Ukelele Pokerface Cover

I usually don't post ukelele covers - not because I don't like them, but mainly because there are just way too many good ones out there. But I'll make an exception for just this one.

May the Force Be With You

Fixing A Watch In Space

Folk Princes of Bel-Air

Jimmy Fallon, pretending to be Neil Young, covering the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. But wait, Jimmy Fallon! Kay Pettigrew did it first.

Adopted Man Finds His Father - Charles Manson

After watching Helter Skelter, my primary thought was "Charles Manson sure did get a lot of tail." Which is why this story from The Sun of a man who discovered that his biological father was the famous serial killer is, while crazy, ultimately unsurprising. I bet there are at least a few more littered around California.

Matthew, 41 - who bears a haunting resemblance to his father - sank into depression after discovering his identity.

He has since been in contact with his dad in a series of letters to his California prison and Manson has replied - each time chillingly signing off with a swastika.

When 41-year-old DJ Matthew Roberts located his mother, he pressed her for more information until she finally revealed to him that she had been raped by Manson "in a drug-fueled orgy" after following him and The Family to San Francisco.

"What I'm worried about is that you think you're going to meet your birth mother or father and they're going to love you and welcome you with open arms. But he's not that kind of person."

Despite Manson's evil actions, Matthew confesses he now battles confused emotions towards his biological father.

He says: "If I did talk to Charlie on the phone, I would say, 'I truly understand what it's like to be you, more than anyone could ever imagine on so many levels'.

"He's my biological father - I can't help but have some kind of emotional connection. That's the hardest thing of all - feeling love for a monster who raped my mother.

"I don't want to love him, but I don't want to hate him either."

PETAs Thanksgiving Day Ad Banned

NPR is reporting on how NBC TV has refused to air PETAs pro-vegan ad during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The ad is pretty clever, and features a young girl listing all the horrors that befall turkey before they get onto our tables. I'm no fan of PETA, and I firmly plan on stuffing myself with turkey-bird in the coming weeks, but pretty much everything she mentions is true of industrial farming. Here's the transcript:

Dear God. Thank you for the turkey we're about to eat. And for the turkey farms where they pack them into dark, tiny little sheds for their whole lives. Thank you for when they burn their feathers off when they're still alive and for when turkey gets kicked around like a football and killed by people who think it's fun to stomp on their little turkey heads. And special thanks for all the chemicals and dirt and poop that's in the turkey we're about to eat. Oh, and thank you for rainbows.

Ultimately, though, PETA wins out here. They don't have to pay an absurd amount of money to air an ad to the audience that most strictly ignores anything from PETAs mouth, and their ad gets what will probably be a pretty decent circulation on Youtube and other sites.

Heartilation by Andrew Jackson Jihad

Here's Andrew Jackson Jihad (or as the first commenter describes it, a folk-punk Gordan Freeman) playing a song from their new album while riding a railcar.

Renee Fleming and Lou Reed

"Perfect Day" performed by Renée Fleming and Lou Reed, with back-up from the Prague Philharmonic. The songs okay, but Lou Reed looks so supremely bored with the whole thing.

So Bad It's Good: Food Edition

The monkey at the bottom is, of course, completely necessary.

LED Dress

24,000 LEDs in all. I sure do loves me some wearable tech.

The ‘Galaxy Dress’ claims to be the largest wearable display in the world and it will be the centerpiece of an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

“We used the smallest full-color LEDs, flat like paper, and measuring only 2 by 2 mm,” say designers Francesca Rosella and Ryan Genz in an e-mail. “The circuits are extra-thin, flexible and hand-embroidered on a layer of silk in a way that gives it stretch so the LED fabric can move like normal fabric with lightness and fluidity.” The duo run an interactive clothing company called CuteCircuit.

To diffuse the LED light, the dress has four layers of silk chiffon and a pleated silk organza crinoline skirt. The extra-thin electronics allow the dress to follow the body shape closely like normal fabric.

Instead of having one large and heavy battery, the dress is designed to run on many tiny iPod batteries hiding in the crinoline, says Rosella. “They are not visible or uncomfortable,” she says.

