Stray Snippets

2011-03-06T16:17:00.002Z

2011-03-06T16:07:00.000Z

Fast as lightning

2010-07-27T20:21:00.001+01:00

When you watch this video you'll see that 'fast as lightning' is hardly an exagerration - in fact it's practically an understatement. To trace the course of lightning, this slow-motion video, massively expanded to 1.33 minutes, was shot at a speed of 9,000 frames per second in Rapid City, SD on 16 June 2010.

Via Neatorama

'Summer Hours'

2010-07-21T01:31:00.000+01:00

Liquid strokes, translucent colours, plenty of sun and sea.

'Summer Hours' an animated film by Jeff Scher. Click on the link to watch.

Slightly used

2010-07-21T01:24:00.000+01:00

If Count Dracula flicks through the 'classified' section of his local paper, he might be interested in this item:

'coffin set, slightly used', via Criggo.

Art has a life of its own

2010-07-13T13:07:00.000+01:00

Metareferences and intertextuality have become a staple of several art forms in the last few decades, not least for their comedic and therefore comic potential. Sarah Wickliffe's short animated film
'Art's Desire' uses precisely this aspect to good effect.

by Sarah Wickliffe, via Animation Blog.

Odd headline of the day

2010-07-13T11:32:00.000+01:00

I spotted the surreal headline on Arbroath.

The Adidas 'jabulani' ball proved a real balls-up

2010-07-11T18:12:00.001+01:00

In case you thought your eyes were deceiving you when the ball seemed to swerve unexpectedly just milliseconds away from the goalposts in several of this year's games, watch NASA's own tests on the highly controversial so-called 'jabulani' ball that Adidas designed especially for the 2010 World Cup, in the name of God knows what interests. Countless football players, goalkeepers, and team managers have already complained about it, and quite rightly too. Here's what NASA aerospace engineer Rabi Mehta found out about the jabulani ball:

"From his research on tennis and cricket balls in wind tunnels, Mehta believes that the Jabulani ball will tend to knuckle at 45 to 50 mph, which coincides with the speed of the ball during free-kick around the goal area. Another point made by Mehta, is that a lot of the stadiums for the World Cup are located at high altitude (Johannesburg is at 5,500 feet) and this will affect the ball aerodynamics as well, since the air density is lower. At this high altitude, the ball will tend to fly faster (less drag) and swerve less (less lift)."

The short video below demonstrates Mehta's points and explains the causes of the ball's faulty aerodynamics:

Chicken waltz

2010-07-10T11:53:00.000+01:00

Today I'm in the mood for some classical music. We'll start with an unusual a capella performance of 'The Blue Danube', composed by Johann Strauss in 1866. The conductor is Gonzo.

Bzzzz....

2010-07-10T11:46:00.000+01:00

Malena Ernman and Martin Fröst, accompanied by Niklas Sivelöv on the piano, perform 'The Flight of the Bumblebee', an interlude from the opera 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan', which was composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov around 1899-1900.

'The Typewriter'

2010-07-10T11:39:00.000+01:00

With unemployment on the rise, beat competition by offering prospective employers advanced secretarial skills.

'The Typewriter', composed by Leroy Anderson, is performed by Martin Breinschmid and the Strauß Festival Orchestra Vienna (Germany, 2008).

Mr Whippy - nature's own recipe

2010-07-07T13:54:00.000+01:00

All that's missing is a 99 Flake.

Dirty money.

2010-07-07T13:46:00.000+01:00

If you have dirty money, try money laundering. That's what they do in Zimbabwe. Find out why here.

Advertising tactics to promote advertising

2010-07-07T13:43:00.000+01:00

Though not exactly PC, admittedly, they have a point.

via Daily picdump

Collateral murder of justice?

2010-07-07T10:50:00.000+01:00

Of course no-one in their right mind would have expected a different outcome, and yet I for one was nonetheless surprised to hear that, instead of seeking to convict the murderers, the US military seek to convict the whistleblower.

Spc Manning is being accused by the US military of leaking the footage that shows the crew of an Apache helicopter killing 12 civilians (including two Reuters staff) in Baghdad in 2007 in cold blood. The crew are heard making a number of sickeningly inappropriate remarks and to be enjoying their killing spree as though it were a computer game. Spc Manning is now being accused of leaking the material to a former computer hacker, Adrian Lamo, who passed it on to WikiLeaks. The footage, the links to which I'd posted earlier, was released by WikiLeaks on 5 April 2010 under the title 'Collateral murder'. If Spc Manning is convicted, he could face between 50 and 70 years in jail. As for the crew who acted and behaved like the worst of murderers, not a word of accusation from their employers (source: BBC).

The oldest light

2010-07-05T12:59:00.000+01:00

To me 'microwave' is associated with drab meals, scalding hot on the outside, still frozen inside, rather than with anything as stunning as the image below. This is the first full-sky portrait 'taken' by Europe's Planck telescope. The map, which took 6 months to complete, records the light emitted by cosmic gas and dust. It also records the 'cosmic microwave background', or CMB as it's known, the oldest light in the universe (more on the BBC).

Click to enlarge

Full-sky maps that record only visible starlight look very different, as do maps based on infrared or X-ray emissions. You can compare different views of the sky on Chromoscope. Here, for example, is another stunning portrait of the sky in near-infrared from WISE:

Click to enlarge

Oh Deer.

2010-07-05T00:29:00.000+01:00

An unexpectedly ambiguous poster meant to promote 'Hunting in Poland'. I like the idea (precisely because I don't like hunting).

Via Found in Mom's Basement

Paper zoo

2010-07-02T13:47:00.000+01:00

Isn't he splendid? Origami rhinoceros, on Seiji Nishikawa's Flickr page.

Origami crab (image source)

Origami elephant (image source)

Origami bear (image source)

Origami lion (image source)

Teatime

2010-06-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

Now that's what I call creative tea drinking. I just wish I knew where the top two photos come from.

More eccentric teapots!

