Two arms to hold you

Happy National Hugging Day (January 21).



Juan Mann is the man behind the Free Hugs Campaign, and is featured in this video "All The Same" by Sick Puppies. I've seen this video several times, but each time I have this big stupid grin on my face when I finish watching it.


Technorati tags: hugging, All The Same, Sick Puppies

How to be a... Zillionaire!

Zimbabweans will be soon lining their pockets with 10-million-dollar bills.

The central bank announced Thursday it would increase the denomination of the nation's highest bank note more than tenfold to keep pace with the world's highest inflation rate, officially estimated at 25,000 percent annually. Independent financial institutions say real inflation is closer to 150,000 percent.

The new 10-million note is the equivalent of about $4 at the dominant black market exchange rate. (via J-Walk)

Even this pales in comparison to the runaway hyperinflation that struck post-World War I Germany in 1923, where the inflation rate was over 3,000,000% per month, which works out to prices for everything doubling every 49 hours.

Here's a brief look at some examples of German currency during this period and what you could expect your money to fetch. Stories are told of people carrying their money around in wheelbarrows instead of wallets, though in point of fact, suitcases were the preferred method of transport.

German 100,000,000,000 mark note, which,
by November 15, 1923 would buy 2 glasses of beer.
Bread is 80,000,000,000 Mark a loaf.


A German woman feeding a stove with
currency notes, which burn longer than
the amount of firewood they can buy.

FYI: You may not be aware that there is an American and a European system of number naming. They agree up to the millions, but after that, what Americans call a billion, Europeans call a milliard. Wherever possible, I will include the scientific notation or the actual written out number.

And if you think that's as bad as it can get, think again. Hungary during 1945-1946 experienced a stunning rate of inflation of 41,900,000,000,000,000% (almost 4.19 * 10¹⁶% ) per month, which works out to prices doubling every 15 hours or so.

The first series of pengo banknotes (Hungary's unit of currency) were printed in 1926 with the following denominations: 5 P, 10 P, 20 P, 50 P, and 100 P. By 1946, notes of 100 quintillion pengo (1 * 10²⁰) were being issued. At some point, there were too many zeroes to fit on the bill, and they had to resort to telling how many milpengo (1,000,000 pengo) or bilpengo (1,000,000 milpengo or 1,000,000,000,000 pengo) the note represented.

A gallery of some of Hungary's currency during this period.


Banknotes not worth the paper they were printed upon.

Technorati tags: inflation, hyperinflation, Zimbabwe, Germany, Hungary

23 skidoo, 24 skidoo... whatever it takes

In 1968, Otto Preminger directed Skidoo, which featured big-name actors and comedians from the previous generation attempting to "get hip" with those long-haired, sandal-wearin', peace-marchin', free-lovin', acid-droppin', gerund-destroyin' kids of 1968.

How bizarre was this movie? Imagine Jackie Gleason tripping on acid, and Groucho Marx as a drug-dealing syndicate boss who smokes joints instead of cigars, for starters. Another dozen or so fading legends drive their careers into the ground on this one as well. Check out the jaw-dropping trailer below. (thanks to Chris "Vo-dee-oh-doh" H. for the idea)


As Sammy Davis, Jr. says, "This is the gassiest, grooviest, swingin'-est trippiest movie you've ever seen".

Having just typed this, I had the brainstorm to check YouTube and lo and behold, someone has thoughtfully posted Skidoo in its glorious entirety (cut into 10 parts due to YouTube restrictions on the maximum length a video can be). Part 1 of Skidoo to follow:


Parties that are still interested, or just too stoned to know what else to do to pass the time can catch Skidoo, parts 2-10 below.

Skidoo (Part 2 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 3 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 4 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 5 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 6 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 7 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 8 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 9 of 10)
Skidoo (Part 10 of 10)



Speaking of "skidoo", the phrase "23 skidoo" came into popularity in the 1910's-1920's and generally refers to leaving quickly, "getting out while the getting's good".

But why 23? Why "skidoo"? No one seems to have any definite answers, but that hasn't stopped people from coming up with a lot of theories, covering most of the plausibility spectrum from the plausible to the ridiculous. Before you 23 skidoo, read some of the history behind the mystery of this strange phrase.

Technorati tags: skidoo

(Time)Killer Snowball!

Snowball 2008 is a fiendishly addictive little game where you guide a Killer Snowjuggernautball of Death® down the mountainside, gaining in speed and size as you merrily crush humans, dogs and snowmen alike while avoiding trees and cabins.

Technorati tags: games, casual

A Mighty Wind

It may not be The Spirit, but these preachers definitely have something in them. (via List Of The Day)





Technorati tags: televangelists, farting

I Went To My Best Friend's Wedding And All I Got Was This Lousy Piece Of Instep

Reporter's wedding cake is a life-size likeness of herself. I wonder if the bride and groom stuffed slices of her face in their faces?