With the batteries, the Galaxy Dress wearer can walk around — all lit up — for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

The areas without LEDs are decorated with more than 4,000 hand-applied Swarovski crystals that range in color from clear to bright pink. “The dress looks good even when it is switched off,” say the designers.

Mark Growden covers Leonard Cohen

I've posted Mark Growden before, but here's him and his quartet doing the song I'm Your Man.

Chinese Daydream Believer Cover

I know nothing about this clip, other than that its (probably) Chinese, and that WIlliam Gibson posted it on his twitter.

Old Footage of Cacophony Society

As a result of recently entering the world of the gainfully employed, I haven't had as much time to blog as I'd like. To make it up to all you fine folks, here's some footage circa 1990 of the famous Cacophony Society in a news story. Watch to the end to see them light the first Burning Man to ever ignite in Black Rock City.

DailyKos Makes Tom Tancredo Angry

Today on the Ed Show, former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo walked off the set of the MSNBC program after Mark Moulitas (founder of the famous liberal blog DailyKos) made fun of his draft deferments during Vietnam.

Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitas defended health care reform, pointing out that the military uses government-run health care. Tancredo said veterans complained about their health care and would much rather have a private choice.

"Tom, I'm a veteran. Okay?" Moulitas responded. "I did not get a deferment because I was too depressed to fight a war I supported in Vietnam. I'm a veteran. They want a more effective V.A. ..."

"You're not going to do that. You're not going to try to insult me that way and then pretend like we're just going on and talk about that. You either apologize ..." When Moulitas did not apologize, Tancredo simply took out his earpiece and walked away.

As a Republican student activist, Tancredo spoke out in favor of the Vietnam War but did not serve.

Watch it below.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/tom-tancredo-walks-off-ms_n_349150.html&cp

Gay Wedding Proposal Interrupts DC Hearing

During a series of council hearings in the DC area on the topic of marriage equality, Andrew Hertzberg decided to make his testimony a little more memorable by proposing to his partner, right then and there.

"I would like to take a huge step in my own life," Hertzberg said. "Andy Rollman, I'd like to ask you: Will you marry me?"

Most council members approved of the gesture and offered congratulations, ABC 7's Sam Ford reported. But those there to testify against gay marriage weren't as supportive. Barbara Morgan, a gay marriage opponent, called the proposal a lack of respect.

China Terrorized By Gigantic Breasts

The sculpture depicts a 20cm tall girl with breasts that are five metres high and wide, reports News Express.

Parents have protested at the installation in Foshan City, Guangdong province, which they say is highly embarrassing.

One local mum, called Liang, complained: "The park used to be a great place for families, but now what attracts my son the most is the huge breasts.

"I have tried to educate him with some scientific knowledge, but all he thinks when he sees the statue are smutty thoughts."

And a kindergarten teacher, who brought her class to visit the park, says it shocked some of them to tears.

"The little girls were scared and cried loudly, asking me if they would grow those huge things, and boys laughed crazily," she said.

A park spokesman said the statue was intended as a permanent fixture in the park but admitted it had been repeatedly damaged - with one person even trying to fit it with a giant bra.

"It's normal to have disagreements about art, we can understand it," said the spokesman.

Galapagos Rap

Normally I am in no way amused by self-made rap videos, but in this song by Standford sophomores on vacation in the Galapagos, the rhymes are fresh and the science quite accurate.

Zombie Cake Tastes Nothing Like Brains

BoingBoing links to this awesome wedding cake.

Jason Webley In An Aeroplane Over The Sea

I promise this is the last Jason Webley video I'll post here. Here's him covering Neutral Milk Hotel during a show at Bottom of the Hill. I was there in person, but the video was done by someone much closer to the front.

Happy Halloween

Laughing Squid has some photos of these Marvel Zombies drawings by Matt Delight from Mission: Comics and Art, the new comics shop on Mission Street. I still need to visit there.

Salvador Dali Tattoos

I've posted Salvador-Dali inspired tattoos before, but I thought I'd post a little bit something extra in preparation for tomorrow's Halloween costume. Both pics are from BMEZine.

In Which I Am Sad And Miss the Bay Area

Philip Bloom composed this hi-def video of the people of San Francisco. Check it out.