Created by Da Yu Xiao Hu (source)

Image source

Via Herbal Infusions

Image source

A photo a day

2010-06-30T12:30:00.001+01:00

Bryce Canyon, /Utah US (image source)

Flowerpots

2010-06-30T12:20:00.000+01:00

A lovely little film by Rafael Sommerhalder.

Flowerpots from Crictor on Vimeo.

Writer, Director: Rafael Sommerhalder, Dubbing Mix: Zhe Wu

Production: Royal College of Art, London

Spotted on Titam

Proof that men are from Mars.

2010-06-29T21:45:00.000+01:00

Via the delectable Awkward Family Photos.

What gravity looks like

2010-06-29T12:28:00.000+01:00

You're looking at a colourful portrait of the planet as a continuous gravity field. The map, which depicts (in false colour) the pull of gravity across the Earth, has been compiled on the basis of data collected by Europe's low-orbiting Goce satellite. The precise effects of gravity on the planet are of great interest not only to geophysicists and engineers, but also to oceanographers and environmental scientists. Read why here.

Image from the BBC (click to enlarge).

The longest boxing match in history

2010-06-28T17:45:00.000+01:00

'The longest boxing match ever fought took place in New Orleans in April 1893 and lasted 111 rounds.' Miraculously, Andy Bowen and Jack Burke survived that unplanned and no doubt totally gruelling test of endurance.

'Mice suspected of sparking blaze that killed 100 cats'

2010-06-26T16:48:00.002+01:00

Article snippet via Criggo

I think I know who masterminded that.

Carrots

2010-06-26T16:09:00.001+01:00

Lots of innuendo in this German postcard (early 20th c., via MetroPostcard Blog).

Aurora from space

2010-06-24T15:17:00.000+01:00

Satellite images of the ghostly beauty of the Southern and Northern lights.

Aurora Australis (NASA)

Aurora Borealis over the US (SSEC)

Hair salon

2010-06-23T12:54:00.000+01:00

Don't be so anal about grooming, honey, your hair's just fine.

Image: Telegraph

Sub-atomic sounds

2010-06-23T12:32:00.000+01:00

Many years after Blondie's 'Atomic', here's CERN's 'sub-atomic': here you can listen to the simulated sounds produced by sub-atomic particles, the most famous of which is the ever-elusive Higgs boson, aka 'God particle', when they are generated in the Large Hadron Collider. There's a definite sci-fi feel about the littlw tune, I must say. More about the project on the BBC.

The image represents the electronic signatures produced by collisions of protons and antiprotons in the Tevatron accelerator at Fermilab (image via Science Daily, courtesy of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory).

Goose-stepping chicken

2010-06-21T09:19:00.000+01:00

...und 65 yearz later, he vaz wreincarnated az ein chicken.

Spotted on Arbroath

La Belle Vuvuzela

2010-06-20T20:32:00.002+01:00

The entirely unofficial World Cup 2010 cover version of the classic hit by Labelle.

The true origin of the legendary vuvuzela

2010-06-20T18:53:00.001+01:00

Landscape puzzles

2010-06-20T14:24:00.000+01:00

A stunning photo of a terraced rice field in China.

Photograph by Thierry Bornier, via National Geographic

Click on photo to enlarge.

Tealights video game

2010-06-20T14:17:00.000+01:00

Including a tealight Pacman.

Spotted on Neatorama

Psychobilly, que'ce-que c'est?

2010-06-18T11:37:00.000+01:00

If you too think 'Psychobilly' is pretty imaginative as music-genre names go, wait till you hear the names of some of the most representative Psychobilly bands. Here's a list of my favourites:

The Chop Tops

Image source

Calamitiez

Image source

Elvis Hitler (a mutant made in hell, no doubt)

Image source

The Vaudevillains

Image source

Zombina and the Skeletones

(image source)

The godfather of the genre seems to be songwriter Wayne Kemp, who wrote for Johnny Cash 'One Piece at a Time', a country song in fact, which became a hit in the US top-ten charts in 1976. The song tells of a Detroit factory worker whose job was to fit wheels on Cadillacs, and who hatched a cunning plan to smuggle a Cadillac out of the factory piece by piece (hence the title) in his lunchbox, never mind if it took him years. His home-made beauty, however, looks rather idiosyncratic - it's a 'Psychobilly Cadillac' (lyrics from elyrics.net):

'I got it one piece at a time
And it didn't cost me a dime
You'll know it's me when I come through your town
I'm gonna ride around in style
I'm gonna drive everybody wild
'Cause I'll have the only one there is around.

[Spoken] Ugh! Yow, RED RYDER
This is the COTTON MOUTH
In the PSYCHOBILLY CADILLAC, Come on.

Huh, This is the COTTON MOUTH
And negatory on the cost of this mow-chine there RED RYDER
You might say I went right up to the factory
And picked it up, it's cheaper that way
Ugh!, what model is it?'

BP oil spill: game over?

2010-06-18T05:58:00.000+01:00

The Washington Post has a collection of cartoons on the BP oil spill theme (see one of my favourites below). There's also a collection of BP redesigned 'logos' here. You can submit your own (requires registration, though).

Image from the Washington Post

Jesus struck by lightning (again)

2010-06-16T15:55:00.002+01:00

Looks like someone up there keeps confusing him with Brian.

Jesus struck by lightning in Ohio (image source: Yahoo)

In 2008 Jesus was struck by lightning in Rio de Janeiro - but got away with it unharmed.

Image source: Daily Mail

Brighten up

2010-06-15T16:52:00.000+01:00

Yellow field, blue sky. Image source

The joy of misspelling

2010-06-15T01:20:00.001+01:00

Via the ever exhilarating Criggo.

Vile vuvuzelas

2010-06-15T01:14:00.000+01:00

All you ever wanted to know (and probably more) about vuvuzelas, and why you should count yourself lucky if you're watching this year's World Cup games from the comfort of your home, rather than out there where it's at. A single vuvuzela produces 116 decibels at 1 metre. Need I say more? (Perhaps I do: prolonged exposure to its sound can really mess up your hearing.)

