greetings all. i am very sorry for the blog neglect giantmonster is suffering from. posting has been difficult of late as i’m behind a hefty government firewall during the day and access to the blogging and the magic is blocked (insert tears here). i’ve also been swamped with getting ready for burning man and that’s sucked up all my free time. many apologies. i will do better (definitely after i get back from burning man though).
Monthly Archive for August, 2006
few video clips have me laughing out loud as much as this one titled turkish star wars training montage. oh. my. god. soo great! how can it not be? could have easily been titled ‘dude, i fucking hate rocks.’ but whatever the title, it’s pure cinematic gold - perhaps platinum. and the giantmonster staff agrees that it contains the best montage theme music ever in the history of movie montages. push it to the limit!! it’s also nice to know that when you fuck your hands up from punching rocks all day, your hot lady friend will rub salad all over your bloody fists and make them all better. many thanks to derek for the link. enough talk - get onto the magic!!!
the good people of pluto are up in arms & other icy appendeges over plutos demotion to non-planet status. pluto used to be a part of our 9 planet solar system. now that pluto is officially a non-union ’scab’ planet & shunned by the International Astronomical Union, it has been placed into a new official category called “dwarf planets.” scientists voted down a resolution that would designate pluto as a “bitch-ass planet” in favor of term dwarf planet. no dwarves residing inside the tiny non-planet of pluto could be reached for comment.
giantmonster hearts classic arcade video games and stop motion. if you feel the same, then you’ll be smiling ear to ear after watching the little quicktime video titled game over by the insanely talented eatpes. soo great! baked goods centipede & fossil rock asteroids & pizza pac man. soo good. buggy space invaders too. it’s just great! lots to see at the eatpes site too! link sent in from the genius minds at cobracreative. thank you!
it’s finally friday and you’re ready to roll! some say anything less than 26″ rims will make you look like a clown. but it depends. maybe this chapter of the ronald mcdonald fanclub got free french fries & happy meals for life with their classy custom clown car. wow. it’s soo not worth it. i have to give it up though for what looks to be a stunning red & yellow pleather (possibly leather) interior.
next time you think of stuffing a big, thick, juicy wiener in your mouth, think about this: hot dogs may very well contain DNA-mutating compounds that boost one’s risk of getting cancer. granted, the phrase ‘cancer dogs’ lacks that marketing spark and zeal that would make one actually crave processed tubular meats. so what to do? well, it’s not so much the hot dogs per se, it’s those darn nitrates. nitrates are found in processed meats, like bacon, sausage, and the beloved steamy wiener (a.k.a. the hot dogs), as well as chemical fertilizers for vegetable crops. so avoid them nitrates (and probably hot dogs too). a health tip: when you do eat foods containing nitrates, have a glass of orange juice at the same time. vitamin c is known to inhibit the conversion of nitrates into nitrosamines in your stomach.
so, yeah, liquid explosives. how is everyone handling that notion? doesn’t sit well with me. why would DHS & airport security dump out all potential and suspect liquid explosives into the same garbage cans and do so out in public? seems to be more of a spectacle than a safety measure. actual liquid explosives (note: this does not include breast milk) are extremely volatile. mixing them up in a garbage can in the middle of an airport would also strike me as being more volatile and outright dangerous. doesn’t make sense. and of the twenty four muslims arrested so far, none were in possession of any explosives nor any explosive devices, only the ‘precursors’ for possible liquid explosives: baked beans, peanut butter, and sugar solutions. yup. no joke (read page one of the previous link). so this ban on liquids & gels doesn’t make sense to me. unless it’s meant to simply panic, inconvenience, or distract people. why would the people of the UK or the USA need to be distracted right now? oh, yes, the israel-lebanon war, right. and now while at the airport you can be detained for having a mean face or just exhibiting possible hostile intent. but with all that’s going on, how can you not have a mean face? so much paranoia - it’s just absurd. a better perspective to the liquid explosive hype & plot comes from craig murray, UK ambassador to Uzbekistan. please read the article The UK Terror plot: what’s really going on? i hope more media outlets actually look into this story and not just regurgitate talking points and headlines. meanwhile, i have to go re-pack my bags for airport travel.
