Puppies and Flowers

Link to YouTube

Interesting comments from current employees of the bridge including:

"People in Corvettes are very snotty," she said. "I hate to say that, but it's true. They don't give you the time of day."

Forest "Woody" Becker said working on the bridge is "about the greatest job an ironworker can have. It's a great icon, and it's real security." He is proud to have designed camera mounts for the bridge and recently created a mold to make zinc castings used on suspender ropes. Becker first saw the Golden Gate in August 1964. "I was in the Navy, heading to Vietnam aboard the USS Ranger. Then I saw it 10 months later. It welcomed me home. I'll never forget it. "

Link to pictures

Link to article on Slate.com

Note: According to this wikipedia entry on Iver Johnson, President William McKinley and Senator Robert F. Kennedy were killed by Iver Johnson revolvers.

This vintage ad ran in Harper’s Weekly (1904). Found at LiveJournal.

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt -- more than a century ago.

Link to CNN article

Not only was Rome not built in a day, but a digital model took 10 years to construct. A team of archaeologists, architects and computer specialists from Italy, the United States, Britain and Germany has just unveiled a sprawling 3D digital simulation of the ancient city as it appeared at the height of its development as the capital of the Roman Empire.

Link to c|net article

Link to more pictures

A professional puzzle inventor has solved what he considers the oldest riddle of them all - Stonehenge.

Bruce Bedlam, 56, has built a scale model of the ancient stone circle as he believes it was originally constructed - as a round building.

He believes that the Wiltshire monument was created with a large, domed roof made from wood and covered in wooden tiles.

Bruce believes the siting was significant and the sun would enter the interior at every solstace through one of the ten doors.

Link to article

This is sad…

This letter originally belonged to my grandmother. After she passed away we discovered it and were surprised at how well it was preserved for being nearly 70 years old. She eventually became an animator during WWII for the war effort.

Link to Flickr entry

Spanish researchers on Friday said they had unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which they estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in western Europe.

Link to article

Shown here:

Cover of "Berkeley Barb", an underground newspaper, featuring a photographic collage of politically charged images, mostly relating to the Civil Rights movement. Central image is of an African American male, smoking and saying in a speech bubble, "I have a nightmare...", inverting the line from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.

Link to Wisconsin Historical Society

Brooklyn Bridge (Image Credit: dustin3000 [Flickr])

Background: Not long after the Brooklyn Bridge was completed in 1883, a shifty 20-year-old named George C. Parker decided on a whim to see if he could "sell" it to an unsuspecting tourist. He did. In fact, it was so easy that he tried it on someone else a few days later and pulled it off again. He dropped his other cons and went into Brooklyn Bridge sales full-time.

Continue reading at Neatorama

A 10-year-old Nepali girl worshipped as a living goddess, or Kumari, has lost her "divine" status for defying tradition and visiting the United States.

Not to be confused with the Munger article

(image credit: Flickr)

Flamboyant jazz veteran George Melly, who died on 5 July 2007 aged 80, was one of the most colourful characters in British showbusiness of the last 50 years.

A true Renaissance man, he wrote 13 books, gave lectures on fine art and performed on stage for nearly sixty years while also finding time to indulge his passions for film, fishing, drink and sex.

His style was heavily influenced by his jazz idols Fats Waller and Bessie Smith and he became famous for his performances in which he delighted audiences with saucy jokes and witty asides.

With his loud suits, hats and cigars, he epitomized the gangster style of the 1930s.

Alan George Heywood Melly was born in Liverpool on 17 August 1926. His interest in jazz, blues and art began at the liberal Stowe public school.

Link to tribute

Collection [1] [2]

(Keenesburg, Co.) - Flora Zimbelman says it all started 54 years ago when she put an uncooked hot dog in her sister’s suitcase.

 "I don’t know what made me do it. The devil I guess," she said.

Flora’s sister, Rose, found the hot dog when she opened the suitcase back up in Idaho, where she lived at the time.

"She mailed it back to me telling me to keep my garbage at home," said Flora. The game was on.

In the years that followed, Flora would find a way to sneak the hot dog back into Rose's life. And Rose would find another way to sneak it back to Flora.

"I found it under my pillow once, I found it in between the drapes and once I found it in the kitchen drawer," said Flora. Flora still has that hot dog.

It looks just about as disgusting as you might expect.

Link to article via Spulch

Cylindrical Colonies (Interior view)

Bernal Spheres (Colony construction crew at work)

A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made. These have been converted to jpegs and are available as thumbnails, quarter page, full screen and publication quality images.

Link to NASA

The headline says it all...