I don't even want to know the story with this wedding cake.

Technorati tags: wedding cakes, unusual

Why Vinyl > CD

Flippin' brilliant! Vinyl Sleeve Heads - people posing with vinyl album covers. (via In4mador!)

Here's one I submitted of an albino holding The Beatles' White Album during a snowstorm. Whaddaya think?



Thank you, thank you. I'm here all week.

Technorati tags: album covers, funny

Still more menacing than Schwarzenegger's Mr. Freeze

Uh-huh, yeah, invulnerable... except for that whole part about how most of the planet averages somewhere way north of 32°F. Other than that, though, I'm sure it's a real solid plan there, Frosty. 1957 comic "Invaders From The Ice World". (via Information Junk)

Technorati tags: comics, odd

Flash that 'stache, it's got panache!

The American Mustache Institute, that venerable organization (so they say), is asking you to vote on which four mustache-wearin' historical figures should be gracing the proposed Mount 'Stachemore. Get in there! Vote early! Vote often! (via J-Walk)



While they have some good candidates on the ballot (see a portion of the ballot above), it could be a little more exhaustive. Sure there's the shoo-in Burt Reynolds, but where's...


John Oates?


Freddie Mercury?


Vincent Price?


Ned Flan-diddly-anders?

Technorati tags: mustaches, mount stachemore

Olan and the Amazing Technicolor Leisure Suit

List Of The Day presents: Great Olan Mills portraits through the ages. As long as you're there anyway, I recommend checking out List Of The Day's Best of 2007. It's a hoot.

Technorati tags: photography, Olan Mills, best of 2007

Merry Chrisnukkwaanzivus!

No matter what you choose (or choose not, young Jedi) to celebrate near the end of December on any given year, I hope you have (or had) fun while doing it (if you did anything at all). I think I just wore out the parentheses keys on this keyboard.



The Upside-Down Christmas Tree (more room for presents!) and other strange Christmas trees.




Happy Festivus, from the rest of us! Official Aluminum Festivus poles are manufactured in Wisconsin in the good old US of A! Buy your own, or just witness how a little Festivus miracle goes into each and every 6-foot aluminum pole with these behind-the-scenes vids.

Technorati tags: strange, Christmas trees, Festivus

Shake Your Rump to the Funk

Another nifty plaything brought to my attention from the industrious game-testing drones at Jay Is Games is the Tony-b Machine. Half beatbox, half webtoy, you can play by using either your mouse or keyboard. Within a minute you're sounding like a club DJ pro. When you get tired of mixin' your own funky-fresh beats, click on "Recordings" and see what others have come up with, or record and submit your own stuff.

Technorati tags: webtoy, beatbox

I wanna be a cylinder jockey!

"Simmons! Come here and pull my cylinder!"
Edison in a rare moment of joviality June, 1877

Wayyyyy back before Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, CDs, LPs, 45s and even 78RPM records, people used to buy music (and the occasional speech) on phonograph cylinders.

The original cylinders mass marketed in the 1880s were made of wax and were sold and stored in cardboard tubes to at least partially protect the product. Different formulations using harder and more durable types of wax appeared over the next two decades until in 1906 the Indestructible Record Company began mass marketing cylinder records made of celluloid, an early hard plastic, that would not break if dropped and could be played thousands of times without wearing out.

An interesting history of the phonograph cylinder from its invention by Thomas Edison in 1877 to its final days (Dictaphone finally ended production in 1947).



The cylinder might be down, but it's not totally out. You can email a sound file or send a CD to Poppy Records, and for a mere £15, they will make your own custom wax cylinder!



A whole passel 'o' Christmas MP3s on wax cylinder 1900's-1930's.

Technorati tags: phonograph, cylinder, history

You're gonna go places, kid

Take the Traveler IQ Challenge by clicking as close as you can to the actual location of various spots around the globe. But don't dawdle, you only get 10 seconds per location.

Technorati tags: geography, quiz

Have you any idea what a lord a-leaping is going for these days?!

A capella group Straight No Chaser singing their version of 12 Days of Christmas, which turns out not quite how you might expect.




The 23rd Annual PNC Christmas Price Index shows that the cost of giving the gifts from 12 Days of Christmas is up to $19,507, a 3.1% increase over last year. Blame rests on the rising cost of gold rings, food (calling birds, French Hens and pear trees are all up) plus the minimum raise wage hikes, making maids a-milking a bit pricier. The scrolling stock ticker and the graphs are a nice touch...

Technorati tags: 12 Days, Christmas, a capella