Image source

'Le vent de la nuit'

2010-06-14T01:23:00.000+01:00

Ridiculously, as long as I watched this, I could think of nothing else than the sperm scene in Woody Allen's Every Thing You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask).

Les Classels, 'Le vent de la nuit', via PCL LinkDump

Time is of the essence

2010-06-13T02:16:00.000+01:00

Here's Professor Philip Zimbardo's cleverly animated lecture on how our perception of time affects our behaviour and attitudes. Surely it's a lot more complex than that, but his argument certainly offers a few insights into the factors that account for the great diversity of refional mentalities across the world.

Via BoingBoing

Charming

2010-06-13T01:13:00.000+01:00

God's gift to men, I expect.

Found on ever-wonderful Retrospace.

Soviet(?) stop-motion film features sailor dancing on piano keys

2010-06-12T00:57:00.000+01:00

'Russian' and 'unidentified' seem to be the key words of the day. I wasn't able to find out more about the clip below, other than it features a 'Russian sailor' dancing on the keys of a piano, while the pianist is performing. The special effects, though impressive for the time, are not what's most striking about this clip. About half way through, the agile dancer morphs into a bizarre robotic creature, which continues dancing on the piano, with the pianist looking on.

Hello Earthling

2010-06-12T00:41:00.000+01:00

Unfortunately, the caption was in Russian, so I've no clue what sort of creature (or is this a mirror image of two creatures?) is staring out of the screen.

Spotted on Discovery blog.

Mystery object of the day

2010-06-11T00:56:00.000+01:00

Can you guess what this is? Well, it's a...

Image from Neatorama

...'Sexual Armor'!

2010-06-11T00:38:00.001+01:00

...designed by Ellen E. Perkins, and filed for a patent to the US Patent Office in early 1908, with the explicit aim of saving young people in particular from the deplorable health hazards, as identified below, of playing with one's ding-a-ling-a-ling. Here's an excerpt from the ingenious inventor's application to the US Patent Office:

ELLEN E. PERKINS, OF BEAVER BAY, MINNESOTA. SEXUAL ARMOR.

No. 875,845.

Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed June 24,1907. Serial No. 380,468,

Patented Jan. 7,1908.

"To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, Ellen E. Perkins, a citizen of the United States, residing at Beaver Bay, in the county of Lake and State 5 of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sexual Armor; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

It is a deplorable but well known fact that one of the most common causes of insanity, imbecility and feeble mindedness, especially in youth, is due to masturbation or self abuse. This is about equally true of both sexes."

(You can read the full text, with misspellings from the OCR conversion process, here.)
And here's the full monty (also via Neatorama):

Male chastity round-up

2010-06-11T00:03:00.000+01:00

And in case you thought that Ellen E. Perkins's noble aspiration to preserve male chastity was a wacky one-off, take a look at equally aspiring inventor Rudy J. Schrock's more circumspectly named 'Preventive Apron', filed for a patent in 1977...

Image source

...not to mention Madrid resident Gines Sanchez Gomez's even more innocuously named 'Protective Tube and Harness', filed for a patent to the US Patent Office as late as 2004. In the 21st century, that is, dear boys & girls. This state-of-the-art male chastity device involves bandaging the penis with adhesive tape and securing it with a padlock. Don't know about Madrid, but in my home town, we call this bondage.

Image source.

The three devices featured above were spotted in The Sexist column of the Washingtoncitypaper.com

A last word on the subject: less than a year ago, on 25 August 2009 (I repeat: 2009), A. Frank Miller and Doris L. Miller of Wellington, UT also filed for an 18-page patent with the US Patent Office, for their comprehensive 'Male Chastity Apparatus, Method, and System'. The design says it all. Male chastity is not dead, sisters. And brothers, of course.

Image source

Chemistry matters

2010-06-10T05:29:00.000+01:00

Oxygen from Christopher Hendryx on Vimeo

(spotted on Neatorama).

Humans are serial drillers

2010-06-09T01:07:00.001+01:00

Big drills tend to be bad news for some species, as we now all know (including BP).

MARS! from Joe Bichard and Jack Cunningham on Vimeo. Spotted on Drawn!

Early American 'lost' films discovered in New Zealand

2010-06-09T00:23:00.000+01:00

A collection of about 75 rare early American films discovered in the New Zealand Film Archive will be returned to the US National Film Preservation Foundation. The collection is said to include films that were considered forever lost, plus Upstream, a silent film made in 1927 by quintessentially 'American' director John Ford. Although Ford is best known for films such as Stagecoach, Fort Apache, Rio Grande, or The Quiet Man, around 1927-1928 he made more than 60 silent films, very few of which have been preserved complete (full article in the Guardian).

Image source

Bargain

2010-06-08T15:18:00.000+01:00

Personally, I'm a vegetarian. But it's all a matter of taste, of course.

Image source: Telegraph

Israeli government apologises about clip mocking raid on Gaza aid flotilla

2010-06-08T13:13:00.001+01:00

An update on the post on the revolting Israeli video parody that apparently many Israelis found fantastic - just check out the hair-raising comments on YouTube - demonstrating callousness of criminal proportions. Now, the Guardian reports, the Israeli government has been forced to apologise for circulating that video, which dismissed the Gaza flotilla aid as fake and mocked the activists who were attacked by Israeli military forces during the raid that left 9 civilians dead, many more wounded, and Israel internationally condemned for its actions and attitude.

But that's not all: a few days ago, Israel's Defence Force had to retract its claims that the person heard saying 'go back to Auschwitz' in an audio clip released both in Israeli and international media was a Gaza-aid activist. The Israeli army, the retraction clarifies, had 'edited the footage', so the identity of the person who makes that comment is unclear. Sounds sickeningly like yet another attempt on Israel's part to capitalise on the Holocaust, and use what is arguably one of the most horrific events in human history as a Unique Selling Point in an absolutely denigrating, inhumane marketing campaign designed to 'sell' Israel as a victim of Palestine to the world.

