When the various photojournalism picture of year awards are announced in the coming months, the image by Brett Stirton is sure to be a top prize winner. The photos shows rangers from the Virunga National Park in Congo evacuating one of four endangered Mountain Gorillas that was shot in the head execution style last July. This is the silver back alpha male, also killed where three female gorrillas. One was pregnant and the other two had babies, that haven’t been found and are presumed dead. Two other silver backs were killed in a similar fashion early this year.

This image is copyrighted by the photographer and distributed by Getty. It is important this image is seen. To see the rest of the essay by Stirton, please visit his website.

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Zagat Guide: street edition

Over the past five years, the area around my job has seen an explosion of chicken and rice stands; everything from the quintessential hot dog, gyro man, bagel breakfast coffee shops to smoothie and fruit stands, these units serve as mini stores and kitchens. This one popped up in one of the remaining spaces on the street. It’s no surprise these are becoming so ubiquitous since rents in NYC have skyrocketed for the residential apartment and even more so, for businesses. The fact that it hasn’t “opened” yet and finds the need to “advertise” is a sign of the chicken and rice times.

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Name this

Someone, somewhere knows where this picture is from.

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Felix Lorioux

Felix Lorioux was a children’s book illustrator from France. His work really holds up, here is a pic of his illustration from the fable about the fox and the crow. I like the crow’s outfit. There are more scans at ASIFA.

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tis the season

…for sugar overload.

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Hey Sailor

Probably American sailors, in New York, maybe, possibly around 1905.

From the Library Of Congress Archives

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Not laughing now, eh?

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What equals what?

I put this on the wrong blog. Oops. I expect a thorough discussion of this.

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Panther

This is an illustration by Wally Wood, an American cartoonist who had a long career. I can’t imagine what kind of story he was illustrating though. What could the title of this story possibly be?

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survival of the cutest.

Sea otters sleep holding paws, to keep from drifting apart at sea.

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Anonymous Phone Call

From the San Francisco Public Library Archives

Newscopy: “Residents and businessmen along Irving st. thought they might be witnessing a crime or a TV enactment of one in the 600 block this morning. Police descended in force in response to an anonymous call at 8:15 that a man had killed his wife and barricaded himself in a hobby shop at 646 Irving, threatening to shoot any who came near. Getting no response to shouts from the sidewalk, Sgt. Sidney Olson threw a newspaper rack through the glass front door, after which Patrolman Frank Gannon fired two tear gas shells into the place. Subsequent search of the store revealed no trace of anyone. Police then raced to the home of the shop owner, Albert Beckman, at 1311 12th ave. They found him and his wife very much alive, and mystified about the commotion. They said, however, they had been receiving daily harassing phone calls since they acquired the shop a year ago. Police were trying to locate the driver of a cab which reportedly picked up a fare at the store shortly before the hoax call was made.”

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Only the white man can profit from pain

yesterday was the 74th anniversary of the end of one of the most ill conceived programs this country has ever committed itself to: PROHIBITION.

It is your duty to drink and remind yourself that drugs and alcohol do not kill people, cigarettes do. I mean, people do. I always get that wrong.

FREE MARY J WANA!

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Photo tampers

Here is a photo of Honest Abe where his head has been placed on John Calhoun’s body. What is the oldest example of photo tampering that is known? This photo dates to circa 1860.

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Major Taylor

This man’s name was Major Taylor AKA “the Colored Cyclone” AKA “the Worcester Whirlwind”. He wasn’t in the military, but he used to do bike tricks while wearing a uniform. He was an American bicycle racer from back when that was a major spectator sport, at the turn of the century. As a black guy in America he had to deal with real nasty stuff, like kids would throw sharp stuff under his tires or other riders would collude to block him.

I imagine that his bike weighs approximately 120 lbs and is made 0ut of iron with solid oak tires.

He raced many times in Europe and even though the 40s-60s golden era of cycling is more interesting to me personally, I don’t see why there isn’t a Hollywood movie about him in Paris already.

There’s more information about him here.

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seriously moved.

i’m not a war advocate, but i love ww2 movies and/or documentaries. i’ve spent the last week of my life watching this ten-part series. BAND OF BROTHERS. so good!!

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Teddy R and Johnny M

So, of course, my innaugural contribution to A Very Serious Picture would be of Theodore Roosevelt. In this case he’s taking a load off with John Muir in Bro-semite. This is from the Archives at the Library of Congress.

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bush/gore ticket in 2012?! psyche

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Have you ever felt like this?

Does this look familiar?

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Uncomprehending Eskimos

I know the way he feels. It’s like sometimes you just get so ashamed of yourself that you have to hit some Eskimos with a giant stick of ice.

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Gin Lane

This is an imaginary street by Hogarth named Gin Lane where everyone drinks gin. They’re living in squalor, a child is falling down the stairs and his mom doesn’t care, a guy is hanging himself in the window on the right, everyone is ruined.

The poem at the bottom reads:

Gin, cursed Fiend, with Fury fraught,
Makes human Race a Prey.
It enters by a deadly Draught
And steal our Life away.

Virtue and Truth, driv’n to Despair
Its Rage compells to fly,
But cherishes with hellish Care
Theft, Murder, Perjury.

Damned Cup! that on the Vitals preys
That liquid Fire contains,
Which Madness to the heart conveys,
And rolls it thro’ the Veins.

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Beer Street

This pic is from William Hogarth, you can click on the pic to enlarge it. It’s an engraving of an imaginary neighborhood called beer street where everyone is happy and jolly eating ham and drinking beer.

The point of this and Friday’s post was to encourage the banning of gin, which was a new invention and was to London at the time what crack was to Baltimore in the 80s.

Even all these years later, they still do their job cause I feel like gin is vile and causes misery, while beer makes everyone happy.

The poem at the bottom reads:
“Beer, happy Produce of our Isle
Can sinewy Strength impart,
And wearied with Fatigue and Toil
Can cheer each manly Heart.
Labour and Art upheld by Thee
Successfully advance,
We quaff Thy balmy Juice with Glee
And Water leave to France.
Genius of Health, thy grateful Taste
Rivals the Cup of Jove,
And warms each English generous Breast
With Liberty and Love!”

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