Sell! Sell! Sell!

This struck my funny bone. Have a slogan! is a goofy generator that mixes widely-known advertising slogans with wildly inappropriate subjects. Some language NSF the kids. (via In4mador!)



Technorati tags: slogan, generator

Use Your Illusion I & II

Photo Illusions I - Tourist sites with touristy claptrap blended into the actual tourist attraction. Browse additional excellent and creative shutterwork from the damn cool pics at Damn Cool Pics.




Photo Illusions II - A couple of old chestnuts (e.g. the guy "pushing over" the Leaning Tower of Pisa) but overall a very clever collection.


Technorati tags: photography, illusion

Yesterday’s tomorrow, today.

Rolling Stone magazine recently published their 1,000th issue. Here is a complete archive of Rolling Stone covers. The John Belushi cover came out January 21, 1982, just four months before his death.



Check out the beautiful archive of covers from Mechanix Illustrated, Modern Mechanix and Popular Mechanics (after probably getting tired of people telling them, "Hey, you dope! You spelled "Mechanics" wrong!").



Other than the covers, Modern Mechanix's blog itself also has some really retro scans of old articles from their stable of magazines. here's one from the October, 1924 issue of Popular Mechanics that was entitled "Metal Barrel Revolving on Pipe Adds to Playground Thrills". Or, as it's better known today, "Metal Barrel Revolving on Pipe Adds up to Multi-Million Dollar Personal Injury Lawsuits".



Ooh, here's another one... The 1939 version of the Segway!


Technorati tags: magazine covers, Rolling Stone, Modern Mechanix

Wesley Explains It All

A blogger snarkily recaps old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation—which would be nothing to write home about, except that the blogger is Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on TNG, and writes simultaneously from the perspective of an insider reminiscing on the old days, and of a wryly bemused fan who loves the show but also loves to poke fun at its occasional silliness (or, especially in the first season, its frequent silliness).

(via Incoming Signals)
Technorati tags: Star Trek, TNG, Wil Wheaton

Paris @ 140 mph

"On an August morning in 1976, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit."

The video is remarkable, showing the driver tearing through red lights, swerving around cars, pigeons and pedestrians with aplomb. Someone took the time to mash up the eight-minute video with Google Maps to let you track the exact route in real time while the video is playing. Read the brief instructions there for an optimal viewing experience.Tres bien.

Technorati tags: video, Paris, Lelouch

Pimp your desktop

Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.
~~ Last words of Oscar Wilde, November 30, 1900


A metric crapload of sites to get free, great-looking desktop wallpaper.

Technorati tags: wallpaper

Avoiding Cage Rage

"How To Tell If You're Watching A Bad Nicolas Cage Movie", (via growabrain) which goes into great detail, providing 21 sure-fire red flags that you are in danger of viewing a bad Nicolas Cage movie.

I recommend reading the article; it really is quite funny. However, in the event that you are in a severe time-crunch, or you're at Blockbuster looking at the case of a questionable Cage product, I have constructed an E-Z to follow "Cage Flowchart". Print it off and carry it with you for just such an emergency.



Technorati tags: Nicolas Cage, movies

Vo-dee-oh-doh! Twenty-three skiddoo!

The Jamoker linked to a couple of vids of Al Minns and Leon James, members of a 1940s dance troupe called Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (see below re: the Lindy Hop) demonstrating The Charleston. Actually, it's the same vid both times, but the second one is remixed to Daft Punk. Nice find Jamoker!


Another clip of Al and Leon Charleston-ing, this one from 1959 and nicely mashed up wih DJ Z-Trip's "All About the Music".



An offshoot of The Charleston is the Lindy Hop, which is similar, but even more frenetic, kinetic and energetic (hey that rhymed!)

A classic example of some excellent Lindy Hopping is this scene from the 1941 musical Helzapoppin!,which kicks off at a breakneck pace... and speeds up from there.


Technorati tags: Charleston, Lindy Hop, dance

Closed for season - Reason: Freezin'

Love to golf but you're stuck somewhere in the frozen hinterlands with no hope of breaking out that Mashie or Niblick until the current ice age passes? Pshaw! Get on out there and join the other knuckleheads brave souls who dare to duff in the dead of Dinter! Er, I guess that should be "Winter", but it just screwed up my alliteration there. Anyway, I'm telling you that you should join the TGA (Tundra Golf Association)!



Some victims of hypothermia remove their clothing even as they are freezing to death. This phenomenon of "paradoxical undressing" has a scientific explanation.



Civil War-era surgeon Dr. John Brinton studied cases of soldiers who were killed, usually by a bullet to the head, who remained in the last position they were in even after death. He called the condition "Frozen Death".

Brinton observed a soldier, killed instantly by a bullet wound to the temple, still upright on his horse, holding his rifle in his right hand, and holding the horse's mane in his left. He also observed a railroad brakeman who was shot between the eyes, "his body froze in a fixed position, with his arms extended and stiff on the handwheel of the brake. The pipe that he was smoking remained tightly gripped between his teeth."

