High on Markers

an answer to facial recognition technology?

2011-10-11T21:06:00.000-07:00

possibly, if these realistic facemasks by real-f are anything to go by. Check them out over at designboom . At the very least they should be featured in a movie. The other thing I'd like to see in a movie is a scene where they have those full body scanners in an airport, but when the seemingly normal humans pass by, the scanned image is of a horrendous alien.

blog of the week: blackboards in porn

2011-10-09T10:48:00.000-07:00

Thoughful analysis of the content of blackboards in porn scenes.

goodbye, Bert Jansch

2011-10-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

So sad about the loss of this great artist - one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived.

we are now short one capitalist

2011-10-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

thank you, b3ta board, and Notorious P I G for this alternative to maudlin

more bits of thinking about Jobs:
- daniel kottke interview - talking about how Woz was the technical innovator, Jobs the marketer and various other bits about the early days of silicon valley
- alternative thoughts on the commencement address message that is making the rounds
- 2008 article where Jobs declared the Kindle would go nowhere because "nobody reads anymore"
- NYT article arguing against the hagiography of Jobs (I think it's cool that Jobs has inspired everyone to start using this word in their columns)

I'm not hating on Jobs, but it strikes me that he just seemed like a businessman - someone who would say or do things mainly to sell stuff. So not really a hero for me.

ursus wehrli: the art of clean up

2011-08-30T21:20:00.000-07:00

at designboom - check it out - a funny little mind at work

music of the moment

2011-08-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

this via boing boing - so moving - I can tell he's telling us the truth

and this, via lost at e minor

magic rainbow sponge excitement

2011-08-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

I laughed until I cried
http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-instructional-videos-made-by-crazy-people/

selling sunglasses

2011-08-19T23:08:00.000-07:00

some lovely photos by Cybele Malinowski are featured at lost at e minor. The were created for Isson's new Bauhaus line of sunglasses. I think this photographer would be qualified to create photos of the characters in the Mysterious Benedict Society, don't you?

sunday morning music again

2011-08-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

Metronomy

The Sheepdogs

brosmind

2011-08-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Brosmind at the strange attractor - featuring nude ping pong and life inside the beard

tan tan

2011-04-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

at tropical toxic

I think we've all seen this before

2011-04-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

via DataWhat?

something quite unusual going on here

2011-04-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

just try it

and the golden lobotomy award for poor writing goes to...

2010-07-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

OK - this person has a gift - I am combing through and finding more and more literary gems - will keep adding to this post as I find them and will post the jacket when I'm all done. Absolutely stunning writing:

what? what colour was that uniform? and oh my god, you mean there's more waiting for this guy after his soul rips apart?! what?
If this novel ever becomes a film they will have absolutely no option but to go back in time and draft the young Steven Seagal for this role. That is final.

This is so groundbreaking - retook is now a word! I'm serious - thank you, mystery author. Also - quite cool that ice, which I believed to be crystalline, is in fact able to drip! And finally, what does it mean to be "more than aware" of something?

So the ice is dripping from her voice, and only a few short pages later...

wooh! fire and ice - well, dripping ice and boiling mercury, but hey, close enough.

breaking news: some bullshit happening somewhere

2010-06-04T07:17:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen... I introduce to you today this man

2010-05-05T06:47:00.001-07:00

...'s pants. Click on the photo to enlarge.

oh, and he's having some kind of show (but there are no more photos of the pants to be found)

imaginary 8 bit games

2010-05-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

at boing boing

charming

traditional monsters are the best kind

2010-05-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

I love this picture of a monster by Peter Lazardi (via Meathaus) - reminds me of cozy afternoons curled up with monster manuals and underground magazines

tigers and cat cakes

2010-05-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

on special today:

the oddly appealing art of Jing Wei over at the strange attractor

and the nightmarish cat cakes of cake wrecks

once again, b3ta

2010-05-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

yes, b3ta - site of the day once again for their silly collection of Bond photoshopping
Caption for this one is:

