20080429
20080427
sunday school
Todays subject: Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a famous gospel singer in the early part of the 20th century. She played a Gibson SG and she rocked pretty fucking hard for her time, and for the fact that she was in church. Cited as a favorite by Johnny Cash, and shouted out by Dylan on his theme time radio hour, this is Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
20080424
Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital
AP article.
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KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft
Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.
Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.
Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.
"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.
Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.
"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.
"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.
Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.
"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.
20080418
Vertical Farms
If there's one thing i love more than sustainable agriculture, its ANYTHING related to the future. This is some sick blade runner shit, just waiting for a crazy future when these are all run down and abandoned. Imagine the fucking crazy critters and ghosts that would love to live there.Anyways green buildings are fucking sick.
20080417
Scott Anderson
sick as fuck. check out more at http://www.scottandersonnet.com/ Also check out this interview with him at fecal face.
20080416
Black Holes and Revelations
What is this machine? Why are some folk scared that it might create a black hole that could destroy earth as we know it? This is the story of the "Large Hadron Collider". Pretty interesting stuff, if you're into outer space, science, and mind-blowing.
Currently in its final stages of construction, the LHC will become the worlds largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, or ATOM SMASHER. I prefer atom smasher.
What exactly IS an atom smasher? and how can it destroy me? good questions. Very good. yes. Complicated questions too. Very complicated. Couldnt be fully explained without going down a very long list of terms and definitions, including but not restricted to:
Accelerator physicsFeel free to read up on that stuff, and get back to me. My brain is too small to wrap around all that. So i will explain whats up with this death ray in working mans terms that even Kevin Federline can understand.
Anatoli Bugorski
Astrophysics
Beam dump
Beam line
Betatron
Channelling
Cryomodule
Cyclotron
Dipole magnet
Electromagnetism
Electron cooling
Ion implanter
Linear particle
accelerator
List of particles
Particle beam
Particle detector
Particle physics
Quadrupole magnet
Stochastic cooling
Superconducting
Radio Frequency
Superconducting
Super Collider
Synchrotron
Oohkay, so what you got here is your high energy atom smasher. A fuckin beam right. HELLA strong beam. Like a Gi joe lazer or something. Like Honey I shrunk the kids and shit.
Okay so we got this space lazer looking thing and it fucking blasts the beam. The beam hits these fucking hellllla tiny things. Like tiny lego blocks that make up our cells and shit. no not prison cells, like skin cells, and cocaine cells and titty cells and shit. Who gives a fuck about that? i know, right? Anyways, these rocket scientists study what happens when the high energy passes through these fucking hella tiny particles. Then they just chill and watch with their scientist microscope glasses.
I know right? microscope fuckin glasses. Basically though, the more energy they put into the beam, the more information they can collect. They then use that information the engineer more frost into our flakes and shit. Make bigger boobs and tastier bigmacs and shit.
... okay. enough of that.
You might be surprised to learn that your tv set, or your computer monitor actually contain the components of a particle accelerator. The difference between your tv atom smasher, and this fucking big ass atom smasher that some people are buzzing over, is that the large hadron collider may very well produce what are known as "Micro black holes". These are just like the black holes that swallow planets and galaxies and shit, but much smaller.
Scientists say chill out, because they can just bombard the tiny black holes with "Hawking Radiation" Which are theorized to shrink black holes. I say theorized, because according to wikipedia Hawking Radiation is "yet an experimentally-tested or naturally observed phenomenon" and and haters of the LHC say that that "micro black holes produced in a terrestrial laboratory might not decay as rapidly as calculated, or might even not be prone to decay and, if unable to rapidly evaporate, they could start interacting, grow larger and potentially be disastrous to Earth itself". Other people say, "fuck the black holes man, im scared of strangeletes." Straggeletes are "hypothetical particles" that critics said could "transform the Earth almost instantly into a dead, dense lump." Tiny bit fucking dope.
This is some superhero shit. But not really because nothings going to happen, and we will just get bigger bigmacs and frostier flakes. However it think its still fun to hold on to some of that Fred Savage wonderyersment, and day dream about particle physics tearing open another dimension or something. Or even better.. superheroes?
Check out this article in the New York Times about the LHC and who can accuratley judge the safety of such an experiment.
20080415
20080413
20080412
Guitars are for Losers.
MEN
electric guitar 81%
bass guitar 81%
tuba 77%
kit drums 75%
trombone 71%
WOMEN
harp 90%
flute 89%
voice 80%
fife/piccolo 79%
oboe 78%
"My granddad played the flute, my dad played the flute, my uncle played the flute."
- Sir James Galway
Horror. Horrible.
Remember the Sound of Music? You know that part where that lady sings about the female deer and the drop of golden sun? me a name i call myself, fa, a long long way to run. sew, a needle pulling thread... anyway there is a lost verse that references walking dog robots with space-age hyper-advanced error correction modules for traversing unstable terrain and obstacles including human resistance. and here it is.
20080411
Just like candy.
Detectives followed a trail of candy wrappers to Fourth and Race Street. Once on the scene, they arrested 19 year old Christine Ruther. Ruther and three others broke a window to get inside Minges Candy Store on Court Street in Downtown Cincinnati at 1:00 a.m.
Police say Ruther took her baby out of a stroller so she could fill it with $400 worth of candy.
who could have ever imagined this fine young woman would be capible of such things as midnight candy robberies. Perhaps she just watched the Cameo DVD and after "Candy" came on she could no longer help herself. "Come on baby i'm getting us some sweet sweet candy." "Baby get out of that stroller i need to put the candy in there!!"
"Oakland Street Dealers Store Drugs Up Their Butts"
That is a real headline. Totally unabridged. Drug dealers, specifically ones from the city in which i reside, Oakland. Are using their asses to hold on to their stash. "Dr H" from heroinhelper.com explains:
"The balloons protect the drugs inside because rubber is not digested; after swallowing, the dealer can vomit them back up (if it hasn't been too long) or defecate them out."Oh right on. Sounds almost as delicious as jenkem.
At the Oakland Police Department's Citizen Police Academy, normal folk can come to learn
about the different roles within the police dept, and the magical whimsical world of drugs. One visitor who came on behalf of her neighborhood watch group received quite the lesson on illicit narcotics.
"The drug testing technician told us that often drugs are stored in body cavities of those selling them, and therefore that some of the drugs that they confiscate have fecal matter and other liquids/materials from 'down there' in them. She says that some of the marijuana she has tested has had pubic hair in it."
Not that this kind of thing doesn't happen among more affluent circles:
It's just that you expect your pennies to have been in a urinal, or an ass already. But not your drugs man. not the drugs.
i need this
steampunk laptop. and it works.
what the fuck is steam punk? my new favorite thing.
more on steampunk (via wikipedia) :
Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction which came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.
20080410
These Glasses are Famous.
Tagz: Australian Blokes, Suburban Folks, Chinese People, Mexicans, Glasses, Famous, Party, Mexicano, TexMex, Spicy, Crispy, Beef, Hispanic, Spanish, Mexicans, Chinese Food, Rude Woman on Bart, Surf 'n Turf, Best Weekend Ever, Beer
BERKLEY
Not Berkeley. Different story. This is a story of a tallented illustrator working out of portland. His name is Ryan. This is but a taste of his talent. Check out his blog. LETS SHARE: THE BERKLEY BLOG. Also Check out his amazing wife (who also helps out Ryan big time) Lucy. 
