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

Give 5 to The Jackson Five, Pizzicato Five, MC5...

The premise for Dear Rockers is pretty simple:

1. Pick a musician whose music you downloaded, borrowed or otherwise acquired without paying. Make sure it’s an artist who you really like.
2. Write them a letter telling them why you love their music, and include five bucks in cash. (Why five bucks?) If you’re feeling crafty, make them a collage or otherwise decorate your letter.
3. Scan or photograph your letter and submit it to DearRockers.org. We’ll share it with the world.
4. Find your artist’s mailing address. Visit this page for help finding addresses, and send off the letter and the five bucks.
5. Enjoy your new-found musical karma, and keep on rockin’.

(via In4mador!)

Technorati tags: music

World of Wirecraft

The deceptively simple yet fiendishly addictive Vector Runner has you controlling a simple little blue cube with your left and right arrow keys, dodging wire-frame obstacles and picking up powerups. (via Jay Is Games)

Old-skool arcade gamers (such as the author) may flash back to the early 80's when vector games such as Tempest and Battlezone were vying for your quarters. You can still play 'em, in fact, since Atari has them available in a free online format, though it does lose a little something ported to the small screen.

Online Tempest





Online Battlezone



Technorati tags: vector games, video games, Tempest, Battlezone

Zombies and cheaters and waiters (oh my!)

These are photos of one Russian online community, whose members enjoy making some staged photos with a creepy plot. Here are some of their recent topics:

A Cheating Wife: You need to make a photo of a man, “a lover”, hanging outside the real window. The window should be not lower than a 3rd story of a multi-storied building. “A husband” should lean out from another window with a gun, aiming at “the lover”. From yet another window “the cheating wife” should look out in despair.”

The Waiter: A man dressed like a water should crawl out of a refuse chute in some multi-storied building, right from the disposal opening. He should hold a tray with some servings and a towel in another hand”

A Zombie: A man, rolled up in bandages should crawl on his stomach at a pedestrian crossing. He should have a knife sticking out of his back. Another guy should chase him with a working chainsaw”

The members of this community live in different Russian cities, they make the photos in their own neighborhoods, right in the middle of the day while sudden passers-by watching them doing this stuff.

More pics of crazy Russian goings-on here. (via Reddit)











Technorati tags: Russian, pranks

Hmm, a merry Christmas I wish you!

30 years of Lucasfilm Christmas cards (via Metafilter)

Technorati tags: Star Wars, Lucasfilm, Christmas cards

Finally, Limp Bizkit is getting some competition! At least in the Stupid Band Name department, they are...

You practice your guitar-slinging chops for years. You write epic songs powerful enough to rock your audience's collective face clean off. But you name just one band "Steaming Wolf Penis" and suddenly everyone's a critic.

The Worst Band Names of '07

See also:
The 25 Most Ridiculous Band Names in Rock History

The Worst Band Names Ever

Technorati tags: worst, band names

Where's WALL-E?

Pixar (Toy Story, A Bug's Life, The Incredibles, Cars, etc.) likes to insert subtle in-jokes and references to previous Pixar films. Did you know, for example, that the beat-up Pizza Planet Toyota delivery truck as seen above is in every Pixar movie somewhere? Here's a partial list, including the blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to their upcoming release, WALL-E that's hidden in the special features section of the Ratatouille DVD.

Technorati tags: Pixar, Easter Eggs, movies

You were cupped!

What $40 in cups, a lot of free time, and motivation for a prank get you. (via Look At This...)




Office pranks pics

Technorati tags: pranks

Ho Ho Ho, JoCoVideo

Merry Christmas from Chiron Beta Prime! (kudos to Dave "Save Some Soylent Green For Me!" P. for finding this. I'll make sure to but in a good word with the robot overlords. Err, I mean, "protectors".) More great Jonathan Coulton songs can be had, often for the low, low price of free at JonathanCoulton.com.


Technorati tags: Chiron Beta Prime, Jonathan Coulton

If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?

Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.
- Homer Simpson, imparting some non-inspiration to Bart and Lisa.

A couple of days ago I posted about the expendable Star Trek character from the security team usually referred to simply as a Redshirt, who usually beams down with the regulars in the cast to some strange planet, only to buy the farm within the next few minutes.

Tonight, I happened to find these great Star Trek Inspirational Posters, which included a nod to Redshirt Guy. If you can't quite make out the text, it says, "Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back."




If you like those, you might also like the their more famous cousin, Demotivational Posters.




