Fast Food ads vs. Reality

Bit.Fall

Personal Moon

[Everybody! Look over there!!!] Shifting Targets (New Yorker)
“They’re moving everybody to the Iran desk,” one recently retired C.I.A. official said. “They’re dragging in a lot of analysts and ramping up everything. It’s just like the fall of 2002”

The London Transport Museum has 100 years of posters online, searchable by artist, decade, theme.

How the mighty have fallen. The worlds formerly Only Ass Kicking Machine is now just an Ass Kicking Machine.

This isn't such a bad idea. I'd pay for a hackable Model A.

What would the world look like if everyone lived like you?

Kasparov on modern Russian power
(New Yorker, where you should also check out "Mapping Manahatta" that explores Manhattan island, pre-urbanization)

Science of boomerangs

Unearthing a designer's 1980 portfolio (DesignObserver)

How Sputnik helped launch the field of Computer Science 50 years ago.
(ComputerWorld)

Fabiano Busdraghi's Antarctic Photography
Amazing.

Extreme Rich/Poor divides
(deputydog, who also (accurately) lists the most repulsive buildings on earth)

Tim Noble and Sue Webster's Junk Shadows
(via Daily Awesome)

Book Autopsies (biobliopsies?)

Creationist imbecile on 'The View' isn't sure whether or not the world is flat.

Unfortunate name that this company went with.

Florida Student Tasered by police at Kerry Forum

This is how the America treats its engineers. You can bet the Chinese don't have to deal with this bullshit.

“Sir, this is an improvised electronic device. You will never be allowed to fly with this.”

I responded to many questions with information about my occupation, circuit theory up to and including Ohm’s law, and a discussion of the market for bicycle power meters. But they still would not let me fly with the programmer. I had to leave it behind.

Another fantastic Olbermann op-ed. "Promoting Failure in the Bush Administration" (youtube)
(via truthout)

Most Americans think that founders intended a Christian nation

And the founders saaaaaid!...

George Washington, 1st President (1789-1797)
"... the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion ..."
Source: The "Treaty of Tripoli," negotiated and signed by the First
President of the United States, on November 4, 1796

John Adams, 2nd President (1797-1801)
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religions in it.
Source: A letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 15, 1817

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President (1801-1809)
"Christianity ... (has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. ... Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers ..."
Source: Six Historic Americans, by John E. Remsberg

James Madison, 4th President (1809-1817), often called the Father of
the Constitution:
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
Source: Letter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774

Benjamin Franklin:
"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
Source: "Toward the Mystery"

Thomas Paine (1737-1809):
"I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to
that book (the Bible)."
The Age of Reason, Part 1, Section 5

Thomas Jefferson:
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ..."
Source: Thomas Jefferson letter to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119

Thomas Paine (1737-1809):
"The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion."
From The Age of Reason

Zefrank tells you how to act convincingly
(where you should also play every second and experience how long a second really is)

Public lettering - a walk in central London

Death of Form
This also explains how we went from soul, jazz, country, and blues to "jam bands"

Opacity.us is a great guide to urban ruins and abandoned locations.

[Quote of the day (hell... possibly the year)]
Hindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys.

Jerry Byrd and Marty Robbins on steel and rhythm. Nice story on origin of the steel at beginning.

ArtRage - a cheap ($25 for full edition)/free alternative to Painter

I need several thousand of these links

Index of British Pub Toilets (via the venerable Bifurcated Rivets)

Roast coffee in a popcorn popper

Some unreal shadow puppets.

Gene Sequence - all in a single interactive poster

Gallery of old-time paper moon photos (flickr, courtesy of drawn)

Liberal, Conservative brains different
(conservative brains were detected?)

Rock and Roll: The early days (google video, 58 mins)

The Dark Side of the West: 17 Truly Grim Westerns (avclub)

Philosophy/Vertigo (popmatters)

A bizarre Victorian collection of whale illustrations from bibliodyssey. why the hell not?

Gallery of Book Labels

Model Railroad slums

Good NYTimes article on Rick Rubin's bid to rebuild Columbia records

Masons, EndTimes, and FreeMasons converge at the Denver International Airport
(via metafilter)

Weidner explains that some high-level factions in Masonic society may be using the murals to alert the general population to the earth-shattering political and environmental changes in store for 2012. Either that, or those factions are amazingly arrogant. Because for Weidner and other conspiracy experts, the symbolism is as explicit as a manifesto.

Art Deco book covers

How vinyl records are made - parts 1 and 2

Inside the FBI Wiretap Net (Wired)
Gotta love that good ole'-fashioned American ingenuity! There's no problem that a dream and $40M in the right well-connected hands won't solve.

This guy made himself a really nice audiophile turntable for $50.
(Attn audiophile people who spent $6k on a Swedish boutique model - don't email me griping about specs or the benefits of cold forged titanium alloys over wood. It satisfies the basic requirements)

Sail through the northwest passage unimpeded by ice. For the first time, like, ever.
This puts Exxon in a strange position. My bet is that they continue to deny global warming while running their supertankers through the new route, then issue a press release about how continental drift shifted the ice or something.

Leona's dog gets $12M inheritance - more than all of her grandkids combined (2 got nothing)

I'm trying to find the permission form required for this
In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

Klutch's art on vinyl

I love the idea of these minicards. I'm going to have to think up a game or something.

95 Lessons in Ornamental Penmanship

20's toasters
from toastercentral

When the puppet master departed, the puppet collapsed in a heap.
(Salon on Gonzalez' resignation)

The Great Iraq Swindle (RollingStone)
It was an awful idea, perhaps the worst America has ever tried on foreign soil. But if you were in on it, it was great work while it lasted.