Tantalising Titan

2010-06-08T02:34:00.000+01:00

The Cassini spacecraft has been keeping an eye on Titan for a while now. Titan has wind, rain, seasons, sand dunes, lakes, shorelines. But with surface temperatures of −179 °C, Saturn's largest satellite - the only natural satellite in the solar system with a proper atmosphere - is way too cold for water. Below its ice crust, however, it looks like there might be an ocean of liquid water thanks to the presence of ammonia. Where there's water, there may, just may be life. An even more exotic possibility is the idea of life forms adapted to liquid methane or ethane, of which Titan has plenty of lakes on its surface.

An image Cassini took on 12 May 2007 reveals that Titan has seas, shorelines, islands, bays, channels and peninsulas, much like the Earth (image source: NASA).

'In 2005', reports the New Scientist, 'Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field and Heather R Smith of the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, calculated that such microbes could eke out an existence by breathing in hydrogen gas and eating the organic molecule acetylene, creating methane in the process.' That would translate into a lack of acetylene and hydrogen near the surface. Now, the Cassini probe has found exactly that kind of evidence.

Above, Titan's sand dunes; the bright spots are not clouds but surface features. Below, for comparison, terrestrial sand dunes in Namibia (both images: NASA).

Prudently enough, scientists are quick to emphasise that the same evidence could be be produced by chemical, rather than biochemical, reactions. But the mere possibility that Cassini's measurements might be a sign of life elsewhere in our solar system has fired up the imagination of scientists and space afficionados around the world. No-one has seriously suggested anything more complex than microbes, but of course proof of any form of life, no matter how simple somewhere other than our planet would be sufficient to convince anyone (except possibly Creationists and their ilk) that the Earth is not the universe's elect planet, uniquely blessed - or cursed - with life. Plus, the mere notion that Titan's low gravity and highly dense atmosphere would allow humans to fly if they simply attached artificial wings to their arms is dizzyingly exciting.

Three false-colour snapshots of Titan, taken by Cassini in October 2005, December 2005, and January 2006 reveal a highly dynamic atmosphere over the south pole (image source: NASA).

(Article sources: New Scientist, Wikipedia, NASA)

More Kojak than usual

2010-06-07T01:22:00.001+01:00

Here's a greater expanse of Kojak's bare skin than usual.

The tab of the iOffer webpage featureing this rather odd (and of dubious taste) appearance of Telly Savalas bears the equally odd title 'telly savalas for sale'.

Suppertime

2010-06-07T00:19:00.000+01:00

Bon appetit.

Image source: LPCover Lover

'I've got confidence'

2010-06-06T19:23:00.000+01:00

The sisters practiced autosuggestion daily.

LP cover from Retrospace.

'I am Pele'

2010-06-06T17:52:00.000+01:00

Appearances deceive.

'I am Pele' was spotted on Lady That's My Skull.

Worry list

2010-06-06T00:50:00.001+01:00

Monsters creeping up the drain and into the bathtub scaring the hell out of me is a worry I share with Lev Yilmaz. Pick your favourite bugbear from Lev Yilmaz's extensive list of 'Things I Worry About'.

The animated Bayeux Tapestry

2010-06-05T16:05:00.001+01:00

Here's your animated history lesson of the day: the Norman Conquest of Britain by William the Conqueror, who defeated the Saxon King Harold in the Battle of Hastings, in October 1066, as narrated by the over 70-meter long Bayeux Tapestry.

The Tapestry, which is really an embroidery, was commissioned shortly after the conquest, around 1070, probably by William the Conqueror's half-brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux, where it is still on display. Vividly illustrated, the Tapestry begged to be animated. In fact, you can think of it as a proto-comic that uses images to narrate a sequence of events woven into a proper plot, with a beginning, middle, and end (spotted on Titam.)

Sick Israeli parody video

2010-06-05T03:29:00.004+01:00

Right. I saw this video on Boing Boing, and I'm not embedding it, so if you want to watch the creepiest example of Israeli anti-Gaza aid propaganda so far, click here to watch it on YouTube. The 'Flotilla Choir presents: We Con the World' revolting parody of the originally schmaltzy 'We Are the World' made me reach for the sick-bag. As if the utterly inappropriate (I'm being over-polite here, the alternative being X-rated language) sense of humour were not enough - when people have been killed, wounded, traumatised, terrorised by the Israeli military that raided the flotilla a few days ago - the twats who made the video (I'm still being polite, believe me) had the nerve to include footage from the raid.

Should people log into YouTube and post a few vicious jokes about the Nazi and the Jews in response to that video? That'd be hilarious, wouldn't it?

I logged in and clicked 'DISLIKE', in fact, and I hope many more people find out about it and do the same.

Update: 'Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range' autopsy results reveal (from the Guardian). In the light of the autopsy, the horrendous video parody, produced by Latma TV, is not only in extremely poor taste but deeply offensive personally to the families of the nine murdered activists.

In case you were wondering who's behind this, by the way, it's Jerusalem Post columnist Ms Caroline Glick, former adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As the New York Times report:
'Ms. Glick explained that the video was produced for Latma, an Israeli media satire Web site she edits, which is an initiative of the Center for Security Policy in Washington.'

The Center for Security Policy, I should add, claims to be a 'non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security'. A few lines further down it promptly rubbishes its own claims to non-partisanship by adding 'We as a nation must also work to undermine the ideological foundations of totalitarianism and Islamist extremism with at least as much skill, discipline and tenacity as President Reagan employed against Communism to prevail in the Cold War.'

Trekkies to meet in Vulcan

2010-06-05T02:23:00.001+01:00

"We were actually named Vulcan back in 1910 by a Canadian Pacific Railway surveyor who had a fascination with Roman Mythology, and of course Vulcan is the Roman god of fire in the forge", explains Dayna Dickens, who, as Vulcan's tourism co-ordinator works in offices designed to resemble a spaceship. For hard-core Star Trek fans, however, the coincidence was a godsend: for the last 16 years, thousands of Trekkies converge in the Canadian town of Vulcan annually for the Galaxyfest Star Trek convention.