UPDATE: another important read via the register, UK: Mass Murder In The Skies: Was The Plot Feasible? goes into the very real difficulties of obtaining & making real liquid explosives.
this clip sent in from brit, a highly rad stop motion animation short film from milkfat dot com called baked goods. clever, nicely animated, and semi-educational. funny, i always added the butter in with the water (no double boiler/separate pan type action). i also use the same kitchen aid mixer too. baking is fun. enjoy!
hella bollywood be up in this piece, yo! it’s a little dance routine called solla solla enna perumai. the time has come to shelve your inihibitions, oil up your chest (ever so slightly), and dust off your gold lamme high heel boots. from a 1981 movie called Ellam Inba Mayam … it’s just totally, absolutely rad. (thanks brad & thanks cari!)
in keeping with the gomer inspirational poster theme, derekmonster sends in the image below with the reminder that while you are definitely awesome, you may not be as awesome as this poster.
though it’s been out for a while, take some time to check out this great & expressive CG animated short called burning safari. well worth a viewing, maybe several. created by french animation school students vincent aupetit, jeanne irzenski, maxime maleo, florent de la talle, aurélien predal, and claude-william trebutien.
sometimes nerds & gomers need inspiration too. or rather creative ways to declare nerdy-ness. now you can do both! thankfully, bob-the-robot has created these star trek inspirational posters to adorn your cubicle or desktop. there’s a second page of posters too. going with hartcourt fenton mudd as my fav.
more goodness from treehugger on improvements solar panel technology & efficiency. prism solar technology of new york has developed a solar module that uses 25% to 85% less silicon than a crystalline silicon solar panel of comparable wattage. the technology uses holograms to increase efficiency and concentrate light. this also brings the cost down of solar panel as less photovoltaic material is needed to gather energy.
youtube clip of the fiesty george galloway VS a talking head from UK’s sky news. teleprompter-reading skills don’t come in too handy with the out spoken george galloway (see previous clip of galloway speaking before the US senate). despite getting his microphone turned down halfway through the interview, it’s galloway by a landslide …
what drugs are dangerous according to their level of addictiveness? a new report by the Science and Technology Select Committee in the united kingdom urges that drugs should be considered harmful or dangerous based on their level of addictiveness. there’s even a handy bar graph to keep track of drug danger levels (according to how addictive the drug is considered) which is handy for when you’re out shopping (even smaller chart here). the danger levels/harm ratings on the drug chart are listed as being rated by “independent experts” (note: tommy chong & cheech marin were not available for comment). so it looks like ecstasy is the new gateway drug as it is rated as the least addicitve (g$: i told you so!), whereas the lazy lettuce is listed as middle of the road. both are less addictive than alcohol though. i find it odd that the graph lists heroin as more addictive than tobacco. i know lots of people who’ve kicked heroin, but none of them have been able to stop smoking. go figure.
great study carried out by scientists from cornell university in ithaca, new york, that looks into the use of pesticides and genetically modified (GM) crops. the big biotech firms promote the benefits of GM crops stating that GM crops are safer for the environment as they require less pesticides and toxins. this was based on three year study began in 1997 where farmers growing GM cotton did actually reduce pesticide use by 70% and make more money then conventional farmers. but that was just a three year focus. a longer term look (7 years +) reveals that the farmers growing GM crops use just as much pesticide as their conventional farming counterparts. the US study also revealed that the GM cotton farmers were spending far more money in the long run because GM cotton seed is three times the price of conventional cotton seed. factoring in price of grain and increased pesticide & toxin use makes GM cotton more expensive then conventional cotton or organic cotton in the long run. the article states that the findings of the study “will undermine claims by the biotechnology industry that GM technology can boost food production without necessarily damaging the environment with pesticides.” it seems that short term studies on GM crops tend to promote GM crops while longer term studies of the effects of GM crops tend to refute the positive results of the short term GM crop findings. long term studies also reveal the harm of GM crops and the very negative side effects, such as the creation of ’superweeds’ that are resistant to pesticides.
someday people will regard the word and concept of ‘war’ as offensive and unthinkable. i feel it has to reach that phase on a much larger scale as a word to carry any weight and affect one’s thinking. i equate war as i do the words and concepts of murder and rape. when i hear people use the term ‘well, war is sometimes necessary’ i have sympathy for them, being locked in that mindset. is rape sometimes necessary? do you feel the need to resort to rape to resolve a conflict? rape to get what you want? how about murder? or incenst or child abuse - ever find those sometimes necessary to deal with situations in life? it’s the same type of thinking, so what is the difference? strange that the onset of war allows for all of those atrocities and more to take place under the veil of war. all based around ‘war is sometimes necessary.’ if you subscribe to ‘war is necessary’ then you should think of that term as ’sometimes i feel it is necessary to rape and murder another man or woman to get what i want.’ that means that it is hard wired within you to fight with your neighbor, brother, and sister until you are strengthened or avenged and they are weakened and fearful. war is the complete and absolute absense of intelligence, compassion, love, understanding, empathy, and thought. i am incredibly saddened by all the events of late in the world. so much war, touching on every continent on the planet. i don’t really have a comment on any of it right now. i just wish for common sense and compassion. i wish for peace and civility. war is depressing, vile, and atrocious.