I have some pretty odd plants in my garden:

This one is called a passion plant: Its vines have these springy tendrils, they just grab onto stuff. Its flowers are beuatiful, and seem to close at night and reopen in the morning.

click for larger photos

One open and one closed flower:

These are called Parachute Plants: Before they open, their flowers look like a parachute:

When they do open, the flowers are a gorgeous deep purple, with these veins running thru them:

Posted at 10:39 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Everyone loves cute little 80x15 "antipixel" buttons and badges.  Here is a gallery dedicated to DRM and filesharing issues.  Most have links.


Copy them at will with no restrictions.  Copy to your own server if you can. 

Thanks very much to Luca Zappa's Brilliant .

via nootropic

Posted at 06:19 AM in Web/Tech, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

click for larger photo:

Photos courtesy of NYT

Source:
New Design to Be Unveiled Today for Freedom Tower
By DAVID W. DUNLAP and GLENN COLLINS
NYT, June 29, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/29/nyregion/29cnd-tower.html

Posted at 11:04 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Transcript of a great Bill Hicks performance, via Ranprieur.

Excerpt:

"Kennedy, I love talking about the Kennedy assassination because to me it's a great example of, er, a totalitarian government's ability to, you know, manage information and thus keep us in the dark any way they... Oh sorry wrong meeting... Ah shit. That's the meeting we're having tomorrow at the docks. [winks] I love talking about Kennedy. I was just down in Dallas, Texas. You know you can go down there and, er, to Dealey Plaza where Kennedy was assassinated. And you can actually go to the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository. It's a museum called... 'The Assassination Museum'. I think they named that after the assassination. I can't be too sure of the chronology here but... Anyway they have the window set up to look exactly like it did on that day. And it's really accurate, you know, cos Oswald's not in it. "Yeah, yeh so wow that's cool." Painstaking accuracy, you know. It's true, it's called the 'Sniper's Nest'. It's glassed in, it's got he boxes sitting there. You can't actually get to the window as such but the reason they did that of course, they didn't want thousands of American tourists getting there each year going [Mimes looking out of window] "No fucking way! I can't even see the road. Shit they're lying to us. Fuck! Where are they? There's no fucking way. Not unless Oswald was hanging by his toes, upside down from the ledge. Either that or some pigeons grabbed onto him, flew him over the motorcade... Surely someone would have seen that. You know there was rumours of anti-Castro pigeons seen drinking in bars... Someone overhead them saying 'coup, coup' Coo. Unbelievable. And you know what's wild, people's, er, attitudes in the States about it. Talking about Kennedy, people come up to me: "Bill, quit talking about Kennedy, man. Let it go. It's a long time ago - just forget about it." And I'm like alright, then don't bring up Jesus to me. As long as we're talking shelf life here. "Bill, you know Jesus died for you." Yeah, well it was a long time ago. Forget about it! How about this. Get Pilate to release the fucking files. Quit washing your hands Pilate - release the goddam files. Who else was on that grassy Golgotha that day? "Bill, it was just, you know, hur, taking over of democracy by a totalitarian government, let it go."

Revelations

Posted at 06:53 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

click for larger photos:

Posted at 02:38 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This Hubble image of a spiral-shaped galaxy is more than just a pretty picture. A series of images like this allowed astronomers to measure its distance -- 60 million light-years from Earth -- ten times more accurately than ever before.

Photo: Courtesy of Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)



Source:
Happy 15th Birthday, Hubble 
Amit Asaravala
Wired, 02:00 AM Apr. 25, 2005 PT
http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,67304,00.html 

Posted at 05:22 PM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Last week, this item went up for sale on eBay -- sold immediately for the equivalent of about 90 cents.

Ebay Item for Sale
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2192&item=4556985749

I need to get rid of this car immediately - ideally in the next 2-3 hours before my cheating arsehole husband gets home to find it gone and all his belongings in the street.

I am the registered owner and I have the log book. Please only buy if you can pick up tonight.

click for larger photo

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned . . . 

