May 27th would have been Vincent Price's 100th birthday. In honor of the occasion, artist Zach Bellissimo drew 100 characters played by Vincent Price on sticky notes! See the whole thing at DeviantART or you can enlarge them enough to see each drawing at his blog, Snaggle-Tooth Salad. Link -via Nag on the Lake
May 27th would have been Vincent Price's 100th birthday. In honor of the occasion, artist Zach Bellissimo drew 100 characters played by Vincent Price on sticky notes! See the whole thing at DeviantART or you can enlarge them enough to see each drawing at his blog, Snaggle-Tooth Salad. Link -via Nag on the Lake
When people talk about literary loves, they mention Rhett and Scarlet, Heathcliff and Catherine, or Romeo and Juliet. It's about time some more modern love stories joined them. The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog assembled a list of modern novels with great love stories. If you haven't read these, this might be the nudge you need! For example: The Solitude of Prime Numbers.
Meet the lovers of nine more modern novels you may want to explore. Link
When Alice and Mattia first meet in grade school, they realize that they have one thing in common–they are not yet ready for love. Both have been shaped by profound childhood tragedies that crippled their trust in the world around them. But years later, they eventually learn to trust each other enough to overcome their awkwardness. The Solitude of Prime Numbers is an absolutely flawless literary debut from one of Italy’s most promising new authors and the romance between Alice and Mattia–unconventional though it may be–is one for the history books.
Meet the lovers of nine more modern novels you may want to explore. Link
While hiking, we accidentally caught an image of bigfoot walking through the woods. I didn't even notice until I got home and saw it on the computer! This scarred [sic] the crap out of us!
While I commend the cinematographer for keeping Bigfoot out of center-frame, I'm going to request that the next sighting include some dialogue and/or a group of people talking directly to the camera as Sasquatch Himself walks by unnoticed over their shoulders.
Link
[caption id="attachment_46949" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Because clowns aren't scary enough already."][/caption]
What the Internet has taught me: People do strange things, and sometimes these strange things involve a car, and in this instance, sometimes the strange thing done to the car renders said car unrecognizable. Also, people really like tanks. Check out the gallery on CrunchPost for more weird auto-mods, hand-built by people with loads of free time.
http://crunchpost.com/weirdest-cars-modification-by-home-engineers/
In another example of strangers collaborating to share information online, Minnesotastan asked for an explanation for a confusing passage in the novel Free Air:
At first glance, "L" and "R" would seem to mean "left" and "right", but that wouldn't help someone drive across the country. A commenter knew that "L" stood for the Lincoln Highway. With the help of reddit, we find out that "R" designates the Yellowstone Trail. Why they chose that letter instead of a "Y" is still a mystery. Link
She rarely lost her way. She was guided by the friendly trail signs -- those big red R's and L's on fence post and telephone pole, magically telling the way from the Mississippi to the Pacific. (p.69)
At first glance, "L" and "R" would seem to mean "left" and "right", but that wouldn't help someone drive across the country. A commenter knew that "L" stood for the Lincoln Highway. With the help of reddit, we find out that "R" designates the Yellowstone Trail. Why they chose that letter instead of a "Y" is still a mystery. Link
Hacker group The Lulz Boat pirated PBS.org and posted an article claiming Tupac Shakur--who was shot four times and died in September, 1996--is alive and well and living in New Zealand. They also claim rapper Biggie Smalls (Notorious B.I.G.) was housed in the same resort for a time after his death.
LulzBoat created a new page within PBS.org and posted the passwords of PBS journalists, login information and "sensitive information" about PBS stations.
According to CNN:
Whether PBS has gotten their security issues under control is debatable, but the article and any LulzBoat references have been removed from the site.
Link | Image credit: Kurt Strazdins/NewsCom
LulzBoat created a new page within PBS.org and posted the passwords of PBS journalists, login information and "sensitive information" about PBS stations.
According to CNN:
The Lulz Boat claims it was "less than impressed" after watching the network's program "WikiSecrets" and "decided to sail our Lulz Boat over the PBS servers for further... perusing."
The "WikiSecrets" documentary, which aired last week on the PBS show "Frontline," talked to U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's father and close friends.