Watch the video, thanks Miss Cellania 

1. Blurbing yourself

2. Burying the lede

3. Challenging Alexander Pushkin to a one-handed duel

4. Coaxing Salinger to come out and play

5. Coming up with a gripping plot twist

6. Conjugating the verb

7. Cooking up a big oily batch of Victory Gin

8. Dangling your participles

9. Deconstructing The Fountainhead

10. Dipping your madeleine into Proust's tea

11. Finishing the first draft by hand

12. Freelancing for the glossies

13. Getting just a little too into pictures of Dorian Gray

14. Giving it a first pass

15. Giving the protagonist some internal conflict

16. Giving your narrative a Faustian theme

17. Having a strong opinion in your writing workshop about the power of symbolism

18. A Heartbreaking Wank of Staggering Spunkage

19. Hiding Rushdie from the Muslim assassins

20. Hunting for treasure in Injun Joe's cave

21. Interrogating JT LeRoy and his five accomplices

22. Jack Kerou-whacking

23. Joining the Beat Generation

24. Launching a ship to the holy city of Byzantium

25. Listening to Portnoy complain

26. Looking for clues with Tintin and Snowy



27. Mangling the English translation

28. Mixing your metaphors

29. Much A-Goo About Nothing

30. Oliver's Twist

31. Palahniukin'

32. Paying extra for the hardcover

33. Paying the bills with a hack novelization

34. Paying yourself in contributor copies

35. Picking the pull-quotes

36. Pinning Garp with a Half Nelson

37. Polishing Nick Hornby's head

38. Pottering your Chamber of Secrets

39. Print-on-demand

40. Proofreading the galleys

41. Putting out Polyphemus' one good eye

42. Putting the "wad" back into "Henry Wadsworth Longfellow"

43. Querying the editor

44. Rattling your stick inside a swill bucket

45. Reading poetry aloud

46. Recouping losses incurred by the Publishers Group West bankruptcy

47. Saying yes, yes, oh god yeeeeees to Ulysses

48. Shooting at Joan Burroughs with your flesh musket

49. Shooting your own author's photo

50. Signing the first edition

51. Skimming the Cliff Notes

52. Slapstick (or: “Lonesome No More”)

53. Spanking the Monkey (sometimes known as "Spanking Arthur Waley's translation of Journey to the West ")

54. Splitting infinitives

55. Stocking the remainder table

56. Tap-tap-tapping at your chamber door (only this and nothing more)

57. The other lonely impulse of delight



58. Touring Rosings with Mr. Collins

59. Transforming Gregor Samsa into a monstrous vermin

60. Using the passive voice

61. Varnishing your Booker Prize

Need some puppies and flowers?

Found at 'vonneguts asshole' 

From Yahoo news:

Link to Yahoo article

7 wonders website

Link to SF Chronicle images

Pac-Man? Space Invaders? Frogger? The video games of the 1980s were played in arcades, pizza parlors and bars--and all you needed was a quarter to join in the fun.

From the time Space Invaders appeared in 1978, until game consoles took over in the mid-1990s, arcades were the center of the video gaming world. The classics that were produced in the "golden age of arcade games" are still very much alive today. You can play versions of them for free on many Internet sites or find a version that was produced for a new game console such as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Nintendo's Wii.

Link to more images   Thanks Jeff J

From BBC:

A car made famous by the cartoon series The Pink Panther is expected to fetch up to £100,000 at auction.

The sleek pink car appeared in the titles and credits of the television series featuring the legendary pink cat and Inspector Clouseau.

The 23ft (7m) car is a lengthened 1969 Oldsmobile Toronado, complete with pink plush interior.

It will be auctioned at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, on Saturday and is expected to fetch £75,000 to £90,000.

But Christian Penwill, from auctioneers Coys, said the famous vehicle may fetch a lot more.

Fully working

"At the auction of the Batmobile in February, the price rocketed. It sold for £119,000 in the end," he said.

Although the Pink Panther car has been stored in a museum for years, it is in full working order and has recently been used for charity and promotional work.

It was the only Pink Panther car ever produced. It was built in 1969 by Californian car customiser Jay Ohrberg, who also created the open-top Batmobile for the 1992 film Batman Returns.

The car will go under the hammer at the Fine Motor Cars and the Jaguar Legend Auction on 14 July.  Link to BBC 

Link to Coys auction via Arbroath

photo: National Archives)

From NPR:

A bit of national history occurred Wednesday morning when 11 1/2 hours of previously unreleased tapes from Richard Nixon's presidential years were released to the public.

The release was part of a change in oversight for the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. Previously run by the Nixon Foundation, which was made up of Nixon family and friends, the library now falls under the domain of the National Archives. Continue reading

From Yahoo:

"This is a great day for history. The hallmark of this new institution will be true acceptance and love for history — the good, the bad and the ugly," said Timothy Naftali, the museum's new federal director.

"The challenge is to present a controversial, traumatic and important story in a fair and historically accurate way," he said.

For nearly 20 years, library visitors were told the Watergate scandal was really a "coup" by Nixon's rivals and the investigative reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein offered bribes for their nation-shaking scoops. Continue reading

If you need a presidential sized laugh after reading these click here 

photo: Genocide Intervention

From Radar Online:

Cheadle, co-author of Not On Our Watch, about the genocide in Darfur, was recently called in to talk to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the issue. And he wasn't impressed.

"She wanted to tell me what the U.S. was doing," Cheadle said. "First she said, 'We're doing all we can, but it's not us, it's the United Nations. They're bogged down with red tape, and trying to push anything through just takes forever. The bureaucracy is almost insurmountable, and it's the United Nations, not the U.S.' And then she said, 'It's like when we had this crisis in Lebanon, I had to send someone down specifically to push through all of our legislation and make sure that everything moved through efficiently.' I'm thinking, I thought you had no control over the United Nations. But I didn't say that, 'cause I wanted to leave!" more

More information about the Sudan divestment movement.

From Yahoo:

AUSTIN, Texas - Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.

