Saturday, September 30, 2006

The Anniversary Present

Ed was in serious trouble. He'd forgotten his wedding anniversary. His wife became really angry. She told him, "Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!"

The next morning Ed got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift - wrapped in the middle of the driveway.Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Ed has been missing since Friday.

Friday, September 29, 2006

Too Much Time on Our Hands

Some people think I have too much time on my hands (but it actually just takes me minutes to post to my blogs). Still, when I see guys like THIS, I gotta tell you: THIS guy has wa-ay too much time on his hands! A micro Happy Meal? Supersize this one please!

Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT! Episode on PETA

Penn and Tellers show BULLSHIT! covers the two faced foundation PETA.


part 2 of 3 sections


Part 3 of 3

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Weird Al's Top 10 Videos

I admit: I'm sick. But I really enjoy Weird Al's parodies of music videos. And this guy's got more holding power than most of the musicians he pokes fun at. S. Robbin has posted a Top 10 List on his blog HERE (I didn't even know he had as many as 10 videos!). My two personal favorites? Eat It and Like a Surgeon.



Who WAS That Little Guy?

Remember that Indian Tamil video that went around with what looked like a little kid dancing away to some old stop-action dance music? I posted it a couple of days ago HERE. It's apparently been viewed online well over a million times! Turns out he's a midget actor who's somewhat popular in India and Yahoo! Video has posted a short story on it:

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Cruelty to Animals?

What would PETA say about this? Cat in a fishbowl...

San Francisco in Jell-O

Check out this incredible portfolio of pics from San Francisco artist, Liz Hickok. Her portfolio shows a shots from her San Francisco in Jell-O project. It's one of those How-the-Hell-Did-She-Do-That ideas. Incredible! Hope Jell-O contacts her for promotions!

Thank Heaven for 7-11!

In a bold move announced this morning, 7-11 has officially dropped Venezuelan-owned Citgo as their gas supplier. Over 2,100 7-11 owned gas stations will be switching to a company-owned brand now that their supply contract with Citgo Petroleum has expired because of President Hugo Chavez' ongoing rants towards the US in general and President Bush in particular. Support your local 7-11: Go out there and buy a Slurpee today!

Dizzy Yet?

Ever since I was a little kid, optical illusions have always fascinated me. Akiyoshi Kitaoka is a Professor of Psychology Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan with a little more than a passing fancy in optical illusions. This guys spends his spare time creating some of the most incredible visual whirlpools I've ever laid eyes on. Most of it seems to be produced these days on computers using Adobe Illustrator. (His stuff is copyrighted but he allows you to show up to 3 at a time with acknowledgment of his ownership.) Check out his collection online HERE. I promise you won't get bored.

Commercial of the Week: Got Milk?

This one's for the guys; sort of...

Pit Bulls

Like a lot of other cities, many townships in and around Seattle are considering legislation to ban or limit owning Pit Bulls. FoxNews covers the debate in a pretty comprehensive piece entitled Pit Bull Ban Punishes Dogs for Bad Owners. (I agree.) The breed also gets confused with a lot of other dogs and there's a site called Find the Pit Bull to see how many you can identify. Still, I'd rather not have one living next door to me.

Another Weird eBay Auction

Want to buy that silicon-skinned FemBot from Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me? You have until October 1 to place your bids on the lovely Vanessa. Opening bid is $3000 and they'll include the original outfit from the movie! Comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. (More pics on the auction page.)

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Paul Allen's Brain Atlas

All I can really say is, "Wow! Thanks a lot, Paul!" A few years ago, Microsoft billionaire co-founder, Paul Allen, funded the Allen Institute for Brain Science with $100 million. Half the money was earmarked for lab research and the rest was to fund a sub-project called the Allen Brain Atlas. The Brain Atlas was just recently completed and is now up and running online HERE. Even more remarkable was that the project came in $9 million underbudget (!) and Paul Allen has put their entire project online for free access to everyone. The research is based on mice brains which turn out to be genetically similar to human brains. The site is absolutely a gem and I encourage everyone to take a look at this wonderful gift.

