Archive for January, 2009
Image Printing on a Guinness
Printing an image on your latte is so 2008. Here’s what OnLatte decided to do with their Latte Art Printer: make images on a Guinness!
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Watch a master make noodles by hand
Today’s shocking news that Kung Fu Panda had won 15 “Annie” Awards and shut out WALL-E led me to explore the DVD. The extras include a bonus video of Danny Yip, executive noodle chef at Mr. Chow making noodles by hand. I’ve never seen that done before, and it is magical.
*Previously: A pasta you can’t refuse.
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Female Merit Badges
There’s something delightfully fun about these semi-retro and slightly-sexist female merit badges created by Artist Mary Yeager.
My female merit badges illustrate female “rites of passage” as well as the myriad physical manipulations women undergo to achieve cultural ideals of beauty, such as weight watching, whether or not to shave or wear makeup, etc. I’ve created tiny replicas of female products, such as a birth control pill pack and a pregnancy test. The miniature scale and meticulous, hand-embroidered surfaces convey my impressions of growing up female in our culture.
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The World's First Openly Gay Prime Minister
Johanna Sigurdardottir, an Icelandic MP, was elected Prime Minister of Iceland this week. She is the first openly gay prime minister in world history.
The 66-year-old politician lives with her partner, Jonina Leosdottir, a journalist and playwright. The couple were joined in a civil ceremony in 2002. Don’t expect them to show up togetherfor photocalls, however – that’s not the Icelandic way. Though she is famous across the island, having been a top politician for years, her lesbian union was no big deal in this calmly progressive nation of only 300,000 people.
“Johanna is a very private person,” said an Icelandic government source. “A lot of people didn’t even know she was gay. When they learn about it people tend to shrug and say, ‘Oh’. That’s not to say they are not interested; they are interested in who she’s living with – but no more so than if she was a man living with a woman.”
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How's 2009 Been Treating You So Far?
So, the first month of 2009 is almost over and it seems that so far the new year has been nothing but bad economic news after bad economic news.
Last week, the folks at the US watched as big companies cut more than 100,000 jobs (with over 70,000 jobs lost on Monday alone), the stock market tumbled, and home prices continued its freefall. Congress played politics over the stimulus package (it passed the House strictly on party line votes) and – surprise – Wall Street continued giving billions in bonuses and perks ($87,784 for a rug, anyone?)
And you know the economy is bad when more people are searching Google for coupons than Britney Spears (via Bo Cowgill).
How’s 2009 been treating you? Did you lose your job? Have trouble making ends meet? What do you think needs to be done to fix the economy? Can the economy be fixed? I’d love to hear from you.
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What Do Locusts Want?
Most of the time, desert locusts live a solitary existence. But when they experience a sudden spike in serotonin, a neurotransmitter found in all animals, it’s time to swarm! Scientists at the University of Oxford recently found a close connection between the levels of serotonin in
the insects’ bodies and how
sociable they became.
"Locusts switch into swarm behavior based on two cues: when they see and
smell other locusts for an extended period or when their hind legs are
constantly jostled."
Just so you know: when locusts are green (above) they are feeling mellow, when dark-colored they are ready to party.
Photo by Tim Fayle
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Dog or Seal?
[YouTube - Link]
This dog must think that it’s a seal – here’s a YouTube clip of the dog skillfully juggling a basketball on its nose. (According to its owner, the dog was never taught to do this – it learned to juggle on its own)
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The Artwork of Sarah King
Writers may use words to weave a work of literary art, but Sarah King did something else with them: she shapes them into wonderful illustrations!
Don’t Panic Magazine has a nifty interview with Sarah:
Inspired by science, space, animals and myths, Sarah’s illustrations are intricately beautiful and bursting with words.
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Six Things You Should Know About Minnesota
Think you know Minnesota? The Coen Brothers movie Fargo may make it seem that Minnesotans are yokels, but the truth is, Minnesota is far, far weirder.
Joshua Post Lee of The Black Table explains the things you should know about the Land of 10,000 Lakes – for example:
#1. Minnesota is Trannie Town.
