as if it needs mentioning, the drug methamphetamine is absolutely horrible. to drive that point home further, jezebel is hosting a short clip from the A&E show Intervention of Cristy, the 24 year girl who has been a meth user & addict for 10 years. it is very very sad and disturbing. longer video clips of this episode are available on youtube. if that isn’t enough, there’s an informative page via pbs frontline on how meth destroys the body. this is the worst drug. just awful. seeing what meth use does to people is the best deterrent. please avoid at all costs.
Monthly Archive for February, 2008
it’s friday and let’s celebrate billboards. first, there’s the fantastic AT&T and the National Security Agency billboard re-interpretation done by the marvelous billboard liberation front (BLF) around san francisco. awesome! thanks BLF! (& here’s more detailed photos of the AT&T & NSA billboard and the billboard liberation front’s photostream on flickr). if you don’t know what the connection is between AT&T and the NSA, there is plenty to read online about domestic spying.
and although it has nothing to do with the NSA, there’s is the equally powerful king of jews - king of beers billboard masterpiece done near hoston, texas back in 2006. i’ve always looked at billboards as public space and am glad to see these magnificent uses of those public spaces. more please!
the art gallery anno domini located in san jose, ca is currently presenting ‘victims’ by barron storey. the solo show features new illustrations, sculpture, and installation pieces by barron storey that depict the damaged and the wounded. you can also see extensive images of the ‘victims’ art show via the flickr photo art show sets of astrogirl and atomicmonk. barron storey’s ‘victims’ art show runs at anno domini from february 1st through march 15th 2008. definitely worth a visit.
it’s friday, and is that bike you’ve parked on the street secure? not sure? if you have any doubts, then you need the hot new cheek lock invented in the giantmonster labs. yes! all security systems pale in comparison to this awesome new bike lock. never wonder or worry about where you’ve parked your bike again. totally! order one today.
sort of like the obey giant obama hope poster but with a bit more style & punch, numlok has created some rad hilary nope posters which are viewable & printable from his flickr account. good stuff numlok!
taking the art of dining to new and savory heights comes this clip from a japanese game show with pointers on the proper way to eat marshmellows. can it be done any other way? i don’t think so. side note: with the competing teams in this video wearing red and blue outfits, i can’t help think of US politics and that someday this is how our elections will be decided. awesome! thanks jamie for the clip!
tomorrow night, february 20th - 2008, a total lunar eclipse is occurring which will be very visible in north america (as well as south america). the moon will appear to change color & turn orange to blood red. for those in california/Pacific Standard Time zone, the partial lunar eclipse begins at 5:43pm, then moves into total eclipse at 7:01pm and out of total eclipse at 7:51pm, then out of partial eclipse at 9:09pm. that gives you about a 3 hour window to see some sort of lunar eclipse happening. so be sure to watch it! awesome lunar eclipse photo via mr.eclipse.com.
the nerdy yet very mighty wondercon approacheth the san francisco moscone center this weekend! plus the even mightier folks at maverix studios are having a wondercon party & showing off their many talents. awe-shume! i know folks like rhode and jamie will be exhibiting their hot stuff (& their comics & drawings too) at wondercon. are you going? are you exhibiting? feel free to post your booth info all up in the comments. see you there!
sent in from jonathan, here’s a link via ticketbooth to view all the Oscar nominated animated shorts online. listed below are embedded video links to the five nominated animated shorts. the oscars are broadcast this sunday Feb 24th, 2008. thanks jonathan for the link!
Peter & the Wolf - part 1 (part 2) (part 3)
Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
I Met the Walrus (trailer only) (website)
it’s friday and giantmonster would like to remind you that bananas are a valuable source of vitamin B6, vitamin b12, vitamin C, magnesium, and potassium. bananas have a high iron content and one medium-sized banana (about 4 ounces) contains 100 calories. there you go. have a banana for lunch please!
incredible! myaspartameexperiment.com is a very detailed website of an extensive experiment conducted by a private citizen on the effects of the artificial sweetener aspartame (nutrasweet). in short: stop using anything with nutrasweet/aspartame today! the experiment was conducted by victoria inness-brown, MA. inness-brown put a group of rats on a steady diet containing nutrasweet for 2 years and 8 months. the aspartame received daily by her rats was equivalent to two-thirds the aspartame contained in a 8 ounce can of diet soda (meaning it was less than the human equivalent of the Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame as set by the FDA). the results are startling -the rats fed nutrasweet developed tumors, eye diseases, bone disorders, and eventually died. quoting the website for the basis of the experiment:
“I did my aspartame experiment because my family was addicted to diet soda. After researching the effects of aspartame, I strongly believed the artificial sweetener might one day lead to their illness and even early death.”