For those few of you who have been living in a cave somewhere on the outer borders of Pakistan and may not know Paul Allen, he co-founded Microsoft in 1975 with partner, Bill Gates. Here's his Wikipedia biography. In 1983, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease, forcing him to leave the Company and pursue aggressive treatment. He eventually recovered but never really went back to work at Microsoft full-time like his old partner, Bill Gates. As a direct result of his personal life exepriences, some of Paul Allen's philanthropy has included a lot of generous funding for medical research and brain studies in particular. Looks like we're all about to benefit once again from his generosity.

A Short History of Search Engines

If you want a short read on how Search evolved online, Search Engine guru Aaron Wall has posted up a decent summary of the History of Search Engines on his site Search-Marketing. His piece covers the earliest conceptual ideas of building a central "clearing house" for information and knowledge to the rise of online search giants like Google that came out of the explosive growth of the Internet. Wall provides nice summaries on many of the core bits of search like Bots and how they work.

How They Make Aluminum Foil

Most of you know I'm a sucker for information, especially a lot of the How-to and How-Do-They-Do-That variety. I ran across this video this morning and found it fascinating enough to want to share it.


How To Make Foil - video powered by Metacafe

Monday, September 25, 2006

Why I Was Fired

For the last departmental picnic, management decided that -- due to liability issues -- we could have alcohol but only one (1) drink per person.

Geez. I was fired for ordering the damn cups!

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Fun Flash Game after a Weekend of Carousing

The game is aptly named Aim Your Pee After a Few Dozen Beers. I know, I know -- it's childish. But it's a GUY thing, right? And besides, they added a chick's version, so there!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Super slow motion of a water balloon being popped

I have a soft spot for cool film work. A high speed camera captures a water balloon being punctured with a scapel.

The GoDaddy Commercial That DIDN"T Make the SuperBowl

From DIGG: Funniest Video of the Day

Bill Clinton Video Game

The name speaks for itself. An excellent video clip posted on YouTube (contains adult material).

Friday, September 22, 2006

Another Jesus Image Appears on Dog

Oh my Dog! A miracle! The image of Jesus appears on a terrier! Be sure to click the link on this website and watch the mysterious image appear.

Einstein The Parrot

I know this one has been circulating over and over but I never get tired of watching Einstein the Parrot. This bird is frickin' smart! From a February 2005 episode on The Discovery Channel.

Commercial of the Week: Cancelled Dodge Commercial

I actually remember seeing this commercial this past Spring and Summer. It's my pick for (occasional) Commercial of the Week.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Pass This On! An eBay Phishing Spoof!

I just got this very real looking e-mail that appears to be from eBay inviting me to join their PowerSellers. But you're told you only have 24 hours to take them up on this offer. And despite how authentic this e-mail looked, they still made a dopey grammatical error (Why you become a PowerSeller?).

When I hovered over the link in this e-mail, it showed a re-directed domain of PowerSellerOnline.com so I simply checked who it was registered with through GoDaddy. And it turned out in fact to be registered with their Private Domain services down in Scottsdale, Arizona. People use the Private Domains by Proxy service for a number of reasons: one is for the privacy of avoiding all the junk mail and spam you get by making your information publicly available. Another reason is to hide who you really are underneath a couple of layers and hope you can get away with something before they shut you down. Sure looks like the second reason in this case.

When I clicked to the link, sure enough it took me to another site that had nothing to do with eBay but looked exactly like the eBay sign-in page asking for my user name and password. So typing in GoFuckYourself as my user name and FuckYou as the password simply took me back to the same page again. If you enter your real user name and password, they'd be into your account by now and trying to access your PayPal account too. Beware! I'll be sending this one along to the local FBI as well. Bastards. Please pass this one on to everyone you can.

Pope Apologizes... Again!

Geez -- how many times does the Pope have to apologize for the Muslim misinterpretation of his comments?
And here's a recent speech (translated a little loosely, of course) from YouTube.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Oprah Pumps Her Own Gas

Truth in Advertising: Oprah REALLY pumps her own gas on her road trip with Best Friend, Gayle. This will leave you in stitches -- shades of Paris Hilton!

