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October 31, 2007
Dying with style
The Premeditated Murder Flowchart
Rainer Fassbinder's Gravesite
Victor Villenti, 50, was a strict vegetarian, and forced his family to follow the same regime. While jogging in 1991 he was killed by an eight pound frozen leg of lamb which fell from a third-story window. If You're Going to Die, Do It Differently
The 10 Most Fascinating Tombs in the World at Neatorama
Is it distressing to experience consciousness slipping away or something people can accept with equanimity? Are there any surprises in store as our existence draws to a close? How does it feel to die?
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links About Death and Eternity and Unusual Coffins & Caskets Here
October 31, 2007 in Death & Eternity | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
“The Heaven Virus” Big Giveaway
Prolific author & blogger Cliff Pickover is “giving away" an e-book version of his recent book “The Heaven Virus” to readers of the following blogs: Reality Carnival, BoingBoing, Neatorama, and Grow-a-Brain. A bargain at 99 cents (The print version of the book at Amazon.com goes for $23.95). "Inoculate yourself" today!
A Huge Depository of Unusual blogs and bloggers Here
October 31, 2007 in World of Blogging | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
She’s a Model Now?
Based on Hieronymus Bosch, Fall of the Damned lampshade
Pieter van Suijlekom's Reef Aquarium
She’s a Model Now? (Ooops, doesn't work!)
Winner of the “2007 Ugly Couch Contest”
A Huge Depository of Unusual Design Concepts Here
October 31, 2007 in Home Decor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 30, 2007
Gravity!
The Temple of Gravity from Burning Man
A NASA flash work for its STS 108 Space Shuttle Mission (Ok, so it was done in 2001)
A Huge Depository of Unusual Space Links Here
October 30, 2007 in Space | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Robot Lab
Monks at play, a collection of beautiful old glass-plate photographs put online by a Swiss Benedictine Abbey
Srirangam Renganatha Swamy Temple, the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world, and one of the 10 Most Amazing Temples in the World at Neatorama
An industrial robot had been reprogrammed to inscribe the Luther Bible into a endless roll of paper
A Huge Depository of Unusual links about Unusual Gods Here
October 30, 2007 in Spirituality | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Happy Halloween
More scary Halloween Masks from Forbes
A Huge Depository of Unusual Schwarzenegger Links Here
October 30, 2007 in Schwarzenegger | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 29, 2007
Driving Emoticons
How to get green traffic lights using science
The Fiat 126 was the most popular car in Poland during the 1980's and was considered a great luxury during the communist period. (From Swiss Miss)
Russian off-road ZIL screw drive
Road-Rail Vehicles on “Dark Roasted Blend”
World's oldest surviving Rolls-Royce for sale
A Huge Depository of Unusual Car Links Here
October 29, 2007 in Cars | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
The Crosswalk Prank
How to wake up your dad, friend or husband
The Los Angeles Cacophony Society is an open network of creative dissidents, artists, seekers, and radical pilgrims. Here’re their “Prank Flyers”. (From Laughing Squid)
A Huge Depository of Hilarious Pranks And Outrageous jokes Here
October 29, 2007 in Pranks | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
An urban art oasis in Riverside
Guess the Restaurant (Chicago area only. I like this one)
History of 'greasy spoons' in the UK
Bill O'Reilly’s Restaurant Reviews
Restaurants with singing waiters. Among a long list of the most unusual restaurants in the world
The Banana Restaurant, condom themed restaurant In Taiwan
Everyone wants to open a bar. Financially it is one of the worst investments you could ever make, but the cool factor is off the charts. If you really want to make money in the saloon industry I suggest the "money on the wall" theme
Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in continuous service in the U.S. (Since 1826. From Sippican)
By the way, my favorite local restaurant, Mariscos El Tío's, which serves wonderful authentic Mexican food, had been discovered on the internet! In the last 6 months I invited many guests & friends to visit its unusual & artistic grounds, and among them was Seattle Realtor-blogger Marlow Harris and her family. Marlow posted recently a detailed photo story about the owner Martin Sanchez’s Folk Art shrine and within a few days her story spread around the intertubes, including mentions on 2Boings, Neatorama and many other blogs. I only hope that the lines at Tio’s Tacos won’t get too long now…
A Huge Depository of Unusual Bars and Restaurants Here
October 29, 2007 in Food - Restaurants & Bars | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 28, 2007
Manejo de Estres
Nerd headquarters. You can actually take a Nerd Tour of Silicon Valley, and visit such places as Hewlett Packard's Founding Garage
The meeting is over at “I Can Has Cheezburger”
A man owned a small farm in Maine. The IRS claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.