Posted at 08:55 AM in Automobiles, Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Greg Mitchell asks:  "Is it just me, or is Vice President Cheney, who repeated Thursday that the Iraq insurgency is in its final throes, starting to sound like former Saddam spokesman, "Baghdad Bob"? Is it time to start calling him "D.C. Dick"?

Yesterday, after a week of serious criticism, for claiming that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes,” Cheney refused to back down, even after Gen. John Abizaid, our top military commander for the Middle East, proclaimed that the insurgency, in fact, was as strong as ever, and “a lot of work” remained to be done to defeat it."

That's a valid question:  To test your knowledge, we put together a little quiz: Some of the  following comments came from Baghdad Bob (circa spring of 2003), and some are more recent statements D.C. Dick ?

QUIZ:  'Baghdad Bob' or D.C. Dick ?

*****

"No, I am not scared, and neither should you be."

"We will succeed in Iraq, just like we did in Afghanistan"

"Be assured: Baghdad is safe, protected."

"We are doing what we believe is right. We're convinced it's right. We're convinced that in fact we'll achieve our objectives."

"We are in control, they are not in control of anything, they don't even control themselves!"

"we've got a pretty good idea of the general area where [he] is hiding, but I don't have the street address."

"The battle is very fierce and God will make us victorious."

"The point would be that the conflict will be intense, but it's intense because the terrorists understand if we're successful at accomplishing our objective, standing up a democracy in Iraq, that that's a huge defeat for them."

"They think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win."

"Capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq."

"I blame Al-Jazeera."

"All of a sudden you've got a battle you're fighting in a major built-up city, a lot of civilians are around, significant limitations on our ability to use our most effective technologies and techniques."

"Those are not Iraqis at all. Where did they bring them from?"

"I believe the chief of staff of the Army and the vice chief -- vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs have testified recently that all of our troops in Iraq are now properly equipped with the newest body armor."

"I can assure you that those villains will recognize in the future how they are pretending things which have never taken place."

"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction, there is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies and against us, an aggressive nuclear weapons program."

"I would like to clarify a simple fact here: How can you lay siege to a whole country? Who is really under siege now?"

"Did I say 500 tons of sarin and 25,000 liters of anthrax? I meant `weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.'"

"We're giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn't accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted."

"Iraq is now the central front in the war on terror."

"The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies, and more lies!"

"Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq."

"They are becoming hysterical. This is the result of frustration."

"We believe that he Saddam Hussein has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons."

"I speak better English than Bush."

"I think it’s very important that we have a president with firm leadership who has the kind of track record of dealing straight with people, so that friends respect us and adversaries fear us."

"Just look carefully, I only want you to look carefully. Do not repeat the lies of liars. Do not become like them."

“There’s been a decision not to allow US firms to invest significantly in Iran, and I think that’s a mistake.”

"The United Nations...it is all their fault."

"The effort that we've mounted with respect to Iraq focused specifically on the possibility that this was the most likely nexus between the terrorists and weapons of mass destruction."

"Even those who live on another planet, if there are such people, would condemn them."

"Now what kind of government are you going to establish? Is it going to be a Kurdish government, or a Shi'ia government, or a Sunni government, or maybe a government based on the old Baathist Party, or some mixture thereof? You will have, I think by that time, lost the support of the Arab coalition that was so crucial to our operations over there,"

"This is unbiased: They are retreating on all fronts. Their effort is a subject of laughter throughout the world."

"A return of inspectors would provide no assurance whatsoever of his compliance with UN resolutions. On the contrary, there is a great danger that it would provide false comfort that Saddam was somehow 'back in the box.' "

"The force that was near the airport, this force was destroyed."

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."

"They are achieving nothing. Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly."

"We learn more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s."

"They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion."

"We've never been able to develop any more of that yet, either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don't know."

"Once again, I blame al-Jazeera. Please, make sure of what you say and do not play such a role."

“Halliburton is a unique kind of company. There are very few companies out there that have the combination of very large engineering construction capability and significant oil-field services.”

"Most of you probably saw the movie 'Wag the Dog'. I hope you remember it."

"If our commanders need more troops, they'll ask us."

"These cowards have no morals. They have no shame about lying."

"We've made significant progress in Iraq."

"You can go and visit those places. Everything is okay. They are not in Najaf. They are nowhere. They are on the moon."

"What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action."

"Rumsfeld, he needs to be hit on the head."

"I had other priorities in the '60s."'

Answer Key: 
Highlight text for the solution to the quiz

Italicized sentences are VP Dick Cheney; Plain text is Baghdad Bob.

>

Sources:
Is Dick Cheney the New 'Baghdad Bob'?
Greg Mitchell
Editor and Publisher, June 24, 2005
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000967845
Greg Mitchell (gmitchell@editorandpublisher.com) is editor of E&P.

Cheney Quotes:

Cheney link of Iraq, 9/11 challenged
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/16/cheney_link_of_iraq_911_challenged/

What did the Vice-President do for Halliburton?
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040216fa_fact

On the Issues:  Dick Cheney on War & Peace
http://www.issues2000.org/2004/Dick_Cheney_War_+_Peace.htm

On the Issues:  Dick Cheney on  Foreign Policy
http://www.issues2000.org/2004/Dick_Cheney_Foreign_Policy.htm

Cheney changed his view on Iraq 
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/192908_cheney29.html

No 'Timetables' for Iraq Pullout, Bush Promises Visiting Premier
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush25jun25,0,2852853.story

Cheney is still paid by Pentagon contractor
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,912515,00.html

U.S. general's remarks contradict Cheney on strength of insurgency
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/11969481.htm

Cheney: Iraq will be 'enormous success story'
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/23/cheney.interview/

Hill Republicans Desert Bush
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=808

Posted at 10:19 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Great Tom Toles:

via Yahoo

Posted at 08:29 AM in Humor, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

 This guy has been making one homemade stuffed animal a day for a full year (read the faq for more details)

365 Days of stuffed animals via boingboing

Posted at 07:09 AM in Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

uusivia Mark Morford comes this utterly amusing take on a new twist in advertising: Porn Stars In My Underwear.  As Morford writes, "There's sexy advertising, and then there's hiring hot porn starlets to sell tube socks."

The ubiquitous excerpt:

Oh, I know, it's all horrible and exploitative and demeaning and softcore pornographic and stuff.
It's all destructive and debilitating and morally dubious, the fact that the oddly patriotic clothing company called American Apparel dares to photograph barely of-age girls and boys in sly, smiling, half-lidded, gritty, delightfully sexy poses in order to sell socks and underwear and T-shirts, all manufactured by an L.A.-based company that swears it doesn't employ sweatshop labor and claims it treats its local work force fairly and lovingly and decently, while at the same time it has zero moral issue with hiring -- has anyone noticed? -- true-blue porn starlet and AVN Performer of the Year Lauren Phoenix to model their tube socks and undies and boy-beater tanks.

To which we can only say: God bless them. Mostly.

Here's the snaps which accompany the article. Text via Morford (gratitude via me)

Lip gloss. Lip gloss delivered to humankind on the wings of naked nipple-twisting well-lubed angels

You know, I haven't thought about tube socks in any serious way since I was about 10, back in the '70s, when tube socks ruled the planet and the longer they were, the better, and if they had those cool stripes by the knee they were totally way bitchin'. Now, suddenly, tube socks are very, very impressive items indeed. Suddenly they look positively delicious.

I need to go, um, shopping now . . .

Posted at 06:30 AM in Photo Caption Contest!, Shopping | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The latest LCD Soundsystem video, Disco Infiltrator, is being hosted by Apple as a QT stream.

Warning: the song has an addictive, earworm quality, with catchy rhythm underneath. Expect to play it repeatedly.

click for video

via fimoculous

Posted at 05:49 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

If you like to drive fast, here's a resource you should know about:  radarbusters.com. I don't use detectors, relying instead on my Spidey Sense, but for those of you constantly getting tagged, here's  a full menu of goodies, including:

Beat Tickets! »
Uh Oh. You got a ticket? Roy was a sheriff for 20 years. Roy gives you tips on how you can legally beat the photo police speeding cameras! Know your rights, get the sheriff's advice.

Buyers Guide »
Not sure which product is right for you? Click here to discover which countermeasure product best fits your needs and order from our online store.

Cannonball Run 2005 »
Radar Roy outfits a 2005 Cannonball Run entry car that beats over 27 radar and laser speed traps. Click here to see the products selected.

Roy's Product Tests »
Want to know what really works? Range, filtering, POP, reviews are offered here. He also tests products we don't carry. Click here to see how Roy determines which products to offer you.

Spectre RDD Information »
Want to know if your device is undetectable by the police detector detectors? Click here to read Roy's Spectre II and VG2 info, faq and testing information.

Speed Measurement Labs Tests »
Roy was invited to attend the Annual Countermeasures Test 2004 held on June 11 -14 in El Paso Texas. Click here to see the results.

Traffic Laws »
Get the list of state, commercial and military traffic laws regarding counter measure devices . Click here to find what laws apply to your driving area.

Radar Jammers »
See why Roy offers a $5000.00 reward to anyone that can show him a passive radar laser jammer that works! Click here to visit radarjammer.com

Manuals »
Click here to view the RadarBusters™ product manuals collection.

via Z Metro

Posted at 10:38 AM in Automobiles, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Interesting modern art:

click for larger photo

Source:  AP

Whether you are a fan of modern art or not,  you have to wonder about whether these paintings are really worth $25,620 they sold for at a London auction that included works by Renoir and Andy Warhol at Bonhams.

The three abstract pieces were painted by Congo the Chimp in the London Zoo in 1957. An American bidder named Howard Hong, who described himself as an "enthusiast of modern and contemporary painting," purchased the lot of paintings.

Incidentally, I showed the 3 photos to Mrs. essays & effluvia, who is an art teacher, without letting her know they were done by a chimp. Her reactions ranged from "eeccch!" to "amateurish." (She knows what she likes).

>

Source:
Going ape over art
By Associated Press
Tuesday, June 21, 2005 - 12:00:00 AM PST
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2930441,00.html#

Posted at 06:35 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

There's a terrific public roof garden on the corner of 40th and 3rd avenue; It was spectacular out, so we picked up a pasta salad, chicken cutlet and some gazpacho.

Here's how it looked:

Facing East (towards 3rd Ave)
click for larger photo

Facing West (up 40th St)
click for larger photo

Posted at 01:37 PM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

OMG this is so funny:

click for movie

via ApolloPony

Posted at 09:36 AM in Humor, Music, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

More than half of all humans will soon be living in cities, according to a prediction by the United Nations.

"Psychologically it is an important step for mankind," Hania Zlotnik, director of the United Nations Population Division, told the BBC.

There are concerns that, in developing countries, basic provisions in cities will lag behind population growth.

Despite almost four millennia as centres of civilisation, it was only fairly recently that cities attracted more than a small percentage of the global population. With hindsight, the 20th Century was the century of urbanisation.

In 1900, only 14% of humanity lived in cities. By the century's close, 47% of us did so. This change is revealed in the growth of the number of medium-sized cities. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; but by 2000, this had risen to 411.

Source:
Half of humanity set to go urban
David Whitehouse
Science editor, BBC News website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4561183.stm

Posted at 11:21 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead.
- - - Alexander Pope

A mental midget with the IQ of a fence post.
- - - Tom Waits

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.
- - - Alexander Pope

Did you eat a brain tumor for breakfast?
- - - from "Heathers"