Things seemed to going well that night at the bar. That tall, svelte gal flirting with you has just invited you home. Seems like it’s your night until calloused man hands caress you and that Adam’s apple suddenly just pops out. This happens a lot in our state.
It’s estimated that The Center for Sexual Health at the University of Minnesota (Go U!) does more than half the surgeries nationwide and plenty stick around our Twin Cities.
Minnesota is also home of the International Drag King Extravaganza, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in October 2003 and features many of proud transgender graduates parading around in all of their newfound glory.
In August 2003, a court case, Hare v. State of Minnesota, ruled that gender reassignment surgery is covered under the U Care Minnesota health plan.
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Spin-Offs Spinning Out of Control
These days, TV, music and book spin-offs are a pretty slick business – but it wasn’t always like that!
Here’s a list of some pretty badly thought out spin-offs from the mists of time:
So Neil Simon writes a successful play, that then becomes an even more successful movie, and then becomes a long-running sitcom spin-off with Jack “Quincy” Klugman and Tony “proto-Niles” Randall. Surely that’s enough juice to be going on with. A couple more squeezes? You got it.
Exhibit A – The Odd Couple Sings, an endeavour that could most generously be described as misjudged, particularly as Klugman’s pipes aren’t exactly what you call fit for purpose. You can download the full horror at the link above, particularly the awesome version of You’re So Vain.
The indignities don’t stop there for ol’ Felix and Oscar. Oh no, after 114 hit episodes, the concept was later revived in 1982 as The New Old Couple. New, I hear you say? So, new scripts right? Not exactly. The same scripts, in fact. Then how is it new? Well, er Felix and Oscar, well, they’re er, now they’re black. So why don’t we call it The Black Odd Couple? Dude, that’s not cool.
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Angry Senator: Let's Cap Wall Street Idiots' Salaries
Senator Claire McCaskill is angry at the Wall Street "idiots" who are giving out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008. So angry that she has just introduced a bill to cap their pay:
An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money.
Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States. Obama’s current annual salary is $400,000.
"We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer," an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. "They don’t get it. These people are idiots. You can’t use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses."
McCaskill’s proposed compensation limit would cover salaries, bonuses and stock options.
Who thinks it’s a darned good idea?
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Let's Panic Like It's 2009!
Forget the Year of the Ox, according to Bruce Sterling of Seed Magazine, 2009 is the Year of the Panic. He lists 7 reasons why; for example, let’s take look at insurance:
4. Insurance and building codes. Every year, insurance rates soar from mounting "natural" catastrophes, obscuring the fact that the planet’s coasts are increasingly uninsurable.
Insurance underlies the building and construction trades. If those rates skyrocket, that system must keel over. Once people lose faith in the institution of insurance?—?because insurance can’t be made to pay in climate-crisis conditions?—?we’ll find ourselves living in a Planet of Slums.
Most people in this world have no insurance and ignore building codes. They live in "informal architecture," i.e., slum structures. Barrios. Favelas. Squats. Overcrowded districts of this world that look like a post-Katrina situation all the time. When people are thrown out of their too-expensive, too-coded homes, this is where they will go.
Unless they’re American, in which case they’ll live in their cars.
But how can dispossessed Americans pay for their car insurance when they have no fixed address? Besides, car companies are coming apart with the sudden savage ease of Enron’s collapse. Indeed, the year 2009 is shaping up as a planetary Enron. Enron was always the Banquo’s ghost at the banquet of Bushonomics. The moguls of Enron really were the princes of contemporary business innovation, and the harbingers of the present day.
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Cops vs. Krispy Kreme: Where's My Free Donuts?
A police officer in Brisbane, Australia, got into hot water for trying to claim … free donuts from a local Krispy Kreme:
A Brisbane police officer got into a holey row with Krispy Kreme staff, demanding to be served free doughnuts.
Shocked customers looked on as the officer argued with staff for several minutes in a bid to get his freebies, before finally storming off – empty handed and non-cinnamon-fingered. [...]