What Does Your Phone Number Spell?

A fun distraction for a rainy afternoon (at least here in Seattle!): Type your phone number on PhoneSpell and see if it spells anything easy to remember. Great for helping kids remember their phone number.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Why They Keep Re-Designing the Hundred Dollar Bill

I generally try to post quirky, odd beat or humorous stuff on this blog. There's enough political ranting out there already. But once in a while, I see a piece that catches my attention as something that coud be an interesting read for everyone.

This old article posted on the BBC News site made a lot of sense. Apparently, the North Korean regime has been running an ongoing enterprise (I don't know what else you could call something of this scale) to produce the most incredibly perfect counterfeit US currency. And if you go back and look at all the re-designs of our bills, you'll see some correlation with Kim Jong-Il's printing presses. Incredible. And keep in mind that Saddam (and Iran) have also been high on the known list of government-sponsored counterfeiters. So now I wonder if we're flooding their markets with counterfeit money in THEIR currencies to retailiate and counter their stuff? (You gotta wonder!)

Sunday, September 17, 2006

Weird Al: Back at Last!

Weird Al Yankovic's brand new music video, White and Nerdy got posted early on YouTube (of course!). I still like Weird Al for being one-of-a-kind.

Just How Fast is Fast Enough?

The theory goes that if you're driving fast enough, a speed trap camera won't be able to catch you in that incriminating second photograph as you zip by. These Brits decided to find out if 1) it could be done and 2) just how fast you had to be going to actually beat it if it was true. As shown on YouTube.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Pythons Can Really Eat Some Big Stuff

A lot of you had some doubts that pythons can eat things like big dogs and little kids. For those of you Doubting Thomases (or Thomasinas) out there, here's a clip from Discovery Channel as posted on YouTube.

Night of the Living Dead Now Available FREE Online

George Romero's Night of the Living Dead is an absolute cult classic. Originally made in 1968 on a budget of $114,000 (!), it first gained notoriety for its graphic gore and quickly became the gold standard by which Moms would judge gross movies. Unfortunately for Romero, his distributor forgot to post his copyright at the end after making changes to a title. As a result, Romero's copyright protection expired prematurely and several copies of his movie have already been distributed everywhere (it happened to be the way copyright law was written at the time). You can read more about George Romero and his unfortunate loss on Wikipedia. You can also watch the original Night of the Living Dead on Google Video by clicking on the movie window below. Or you can download this movie in several formats (from Google, YouTube, etc.) for viewing later by installing VideoDownloader available HERE.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Another List

Rolling Stone has just released their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Overall, a pretty well-balanced list with musicians from a wide range of genres. Of course, the Beatles still have a dominating presence on this list.

PC World: 25 WORST Web Sites

Enough with all those Best Web Sites lists! PC World has posted their list of the 25 Worst Web Sites. Most of them are deserving (hotmail actually made their list!).

The Original Dumb Blonde

This clip speaks for itself (on YouTube). A classic to start your Friday morning off with a good chuckle!

Thursday, September 14, 2006

A Really Portable Record Player from Japan


OK OK -- I know you don't have a turntable anymore. But once in a while, you want to play a vinyl LP. What to do? Well, RazyWorks from Japan is selling these really novel and VERY portable Vinyl Killer players that don't need a turntable to play your record! The cheapest unit is 7,800 Yen (US$66) and the Swarovski-encrusted version is a whopping 58,000 Yen (US$492!!). Runs on a single 9-volt battery with a self-contained speaker!

George Carlin on Who Really Controls America

I've always enjoyed George Carlin. I remember the first time I saw him live onstage at the O'Keefe Center in Toronto doing the Five Dirtiest Words in the English Language. And he's still just as fresh and nasty as ever today. This is his rant on Who Really Controls America Today as posted on MySpace. WARNING: Does contain some typical George Carlin language so keep it down at work!


Wear a Communist Party T-Shirt!

And you can buy one here at Threadless. Party on!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Pee Wee Herman's Sister Lives in Seattle

Seattle artist, Lisa Petrucci, has her home featured on SeattleDreamHomes.com. It's a fun-filled toy house that will appeal to kids of all ages.

Los Simpsons... in Spanish Classical Guitar!

Most Excellent!

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Get Back to Work!

The moral of this video is: 1) Never sit on the office photocopier if you weigh more than 100 lbs. or 2) Don't even THINK about doing stupid stuff at work if there are security cameras around. I remember finding an ass print on the glass of our office copier one time and spent the rest of the day looking at people's butts to see who it might have been (it was a small print). As posted on YouTube:

Arabic TV Public Service Announcement

If only it were so easy: Friends Don't Let Friends Suicide Bomb. From YouTube.

Surf-Guitar Covers of the Classics

Ever since I first heard Japanese retro surf band music in a lot of recent movies (like in Tarantino's Kill Bill), I've been picking up tracks here and there that pop up online. Well, Japanese surf-guitarist Takeshi Terauchi covers the classics with The Bunnys (!) in a new album called Let's Go Classics (of course -- what else would you expect?) and the tracks are all available on WFMU's website HERE.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Beautiful Paper Crafts

For some strange reason, Yamaha is offering up a website of free downloadable paper craft projects in Adobe PDF format (color or black-and-white available). There are Rare Animals, Japanese temples and last -- but certainly not least -- an incredibly detailed series of the new Yamaha motorcycles. Beautiful. But a word of caution: these are rated as high difficulty level and require a very sharp X-acto knife, a very steady hand and lots of time and patience. But the final results are way cool...

Google on 9/11 2001

Never-Before-Seen-Clip from 9/11

This new footage was taken by a couple who lived in a 35th floor apartment almost right on top of Ground Zero on Sept. 11 2001. They've just decided to release the footage today, the Fifth Anniversary of 9/11. (You can also view it here on RevVer.) It may be slow because of heavy traffic so be patient.

Which Sports Car Are You?

One of those silly and short quizzes (but a nice distraction after a long, boring day at work). They post different quizzes from time to time. Me - I'm supposed to be a Porsche 911 (?!!). What's YOUR ride?

Electric Car vs. Ferrari and Porsche

Despite their incredible fuel economy, electric cars often suffer from an image problem of not having the performance of a race car. Well, this Google Video puts that myth to rest. A shutdown is more like it actually! I especially liked the earlier shot of the Ferrari guy trying to show off before the race! Zero to 112 mph in 11.1 seconds -- Wow!!!

Tired of Upselling at Mcdonalds?

These days, it seems that no matter what you order at a fast food joint, they always try to upsell you. So what happens if you order one of everything? I mean EVERYTHING?

Discovery Channel: How Video Games are Made

This is actually a nice clip of history on the development of video games, as shown on The Discovery Channel and posted up on YouTube.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Google Search for Guys

Another new hack of the Google search page for the guys: SearchwithGirls.com. (Get over it girls! We're guys after all!)

Best Portable Computer EVER!

This is actually an old clip from the movie Brain Donors, that someone posted on YouTube. Made in 1992, it starred John Turturro and Juliana Donald. I was rolling on the floor laughing after seeing it again so I thought it was worth sharing.

Inside Steve Wozniak's House

Here's a house I could get used to quickly... Steve Wozniak's home is on the market and this is how they sell a house for $10 million down in California. (Not bad Flash coding on the promo site either!)

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Canadians for Global Warming

The title speaks for itself!

The Miniature Earth

You've seen variations on this topic over the years in your e-mail: "If the world's population were reduced to 100, it would look something like this..." But this flash-animated version is the best one I've seen. And if you donate $5.00 to download a copy, they donate the accumulated proceeds to various charities all over the world.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Drew Carey on Whose Line is This?

Remember Whose Line is This? With the improv stuff? This one featured Richard Simmons in what's billed as the Funniest Whose Line Ever posted on YouTube. Hey -- if it made Drew Carey laugh as the host, it was good!

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Top 20 Japanese Commercials

Commercials of the week; 20 to be precise! They're all posted on High T3ch. Foreign commercials can be really different in their sense of humor; cultural differences, I'd have to assume. But that's what often makes them more amusing. So why did we get stuck with Ronald McDonald the Clown (play Ad No. 17) and they get Roni McDonald the Babe?

Nasty Cat

Turn up the volume and scare the sh*t out of your dog! As seen on YouTube.

BBC News Meter

Wow! Top 10 BBC News Items in the World ranked in real time from the BBC News site. I think this is a good response back to than digg or Netscape's ranking systems. This marks the beginning of a new trend.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Traveling Alarm Clock

Nice, simple idea: an online alarm clock that you can set easily. So why bother carrying a clock any more? Hope this guy can learn to monetize it.

Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones...

The theme for the animated TV series "The Flintstones" is played simply by squeezing air through the hands.

This guy is REALLY good. I'll bet his father always told him, "Son, you'll never amount to anything with that."

Yabba Dabba Doo!

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Beijing 2008 Olympics Pictograms

Yes, you heard it right: Pictograms. In an effort to emphasize the unique features of Chinese culture and language as they prepare to host the 2008 Olympics, China has officially posted the official symbols that will be used for each of the different athletic events. I hope the designer(s) are rewarded for such an original and elegant design approach.

The written Chinese language has evolved over the centuries from its original pictograms but nevertheless adheres to a complex process of pictorial symbols. I have always been fascinated with how the written Chinese language differs so completely with the alphanumeric languages of the West.

And yes -- with so much buzz being generated for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, I'm seriously thinking of heading over just for the experience of being there.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

I Love Roof Sex!

Get your mind out of the gutter! This is a terrific animation on YouTube and must have been a whole lot of fun to make and it's called Roof Sex. Play it on YouTube or just click on the screen. Sure to bring a smile to your face midway through Labor Day weekend!

Cute? You Want Cute on Labor Day Weekend?

How about The Cute Project?

Pick-a-Perv

Some nice Flash coding; This German site that lets you pick facial features to compose a suspect's face just like they do on TV cop shows. Create your own pervert!

Message for Quonah...

The message posted on the streets says it all. But maybe he IS an idiot (or she is!). Link to original post on Londonist is HERE.

Find some dignity, David!

Now THIS is a Great Idea from a Magazine

In a BOLD step into the digital age, The New Yorker Magazine is offering the entire 4,000-issue archive of their magazine spanning from 1925 to April 2006 on a single portable hard drive. Certainly one of the first I've heard of to be offered this way. What a terrific way to get ahead of the curve instead of falling behind. I hope this is the advent of things to come from other publishers!

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Shark Repeller

Geez, check out this interview on Divester with David Schneider, the guy who invented the Shark Skunker, a shark repeller system.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Cartoon Skeletons

No kidding! Here's the preview site for an art exhibit for the Arario Gallery in Korea featuring an incredibly creative show from artist, Hyungkoo Lee. His studio has sculpted these amazing skeletons of what cartoon characters might look like underneath: Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Mickey Mouse. Take a close look and try to guess who's who. His drawings and studies are simply fantastic to look at.

Taking Search to a New Low

I mean literally. How would you like to find the scoop on where someone famous (or infamous) is buried? FindAGrave.com is like the IMDb of gravesites. I typed in Jimi Hendrix and his bio popped up -- including the lurid details of his drug overdose -- complete with pictures of his grave.

How to Eat a Zebra in 40 Minutes

I'm not even going to show you more than a teaser picture from this photo gallery. But it's on pBase which is another photo gallery and hosting site trying to catch up to Flickr. Beautiful set of pictures.

Faked Photos Over the Decades

After the big Reuters scandal over Photoshopped -- er, Reutered -- photos from the Lebanese conflict, you'd think the media would catch on. But then along comes Katie Couric's slimmed-down pics from CBS. Well, in a reminder that this has been going on for a lo-ooong time, c/net put together a 24-image slideshow of retouched pictures over the years. Geez, I didn't know there wasn't such a thing as a jackalope!