Differently clued.
- - - Dave Clark

Doesn't know much, but leads the league in nostril hair.
- - - Josh Billing

End of season sale at the cerebral department.
- - - Gareth Blackstock

Has the mathematical abilities of a Clydesdale.
- - - David Letterman

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.
- - - Abraham Lincoln

He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.
- - - Robert Redford

He has Van Gogh's ear for music.
- - - Billy Wilder

He is brilliant - to the top of his boots.
- - - David Lloyd George

He is so stupid you can't trust him with an idea.
- - - John Steinbeck

He is useless on top of the ground; he aught to be under it, inspiring the cabbages.
- - - Mark Twain

He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.
- - - Joseph Heller

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.
- - - George Bernard Shaw

He knows so little and knows it so fluently.
- - - Ellen Glasgow

He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.
- - - Forrest Tucker

He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot.
- - - Groucho Marx

He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style.
- - - Leo Tolstoy

He never said a foolish thing nor never did a wise one.
- - - Earl of Rochester

He not only overflowed with learning, but stood in the slop.
- - - Sydney Smith

He thinks by infection, catching an opinion like a cold.
- - - John Ruskin

He used statistics the way a drunkard uses lampposts - for support, not illumination.
- - - Andrew Lang

He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.
- - - Samuel Butler

He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea and that was wrong.
- - - Benjamin Disraeli

His golf bag does not contain a full set of irons.
- - - Robin Williams

His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and there's scarcely a hole in it anywhere.
- - - Mark Twain

His ignorance is encyclopedic.
- - - Abba Eban

His mind is so open - so open that ideas simply pass through it.
- - - F. H. Bradley

His mind is so open that the wind whistles through it.
- - - Heywood Braun

I want to reach your mind - where is it currently located?
- - - Ashleigh Brilliant

I wish I'd known you when you were alive.
- - - Leonard Louis Levinson

I would not want to put him in charge of snake control in Ireland.
- - - Eugene McCarthy

If he ever had a bright idea it would be beginner's luck.
- - - William Lashner "Veritas"

Little things affect little minds.
- - - Benjamin Disraeli

Next-day delivery in a nanosecond world.
- - - Van Jacobson

No more sense of direction than a bunch of firecrackers.
- - - Rob Wagner

Please try not to be such a wiener-head.
- - - Dave Barry

Sharp as a sack full of wet mice.
- - - Foghorn Leghorn

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.
- - - W. Somerset Maugham

She is a water bug on the surface of life.
- - - Gloria Steinem

She's descended from a long line her mother listened to.
- - - Gypsy Rose Lee

Stay with me; I want to be alone.
- - - Joey Adams

Teflon brain (nothing sticks.)
- - - Lily Tomlin

That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.
- - - Douglas Adams

They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.
- - - Thomas Brackett Reed

Useless as a pulled tooth.
- - - Mary Roberts Rinehart

What has a tiny brain, a big mouth, and an opinion nobody cares about? You!
- - - from "Murphy Brown"

What's on your mind? If you'll forgive the overstatement.
- - - Fred Allen

When you go to the mind reader, do you get half price?
- - - David Letterman

While he was not dumber than an ox he was not any smarter either.
- - - James Thurber

You look into his eyes, and you get the feeling someone else is driving.
- - - David Letterman

You've got the brain of a four-year-old boy, and I bet he was glad to get rid of it.
- - - Groucho Marx

Posted at 08:38 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

During a trip to Mumbai, India, Joseph Cutrone of New Hyde Park drove south to the city of Goa. “There is an elephant camp where you can go and learn about the elephants, how they are used in Indian farming, and the special place they hold in India,” Cutrone wrote. “We rode the elephants down to the lake, swam with them, and then gave them a coconut bath.” He used a Kyocera Finecam SL400R.

click for larger photo:
 
You missed a spot!

via Newsday

Posted at 02:48 PM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fantastic new series by the BBC:   Planet Under Pressure

With humanity demanding more from the Earth than ever before, BBC News explores the planet's most pressing environmental problems in a six-part series:

Posted at 11:26 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Yes, its true: some of them are Blue:

NYT:

"One lobster in a million is blue, and the reason is not that it has been holding its breath.

A combination of red and blue pigments in the shell of a live lobster creates a mottled camouflage of indeterminate hue that blends in with the ocean floor.