The man with the golden bread crumbed touch

'fossils'

2010-05-01T22:43:00.000-07:00

strange objects from the campana brothers

and really, what does it all add up to - dashed if I know.

uglified blog - in honor of videos

2010-05-01T13:55:00.000-07:00

dear no-one - I have uglified my blog so that videos can now display properly. I do not want to dishonor them by having them cropped.

signed,
HOM

pickled spiders

2010-05-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

not sure about this one, though I do like the name, the drawings, and 'bring on the rubbish fractals'...

studio job takes on the castle

2010-04-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

love these installations by studio job - photos are over at designboom
PLUS exciting toilets

Eyes - Koichiro Tsujikawa

2010-04-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

Koichiro Tsujikawa - "Eyes" from Passion Paris on Vimeo.

This via Changethethought

are the effects of a disagreeable meal torpedoing your marital happiness?

2010-04-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

via Datawhat

steady as she goes!

2010-04-28T20:56:00.000-07:00

old school text based naval adventure game:

CHOICE OF BROADSIDES

I give this nine million stars out of five

once again, via the debonair SGH

o-o-o-oh-o-oh... I love you more than I can say

2010-04-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

I love this. LOVE IT. Please go here: http://mingmakescupcakes.yolasite.com/

herzog reads waldo

2010-04-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

couldn't find the old man that I was looking for

2010-04-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

Well... I was really looking for THIS Old Man Luedecke song:

First day of Fall

On the first day of fall was at the shopping mall
Was a normal Saturday
Standing with my mum and a friend who had come
Thought it was better than playing

Through the atrium a ray of light did come
Somehow we all heard it say:

When will you be stopping, your stupid life of shopping
You know there's a better way
The bad guys don't start burning until you get to learning
To live within your pay
Through the atrium a ray of light did come and that's all
We heard it say

We shook and shook our heads and clutching our new threads
Found ourselves making our way
In the parking lot there were pillars of salt
And the bearded guy from footlocker getting away

Said it couldn't be much worse, than Sodom and it's curse
At the Fairview Mall on a Saturday

>>>
don't know if it's OK that I included it here - but go to the source for more details

At any rate, I don't see that one on Youtube, so am including this one as a runner up

Why did they decide to do this?

2010-04-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

Clearly some forethought went into this performance, and I think it's that evidence of intentionality that is really sticking in my mental craw - though clearly commenters feel differently!
In case your embedded one isn't displaying properly - here's the link. You really ought to see it in all its glory. If someone knows how to stop Blogger cutting these videos off, let me know - seems to be a new phenomenon, as they used to just superimpose on the sidebar.

the art of the recut trailer

2010-04-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

10 million people have seen these, but maybe you're not one of the 10 million. Love these two recut trailers for scary Mary Poppins and (not embeddable) Dirty Dancing as directed by David Lynch.

Iceland - photos of ash clouds, lava

2010-04-22T11:13:00.000-07:00

some lovely photos over at Overatli's photostream

solid potato salad - sorry if overposted

2010-04-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

wow - just wow - The Ross Sisters perform "Solid Potato Salad"

love you, golden bug

2010-04-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

I will burn out your taste receptors FOREVER

2010-03-12T21:12:00.001-08:00

Can't bear to eat live tapeworms out of a jar? Try this set of vintage Weight Watchers recipe cards chez Candyboots

You will laugh
and you will become uninterested in eating.

via the sizzlifying, bedazzlating KF.

why, oh why? pure badness from Sean Connery

2010-02-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

In my foul laziness, it is rare that something interest me enough to post. But this trailer for the 1974 film Zardoz, starring Sean Connery must be exposed:

via the multi-lobed PAG and MAM

There's something about Tilikum

2010-02-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

...under construction...
The net is flooded with articles about Tilikum the orca this week, after a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando was drowned in his tank on the 24th of February. As everyone will know, this is the third such incident involving Tillicum.