From Galaxyfest 2009. Image source: Vulcan Tourism

Last year, the roughly 2,000 native Vulcanians became hosts to about 23,800 visitors from what you might call outer space - Enterprise crew, Klingons, and assorted intergalactic humanoids, all of whom boldly came in style and appropriate costume, and in greater numbers than ever before partly thanks to "Mr Spock's", i.e. actor Leonard Nimoy's, endorsement of the town's efforts. Many of the locals embrace their town's incidental fame with patriotic enthusiasm: the mayor dresses up in Star Trek uniform and greets you like a true Vulcan, and the baker sports Mr Spock ears. There's a whole gallery of photos from the annual Galaxyfest here. This year's convention - the 17th one - takes place between 11-13 June.

Image source: BBC

Sources: BBC, Vulcan Tourism office.

Animal passion

2010-06-05T01:38:00.000+01:00

...and then, their lips touched.

'... the bear was upon Tom.' Image from Comically Vintage

Boarding pass please

2010-06-04T00:50:00.000+01:00

I'd never have guessed that smartphones work in underground hide-outs in the desert, but judging from the boarding pass meant to illustrate British Airways' new mobile-phone boarding system, they must do. On the other hand, it's more likely that some disgruntled BA employees are behind the Photoshopped prank, which slipped unnoticed (or noticed, but slipped anyway) past the editor, copy-editor, and picture editor (assuming that they employ any of those) of British Airways' internal company magazine for Heathrow Airport (London) LHR News.

The photo accompanying the article on how boarding passes can now be printed through a smartphone shows a hand holding such a mobile on which a boarding pass is displayed, issued to frequent flyer Bin Laden, Osama, due to fly on 26 October 2010.

Image source

What most reports on the story won't tell you is that the fake pass, issued to that particularly notorious passenger, is not new. In 2006, a bloke called Christopher Soghoian, then a PhD student at Indiana University, published online a fake boarding pass generator, complete with instructions on how to use it to bypass airport security - not to aid terrorists, but to expose weaknesses in airport security. He claimed never to have used such a boarding pass himself, and I couldn't find any information on whether anyone has ever tried it out and boarded a plane undetected. Anyway, rather unsurprisingly, the FBI forced Christopher to take his website offline; however, you can still view the instructions plus a sample mock-boarding pass - issued to Osama Bin Laden, as it happens, for 26 October 2006 - here.

As the generator's author claims, he decided to restore 'the original introduction page for historical and educational purposes'. He also notes that a similar generator had been posted on the 'Slight Paranoia' blog. At the time Christopher last updated his 'educational' page (that was on 21 November 2008), obviously the sister generator was still up, but as you can read here it has been taken down since. The Slight Paranoia blog, however, is still active.

Let's hope that nothing happens on 26 October, of course. And that airport security is more effective than airport magazine copy-editing.

Article sources: Wired, The Age.

Tricks of the eye

2010-06-04T00:02:00.000+01:00

A set of optical illusions including an Exorcist-style spinning head and a munching Pacman.

Spotted on Titam

It's happy hour!

2010-06-03T14:48:00.000+01:00

A double shot of the Cocktail Trio.

Storm chasers' close-up of Colorado tornado

2010-06-03T02:57:00.001+01:00

Admittedly, it's more interesting than trainspotting. And as a stormchaser you probably still get to wear an anorak.

From Fox 11

Love at first sight

2010-06-03T00:54:00.001+01:00

Now this is what I call love at first sight. Not naughty love, not romantic love, just the huge joy of finding a kindred spirit - even if not of a kindred species. And yet, when I watch this I can't help thinking that there must be some special affinity between primates and dogs. It made my day.

Source: National Geographic

Whatever does it for you

2010-06-02T01:51:00.000+01:00

I find Crocs ugly - others clearly find them sexy.

Spotted on Boing Boing

Snuggle up

2010-06-02T01:21:00.000+01:00

Owls snuggle up to each other. Image source.

Apt toilet humour

2010-06-02T00:46:00.000+01:00

No comment required.

'BP headquarters'. Image source

The miniskirt weathercock

2010-06-01T13:53:00.002+01:00

Next time blokes fix their eyes on your risqué hemline, you'll know why.

'Mini skirt meteorology' used to predict weather

The length of women's mini skirts can be used to predict changes in the weather ahead of announcements from the Met Office, it has been claimed.

By Nick Collins
Published: 8:00AM BST 31 May 2010

The rises and falls in the length of skirts are said to be a good way of forecasting what the weather will be like three days in advance, based on research at eBay.

Analysts at the company said the length of skirts sold on the website becomes shorter several days before the weather changes for the better, and lengthens when colder conditions are due.

(Source: Telegraph)

Image source

Louise Bourgeois dies aged 98

2010-06-01T12:31:00.001+01:00

French-born artist Louise Bourgeois has died in New York aged 98. Bourgeois, who spent most of her life in the US and considered herself an American artist, embodied the Freudian semiologist's dream: her works almost invariably were references to the complexities of childhood experiences and traumas and bore titles to match. Her trademark giant spiders, which earned her the nickname 'Spiderwoman', were usually titled 'Maman' (i.e. 'mother').

Image source

Throughout her career, Bourgeois wove into her themes both the sensual and violent aspects of sexuality; the amalgam of menace, pain and raw physicality captivated critics and spectators alike, all the more because of the tempting associations between Bourgeois's art and childhood (sources: the Guardian and Tate Modern).

'Fillette' (i.e. ' little girl'), 1968. Image source

Louise Bourgeois in her studio, ca. 1946. Image source.

Images of Gaza

2010-06-01T01:25:00.000+01:00

While getting regular updates on the increasing international protests and condemnation of the Israeli raid on the Gaza aid flotilla, I tried to look for images of the Gaza strip other than those that regularly accompany reports on the area. Here are a few that caught my eye:

The last photo of this set shows the cabinet of medical supplies in the intensive care unit of the El Shafa hospital - practically empty after the imposition of the Israeli blockade that cut off the Gaza Strip from the rest of the world.

An impressive portrait of an Islamist Jihadist in Gaza.