As the icing on the cake, Krispy Kreme has now decided to stop supplying Brisbane police with leftover doughnuts.
Turns out, it was a simple misunderstanding:
Before the incident, officers had been regularly popping in to collect free boxes of leftover doughnuts at the store in nearby Albert St at the end of the day. Staff were unable to sell the doughnuts and were only too happy to oblige.
A police source said the officer had become confused and thought the free doughnut arrangement applied at all times. "Everyone’s a bit annoyed because they were a nice treat at the end of the day with a coffee," he said.
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Mrs. Bobbie Knows her Computers
[YouTube - Link]
Just watch this video to get an idea of how my husband’s mind works. Here it is:Jonathan’s video with Mrs. Bobbie.
– via thetowells
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Google May Harm Your Computer?
What’s up with Google? Has anyone else seen this? Every single search I do on Google now returns "This site may harm your computer," even when I search for … Google!
Update: Seems like this bug was fixed already! Phew!
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Five A-Listers Who Died in Obscurity
It’s unimaginable to think that today’s Hollywood A-List could someday die in obscurity. Just imagine, 50 years from now they’ll be running one of those “In Memoriam” clip shows at the Oscars and your grandkid will turn to you and say, “Who was Angelina Jolie? She was kinda pretty.”
That’s basically what happened to these ex-Hollywood starlets. Once A-Listers at the height of their fame, these celebs died in semi-obscurity – sometimes, especially in the case of our first actress, their anonymity was their own doing.
Jean Arthur
In the 1930s, Jean Arthur was known for her screwball comedies. You might know her from her three Frank Capra movies: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and You Can’t Take It With You. Despite seeming like a carefree funnylady, though, Jean had terrible anxiety and would run to her dressing room and cry the second the film stopped rolling. The rumor is that when her contract with Columbia Pictures ran out in 1944, she ran through the streets joyfully screaming about her freedom. Jean made her last movie in 1953 – Shane with Alan Ladd – and then turned to television for a few years. She taught drama at Vassar from 1968 to 1972 (Meryl Streep was in attendance), and then retreated from the spotlight entirely, refusing all acting jobs and interviews. “Quite frankly, I’d rather have my throat slit” than do an interview, she famously said. Jean was living in Carmel, California, when she had a stroke in 1989, and then died of a heart attack in 1991.
Theda Bara
Back in the silent movie era, Theda Bara was one of the biggest stars there was. She was kind of the Cher of her day, as far as fashion went – she wore extremely risque stuff that hardly covered anything. Some of it is eye-popping even by today’s standards. But by the ’20s, Theda was on her way out. She was sick of being typecast as the vamp character, but couldn’t really get any work otherwise. She couldn’t find a publisher to sell her memoirs to; she sold her life story to Columbia Pictures but they never made it. In 1954, she was diagnosed with cancer and died the next year, forgotten by the industry. Sadly, most of her work is lost to the ages – a 1937 fire at some Fox storage vaults in New Jersey destroyed all but three of her films, and even then, sometimes only seconds of the film have been saved.
Clara Bow
Clara Bow was the It Girl of the ’20s – the original It Girl, really, and definitely more interesting and talented than some of today’s actresses with the title. But she suffered from insomnia and had nervous breakdowns all of the time – she even earned the nickname “Crisis-A-Day Clara.” She married actor Rex Bell in 1932 and had two sons with him; she tried to commit suicide while he was running for the House of Representatives in 1944. After this, she holed up in her house and never left. She no longer lived with Rex; his political life in the spotlight was just too much for her to deal with. He died in 1962; she died in 1965 while watching an old Gary Cooper movie on TV.