Technorati tags: hypothermia, paradoxical undressing, frozen death

One line to rule them all...

Since the web toy Line Rider was released to the world at large in late 2006, there have been some really amazing user-created Line Rider videos in the past few months. Here are some of the most ingenious:

One-eyed Giant



Urban Run



Jagged Peak Adventure



Discarded, which, despite forcing me to listen to Chad Kroeger's Canad-erwauling, really took the cake for graphic detailing.


Technorati tags: Line Rider, video

No need to speak

There's something quite beautiful in this brief and edifying list of infographic videos. Well, okay, maybe "beautiful" isn't the right word for the pork production one... (via Fimoculous)

Technorati tags: infographic, video

Who's zoomin' who?

Deep Space is a beautiful multimedia "journey across the cosmos from galaxies in deep space to the warm blue world of Earth". (via the newly relocated Presurfer - welcome to the Blogspot neighborhood, my brother)




More wonderful perspectives starting with an oak tree leaf at Secret Worlds: The Universe Within. Choose whether to magnify in up to 100 attometers (10^-16 meters) or zoom out up 10 million light years away. Happy zooming!


Technorati tags: zoom, space

The waiting is the hardest part

Other than the next Duke Nukem sequel Duke Nukem Forever (a/k/a Duke Nukem ForNever, Forever Delayed, Never, Whenever, If Ever, (Is) Taking Forever and Neverever -- more on the protracted birthing pangs of Duke at this Wikipedia article), which has been on the horizon for 10 years and counting now, perhaps the most-anticipated computer game may be Will Wright's Spore.

Wright, as you may know, is the creator of open-ended simulators such as the Sim City/Sim City 2000/Sim City 3000 series, Sim Earth, Sim Ant, and of course the 800-pound gorilla of sim games, The Sims series, with its innumerable add-ons, expansions and repackaged re-releases.

Unlike Duke, tangible proof of progress for Spore has been more concrete. Demos have been shown in various gaming conventions for a couple of years now, and the release date, while not yet set in stone, has been announced for the second half of 2007.

To see what the big deal is, there are a couple of really cool video clips of what Spore is and what it can do. This looks really fun!
This one is Will talking at the 2005 Game Developer's Conference.


The second one if from the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in October 2006. Obviously the game looks much more polished at this point. Check it out.


Technorati tags: Will Wright, Spore, gaming, Duke Nukem Forever

Six cents worth of war news

Harper's Weekly, December 27, 1862
"The Battle of Fredericksburg"

History buffs will rejoice browsing through over 3,000 pages of Civil War content, mostly scans of the lavishly illustrated Harper's Weekly newspapers found at Son of the South. This is gorgeous material definitely worth delving into, though there is some risk that going from this to reading what People thought of what Drew Barrymore wore while catching a flight at Heathrow may cause extreme cultural whiplash for some. Better wear a neckbrace to be safe. (via Jaf Project)

Technorati tags: history, Civil War, Harper's Weekly, People Magazine is to journalism what Gorditas are to authentic Mexican cuisine

They say Gummi Bears are a Gateway Candy...

Remember back in The Olden Days® when the big candy taboo was eating Pop Rocks and washing it down with a Pepsi? (Hey, don't laugh, man! That's what killed "Life Cereal Mikey"!)

You'll be pining for those simpler times when your kids start asking you if they can buy some Chronic Candy, which claims to taste like, uh, you know... Aunt Mary, Muggles, Gasper Stick or about 500 other Street Names (some no doubt hilariously out-of-date) for Marijuana.

Technorati tags: Chronic Candy, marijuana, Reefer Madness

Anvilology

Whatever your nefarious rabbit-/roadrunner-/archnemesis-destroying needs, ACME has a product for you! Browse through our ACME online illustrated catalog; operators are standing by!


Cartoon Physics (via Backwards City).
Some choice laws:

• Everything falls faster than an anvil.
• Holes can be physically picked up and moved. This also applies to mouths and roadways that might conveniently be redirected off the edge of a cliff or into a wall.
• Many characters are able to produce any object from behind their back at will (See also: Hammerspace)

A brief search through YouTube brought up one of my all-time favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons, Long-Haired Hare (1949). Not only are there innumerable instances of the already-mentioned cartoon physics, it's just plain funny. Bugs' conducting the opera singer in and forcing him to hold that note as his face turns 27 shades of purple is priceless.


Technorati tags: cartoon physics, Bugs Bunny, ACME

The Fonzie Post

Folding chairs. Boring, right? Check out the Folding Chair for the 21st Century. Link to YouTube, if you prefer. (via Neatorama)




Not two, but five American cities are duking it out for laying claim to the title of Home of the World's Largest Chair.


Unusual ways you can sit on trash with chairs made from old bathtubs, rags and other recycled materials.


The history of the electric chair.

Technorati tags: chairs