dear clusterflock: I am a fan of vodka
Is there anything objectively wrong with drinking at 8:30 in the morning? Is it in any way mitigated by working a night shift?
decoration
This wreath was attached very high on the pole, so you could see it from a great distance down the road.
Vestigial foodstuffs
Once upon a time, people enjoyed eating French onion soup so much and so frequently that they invented a dried, instant equivalent. Now those pouches are decorated with bowls of sour cream-based dip; one is hard-pressed to find the original purpose of the contents.
And British soldiers in colonial India would add a bit of gin to their quinine, to help the bitter anti-malarial down. Now quinine lurks in sweetened soda water to help dull the bite of Tanqueray.
I’m sure there are other foods or substances that have followed a similar evolution. This is a worthy topic for further study.
dear clusterflock
TJ’s comment about my pot belly reminded me I only saw Pulp Fiction once — only saw it once because I didn’t want the perfect experience I had viewing it the first time ruined…. What have you seen or read or done only once so as not to be disappointed?
things I read last week and didn’t post
Many of these amateurs may have studied biology in college but have no advanced degrees and are not earning a living in the biotechnology field. Some proudly call themselves “biohackers” — innovators who push technological boundaries and put the spread of knowledge before profits.
In Cambridge, Mass., a group called DIYbio is setting up a community lab where the public could use chemicals and lab equipment, including a used freezer, scored for free off Craigslist, that drops to 80 degrees below zero, the temperature needed to keep many kinds of bacteria alive.
Co-founder Mackenzie Cowell, a 24-year-old who majored in biology in college, said amateurs will probably pursue serious work such as new vaccines and super-efficient biofuels, but they might also try, for example, to use squid genes to create tattoos that glow.
Little blue pills for Afghan warlords changing hearts and minds:
In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency’s operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.
“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people — whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra,” said one longtime agency operative and veteran of several Afghanistan tours. Like other field officers interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity when describing tactics and operations that are largely classified.
Pubic hair and the economy (via kottke):
It does seem that George Taylor’s famous hemline theory — that the length of women’s skirts rise and fall with economic times — can be applied to bikini lines as well. In 1922, Sears and Roebuck introduced the first women’s razors. Electrolysis emerged in the ’60s until social and political rebellion gave way to a renewed celebration of “Hair” (whose upcoming Broadway revival is no mere coincidence). Then, in the ’80s, power suits and polished, tight skin reigned, just before Black Monday pushed bikini waxing to the bottom of “to do” lists. As the millennium neared, however, dot-coms let the money and the liquor flow, and women bared all like never before. As “Sex and the City” reminded us (and reminded us again), the Brazilian plowed its way across America’s heartland, but these days those crops are growing back — in Technicolor.
Mr. Koester, who was a Ford aerodynamicist at the time, had been assigned to turn the popular boxy Fairlane design study that was introduced at the 2005 Detroit auto show, inspired by the woody station wagons of the 1940s, into the production Flex crossover. He had to produce a shape slippery enough to provide acceptable fuel mileage, and he feared the boxy show car would have to be radically revised.
To his surprise, in hundreds of tests at Ford’s Wind Tunnel 8 southwest of Detroit the original edges produced less drag than curved substitutes, Mr. Koester said. In the bumper, headlights and hood, in fact, aerodynamics were improved by carefully designed edges.
Eyelash-growth drug wins FDA approval:
Allergan Inc., maker of the wrinkle smoother Botox, won U.S. approval to sell the first prescription medicine to enhance dull or thinning eyelashes.
The Food and Drug Administration cleared the solution, called Latisse, after a unanimous recommendation from its outside advisers, Allergan said this morning.
Latisse contains the same main ingredient as Allergans Lumigan, on the market for glaucoma since 2001.
Mrs. Wunderle lives in the Fuggerei, a Roman Catholic housing settlement for the poor that Jakob Fugger “The Rich” built in this southern German city nearly 500 years ago. Praying for Mr. Fugger and his descendants to enter the Pearly Gates is a condition for living here, at an annual rent of 1 Rhein guilder, the same as in 1520. In today’s money, that’s 88 euro cents, or about $1.23.
Would your car survive a nuclear blast:
The Caddy above and dozens of other now-classic cars you can see in the gallery below were used in the government’s “Operation Doorstep” project. As part of the program, houses and cars were set up near nuclear test sites in Nevada to study the bombs’ effects on people and property. What those tests showed (or at least what the public was told) is that not only could cars survive a nuclear blast surprisingly well, but they also made wonderful shelters for people.
But as a pamphlet from that era pointed out, be sure to roll down your car’s windows halfway to equalize the pressure of the shock wave. Otherwise your car could end up with crushed roofs and shattered glass like many in the accompanying photos.
Dolphins winter in New Jersey:
Federal wildlife experts say the remaining dolphins are healthy, and should be able to make it through the winter if they choose to stay. They cite the cases of dolphins that successfully spent winters in Massachusetts, Virginia and even northern Scotland.
But some animal advocates worry the dolphins will meet the same fate as four that drowned in the Shrewsbury River in 1993 when ice closed in on them, or the 26 dolphins killed by a sudden freeze in 1990 in Texas’ Matagorda Bay.
“It would seem to me that the natural habitat for dolphins in the winter when it gets cold is much farther south in warmer waters,” said U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. “Isn’t it stressful for them to be in this colder environment? Since they are mammals, what happens if the ice freezes over and they can’t breathe?”
Man shot for talking during movie:
A family seated in front of Cialella began to talk during the film, so he told them to be quiet. But that didn’t stop the younger son from making comments. He even threw popcorn angrily at the talkative son, but the talk did not stop. Cialella became so enraged that he pulled out a Kel-Tec .380-caliber handgun and shot the father in the left arm.
