Stray Hawkeye

Two cool articles on the art of forming a glob of mud into a shiny polished ball called a “dorodango” (Japanese):

• This one is more of the philosophical / metaphorical side of it, and is a really good introduction.
• This one is about someone’s first attempt to actually make one.

Is there some specific art term for art that’s meant to be temporary / transient, like these or the sand paintings that Buddist monks do?

This list of predictions about the future (now the present) is interesting for the outlandishness of some of it, how a absolutely spot on some of it is, and to think about which would have been which 15 years ago, when the list was made.

A really fascinating story about itching.  Really interesting for a lot of reasons, especially for the physical / psychological overlap, the unknown parts of it, how perception works, how we interact with the world, and the interplay of strict scientific doctrine with inquisitive scientific experimentation.

Warning: The articles contains graphic descriptions of some really disturbing medical conditions and situations.

It will also make you feel itchy for about 2-3 days.  And it’s fairly long.  I’d say it’s worth it, but judge for yourselves and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The article.

I really like the last couple sections.

Cuddling chimps

There is a tree in Athens, GA that owns itself.  And all the land within 8 feet of it’s base.  The article is rather interesting just for the oddness of it all.  Especially in light of the general strictness of most property laws and claims.  One of my favorite pieces of interplay between official law and law as people actually deal with it:

Athens-Clarke County confirms that the tree is in the right-of-way and is thus “accepted for care” by municipal authorities; according to city-county officials, local government and the owners of the adjacent property jointly serve as “stewards” for the care of the tree, while Athens’ Junior Ladies’ Garden Club serves as its “primary advocate.” Regarding Jackson’s deed, one writer noted at the turn of the last century, “However defective this title may be in law, the public recognized it.” In that spirit, it is the stated position of the Athens-Clarke County unified government that the tree, in spite of the law, does indeed own itself.

My question then, is what the tree does for a living to pay the property taxes on itself?

Damn Interesting is a great site, which is unfortunately undergoing a bit of an extended period of inactivity.  It has great articles (even the old ones are still good, I know, amazing in this new ever 5 minutes internet) which combine reporting on obscure events and locations with a wonderfully dry sense of humor and an engaging narrative style.

This one came to mind because they’re not only interesting articles, but they stick with you.  A few days ago I was discussing websites with a friend from work, and we both remembered a particularly line from a particular article.  This article.  To not spoil the particular line, it comes immediately before “When airline mechanics finally arrived…” very near the end of the article.

There’s plenty of other great stories on the site, that one just happened to stick out in my mind.  A great site to spend some time reading.  I believe they also have a book out as well.

It’s rare that a movie is so profoundly terrible that the reviews panning it can be so good, but apparently the new Transformers movie takes awful to a new level.  After reading the review, I kind of almost want to go see it to see if it is actually that bad, because it sounds impressive.  If so, perhaps the government could step in to help these GM models as well, after all, we can’t have our American movie characters failing.

I can just see the trailer for the third movie now – Transformers 3: Rise of the Honda:

Yeah, it’s not quite as intimidating, but I hear it gets twice the gas mileage, lasts forever, and has great resale value.

Review via Boing Boing.

Ever want to know what it’s like to do drugs without having to go through the whole nasty bit of actually doing drugs?  Erowid Experience Vaults is a huge catalog of reports from various people who have taken just about every type of mind/perception altering substance there is out there.  These cover the good, the bad, the ugly, the mundane, and the downright frightening.

I haven’t read all of them by a long shot (there’s something like 20,000 articles on the site), but they are sort of interesting to see what various substances do to you, how people’s experience differ, and all the various specifics in each story. Needless to say, since these are user submitted stories, the quality of writing varies wildly, as does the credibility.

The other fascinating thing that struck me right off the bat is the huge variety of things that people will use to try to get high and the absolutely profoundly long list of different substances.  They doesn’t just cover the usual suspects, it covers basically any substance or activity that can notably alter your perception, good or bad, intentionally or unintentionally.  From the standard suspects (cocaine, pot, heroin, acid, meth), to the medically acceptable/endorsed (morphine, nitrous oxide, lithium, paxil, viagra (one of the only times you’ll see that on the web and have it not be spam), and many more), to the physical (fasting, hyperventilation, sleep deprivation, sweating), to the basically socially acceptable (caffeine, chocolate, tobacco, gensing, alcohol), to the “really?” (ginger, cheese rind, tea, vitamin C).

Needless to say, some of the articles are more than a bit distrubing, and most are something less than a pick me up.

(You wouldn’t believe how long it took to come up with reasonably fitting / punny title for this one.  It’s admittedly about eight separate thoughts, but they’re related in my mind.)

Came across this one on Secrets of the City a while back: In Which I Lose my Navel Ring and My Dignity on a Boogie Board by Melinda Jacobs.

Read it through. See if you think this would be a reasonably fitting alternate title: “On realizing I could no longer hold on to superficial displays of youth to maintain my self-worth and social status, I found that I could always fall back on superficial displays of inherited wealth to impress others”.

In case you’re not from the Twin Cities, Lake Minnetonka is where the rich people live. Not just the semi-well off – the filthy stinking rich.  (Or the massively, massively in debt I suppose.)  There are boat houses there notably larger than the house I grew up in. The kind of shameless displays of useless wealth that actually make me physically nauseous.

Really?  You need 74 rooms and 19 bathroom for you, your spouse, and your 2 kids?  Do you all really all hate each other that much, and all have that severe of bowel problems?  Really?

At first I wasn’t sure if the above piece was written straight, or if it was sarcastic and mocking.  So, I did a quick search on the author, and the first thing I found was her adhering her lips to Joan River’s gross plastic ass:

Go buy yourself some self-worth! It’s only $39.95!

Okay, I’ll give that 3:00 is pretty funny.

The other bit that was supposed to go in here was a link to a list of Minneapolis/St Paul Barbies playing off of stereotypes of people by where they live in the Twin Cities, mainly because the first one ties to the above (Minnetonka Barbie).  However, the “original” post (I put original in quotes because it was on tumblr, and therefore probably stolen in the first place) isn’t there any more.  On searching, I found there are a few versions of it floating around out there.  This one is fairly complete, and with most of the pictures.  This one fills in quite a few others.  The two overlap a bit, but fairly entertaining either way.

And while we’re on the random, for some reason this song kept running through my head while I was writing this:

lifestyles of the rich and famous

And, while we’re on shuffle mode here, both the “Really?” from this post, the one on CNN earlier, and any other time I throw it in….

• Thief scared out of his shoes, and rightfully so.  Make me laugh a lot.  Also a great argument for wearing a cape all the time. Via Boing Boing
• Kind of related to the last point….
  
  Via Graph Jam
• An upside to the Somali pirates?
• Finally, our tax dollars being put to good use: a $400,000,000 piece of surveillance equipment you could take out with a BB gun.  Bet Bin Laden’s shaking in his boots (or dialysis machine) now.
• Local politicians (even when they’re some one else’s local) are funny.
• This one’s in really bad taste, but I just couldn’t pass up the headline.  Have you heard of the Quiverfull movement?  It’s basically a puppy farm where a human is the bitch.  Wait, I mean…, nope, that was what I meant.  It’s where you let god decide how many children you have, and don’t interfere with birth control (even if it means having 18 children and not being able to support or care for them).  It’s like Jesus is your condom…
  
  Via Pundit Kitchen
• And, hell, since we’re at it (and after that last bullet point, I’m probably headed there anyway)…
  
  Via Pundit Kitchen
• And while we’re at it… this made me laugh a lot too.

Okay, while we’re at it, one more BMW post.  Not sure how I got this many BMW links built up, especially since I prefer Acuras.  Though with how behind I am on posting things compared to bookmarking them, I would imagine I can probably get a fair number of themes going.

At any rate, did you know that all BMWs made since 1961 have one design feature in common?  The Hofmeister Kink.  It’s basically that the rear side window comes slightly back forward at the bottom instead of trailing back towards the rear of the car.  There’s an interesting article about it here.  One of those things you don’t really notice until someone mentions it, and then it’s everywhere in a million different little variations.

Via Kottke.

So, between redesigning the site, subscribing to a whole lot of new rss feeds, celebrating Christmas 4 times, New Years, a bowl game, a wedding, running, and work, I seem to have managed to get even further behind on posting things than usual.  In light of this, I’ll probably be sprinkling in a few more link heavy, commentary light posts here and there, such as this one.

Christmas:

• Good comic at Indexed.
• The Christmas spirit (sort of), from a worker at a tree lot over at Secrets of the City.
• I was previously unaware, but apparently The Salvation Army is a cult.  No, seriously, like a real cult.  I didn’t know.  No more change for them.  Okay, so I haven’t given them change in years, since I stopped generally carrying cash at all.  But anyway, scary cult.
• Christmas memories in the making at One Sentence.
• Cute holiday pictures at Simple Sparrow.  I especially like the one with the little deer figurine.
• There are some messed up, and pretty, Christmas tradition around the world, at Big Picture.  #12 struck me as particularly interesting.  Had anyone else ever heard of Krampus before?
• Santa’s family tree, via BoingBoing

New Years

• Pretty New Years candle video, via Drawn, with a slight bit of explanation.
• JibJab Year in Review, via Drawn
• Dave Berry has a great year in review as well, via Reason.  Really good.  I started putting block quotes of greatness in here from it, but there’s way to much awesome.  Go read it.  It’s long, it’s worth it.  Have you read it yet?  No really, go read it, best part of this post.

Inauguration

• Giant map used to plan the whole spectacle.  Makes me think of a bunch of WWII generals gathered around something like this with toy soldiers and model airplanes planning out an invasion as they hear things over the telegraph.
• Keith Olbermann covers a pretty good chunk of Bush’s bungling in about 8 minutes.  Not an exhaustive list by any means, and pretty obviously biased, but still a good round up/history.  He barely even touches on the Anthrax attacks, carried out with Anthrax from a government lab, with one of the most totally botched investigations ever only concluding when the primary suspect (the second time they had one) killed himself, and the case against him basically fell apart.  Remember that?  No one else does either.
• A short list, which links to a long list, that cover some, um, high points? of the Bush Administration.  Somewhere between funny and absolutely horrifying.
• Given the previous points, anyone care to place bets on how long until Obama pardons Bush and his whole administration for “any possible wrong doing”?  A couple weeks?  A month maybe?  Change we can believe in.

Have you read the Dave Berry post yet?  Seriously, I was almost in tears laughing by the end.

Every year, the Iowa and Minnesota football teams play for a bronze statue of a pig called Floyd of Rosedale.  However, most people don’t know the back story of Floyd, or if they do, just something to the effect of “the governors bet a pig”.  I came across this article on Minnesota Public Radio’s website after last year’s game, and have been waiting to share it since.  It has to be one of the most interesting stories of a college football trophy out there.

As a preview, it dates back to the 1930’s and centers around Ozzie Simmons.  Ozzie was a great Iowa running back, and a black man in a time of rampant discrimination.  The story also features Ronald Reagan, a real pure-bred Hampshire hog, an amputated finger, and threats of mob violence.

As a side note of interest, the trophy weights 98.3 pounds.

Really interesting photo diary of a trip to the DMZ.

With the major party logos being a donkey and an elephant, I would hate to think of what that would smell like.  But puns aside, a random listing of interesting political bits:

• Interesting map/chart (and analysis) of which newspapers have endorsed which candidates for President.
• Third grade civics lesson.  Frighteningly accurate.  Though I disagree with the last sentence.  The other half of the class just wants McCain to beat up all the bullies (and potential bullies, and imagined potential bullies, and…) who could potentially threaten their ice cream supply.  It’s only the fringe 3rd party crazies that would dare to ask questions like how to pay for the ice cream and actually expect a clear, detailed, specific answer (I’ll use a scalpel, I’m not saying what I’ll scalpel, in any detail whatsoever, but I assure you it will be scalpeled!), or suggest that beating up supposed bullies might, in fact, create more bullies.
• So, aside from the fact of how profoundly and absolutely pointless and non-binding political party platforms are (that could be a good rant for later), the national Republican party has adopted the most socially conservative (aka- Religious Right) platform in the party’s history.  Aside from the usual stomach turning items, (okay, so I mostly support school vouchers, though for wholly different reasons), there’s this item: “To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America’s Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timelessness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service.”  Aside from the awkward phrasing that’s so typical of party platforms (aka- a sentence written by a committee, and then amended by majority vote), this actually makes for a nice backdoor (excuse the extremely crude pun which will become obscurely apparent shortly).  So, if McCain were to win, when (not if, when) he starts a war with another country (Iran, Russia, Syria, Pakistan, North Korea, Palestine, Egypt, or mystery Evil), and we don’t have enough troops because we’re already massively overextended in un-Constitutional troop deployments, and he’s forced to enact a draft, you don’t even have to resort to being a conscientious objector (who, by the way, still have to serve, just in non-combat roles) or going to Canada – you can just say you’re gay, and poof – out of the military (Hey there sailor…).  I don’t know about you, but given the option of fighting in an unjust preemptive war against a yet to be determined artificially hyped up enemy on basis of falsified intelligence, without a Congressional declaration of war, further bankrupting the country and degrading our already nearly mortally wounded international reputation, or, on the other hand, kissing another guy to the satisfaction of the government anti-gay department, I’m pretty sure I know what side I’m on.  Who would have thought the Republicans would find a way to encourage straight people to try out homosexuality?
• A good article on how policiy free the campaign has been, why, and puts things a bit in perspective.  The title of the article sums it up fairly well: An Election About Nothing.
• And given the huge degree to which individual freedoms have been eroded in the last 8 years, the degree to which the Bill of Rights has basically been implicitly repealed, you would think the candidates would be clamoring to assure us that they will undo this grevious wrong of the Bush administration, one of the most unpopular EVER.  Nope.  “You will scour the presidential nominees’ acceptance speeches in vain for any hint that your life is rightfully your own, to be lived in accordance with your beliefs and desires and no one else’s. The Founding Fathers set out to protect ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’… “
• Obama on religion:
  
  I must say, I don’t agree with him on a lot of fiscal policy, but I respect the man.  This is one of the best and most intelligent takes on separation of church and state (intended or not) that I’ve heard in a long time.  The ending is particularly fitting given the current McCain/Palin campaign strategy.