A Picture is Worth…

A Picture is Worth… Sigh. Do you remember when Jackson was black? As an academic, I try to keep an open mind… but in my humble opinion, this very talented man is really, really disturbing. I assume the mugshot, which I found on Drudge, is the same one that won’t show up when I try…

Toast Recipies

hey there…. i thought you should know about toastrecipes.com. It has some pretty cool stuff. i noticed you had something about Dr. Toast’s Amazing World of Toast. Well, I just thought you might like to check out toastrecipes.com. —James N. Mallamacee —Toast RecipiesE-Mail) Little did I know that when Rosemary sent me a rather giddy…

Canstruction

—Canstruction Model of Independence Hall, birthplace of the American Revolution. Made out of cans. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary. Similar:Bird flight simulator. The boy goes for altitude and distance, the girl does stunts.In the bird-flight simulator at the Pitt…CybercultureDo Cultural Critics Have Any Value Left?[T]he Internet has dramatically changed …AestheticsI had some unexpected downtime today,…

Oh the Horror! Being Stephen King

You have now entered the Stephen Kings’ home page… a place for the many of us whose daily lives are defined by who we are not. —Oh the Horror! Being Stephen King From Mike Arnzen’s Goreletter. Similar:The Real Reason Why You Can't WriteHave you ever stopped to think about wha…AcademiaA Note of Recognition for: Filmation's…

PEZ museum pops up in Pennsylvania

Some 1,500 PEZ dispensers, all nestled in creative landscapes, fill the museum. | Disney PEZ sit in a 10-foot-high castle. Halloween-themed PEZ are displayed in a haunted house. And psychedelic PEZ are set beside a real Volkswagen Beetle that appears to be crashing through the wall. —PEZ museum pops up in Pennsylvania (CNN/AP) Similar:James Comey: Trump…

Degree Confluence Project

What does it look like at exactly 25 degrees N, 8 degrees E? What about the other places on the globe where latitutde and longitude lines intersect? Find out at Confluences. —Degree Confluence Project (Orbitals) Link via Rosemary Frezza, who also sends this BBC article: “A Unique Picture of the World.” Similar:Standardized-test robo-graders flunk“According to professor…

Branded anything but Unique

A trend for naming children after favourite possessions is accelerating in brand-driven America. | The records show that in 2000, 49 children were named Canon, followed by 11 Bentleys, five Jaguars and a Xerox. —John Harlow —Branded anything but Unique (news.com.au) The title refers to the fact that there were 24 children named Unique in 2000.…

Best of 'Stealth Disco'

—Best of ‘Stealth Disco’ (Stealth Disco) “Stealth Disco” is the practice of creeping up behind an unsuspecting co-worker and dancing silently, to imaginary music. It is apparently a rite of passage that takes the form of semi-affectionate mocking — a way of saying “Look at how square that poor working slob is… I’m having fun instead.”…

PCs call Liberal leader a ''kitten eater''

”Dalton McGuinty: He’s an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet,” said a release from Eves’s campaign headquarters, e-mailed to news organizations across the province on Friday morning in the latest, and oddest, Tory attack on the Liberal leader…. ”I think someone either had way too much coffee this morning or had way too much time,”…

Yahoo's Idea of 'Entertainment'

I said I didn’t feel like blogging today, but this picture pretty much captures my mood: —Yahoo’s Idea of ‘Entertainment’ (Yahoo! News) This photo rather indelicately appears in Yahoo’s “Entertainment” section, as part of a profile of Edward Teller (inventor of the hydrogen bomb). As a kid growing up in the 80s, when Russia was still…

Elfpunk/Urban Fantasy [List of Books]

Fantasy stories of elves, dragons, and other denizens of faerie who intersect with the gritty streets of today’s cities. —Elfpunk/Urban Fantasy [List of Books] (Readers Advice) Elfpunk, modeled on “cyberpunk.” Amazing… I asked my journalism students to submit a report on a modern-day crime committed by a well-known fictional character, and the example I gave was…

Portofess

“If people can confess on Oprah, Phil and Geraldo, I don’t see why they can’t confess right here on Eighth Avenue.” So said Father Anthony Joseph, a Dominican priest from San Bernadino who peddled a confessional booth mounted on the back of a tricycle to the site of the Democratic National Convention in New York…

Building a Time Machine by Spam

The anonymous e-mail offered $5,000 to any vendor capable of promptly delivering a collection of far-fetched gadgets for conducting time travel. Among the mysterious devices sought by the message’s author were an “Acme 5X24 series time transducing capacitor with built-in temporal displacement” and an “AMD Dimensional Warp Generator module containing the GRC79 induction motor.” —Brian…

Touchable and Teachable, Toybooks are Big Business

Baby books have gotten way weird. Today’s bookstore shelves spill over with tot-oriented “toybooks” shaped like cats, dogs, hens, horses, lions, elephants, insects and other things… —Linton Weeks —Touchable and Teachable, Toybooks are Big Business (Washington Post (registration; will expire)) Can’t be a toy… can’t be a book. Must be… a toybook! (Thanks for the suggestion,…