The red comes from the molecule astaxanthin, a cousin of beta carotene, which gives carrots their orange color and is a source of vitamin A. Astaxanthin, which looks red because it absorbs blue light, also colors shrimp shells and salmon flesh. The blue pigment in lobster shells also comes from crustacyanin, which is astaxanthin clumped together with a protein. "It's a gorgeous bluish color, almost an ice blue color," said Dr. Harry A. Frank, a professor of chemistry at the University of Connecticut. In an article that will be published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry, Dr. Frank and colleagues at Connecticut and Bowdoin College report data explaining why astaxanthin is red, but the astaxanthin-protein compound crustacyanin is blue."

Why are they Blue? Insert bad joke here . . .

>

Source:
Yes, It's a Lobster, and Yes, It's Blue
KENNETH CHANG
NYT, March 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/15/science/15blue.html

Posted at 09:48 AM in Science | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Outside every thin girl is a fat man, trying to get in.
              -Katharine Whitehorn

Posted at 06:29 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This pic got banned on MSN Spaces:

click for larger photo

Despite the fact it was seen in a store in Spain, the joke is the title "Fraggle Rock." Some of you may recall that as an amusing Saturday morning cartoon fare in the 1970s.

The Spaces blogger notes:

i replaced the offending picture with the one that you saw and blogged (the pic is text that says "the picture that used to be here was deemed to be pornographic in nature by msn and has been removed").  i put that one there as a bit of satire..  to follow up on that, a friend modified the original offending pic with this:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/peabody/Blog/cns!1pJCVUf4BCFyG39kVip_XfcA!1842.entry

it's funny how it works in spaces..  you can have all sorts of explicit content until someone hits that "report abuse" button and then they come down on you hard.  never mind that my blog was about experiences in spain and the culture there..

Posted at 06:09 AM in Humor, Weblogs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

This is circulating via email:

Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems. (Magic Wand Car Wash Systems, just in case you want to buy one.)  Bill's company installed a car wash system in Frederick, Md.

Now understand that these are complete systems, including the money changer and money taking machines.

The problem started when the new owner complained to Bill that he was losing significant amounts of money from his coin machines each week.

He went as far as to accuse Bill's employees of having a key to the boxes and ripping him off.

Bill just couldn't believe that his people would do that, so they setup a camera to catch the thief in action.

Well, they did catch him on film!

That's a bird sitting on the change slot of the machine.

The bird had to go down into the machine,  and back up inside to get to the money!

That's three quarters he has in his beak! Another amazing thing is that it was not just one bird -- there were several working together.  Once they identified the thieves, they found over $4000 in quarters on the roof of the car wash and more under a nearby tree.

And you thought you heard of everything by now!!!

And to think the phrase "bird brain" is associated with being dumb.  Not these birds.

Posted at 09:41 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Very cool concept for a floating Oceanographic Science platform:

The Sea Orbiter

Hat tip: Collison Detection

>

Sources:
Floating a far-out design
Jonathan Skillings
C/Net, May 27, 2005 7:47 AM PDT
http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-5722877.html?tag=nl

Seaorbiter.com
http://www.seaorbiter.com/
>

Posted at 05:58 AM in Design, Science | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

"Plans for the city's first elevated park - a singular ribbon of green space stretching a mile and a half along an abandoned railroad viaduct 30 feet above the streets of Chelsea - have taken a major step forward with a favorable ruling by a federal transportation board.

The ruling, on Monday, essentially cleared the way for the city to begin negotiating use and development of the High Line, a weed-overgrown railroad bed that has not been used since the late 1960's and that, seen from above, looks like a painter's thick stroke of brilliant green along the gritty Lower West Side of Manhattan, between 34th Street and Gansevoort Street, in the meatpacking district.

If the plans materialize, the project would become one of only two elevated parks in the world; the other, also carved out of an abandoned railroad viaduct, is the Promenade Plantée in Paris."

click for larger photo

photograph courtesy of James Estrin/The New York Times

Theres a slide show here.