Johnson, who suffered a stroke in 2002 that affected her ability to speak, returned home late last month after a week at Seton Medical Center, where she'd been admitted for a low-grade fever.

She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 5:18 p.m. EDT. Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman, said she was surrounded by family and friends.

Even after the stroke, Johnson still managed to make occasional public appearances and get outdoors to enjoy her beloved wildflowers. But she was unable to speak more than a few short phrases, and more recently did not speak at all, Anne Wheeler, spokeswoman for the LBJ Library and Museum, said in 2006. She communicated her thoughts and needs by writing, Wheeler said.  more

photo: mjross 

from article:

In 2001, male Hypolimnas bolina butterflies on the Samoan islands of Savaii and Upolu were extremely rare. Just 1 percent of these butterflies -- known commonly as Blue Moon or Great Eggfly -- were male. They were under attack by the Wolbachia bacteria, a parasite passed down through the female that kills off male butterflies before they can hatch.

Last year, the numbers of males had either reached or were approaching those of females. They were helped by the development of a genetic mutation that suppresses the bacteria, sparing the males and allowing them to quickly repopulate.

"This is one of the most clear and fastest cases of evolution under natural selection," said Sylvain Charlat of University College London, whose study appears in the journal Science.  more

via Fark

previously on P&F disputing the creationist argument

photo/art: Buddy Stone

Snow attacked proposals to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq, claiming:

To walk out of Iraq right now would plant a seed that ultimately would lead to destabilization there, hundreds of thousands of deaths, loss of our influence in the region, would create instability throughout the Middle East throughout East Asia, throughout Europe. And sooner or later it would come to our shores, to a shopping mall near you.  more

source: Think Progress

previously about fearmongering on P&F 

photo: in2jazz 

From article:

Why the San Francisco Chronicle is a candidate to exit print

Play with me on this one: Which major American newspaper should be the first to throw up its hands and stop publishing a print product?

It's a question worth asking. This could be the worst year for newspapers since the Great Depression. The double-digit revenue declines long forecast by doomsters have arrived. While nearly all the major papers still post profits, albeit smaller than before, a few prominent ones are losing boatloads. At Hearst Newspapers' San Francisco Chronicle, according to a deposition given by James M. Asher, the company's chief legal and business development officer, losses of $330 million piled up between mid-2000 and September, 2006, better—or should I say worse?—than $1 million a week. During negotiations with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's unions, the owning Block family disclosed that the paper lost $20 million in 2006. Late last year, The Boston Globe was headed for unprofitability as well, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Read more at BusinessWeek 

photo: AliThinks 

From article:

With only a few days left until the July 15 deadline, the battle for Internet radio is running out of time. According to multiple reports, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied a "motion to stay" by webcasters for the impending royalty rate hike. An appeal was filed in May, along with the motion to place a hold on the Copyright Royalty Board's decision. However, the court made a brief announcement yesterday, stating the parties did not meet the standards required for a stay to be granted.

“We are pleased by this decision, which vividly demonstrates that the Copyright Royalty Judges got it right when they set royalty rates and terms for the use of music on Internet radio,” said John Simson, Executive Director of SoundExchange, in a statement. “This is a major victory for recording artists and record labels whose hard work and creativity provides the music around which the Internet radio business is built. Notwithstanding this victory, we continue to reach out to the webcasting community to reach business solutions.”  more

Related links:

Interesting SF Chronicle piece with comments from Warren Hinckle:

Notorious S.F. pioneer of porn films

Jim Mitchell, who helped bring eroticism into the political and social consciousness of San Francisco and later was imprisoned for the sensational killing of his brother, died apparently of a heart attack at his home in western Sonoma County, investigators said Friday.

...

But then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein did not see much humor in the peddling of porn. Her attempts to shut the brothers down came to a head when her unlisted phone number was placed on the theater marquee with the words "For a Good Time, Call ..."

Link

Shown here: 8 vintage Art Deco styled microphones circa 1920's-1950's

Link to more collections 

This guy is a hero: 

"This is my country. Look, it's beautiful and I fear somebody will disturb it," he says, waving his arm across a view of rocky land surrounded by Kakadu National Park, where the French energy giant Areva wants to extract 14,000 tonnes of uranium worth more than $5 billion.

Mr Lee, the shy 36-year-old sole member of the Djok clan and the senior custodian of the Koongarra uranium deposit, has decided never to allow the ecologically sensitive land to be mined.

"There are sacred sites, there are burial sites and there are other special places out there which are my responsibility to look after," Mr Lee told the Herald.

"I'm not interested in white people offering me this or that … it doesn't mean a thing.

"I'm not interested in money. I've got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me."

 Link

From the Sun:

PAGANS have pledged to perform “rain magic” to wash away cartoon character Homer Simpson who was painted next to their famous fertility symbol - the Cerne Abbas giant.

The 17th century chalk outline of the naked, sexually aroused, club-wielding giant is believed by many to be a symbol of ancient spirituality.

Many couples also believe the 180ft giant, which is carved in the hillside above Cerne Abbas, Dorset, is an aid to fertility.

A giant 180ft Homer Simpson brandishing a doughnut was painted next to the well-endowed figure today in a publicity stunt to promote The Simpsons Movie released later this month.

It has been painted with water-based biodegradable paint which will wash away as soon as it rains.

Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation, said: “It’s very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

“We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We’ll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away.”

She added: “I’m amazed they got permission to do something so ridiculous. It’s an area of scientific interest.”

She also expressed fears that the painting of Homer, from the animated television series The Simpsons, would cause a mess as it washed away.

During the Second World War, he was disguised to prevent the Germans from using him as an aerial landmark.

Since then he has always been visible, receiving regular grass trimming and a full re-chalking every 25 years.

Link

Photo: L.A.Woman

Some samples:

David Bowie - David Robert Hayward Stenton Jones
Elvis Costello - Declan Patrick McManus
John Denver - John Henry Deutschendorf
Snoop Dogg - Cordazer Calvin Broadus

From Spiegel article: 

The stripper was Tom Luszeit, a 34-year-old who -- for his day job -- dresses up in various period military outfits to pose with souvenir-seeking tourists. The widow was Alexandra Hildebrandt, 48, who has run the Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie since her husband passed away in 2004. She has taken issue with Luszeit's antics in the past, in particular with his penchant for dressing in the uniform of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi. And the court case is one that has gone a long way toward eroding the dignity of one of the Cold War's central sites -- and has yet to reach its conclusion.

It is unclear who Tom Luszeit will call to the stand to back up his view of what happened in the spring of 2004. But there is at least one man who might be helpful. Three years ago, Gerhard Lindner, owner of a souvenir shop at Checkpoint Charlie, came to Luszeit's defense, saying he found nothing wrong with his posing as an East German policeman.

But then, his testimony might not be worth all that much. It didn't take long for Berlin journalists to discover that Lindner himself had worked as a Stasi spy in the 1980s.

Link to Spiegel online 

 From Daily Mail article:

For when a budding author sent typed chapters of Jane Austen's novels to 18 of them, changing just the titles and characters' names, only one recognised her words.

Another managed to recognise they were 'a really original read'. But the rest simply rejected them or never responded, according to the man who posted the manuscripts, David Lassman.

"It was unbelievable," he said. "If the major publishers can't recognise great literature, who knows what might be slipping through the net?

Continue reading 

Via the folks at Neatorama 

From The Daily Telegraph: 

A FEUD between two Chinese towns over access to valuable wild fungus has erupted into a gun battle that left eight people dead and 44 wounded, Xinhua news agency has said.

The violence occurred in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of mountainous Sichuan province on Friday.

"A county government official said around 200 residents from Danba and Sumdo townships clashed in a dispute over access to wild fungus and firewood," Xinhua news agency said.

Some of those involved drew rifles and the gun battle lasted around 10 minutes, the official said.

China is grappling with growing social unrest, fuelled by disputes over land rights, corruption and a growing gap between rich and poor.

The official said that in April, residents from Sumdo were expelled by Danba township when they were caught collecting fungi in Danba.

In May, two people from Danba were assaulted near Sumdo.

"County officials had tried dozens of times since then to mediate, but their suggestions were rejected by residents of both townships," the official said.

The fungus is what Tibetans call "summer-grass winter-worm".

It forms when a parasitic fungus hijacks and devours the bodies of ghost moth larvae that have burrowed into the alpine soil for up to five years.

It then steers their bodies to the surface so it can spread its spores.

The mummified moths are a traditional Tibetan cure-all that promoters say helps fight AIDS, cancer and ageing.

As Tibetan medical ingredients have won adherents in China and abroad, the fungus and other alpine fungi and plants have become lucrative commodities, luring almost entire villages on harvests from May to July.

Link to article

Previously on P&F this is a mushroom

Update to previous post:

A 10-year-old girl who is worshipped as a living goddess in Nepal has had her title reinstated after defying tradition and visiting the US.

Temple authorities at her home town say that she will not be stripped of her title because she is willing shortly to undergo a "cleansing" ceremony.

Sajani Shakya was one of the three most-revered Kumaris, who are honoured by Hindus and Buddhists alike.

She was chosen after undergoing tests at the age of two.

Since then she has been expected to bless devotees and attend festivals until she reaches puberty.

But she provoked the ire of temple elders by travelling to the US.

Sajani returned from her visit to America on Wednesday. Correspondents say that she was "seemingly unaware" of the controversy.

Link BBC article with more pictures 

The coup was aimed at toppling President Franklin D Roosevelt with the help of half-a-million war veterans. The plotters, who were alleged to involve some of the most famous families in America, (owners of Heinz, Birds Eye, Goodtea, Maxwell Hse & George Bush’s Grandfather, Prescott) believed that their country should adopt the policies of Hitler and Mussolini to beat the great depression.

Mike Thomson investigates why so little is known about this biggest ever peacetime threat to American democracy.

Ingmar Bergman in a 1981 photo. Bergman died on Monday at the age of 89, local news agency TT reported, citing his daughter Eva Bergman. (REUTERS/Jacob Forsell/File)

From article:

When the news broke that Ingmar Bergman had died on the lonely and windswept island of Faro, off the coast of Sweden, it seemed like an appropriately tragic spot. Bergman spent a lifetime creating lonely and windswept movies: a cinema of inner life in which man was tormented by his relationship with women and with God.

He was sort of a poet of anguish (his first screenplay, written in 1944, was called Torment), whose best-known movies were existential meditations on the meaning of life. The most famous scene in a Bergman film was in the 1957 religious allegory The Seventh Seal in which Max von Sydow -- part of a Bergman repertory company, along with Liv Ullman, with whom he had a daughter -- portrays a knight who plays chess with Death. It’s a scene that sums up the tragic symbolism of Bergman’s oeuvre, and it defined his public image for many years: in one of a number of parodies, the heroes of Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey play Twister with Death.

Bergman himself may have enjoyed the satire. Despite the austerity of his movies, he had a puckish side. When a Swedish film magazine published an "anti-Bergman" issue, Bergman himself contributed a critical piece, under a pseudonym. Near the end of his career, he acknowledged that he was depressed by his own movies and couldn’t watch them any more.

Link to article 

From Wonkette:

It’s almost too depressing to mention again, but let’s recap the Pat Tillman revelations from Army medical examiners and internal Pentagon reports released last week and find out what happens when famous football stars turned Army Heroes become anti-war critics:

• He was shot three times in the forehead at close range with an American M-16.
  
  
• This was after he was shot in the chest, legs and hand.
  
  
• And this was after he screamed to the “friendlies” that he was Pat Tillman and please stop shooting him.
  
  
• But they didn’t; they executed him.
  
  
• They were Americans.
  
  
• There wasn’t even an “enemy” around; not only was nobody shot by “enemy fire,” no equipment was shot by “enemy fire.”
  
  
• “Members of Tillman’s unit burned his body armor and uniform in an apparent attempt to hide the fact that he was killed by friendly fire.”
  
  
• Army medical examiners tried to get a criminal investigation opened, but they were shut down.
  
  
• The Army brass who conspired to shut down any criminal investigation into the U.S. assassination of Pat Tillman sent “congratulatory e-mails” to each other after shutting down the snoops.
  
  
• The Pentagon heavily promoted Tillman’s enlistment and service as both a recruitment tool and a domestic propaganda tool.
  
  
• The Pentagon maintained for long after his murder that Tillman died in combat, finally admitting to his family that “friendly fire” killed him — which wasn’t exactly true, either.
  
  
• Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich, who commanded Tillman’s base in Afghanistan at the time of his assassination, dismissed Tillman’s family’s attempts to find out what happened. Why? Because Pat Tillman was an atheist, like his family, so they were having “a hard time letting it go.”
  
  
• In his writings — Tillman wrote constantly in letters and diaries and e-mails — the NFL star who became an Army Ranger after 9/11 had concluded the Afghanistan War was fake and the Iraq War was a criminal setup.
  
  
• The Pentagon still has his diary that he kept with him in Afghanistan, where he was killed, and they won’t release it to his family.
  
  
• Tillman had even arranged a meeting with anti-war icon Noam Chomsky about how to go public with a veterans-against-the-war movement.
  
  
• Such a movement would’ve had an interesting effect on the Iraq Occupation and the then-upcoming 2004 election; Tillman had already been encouraging his fellow soldiers to vote against Bush.
  
  
• Just today, Donald Rumsfeld refused to testify on the subject of Tillman’s assassination before Congress on Wednesday.
  
  
• White House Counsel Fred Fielding has, of course, already “refused to issue certain documents to the committee because of executive privilege.”
  
  
• What is the White House doing with “certain documents” about Pat Tillman’s murder?
  
  
• Says Pat Tillman Sr.: “The administration clearly was using this case for its own political reasons. This cover-up started within minutes of Pat’s death, and it started at high levels. This is not something that people in the field do.”

 

Found at Modern Mechanix 

Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian maestro new word whose films of modern alienation captured aspects of human consciousness previously unexplored by cinema, died at his home Monday in Rome. The director of such classics as "L'Avventura" and "Blow Up" was 94.

His death, coming a day after the death of Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, served to remind film lovers of the richness and invention of European cinema in the 1960s and '70s and how very little that has followed can match that era, both for its sheer ambition and for its faith in the possibilities of film. 

Continue reading article 

Photo: Alice and Indiana Jones

Dublin, Ireland: 

The theft of National Wax Museum figures will not stop next month's reopening of the tourist attraction, the museum's management insisted today.

Dozens of models, including Bob the Builder, the Teletubbies and Frankenstein , were stolen from a warehouse in central Dublin last month.

Replica uniforms from the Easter Rising and World War Two periods were also taken in the robbery, which occurred in the south inner city at some time between June 3rd and 20th.

Silence of the Lambs character Hannibal Lecter, Gollum from Lord of the Rings and guitars used by The Edge of U2 and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott were stolen.

A new Dublin location for the National Museum is expected to be announced in a fortnight. The museum's former building in Parnell Square was sold in 2005, but its stock of wax figures was purchased by new owners.

"The damage was quite extensive," museum owner Kay Murray said today. "Whoever did it was looking for uniforms, because most of our uniforms were stolen. They're really worth nothing to the person who has them, they're of no material worth. They can't wear them."

The museum's sculptor is working to repair damaged wax figures for the reopening.

"It's not going to stop the museum reopening. It will just delay us. We hope to make an announcement in two weeks," said Ms Murray.

"I didn't go to the press because I wanted the Garda to handle this themselves and do it their way. But as of yet, they have come up with nothing," she told RTÉ Radio.

The museum will feature previous favourites like the Chamber of Horrors, a Hall of Megastars and the Children's World of Fairytale and Fantasy.

