Wow

Holy Jesus.

This woman's octuplet-containg belly looks like a Stan Winston special effect or something. And yet, it is real.

On Making Art

Willard Wigan, who creates microsculptures:

I enjoy it when I finish it. Not working on it, no. It's misery, it's painstaking.

I can think of several artists who would agree...

The Secret Lives of Ants

We've all seen ant farms; however, like Khan, they betray a bit of two-dimensional thinking. Eager for a better look at a real colony, a group of scientists scrounged together 10 tons (!) of cement and poured it into a leaf-cutter ant colony.

The results are, in a word, breathtaking. The complexity of the resulting structure, as well as its obvious logic and seeming design, must be seen to be believed. Yes, it looks like they buried a living colony in cement, but it's hard to be upset once the colony is unearthed.

Enthusiasm Beyond Reason

Linked below is a feat that is American down to its core.

Dedication to a seemingly impossible task; refusal to accept defeat; willingness to experience utter humiliation in pursuit of a dream.

Oh – and it's totally, completely pointless. Ridiculous, in fact. Done only because maybe it can be. Not for any benefit to mankind or personal gain. The mountain is climbed because it is there.

O beautiful, for spacious skies...

Yes, This Is Real

Actually, you know what?

I don't want to link to this.

Everyone's (least) favorite plumber Joe has launched a website. And I'd be laughing my way across the floor if it wasn't so scary and sad.

See, apparently "we are all Joe." Awesome. I'm a tax-evading self-promoting schmuck who, along with Sarah Palin, believes strong opinions and under-education (plus a solid need for celebrity) qualify me for public service and national power.

There was a lot of noise about that fact that Joe isn't Joe – he's Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. I am in no position to rag on the man for going by his middle name (we even share first names), and have to say that that criticism is unfair. But if that's how you like to be called, then man up and stick to it; don't credit yourself as "Samuel J. Wurzelbacher" on your book "Fighting For The American Dream," just to make yourself sound like one of those educated media elites you hate so much.

Hmm. On second thought, don't title your book that, either.

Those of you hungerin' for more Joe, head on over to "secureourdream.com" (really). It's exactly what you'd expect it to be, wrapped up in some excellent circa-1997 HTML. I can't say I recommend it, and he shouldn't get the clicks, but some of us (myself included) are gluttons for punishment.

Anyone have a fifteen minute timer?

A Bunch of Rocks

As close to poetry as I imagine stick-figure comics can get.

Charcoal & Honey

This one goes out to my mom and dad, who keep bees back home.

Find out why outdoor grills and bees may not be the best combination, in a story both tragic and amazing...

Wow!

Toast Is In The Air

Yesterday, I read about a toaster that will brand handwritten messages onto your toast (yes, one commenter did refer to these as "Toast-It Notes"). Today, Kevin sent me an e-mail featuring the ultra-cool (and -geeky) Darth Vader toaster. Add in the "Toaster toaster" from July (heh heh), and toasting seems to be weirdly chic.

To round it out, here's a list of novel toasters from September, featuring several out-there designs. Apparently, a lot of work is being done in the "custom-image-on-your-toast" market; it certainly seems smarter than the "combine-exposed-electric-elements-with-water-for-toast-teapot-combo" market.

East vs West

I've got as good a geographical sense as the next guy, but Randall Munroe over at xkcd has a damn good point.

It goes to show, sometimes obvious reasons aren't so obvious from another point of view. Just like Obi-Wan Kenobi told us 25 years ago.

5 Reasons Luke Skywalker is a Complete Idiot

Missing? "But I was going to go to Toshi Station and pick up some power converters!" That aside, though, it's a fun little feature.

What has Luke had to look forward to after the original trilogy? Mostly trying to start up the whole Jedi Order by himself, which is a ton of work, and watching Han have almost constant sex with Leia.

See the list over at Topless Robot.

Buses on Screen

There is some strange stuff out there on the Internet.

Quite randomly, while searching for some typeface identification, I stumbled across this site, which catalogues the appearances of buses in film and television.

Let me say that again: it's a website dedicated to listing what buses appear in specific scenes in movies and TV shows.

Awesome.

Somewhere out there, a thesis student is excitedly comparing bus models across some subset or genre, and getting a degree as a result. Kind of reminds me of this scene from P.C.U.

Ahhh, college, film school, and Wesleyan.

High Enough For Ya?

Burj Dubai is the tallest structure every made by humankind, currently clocking in at 700.9 meters.

And it isn't even finished yet.

Plans call for the skyscraper (sky-puncturer? sky-piercer? sky-stabber? Babel?) to reach a maximum height of 800-950 meters. That range alone (150 meters) is over twice the height of the tallest building in Maine (good 'ole Franklin Towers), and about as tall as the tallest buildings in Arizona and Virgina.

It's peak will be twice as high as the roof of the World Trade Center. If it reaches its maximum height (I assume that will include antennae), the Statue of Liberty (sans podium) could be stacked 5 times between where construction is currently and where Burj Dubai will end.

That's one big mother.

The main site has several pictures, but I have yet to see one that brings on the awe, the amazement, the vertigo as much as this picture.

No way am I working in one of those cranes. No way.

An Alternate Campaign

This one goes out for Brett and Will: now this is change I can believe in!

Phallic Slide

Follow the link for some truly bad creative decision making.

I mean, really?

Helium & Sulfur Hexafluoride

Quite possibly, the coolest thing ever.

EVER.

Check it out!!

Yikes x3

• The live feed from Britney Spears' mic during live performances illustrates not only why she lip-syncs at shows, but also the sheer talent (and computing power) of modern music mixers.





• Another blog featuring embarassing photo trends from decades gone by - now including the '90's! My personal favorite is here, and I had this picture taken of myself.





• Naomi Klein on the Beijing Olympics:

  When Beijing was awarded the games seven years ago, the theory was that international scrutiny would force China's government to grant more rights and freedom to its people. Instead, the Olympics have opened up a backdoor for the regime to massively upgrade its systems of population control and repression. And remember when Western companies used to claim that by doing business in China, they were actually spreading freedom and democracy? We are now seeing the reverse: investment in surveillance and censorship gear is helping Beijing to actively repress a new generation of activists before it has the chance to network into a mass movement.

Yikes.

August 12

Today, I am 27. I'm feeling more than a bit old. I'm at the point where a birthday isn't that big of a deal; and, during the course of the year, I often forget just how old I am. 26, 27, something like that?

Did you know that on the exact day of my birth, IBM released the very first PC? Or that 882 years before that day in 1981, the First Crusade ended? That on August 12, 1883, the last quagga died, that on August 12, 1908 the prototype Model T was built, that on August 12, 1977 the Space Shuttle Enterprise took its first free flight, or that on August 12, 1990, Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered?

See all that, and even more, here.

It's been a good birthday so far, and even though I'm about to jump on a red eye, it's a red eye to Maine, which makes it all worth it. It's unfortunate that the day before my birthday, our president had to go and be an asshole, again, but them's the breaks. Nobody got me this (at least not yet), but I am consoled to think that nobody has been gifted with that.

Here's a house, Clingstone, that I would love to live in; reminds me of the Barnacle, done with elegance. The New York times wrote about it the other day.

But this, right here, is my real dream home. Tracy probably won't let me make us live in this, but I fully intend on building a hobbit office once we settle down. I don't know how best to do it, my building skills are may not be that great, but it will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine.

Time to go – I have a flight to make. I'll leave you with something that shouldn't, by any means, work at all, but ends up being almost sublime.

Enjoy.

Happy birthday.

Data Visualization

A quick look at the Safari tabs I leave open for days on end, articles and sites I e-mail and like to post about, and the things I get a lot of pleasure out of reveals a few trends, one of which is my preference for really smart data visualization.

In that spirit, here are a few favorites from the past few weeks.

• Andy Baio takes the data of the Whitburn Project (an effort to "preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the 1890s") and makes some interesting graphs here.


• Stefanie Posavec breaks down Jack Kerouack's On The Road into its component pieces of language and turns that data into the most amazing analytical maps.


• A photograph is cheating slightly, but when used to analyze the density/brightness of man-made light as seen from space, it qualifies as data representation to me.


• Ben Fry took Census data of all streets in the conterminous United States, and plotted them on empty space, and watched a fascinating map of American development appear. This things is streets only. Incredible. Extra details on how here, and updated info here.

Makes me wonder… for all of those important statistics that we just can't seem to collectively care about, maybe all we need is an innovative way to present the data visually – something to impress us with.

Saturday Laugh

Because everyone else seems to be e-mailing or posting this, I guess it's time to join the fray and throw up a link to Manbabies.com.

Who knew swapping heads between father and son in Photoshop could be so funny?

The Popular page gives an easy way to peruse the crème de la crème, but I've got to give special notice to May 17, which looks like something out of a Terry Gilliam movie.

Tonight We Dine In Hell

Courtesy of David H, here's something good for a quick laugh... Andrew Jackson has never been fiercer!