Manning, a military intelligence analyst, is suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents that ended up on the WikiLeaks website -- one of the largest leaks of classified material in U.S. history.
Whether PBS has gotten their security issues under control is debatable, but the article and any LulzBoat references have been removed from the site.
Link | Image credit: Kurt Strazdins/NewsCom
Lulu Guinness, a fashion designer in the UK, created this public art installation which invited people to create impressions of themselves with a giant pin toy:
The giant frame of pins is situated in front of the iconic London landmark, St John’s Gate and lets the public create full body sized portraits using the 6,000 chromed capped aluminum pins. Here are a few pics of the images created by passerbys.
Link via NotCot | Photo: Lulu Guinness
Nancy Wu, a student at the Art Center College of Design in California, made a Chanel purse out of pure beef jerky. Presumably it's not actually endorsed by Chanel, though one would imagine that Chanel would want to market this product as soon as possible.
Link via Boing Boing | Photo: Design Boom
Manhattan as the sun goes down is re-imagined as a pinball machine. It was created in After Effects and was directed by Lizzie Oxby. It 'stars' John Taylor who also worked out the compositing details, set up the After Effects project and did the final grading. Perhaps this should be the first in a series of different world cities being given the same treatment. It would be fun to see which place would win the game!
This is a truly amazing work of art and machinery. Built in Geneva by Rochat around the year 1820, these two pistol-like objects are actually tiny music boxes. When the user pulls the trigger, a tiny, realistic mechanical bird pops out of the end. It dances as the musical components play what sounds just like bird whistling.
This video from the auction house Christie's shows how devices work, including internal diagrams. You can skip to 1:45 in the video to see them in action.
via Everyday, No Days Off
This short video is thought to be the last footage of comedians Laurel and Hardy; it was shot in 1956 at the home of Stan Laurel’s daughter, Lois. Also featured in the clip: Stan Laurel's wife Ida Kitaeva Raphael Laurel, Hardy's wife Virginia Lucille Jones, Andy Wade (who shot the film), Laurel’s daughter Lois, her husband Rand Brooks and their children, Randy and Laurie.
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Link
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Salutes the Armed Forces. In 1942 five brothers made a sacrifice that showed just how much a family could give to the war effort.
PATRIOTIC FERVOR
January 3, 1942: After ringing in the New Year, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, enlisted in the Navy. The brothers were George, 28; Francis, 27; Joseph, 24; Madison, 23; and Albert, 20.The brothers all joined the Navy, which (along with the rest of the military) discouraged family members from serving together in a highly dangerous area. It was not forbidden, though, and the brothers wanted to stay together. So they requested permission to serve on the same ship, the USS Juneau, a new light cruiser. It first took them to fight in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean, and then set off for Guadalcanal in September.
FIGHTING SPIRIT
The Battle of Guadalcanal was one of the most important fights of World War II. Japan wanted control of the island to build a strategic base, and U.S. and Allied forces waged a campaign to stop them. The entire battle lasted two months, and the USS Juneau was just one of the ships involved.
It has been 150 years since the US Civil War began. How should we mark the anniversary? The first recorded reunion of Civil War soldiers (Union only) took place a mere ten years after the beginning of the war. The anniversaries in the first 50 years after the war were dedicated to healing the wounds that still divided the North and the South. Then in 1936, there was something new for the commemorations.
The 100th anniversary was supposed to be a big deal, but it fizzled out for various reasons, which you can read about at Smithsonian. Link
In 1936, the 75th anniversary of the war, we see the first example of a new phenomenon: The Civil War reenactment, as the Battle of Bull Run was refought on the actual site, although not by enthusiasts studiously attired in period garb, but 1,500 U.S. soldiers and Marines of 1936, who were ordered to fight like it was 1861. The 75th anniversary was held in the midst of the Great Depression—and the forces of the New Deal were marshaled on the Manassas battlefield, as well. According to national parks historian John Reid, hundreds of workers from the Civilian Conservation Corps worked to prepare the battlefield for the reenactment and served as ushers to the surprisingly large crowd of 31,000 spectators—only 5,000 of whom were able to be seated in the wooden stand constructed by the CCC and the National Park Service for the event.
The 100th anniversary was supposed to be a big deal, but it fizzled out for various reasons, which you can read about at Smithsonian. Link
