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January 29, 2008

Henry Miller’s Bathroom monologue

(2 more videos at Wes Unruh’s home)

A Huge Depository of Unusual Literary Links Here

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January 29, 2008 in Books & Literature | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

How to Learn Any Language in 1 Hour

Phonetic Before you invest (or waste) hundreds and thousands of hours on a language, you should deconstruct it. During my thesis research at Princeton, which focused on neuroscience and unorthodox acquisition of Japanese by native English speakers, as well as when redesigning curricula for Berlitz, this neglected deconstruction step surfaced as one of the distinguishing habits of the fastest language learners…

So far, I’ve deconstructed Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, Korean, and perhaps a dozen others. I’m far from perfect in these languages, and I’m terrible at some, but I can converse in quite a few with no problems whatsoever—just ask the MIT students who came up to me last night and spoke in multiple languages. How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour

Mother Tongues of Computer Languages. (Click to biggify)

False friends (or faux amis) are pairs of words in two languages that look and/or sound similar, but differ in meaning

The web’s first Shaggy Dog Story Archive. (From Neatorama)

A Huge Depository of Unusual Language Links Here

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January 29, 2008 in Languages | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A-OK

Ok_corral_ok Every day, more people are making more things "okay." Consider the following examples:

The television character Adrian Monk made it okay to have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

The film Bonnie and Clyde made it okay to sympathize with murderers

The Cold War and space race made it "okay to be smart" in America

The actress and glamor model Pamela Anderson made it okay for a chick to be "wild, adventurous, reckless, kittenish"

The film Deliverance made it okay to make fun of rednecks, backwoodsmen, and simpletons. However, comedian Jeff Foxworthy made it "okay to be a redneck" (source is in PDF format)

"In his humble, brilliant simplicity, Dave [Thomas, the founder of the Wendy's restaurant chain] made it okay to be, well, just okay"

Arquitectonica's Atlantis, a "tropical modernist" condominium in Miami, made it okay to "color outside of the box"

The HBO show “Six Feet Under" made it "okay to laugh at, think about and talk about death and your dysfunctional family"

The film Superman (1978) made it okay for Hollywood to adapt comic books

The character Tracy Turnblad from John Waters' Hairspray (1988) "made it okay to be fat"

Children's television icon Mister Rogers made it okay to be curious

The famous collie Lassie "made it as much as many of us have always loved dogs

Prozac "made it okay to take a psychotropic drug"

The HBO series Sex and the City "made the world safe for sluts, and Paris Hilton made it okay to hate them again"

Balloon delivery man Don F. Cheeseman made it okay for a guy to drive a pink van (and don lingerie after a night of drinking)

New York City "is so hip to walking, they've made it okay to eat en route"

J. Mascis, of the band Dinosaur Jr., is the man who made it okay to rip a guitar solo in underground rock

(O.K. Corral sign image above by RileyOne)

This post was composed by on-going contributor Craig Conley of the Abecedarian blog fame. Craig's new book is A Field Guide to Identifying Unicorns By Sound, available in an eco-friendly low-wattage palette. Thank you again, Craig! (All previous co-blogger's posts archived here.) If other bloggers are interested to share the forum here on any other topic, please contact me for details

Show Craig some love by leaving lots of comments below, please!

January 29, 2008 in Co-blogged with | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

January 28, 2008

Live eels

Bug_sandwich Eating live octopus in Korea

They call it 'The Peruvian Viagra' and they say it's great for you if you have a low sex drive. It's the best aphrodisiac. 'Extracto de rana' (Frog Juice) is in very high demand at local markets of Lima, Peru

Live eels in some Vietnamese markets. (My picture of live eels from last year's trip to Shanghai)

From Nova: Bugs you can eat

A visit to Typhoon, an insect-restaurant over in the Santa Monica Airport

Beautiful Larva Candy, Hand Made by Komatsuya in Japan

A Huge Depository of Unusual Insect Eating Links Here

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January 28, 2008 in Entomophagy (Insect Eating) | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The Pixie Page

 Pixie_page Fell in love with a prostitute. Lasted 3 years; ended badly. How to get over it?

An old Pixie page

...I'm a young, healthy guy in my early 20s who has so far lived an uneventful, sheltered life. I'm thinking about willingly forgoing my apartment/job/life, moving to a new city, and living on the streets...

How to compose a really bad FPP on Metafilter

Free artist proof to the first 7 people who post a photo of themselves holding a sign

MetaFilter Bingo

Dot Threads are threads containing at least one comment consisting solely of a single "." character. (Found on the shadowy back alleys of MetaFilter)

Metafilter Pool on flickr

ShopMe, aka MeFi Mall

A Huge Depository of The Best of Metafilter Here

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January 28, 2008 in Best of Metafilter | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Gem Bones

White_deer The Infinite Variety of Agatized Dino Bone, one of the many beautiful flickr sets by Gem Bone

White Rattlesnake

The ten Nastiest Fish of All Time

Un-related: Last week a ship sank off the south coast of England dumping over 2,000 tones of timber lumber into the channel. Here's the flickr slide-show

A Huge Depository of Nature’s Unusual Mysteries Here

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January 28, 2008 in Nature | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

January 27, 2008

Send a message

Best_humus For 30 euros, you can have a Palestinian artist spray your message on “The Wall”. The symbol of separation becomes a conduit of communication. (From Crimes and Corruption of the new world order)