Life-sized figures from the historical, cultural and political development of Ireland including WB Yeats, James Joyce and Eamon De Valera will also be on show.

Found at Ireland.com 

I think you'll find this site is interesting whether or not you work in the industry. 

Link via The Presurfer 

Painting Likely Done While Artist Was In Asylum, Experts Say

From article:

Art expert and historians in Boston and Amsterdam announced Friday that they have discovered a valuable lost work by the painter Vincent Van Gogh hidden under an existing canvas at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, discovered the Van Gogh painting underneath the artist's painting entitled "Ravine," which is owned by the MFA.

MFA conservator Meta Chavannes was conducting a technical examination of "Ravine" and discovered the existence of the second painting below the paint surface of the work.

Upon meeting with the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and Louis van Tilborgh, the Van Gogh research curator at the Van Gogh Museum, it was established that the underlying composition was most likely painted in June 1889, the museum said, during the early period of Van Gogh's stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul de Mausole near the Provençal town of Saint-Rémy, and was reused as a support for Ravine a few months later, in October 1889.

Van Tilborgh related the X-radiograph of Ravine to a drawing Van Gogh sent his brother in mid-1889 entitled "Wild Vegetation."

Scholars have suggested that this drawing, in the Van Gogh Museum, forms part of group of around a dozen drawn copies of paintings that the artist sent to his brother Theo in July 1889, but no painting was known upon which this particular drawing could have been based. As a result of this current research, the lost painting has been rediscovered, officials said.

Kevin Mitnick

From marvequin: 

1. Kevin Mitnick.

Mitnick is perhaps synonymous with Hacker. The Department of Justice still refers to him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His accomplishments were memorialized into two Hollywood movies: Takedown and Freedom Downtime.

Mitnick got his start by exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system and getting free rides. Then similar to Steve Wozniak, of Apple, Mitnick tried Phone Phreaking. Mitnick was first convicted for hacking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

Mitnick then embarked on a two and a half year coast to coast hacking spree. He has stated that he hacked into computers, scrambled phone networks, stole corporate secrets and hacked into the national defense warning system. His fall came when he hacked into fellow computer expert and hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer.

Zappa, another brilliant unsung American talent, good for Baltimore I say.

Thursday, August 9th is Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore, MD, as proclaimed by Mayor Sheila Dixon. Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore in 1940 and, coincidentally, wrote and recorded a song entitled “What's New In Baltimore?” Dweezil Zappa, his son, is bringing the ongoing Zappa Plays Zappa/“Tour de Frank” to the Ram’s Head Tavern there on the day designated to honor his late father. Far from a “tribute band,” Zappa Plays Zappa underscores the compositional genius of Frank Zappa much as a symphony orchestra would perform pieces by a master composer. 

Funny, but it sounds exactly like why the US shouldn't have invaded in 2003. 

Link 

Link via 

Link to video

This is a very cool resource… 

Photo: kuba.wawa (Russian roulette, sex and vodka. Nothing to do with article)

Moscow - A Russian region of Ulyanovsk has found a novel way to fight the nation's birth-rate crisis: It has declared Sept. 12 the Day of Conception and for the third year running is giving couples time off from work to procreate.

The hope is for a brood of babies exactly nine months later on Russia's national day. Couples who "give birth to a patriot" during the June 12 festivities win money, cars, refrigerators and other prizes.

Ulyanovsk, about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held similar contests since 2005. Since then, the number of competitors, and the number of babies born to them, has been on the rise.

Russia, with one-seventh of Earth's land surface, has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled countries in the world. With a low birth rate and a high death rate, the population has been shrinking since the early 1990s.

In his state-of-the-nation address last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most acute problem facing Russia and announced a broad effort to boost Russia's birth rate, including cash incentives to families that have more than one child.

Ulyanovsk Gov. Sergei Morozov has added an element of fun to the national campaign.

The 2007 grand prize went to Irina and Andrei Kartuzov, who received a UAZ-Patriot, a sport utility vehicle. Other contestants won video cameras, TVs, refrigerators and washing machines.

Link to article

Los Angeles Pop Art involves an art form commonly known as Micrography. This art form has been around for centuries and has primarily been used by artists of Israeli decent; it is the style of creating an image strictly using the words that tell the story of that specific image. 

LA Pop Art

Something about Louis Armstrong's demeanour, when he shakes his head and sings, makes even Johnny Cash (who's music I love) look like an amateur... but you have to watch this clip.

Link Oct., 28, 1970 Johnny Cash Show clip

Link to a classic version of "What a wonderful world"

found photo: lafrancevi

From article:

KABUL, Afghanistan —  The U.S. military regrets any offense it may have caused by handing out a soccer ball emblazoned with the name of Allah on it as part of a public relations exercise in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.

According to Scott Beale at Laughing Squid: 

Wow, this is a shocker. At around 3 am Tuesday morning at Burning Man 2007, during a rare lunar eclipse, the Burning Man sculpture was set on fire prematurely (it is normally burned on Saturday). The Black Rock City Emergency Services Department was able to put out the fire in time and salvage the sculpture (it had not yet been loaded with fuel or explosives). It is still scheduled for its normal burn on Saturday and they will be working throughout the week to repair any burn damage and re-install the neon.

