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 (8/8/08)

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 (7/21/08)

From my trolling of the internets:

The Chinese government, terrified of something embarrassing happening during the Olympics, have successfully embarrassed themselves. They’re forcing bars not to serve blacks or Mongolians. Link

And there’s this really depressed photo essay of the down and out Silvertown neighborhood of London. Link [h/t Ted]

More green screen hilarity with John McCain. [h/t Joan]

A really cool, if regrettably short, article about the town of Baarle-Hertog in Belgium.

Baarle-Hertog borders the Netherlands – but, because of its unique history of political division, the town is sort of marbled with competing national loyalties. In other words, pockets of the town are Dutch; most of the town is Belgian. You can thus wander from country to country on an afternoon stroll, as if island-hopping between sovereignties. [via BoingBoing]

Believe it or not, Los Angeles used to have the finest public transportation around, thanks in part to Henry Huntington. There was the Pacific Electric Railway company AKA “The Red Cars” which had streetcar lines reaching to the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, and Santa Ana and there was the competing Los Angeles Railway (LARy) that was also known as the “Yellow Cars.” They were ripped out in the early ’60s and soon afterwards Los Angeles became synonymous with traffic snarls and freeway shootings. Some historical background can be found here. And here’s this youtube clip from LA Curbed about the last days of the LA Railways. Sigh.