I grew up in Victoria, and knew some of the Sealand staff when the first incident occurred, so I guess that's part of why I'm interested in this story. There is some interesting information out there on Tilikum and on orca captivity, so this post will just be something of a link farm, covering the following topics:

- the capture of orcas, trade in orcas, value of captured orcas
- about Tilikum, SeaWorld, and Sealand of the Pacific
- incidents involving captive orcas
- video of orca attacks

CAPTURE of orcas, trade in orcas, value of captured orcas

Fascinating story of early, brutal orca captures, death of captured orcas, astonishing capture of three pods (80 orcas) at Penn Cove, Washington (and more here) - villains of the piece Griffin and Goldsberry.

Sale of Sealand of the Pacific orcas (contemporary newspaper article)

VIDEO of ORCAS - hunting behaviors, human/orca shows, footage of an orca attack at SeaWorld

FAT the ENEMY that is shortening your life BANISHED

2010-02-20T06:02:00.000-08:00

How? With sanitized tapeworms. Jar Packed. 'Friends for a fair form'.

more vintage ad madness at the Huffington Post

better buried?

2010-02-17T10:49:00.001-08:00

the amazing, delightful io9 has resurrected, for your horror and amusement, a promotional song aimed at saving Dr. Who from cancellation long ago. Go ahead, blow your mind.

wake the royal family

2010-02-16T05:48:00.001-08:00

Take that, you blasted royals! Satisfying puzzle game invites you to disturb the rest of what look like the imperialist scum of the spongebob world by adding pieces of wood to various mechanical devices. Wake the royal family - try it when you're feeling oppressed by the elitist regime under which you're currently suffering.

looking for a downbeat trance?

2010-02-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

Factory balls can help. Hoping to be late for work? Again, factory balls is the ticket, as it calmly hypnotizes you into mindlessly opting to paint little balls rather than go out and earn a living.
Mild, downbeat, and ultimately pointless - yet there are definitely times for that.

The South Carolina Approach - subversives please register

2010-02-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Subversives are required to pay a five dollar registration fee, and drug dealers are required to declare their illegal income for tax purposes - foolproof plans, I'm sure. Read more...

wizard! you shall not pass

2010-02-05T18:54:00.001-08:00

a very serious topic - the Unimog RV

2010-02-05T06:31:00.000-08:00

Friends, I'm here to speak to you today about an important (the most important?) topic, the Unimog RV. The photoabove, submitted by faithful reader reptor7 and found in the jalopnik.com cache, sums up the extreme tremendousness of this vehicle.

After seeing this photo, I ran right out and bought one with the proceeds from this blog. My supplier was Global Expedition Vehicles, and I selected the Safari Expedition Vehicle Model #71, because I like my walls to be clad in distressed leather. I know you will want to purchase one too, and for you it may be granite countertops, a pull out kitchen pantry, or a deisel cooktop that strikes your fancy, so I'll include some interior photos from a few different models, and to make sense of them you'll just have to go to the vendor's website. You will also find there all the wondrous mechanical details of Unimoggery, which I know you're dying to spend hours poring over.

il pescatore

2010-02-01T05:55:00.000-08:00

Apparently a famous song

and here is the machine translation of the lyrics - very ominous...

THE FISHERMAN All' shadow dell' last sun s' a fisherman was made drowsy and the ace had a long track like a species of smile. An assassin came to the beach two large eyes from child two enormous eyes of fear eran the mirrors of un' adventure. And churches to the old one give the bread to me I have time and too much hunger little and churches to the old one give the wine to me I have silks and are an assassin. The eyes dischiuse the old one to the day was not watched not even around but it poured the wine and it broke the bread for who said I have silks and I have hunger. And it was the heat of a moment then via of new towards the wind in front of the eyes still the sun behind the shoulders a fisherman. Behind the shoulders a fisherman and the memory is already pain it is already the regret of you open them played all' shadow of a courtyard. They came in saddleback two gendarmi they came in saddleback with the crews they asked the old one if there close an assassin was passed. But all' shadow dell' last sun s' the fisherman was made drowsy and the ace had a long track like a species of smile and the ace had a long track like a species of smile