In search of the best hummus in the world

The Carmelit, the underground train in Haifa

Haj Pilgrimage in 1953 from National Geographic Magazine

Experts can agree on one thing

A Huge Depository of Unusual Stories from the Middle East Here

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January 27, 2008 in Middle East | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A disappearing Act

Disappearing_dot 100 Items to Disappear First. “Survival guide books” are no. 17

From CEO Ransom Love to baseball player Rusty Kuntz. Wikipedia’s list of unusual personal names

Americans Love Lists, by Goodie Bag TV

The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés

A list of derogatory nickname for various cities on Ask MeFi

A list of sick words

The Smithsonian Life List

Tackle Any Issue With a List of 100

A Huge Depository of Unusual Lists Here

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January 27, 2008 in Lists | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Socrates is mortal

Free_osama "Why should merely cracking down on terrorism help to stop it, when that method hasn't worked in any other country? Why are we so hated in the Muslim world? What did our government do there to bring this horror home to all those innocent Americans? And why don't we learn anything, from our free press, about the gross ineptitude of our state agencies? about what's really happening in Afghanistan? about the pertinence of Central Asia's huge reserves of oil and natural gas? about the links between the Bush and the bin Laden families?"

Loaded questions. Found at The Taxonomy of Logical Fallacies

A Huge Depository of Intelligent Links and Even Brainier Links Here

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January 27, 2008 in Brainy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 26, 2008

cocktails first. questions later

Mexican_fruit_cocktails Ivan and Mick explain the odd reaction that occurs when cream is added to Tia Maria liqueur - The Tia Maria and Cream Experiment

Alcohol & Ammo don’t mix

One cup or two by Anna Bullus is a cup made of sugar

Edible Cocktails

Drunken watermelon on tap

Russian Vodka Now and Then

Breaking the world record for the Largest Champagne Fountain

A Huge Depository of Unusual Drinks Including Unusual Beer Links Here

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January 26, 2008 in Beverages | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Wood Streets

Deputy_dog La Garenne Colombes: 1, 2 , 3 rue Raymond Ridel

Dream Door. (From Coisas)

Spectacular doors of St. Louis by Bill Keaggy

Doors from the Woods streets in Riverside

9 intriguing doors at “Deputy dog”

A gate

Door in Korea

A Huge Depository of Unique Doors and other Unusual Architectural Links Here

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January 26, 2008 in Architecture - Doors | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

I'll never kiss your lips again

I will leave behind all of my clothes, I wore when I was with you, all I
Needs my railroad boots, and my leather jacket, as I say goodbye to Ruby’s
Arms, although my heart is breaking, I will steal away out through your
Blinds, for soon you will be waking.

The morning light has washed your face, and everything is turning blue now,
Hold on to your pillow case there’s nothing I can do now, as I say goodbye to
Ruby’s arms, you’ll find another soldier, and I swear to God by Christmas,
There’ll be someone else to hold you.

The only thing I’m taking is the scarf off of your clothesline, Ill hurry
Past your chest of drawers, and your broken window chimes, as I say goodbye
Ill say goodbye, say goodbye to Ruby’s arms.

Ill feel my way down the darken hall, and out into the morning, the hobos
At the freight yards, have kept their fires burning, so Jesus Christ this
Goddamn rain, will someone put me on a train, Ill never kiss your lips again,
Or break your heart, as I say goodbye Ill say goodbye, say goodbye to Ruby’s Arms.

An Old-New Depository of Unusual Links About Tom Waites Here

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January 26, 2008 in Music - Tom Waits_ | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 25, 2008

Alphabet faces

Hamlet_1605 The mystery of these Found faces. I got this lot of slides about three years ago and I've never been able to figure out just what is going on. There are about 50 slides in all- all dating from between 1959 and 1969 and all of young women. Some, like the ones here have letters written on their foreheads, others have press type with their names on it affixed to either their temples or foreheads

David Hale has uploaded the most photos on flickr

The complete works of Shakespeare by Kevin Bewersdorf

80 Million Tiny Images, a visualization of all the nouns in the English language arranged by semantic meaning

Black and White Spider Awards (Thank you, Neil Graf)

A Huge Depository of Unusual Photography Links Here

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January 25, 2008 in Photography | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Crazy cycle lanes

Copenhagen_girl Former Swedish Shell gas station at Strandvägen, Stockholm

How to design park benches so that homeless people won’t be able to sleep on them

Crazy cycle lanes

Brutalist Architecture photo pool at flickr

Unrelated re-post: Don’t call me Gringo, you Beaner - "Refried Molotov" by Jason Archer & Paul Beck

A Huge Depository of Unusual architectural Links Here

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January 25, 2008 in Architecture | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Face Of The Day

Eye_of_the_storm Father Juan Manuel Villar touches the nose of a Carlino dog with an aspergillum while he blesses the dog during the feast of San Anton, the patron saint of animals

Wild horses in Chernobyl. Photos by Tim Mousseau and colleagues of research in the Chernobyl Region. Thank you, Avi Solomon)

What is this? (and this?)

Intellectual dog fight

Don't Leave Dogs Alone

Vampire energy of devices in passive and active standby modes

A Huge Depository of Unusual Animal Stories Here

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January 25, 2008 in Animals | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack