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The Childbirth Centrifuge You must be pregnant to ride this ride. Why push your baby out when you can spin the sucker out? This device probably makes one mean martini, too. Unlike many patent applications, the Apparatus for Facilitating the Birth of a Child by Centrifugal Force is described in great detail, making me wonder whether a prototype actually got constructed. Link goes to a summary. Click through for the completely confusing text of the patent.
comment posted at 11:28 AM on Jan-25-07

Welcome to Steve's World. Steve designs and writes his very own web comic, Internet Earl; he directs, edits, and stars in his own video series, The Portal; he writes South Park fan fiction, and as of January 19th, he completed is 200th and final video blog. He hates Bush, kids and software pirates. He enjoys tater tots and keeping things real.
comment posted at 5:36 PM on Jan-24-07

A one-pager light hearted satire of the second life. Get a first life before you get a secondlife.
comment posted at 5:33 PM on Jan-23-07

Is it a parody? That's the question on some bloggers' minds. Donnie Davies is a pastor for Love God's Way ministries, and he wants to Change Homosexuals into Ordinary People or C.H.O.P.S.
comment posted at 5:34 PM on Jan-23-07

Chomsky v. Buckley, 1969 (videofilter). The primary subject is Vietnam, but other topics abound.
comment posted at 4:58 PM on Jan-23-07

333-333-333 YOU WILL SEE SUCH PRETTY THINGS (via) 333-333-333
comment posted at 6:48 PM on Jan-22-07

Talking dogs. I love you pug. Smart pooch. [all videos]
comment posted at 2:41 PM on Jan-21-07

It's Flicky - Nice, home-made Run DMC vid. [via]
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Jan-21-07

Atlas Shrugged is again in the pipeline to be made into a movie. BACK in the 1970s Albert S. Ruddy, the producer of “The Godfather,” first approached Ayn Rand to make a movie of her novel “Atlas Shrugged.” But Rand, who had fled the Soviet Union and gone on to inspire capitalists and egoists everywhere, worried aloud, apparently in all seriousness, that the Soviets might try to take over Paramount to block the project.
comment posted at 2:05 PM on Jan-20-07

David Gonterman is still alive. Gonterman was last mentioned here five years ago. Gonterman has become a long-time Deviant. Gonterman is accepting comissions via his journal. Gonterman is writing a "part autobiography" about a boy who was teased in school and retreated into a fantasy land. Gonterman has made available the first part of this novel (doc). Gonterman has made available the first part of his new furry PI comic series (pdf). If you don't know Gonterman, you are fortunate: this is Gonterman.
comment posted at 3:12 PM on Jan-20-07

Stephen Colbert on the O'Reilly Factor. Bill O'Reilly on the Colbert Report
comment posted at 8:25 PM on Jan-19-07
comment posted at 8:27 PM on Jan-19-07

12 months of George Petty pinups. And 16 more. Hell, have 5 pages worth. More about the Petty Girl, an advertising and pop culture icon with an often unfinished look who made her first appearance in Esquire in 1933 and whose elegant line quickly became famous. [via Bibi's Box, which has lots more Petty and pinup links] [warning: busty pinup girls]
comment posted at 11:07 PM on Jan-18-07

What If...Bob Dylan wrote almost every song of the last 30 years in his heyday, but never got around to recording them properly? New York City's Post Show Ensemble dredges up lost footage for No Direction, Period.
comment posted at 6:44 PM on Jan-17-07

What does 200 calories look like? (via)
comment posted at 6:46 PM on Jan-16-07

Steel Belted Romeos is based on a true story. (NSFW)
comment posted at 3:21 PM on Jan-16-07

Global warming skeptic Ronald Bailey--Reason's science correspondent, adjunct scholar at CATO and CEI, and editor of the 2002 book Global Warming and Other Myths: How the Environmental Movement Uses False Science to Scare Us to Death--has changed his mind.
comment posted at 11:18 AM on Jan-16-07

A message from Barack Obama
comment posted at 9:12 AM on Jan-16-07
comment posted at 9:26 AM on Jan-16-07

For those of us who can't get enough useless (and useful) information, there is Mental Floss. Take the "Color" movies quiz. Find out how Hornando Cortés and his 600 Spaniards subdued 5 million Aztec natives. Remember back to when President Nixon tried to fancy up the outfits worn by White House guards. Had enough? No? OK. Worried about birds exploding from eating wedding rice? Want to know what furfuraceous means? Scroll around this page to find out what Maya Angelou, Marilyn Monroe and Andrew Lloyd Webber were all affected by; what's up with green magazine covers; and why barber shops (as opposed to other places of business) spawned vocal groups? All this and much more! Now, you too can say, "I know more than my friends!"
comment posted at 8:25 AM on Jan-15-07

Running From Camera The rules are simple: I put the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as I can. [via]
comment posted at 8:01 AM on Jan-15-07

The best thing ever posted to the web? The Momus Mixtape of course. This music will do things to your brain. Good things. And bad things. You may cream your jeans. iMomus via Litwack.
comment posted at 6:35 PM on Jan-12-07

Through a Glass, Darkly How the Christian right is reimagining U.S. history--from Harpers. ...producing a flood of educational texts with which to wash away the stains of secular history. ...
comment posted at 4:33 PM on Jan-12-07
comment posted at 4:53 PM on Jan-12-07
comment posted at 5:16 PM on Jan-12-07
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Jan-14-07
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Jan-14-07
comment posted at 3:44 PM on Jan-14-07

The sport and hobby of Falconry, or hunting small game with raptors has been around since ~600 bce. What you might not have known is that there is a small industry to provide your hawk or falcon with a jaunty chapeau, often necessary to keep the bird calm. More here, here, and here. And then there's the crazy. All you need... is five-hundred geepee...
comment posted at 1:38 PM on Jan-11-07

Comets have long inspired fear and it continues today. Nostradamus "prophesied":

Mabus then will soon die, there will come Of people and beasts a horrible rout: Then suddenly one will see vengeance, Hundred, hand, thirst, hunger when the comet will run.

But who is Mabus (Nostradamus' third antichrist)? Will the idea further inspire Muslim fundamentalists?
comment posted at 11:03 AM on Jan-11-07

David Beckam signs with LA Galaxy; set to make over $1 million per week with the team.
comment posted at 9:27 AM on Jan-11-07

You know this is what you always wanted to do with your G.I. Joe and his Mercury Capsule. (And knowing is half the battle!) Oh, and more video rocketry.
comment posted at 7:17 PM on Jan-10-07

He would have made it to 82, if not for those meddling kids.
comment posted at 9:20 AM on Jan-9-07

CarveWright, a 3D wood carving machine made by former NASA robotics engineers. Demo video.
comment posted at 11:00 AM on Jan-8-07

Cure for teh gay? I was relaxing in front of X-Men 3 when a friend mentioned that the United States "gay sheep" experiments were wrapping up (though not uneventfully), with considerable successes. Lesbian tennis champ Martina Navaratilova has been fighting to end the tests for some time, but it appears a "gay vaccine" for pregnant mothers may be inevitable. Meanwhile, the GOP's only gay congressman retires.
comment posted at 3:24 PM on Dec-31-06

Zvukovye Pis'ma: Musical letters from the Soviet Union during the 1950s, with images and audio. More information for those that can decipher it.
comment posted at 12:52 PM on Dec-31-06

Christmas reading from Apollo 8. This is what they saw.
comment posted at 7:06 AM on Dec-25-06
comment posted at 7:22 PM on Dec-25-06

La Jetée. Following the postapocalyptic bleakness of the Threads posting, you may wish to watch La Jetée,, a 28-minute film told nearly entirely in stark black-and-white photos (and, in this version, with an English narration). This has quite a following, especially since Terry Gilliam's eerily similar 12 Monkeys.
comment posted at 11:27 AM on Dec-24-06

Dead Plagiarists Society. Using Google Books to uncover old (and recent) literary crimes. "Given the popularity of plagiarism-seeking software services for academics, it may be only a matter of time before some enterprising scholar yokes Google Book Search and plagiarism-detection software together into a massive literary dragnet, scooping out hundreds of years' worth of plagiarists—giants and forgotten hacks alike—who have all escaped detection until now."
comment posted at 12:03 PM on Dec-24-06

Threads (Google Video, 1hr 50min). Classic Reagan/Thatcher era nuclear war film that scared the bejeezus out of everyone in 1984 (including my 14-year-old self). [good background previously]
comment posted at 2:09 PM on Dec-22-06

Finger tapping is a very fast guitar technique in which the picking hand is used to "tap" individual notes on the fretboard, while the fretting hand can either remain stationary or be used to do hammer-ons/pull-offs to create even faster playing. Popularized in rock music by Eddie van Halen (YT, great visual example) in the late 1970's, the technique has become almost essential for speed/metal guitar players. Although finger tapping has been dismissed as "wankery" by some, I think that the intense, jazzy stylings of Stanley Jordan prove them wrong. (here is Stanley playing two guitars!) For more tapping madness you can enjoy the furious, virtuous insanity of Dragonforce (full video), and be sure not to miss the speed genius of Mr. Batio. Tapping isn't just for metal though, you can do it on a bass or an acoustic (amazing video).

Want to learn how? This lesson should get you started.
comment posted at 1:50 PM on Dec-22-06

One of the world's most expensive chocolates expertly debunked. (For maximum awesome, read all 10 parts)
comment posted at 7:05 PM on Dec-20-06
comment posted at 7:20 PM on Dec-20-06

Grandma's Kitchen (youtube), the Roller Toaster, the water-less washing machine, the sculptures of Gwon Osong, a crucifix-shaped mp3 player... some of the people and things found on CubeMe, a blog about "wonderful stuff".
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Dec-20-06
comment posted at 11:55 AM on Dec-20-06

Better living through genetic engineering! A new cash-crop hybrid has been developed which can be planted any time of the year. It can be harvested after just 2 months, vastly increasing annual yields per acre. It's resistant to herbicides and other nasty chemicals. It's referred to as "Columbian" and it's now the breed-of-choice for Michoacan marijuana farmers.
comment posted at 11:04 AM on Dec-20-06

Meet Stuart, the new mySpace-like networking site for Student Artists created by Saatchi and Saatchi. (discovered through the NYT).
comment posted at 5:31 PM on Dec-19-06

shaved eyebrows
comment posted at 8:58 AM on Dec-19-06

Comic and cartoon, much parodied and subject to strange crossovers, Archie and Riverdale are getting a new look. (via Waxy.)
comment posted at 8:50 AM on Dec-18-06