Links (11/14/08)

From my regular trolling of the interwebs:

An immensely geeky site based on the scientific suppositions from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Really cool color pics from WWI.

Cracked details the worst places to get caught having sex.

How to turn you iPhone into a pan flute. [h/t Joan]

Spielberg and Will Smith are going to totally fuck up remake Korean cult classic Old Boy.

A member of the 20% of the population who likes Bush. [h/t Ted]

A disturbing video from ’50s hygiene films. You’ll never hear the phrase “blood comes out of my body through a hole between my legs” in quite the same way again.

50 top pop songs reduced to one sentence.

An interesting article from Salon about how America may be entering it’s “Fourth Republic.”

As I see it, to date there have been three American republics, each lasting 72 years (give or take a few years). The First Republic of the United States, assembled following the American Revolution, lasted from 1788 to 1860. The Second Republic, assembled following the Civil War and Reconstruction (that is, the Second American Revolution) lasted from 1860 to 1932. And the Third American Republic, assembled during the New Deal and the civil rights eras (the Third American Revolution), lasted from 1932 until 2004.

I don’t trust with this kind of history because a) it’s a bit glib, b) we don’t know what kind of president Obama is going to be (though I’d guess he’s going to be a pretty good one) and c) it’s really seductive.

Some really, really cool graffiti animation.

Links (10/17/08)

From my regular trolling of the tubes of the interweb:

There’s this weirdly elaborate flash depiction of Sarah Palin’s presidency.

Post debate McCain hilarity. I love the internet.

Gourmet cannibal found guilty.

Product placement movie posters.

An article about how most traditional Japanese hotels refuse to let gaijin stay there. And here why those motel’s might be right in having such a policy.

I will never look at Ewoks in the same way again.

And then there’s this utterly bizarrely clip from Song of Norway.

Links (9/22/08)

Fruits from my attempts at work-avoidance on the interwebs:

This video illustrates the current banking crisis. Discuss.

A list of comic strips that need to end. Strangely Hi & Lois isn’t on this list.

Drawn from memory from an autistic kid with a photographic memory. Amazing. [h/t Joan]

Five historically important people you’ve never heard of.

The latest fashion weirdness from Japan. That’s right, weaves shaped like animals.

The great Pop vs. Soda map of the U.S.

Keith Olberman hates Subway. [h/t Ted]

The immensely disturbing tale of the Mongolian death worm.

Tales of a botched Real Doll disposal.

The richest men in history. A lot of them are American.

And then there’s this amazing display of performance, computer graphics and lab rats:

Links 9/12/08

A collection of links found while trolling the interweb, trying to not freak out about the polls:

I’m getting mighty sick of Sarah Palin. Look at the news, look at the blogs, looks at the freakin’ tabloids and it’s Palin, Palin, Palin. No discussion of the economy, various wars, healthcare etc etc. Yesterday Palin faceplanted with she struggled to explain what the Bush doctrine is. Here’s another clip.

A 22 year-old woman auctions off her virginity to pay for her Master’s Degree. She graduated with a BA in Women’s Studies, which is kinda funny.

A 27-year old writer takes one for the team and personally tests different brands of adult diapers.

A cool collection of jam comics from Flickr. [h/t Ted]

An interesting article about the psychology of creative folks.

And here’s a nice bit of animation about Japanese artist Hokusai.

Links (9/3/08)

A handy diagram of what to say and what not to say during sex.

A Japanese company, catering to women who want to divorce, employ professional seducers on their soon-to-be ex-husbands.

The top 25 movies about LA in the past 25 years according to the L.A. Times.

‘Camoflague’ by Chinese artist Liu Bolin.

A great article from k-punk about Wall-E and sci-fi. [h/t Ted]

Really no idea what to make of this blog called “The Pryamid at the Center of the World.” (sic)

A fascinating article about the future of English.

2000 AD: We children beg you, teacher, that you should teach us to speak correctly, because we are ignorant and we speak corruptly…

3000 AD: *ZA kiad w’-exùn ya tijuh, da ya-gAr’-eduketan zA da wa-tAgan lidla, kaz ‘ban iagnaran an wa-tAg kurrap…

[Via Boingboing]

And then there’s this heart-warming tale.

By The Associated Press

MODESTO, Calif. – Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a restaurant in Modesto, Calif., because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action.

Authorities say 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny’s restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a table.

They say that when that knife didn’t work Lasiter took a butcher knife from the kitchen and dug it into his arm.

Police Sgt. Brian Findlen says Lasiter told officers he thought he needed to amputate his arm to keep himself from dying from the cocaine injection.

Lasiter was taken to a hospital for treatment of severe cuts.

The Denny’s closed for the night.

That last line is the clincher for me.

Finally, a youtube clip that’s been posted a lot but deserves to be seen more.

Links (8/25/08)

From my obsessive-compulsive wanderings on the web:

An, er, eye-opening article about all the wild hot sex going on in the Olympic village.

And here’s a blog about some of those who probably aren’t getting any nookie. The ones who finished last in the Olympics. China not only won the most golds, but it also had the most athletes come in dead last.