While I don't think these are "official" Demotivational posters, but rather user-created ones, they are still pretty funny nonetheless. Top 40 Demotivational Posters. This gem reads, "Hydration: The key to marathon training".


Technorati tags: Star Trek, redshirt, demotivators

We're gonna need a bigger hose...

During the drought, it's important for firefighters to find new ways to conserve water, I guess.

Technorati tags: typo, funny

Left! Left! Right! Uppercut! Checkmate!

+



Some things just belong together. Chocolate and peanut butter. McCartney and Lennon. Shave and a haircut (two bits!). Chess and boxing.

From the World Chess Boxing Organization's FAQ

So how does chessboxing work?

Chessboxers go through alternating four-minute long rounds of chess and three-minute boxing rounds with a one-minute break in between. A maximum total of 11 rounds are fought out—six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing...

(via Strange Games)

They do not appear to be kidding. Witness this gripping footage from the Chessboxing World Championship below:


Technorati tags: chessboxing, chess, boxing

Better Dead Than Red

Guy Fleegman: I changed my mind. I wanna go back.
Sir Alexander Dane: After the fuss you made about getting left behind?
Guy Fleegman: Yeah, but that's when I thought I was the crewman that stays on the ship, and something is up there, and it kills me. But now I'm thinking I'm the guy who gets killed by some monster five minutes after we land on the planet.
Jason Nesmith: You're not gonna die on the planet, Guy.
Guy Fleegman: I'm not? Then what's my last name?
Jason Nesmith: It's, uh, uh - -I don't know.
Guy Fleegman: Nobody knows. Do you know why? Because my character isn't important enough for a last name, because I'm gonna die five minutes in.
Gwen DeMarco: Guy, you have a last name.
Guy Fleegman: DO I? DO I? For all you know, I'm "Crewman Number Six"! Mommy... mommy...
Sir Alexander Dane: Are we there yet?

- Guy (Fleegman), the "Red Shirt" character on Galaxy Quest, realizing his true purpose

Star Trek's generic, nameless, interchangeable red-shirted security officers were usually the first to buy it when the landing team beamed down to some hostile new planet, as it wouldn't make much business sense for the producers to kill off the stars of the show. Wikipedia explains it all. (via The Presurfer)



What goes on in the mind of one of those unfortunate crimson-clad dead men walking? Maybe something along the lines of this: Redshirt Blues



Got the Thinkgeek catalog in the mail the other day, and Mrs. Captnkurt and I cracked up when we saw this: Oh this is so under the Christmas tree this year!


Technorati tags: redshirt, Star Trek

Call him The Dude, His Dudeness, or El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing...

The Dude abides. And has a new book, too. (via Growabrain)

Technorati tags: Big Lebowski

The A-List

There are some interesting lists at The List Universe. Here a but a few:

The Top 10 Worst Engineering Disasters. Anyone remember Skylab?

25 English Language Oddities. Did you know “Forty” is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order, and “One” is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order?

10 Bizarre Mental Disorders. You may have heard of Stockholm Syndrome, but did you know about Capgras Delusion? Thought not... (via Cosmic Watercooler)

Technorati tags: lists

Getting under your skin

Slide show of poison ivy rashes, not for the squeamish. (via J-Walk)



How come some people are more vulnerable to poison ivy than others?




Best of The Itchy & Scratchy Show

Technorati tags: poison ivy, itchy, scratchy, simpsons

Ich lieb dich nicht, du liebst mich nicht, uh-huh

Fellow Blogspottian and Honorary Brother-From-Another-Mother Fritz from the wonderful blog Mookie dug up this from who knows what musty corner of the Eighties Video closet. Trio performing their lone hit "Da Da Da".

I bought that album from Trio (Trio & Error) on the strength of that song alone back in, what? 1983? It was featured in the craptastic Phoebe Cates sex comedy "Private School". "Da Da Da" was definitely the best song on there, the rest being even cheesier and the arrangements even lazier.

I think that album is out of print now, but I do remember most of the song titles being really repetitive. Aside from "Da Da Da", there was "Boom Boom", "Bye Bye", "W.W.W." and "Tutti Frutti". You could tell they probably didn't know a word of English.

And finally, the full title of the song is actually "Da Da Da I Don't Love You You Don't Love Me Aha Aha Aha".

As Sean Connery's Chicago beat cop character Jim Malone said in The Untouchables after schooling Costner's Elliott Ness, "Here endeth the lesson."