Source:
Rusty Railroad Advances on Road to Pristine Park
PAUL VITELLO
NYT, June 15, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/15/nyregion/15highline.html

Posted at 04:50 PM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

D.C. Metro goes Pop-Communist:

Articulatory Loop via Boing Boing

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"We live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations. We are bombarded with pseudo-realities manufactured by very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives. I distrust their power."   

-Philip K. Dick

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Source:
Philip K. Dick's Future Is Now
Long After the Sci-Fi Writer's Death, Hollywood Embraces His Dark World
By Vincent P. Bzdek
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 28, 2002; Page G01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn//A6396-2002Jul26

Posted at 10:21 PM in Media, Politics, SciFi | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Way cool surf photo via Surfing Mavericks:

Pete Cabrinha, surfing off Maui
click for larger photo

That's a 70 foot wave Pete Cabrinha is surfing off Maui --
note the jet ski up top (I assume it towed him into position)

Check out a Surfing Mavericks for a jumbo size photo...

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Good luck coming up with an amusing caption for this one!

Posted at 09:50 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

More from the great Tom Toles:

click for larger cartoon

via Yahoo!

Posted at 03:22 PM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Click photo for Movie (WMV)

Cat movie

Before you call Peta, this was a Nokia viral marketing ad
(no, its not real)

Posted at 09:01 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Its Friday afternoon, and it was 91 degrees in the city today. Like everyone else in the city, I just want to go home and peel of my disgusting clothes. I get on the train -- aaahhh, air conditioning! -- and relax. The train is nearfly empty, we pullout and head East.

Then, at Jamaica, this cretin gets on. His working assumption was that we all wanted to see his gnarly, stanky, hot sweaty feet. FOUL!

How selfish -- and clueless -- of a human being to you have to be to behave this way?

When the conductor came by, I asked to be added to the Pedicure list!

If you are wondering, I made absolutely no effort to hide the camera phone . . . got as close as I was willing (no closer than 5 feet max) and snapped away!

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Given how disgusting some of my fellow riders have been lately, I'm going to keep updating this series on a regular basis: LIRR Commuters from Hell.

Posted at 06:07 AM in Humor, LIRR Commuter From Hell, Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Why aren't U.S. commercials this amusing?

click for movie

Posted at 09:00 AM in Humor | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Very cool couple of top 10 lists via NYT and Edmunds

Top 10 Cars Under $25,000    
http://edmunds.nytimes.com/reviews/list/top10/104725/article.html

Top 10 Luxury Cars Under $35,000

http://edmunds.nytimes.com/reviews/list/top10/104681/article.html

Posted at 08:45 AM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

These spectacular outdoor Trump L'Oeil paintings are designed and created by Eric Grohe, a Seattle artist whose public works in Ohio are simply spectacular. (These were circulating via email without any artist credit).

His Murals are called "The Art of Transformation," and as the snaps below show, transformation may be an understatement. His site has many other works.

click for larger photos:

Take a look at what he did in downtown Bucyrus, as well as at a mall in Niagra. His work at the Miller Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is also pretty amazing. Oh, and the before and after photos of an outdoor parking garage.

Truly astounding work.

Posted at 01:07 PM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

THE Big Apple Barbecue Block Party, which returns to Madison Square Park this weekend, is an event that invites comparison from pit to pit and encourages discussion on sauce and smoke: there will be seminars for those who prefer their barbecue musings structured.

The block party also affords New Yorkers a chance to compare their local barbecue with some of the best of what the rest of the country has to offer. And those comparisons lead to all sorts of questions about style, about the culinary and cultural hurdles specific to trying to cook and serve barbecue commercially in the big city. They raise the question of how good it is in New York and how good it's going to get, and force the city's barbecue proprietors to answer.

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Source:
Smoke and the City: A Barbecue Cook-Off
PETER MEEHAN
NYT, June 8, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/dining/08barb.html

Posted at 09:38 AM in Food and Drink | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Joy of Tech, via GMSV

Posted at 05:44 AM in Humor, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack