Superuseless Superpowers

Complementary Chameleon:

The superuseless chameleon assumes the complementary color of his surroundings, thereby rendering him highly un-hard to see. This superpower was inspiration for the failed children’s book franchise titled “There’s Waldo.”

Looks like it's just getting started, but it shows promise. Some are less useless than others, with a little imagination.

Superuseless Superpowers

via @random

Test Your Brains 0000.001

(ratbanjos)

Go ahead, put 'em to the test.

via Robert Popper

The Monocle (1964) - Dance Fight Sequence

OurManInHavana:

...from the French Eurospy thriller The Monocle (Le Monocle rit jaune). Directed by Georges Lautner and starring Paul Meurisse. Set in Hong Kong our heroes have just been drugged while they eat and now face a ruthless bunch of gangsters...

via Funky Junk Trunk

All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy is nothing short of a complete rethinking of what a novel can and should be. It's true that, taken on its own, All Work is plotless. But like the best of Beckett, the lack of forward momentum is precisely the point. If it's nearly impossible to read, let us take a moment to consider how difficult it must have been to write. One is forced to consider the author, heroically pitting himself against the Sisyphusean sentence. It's that metatextual struggle of Man vs. Typewriter that gives this book its spellbinding power. Some will dismiss it as simplistic; that's like dismissing a Pollack canvas as mere splatters of paint.

Stephen King fan publishes Shining's Jack Torrance's novel

A clip from "The Making of..."

stocking stuffer

This, and other fine products available from BlueQ

via trendbeheer
by way of placeboKats

Some Monday morning silliness...

via ESPVisuals

philosophy through the ages

via Drive-by Blogging

stray bullets

With the greatest possible respect to Joe Satriani, we have now unfortunately found it necessary to respond publicly to his allegations. If there are any similarities between our two pieces of music, they are entirely coincidental, and just as surprising to us as to him. Joe Satriani is a great musician, but he did not write or have any influence on the song Viva La Vida. We respectfully ask him to accept our assurances of this and wish him well with all future endeavours. Coldplay.

On “The Death of Blogging” A sensible and accurate analysis. (via)

Seth Godin: Warning: The internet is almost full (short and resonant)

Confessions of a Bootlegger “At one point, I was probably responsible for starting up more record labels than David Geffin, Berry Gordy and Suge Knight combined!” (excellent) (via)

Beethoven and the Illuminati How the secret order influenced the great composer.

Shipwreck clues could clear Blackbeard of sinking his ship to swindle his crew For almost 300 years, the British pirate captain has stood accused of deliberately sinking his flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, so he could swindle his crew out of their share of loot they had plundered. But marine archaeologists, who are conducting a diving expedition on the vessel's presumed wreck, now believe it may have run aground by accident. They have even found evidence suggesting that Blackbeard made repeated attempts to rescue the stricken craft.

So you've been buried alive You may think you're exempt from this horror, but live burial doesn't discriminate. It happens to rich and poor, black and white, young and old. The more you prepare for this event, the greater your chances will be of surviving until that magical day when you're buried appropriately.

William Eggleston interview WE: There's plenty of film out there, and quadrillions of cameras that use film-I don't think it makes much sense not to use it. The thing that's going out is the manufacturing of the paper. Incidentally, all these years my wife has told me that I'm color-blind. (via)

also:
George S. Morrison, Admiral and Singer’s Father, Dies at 89
Interesting list of tourist scams (good to know) (via)
Insane Home Office Set-ups (via)
History of Hookah Smoking
antipodr (Find the other side of the world!) (via)
blört's new 404 (creepy)

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift. - Albert Einstein (via)

pizza rolls

Undead Film Critic

via LedgerGermane

Neuman '08

Obama poster parodies

Dylan-Cleveland-Amer.

Old-timey rock and roll trading cards

via growabrain

John Cage - 4ft 3in

from On An Overgrown Path

Alfred's ancestors

The origins of the archetypal image of Alfred E. Neuman have been obscured by mortality, foggy memory and the dust of junk shop photo bins. You might be surprised to know that variations of this unforgettable visage peppered American pictography for well over half a century before being adopted by Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1954.


















"This card came from an old print shop. I believe this image predated his use by Mad Magazine." (source) (via)


















A postcard with the "me worry?" face. (c.1920s) (source)


















Antikamnia Tablet Calendar (1908) (source)


















Belle Archer's new comedy drama, Jess of the Bar Z (c.1900) (source)


















"Comics in America started with The Yellow Kid." (1895) (source)

The Origin of the Alfred E. Neuman Image (scroll down)

lagniappe:


















First magazine cover appearance, Mad 21 (1955) (he's in there) (source)


















The first color cover with Alfred (1956). The original drawing is now up for auction.


