Rock

Floating light bulb

Uberorgan - just what it sounds like
Vid of same:

Cover browser

Rich, Richer; Poor, More (sfgate)

More Bush Administration Villainy - measure this week to permanently legalize mountaintop coal mining - where mountaintops are blasted and rubble is dumped into streams.

Environmental activists say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the obliteration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia.

“This is a parting gift to the coal industry from this administration,” said Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va. “What is at stake is the future of Appalachia. This is an attempt to make legal what has long been illegal.”

Google does space in the new version of Google Earth

Capturing the Idgit Vote

A nice gallery of automotive stop and turn signals from the 20's-30's
from the Old Crow BellyTank Blog that tracks the making of a Bonneville racer from a WWII surplus fuel tank.

Creation Museum, meet Unicorn Museum

Internet commenter business meeting (slightly nsfw)

Top 10 most expensive paintings of all time
(via designobserver)

Glamping - apparently for effete neo-yuppie types

"We're just not the camping kind of people. We don't pitch tents. We don't cook outdoors. We don't share a bathroom. It's just not going to happen. This is a kid who has never flown anything but first class or stayed anywhere other than a Four Seasons."

Something Awful's big chat stings

RaGnArOk: what law did i break!

Detective Don Gombo: ALL LAWS OF HUMAN DECENCY BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY ASPCA ACT 4433-23 WHICH STATES AND I QUOTE FROM MEMORY: "ATTEMPTS TO ILLEGALLY DOWNLOAD FILES OR FILEZ IS A CRIME AGAINST THE INTERNET AND YOU ARE BOUND BY LAW"

White at r255g255b255.net
Blue at r023g075b158.net
Yellow at r254g245b006.net
Black at r000g000b000.net
Pink at r243g197b208.net
Red at r213g037b053.net
Green at r006g146b071.net

Adidas film series on color, via laughingsquid

More Talk Less Rock (OnionAVClub)

The software awards scam

Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys - "My Sinful Days are Over"

Data Visualization: Modern Approaches

Los Straitjackets - Casbah (live)

Kids review the OLPC

Chris Matthews loses his mind in 3-minute insane rant. We can only assume that this lunatic outburst was a prelude to his stripping down and rocking back and forth in fetal position while babbling more incoherent nonsense before being mercifully tranquilized by handlers.

Ha! Zoom all the way on Google Moon.
China might soon be able to provide better closeups.

Bush Regales Dinner Guests with Impromptu Oratory on Virgil's Minor Works
(onion, alas)

Paul Weller and Graham Coxon - This Old Town

The Art of Ward Kimball (via boingboing)

Kithaus modular office space (via coudal)

Phil Spector vs. The Wall of Sound (DesignObserver)
Until 1966, Phil Spector possessed perfect command of his material; he was an unstoppable machine, churning out “little symphonies for the kids.” The early hits with the Crystals, Darlene Love and the Ronettes were designed through fanatical attention to detail—angling microphones, stuffing drums with bricks—then filling Gold Star Studios with musicians and instruments—pianos, guitars, brass, strings. Spector started the recording sessions late and worked his singers and musicians overtime, ordering members of the Wrecking Crew, many of them virtuoso jazz guitarists, to play eighth notes again and again, wearing them down until you couldn’t tell any one sound from another.

[Double Nickles Past Pickle Park] Trucker Slang

BeyondWeird

Mr. Starostin has posted a ridiculous number of record reviews, that are entertaining to read.
The Jam is "class C"? C'mon George!

Some beautiful oils on William Wray's blog
(via drawn.ca)

["WE HAVE ARMAGEDDON!"] Amazing Cramer meltdown on the fed and the sub-prime fiasco. (CNBC, youtube)
"Will somebody come on TV and tell the truth about how bad it is!?"

Your Congress just passed another outrageous Bush domestic spying law. (Wired)
Internet and phone service providers now have 6 months to implement a permanent spying architecture into their service infrastructure. Thanks for nothing, Democrats. More on the outlandishly named "Protect America Act" here.

The truth about deniers (msnbc)
... As she left a meeting with the head of the international climate panel, however, a staffer had some news for her. A conservative think tank long funded by ExxonMobil, she told Boxer, had offered scientists $10,000 to write articles undercutting the new report and the computer-based climate models it is based on. "I realized," says Boxer, "there was a movement behind this that just wasn't giving up."

Our Town (NYTimes Magazine)
It’s in places like Carpentersville where we may be witnessing the opening of a deep and profound fissure in the American landscape. Over the past two years, more than 40 local and state governments have passed ordinances and legislation aimed at making life miserable for illegal immigrants in the hope that they’ll have no choice but to return to their countries of origin. Deportation by attrition, some call it. One of the first ordinances was passed in Hazleton, Pa., and was meant to bar illegal immigrants from living and working there. It served as a model for many local officials across the country, including Sigwalt and Humpfer. On July 26, a federal judge struck down Hazleton’s ordinance, but the town’s mayor, Lou Barletta, plans to appeal the decision. “This battle is far from over,” he declared the day of the ruling.

Joshua Davis's Dynamic Abstraction

Institute of Official Cheer

Chinese Virgin Mary-themed urinals?

Always judge an album by its cover (guardian)

Fine Diner to RiffRaff: Tipsy Tales of 4-Star Benders (NYTimes)

It happens even outside the confines and privacy of the restrooms?

“Oh, yeah, in the dining room, all over the table, on their dinner companions,” Mr. Bastianich said. “You’ve never seen that?”

Um, no.

“Well, you go out to restaurants a lot,” he said. “Maybe you’ll run into it before you’re done. Hopefully, you won’t get splashed.”

Field guide for office politicos

Latte art
I hate being snobbish about things like coffee, but this site makes me want some of the fancy stuff.