WARNING: the website myaspartameexperiment.com contains disturbing images of rats with symptoms of severe diseases and and illness. you can review the setup for the nutrasweet experiment here. fyi: nutrasweet is another bad product made by monsanto (the makers of round-up, agent orange, rBST/rBGH).
wired has an amazing gallery of nanoscale images and scans. the incredible images of were captured using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). you can view a schematic of how a STM works and also watch this video of a scanning electron microscope filming a scanning tunneling microscope in action.
if you like to browse websites with lots of interesting eye candy, then i recommend yanko design. it’s a great design blog that showcases cutting edge design ranging from concepts, products, gadgets, interior spaces, industrial design, branding, tools, toys, everyday items, and more. it’s very advertisement heavy, but still very much worth a visit.
fellow nerds & geeks can now safely go where no such nerd has allegedly gone before with this very handy map of the star trek universe. the map is a scan from Star Trek Star Charts: The Complete Atlas of Star Trek. yeah, totally. additional star trek inspiration available here. trek map via geekstir.
meet the two new meat eating dinosaurs that were unearthed in niger, africa back in 2000. first, there’s kryptops palaios, which means “old hidden face.” and second, there’s eocarcharia dinops, or “fierce-eyed dawn shark.” both of these predators measured over 25 feet in length. their discovery is part of a larger expedition led by University of Chicago paleontologists in the year 2000.
hey - foodies! if you love food (and drinks, yes, can’t forget drinks), or try to keep up with what good restaraunts and good food & foodie events are taking place in san francisco & bay area, follow foodie gossip, or all of the above, then you will really like tablehopper. you will. the culinary swashbuckler that is marcia gagliardi writes fantastic food reviews and food related articles. i highly recommend it. thanks marcia!
finally, a non-lethal weapon that is fun at parties too! introducing the LED Incapacitator, a flashlight-like device that emits a nauseating strobe light to the effect of making its targets throw up. that is correct: we have a barf gun! point this flashlight in the face of an attacker - or even a friendly work acquaintance or loved one - and the blinding light combined with the continuously changing colors and pulses of the LED capacitator will make them temporarily sick and vomit! great for parties, boring powerpopint presentations, and halloween. i’m ordering 4 right now!
on a trip from san francisco to new york back in october of 2007, i took the opportunity to fly the then new virgin america. the cabin interior is really great - very slick and very comfortable (as in roomy with great seats & well lit). each seat has a touch screen kiosk with a wired remote control/mini-keyboard in the back. with the kiosk system, you can watch videos, buy food, text/chat with other passengers, play video games, and all that. very convenient and very cool! shortly after take off, my kiosk froze up (very highly possibly due to my spazzing out on the typepad) and had to be re-booted. when the startup scripts where running, i got to see that virgin america uses linux to run their in flight kiosk system. i liked that too! with the kiosk now up & running, i cued up a big daddy kane video and ordered some drinks. thanks virgin!
meet the world’s largest wind turbine! it’s the enercon E-126 made by enercon. this beast is gigantic! The length of each rotor blade measures 413 feet (126 meters)! the first E-126 wind turbine was setup near emden, lower saxony, germany in november 0f 2007. though it’s rated to generate 6 Megawatts of power, it is expected to go much higher - up towards 7+ megawatts (20 million kilowatt hours per year). with those figures, enercon expects one e-126 wind turbine to generate enough power for 5,000 households of four in europe. awesome!
check out these beautiful glass art pieces created by dylan kehde roelofs consisting of hand-blown incandescent light bulbs sculptures. very lovely!
it’s super tuesday (isn’t every day super, though, really?) and that means you are supposed to vote. with that in mind, does your vote actually get counted? it has been 8 years since the 2000 election and electing officials to office still remains broken and rigged. please watch this very homemade but accurate video showcasing how simple it is to hack and change the results of optical scan vote machines. while the video focuses on recent new hampshire primary, these same optical scan machines are used throughout the country and are becoming the preferred system in california - even though they are still hackable! related links:
Open Source Voting Consortium
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Black Box Voting
fanning the flames of hype for the 4th indiana jones adventure, movieweb has an alleged exclusive first look at the actual crystal skull from indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull. hmmm … i may be wrong, but the indiana jones crystal skull looks almost exactly like eddie the head of the heavy metal band iron maiden. ye olde crystal skull and eddie the head cover art from ‘number of the beast‘ provided to help you decide. speilberg and lucas must be secret metal heads, so there’s hope for this movie yet!
do you sometimes attempt to feel slightly better about yourself by rejoicing in the embarrassment and/or failures of others? well, you are not alone. serving up slices of fail pie are these three photo blogs that will darken or brighten your day: the fail blog, shipment of fail, and doing it wrong. failing never felt so good.