Technorati tags: Trio, Da Da Da, Eighties, video, Untouchables

It goes without saying that the "No Tagbacks" rule was in effect

Emboldened by their success in using the "Freeze Tag" technique to catch criminals, local law enforcement try a daring new approach. No mention of whether either party was in a swimming pool at the time of the arrest. (via Across the Board)

Technorati tags: funny, dumb criminals

Driving sideways

Passing By pieces together video of footage shot looking out the windows of trains, cars, buses, planes and other moving vehicles from various locales around the world. Half relaxing and half voyeuristic as you check out the people passing by. Put it on fullscreen mode and it makes for an excellent screensaver. (via Boing Boing)




Ex-guitarist for Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, ex-classmate of Bob Seger and Iggy Pop, Bill Kirchen, aka "The King of Dieselbilly" does a fine rendition of "Looking at the World Through a Windshield".

Technorati tags: video, Bill Kirchen

Parallel Lines

Quite possibly the world's greatest parallel parker. He can park a 457 cm car in a 480 cm space, which means he is working with just 23 centimeters of space to spare. Now, if you're an Ugly American© like me, you may be a little fuzzy on just how small of a distance this actually is. This online ruler may help put things in perspective. Or, of course, you could just watch the video above... (via Hight3ch)



How self-parking cars work.



Parking Perfection game

Technorati tags: parking

Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey

Top Ten Most Annoying Alarm Clocks, though for some reason Bubb "It's like an alarm clock, the whistles go WOO WOO!" Rubb and his whistle tip mufflers didn't make the list.



Technorati tags: alarm clocks, bubb rubb

Your Lying Eyes

You may have already seen some of these... 15 Cool Word Illusions. (via J-Walk)

Also worth checking out would be this clever Come In/Go Away doormat, which changes depending upon which side of the mat you are standing.

Technorati tags: illusions, wordplay

Little Piggies

Is your second toe longer than your big toe? They have a name for that: Morton's Toe. Mine's not longer, but it is the same length as my big toe...



This freaked me right the crap out. Yes, I realize it's Photoshopped. I don't care. It still gave me the heebie-jeebies. Toes. Lots of toes. (via Dark Roasted Blend)



Did Marilyn Monroe have six toes on each foot?

Technorati tags: toes

Conewars

Dogs in Cones

vs.

Cats with Cones


Winner:
Dogs in Cones! Mostly because they have an entire site of, well... dogs in cones. (via J-Walk)

Technorati tags: strange, dogs, cones

Candy-coating the music

It's like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.
- Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap after inspecting the all-black album cover for their upcoming release "Smell the Glove"

The folks over at Sleevage dissect what in some cases may be the most important component of your music purchase: the album cover artwork. Covering both old and new, well-known and obscure, there's a little something for everyone. They've only been going since June, so while they may not have yet gotten around to your favorite cover, they're worth keeping an eye on.

Click on one of the images at the bottom of their page to check out the cover of your choice.

Technorati tags: album covers, art

The Tipping Point

November 16th was Domino Day 2007 in Leeuwarden, Netherlands, which traditionally hosts the annual event. This was the first year in which the previous record for most dominoes toppled was not broken. Watch a clip of some of the hot domino-on-domino action from this year's competition.






In a similar vein, here is a new Guinness commercial that mixes a little dominoes and Rube Goldberg. (via Bifurcated Rivets)


Technorati tags: Domino Day, Guinness, advertising

Mister Beer

How to brew beer in a coffee maker (via Coudal)



The World's Worst Beers, according to the reviewers at RateBeer.com. Some of the more amusing reviews:

Black Label 11-11 Malt Liquor
"...it smells like jock strap in my glass."

Sleeman Clear
smells like.........wow, i cant put my finger on it. dirty wet socks? wow, this is awful. flavour is......well there isnt any? ok how can something smell so bad, and not taste like anything?

Technorati tags: beer

Make Me One With Everything...

Web Zen features some interesting games from time to time, as well as the usual unusualness. Here are a couple of recent standouts.


In Picto, one new symbol gets added to the screen each level. Just click on that symbol to continue. There's 100 possible levels, but so far my rusted-out sieve of a brain hasn't gotten past level 15.






MissileGame 3D lets you be all Wedge Antilles or Biggs Darklighter or Luke Skywalker or whoever your favorite Star Wars X-Wing fighter pilot may have been, barreling down impossibly narrow trenches (replete with rotating apertures, natch) at suicidal rates of speed. Give it a try! You used to bullseye Wamp Rats in your T-16 back home, and they're not much bigger than two meters...

Technorati tags: games, web zen