Friday, November 30, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Turducken Cat Food
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JStruan
at
11:53 AM
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Labels: food, pets, thanksgiving
Monday, November 19, 2007
China's Weather Modification Program
Every year, China launches thousands of rockets and artillery shells into the sky. They're not part of a set of war games or preparation for a battle with Taiwan, but rather a battle with the weather. Through its Weather Modification Program, the Chinese government hopes to control the fickle forces behind rain. Run by the Weather Modification Department, a division of the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Science, the program employs and trains 32,000 to 35,000 people across China, some of them farmers, who are paid $100 a month to handle anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers.More here.
Also:
Now Yu and the other rainmakers face their toughest challenge: making sure it stays dry for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The idea is for the peasant gunners to work with meteorologists watching radar in the capital. Together, they will hunt pregnant rain clouds and pound them with rockets containing silver iodide. The hope is that any moisture will fall before the clouds can threaten the parade of athletes and lighting of the Olympic flame at the new National Stadium.Read more.
Posted by
JStruan
at
7:47 PM
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Labels: china, environment, science
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Edvard Munch was known as the “handsomest man in Norway,”
Known as the “handsomest man in Norway,” and well-mannered to boot, he attracted women as catnip does cats, but preferred to keep them at arm’s length. A couple of early affairs had gone wrong, and the antics of his friends had given him a warped sense of women. And he never wanted children, as he feared they would become insane. The classic Madonna/whore view of women is apparent in his paintings of what he called “vampire women” with “nutcracker muscles in their thighs.”Read more.
In a quarrel with his Norwegian mistress, Tulla Larsen, who stalked him all over Europe, he ended up shooting himself in a finger, which for the rest of his life remained sheathed in black leather. This slight injury he blew up to mythical proportions, painting himself stark naked on an operating table lying in a huge pool of blood.
Posted by
JStruan
at
6:17 AM
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Labels: fine art
Friday, November 16, 2007
A Star Wars comic book featuring killer rabbits
Posted by
JStruan
at
8:34 PM
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Labels: star wars
Russia gives top honor to spy who stole secret to the atom bomb
On Nov. 2, the Kremlin startled Western scholars by announcing that President Vladimir V. Putin had posthumously given the highest Russian award to a Soviet agent who penetrated the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb.Link.
The announcement hailed Dr. Koval as “the only Soviet intelligence officer” to infiltrate the project’s secret plants, saying his work “helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own.”
Posted by
JStruan
at
4:38 AM
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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Fantastic Four Maquettes
Posted by
JStruan
at
6:48 AM
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Labels: fantastic four, marvel, sculpture
Monday, November 12, 2007
"L-Block" of Tetris fame wins favorite video game character contest
Link.
Posted by
JStruan
at
8:15 PM
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Labels: video games
Saturday, November 10, 2007
LA Kings bond by competing in a scavenger hunt
The teams were sent out in vans to different locations and had to complete the first of five tasks. The first team to complete all five tasks won the competition. The tasks were:
A) To hit a fly ball beyond the infield grass at Dodger Stadium. Tommy Lasorda was there to provide assistance and, I'm told, a profane pep talk, as only Tommy can provide.
B) To have an artist in Venice Beach sketch a portrait of one of the players.
C) To teach a 10-minute lesson in a classroom at Torrance Elementary School.
D) To stand on a surfboard for at least five seconds in the Manhattan Beach water.
E) To find Jim Fox in Hollywood. A clue was posted near Bob Miller's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which the players also had to locate.
Link. Via.
Posted by
JStruan
at
12:35 PM
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Thursday, November 8, 2007
Protesters march as zombies to protest Boston University's Level-4 Biosafety Laboratory
With Boston Police Department officers close behind, the horde of protesters began their menacing march at the corner of Albany and East Dedham Streets and snaked toward City Hall, moaning, "We have been infected by the BU biolab" and "The BU biolab has infected me with a terrible pathogen." During the march -- the newest form of protest in a seemingly futile battle to stop construction of the biolab -- the zombies stuffed anti-lab flyers under the doors of nearby businesses and into the palms of curious onlookers.Link.
Posted by
JStruan
at
7:51 PM
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Wednesday, November 7, 2007
If Jerry Sloan had a computer, he'd only use it to look at tractors
Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan was asked about the Internet:
"I don't have (a computer), and I wouldn't know how to turn it on if I had one," said Sloan, who maintains a farm in his native Illinois. "The only thing I'd be interested in looking at is tractors anyway."
Link.
Posted by
JStruan
at
12:10 PM
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Labels: sports, technology
Make an Ork Stompa
Posted by
JStruan
at
2:41 AM
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Labels: games workshop, miniatures, orcs, warhammer 40k
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Want to see your turkey on a webcam before it's slaughtered?
Heritage turkeys typically cost at least $4 per pound--at 26 pounds, Heritage Foods' biggest bird sells for $209, shipping included; grocers can sell a factory-farm Butterball at a quarter of that price. So Martins and Wickstrom decided to target foodies.Here's Heritage Foods' website. This link appears to be the webcam, but it wasn't working when I checked.
...
He helped Frank Reese, one of his suppliers, install a Webcam on his Kansas farm so customers could see their birds pre-slaughter.
Posted by
JStruan
at
8:05 PM
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Labels: advertising, food
Monday, November 5, 2007
Ferrari is building a theme park in Abu Dhabi
Information and photos from the foundation stone ceremony here.
Posted by
JStruan
at
8:28 PM
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Labels: car, middle east, theme parks
The Longaberger Company makes baskets, and its headquarters looks like a giant basket
Direct link to photo. More photos here. Here's their official site. Via.
Posted by
JStruan
at
10:52 AM
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Labels: advertising, architecture
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Print ad for Geometry Wars Galaxies
Posted by
JStruan
at
12:21 PM
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Labels: advertising, video games
Thursday, November 1, 2007
The 5 O'Clock Clock
Designed by Tibor and Maria Kalman, and supposedly occasionally available in the MOMA store. Via.
Posted by
JStruan
at
1:38 AM
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Labels: design