20080409
Jocelyn and Ed
It was all a big, gleeful sham. Ed had actually been canned from his job four months before, and twenty-two-year-old Jocelyn was a senior at nearby Drexel University, a big step down from Penn. When Philadelphia police busted into the couple's apartment a few days later, they found an extensive identity-theft operation, complete with a professional ID maker, computer spyware, lock-picking tools and a crisp North Carolina driver's license soaking in a bowl of bleach. Though the investigation is still unfolding, this much is apparent: The lovebirds stand accused of using other people's names and Social Security numbers to scam at least $100,000, sometimes buying merchandise and selling it online to raise more cash.
What's striking about the two grifters is how determined they were to flaunt their ill-gotten gains. They acted not like furtive thieves but like two kids on a joy ride, utterly delighted by their own cleverness — as in the invitation Jocelyn e-mailed to friends not long before their arrests, announcing a surprise twenty-fifth-birthday party for Ed at an upscale tapas bar. "My treat, of course!" she'd written. Steeped in narcissism and privilege, fueled by entitlement and set in an age of consumer culture run amok, theirs is truly an outlaw romance for the twenty-first century. The Philadelphia Daily News immediately dubbed the photogenic couple "Bonnie and Clyde." It's a name some people take exception to. "Bonnie and Clyde, that's only because they're young and good-looking," scoffs Detective Terry Sweeney of the Philadelphia police. "These two were complete idiots. If this was two fat fucks from South Philly, it would have been Turner and Hooch."
20080408
20080407
Awesome disobedience = Thoreau back .
Tibetan protesters scaled up the golden gate bridge today, and unfurled giant banners. This comes less than 2 days before the torch is due to make its stop in San Francisco. The group responsible, calling themselves 'Team Tibet', disguised themselves using civilian clothes, strollers, and i can only hope, fake mustaches. They then used their hidden climbing equipment to rappel up the cables, (150 feet above the road and 370 feet above water) and then unleash their banners.Obviously they were arrested when they came down. They face a possible fine.
The damage is done though, this is great. Great civil disobedience. I'm loving this. I can only imagine what its going to be like when the torch comes through SF. Hopefully people will pay more attention than the last time someone told them to free tibet, which was most likley at woodstock 94, or a bjork concert.
For more on protesting the torch in SF, see here.
For more on the history of Tibet, including rape of tibet by china, see here.
For more on civil disobedience in general, see here.
Nagi Noda
Check out this Coke ad, featuring a song written by Jack White. It is directed by Japanese Pop Artist Nagi Noda.
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Other works by Noda:
Sweating to the Surreal.
A fucking insane clip of a fitness instructor dressed in a body suit that gives her the appearance of having muscles shaped like the fur of a poodle. Also, exercising with her in the video are six actors dressed in dog costumes, with actual live dogs' heads superimposed over their real heads.It was created for the 2004 Olympics.
I dont know what to say about this. It reminds me of the Michel Gondry video for Daft Punk's around the world.
This seems to be some early footage, or some test footage for the effect that would later be used in the coke ad. It makes me wonder who did this effect first, Noda or Gondry in the Hardest button to button video.
A commercial for some Japanese mineral water.
Havent a fucking clue...
20080406
Alfreda and Anton
Alfreda Van Bladel had prepared a dinner for her husband, Anton, that consisted of hot dogs.
At some point the man snatched the plate of hot dogs from his wife's hands.
This action prompted the Alfreda to stab her husband in the shoulder with a steak knife.
Anton Van Bladel then grabbed a handgun and pointed it at his wifes head and softly informed her that he was going to kill her.
"I will kill you. I swear to god Alfreda, I earned these hotdogs and goddamnit im going to eat them. ""Well whats stoppin you now then. You're pointin a fucking gun at my head. You can eat whatever the fuck you want now. Shit- why dont you go ahead and do it Anton. Mr big man. Big scary Anton. Just do it already. Aint like cleanin up after your shit ass is much of a livin anyway."
Alfreda grabbed the gun and pressed it into her forhead even harder.
"JUST FUCKING DO IT ALREADY" She screamed
"Why'd you have go go and stab me like that." Anton pulled a cigarette out of the pack in his front shirt pocket. The right pocket. He always kept a pack there. He looked into Alfreda's eyes as he puffed on the Marlboro red. Her wild eyes. The ones that he had fallen in love with 15 years ago. Freshmen year. Anton passed her the cigarette. He was still holding the gun to her head.
"I had to stand up f'er myself someday. What'n the hell am i supposed to eat 'f you go 'n snatch up all the hotdogs." She blew smoke rings. She knew Anton loved it when she did her smoke tricks. He thought it made her look like a hollywood movie star.
The smoke rings floated towards Anton, dissipating around him. He smiled for a second, and then frowned. "How'n the hell 're you gonna cook us a dinner consisting of only three goddamn hotdogs. That aint 'enough. First off you know i like my Hungry Mans-"
"Well ther aint no goddamn money for Hungry Mans Anton. We aint even got 'nuff for a whole pack of hotdogs. Why the hell do you think i only cooked three." Anton was not listening. This is because he kept talking over Alfreda.
"-Thats cus thats what i am. A hungry man. Those things are heavy Alfreda you know that. I know you know that cus 'yer the ones what fuckin buyin em. I jus get so darn hungry."
"Shit Anton just fucking kill me." *sobs* "Just fucking kill me and eat me then. Thats all I am to you. Just a fucking food source."
Anton lowered the gun from his wifes temple.
"Damnit Alfreda. Look at your eyes. So wild. You 'member when i asked you to wear my jacket."
Anton wiped the tears from Alfredas eyes. She smiled. "heh. Yeah, it was all covered in mud because you went muddin' with the windows down."
"Yes and you took it anyways, cuz you knew that i didnt know how to get it cleaned. And you threw it in your mamas dryer and freshened it up with your trick."
"hah- that werent no trick Anton. Its just some dryer sheets." she laughed.
"Well i aint never seen nothin like it." Anton began crying. "Sure seemd like some magic to me Alfreda. Damnit you know i love you. Im sorry i pointed sheila at'cha. I just get so emotional is all."
"Aww hell i know you didnt mean it. Come here you big ox."
/scene.
original Article.
20080405
Veni, Vedi, Bookcase Bedroom.
20080404
Re: Pismo for President's day weekend?
Every once in a great while, a story comes along that touches you so deeply your toes begin to tingle. For me it was that elephant painting.
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Sir Francis drake is fucking insane. (I would have said awesome, but my better judgment tells me he probably was pretty savage.) He was a privateer. If you dont know, that means he was a legal pirate, contracted by the government. (Not unlike our own private militiamen, BLACKWATER.) He was also a navigator, a slave trader, and a politician. He was a hero to the English, and a brutal pirate to the Spanards, to whom he was known as "El Draque". The Dragon. At one time the king of Spain offered a bounty of 20,000 Ducats for El Draque's head. (20,000 ducats = 1 metric fuckload of money)
1841 - William Henry Harrison dies of pneumonia becoming the first President of the United States to die in office and serve the shortest term.
1850 - Los Angeles, and its historic Adobes are incorporated into California.
1964 - The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
1968 - Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
BORN ON THIS DAY:
Dutch-born woodcarver "Grinling Gibbons" is born on this day in 1648. Gibbons also shares a birthday with lesser known celebrities such as, Muddy Waters (1915), Maya Angelou (1928), Craig "Coach" "T" "Nelson" (1944), David E Kelley (creator of the OC), Agent Smith/Elrond Hugo Weaving "1960" (i really thought he could have been born in like 1500 for some reason.), David Cross (1964), RDJR (robert downey jr.) (1965), Mix Master Mike (1970), AND MR DAVID BLAINE (1973)
I leave you now, with gibbons.
20080403
Drawing from Ozu's Goodmorning
The story is centred on two suburban boys, brothers, who refuse to talk in an attempt at pressuring their parents into buying a television.