He puts the Kiss in Kissinger

This here shirt is from Amorphia Apparel, which is cool enough, but seems to be (in some manner) connected with the Sir Critter, Hirsute History, Teach The Controversy and Science! lines of shirt designs which are all priceless. Well more like $18 or so each. But still very funny.

For A Good Time Call

MSNBC.com has this story about how Linda Vista Elementary School accidentally put a phone-sex number on their Jog-a-thon shirts.

The school was promoting a jog-a-thon fundraiser and printed shirts displaying a lion, their school mascot. The caption below featured the tag line "How's my running? Call 1-800 Eat Dust."

It was supposed to be a snarky, fun slogan. Until a curious parent called the number and discovered it connected to a she-male sex chat line. Oops.

"It was an innocent mistake. Parents have been very understanding," Rosemary Gladden, public information officer for Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, told the Orange County Register.

The schools PTA, who printed the shirts, is not the first group to make the "typographical error" according to the Associated Press. The two word 800 number shows up online as part of a popular running slogan sold on T-shirts and merchandise.

This reminds me of the year my El Dorado High School yearbook's title was misspelled to read "The Golden Anus" instead of "The Golden Year".

Lil Wayne Cake

This cake - made to resemble rapper Lil Wayne's head - was a birthday present to Ireland Baldwin, daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. It was created by Rosebud Cakes of Beverly Hills.

Jet Set Junta

The best part is the tambourine-playing girl.

Colonel Sanders Journeys to UN

As part of a KFC promotional stunt, an actor by the name of Robert Thompson portraying the famous Colonel Sanders (who passed away in 1980) was able to sneak past UN security guards and even meet Ali Treki, the new president of the UN General Assembly, under the guise of representing the 'Grilled Nation'.

Lichtenstein Costume

A MAC makeup artist created this painstaking comic-book character costume which is (supposedly) a tribute to a Roy Lichtenstein painting.

Japanese Stereoviews

In the late 19th and early 20th century, enigmatic photographer T. Enami (1859-1929) captured a number of 3D stereoviews depicting life in Meiji-period Japan.

Check out these stereoviews from turn-of-the-century Japan that have been turned into animated gifs. The choppiness kinda gets on my nerves, but the hand-painted colors are so beautiful and intricate like in this photo of a brass ornaments merchant, or the portrait of Sumo wrestlers.

London 1903

This is an old video of London streets from 1903. I love the Kodak ads on the horse-drawn double decker buses.

Holy Merchandising Deal, Batman!

Though already sold-out, this Robin hoodie is pretty cool. I'm sure etsy will have more of them in stock by Christmas time.

More Mispellings

Yes. Yes it is.

The Discovered Work of Vivian Maier

I've just found a new blog covering the work of street photographer Vivian Maier - a relatively unknown artist who worked in Chicago from 1950 to 1970. I really love these photos.

Contest to Burn Reid And Pelosi In Effigy

Pro-life activist Randal Terry is encouraging conservatives to print out effigies of Senators Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and set them aflame for a new video contest. If you want to take place, there's a video with detailed instructions here. First place gets an all-expenses paid trip to DC for the anniversary of Roe V Wade. I just like the crazy video above, myself.

San Francisco 1958

Here's some home footage of San Francisco in 1958. Follow the link for videos of Disneyland from the same era.

Sony Unveils 3D Display

The cylindrical display case is 27 cm tall with a base of 13 cm in diameter, and features a 96 by 128-pixel resolution that looks better than might be expected.

I love the future. Sony just unveiled this new 3D display. Obviously, the sense of depth is extremely limited in the video, but its still extremely cool. Via BoingBoing.

Bong Water Now Illegal

For those who don't like to go that long without hearing a new and absurd Supreme Court ruling, the Minnesota Supreme Court has found in a split-decision that you can be charged with a 1st degree felony for possession of over 25 grams of bong water. The ruling comes after a woman was found with 37 grams (less than three tablespoons) of bong water that tested positive for methamphetamine.

As a result of the testimony of narcotics officer Rauenhorst (who was neither present for nor involved with the search in question) to the effect that drug-users sometimes save bong-water “for future use . . . either drinking it or shooting it in the veins” the woman will now more than likely go to prison for more than 7 years, even though absolutely no evidence was presented that the defendant intended to do such a disgusting thing.

You can almost hear the veins popping in the dissenting judges opinion:

The majority‟s decision to permit bong water to be used to support a first-degree felony controlled-substance charge runs counter to the legislative structure of our drug laws, does not make common sense, and borders on the absurd.
...
But if we treat the bong water as paraphernalia, the same defendant would receive a fine of no more than $300 dollars and a petty misdemeanor conviction that would not go on his or her criminal record. The disparity in the severity of the sentence between these two possible charges is enormous. This enormous disparity in sentencing severity creates ambiguity as to how the legislature intended the drug statutes to apply to the facts of this case.
...
I conclude that it is also unreasonable to interpret our legislature‟s laws as punishing Peck‟s possession of two and one-half tablespoons of bong water as a more serious crime than the possession of 24 grams of cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine. Bong water is normally not consumed, and Peck would likely have disposed of it had the police not seized it.

I'm further enraged by the courts ruling that bong water counts as a drug mixture, defining “mixture” as “a preparation, compound, mixture, or substance containing a controlled substance, regardless of purity," essentially meaning trace amounts of any drug can now be classified as full-scale possession.

Of course everyone's just going to make bad jokes about how gross bong-water tastes instead of actually standing up to this bullshit.

The Windows 7 Whopper

May God have mercy on us all.

Wrist-Mounted Flamethrowers

Creative Halloween costume idea, or crime-fighting super weapon? You be the judge.

Cooking At The Bottom Of The World

For anyone who's as into Antarctica as I am, Harriett's Tomato is a blog run from the south pole by the Amundsen-Scott Station's cook.

Italian Motorbike Display

Fantastic film of Italian police riders putting on a motorbike display in the 50s. (viaBoingBoing).

Microsoft Surface + D&D = Super Rad

Totally badass proof of concept video for a D&D application of the Microsoft Surface. From Penny-Arcade.com:

-A while ago we went out to speak at the ETC in Pittsburgh. After our talk we got to walk around the campus and talk to all the different teams. You can go back and read Tycho's post about our trip. One of the groups we saw was working on developing applications for the Microsoft Surface. The stuff they were doing was for some kind of defense contractor though and so it was all essentially top secret. They did have a Surface in their room though and I actually sat down and played with it for a bit. After I was done doodling I started sketching out a game grid and we all got to talking about how you might be able to use this tech to play D&D. I drew out some rough ideas and Tycho and I gave them a wish list of things we'd want to see it do. Stuff like selecting spells from a menu around your figure and animates effects for attacks and auras.

After we got home we received a mail from them saying they liked the idea so much they wanted to make it their next project. That was months ago and they've just now released their first proof of concept video. Obviously it's still super early but in my opinion it's got a ton of potential.

Words fail me. Check out Wired for more.

The Real Balloon Boy

Dan Nowell, who didn't hear the command to let go of the balloon line, is yanked from the ground in Mill Valley in 1964.

Awsome Mispellings

I guess they were just to cool to spellcheck.

PC Apartment

This Russian casemodder decided to combine his twin passions for computers and antique dollhouse furniture. More pics here.

Spock & Kirk, BFFs

BoingBoing linked me to the Mostly Forbidden Zone, a tumblr blog that quickly became one of my favorites, and in turn linked me to the Gorgonist's etsy page, where I found this painting.

Amanda Palmer & Friends

Amanda Palmer performs "Marry Me" by St. Vincent (from the record "Marry Me") with Reggie Watts (beatboxing), and other featured friends and performers including Sxip Shirey, Jason Webley, Meow Meow, Una Mimnagh, and Jonas Woolverton...

Recorded live in Boston, MA at Sxip's Hour of Charm
September 15th, 2007

Terrifying Party Balloon Creatures

New York artist Jason Hackenworth assembles his sculptures out of hundreds of party balloons. Check out the rest here.

We Found Waldo

Deviantart (via Laughing Squid).

Target Removes "Illegal Alien" Costume

Retailers Target, Toys R Us and Meijer have removed a Halloween costume depicting an 'Illegal Alien' after complaints from several organizations, though at this moment Amazon and Walgreens continue to stock theirs. The product description reads:

He didn’t just cross a border, he crossed a galaxy! He’s got his green card, but it’s from another planet! Sure to get some laughs, the Illegal Alien Adult Costume includes an orange prison-style jumpsuit with “Illegal Alien” printed on the front, an alien mask and a “green card.”

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles wrote a letter to retailers asking them to stop selling the item. Executive director Angelica Salas called it “distasteful, mean-spirited, and ignorant of social stigmas and current debate on immigration reform.”

Halloween Express, however, is selling a separate mask that would probably go even better with whatever offensive costume you're trying to put together.

Target claims the costume wasn't even supposed to be on their site or catalogue, and were quick to apologize.

Of course, as with every other costume, there is a 'Sexy' alternative for women which comes with a metallic dress, festive sombrero, alien sunglasses and handcuffs (?). So far, there seems to be absolutely no controversy over this one.

Quite predictably, Fox News sees nothing wrong with the costume - they are, after all, the chief users of the illegal alien pejorative. Watch it here.

Mice Playng Quake

Scientists rigged up virtual reality for a mouse, and did the only logical thing - played a game of Quake.

Tank's team designed an apparatus in which a mouse, its head firmly held in a metal helmet, walks on the surface of a styrofoam ball. The ball is kept aloft by a jet of air, so that it functions like a multidirectional treadmill. Around it are sensors taken from optical computer mice, which read the ball's movement as the mouse runs.

Those readings were the input for the researchers' virtual reality software -- a modified version of the open source Quake 2 videogame engine, tweaked to project an image on a screen surrounding the mouse. Tank called it "a mini-IMAX theater." Mice in the study ran through a virtual maze designed in the open source Quake game editor, but rather than earning points or power-ups, they were rewarded with sips of water from a head-side nozzle.

Into the hippocampus of each mouse the researchers inserted a glass capillary just one micron wide at its tip and filled with salt water. Known as a whole-cell patch recorder, it detects electrical currents as they pulse through individual cells.

"It is difficult to overstate the importance of understanding how the dynamics of electrical activity within single neurons is related to firing patterns among collections of neurons that accompany the performance of complex tasks," wrote Douglas Nitz, a University of California at San Diego cognitive scientist, in a commentary accompanying the findings.

Left-Wing Conspiracy Charts

Media Matters for America has a collection of some of Glenn Beck's funnier conspiracy charts. I especially like the Che-Guevara-ACORN-Mumia-Al-Jabar connection, though there's also the rising tide of OLIGARHY.

Put Yo Stunner-Shades On

Life Magazine has a selection of 30 Dumbest Inventions from their photo archives. I absolutely love these pictures.

These Venetian Sunglasses are proof that Kanye West can and will time-travel.

"I don't have a cigarette holder, I have a cigarette pack holder."

Hey Ya!

Jason Webley is moderately well-known for his accordion cover of Hey Ya. Check out this version he performed at the American University!

UHF Tattoo

What I love most about this tattoo is that Weird Al himself said "Wow. Um… you know those things are permanent, right?" on his twitter account in response to it.

Best Pet EVAR

And all I had as a kid was a wagon. (1920s. Doreen taking an alligator ride.)

Boston.com's BigPicture feature has a great series of pictures from this years Chinese National Day Parade, which celebrated 60 years of the People's Republic of China.

Dancers from the National Ballet of China performs the "Red Detachment of Women" ballet at the Tanggu Great Theater, part of the celebration of China's 60th anniversary, in Tianjin, September 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Jason Lee) #

Sxip Shirey Rocks Out

Sxip Shirey is probably the most creative musician I've ever seen perform. Here's him beatboxing with Adam Matta to the song Moon in her Belly.

Wake Up, America!

Here's an old video of Dennis Kucinich speaking at the 2008 DNC, giving the now (slightly) famous Wake Up, America speech. Man, I really wish this guy could be President.

You may have heard of Kucinich a while ago when he submitted to the House the 35 Articles of Impeachment Against George W Bush, all of which were far more serious and substantial than getting a blowjob.

Heck Yes BURGERTIME

My old roommates Jacob and Lee have set up their new site, Heck Yes Burger Time, wherein they review a different burger every day for a month. Check out both the East Bay and San Francisco versions, which have reviews in both text and audio for massive LOLs.

Mad Men, As Done By Sesame Street

When I heard about it, I couldn't believe it, but here it is.

Even More Mario Tattoos