March 18, 2011
Holi, celebrating the arrival of Spring in India
Holi is a wild, sexy celebration in India. People wear white and then throw or squirt colored powders and water at each other. There are bonfires, marijuana drink parties, mischief, all kinds of sweet pastries, venting of sexual heat, dancing in the streets and happy, colorful mayhem. [more inside]
The painted ceiling of St Martin’s Church
The earliest preserved, figuratively painted wooden ceiling in Europe can be seen above the nave of St Martin's Church in Zillis. It features beheadings, temptations, naked people, and lots and lots of fish tails.
Muppet Museum of Natural History
The spice!
Welcome to Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages On these pages, I present solid information on (currently) 117 different spice plants. Emphasis is on their usage in ethnic cuisines, particularly in Asia; furthermore, I discuss their history, chemical constituents, and the etymology of their names. Last but not least, there are numerous photos featuring the live plants or the dried spices.
Destroyed in Seconds
Five surveillance cameras capture a tornado hitting Alexander Hardware and Small Engine; tornado was an EF 2 with wind speeds of 120mph.
Japan explains nuclear crisis to kids with a cartoon about poop and farts
Smells like Teen Spirit, alright.
Chicks Rock! 10 basement youtube unknowns.
Three Paths for Four Chambers
It was Alex St. Martin's gory musket injury that paved the way for cow fistulation, a hands-on method to explore the inner workings of bovine digestion.
"Go to War. Do Art."
USMC Warrant Officer (ret.) Michael D. Fay served as a combat artist from 2000 through January 2010 under the History Division of the Marine Corps University. He once described his orders from them as "Go to War. Do Art." Fay was deployed several times to Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been keeping a blog of his sketches since 2005. [more inside]
Animals
The Creature Connection: Our love for animals can be traced to our capacity to infer the mental states of others, which archaeological evidence suggests emerged more than 50,000 ago. This article is part of a NYTimes series on the relationship between humans and the animals we raise. [more inside]
Poverty pr0n
What Have You Done For A Friend Today?
In 1967, Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov went up in a capsule he knew would never get back (NSFW gruesome image) to earth in one piece. He could have bowed out of the mission, but that would meant his good friend, Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space) would have drawn the mission instead. So Vladamir launched knowing it was a suicide mission. The CIA was listening in , and recorded what may have been Vladimir Komarov's last words, amid cries of rage. Adding to the tragedy, Yuri died in a plane crash the next year.
Maps of Time, Space, and Words in Lovecraft
While constructing a free ebook of the complete Lovecraft stories, Cthulhu Chick made a wordle of Lovecraft's corpus, and notes on word frequency. (Surprise: he only used "squamous" once.) Another fan has made a geopolitical map of Pangaea c. 252 million years ago. The Cthulhu Mythos Timeline explains what's going on.
"If you feel stupid, it's not because I'm making you feel that way."
What is a photocopier? Ten pages of Ohio Supreme Court testimony where a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, office worker deliberately tries to muddy the waters in a deposition. Hilarity ensues. "If you don't know what that means in an office setting, please tell the court you don't know what it means in an office setting to have a photocopying machine."
There are some folks that think a large earthquake could hit the U.S. West Coast in the next few days.
Earth Tides, Syzygy, this weekend's Supermoon, and whale beachings are all things that some folks think point to a possible tectonic event on the U.S. West Coast this weekend.
Jim Berkland, retired USGS Geologist thinks so. See his interview here. And, he's got a track record of predicting earthquakes.
Everything is cheaper than it looks
Pleasant Family Shopping is an extensive blog dedicated to shopping malls and supermarkets of the past. The entries devoted to the 60's are especially interesting. The Woolco entry has lots of period photograghs of customers from around 1970. [more inside]
Trolls Belong Under Bridges
Comment OR Vote: "A civilized cyberspace being necessary for the sanity of a free state, the right of the People to be secure against unreasonable Internet comments shall not be infringed. No person leaving a comment, or any legal incident thereof, on any web site shall vote in any federal, state, or local election within two years, or within such lengthier period as the Congress or the legislatures of the several states shall direct."
NYTimes has a paywall; this is free.
[Basetrack] is an experimental media project, tracking the deployment of 1/8
– 1st Battalion, Eighth Marines, throughout the duration of their
deployment to southern Afghanistan. A small team of mobile media
operators is embedded with the battalion, transmitting their reports
and reflections from Helmand province as they travel across the
battalion’s area of operations.
Today in Working Class History
May 18th marks two significant days in the history of labor. On May 18th, 1871 the workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own interests based on workers' councils. [more inside]
Keep the Faith: Prattonia 1967
Send lawyers and money, got guns.
The Texas House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee voted 5-3 Wednesday night to advance legislation to allow concealed handguns on college campuses. Over half of the Texas House has signed on as co-authors of the bill. University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa disagrees. Utah beat them to it.
Chris Eckert makes machines
Chris Eckert is an artist who makes sculptures and... machines: Auto Ink, Auto Masochist, Auto Rosary
Painting is a Process
Painting of a tangerine... being peeled (SLYT) Painter Duane Keiser paints a tangerine. Then peels it. Then paints it. Then peels it. Then paints it. Fun video, I thought.
A womb with a view
Abortion has always been a hotspot in the culture wars. But of late, the anti-abortion movement has had some huge wins, often sliding in under the radar of pro-choice supporters. Idaho bans abortions after the 20th week, claiming that mother's shouldn't have the right to make a fetus uncomfortable. Nebraska also banned abortion after the 20th week, so did Oklahoma. Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, and Ohio are also considering joining the 31 states that currently have such a ban.
Virginia passed a law that will shut the doors of almost every abortion clinic in the state. And various areas are now enacting laws that suggest a fetus is significantly more important than the carrier of said fetus. One judge ruled that a girl couldn't have an abortion because she had bad grammar.
It is quite possible that women who are in their 40s right now may be the only generation of American women that possessed full reproductive rights for their entire child bearing years.
56 gigs and counting.
Jesse Heiman, World's Greatest Extra. According to myth, he has appeared in every movie and tv show ever created. (via)
Thank you Norway!
Shallow diver breaks world record for paddling pool jump. "A US shallow diver has broken his own world record by swan-diving 36ft (11m) into a paddling pool containing just 12in (30.5cm) of water.
Darren Taylor, also known as Professor Splash, dived into a pool of near-freezing water in Trondheim, Norway, making the jump his 13th Guinness certified record.
Mr Taylor, who is from Colorado in the US, has 25 years' professional high-diving experience and works as a stunt diver." Via: BBC
YOUTH GONE WILD
Guaranteed to go in the Cuteness Hall of Fame
Mommy's Nose is Scary! Mother films her son reacting to her blowing her nose - he's not sure whether it's funny or terrifying (SLYT).
Urban Traps
A Looney Boyle Film
120 Minutes Returns
The incredibly influential and loved music show 120 Minutes returns, with Matt Pinfield returning as host. The MTV2 premiere happens later this year, while the web version 120 Seconds debuts today. [more inside]
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