Author: Nathan Campbell
Boys and their toys… a composite picture of American toy guns since 1800
Here’s what you get if you, or in this case, if a guy named Christopher Baker, collect all the patent pictures labelled “toy gun” since 1800, and you put them in one picture. There’s a video of the picture being generated at the link.
Here are some of the patent images.
Godwin’s Law before Hitler
We had an interesting discussion at college the other day, completely unrelated to college… about who epitomised evil before Hitler. Some said Napoleon, still others Genghis Kahn, while some thought Mary Queen of Scots might get the guernsey.
A Slate article on exactly the same issue, from a couple of days before (that may or may not have prompted my question) reckons the answer is Pharaoh, but also suggests that the use of an extreme historical figure as a rhetorical device is probably a relatively recent invention. Possibly correlating to the rise of the internet.
“The Pharoah. In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, many Americans and Europeans had a firmer grasp of the bible than of the history of genocidal dictators. Orators in search of a universal symbol for evil typically turned to figures like Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, or, most frequently, the Pharaoh of Exodus, who chose to endure 10 plagues rather than let the Hebrew people go.”
“Generally speaking, hatred was more local and short-lived before World War II. Nineteenth-century polemicists occasionally used Napoleon Bonaparte as shorthand for an evil ruler—they sometimes referred to “the little tyrant” rather than name the diminutive conqueror—but those references were rare. There is little record of oratorical comparisons of political leaders to Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, or Ivan the Terrible.”
So there you go.
Build your own Bobblehead
The coolest thing about Hamish and Andy’s New York TV adventure was the traxedo. The second coolest thing was that they had their own bobble heads. Looking around the interwebs this seemed pretty expensive (over $100). But 1minime.com will (depending on postage costs) get you in under that mark.
Let’s sing about “reproductive messages” baby
Apparently nine out of ten top ten songs in 2009 featured “reproductive messages” – which means they were about sex.
“Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the [Billboard] Top 10 in 2009 contained reproductive messages,” says SUNY Albany psychology professor Dawn R. Hobbs in Evolutionary Psychology. That’s right–“reproductive messages,” our newest favorite euphemism.”
Here’s how those songs were distributed across “reproductive” categories.
If its your thing – you can read the study of those songs here (pdf).
Via The Atlantic.
Public Safety Announcement: Video game villains should be “edge” safe this season
Video game bad guys are definitionally stupid – they do the same thing all the time. For their longevity – this behaviour needs to stop.
From Dorkly.com
First Person Umbrella
Sick and tired of the great unwashed. Tired of slow walkers. Or worse, public smokers… well. Use this umbrella, and your imagination, to blow them away.
From the blurb on Flickr.
“Around Harvard you can tell the MBAs in the rain because they’re the ones with the giant umbrellas. Those are are nice about it raise their umbrella and generally play well with others on the sidewalk. The jerks are the ones who barge through the city hitting the umbrellas of others at will.
It’s because of them that I’ve invented the Urban Combat Umbrella which lets you exact virtual revenge by putting them in your sights and making shooting noises until you heart’s content.”
Sunday Night Music: Gotye, Hearts A Mess
A few of us went to see Gotye yesterday with “orchestra” at Brisbane’s Powerhouse. It was sensational. The instruments were slightly different to the array in this version from JJJ. But this song was insane. It gave me goose bumps.
As a bonus – here’s Eskimo Joe covering Somebody That I Used to Know.
Homer Simpson painted by Rembrant
Obviously this would have been much harder to animate.
And, as a bonus, Marge Simpson in the style of Johannes Vermeer.
And as a bonus bonus. Groundskeeper Willie Van Gogh style.
And Darth Vader Monet style…
Satanic Toys: Smurfs are out…
My question – if the smurfs are satanic – then what is Gargamel? My second question – how do these people get their own TV show?
How to get off a speeding ticket in NZ: Write a completely honest complaint letter
Ahh. New Zealand. Home of the long white cloud, Fergburger, and other holiday memories…
Also, home to this ingenious bloke who wrote a letter that humourously told the department of issuing stupid fines that their infringement notice was riddled with factual errors. Letters of note has the exchange.
Firstly, the ‘date of offence’ is listed as the 23rd of June 1974 with the time being at or around half past six in the evening. This is of grave concern to me because I was not issued a drivers license until sometime in 1990 and I have no desire to be charged with driving while not legally licensed. I do not have a clear recollection of very much at all before I was three and a half years old, so I rang Mum to see if she remembered what I was doing that day. She said that – coincidentally – I was born that day!!
He goes on (and you should read the whole thing).
“This is where it starts to get really strange. The car that I must have crawled into had the same license plate number as the one I have now – AEH924 (according to the infringment notice). However, my car is a dark gray Nissan Bluebird SSS, with dual cup holders, 1800cc’s of grunt, air-conditioning and electric windows.
You will notice that a time-travel option is not included on this model, so that rules out any ‘Back to the Future’ issues and the car I was driving back then could not have been the the one I drive today.
This is clarifed by the infringement notice which states that the vehicle was a Honda saloon. How this relates to my Nissan Bluebird, I cannot fathom. I can only hypothesise that, back in 1974, the first range of proto-type Hondas had an automated number plate changing mechanism (like on the A-Team) which were used to avoid parking tickets and facilitate safer getaways from burglaries, armed hold-ups and the like.”
Clear cut biology: Amazing transparent animal specimens
These are cool. A Japanese designer/scientist is turning science into art with these transparent animal skeletons. They are amazing.
Here’s a little synopsis of his project. The site is in Japanese, but the magic of google translate should fix that for you.
“Originally, the method of making transparent specimens – enzymatically turning the protein transparent, dyeing the bones magenta and dyeing the cartilages blue – was established for scientific purposes to study the skeletal system. Taking this a step further to refine the form and coloration of the specimens requires time and experience.
I create transparent specimens as pieces of work that help people feel closer to the wonders of life.
People may look at my specimens as an academic material, a piece of art, or even an entrance to philosophy. There is no limitation to how you interpret their meaning. I hope you will find my work as a “lens” to project a new image, a new world that you’ve never seen before.”
Here’s some of his work.
Hitman fail…
If you’re a hitman. The rules are simple. Don’t fall in love with your target. And if you do, don’t try to cover it up with a photo mock up featuring tomato sauce and the old machete in the arm pit trick. And, failing that, definitely don’t get caught canoodling with your would be victim, especially don’t let the person who paid you catch you…
This, sadly, is not a hypothetical set of happenings.
Only in Brazil…
Get Locusts…
So apparently there’s a world out there still consisting of people who design text based adventure games. Which is cool. I played through this one the other day – a game based on getting Jesus to turn water into wine at the wedding of Cana. Here’s the opening scene.
>look
Kitchen
The kitchen is dim and smoky and cluttered, the result of the chaos of preparing for the wedding, currently underway in the courtyard to the south. In the northeast corner, the door to the garden stands wide open, in the hopes of letting in some cool air. Down some steps to the west is the winery.All the actual food has been served, except for a plate of honeyed locusts that sits untemptingly nearby, unsurprisingly untouched.
>get locusts
Taken.
It’s by a guy with “Rev” in his name, and is pretty biblically literate. It’s full of vaguely amusing Bible jokes and with some rudimentary problem solving, and a quick recourse to the hints, I was able to finish the story, there are apparently a few endings based on whether you want to be a nice guy or a nasty guy.
“As you turn to leave, you hear what sounds like a lion’s roar, followed by a slight rustle of leaves. It takes you a few moments to recognise the roar as merely the rumble of an empty stomach. Be that as it may, there’s clearly someone hiding here.
>offer locusts to intruder
You wave the plate in the direction from which you last heard the rustling. After a moment, John, the Rabbi’s son, emerges warily and takes the plate from you. “Thanks,” he says, “now if you don’t mind, I’d like to be left alone.” Given that he’s also clutching the missing wine jug to himself, you don’t think that’s an option.”
It was fun. Took me back a little bit. And sucked up some valuable hours of time I should have spent writing essays.