"Well", replied the farmer, "There's my farm hand who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $600 a week plus free room and board. The cook has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $500 per week plus free room and board.
Then there's the half-wit who works here about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes $10 per week, and I buy him a bottle of whiskey every Saturday night."
"That's the guy I want to talk to - the half-wit," says the agent.
"That would be me," replied the farmer.
(From Maggie’s Farm)
A Huge Depository of Unusual Job Offers Here
October 28, 2007 in Jobs | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The San Diego Fires
More YouTube: Jon Stewart in "Half Baked"
Typical retail price of cannabis around the world. How do you say “Kekkou desu” in Japanese?
Stoners in the Mist, a fake documentary which Dr. Barnard Puck observes and performs experiments on “stoners”
How sturdy are hemp nightgowns from the 1820s/30s era?
A Huge Depository of many illegal drugs especially Acid and Pot Here
October 28, 2007 in Drugs - "Save the Roaches, Arnie" | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Use your coconuts
Things on top of cheeseburgers in 2 parts by William Hundley
The Uprising af Sausages and Hotdogs by Sergey Tyukanov. (From Octomo)
Sitting on a pig carcass. It is considered good luck in Moldavia, if you were to slauther a pig at home
Similarly, a re-post: Thịt chó: Eating a (hot) dog. Warning: Graphic photos of preparing a dog!
From AskMefi: Phrases & sayings that incorporate fruits
A Huge Depository of Unusual Meat and Vegetable Links Here
October 28, 2007 in Food - Meat & Vegetables | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 27, 2007
Mountain Life
The Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium occupies a hilly spread of land in Booneville, Arkansas, a town of barely more than 4,000. It admitted its first patient in 1910 and discharged its last in 1973. (Thank you, Traci)
Where you wish the streets have no names
Riding home-made wooden bikes. The Cordilleras of northern Philippine preserve their rich culture and traditions amid strong influences from the “outside” world. (From Flutterby)
A Spa at the Pfister Hotel Milwaukee
Mountain cave hotel Beckham Creek Cave Haven near Eureka Springs, Arkansas
In the mid-19th century, one Mrs Favell Mortimer set forth to write a definitive travel guide to the world. There was just one problem: she had never set foot outside her native Shropshire. The rudest travel book ever written
Generate a custom packing list for any journey with the Universal Packing List
Not related: Illusions on Worth1000
A Huge Depository of Unusual Travel Destinations Here
October 27, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Iconic moments of the twentieth century
A group of aged volunteers pose in their everyday outfits and in their daily environment (the vicinity of the Home) to re-enact the scenes from well-known newspaper photographs taken from history books and encyclopedias. Iconic moments of the twentieth century at "Wives of Henry the 8th". (Thank you W.)
Beer flag. (From J.)
"The Mount", Edith Wharton's Berkshire home and gardens, in Lenox, MA. (From Maggie’s Farm)
A blog dedicated to the discussion of topics relating to the history of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio. (Thank you, Dorene)
Peter Fonda's "Captain America" Flag Brings $89,625. (Thank you, Bob D.)
This is a category that depends on submissions from Grow-a-brain readers. Please send me some good links! A Growing Depository of American History Links Here
October 27, 2007 in American History | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Looking for Charles (“Chuck”) Greer
Do you know Charles Greer, (known as “Chuck”), previously of Palm Desert, California? He was a friend I associated with about 15 years ago, and whose whereabouts I since lost.
I’d like to get in touch with him again. If you know where he can be found today, please ask him to call or email me. My contact information is on “about” page above.
Thank you.
October 27, 2007 in Personal | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Patterns in Primes
Core Memory: A Visual Survey of Vintage Computers, photographed by Mark Richards. (From Guy Kawasaki)
Patterns in Primes. Also, List of Largest Known Primes at The Prime Pages
A short about Dictyostelium sorting cells
The entertainment industry is abuzz following the Sony Corporation's unveiling Monday of the Utertron 9000, a state-of-the-art in-utero womb-entertainment system for children between the ages of minus nine months and zero
(Graphic above from Binary Symmetry by MC Hess)
A Huge Depository of Unusual Inventions & Discoveries Here
October 27, 2007 in Science & Inventions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 26, 2007
Hot Disney Women
From Arial to Jessica Rabbit - The Top 10 Hottest Animated Disney Women
Also, the Disney Princesses offer their wisdom, compassion, and personal stories about Chlamydia to today’s youth
Los Disneys, an unconventional shooter videogame. (From Who killed Bambi)
Disney Pocket Protector and 501 other Pocket Protectors
From PostSecret: I took LSD at Disneyland – It was the most terrifying experience of my life
Names of boats on the Jungle Cruise ride
The origins of slogan I'm Going to Disney World
Fairy Tale Briefs, the hidden role of underwear in classic tales of enchantment, and Sex, drugs, and racism in Disney films: a quiz. (Both from Miss Cellania’s Disney princesses post)
A Huge Depository of Unusual Disney Links Here
October 26, 2007 in Disney | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
"F1" Is for Help
Possible Titles for Future Sue Grafton Novels After She Runs Out of Letters
The 1943 first edition dust jacket for The Fountainhead. From “How to Identify Modern First Edition Books”
Books Written by Kurt Vonnegut While Hungry
When Legends Gather #207
City of Churches by Donald Barthelme (Both in Chinese & in English)
A Huge Depository of Unusual Literary Links Here
October 26, 2007 in Books & Literature | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2007
I received the following email -
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $268.32. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to process it.
A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.
To access the form for your tax refund, please click here
Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time.
Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.
Regards,
Internal Revenue Service
(Unfortunately, the link they provide goes overseas to Russia)...
How to make your student credit card 40,000 times cooler. Pimp your card
A model of Scrooge McDuck's money bin, built by me, using blueprints created by the great Don Rosa and Dan Shane
How to turn two $1 dollar bills into one $2 dollar bills. Two Dollar Bill Trick Revealed
Funny Money: Strange currencies of the world
A Huge Depository of Unusual Stories About Money Here
October 25, 2007 in Money & Finances | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Benny Lava
How To Use An Indian Toilet (with lots of comments)
India has the highest population of blind people in the world. Approximately one out of every four individuals who are blind live in India. The figure of those afflicted approaches ten million. Blindness In India
The iron pillar of Delhi is one of the world's foremost metallurgical curiosities, standing in the famous Qutb complex. The pillar—almost seven meters high and weighing more than six tons—was erected by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (375-413). It is the only piece of the Hindu temple remaining, which stood there before being destroyed by Qutb-ud-din Aybak to build the Qutub Minar and Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque.
The pillar is made up of 98% wrought iron of pure quality, and is a testament to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indian iron smiths in the extraction and processing of iron. The pillar is also one example of an out-of-place artifact (OOPArt)
Re-post: Bollywood song & dance, this time with sub-titles
India: A Kite's Eye - Kite aerial photography by Nicolas Chorier (Click on editions, go to “India”)
Viswanathan Anand, India's Great Chess Hope
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links about India And About Japan Here
October 25, 2007 in Traveling Places - India | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 24, 2007
Has anyone seen my muffin pan?
Phrases Commonly Used by 1950s Housewives That Were Often Misinterpreted by the Housewives' Husbands as Blatant Requests for Sex
According to the Knight-Ridder News Service, the inscription on the metal bands used by the United States Department of the Interior to tag migratory birds has been changed.
The small metal bands used to bear the address of the Washington Biological Survey, which was abbreviated: "Wash. Biol. Surv." until recently when the agency received a letter from an Arkansas outdoorsman.
The letter read: "Dear sirs, While camping last week I shot one of your birds. I think it was a crow. I followed the cooking instructions on the leg tag, and I want to tell you, it was horrible."
The bands are now marked "Fish and Wildlife Service."
I’m Reasonably Confident I Would Beat Ken Jennings in These Jeopardy Categories
Some Novelty Items That Never Caught On
A Huge Depository of Mildly Funny and Other Crazy Links Here
October 24, 2007 in Funny | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
From Wolfgang’s Vault
The Ten Most Incomprehensible Dylan Interviews of All Time
Dylan posters at Wolfgang’s Vault. Wolfgang was Bill Graham
A Huge Depository of Unusual Dylan Links Here
October 24, 2007 in Music - Bob Dylan | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Galapagos, Galapagos, Galapagos….
My cousin Sammy, had been sailing his boat for the last 3-4 years and is now somewhere around equador. I am very jealous of him. Here is a letter I received from him -
There’s certainly more than meets the eye there and after one week on a diving cruise there, I can only say that I have barely seen its magic. Some take a three week cruise and they too don’t get to see all of beauty and glory of these enchanted islands.
In fact there is no one good time to visit. The islands’ weather is influenced sea currents. The cold season July through September is dominated but southern current bringing lots of plankton and thus abundant sea life. But it is also a dry season, so the islands are arid and the land animals are have a harder time surviving and there are fewer of them. And of course, it’s cold diving and the visibility is poor because of all the plankton. A particular cold year, La Nina, would even be better for under water life.
On the other hand, the warm season, December through February, is also the raining season. During these months it can rain cats and dogs all day and so the islands turn green. The land animals flourish. The warm water is lacking plankton, the migrating creatures are gone, and the local die out in numbers. So for land tours, one must deal with the rain and the over cast skies (not great for photography.) El Nino phenomenon would bring particularly more rain and thus more abundant life on land.
The islands are much bigger and farther apart (120 nautical miles) than what imagined. In some places, those that you probably never see on nature documentaries, they are plain ugly. There are four larger urban towns. They are really ugly and poor. Typical unfinished buildings scared visibly with the grey of unpainted building blocks. Streets lined up with stores selling the same T-Shirt and chatchkes fare to tourists. A population of about 30,000 survives on tourism and fishing.
Fishing is good but greed is depleting the fish stock. The Japanese and Chinese fleets skirt the reserve’s boundary and the lack of enforcement for lack of funds; violate these boundaries on a regular basis. Corruption and bribes are certainly not helping. The enforcing officers apparently earn few hundred dollars a months. So for such a little extra, they will willingly turn a blind eye.
Recently a ex-pat, turned Ecuadorian, by marriage, mistaken for a foreigner, was put in jail because he documented and reported this. The new and so loved president of Ecuador just approved a new law allowing the ‘accidental’ taking of sharks. The belief is that now that reporting is required, there will be more control. But in fact, it will just increase the number of sharks taken accidentally. The Chinese with their new found riches are driving up the price of shark fin soup. And so the population of shark is expected to dwindle to critical level in a few short decades.
As for my trip, 7 nights on a trimaran with two days near Darwin and Wolf islands. These are the northern and most remote islands with the best diving. Trimarans like catamarans are not the most cruise friendly vessel while making way. Yes they don’t heel and they have large living spaces. But the waves ‘bump’ into their suspended bellies. I am not sure one can really get used to all this banging and shaking. We were blessed with relatively calm seas, so it wasn’t much of a problem. The crew real efficient and friendly provided a very pleasant stay. The food was tasty too and the chef, the most important person on board, certainly earned his wage. Too bad the outdoor buffet style serving was the reason we often ate our meal cold. I was the only American aboard. Out of 16 divers, 7 were French, 2 Russians, 1 (other) Israeli, 2 Brits, 1 Spaniard, 1 Ecuadorian and 1 Pole.
The beauty of the underwater world was slow uncovering but we were very lucky. Once we reached Darwin, the dive master had us do a back roll practically on top of a whale shark. We swam with it for most of our dive. The next 2 dives we kept bumping into it, even seeing two crossing paths feet from each other. This was the highlight of the diving. We did see plenty of Galapagos sharks, hammerheads, turtles and eels. And even on lucky beautiful orange frog fish. Our last dive was a short and shallow where we had a chance to dance with sea lions. It did not take long for them to twist and turn around us, to tug at our fins and bump against our cameras. Fortunately, underwater, one can not smell them, as they truly stink on land. On land we saw them again basking in the sun, sea and land iguanas, giant turtles and lonesome George. We saw a variety of birds but too few species out of the many variety inhabiting these islands. Fourteen species of finches have evolved on the island. We saw only 2 of them.