Porn Star / Model / Actress Sasha Grey’s Vice Magazine fashion shoot:
Rare Flying Foxes filmed with Canon’s new 5d mark II DSLR:
3. WARNING – some scenes contain displays of animal genitalia and defecation process.
y’all
Four weeks on the couch. I’m getting a bit of a belly. I’ve never had a belly.
No good can come of flying cars
…an eight-and-a-half story ramp was constructed for his rocket-powered Lincoln Continental.
First Commercial Spaceport
The very idea that I may be able to one day afford the luxury of space travel means we must be living in the future. But where are the flying cars?
“We are on track to begin construction in the first quarter of 2009, and have our facility completed as quickly as possible.”
The terminal and hangar facility for horizontal launches is planned for completion by late 2010.
NMSA hopes to sign a lease agreement later this month with Virgin Galactic, a branch of Virgin Atlantic owned by British airline magnate Richard Branson. The firm’s SpaceShipTwo passenger craft will be the main attraction at the site.The system plans to take passengers approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) into the sky. Virgin Galactic plans to welcome 500 passengers per year who will pay 200,000 dollars each for a suborbital flight lasting three to four minutes.
May I add
an item to my ‘best of 2008′ recommendations?
Max Richter’s 24 Postcards in Full Colour: not fully ambient, not fully classical, a delightful and warming alloy.
Maasai Warriors
Maasai warriors cover a battle field as they clash with bows and arrows with members of the Kalenjin tribe in the Kapune hill overlooking the Olmelil valley located in the Transmara District in Western Kenya on March 01, 2008.
Dear Clusterflock
So the big question is, was Bush really the very worst ever American president?
Open house.
Stephen Turbek, bubble wrap calendar
Just pop a bubble to mark each day.
Genius!
Calendars available at bubblecalendars.com.
After Christmas
Manger
En Française, perhaps,
A glimmer
Swaddled.
Cooings ’round me.
When Mom said,
“I could just eat those little toes”
I offered them up.
Morsels for all.
Just as evil as she can be
RIP, Eartha. Yeah, some chance.
“Why is gold worth some twenty bucks an ounce?”
(From The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Oh, and that’s Walter Huston, John Huston’s father, as Howard and Humphrey Bogart as Fred C. Dobbs. John Huston directed the film.)
“Worth its weight in gold.”
Turns out, there really isn’t that much gold out there (via kottke):
Figuring out the total amount of gold that has been produced by man is a little harder. To get at some kind of estimate, let’s figure that the world has been producing gold at 50 million ounces a year for 200 years. That number is probably a little high, but when you figure that the Aztecs and the Egyptians produced a fair amount of gold for a long time, it’s probably not too far off. Fifty million ounces * 200 years = 10 billion ounces. Ten billion ounces of gold would fit into a cube roughly 25 meters (about 82 feet) on a side. Consider that the Washington Monument measures 55 feet by 55 feet at its base and is 555 feet tall (17 x 17 x 170 m). That means that if you could somehow gather every scrap of gold that man has ever mined into one place, you could only build about one-third of the Washington Monument.
Platinum is even scarcer and could fit within an average home.
Dickens
Forgive my imprecision. I am traveling and wifi-ing. I don’t have the book in front of me. But Mr. Crisparkle, one of my favorite characters from Dickens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood (which I am still reading), at one point either says or thinks something along the lines of “It is my profession to make no professions.” I like that a lot.
World of Warcraft Players Need Not Apply
Recruiters may be concerned about your online gaming:
A member on F13, a forum for game-related news, recounted a recent conversation with an Australian online media recruiter about his hobby of playing online games like World of Warcraft: “I happened to mention I’d spent way too much time in the early 2000s playing online game… He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100 percent because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc.”
Luckily, the recruiter happened to be a friend, but the exchange brings highlights a couple of interesting issues. On one hand, the recruiter may have a point: Massively multiplayer online games can require a high level of engagement — players must spend long hours playing to advance their characters and participate in game activities like raids. It’s not uncommon for subscribers to log as many as 30 hours per week.
How to Understand International Finance (Robert Benchley, 1922)
Now there is a certain principle which has to be followed in all financial discussions involving sums over one hundred dollars. There is probably not more than one hundred dollars in actual cash in circulation today. That is, if you were to call in all the bills and silver and gold in the country at noon tomorrow and pile them up on the table, you would find that you had just about one hundred dollars, with perhaps several Canadian pennies and a few peppermint life-savers. All the rest of the money you hear about doesn’t exist. It is conversation-money.
Anti-kidnapping expert kidnapped
U.S. anti-kidnapping expert was abducted by gunmen in northern Mexico last week, a sign of just how bold this nation’s kidnapping gangs have become.
U.S. security consultant Felix Batista was in Saltillo in Coahuila state to offer advice on how to confront abductions for ransom when he himself was seized, local authorities said.
Unknown assailants grabbed him on Dec. 10, said Charlie LeBlanc, the president of the Houston, Texas-based security firm ASI Global LLC., where Batista is a consultant.
Cheering for the other team.
Obligatory holiday story of goodwill (via mefi):
They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.
“I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”
And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.
But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.
12 Days Of Christmas by Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets
On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me: an iPhone.
Christmas across The Commons
From the Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands. Spaarnestad Photo, SFA022802499. The Great War (First World War). Christmas in a German hospital for wounded soldiers. Germany, Berlin, 1914.
striatic curates Christmas across The Commons. Photos from George Eastman House, State Library of New South Wales, Nationaal Archief, and The Library of Congress. View more photos from The Commons tagged with christmas.
Harold
Harold Pinter died yesterday.
For those that celebrate Christmas
You may enjoy this. And for all those who don’t, I wish you the finest of holidays.