Hedy Lamarr
Hedy is particularly fascinating, I think. Not only was she a gorgeous and talented actress, she was also an inventor. But we’ll get to that in a second. At the height of her career, Hedy co-starred in movies with Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Bob Hope. After her 1951 movie with Hope, though, her career slid into oblivion. She was scheduled to make a comeback in the early ’60s, but when she pulled a Winona Ryder and was arrested for shoplifting, the studio had her replaced in the movie with Zsa Zsa Gabor. Nothing much was heard from her for the next 30 years, then in 1991, she was arrested for shoplifting again. Tabloids immediately painted the picture of a destitute, washed-up starlet who couldn’t even afford her $21 bill at a drugstore, but she insisted that the problem was that she was absent-minded, legally blind and just confused about the situation. But she wasn’t poor: when she died in 2000, she left a $3 million estate to be split up among two of her children (the third later sued for his share). Before she died, though, she finally received some credit for her patriotic duty in 1941 – she and her then-husband had invented a device that would jam Nazi radar signals during WWII. The War Department declined, but when the patent later expired, they scooped it up to use on U.S. ships in 1962. Neither Hedy nor her ex-husband ever saw any money for it, or even an acknowledgment until a book mentioned the invention in 1992.
Mary Pickford
Now we’re talking about the Brangelina of the first half of the last century! Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks were probably the most celebrated Hollywood couple of the day. Their palatial mansion, Pickfair, was the place to be seen. Despite the same, she retired in 1933 at the age of 41, sick of the business. When Fairbanks left her for actress Sylvia Hawkes in 1936, she married Buddy Rogers, an actor 11 years younger than her. That’s when she started withdrawing from Hollywood. She started drinking a lot (up to a quart of whiskey a day, some reports said), spent an inordinate amount of time in bed during the day and got up in the middle of the night to roam the halls of the mansion she and Fairbanks had once so happily shared. She was all but forgotten until 1976, when she was honored at the Academy Awards for her contributions to the industry. She came out of her Hobbit-hole to accept the award, but it ended up being weird – her wig was stuck on her head crooked and she muttered some unintelligible sentences into the microphone before wandering off stage. Mary died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1979.
For more interesting information like this, check out The Hollywood Book of Death – it’s morbid, yeah, but also full of fascinating (if not depressing) tidbits.
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Boys With Unpopular Names More Likely to Commit Crimes
Beware of naming your baby boy Ivan, Malcolm, Alec or Ernest: you could be setting him up for a life of crime.
Two economics professors (inoffensively named David and Daniel) at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population, and came up with a popularity name index (PNI) for each name. They concluded that, regardless of race, boys with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity.
Their study was published in the January issue of Social Science Quarterly, and the publisher stated:
“adolescents with unpopular names may be more prone to crime because they are treated differently by their peers, making it more difficult for them to form relationships… Juveniles with unpopular names may also act out because they consciously or unconsciously dislike their names.”
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10 Things You've Gotten Used To, But Your Grandkids Won't Remember
You may like land line phones and going out to Blockbuster video to browse down their aisles, but by the time your great grandkids are old enough to start to figure out the world, there will be plenty of things that will just be a faint memory in their little minds.
Here’s a list of 10 things from I Heart Chaos that your grandkids will barely even know existed.
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Library May Ban Children's Book to Comply with New Anti-Lead Law
Remember our post about the new Consumer Product Safety Act that will make it illegal to sell children’s products unless they were tested for lead and phthalates?
Besides threatening to put local artisans and small businesses who can’t afford the test (at $4,000 a pop), the law has another unintendend consequence: library may ban children’s books in order to comply:
The Consumer Product Safety Act was passed by Congress Aug. 14 in reaction to findings that some toys imported from China contained dangerous levels of lead. President Bush signed the legislation, which includes stricter limits on lead levels in children’s products.
The American Library Association said it fears the law has unintended consequences, and libraries may face the choice of closing their children’s sections, banning children under the age of 12 or completing expensive lead testing for every book. [...]
This unintended consequence of the new law isn’t the first to rear its head since Congress passed it. A flurry of complaints from second-hand retailers afraid of being bankrupted by the new requirements prompted the commission to release a clarification on Jan. 8 stating the law doesn’t require all children’s items to be tested.
However, it does make it illegal to distribute any children’s item that exceeds the lead limits, said Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Joseph Martyak. Though libraries, schools, and thrift shops aren’t required to test books for lead, they could face civil or criminal penalties if a book with an elevated lead level leaves its shelves.
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
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This Guy Should Do an Ad for Sharpie
I can tell you that if I tried to decorate our basement in Sharpie, it would look nothing like this. Then again, I’m not so artistically inclined. The link has video of the entire room, which better shows just how extensive the drawings are. There are lots of little touches, such as a trash can that has been doodled on to look like R2D2 and various literary figures sprinkled throughout the room.
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Complete the Album Cover
This is strangely fascinating, and makes me want to go visit my parents’ house to raid their LPs and see what I can do with them. Although I’m not convinced they have anything I want to be associated with. Lobo? Best of Bread? Probably not.
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White Jigsaw
This starts out easy, but every time you successfully complete one of the all-white puzzles, you get another one with more pieces. I can’t seem to stop playing… I want to know how large the final puzzle gets! If anyone gets there, let me know.
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How To Crochet Master Shake
My crocheting skills are pretty minimal (as are my knitting skills, and pretty much all of my crafting skills), but I’m tempted to give Master Shake (he’s from Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force) a shot anyway. I think he would look smashing sitting on my desk at work. Great, now I’m going to have the ATHF song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.
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Vintage-Looking Valentines
When I was in high school, I worked at an antique store and developed a strange love for things that most 15-year-old girls do not usually adore (Depression glass, anyone?). That included vintage Valentines. I still have a few old ones that I’ve been saving for a “special occasion” for the past 11 years or so, but maybe now I don’t have to hoard them since Fred Flare is selling repros. Love them!!
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An embarrassing look at the Wii Fit
[YouTube - Link]
So after the absurdity of waiting forever to get my hands on a Wii Fit, I thought it might work for the site I work for to put together a quick video with a few hat tips to other popular online videos detailing what is most likely the experience of 90% of the people who purchase a Wii Fit in order to lose weight and get into shape.
We just posted it this morning and I think it is one of the things that I am both most proud of and most ashamed of ever filming for the internet. I’m sure once the comments start rolling in, the pride will all be replaced with shame…
– via obsessable
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T.HANKS: The Tom Hanks Trash Bin
Zoomdoggle took a photo of this Tom-tastic trash bin at his local pizza parlor:
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Andrew Novick: The Man Who Saves Everything
Andrew Novick is a engineer that works on the atomic clock. He was a member of the late 80’s band The Warlock Pincher’s and collector of collections. The man who has saved everything. Now a gallery in Denver Colorado is showcasing these many collections.
See also this Denver Post Article: The Man Who Saves Everything
“The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick features the overwhelming and unusual collections of an eccentric individual who does not consider himself an artist. In total, Andrew Novick estimates he has over a hundred collections: Barbie dolls of every variety, Chihuahua figurines, clown paintings, anything related to teeth or braces. The truth is he has far more things than will or can ever be organized into a “collection.” Inside his home and in his rented storage space he has stacks, piles and boxes of answering machine cassette tapes full of incoming phone messages, more answering machine cassette tapes with recordings of recording almost every conversation he has ever had with a telemarketer, jars ripe with formaldehyde-free dead animals, uncommon foods and more.
Link – via opticalwhimsy
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Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Get Back In The Water
It’s not some scary new species but divers wearing dragon and lion masks to celebrate the Lunar New Year at Jaya Ancol Dreamland amusement park in Jakarta, Indonesia.
According to the Chinese zodiac, it’s the year of the ox, which is supposed to bring good luck and prosperity. Did you know President Barack Obama was born in the year of the ox?
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Fighting Giraffes
[YouTube - Link]
You’d probably think that giraffes are gentle animals by looking at them in a zoo. But in the wild, when push comes to shove, these wild animals fight and fight hard.
But have you ever thought of *how* they fight? After all, all giraffes have are their looooong necks. This clip, filmed on safari in Tanzania, will show you.
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Gatortar
Seeing the steampunk electric guitar reminded me of the Gatortar. It is a telecaster guitar, made with alligator skin by Louisiana artist John Preble. Check out the head stock – it’s a claw!
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