Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Echo Key




Echo Key based on this design by Gabriel Rodriguez:

Sunday, August 29, 2010

"Three Colombian teenagers were murdered in five days after their names appeared on two hitlists published on Facebook"

Telegraph:
Two days later, young people in the town received via Facebook a hitlist with 69 names on it, including those of the two killed. The teenagers on the list were advised to leave town or face death.

Norbey Alexander Vargas, 19, was shot dead three days after his name appeared on the list.

Police thought the first list was a macabre joke or a game between adolescents, officials said, but when the second list with 31 additional names appeared days later, parents began to panic and authorities launched an investigation.

If Star Wars was remade by McDonald's (in Lego)











Angus MacLane turned the Millennium Falcon into a Corellian Cheeseburger operated by McDonald-esque characters for the FBTB MOC Madness 2010 Building Tournament.

*Buy Star Wars Lego minifigs at Amazon.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Great new covers for Penguin novels

I've mentioned one or two of these before, but enjoy these terrific covers for Penguin novels. Links below are to the artists' sites and Amazon:


Jeffrey Brown's cover for Ethan Frome.




Tony Millionaire's cover for Moby-Dick: or, The Whale.




Ted Steam's cover for The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling by Peter Ackroyd.




Tara McPherson's cover for Bridget Jones's Diary: A Novel.




Richard Sala's cover for Great Expectations.





Bert Krak's cover for Money: A Suicide Note.

There are a few more in this gallery. Via these sites.

Link roundup

1. "Mexican marines searching a ranch in northern Mexico found the bodies of 72 people who may have been Central and South American migrants kidnapped by the Zetas drug gang."

2. Tips for creating better passwords.

3. The massive traffic jam in China "is a tale of deceit and criminality that speaks volumes about China's breakneck economic development. And behind the traffic chaos stands King Coal."

"Mysterious Russian 'Numbers Station' Changes Broadcast After 20 Years"

Gizmodo:
The bizarre, constant audio output of one particular mysterious Russian "Numbers Station" has changed, for the first time in 20 years. This might mean something bad is about to happen, or simply that someone finally remembered to switch tapes.

Friday, August 27, 2010

"They've seen lots of lavish weddings, but one stands out as the most over the top"

LAT:
As guests enjoyed hors d'oeuvres outside the banquet hall, the bride was placed in a glass coffin. The groom fitted on a white half-mask. Then, the carefully planned "Phantom of the Opera" theme devolved into chaos.

Condensation formed inside the coffin as guests delayed filtering in. When the groom finally took his cue to present the bride, the lid wouldn't budge. Before long, he was slamming the glass trying to break through as the bride wailed inside, her makeup running down her face. It would be an hour before she was finally freed.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Monday, August 23, 2010

Birdhouse for bats




Birdhouse for bats by Estudio Estres. Via these sites.

*Buy bird houses at Amazon.

Lisa Litwack's book covers for Stephen King novels

Lisa Litwack's book covers for Stephen King's novels. Links below are to Amazon:


Salem's Lot




Pet Sematary




The Shining

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Portland bike lane given Mario Kart power up





Someone painted Mario Kart power ups on a Portland bike lane. Via these sites.

*Buy Mario Kart toys at Amazon.

"Kenyan jailed for trying to sell albino"

"Albino body parts are prized in parts of Africa, with witch-doctors claiming they have special powers."

Saturday, August 21, 2010

"To us, classical antiquity means white marble. Not so to the Greeks"

Smithsonian:
who thought of their gods in living color and portrayed them that way too. The temples that housed them were in color, also, like mighty stage sets. Time and weather have stripped most of the hues away. And for centuries people who should have known better pretended that color scarcely mattered.

White marble has been the norm ever since the Renaissance, when classical antiquities first began to emerge from the earth. The sculpture of Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons struggling with serpents sent, it is said, by the sea god Poseidon (discovered in 1506 in Rome and now at the Vatican Museums) is one of the greatest early finds. Knowing no better, artists in the 16th century took the bare stone at face value. Michelangelo and others emulated what they believed to be the ancient aesthetic, leaving the stone of most of their statues its natural color. Thus they helped pave the way for neo-Classicism, the lily-white style that to this day remains our paradigm for Greek art.

Metroid: Other M commercial

Stills from the Metroid: Other M commercial: