Celery + Gravity = Art
1950s America wasn’t all apple pie and suburbia, it was about groceries (celery in particular) and knicker-elastic, and the shameful voyeurism of municipal workers. Don’t believe me? Check out the works of Art Frahm to see what I’m talking about. (Raunchy in a retro kind of way, and reasonably SFW).
Chthulhu comics – in lego
The Great Squamous One is back, and this time in Lego Comic form. Ph’nglui Mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh Wgah’nagl Fhtagn!
White Wolf sues
Although I still haven’t seen it, its obvious from the trailers alone, that the film Underworld is highly derivative of the fabulous roleplay games Vampire the Masquerade and Werewolf the Apocalypse by White Wolf. Now it seems White Wolf are suing Sony Pictures over this very issue. Good for them!
IgNobel
You’ve heard of the Nobel Prize, well, here’s the IgNobels, a real event, set up as a spoof of the original to “recognise achievements which cannot, or should not, be reproduced”, according to the BBC. My favourite winners are the Stockholm University team who wrote a paper on why “Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans.
Horror-tastic
I know there are still 28 days to go, but its October, and that means I’m already in the Halloween spirit. Now I got this link to people posing dead in photographs, from our beloved memepool, and felt it deserved a blog, not least because it was first brought to my attention in Ginger Snaps, which is a fabulously different Werewof movie, second only to the great Dog Soldiers. So go on, watch something scary tonight.
Body Brush
No, this isn’t some kind of scrubbing implement for the shower, its a mega cool, if somewhat useless, merging of technology and art to create 3d virtual gorgeousness. I had to blog this, as I had a go at SIGGRAPH a few weeks ago.
1984 is one step closer
Afer Grom’s blog of the scary FindMyFriends phone tracking system, I seem to keep finding more evidence of a Big Brother state here in the UK. For instance, the BBC is currently running two stories, one about smart tickets for London commuters, and another one about new digital tags on goods in shops. If the proposed ID card gets launched, they really will be watching you. Even when you’re on the loo.
Australia foils trouser snake smuggler
The headline of the week goes to the good ol’ BBC news site again, and actually, the story is worth reading too.
Happy Tree Friends – in your own home!
You may remember Grom’s semi-recent blogging of the violently cute Happy Tree Friends, a net cartoon by Mondo Media, of cutesy wabbits etc meeting grisly ends. Well now you can get it on DVD, and next week, it will be available in the UK too. Cool!
The Power of 10
From 10 million light years away, zoom in until you reach the earth, then onward until you’re face to face with a single quark in an atom. Its pretty hard to describe, so better see for yourself. Never has zooming-in been so impressive, humbling and of course educational.
What are you?
I’m a malignant cab driver who loves to explore hellhounds, allegedly. What are you?
LOTR Exhibition, London
Everyone who knows me, knows that I’ve got a real soft spot for the Lord Of The Rings films. Now there’s a fabulous Exhibition at the Science Museum, London. Hurrah! Time for a weekend break, methinks.
Sell your soul!
Strapped for cash? You could make ££££ from your useless, pesky soul, if only you knew what it was worth . Well, these people might be able to help. (Incidentally, my soul is worth £35K. A mere 22% of people have a better soul than me. Woohoo!) I’m surprised there aren’t any for sale on e-bay.
And talking of geeks…
This one’s for Grom and his following of the race for California State Governor: she’s a geek and proud of it. Brains, beauty and leadership too.
How rich are you?
Generally, most of us don’t feel that rich – how many of us have a mansion, private pool and limo etc? Well, in the grand scheme of things we’re a lot richer than we think. Use this tool to find out how rich you are. (According to this, I’m the 54,962,765th richest person in the world. Not bad out of a population of 6 billion! – oh wait, here comes the guilt…..)
Sorry lads…
I’m probably the last one to find out, but the sheer relief prompts me to blog this: it would seem that Lapdance Island really was a hoax after all. Taste and decency are saved!
TV losing its grip on nation’s youth?
Speaking as a veteran games developer, might I just say “Well duh.”
When release dates go wrong.
Although it was scheduled for release on Tuesday, August 26th, I was really pleased to see the Lord Of The Rings Two Towers DVD available in shops as early as last friday. My local HMV told me they had a special deal with the distributors, but it now seems that was a bare faced lie. Tsk tsk!
National Slacker Day
Its Friday, its nearly the weekend. There’s a bank holiday on monday. (And lucky me, I’ve got the afternoon off, as part of my company’s “work-life-balance-directive”. Hey, I’m not complaining.) Can’t be bothered doing any work? Well, by strange and wonderful coincidence, its National Slacker Day. How convenient!
Argh! Zombie infection!
Its good to see that techy types are finally putting their code to good use. Here is the first simulation of a zombie infection in an urban area. I particularly like the panicked humans (shown in bright pink). Quick, run for the basement!
Underworld
Take The Matrix, cross it with with Blade, and add a dash of The Crow and a smidge of the White Wolf roleplay games and what do you get? The most super shiny, scary, ace blockbuster movie this year. Underworld. Watch the trailer. Grrooowwwlll!
Siggraph 2003
I’m off to sunny California tomorrow, so I thought it deserved a link. Me and 30,000 other arty/techy types will be nerding it up at the world’s biggest computer graphics conference, Siggraph, held this year in sunny San Diego. If you’re even remotely interested in how they did the fx for The Matrix Reloaded, Lord Of The Rings or are a fan of Pixar and ILM, this is the place for you.
4 whole days of mindblowing imagery, geekery, and of course at least one day of Seaworld!
Shameless plug
Seeing as its a slow blog day for me, and the Blogmaster is away – and because the lovely djimm has just finished my band’s new website, I thought I would shamelessly plug milque.co.uk, the official website of Leeds’ *ahem* premier unsigned metal band. Huzzah!
Nessie – RIP?
Could this skeleton of a plesiosaur really be the remains of the legendary Loch Ness Monster? (Ah, the good ol’ BBC, thanks again for another interesting news story.)
Thailand cuts short the age of Ragnarok
No, this isn’t about Norse mythology, its about the Nanny State controlling people’s gaming habits. Aparrently gaming is so addictive that it has to be controlled by the Government! This is news to me… (Does that make me a cyber-drug manufacturer? I hope so, ’cause that makes my job sound really cool!)
Cthulu has risen!
Scientists have discovered some baffling, not to mention gibbous, remains off the coast of Chile. The Old Ones are coming!
Smokers of the UK unite
As a die-hard British smoker soon to spend a week in smoke-free California, I felt this deserved a blog. If you want to make a statement with your ciggies you can buy these stickers as an alternative to the government health warnings on cigarette packets. (For our US chums: “fags” is an English slang term for cigarettes, just thought I’d clear that one up).
UpDate: I actually put these on the server a few months ago so if you’ve got your own printer then you can print your own for free. - updated by grom
“Crock Shock in Cannock”, apparently
Continuing our bloggage of British wildlife on the rampage, the stakes have been raised again. It would now seem that badgers and squirrels aren’t quite dangerous enough, at least that’s what this news story would have us believe.
Things aren’t what they seem…
…or “Why you should always check with your localisation department before choosing a domain name.” This is the kind of advice Powergenitalia should have listened to. (SFW, except for the title).
(grr! – beat me to posting this by 2whole hrs Kaye! – grom)
Buy your own ghost!
Proof of the afterlife, or just proof that you can buy just about anything on ebay? (Be sure to check out the highly dubious pictures.)