All photos above come from the site of Zoriah - Photojournalist, where you can see a whole gallery of Gaza pictures. Some are very disturbing - unsurprisingly.

Here's another poignant photo, of children's shadows against a bullet-ridden wall in the Jabalia refugee camp, in Gaza (photo by Odd Andersen, published in the Guardian).

'Dead Parrot': before & after

2010-06-01T00:47:00.002+01:00

Who would have thought it. Formidable Lady Thatcher inspired by Monty Python. Actually, this instance of ex-prime ministerial humour has some interesting connotations: spotting the video on Boing Boing, I looked it up and read that the term 'dead parrot', which originated in the classic Monty Python sketch (of which, more below), 'also specifically applies to a controversial joint policy document which the Liberal Party and Social Democrats issued in 1988 in the process of their merger into the Social and Liberal Democratic Party'.

How interesting that the Lib Dems and the Conservatives are now an item. Anyway. 'Shortly before her downfall as Prime Minister' I read on, 'Margaret Thatcher described [the Lib Dems] party in her deadpan "comedy" voice, saying "this is a late parrot, it has ceased to be." [...] The emblem of the Liberal Democrats is a flying yellow bird.' Whether the Lib Dems are indeed a dead parrot or a triumphant phoenix of a party depends on whether the Lib Dems end up being slowly digested by the Conservatives, or, on the contrary, emerge from the current coalition in flying colours.

Here's the 'after' version.

And here's the unsurpassed 'before' version.

How to lose friends and infuriate people

2010-05-31T16:22:00.000+01:00

Live coverage of developments on the latest despicable, not to mention utterly stupid in terms of international PR, Israeli affront from the Guardian blog.

The ship that Israeli soldiers stormed, killing and wounding a still unclear number of civilians, including activists, was part of the humanitarian aid project of Freegaza.

The flotilla of initially eight ships carried around 10,000 tonnes of aid in the form of medical equipment, construction material, as well as stationery supplies for schools. The supplies were collected with the help of donations from around the world. In addition, nearly 800 activists, representing a total of 40 countries travelled aboard the ships. Although it had been widely expected that Israel would try to intercept the ships, no-one had predicted an armed take-over by Israeli commandos, let alone the loss of civilian lives.

Almost incredibly, this horrific development - not to mention massive political faux pas - comes only days after Israel boycotted talks aimed at establishing a nuclear-arms free Middle East. Almost 200 states are signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and Israel's provocative stance did not go down well with many leaders. It seems that the Israeli government are among those who have read and are applying enthusiastically the How to Lose Friends and Infuriate People manual.

Image source

'The Giant Penis that Invaded New York'

2010-05-31T01:27:00.000+01:00

It's a catchy title all right. And it adorns the first issue of 'Bizarre Sex', a now inevitably cult series of so-called underground comics, illustrated and published by cartoonist Denis Kitchen under his 'Kitchen Sink' imprint. The stories fit in what you might call the sci-fi hard-core porn genre, except that the style and design, althouth definitely sexual, were mostly not sensual. Over-testosteroned (or over-progesteroned) monsters from outer space or from the general Great Unknown invariably menaced Earthlings with hanky panky that was literally out of this world. A strong dose of science fiction with an adult streak of pretty sinister humour and graphic illustrations.

Image source

Love proves a safe bet

2010-05-30T15:19:00.000+01:00

Remember the post on the BBC's prediction that Germany's song 'Satellite', by Lena was the most likely winner of this year's Eurovision contest on the basis that the word 'love' recurs no less than 26 times in the lyrics? Guess what - the prediction was spot on. 'Satellite' is indeed the winning song with 246 points (or 9.5 points per repetition of the word 'love'), and the love overkill has proved a triumphantly tried & tested recipe for Eurovision success.

...and deaf. Unfortunately, the 2010 Eurovision winning song is not trashy enough for this blog, merely dull as ditchwater. So, if you'd like to watch the clip of 'Satellite', click on the image and you'll be taken there.

Sunday roast special

2010-05-30T14:45:00.000+01:00

As W. C. Fields is reputed to have said, "I like children - fried".

Image spotted on Arbroath.

Easy Rider: God damn the Pusher

2010-05-30T14:18:00.000+01:00

From Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper (1969)

'You know I've smoked a lot of grass
O' Lord, I've popped a lot of pills
But I never touched nothin'
That my spirit could kill'

'The Pusher', Steppenwolf (1968)

The end of an uneasy ride: RIP Dennis Hopper

2010-05-30T14:09:00.002+01:00

Legend has it that James Dean once gave fellow actor Dennis Hopper this advice: "drink the drink, don't act drinking the drink". Dennis Hopper, who died on 29 May, aged 74, applied Dean's principle zealously for much of his life.

Image source

Starting his acting career with a part in American TV drama 'Cavalcade of America' in 1952, Dennis Hopper gained TV fame with his role in another TV drama, 'Medic', in 1955. In the same year he was cast alongside James Dean in 'Rebel without a Cause', and the following year in 'Giant', James Dean's last film. Dennis Hopper has appeared in dozens of films and TV dramas, including his part as Billy Clanton in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), an episode of "The Twilight Zone" (1963), "Bonanza" (1964), his iconic part, again as Billy, in Easy Rider (1969), which Hopper co-wrote together with Peter Fonda, and directed himself, his incarnation of Tom Ripley in Wim Wenders's Der amerikanische Freund (1977), his role as a photojournalist in Apocalypse Now (1979), in which - as many critics noted - he appeared to play himself, the part of the father in Rumble Fish (1983), and his memorable role as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet (1986).

Image source

Dennis Hopper also appeared in TV commercials and continued to pursue his acting career, which, however, declined as his drug and drinking habits hijacked his life. His often erratic behaviour on and off film sets made it increasingly difficult for him to find work as an actor. Until rehab restored his acting career to some extent, Hopper channelled much of his creative energy into painting, photography, poetry, and occasionally directing, for which he has received some acclaim.

In 1975, Dennis Hopper was arrested and charged with reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and evading arrest (sources: NNDB, the Guardian)

A photo by Dennis Hopper, from Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967, Taschen Books.