Mother Jones has put together a fascinating/disturbing map of America’s troop presence abroad for the past 57 years.

A photo essay of women in the Israeli military. [via Boingboing]

Photos from Venice Beach’s annual Go Topless Rally. Y’know for equality. [LA Curbed]

Today’s cities that might be ghost towns by 2100. Check out the slide show here.

Monkeys running rampant in Shibuya train station.

Ninjas in New Jersey arrested for attacking drug dealers. No really!

A company that will turn your pic into a Mao Zedong-era propaganda poster.

The crippling problem of PSAS (Permanent Sexual Arousal Syndrome).

“In six months I was having 150 orgasms a day—and it has been as many as 200.”

More about this problem can be see here and here.

And finally, this completely awesome (and gory) claymation zombie flick.

Links (8/17/08)

From my obsessive/compulsive trolling of the world wide interwebs:

A link to some of the world’s weirdest restaurants.

A great list of some groovy non-cult cult flicks.

Darwin reportedly spent much of his later life investigating whether or not blonde did indeed have more fun. Or at least that’s what he was telling his wife.

And then there’s American Carol, a remarkably dissociative screed against Michael Moore, liberals, critical thought, intelligence in general. Watching this gave me a migraine. More on the flick here.

Another soulless creation squeezed out from the plastic asshole of American culture.

Just in case you were confused by the whole battle between God and Satan, this graphic nicely keeps score.

And here’s a great quote from Hunter S. Thompson I ran across:

Breakfast is the only meal of the day that I tend to view with the same kind of traditionalized reverence that most people associate with Lunch and Dinner. I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every twenty-four hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas or at home — and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed — breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in a spirit of genuine excess. The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crepes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef hash with diced chiles, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas, and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert…. Right, and there should also be two or three newspapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next twenty-four hours and at least one source of good music…. All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of a hot sun, and preferably stone naked.

I’ll have one of those, please. Link

And finally, a trailer from the infamously awful Mighty Peking Man. It has it all — tiger attacks, blonde she-tarzans, and guys in rubber suits trashing a cardboard Hong Kong.

Links (8/8/08)

My regular trolling of the intertubes:

A great article about how materialists are more likely to be miserable.

Here’s a really fascinating article about the (welcomed) death of mall culture in America. Seems that driving 30 miles to shop at the mall is becoming less and less appealing with $4 a gallon gas. Some mall are being opened up and converted in insta-town centers. [via Boingboing]

A man in Hong Kong almost loses his yang humping a metal park bench. [h/t Ted] UPDATE: Here’s a Hong Kong computer graphic re-enactment of the incident.

That crazy woman who spend a small fortune to clone her dog might been the same person who kidnapped a Mormon missionary, chained him to a bed and used him as a sexual slave. While he cried rape, she declared her love.

‘I loved him so much that I would ski naked down Mount Everest with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to.’

Link. [via BoingBoing]

And then there’s this terrific article in the Washington Post about corporate influence in the Olympics. Was it found on in the news or opinion sections? No, it was in sports.

So what is this Olympics really about? It’s about 12 major corporations and their panting ambitions to tap into China’s 1.3 billion consumers, the world’s third-largest economy. Understand this: The International Olympic Committee is nothing more than a puppet for its corporate “partners,” without whom there would be no Games. These major sponsors pay the IOC’s bills for staging the Olympics to the tune of $7 billion per cycle. Without them, and their designs on the China market, Beijing probably would not have won the right to host the Summer Games.

Link.

And finally, there’s this brilliantly cynical opening rant from the cult flick How to Get a Head in Advertising.

Links (8/5/08)

From my regular trolling of the interwebs:

A huge scale model of Shanghai in 2020. Looks like they’re going to trash all of those beautiful traditional houses. [via Boingboing]

And here’s series of pics about how a post-apocalyptic Tokyo might look. [h/t Ted]

Looks like Franz Kafka was something of a porn hound.

Creepy weird jokes tech jokes from the Aphex Twins.

This is the best example of Rickrolling I’ve seen yet.

The 5 best human accomplishments done totally high.

And finally, a music video Godard-style. From his cinematic rant La Chinoise.

[h/t Joan]

Links (8/1/08)

Holy Crap! A crazed bat-shit loon ball beheads the guy sitting next to him on a bus.

A great article about how hipsters are the death of civilization. [h/t Joan]

What is it about the right wing’s fetish for Michael Moore?

And what is it with the right wing’s fetish with sex toys? [h/t Ted]

And what is it about Japanese men and used ladies underwear?

Starved bears are attacking stranded miners in Kamchatka.

And finally, with the death of Bruce Ivins, who was supposedly behind the anthrax scares on ’01, Glen Greenwald has a fascinating blog entry on anthrax, ABC news and the run up to the war in Iraq.

Clearly, Ross’ allegedly four separate sources had to have some specific knowledge of the tests conducted and, if they were really “well-placed,” one would presume that meant they had some connection to the laboratory where the tests were conducted — Ft. Detrick. That means that the same Government lab where the anthrax attacks themselves came from was the same place where the false reports originated that blamed those attacks on Iraq.

Link.