Lots more info, pictures and updates at Laughing Squid 

UPDATE: arsonist arrested 

Link to SF Bay Guardian blog 

Hilly Kristal, who founded CBGB, the Bowery bar that became the cradle of punk and art-rock in New York in the 1970s and served as the inspiration for musician-friendly rock dives throughout the world, died in Manhattan on Tuesday. He was 75.

Continue reading 

The FBI has quietly built a sophisticated, point-and-click surveillance system that performs instant wiretaps on almost any communications device, according to nearly a thousand pages of restricted documents newly released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The surveillance system, called DCSNet, for Digital Collection System Network, connects FBI wiretapping rooms to switches controlled by traditional land-line operators, internet-telephony providers and cellular companies. It is far more intricately woven into the nation's telecom infrastructure than observers suspected.

It's a "comprehensive wiretap system that intercepts wire-line phones, cellular phones, SMS and push-to-talk systems," says Steven Bellovin, a Columbia University computer science professor and longtime surveillance expert.

Link to Wired article by Ryan Singel via boingboing

From Ich Bin Ein Beijinger's blog

The Midi Music Festival has become a real cultural phenomenon, drawing young people from all over the country and giving me increasing hope that the still-marginal rock culture has reached critical mass and momentum. This year, I hear there were 80,000 people on the first day, and the line for tickets was nearly a kilometer long, wrapping from the east gate of Haidian Park all the way around the north side. Organizers did a terrific job of crowd control and security, but I still worry whether the auhorities will squash the thing next year--especially if there's as much dope-themed stuff for sale as I saw this year.

Interesting Flickr set here 

From Rolling Stone Magazine: 

How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins -- he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.

You start off as a well-connected bureaucrat: in this case, as an Air Force civil engineer, a post from which Robbins was responsible for overseeing 70,000 servicemen and contractors, with an annual budget of $8 billion. You serve with distinction for thirty-four years, becoming such a military all-star that the Air Force frequently sends you to the Hill to testify before Congress -- until one day in the summer of 2003, when you retire to take a job as an executive for Parsons, a private construction company looking to do work in Iraq.

Now you can finally move out of your dull government housing on Bolling Air Force Base and get your wife that dream home you've been promising her all these years. The place on Park Street in Dunn Loring, Virginia, looks pretty good -- four bedrooms, fireplace, garage, 2,900 square feet, a nice starter home in a high-end neighborhood full of spooks, think-tankers and ex-apparatchiks moved on to the nest-egg phase of their faceless careers. On October 20th, 2003, you close the deal for $775,000 and start living that private-sector good life.

Continue reading (links to video also)

found photo: Tariq's Fantasy World

From article:

A former CIA operative and Cuban exile plans to auction what he says is a lock of Che Guevara's hair, snipped before the Argentinian revolutionary was buried in 1967.

Gustavo Villoldo, 71, was involved in Guevara's capture in the jungles of Bolivia.

He plans to auction the hair and other items kept in a scrapbook since the joint CIA-Bolivian army mission 40 years ago.

The scrapbook also holds a map used to track down Guevara in Bolivia, photos of Guevara's body, intercepted messages between Guevara and his rebels and a set of Guevara's fingerprints taken before his burial.

The collection will be put on the block Oct. 25-25.

Continue reading

Link 

Link to collection 

The store which was frequented by Ry Cooder, Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds, BB King and John Hiatt, to name a few, is going out of business at the end of the month due to the decline of vinyl sales. 

Clip form article:

Goddard was celebrated last month at the 142 Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley with an afternoon and evening of music that continued into the small hours across the street at the Sweetwater. Eating barbecue at folding tables in a bank parking lot that night were Bonnie Raitt, Sammy Hagar, Maria Muldaur and Narada Michael Walden, pretty much the four horsemen of Mill Valley music. New Orleans rock 'n' roll star Frankie Ford ("Sea Cruise") had to be kept out of sight for a day and a half in Mill Valley so he could surprise Goddard at the event.

Village Music's end will also be marked on Sunday at the Great American Music Hall - only a handful of tickets remain - where Goddard will be serenaded by a mix of performers that mirrors his fairly narrowly proscribed but passionate tastes in music: rockabilly by the Collins Kids, blues from Jimmy McCracklin and Sugar Pie DeSanto, soul music by Bettye LaVette and Swamp Dogg, among others.

If that isn't enough, world-renowned turntablist DJ Shadow will be spinning sides every day this month at Village Music, using only records from the store's bins. Goddard himself is thinking about closing down with a midnight Saturday-to-midnight-Sunday finale at the end of the month.

Continue reading

If I was as cool as Miss Cellania (or was able to find the time as she can) I'd do a round-up  of links to accompany this post…

Article:

Hundreds of fans from across the world are set to descend on Doune Castle this weekend for the third Monty Python Day.

The 14th Century keep was made famous as Castle Anthrax in the 1973 classic film Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Tickets have been restricted to 500 for the event near Stirling, which sees fans taking to the castle's battlements to enact scenes from the famous film.

Aficionados will also have the chance to take part in the coconut conga or the Python Idle talent contest.

The first Monty Python Day was held at Doune Castle, six miles north-west of Stirling, in 2004 to mark the 30th anniversary of film.

Source (BBC)

UPDATE: From the fabulous Miss Cellania herself, the round-up I would have posted. 