bucket songs

2010-02-01T05:31:00.000-08:00

watermelon monster Chinese Ball demon 2

2010-01-31T20:51:00.000-08:00

this land

2010-01-31T18:45:00.000-08:00

my cookie, my clam

2010-01-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

kure kure takora - gimme gimme octopus - episode 200

2010-01-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

amos moses

2010-01-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

in flagranti - business acumen

2010-01-30T16:02:00.000-08:00

via the unruly P.A.G.

more from Sundance - Mr. Okra

2010-01-30T06:22:00.000-08:00

sundance festival selections are on youtube

2010-01-30T06:20:00.000-08:00

erotic story about a giant squid and Hogwarts school

2010-01-28T19:24:00.001-08:00

go there and laugh, and laugh, and laugh, and retch

http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/08/fan_fiction_friday_hogwarts_and_a_giant_squid_in_f.php

via the mysterious, impenetrable SGH

the realty never stops

2009-11-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

barionial splendor, 70s style...

and may I just stress that this is for a house that is on the market TODAY

The jelly of delight

2009-09-05T09:13:00.001-07:00

I just love these jelly creations by Bompas & Parr - go there to see jelly airports, saucy jelly toting wenches, and more.

mythical creatures chart

2009-08-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

I love this handy mythical creatures chart by Unwin and Carline. As seen on Flickr

magical frieze will transport you to the 80s

2009-07-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

ahh, the magic of wallpaper borders. Will the freaky real estate photos never cease to stream forth? I'm not even consciously seeking them...

more freaky real estate photos

2009-06-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

You may recall the earlier post (home staging for total freakbags), which showed some unfortunate real estate photos from a Canadian real estate website. Here are two more sets, with new themes.

In the first set, we see some tremendous carpeting, which really gives the feeling of rich, luxuriant lawn.

Exterior, with actual lawn

interior, with deep pile lawnalogue

In the second set, from a different listing, perfectly normal photos of the abovestairs area are supplemented by these gems:

Every home needs a child rapture and rendering cell...

If this were lurking in my home, I don't think I'd disclose it on a real estate website.

toddler vs billygoat

2009-06-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

so horribly mean and pointless...
but that's billygoats for you.

Iron man Pohl is now blogging

2009-06-15T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely astounding - Frederik Pohl is blogging. You absolutely must go there - on my first visit I discovered this gem, which Pohl wrote from memory (that is one long memory):

Gym Class

One, two, three. four,
Clap your hands and prance
In stinky shirt and stinky shoes
And stinky little pants.
—C.M. Kornbluth

schoolwork on a sunday - what music could possibly describe it?

2009-06-14T14:20:00.002-07:00

sunday music

2009-06-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

xbox gets psychedelic

2009-06-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

never, never thought I'd be posting an xbox trailer! (note gets better last half)

Bill Bailey - Starsky and Hutch

2009-06-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

get oak firmness with women

2009-06-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

spam, glorious spam...

Dylan Moran - le grand

2009-05-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

part 2 of 7

cake wrecks again

2009-05-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

hard-hitting exposé on the evils of cupcake cakes over at Cake Wrecks today...

you will never forget this

2009-05-26T08:56:00.001-07:00

via Why That's Delightful

now - clear your palate with this

Don't forget - it's towel day

2009-05-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

this photo is from wx42 - go there to see it in big

baby wigs and other head cladding approaches

2009-05-24T15:57:00.001-07:00

It's totally time to go beyond the tired old jester's hat, and the baby beardcap isn't on the market yet, so why not try some of these fresh looks? No one wants to look at your boring old babies as is - jazz them up with:
via Why That's Delightful

(via snurfy)

pheasant rodeo

2009-05-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that ads like this exist - because all I usually see on cable TV is horribly false women speaking in unctious tones about menstruation and ads for the male version of Depends.

via AdFreak

yet more ffffound objects

2009-05-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

images link to the ffffound pages, which also have links to the sources

check out this must-have item - the hamburger bed!
Oh, the sweet, sweet dreams you'd have...
(not a ffffound item, but that bed seems to just naturally leads to thoughts of:

an eternal truth, folks, an eternal truth

Hooray for picnic in a box!

I would love to carry around an official looking briefcase like this to a meeting, then pop it open at lunch time without a word...

Student lends banned books out of school locker

2009-05-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

Great story on this over at Boing Boing this morning - cheers a person right up!

and, in semi-related news:

Andy J. Miller's art is being covered over at Changethethought - check it out

photo round-up

2009-05-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

2photo has some lovely shots by carlo franco (the black and white shots) and marsel van oosten. I'd recommend checking out the ones by Franco, in particular, as they seem to tell some strange, noirish undersea story.

lego architecture

2009-05-23T16:51:00.001-07:00

Lego has released a series of kits recreating classic Frank Lloyd Wright buildings - one of those ideas that makes you wonder why it took so long, even if you never dreamed of it previously! The story is over at designboom

Pig spleen forecasts more accurate than scientific outlooks

2009-05-23T15:52:00.001-07:00

This from my friend S.H. in Saskatchewan - real live news article that appeared in the Southwest Booster

reader's roundup

2009-05-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

I like to have some kind of image at the top of the blog, so how about this one, by Fabio Barboni. Congratulations, Fabio, you've won a vial of mermaid tears and a preserved dragon spleen.

Articles, articles

- Russians plan to *gasp* reuse their portions of the international space station. Apparently, their engineers know how to make things last longer than 5 minutes.

- the deadly canola oil - exposed on Cracked (I'd just skip to the canola oil part if it were me)

- sci-fi writers are meeting with the US government to help them destroy the world - erm, I mean 'envision the future'

- Arthur Erickson has died at 84

- Apple denies Project Gutenberg app because it includes a translation of the Kama Sutra

- reasons why men die younger (sexist, but what can you do - oh yeah, not post it - whopps, too late)

no earthly hope

2009-05-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Usually serial model abusers at least try to maintain some pretense that they're doing it all in the name of commerce. In this case, there can be no earthly hope that these 'gowns' will ever be sold - not even to the most featherbrained nincompoop on earth.

see moree of Nikola Borissov's fashion photography at 2photo

the art of the potato portrait

2009-05-21T18:07:00.000-07:00

Booooooom! has many more photos of these portraits by Ginou Choeiri. I find the frightening - they remind me of the boil in How To Get Ahead in Advertising in some way.

I'm with this commenter:

21:05:09 hey:

this is a nightmare where my friends and family team up against me

Thor's labours

2009-05-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

This via Why that's delightful - picture links to a frame by frame recounting of Thor's spiritual travails

other funny little things
- the one where you have to look like you're in ecstasy (Doobybrain)
- RunPee (Boing Boing)

three wolf moon

2009-05-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

This is a shirt you'll be hearing about, with reviews on Amazon attesting to its mystical powers go over there and check out what people are saying, you won't regret it.

Again, via M.E.

jam wow!

2009-05-15T22:46:00.001-07:00

...not enough for you?
via the impeccable M.E.

monkeon on autotweet

2009-05-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

been at the b3ta boards again. Go there or click on the image to see this in a larger form

this is by b3ta forum poster Monkeon

and - completely unrelated:
- sinister Intel print ad
- next invasive security check: brain scanning

more ffffound objects... with furniture

2009-05-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

fffound page

(his sofa, by arik ben simhon)

fffound page

original source: heavily bandaged man's flickrstream

(the examiner's waiting room , also by simhon)

and finally, not via fffound, but via designboom, I give you.... sex doll rafting

(his sofa, via art is alive)

oh what a morning we're having!
OK - I know a lot of you will have questions:
1. yes, this event is open to both sexes
2. you must be over 16 to enter
3. you must wear a helmet and vest
4. competitors may not be visibly drunk
go over to designboom to find out the rest

I dunno, Gustave, there's just something cuddly about you...