I love Alfred to death, but this was always my favorite. From Mad #166, April 1974. (source)

stray bullets

Mafiaboy grows up; a hacker seeks redemption The Internet attack took Yahoo Inc. engineers by surprise. It came so fast and with such intensity that Yahoo, then the Web's second most-popular destination, was knocked offline for about three hours. That was on the morning of Feb. 7, 2000. A few months later, 15-year-old Michael Calce was watching Goodfellas at a friend's house in the suburbs of Montreal when he got a 3 a.m. call on his cell phone. His father was on the line. "They're here," he said. A hacker seeks a career. This seems to be the standard arc: make news, get busted, do time, write a book, become a security consultant.

Follow up: Almost human: Interview with a chatbot No machine has yet passed. But the winner of the Loebner Prize at the weekend – Elbot, brainchild of Fred Roberts at Artificial Solutions in Germany – came close, according to the contest's rather generous rules.

Ocean Containers To Bury According to most survivalist sites, ocean containers can be buried, hidden away under the ground outfitted with electricals, rudementary plumbing, and all the food and water you can store for several months of keeping a low profile. While we at American Steel have seen it done, I'd like to give a word of caution.... Anyone planning to use a container for anything should take note. (via)

Downloads soar despite crackdown Music downloads among US adults have risen sharply during the past several months, despite a crackdown by the music industry to curb such behaviour. Few I know could afford their music collection. (via)

also:
Recurring science misconceptions in K-6 textbooks (via)
First look at Downey Jr and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson
$56,000 Turntable Only An Audiophile Could Love
Surrealist techniques (via)

viddy:
Buffalo Dance featuring Hair Coat, Last Horse, and Parts His Hair
Trio: Da Da Da
Alien Contact: What will happen on October 14 (thx, dave)

stray bullets

Middle East Cockroaches Invade U.S. During the Iraq War American military personnel have unknowingly been bringing back Middle Eastern cockroaches in their belongings and equipment. One such globe-trotting insect, the Turkestan cockroach, is now settled in the southwestern part of the U.S....

Texas bans nibbling fish pedicures The US state of Texas has banned fish pedicures over health and safety concerns, denying salon customers the opportunity to enjoy the sensation of hundreds of small fish nibbling away the dead skin from their feet.

Mutant fish develops a taste for human flesh in India The enormous goonch, a type of catfish, is said to have developed a taste for human flesh after feeding on corpses thrown into the river after funeral ceremonies. Locals rumours have held for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water. But they think it has moved on from scavenging to targeting live bathers who swim in the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.

also:
Hummus Wars
On-tap Inspiration Online (for writers)
Dr. Dymaxion's Atomic Condos (Bucky stuff)
Projector for your phone
"Calamities of Genius"
Forest Whitaker to direct and star in Satchmo biopic

viddy:
Lab Created Diamonds
First live webcast of a lion hunt
Heavy Metal Farmer
Staubli Robot Dance Show
Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die (via)

stray bullets

Antiquities smuggling: Growing problem at US ports Three years ago, an elderly Italian man pulled his van into a South Florida park to sell some rare, 2,500-year-old emeralds plundered from a South American tomb. But Ugo Bagnato, an archaeologist, didn't know his potential customer was a federal agent. (via)

Tourist who found Stone Age axes rewarded £20,000 A British tourist who unearthed four Stone Age axes on a beach in Brittany has been put forward for a prize worth more than £20,000 by the Ministry of Culture for not keeping the treasure. (via)

CEO murdered by mob of sacked Indian workers Corporate India is in shock after a mob of workers bludgeoned to death the chief executive who sacked them from a factory in a suburb of Delhi. (via)

also:
Cheap Chinese lederhosen anger Germans
a couple of good lists this week: Top 10 Things That Are Surprisingly Good For You & 10 Odd Discontinued Olympic Sports (and don't forget drawing and watercolors)
Flashback: The One Elevator Trick Every Traveler Should Know
Neil Armstrong makes rare speech as NASA turns 50
Erase Cell Phone Data: Free Data Eraser (via)

viddy:
The Mike Wallace Interview: Frank Lloyd Wright (via)
The arty farty show
Sati Audiovisual (excellent VJ performance)

stray bullets

Baseball's UK heritage confirmed A diary that documents a game being played in Guildford in 1755 has been verified by Surrey History Centre. William Bray, a Surrey diarist and historian from Shere, wrote about the game when he was still a teenager. Major League Baseball, the governing body of the game in the US, has been informed of the discovery. (via)

Baang You're Dead Lee had recently quit his job in order to spend more time playing games, presumably so that he could eventually "go pro" and compete in South Korea's popular gaming competitions. It was a life choice that would ultimately prove fatal. Armed with cheap and fast connections and the latest gear, some South Koreans are gaming themselves to death. (thx Nick)

The last shot of the American Civil War was fired.... in the Arctic, off the coast of Alaska!

also:
100 Free Online Ivy League Courses You Should Take Just for Fun (via)
SnowCrystals.com Your online guide to snowflakes, snow crystals, and other ice phenomena (exhaustive)
Man Killed By Exploding Lava Lamp (via)

viddy:
Meatarians train plants to eat burgers
Rupert Sheldrake - The Extended Mind: Recent Experimental Evidence (via)
Brewster Kahle on the need for a digital library 'free for the world'
How to survive a nuclear attack (don't miss it)
Howard Rheingold on collaboration (I don't link frequently to Smart Mobs, but I keep and eye on it. Stick with this one, it's good.) (via)

Unnecessary Knowledge: Every year approximately 2,500 left-handed people are killed by using object or machinery designed for right-handed people. If you're left-handed and work with tools or machinery, you become aware of this possibility. In many cases, you become right-handed. (via)

AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL WRESTLING HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

available from YeeHaw

stray bullets

A New Addiction: Internet Junkies While compulsive gambling is only beginning to be addressed by mental health professionals, they must now face a new affliction: Internet addiction. This is news?

Judge: Copyright owners must consider 'fair use' A federal judge on Wednesday gave more weight to the concept of "fair use" when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music. The judge refused to dismiss Stephanie Lenz's suit claiming that Universal abused the Digital Millennium Copyright Act when it issued a takedown notice to YouTube over a 30-second video of Lenz's baby dancing to a Prince song. Right on. (via)

Brightest gamma-ray burst was aimed at Earth Astronomers think they know what caused the brightest ever gamma-ray burst, which was observed in March: a tightly beamed jet of matter that happened to be aimed almost directly at Earth. Kinda strange.

Benjamin Franklin: City Slicker So when Franklin, at 17, ran out on his printing indentures (a serious felony) and fled from Boston to Philadelphia, he was hardly the “poor ignorant boy” he purported to be. (via)

also:
The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs
The uncanny valley: why almost-human-looking robots scare people more than mechanical-looking robots
H.P. Lovecraft Vintage Fonts (via)
World Names Profiler (enter your surname) (via)

viddy:
Secret Military Technology On 60 Minutes, in an interview with Scott Pelley, reporter Bob Woodward claimed that the U.S. military has a new secret technique that's so revolutionary, it's on par with the tank and the airplane. Schneier takes a stab and the commenters take the piss.
Large Hadron Collider: Peter Higgs interview
William S. Burroughs demonstrates his famous literary "cut-ups"
Early demonstration of the Mellotron
Chinese Popeye (via Nick's Brown Bag)

stray bullets

Humans Have Astonishing Memories, Study Finds If human memory were truly digital, it would have just received an upgrade from something like the capacity of a floppy disk to that of a flash drive. A new study found the brain can remember a lot more than previously believed.

NASA to Explore 'Secret Layer' of the Sun Next April, for a grand total of 8 minutes, NASA astronomers are going to glimpse a secret layer of the sun. Researchers call it "the transition region." It is a place in the sun's atmosphere, about 5000 km above the stellar surface, where magnetic fields overwhelm the pressure of matter and seize control of the sun's gases. It's where solar flares explode, where coronal mass ejections begin their journey to Earth, where the solar wind is mysteriously accelerated to a million mph. It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather.

ET could 'tickle' stars to create galactic internet Advanced extraterrestrial civilisations may be sending signals through space by "tickling" stars, new research suggests. The signalling would be the galactic equivalent of the internet.

also:
Doctored photos: 20 memorable picture fakes (via)
The 10 most decadent dictators (via)
Al Capone’s Island (via)
How to be a thrifty gardener

viddy:
Welcome to my Study 5
Ah Pook Is Here
Billiard playing robot