His personal life matched his career in ups and downs: Hopper is survived by five ex-wives, including former Mamas & Papas member Michelle Phillips, who filed for divorce barely a week after the wedding. In October 2009 Hopper was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, of which he died on 29 May 2010.

Biographical sources: BBC, IMDB, Wikipedia.

Ken Lee

2010-05-29T19:52:00.000+01:00

'Ken Lee' (aka 'I Can't Live'), as interpreted - title and all - by Bulgarian aspiring pop idol Valentina Hasan. Please note that the song is performed in English. I thought I might let you know, because it's unlikely that you'll realise as much while listening to the clip.

The full version, with English subtitles, here.

Fly with 99 Luftballons

2010-05-29T18:07:00.001+01:00

A 36-year-old US adventurer has flown across the English Channel by means of helium-filled toy balloons. Jonathan Trapped set off from a field in Kent early in the morning and crossed the channel strapped on a chair that was suspended from dozens of toy balloons, to finally land in a cabbage field in France.

Image source. Full article on the BBC.
And speaking of balloons....

Stool Pigeon

2010-05-29T17:56:00.001+01:00

A pigeon is held in custody under armed guard by Indian police on suspicion of spying on behalf of Pakistan, according to Indian media. No-one has been allowed to visit the suspect.

'Stool Pigeon', by Kid Creole and the Coconuts.
Full article in the Telegraph.

Vader Pasha: Turkish Star Wars

2010-05-28T14:51:00.000+01:00

Apparently, the Turkish version of Star Wars was not, I repeat, not meant as a parody.

If you decide to watch one of the longer clips available on the internet, such as this one, which is about 9 minutes long, may the force be with you.

Tattoo therapy

2010-05-28T12:41:00.000+01:00

Julia Gnuse chose to have almost every bit of her body tattooed to cover the scars of her genetically inherited skin condition, Porphyria. And she really does seem happy with her innovative solution. Watch the video on BBC.

Image source.

'Hacken, schneiden...' - Old German ad for Starmix food processor

2010-05-27T01:25:00.000+01:00

I have a thing about old ads. This one must date from the 50s
(ad for Starmix food processor, in German only).

There's the rub: the Vibra-Finger

2010-05-27T00:46:00.001+01:00

Yikes. What a creepy personal gadget. And it isn't even what you think it is (or is it?)

The Vibra-Finger was spotted on Retrospace

Forget about Kung Fu Panda: here's Kung Fu bear.

2010-05-26T01:04:00.000+01:00

OK, as of now I'll start believing in reincarnation. This bear must have been a Kung Fu master in a past life. I mean, I can't do this stuff!

Initially I saw the shorter version (to which a fitting soundtrack has been added), but as that was edited I admit that I was a bit suspicious of somebody simply having cut the footage cleverly. But it looks like the clever one is the bear, after all.

Havana bride

2010-05-26T00:28:00.000+01:00

Wow. You don't often get to see such photos on National Geographic.

'Bride, Havana, Cuba', by Dmitri Markine. Source: National Geographic.

'Love' won't get you an Oscar

2010-05-25T17:49:00.001+01:00

I love Wordle. Not only is it one of the best online toys I've come across, but it also allows you to present word counts as statistical graphs in a fun manner. Take, for instance, the BBC's Wordle experiment with Eurovision winning lyrics (see post below). Now, whereas the biggest winner - so far as words are concerned - in Eurovision is 'love', to win an Oscar for best picture, you need either 'American', 'Man' or 'Men', 'Best', 'One', or 'Godfather' in the title. In fact, if you want an Oscar for best picture, 'love' won't get you anywhere. See for yourself:

Here's a larger view on Wordle. The list comes from Wikipedia.

'Love': twelve points; 'amour': douze points

2010-05-25T15:40:00.000+01:00

All you need is love, especially if you're a Eurovision contestant. The BBC had the brilliant idea to feed the lyrics of all winning songs of the Eurovision contest, from its inception in 1956 till now, into Wordle website - a magic online toy for creating word clouds (think of tag clouds) on the basis of how often a word occurs in a given text. Once common words like 'and', 'I' were removed, the most frequent word in Euroschmaltzy winning songs turned out to be 'Love'.

To be more precise, of the 12,299 different words that make up the BBC's own collection of 54 years' worth of Eurovision's winning lyrics, 'love' accounts for 2%. Not all that surprising, if you think that love is embedded in the Eurovision logo, is it.

...And in case you're itching to find out what this year's lyrics word-cloud looks like, here it is:

On the basis of word frequency alone, the BBC predicts that this year's German entry, 'Satellite', has pretty decent odds for winning: it features the word 'love' no less than 26 times. Alles Liebe.

(Article and images from the BBC)

Igor Stravinsky arrested in 1940 for an offence he committed in 1944?! Uhm, not really...

2010-05-24T16:19:00.003+01:00

Yesterday, Boing Boing, which prides itself on accuracy, posted a mugshot of no less than Igor Stravinsky, under the title 'Igor Stravinsky, arrested for "tampering" with the Star Spangled Banner, 1940'. The post prompted the inevitable cascade of comments from readers whose sense of democracy had been (rightly) offended - a couple even observe (probably wrongly) signs of the venerated composer having been beaten up by the police.

Boing Boing is not the first blog to publish the photo (below) and the story (just Google it and you'll see). However. Take a careful look at the photo:

Now, check out your encyclopaedia, if you have one, or run a simple search for "Stravinsky" "Boston" "anthem". Here are a couple of results from what you'll probably agree are reliable sources:

'Stravinsky's unconventional major seventh chord in his arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner led to an incident on January 15, 1944 with the Boston police, but "Boston Police Commissioner Thomas F. Sullivan said there would be no action" (Wikipedia).

'Igor Stravinsky was greeted with silence, in Boston in 1944, when he conducted a Boston Symphony Orchestra performance of his own orchestrated version of the anthem. The police showed up the next night to make sure he didn't play it again' (Boston.com, News).

'Other versions of the anthem left the words alone but altered the melody, in one case so drastically that it got the composer/conductor in trouble. When Igor Stravinsky raised his baton in Boston in 1944 you would have thought he was Roseanne Barr. [...] Boston authorities warned Stravinsky that he was afoul of a state law that forbade rearrangement of the anthem. Music critic Albert Goldberg noted Stravinsky's version was banned in Boston and booed in Baltimore, but he escaped sanctions' (George Mason's University History News Network).

(Source: Stephen Walsh, 2008, Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934-1971, p. 152).

The date on the mugshot is 1940. The "tampered" version of the Star Spangled Banner was performed in 1944. This means, rather obviously, that the photo was taken four years before the incident with Boston police. The only sources I have come across affirming that Stravinsky was actually arrested while in the US and linking the photo taken in 1940 with the 1944 incident happen to be blogs. Of which I run one, so clearly I've nothing against the medium. But I'm not a fan of sloppy journalism, to which this medium unfortunately lends itself, nor of passing off unverified rumours (as in the case of Stravinsky's alleged arrest) or fabricated stories as news and urban legends as facts.

So. Was Igor Stravinsky ever arrested for re-arranging the US national anthem? Well, I don't know, but I've yet to see any evidence that he was. Was he arrested for anything ever in the US? I don't know that either, but given that he moved to the US in late 1939 and married Vera de Bosset on 9 March 1940 in Massachusetts (capital: Boston) I can at least imagine that the mugshot, which is dated 15 April 1940, was probably taken for some unexciting bureaucratic reason that wouldn't make for eye-catching blog-headlines...

Star nibbles on planet

2010-05-24T12:42:00.000+01:00

Scientists have created the image of a start gobbling up a planet in the Auriga constellation, about 600 light years away, using data transmitted by the Hubble telescope. Although the star is too distant for Hubble to photograph, the data are detailed enough to allow Dr Carole Haswell (Open University, UK) and her team to translate them into the image below.

With surface temperatures over 1500°C, the unlucky planet's literally melting in its orbit tracks, as it circles the star. Actually, despite the dramatic image, the star is nibbling on, rather than gobbling up, the planet. According to Dr Haswell, the star will probably take the final bite in about 10 million years (image and article from the BBC).

If the Cheshire Cat were a fox...

2010-05-24T01:27:00.000+01:00

Image source

UK's singles almost as many as the population of Australia

2010-05-24T01:13:00.000+01:00

Another Saturday night home alone? Another non-starter? Yet another commitment-phobic, emotionally challenged Prince (or Princess, let's be fair) Uncharming? Chances are that if you're alone you're also lonely; that you feel somehow singled out from among your happily mated friends; that just about everyone else has been blessed with love while you are to bear the Curse of Eternal Singledom. However, no matter how lonely you may feel, you're certainly not alone.

'There are 21.5m single people over the age of 16 in Britain,' reports the Guardian. That's almost equal to the entire population of Australia. And the figures are for the UK alone. So, statistically speaking, he or she just has to be somewhere out there.

Image source: Comically Vintage

Another thing: 'online dating is now worth more than one billion dollars a year, rivalling pornography as king of the net. Love is big business.' Isn't that funny. Love & sex competing as the most lucrative sources of e-income. Except that whereas the former is likely to include the latter in the package, it doesn't really work the other way around... (full article in the Guardian)

4711 - keep it always handy ('immer dabei haben')

2010-05-23T03:10:00.001+01:00

What a classic: 4711 'echt kölnisch Wasser'. This is probably one of the oldest and best known brands but the original eau de Cologne was manufactured in 1709 by Johann Maria Farina, in Cologne, Germany. Its inventor concocted a blend of fragrant essential oils, including bergamot, lime, grapefruit, and orange. 'I have discovered a fragrance that reminds me of an Italian spring morning, just after the rain', enthused Farina. It wasn't his blend, however, that became famous round the world as 4711.

(source: Focus Magazin;

(German ad for 4711 from the 60s; in German only).

A Babel of a map

2010-05-23T03:03:00.002+01:00

Click on the map to enlarge.

Image source

What a Babel of a map. Europa Polyglotta was published in 1730 by Gottfried Hensel. The full title is Europa Polyglotta, Linguarum Genealogiam exhibens, una cum Literis, Scribendique modis, Omnium Gentium. Now, Latin not being among my personal polyglot abilities, I looked it up. A fellow-blogger, Strange Maps, who's also posted a copy, suggests that the long title says something along the lines of 'Multilingual Europe, showing the genealogy of the languages, together with the alphabets and modes of writing of all peoples'. In this early example of comparative linguistics, Hensel has inscribed the first couple of lines of Our Lord's Prayer, or Pater Noster, in the language associated with each land. Somebody should send this with compliments to the EU staff who translate frantically every directive, paper, and regulation in every European language.

2010-05-23T02:47:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I'd posted an overtly though by no means crassly political short film by venerable Russian animator Fyodor Khitruk, who turned 93 this month. I remember reading somewhere that Khitruk had been dubbed 'the Russian Disney', which may be a compliment if it reflects his popularity in his native Russia, but it definitely underrates him if the comparison refers to his technique and aesthetic. Don't get me wrong; I love the old Disney, anything pre-Pocahontas and pre-Lion King. But then I love pulp comics and kitschy ads for what they are, not for their artistic merit.

Khitruk's design and colours are beautiful; no hint of the Technicolor aesthetic about them. You could call them 'cute', if you don't abhor that word, but there's nothing cloyingly sweet about them. Unfortunately, this short film has no English subtitles, just the original voice-over in Russian. But the tale is simple, and the images so lovely that I didn't mind a bit. The film won the Bronze Lion of the 1964 Venice Film Festival.

Fyodor Khitruk - Топтыжка (Toptyzhka), aka 'Little Stomper' (1964)

The Codfather

2010-05-23T02:37:00.000+01:00

Surely one of the best-named fish 'n' chip shops around.

(Actually, there seem to be several chippies called 'The Codfather' in the UK.)

Image source: Channel 4