2009-05-09T23:48:00.001-07:00

reading roundup

2009-05-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

- The makers of Tata, the world's cheapest car tackle apartments (est. purchase cost $7800-$13,000)
- Find out about Elsevier's division of fake scholarly journals
- true cone of silence invented
- wonderful interview with Mr. T.
- warrantless GPS tracking legal in US rules judge

and for the non-readers among you:

Stronger than steel

2009-05-04T06:17:00.001-07:00

designboom is featuring this bamboo bike by Ross Lovegrove which will be shown at the Milan design week this year. In fact, though, bamboo bicycles have been around for a while. Below is an example made by Brano Meres in 2005 For those of you interested in a more in-depth look at the perfomance and specs of a bamboo bike, the Meres article is definitely the one to check out. And in fact, looking at the two, one of these looks like a Canadian Tire bike, and one of these looks like a real bike. Sort of makes you wonder...

death totals: vioxx vs. swine flu

2009-05-04T06:13:00.000-07:00

a little morning reading from the fringe

a nightmare of cats

2009-05-02T00:42:00.000-07:00

ffffound says this is by sue de beer, and it makes you wonder, just who is this sue de beer?

annnyhoo - really only one thing scarier:

oakridge boys cover the white stripes - que?

2009-05-01T23:39:00.000-07:00

7 nation army - via metafilter

the art of spam

2009-05-01T23:28:00.001-07:00

because you don't get nearly enough in your inbox alone...
designboom is covering this wallpaper by studio todo

cooking tools of the ancients

2009-05-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

Isn't this reclining lion just the greatest? It's a copper baking tin from 18th or 19th century Germany. It's part of an upcoming Austrian show called 'basic instruments - designboom has more.

And while we're on the topic of designboom stories, they're also covering this complex of buildings by rojkind arquitectos - I love the playful cutaways contrasting with the simple boxlike structure (seems to be a trend just now) and the use of colour and outdoor space. Lots more photos over there.

I'm a fool for a little blue pool

2009-04-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

this is via Doobybrain, who always has the best animal videos

and while I'm posting silly videos, this, via Cracked (warning for those on slow connections, - not nearly as good as the dog one above):

vinyl that never seemed to make it to CD

2009-04-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

click on the photos to get to the LPcoverlover articles and comments board. Yes, I know you're dying to discover why the looper trio is not a quintet, and whether that man is the demon in question. Go! Begone! I have day-long meetings to attend.

for your reading enjoyment - BB article on Edison's concept for prefab homes

2009-04-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

Since I'm away from home and falling down in my duties, why not head over to Boing Boing this morning and find out all about Edison's idea for concrete prefab homes. Apparently they would have cost around 1/30th of standard construction costs in the day, and were intended as dwellings to surround industrial emplacements. They had interchangeable molds and features and layout could be varied.

lots of good reading over there this am, including
- an incredibly expensive, outmoded, and useless piece of gadgetry custom designed for the US census that duplicates the functionality of ordinary PDAs
- soap shaped like baby hands

robot uprising begins

2009-04-29T18:26:00.000-07:00

a robot has attacked a worker in Sweden - read all about it. As the debonair SGH notes, this is how it all begins.

The ban on frosted lightbulbs - can EU politicians really be so dim?

2009-04-26T00:09:00.000-07:00

more at designboom

you may ask yourself, where do these villains go to think up these diabolical schemes? The answer.

And why can't they spend more time on finding ways to save money at the olympics?