photo out of context
(via @joshtpm)
from the comments
It’s important to do good work. But also to be doing THE good work. And I don’t mean that in a religious sense (obviously, because when do I do that?) I mean that in the way that you choose your projects because you want the next door to be even more magnificent than the last. So, can you tell if one door might have a unicorn as opposed to a used car?
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis – WINGS
via Josh Helfferich
spam name
Mr Mike Smith.
funeral for man entombed for 27 years in chimney
Daryl, did you write this?
Back to back on Twitter
So to speak.
Join the LA&M Women’s Leather History Project and Alex Warner on the road at Beyond Vanilla in Dallas TX. (From the Leather Archives and Museum.)
Do I know anyone who works with leather, in a book binding way? Here’s the info. (From clusterfriend Pete Ashton.)
I am a woman of many and varied interests.
Quote out of context
Bert, who is fascinated by pigeons and gets easily upset
– Pete
from the comments
We’re in harmony with all of nature, except for plants. Fuck plants.
from the comments
Also, this puts me in mind of Harry Houdini, who was almost as renowned for exposing purported mediums and spiritualists as he was for escaping iron chests and chains.
The bittersweet irony is that, from what I have read, he desperately wanted to contact the spirit, if such existed, of his dead mother. But he was too honest to fall for cheap tricks.
tweet of the day
The Duane Pyson Project
Duane Pyson was a swarthy thirty-something caucasian cross-eyed little person infatuated with urban youth culture who lived at home with his mom and solved imaginary crimes penned by a friend of mine who I restored houses with a few years ago.
from the comments
Silly Derek. If you’d been a native Italian speaker, you would have asked “Could I get a glass of urine’s, please?”
GM Futurliner Quarter Mile
Want to see the most amusing quarter-mile in automotive history?
General Motors built the Futurliner to promote a traveling show called the “GM Parade of Progress” in the 1940s and ’50s. The slippery-lined bus, which was penned by the legendary Harley Earl, is one of 12 that traveled the U.S. to show Americans the future of motoring and technology.
The Futurliner weighs 30 tons and is powered by a four cylinder diesel engine with a top speed of 40 mph. The Wikipedia article has a dozen pictures, and you can follow the history of its restoration at The GM Futurliner Restoration Project.
twenty common insect songs
Lucy linked to this beautiful collection of twenty insect songs from Twitter where she asked which one is your favorite. Except she spelled favorite with with a u because she’s European.
I saw Deron in Oslo
At Akershus Castle.
KinectFusion
At SIGGRAPH 2011, Microsoft Research demonstrated some absolutely phenomenal 3D scanning with their Kinect device:
This is all with a $150 video game accessory. The multitouch demo at the 7 minute point is especially impressive.
headline of the day
Calif. man accused of trying to break in to prison
“I want you to hold it between your knees” (Pa’ Cindita) [For Cindy]
“Yeah, well, I didn’t get it, did I?”
That’s the part people tend to forget.
tweet of the day
‘There was no immediate information on how much of the mission’s goals were achieved’
DARPA lost contact with an ultransonic glider it was testing.
The small craft is part of a U.S. military initiative to develop technology to respond to threats at 20 times the speed of sound or greater, reaching any part of the globe in an hour.
The HTV-2 is designed to be launched to the edge of space, separate from its booster and maneuver through the atmosphere at 13,000 mph (21,000 kph) before intentionally crashing into the ocean.
The craft they tested last year “detected an anomaly, aborted its flight and plunged into the ocean.” For some reason, that’s funny to me.
debunking the paranormal
When Paranormality came out, there was a lot of criticism from psychics and mediums that did not want the tricks of the trade out there. There is a kind of pressure not to reveal these tricks. There’s a bit of an overlap with magic, where magicians want to keep their secrets to themselves. But I think it’s completely unethical, because magicians are honest deceivers – they tell you that something is fake and fake it for entertainment – but with psychics and mediums they don’t tell you that at all. It’s a huge abuse of the kind of counselling contract.
From an interview with Richard Wiseman about his new book Paranormality.
windoodles
Friend of clusterflock Garrett Miller’s got himself a new endeavor.
Iowa State Fair Update
Gigantor: A one-pound hamburger served between two grilled cheese sandwiches and topped with macaroni and cheese will make its debut at the Bird’s Nest at the top of the hill at 3000 East Grand Ave., by the AE Dairy Stage.
Russian Constructivist Calvin and Hobbes
By friend of clusterflock, Derrick Mosley.
If someone else were posting this, it would be titled For Cindy
