language.art
January 27th, 2005qwantz.com - daily dinosaur comics - October 31st 2003
I want a similar epitaph.
xradiograph
qwantz.com - daily dinosaur comics - October 31st 2003
I want a similar epitaph.
Pathetic Motorways: even macadam disappears….
Create “permanent” links to NYT articles with the New York Times Link Generator
From (of course) teh Boing.
Blame it on the Wiley Mr. Wiggins.
An Idiot’s Guide to Dreaming: Acid Tablets
I remember the fake Acid-House compliation Jack the Tab from 1988 (by Genesis P. Orridge, et al). I don’t know if I remember it being fake or not, but I certainly remember playing tracks from it on the air at KSJU — the over-cable-because-our-license-got-revoked radio station back in…. er, 1988/89 or something like that.
A related post continues the reminiscences, offers a different critique, and recalls the Butthole Surfer’s “techno” project The Jackofficers, which I have regretted giving away since I gave it away.
Sited [sic] at the blog formerly-known-as die-puny-humans.
Oddball Comicbook of the day: Superman Meets The Quik Bunny
A give-away premium from 1987, the comic puts the Nestle Quick Bunny and Superman together, as if you couldn’t figure that out from the title. Anyway. The always-lengthy commentary of the daily books includes a lot of backgroud manterial on the marketing of Nestle Quick (knows as NesQuick since 1999, something I missed):
Strangely, this website omits any mention of Nesquik spokesman/ventriloquist Jimmy Nelson and his spokesdummies “Danny O’Day” and his pet hound, “Farfel”. Danny had a high-pitched voice and looked very much like Paul Winchell’s famous puppet “Jerry Mahoney” (Danny and Jerry were both carved by figure-maker Frank Marshall), while Farfel was a friendly, floppy-eared hound dog puppet who talked with a sleepy drone. From 1953 to 1965, they were the official spokesdummies for Nestlé Quik chocolate milk mix. At the end of each commercial Danny O’Day would sing “N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle’s makes the very best”, which Farfel would conclude with a drawn-out “Cha-w-w-w-c-LIT!”, followed by the snapping shut of the dog-puppet’s jaws with an audible click. This last bit initially occurred by accident during rehearsals for the Nestlé’s commercials when ventriloquist Nelson’s sweaty hands caused his finger to slip inside the puppet. Luckily, the folks at Nestlé liked it and the rest is history. (Supposedly, The Farfel character was born during a late-night show in Wichita, Kansas. When someone left a little stuffed dog on his piano, Jimmy Nelson picked up it up and began to ad-lib its dialog. Later, he contacted his figure maker Frank Marshall in Chicago to help create a wooden dog dummy. The name “Farfel” — nicknamed by Nelson’s piano player — is taken from “farfella”, the name for an Italian noodle.)
You’d think that a more fitting villian would have been Xocolatyl, the Chocolate god:
Here’s some more chocolate history.
UPDATE June 1, 2005: Now you can get your own Chocolate Deity from Chocolate Deities, who helpfully have this to say about our favorite dark nectar:
• Induces and celebrates love, which brings you into relationship with all living things
• Helps to heal a broken heart
• Brings joy, which helps your spiritual journey
• Calls forth peace and compassion, lowers stress, which helps you on your inner journey
• Carries anti-oxidants, which helps you on your healing journey
• Has aphrodisiac qualities which enlarge and foment fecundity
• Stimulates the imagination, and according to the ancient Aztecs who first discovered it, provides strength and wisdom
An incomplete compendium of web-comics & related works (in no particular order):
See wikified version at Comics.DailyReader
Tom Smith Online - Comedy: The Rocky Horror Muppet Show
hrm.
Guardian Unlimited | Life | Gillian McKeith, round 2
On diploma mills, bad science, and why sticking a searchlight up your bum will still not make chlorophyll do any work for you.
I am not making this up.
J-Walk Blog: More On The Ashcroft University Scam
Mr. Walkenbach takes on several on-line diploma mills.
USATODAY.com - Nail found embedded in construction worker’s skull
LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) — A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier.
A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6 while working in Breckenridge, a ski resort town in the central Colorado mountains. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn’t realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister, Lisa Metcalse.
Following the accident, Lawler had what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. On Wednesday, after painkillers and ice didn’t ease the pain, he went to a dental office where his wife, Katerina, works.
“We all are friends, so I thought the (dentists) were joking … then the doctor came out and said ‘There’s really a nail,’” Katerina Lawler said. “Patrick just broke down. I mean, he had been eating ice cream to help the swelling.”
He was taken to a suburban Denver hospital, where he underwent a four-hour surgery. The nail had plunged 1 1/2 inches into his brain, barely missing his right eye, Metcalse said.
“This is the second one we’ve seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn’t actually realize the nail had been imbedded in their skull,” neurosurgeon Sean Markey told KUSA-TV in Denver. “But it’s a pretty rare injury.”
Lawler was recovering Sunday in the hospital, where he was expected to spend several more days.
Despite his lack of medical insurance and hospital bills between $80,000 and $100,000, Katerina Lawler said her husband is in good spirits.
“The doctors said, ‘If you’re going to have a nail in the brain, that’s the way you want it to be,’” she said. “He’s the luckiest guy, ever.”
ESA Portal - Sounds of an alien world
The photos and other information about the Huygens probe’s landing on Titan are fascinating enough, but there also exists sound. Specifically, a rather boring track of winds buffeting the probe upon descent, and a conversion of radar echoes that is fascinating. It’s an 8-bit minimalist masterpiece.
2. Radar echos from Titan’s surface
This recording was produced by converting into audible sounds some of the radar echoes received by Huygens during the last few kilometres of its descent onto Titan. As the probe approaches the ground, both the pitch and intensity increase. Scientists will use intensity of the echoes to speculate about the nature of the surface.
Discovery of hidden laboratory sheds light on Leonardo’s genius
Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.
Via MeFi.
Joey DeVilla, at IndieGameDev, on Writing Interactive Fiction (a.k.a. “Text Adventure Games”) with the Inform Programming Language
Interactive Fiction (”IF” is how the “cool kids” abbreviate it) is what used to be known as “text adventures”. One way to describe IF is “a fine-grained “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, in which the reader helps to determine the outcome of the story.”
Years-an’-years-an’-years ago, when I started college, my intention was to major in English, minor in computer science, get a job writing technical documentation and work up to writing Interactive Fiction.
Er……
One new item in Foundlings 3:
In this case, I found the (undated) letter back in box of old correspondence that I’ve been saving, unlooked-at, for years. More than 10, apparently.
width="100" height="100" border="0"