During land trips we saw the sad abundance of introduces land species. Cows and donkeys dot the farm land. Yes, they have farms and banana plantations. Introduced timber and grass, ugly looking, grass, are spreading and endangering the native plants.
Overall it was a one of a kind magical trip. But I also discovered the sad side of the islands. During the trip I read Darwin for dummies and selected chapters of his Origin of the species. Nature dictates that isolated species will die out. Either because some ´fast´´ drastic change in the environment causes them to no longer fit or inbreeding makes them susceptible to diseases. Lonesome George, the last of his species will not mate with another species of giant turtle. On each island a different species of giant turtle evolved. Two other have been extinct no thanks to man. The flightless Cormorant is also endangered because of inbreeding. His inability to ´move on´ will doom it with the declining population of fish.
See the attached photos for some of the beauty of these islands.
Sam
A Huge Depository of Unusual Travel Destinations Here
October 24, 2007 in Traveling Places | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack
October 23, 2007
20601 Bohemian Avenue
An interesting package came into the Infowars mailbox recently-- sent anonymously with no return address-- but the contents revealed the reason for secrecy. Someone has shipped our office the 2006 membership roster for the secretive and exclusive Bohemian Grove, which Alex Jones infiltrated and exposed in 2000
Also, a former British topless model has become an obsession of Bohemian members
Nicole Kidman: The Vanity Fair Photographs
Teen Tragedy, dedicated to all those teenage death and tragedy songs from 1955 through 1969
The Do-It-Yourself Posable Paper David Hasselhoff. Right click to download a high res PDF
A Huge Depository of Unusual Celebrity Stories Here
October 23, 2007 in Celebrities | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Making Noodles
Best book title ever - Cooking with Pooh. Sadly, this book is no longer in print
Pizza with no cheese or sauce, and beef on the left side only, at the great Pizza Orientation Test
To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza. Thank you for the Best pizza I ever had
How to order Chinese food Dot com. (From Information Junk)
Also, Making Noodles with chef Kin Jing Mark. (YT)
Dex, I was surprised this morning to receive your book. Thank you so much. I’ll start reading it, and let you know
A Huge Depository of Unusual Meals and Foods Here
October 23, 2007 in Food | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 22, 2007
The fool looks at a finger that points at the sky
“On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugène Colère erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born…”
This weekend I was watching Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain again. I enjoyed it a lot, again.
The story behind Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party
Re-post: An earlier short by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & also with Dominique Pinon - “Things I like, things I hate”
More YouTube by Jeunet: Trailer for Delicatessen
Elsewhere: My Gollum
More Of The Best Film Directors and other Cinematic Links Here
October 22, 2007 in Cinema - Directors | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Third Reich Memorabilia
“Hitler loves the circus. He takes real pleasure in the idea that underpaid performers are risking their lives to please him.” From Neatorama’s 17 Strange Facts About Hitler
Third Reich Relics & Memorabilia at Germania International
Satelite picture on Google map of the Berlin's Holocaust memorial
Auschwitz through the lens of the SS, a photo album belonged to SS officer Karl Hocker, who was stationed at Auschwitz from May 1944 until the camp's liberation
Daniel Mendelsohn's memoir The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million on Fresh Air
A Huge Depository of Unusual Links About The Holocaust Here
October 22, 2007 in The Holocaust | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 21, 2007
The Great Omani
They have put the Great Omani in a box
They're using nails instead of locks
But at the funeral, do not despair
There's still a chance Omani won't be there
Ron Cunningham, who died on Monday aged 92, was an escapologist and end-of the-pier artiste specialising in feats such as eating light bulbs and removing a straitjacket while hanging upside down with his trousers on fire
A Huge Depository of Unlikely News Stories Here
October 21, 2007 in Current News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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