Thank you Miss C

via spluch 

On Sep 9, 2007, at the World Horticultural Expo in Germany, a 10.73 meter long onion braid said to be the longest in the world is on display. It weighs 260kg and is made up of 1,024 onions.

more pictures 

Airship On The Long Course

Car Shoes

Link to more illustrations 

This is cute but not quite puppies and flowers… 

Clip:

"There is always something going on outside our window," said Mr Davidson, 79, a former Royal Navy sailor and war veteran, in the couple's room beside the A1.

"Our room looks out to the car park and a busy slip road where lorries pass by throughout the night.

Link to article

Grillo's campaign using a rude word to tell off politicians has won the support of more than 300,000 Italians who signed petitions to sweep away a generation of lawmakers they say are corrupt and ineffective.

Clip: 

An Italian comedian's campaign using a rude word to tell off politicians has won the support of more than 300,000 Italians who signed petitions to sweep away a generation of lawmakers they say are corrupt and ineffective.

Popular comic Beppe Grillo has sent shock waves through the political system with the level of support for his campaign which, if successful, would bar convicted felons from parliament and would limit politicians' careers to two terms in office.

An estimated 40,000 people attended Grillo's rally in Bologna on Saturday and many more went to hundreds of similar "Vaffanculo-day" protests around the country. The word is the Italian equivalent of the "f"-word in English.

Gaining grassroots support via his website, one of Italy's most popular blogs, the 57-year-old comic said Italy needed a radical break from what he said was the political mismanagement of Italy since the end of fascism and World War Two.

"Nothing has changed since 1943. Then the king fled a nation in disarray, today politicians barricade themselves in palaces immersed in 'cultural' issues," said Grillo who, by the end of the protest in the early hours of Sunday claimed at least 300,000 signatures to his petition.

Continue reading article 

Thanks Arbroath!

Article:

A bridge is to be built in a Chinese village where children are forced to cross a raging torrent on a steel cable to get to school. Nearly 500 children, from Maji village in Fugong town, Yunnan province, cross the most dangerous stretch of the Nujiang River each day.

They fasten themselves to the cable with a metal carabiner and a rope and slide across the 200 metre wide canyon.

The youngest student, A Qia, 4, has to go over by herself each day.

The villagers say that usually four-year-old children are taken by their parents, and begin to go by themselves from the age of five.

A Pu, five, who was stuck in the middle of the cable for nearly 20 minutes once, said: “I used to dream of having a bridge, but then I learned that my dream was too expensive.”

But officials finally agreed to spend £35,000 on a bridge after a TV programme was made about the children’s dangerous daily journey.

Source

These where sent to me by two local San francisco artists:

Below, [Above] you’ll find four choices that highlight the places that most of us urban hipsters like to frequent and the remainder of you drug addicts and johns like to frequent as well.  Choose wisely. Your T-shirt will be a sign that you were the first in San Francisco history to own an ironic SF Parks and Rec parody shirt before everyone else did. 

Each high-quality sweatshop-free 100% cotton American Apparel T comes with a free design on it and will only set you back $20. 

Link to come shortly or check comments.

From article:

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - September 24, 2007 - Codex Gigas, also known as the Devil's Bible - a medieval manuscript said to have been written 800 years ago with the devil's help - has returned to Prague after an absence of 359 years. 

And Czechs were eager to see it, officials said.

Found image
 

The priceless piece, considered the biggest medieval book, was taken from the Prague Castle by Swedish troops at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648. It is in Prague on loan from Sweden's Royal Library in Stockholm. It was put on display last week under high security at the Czech National Library.

Its return to Prague for the exhibition, which runs through Jan. 6, was made possible after years of negotiations between Czech and Swedish diplomats, National Library spokeswoman Katerina Novakova said.

"We expected big interest from the public," Novakova said. "Now, we are 100 percent full."

Only 60 people an hour can enter an air-conditioned room in the library's medieval complex for a 10-minutes look at the manuscript, which is inside a specially designed, unbreakable case, she said.

According to myth, a Benedictine monk promised to write the book overnight to atone for his sins. When he realized the task was impossible, he asked the devil for help. The page with the illustration of the devil is the one visitors see.

The manuscript was likely written by one monk from the Benedictine monastery in Podlazice located some 65 miles east of Prague sometime at the beginning of the 13th century, said Zdenek Uhlir, a specialist on medieval manuscripts at the National Library.

It contains "a sum of the Benedictine order's knowledge" of the time, including the Old and New Testament, "The War of the Jews" by the first-century historian Josephus Flavius, a list of saints, or a guideline how to determine the date of Easter, Uhlir said.

"I would estimate it took him between 10 and 12 years to write," he said about the piece, which weighs 165 pounds. Originally, it had 640 pages, of which 624 survived in relatively good condition, he said.

The book was transported to the Czech Republic in a military plane. Authorities would not give any details about security measures adopted at the library. It has previously been displayed in New York and Berlin.

Link 

YANGON - Tens of thousands of people joined Buddhist monks on marches in Myanmar's former capital on Monday in the biggest demonstration against the ruling generals since they crushed student-led protests nearly 20 years ago.

"I'm very excited and frankly I'm worried too," a teacher said as she watched the massed opposition in Yangon to 45 years of army rule that has impoverished the Southeast Asian nation of 53 million people.

Continue reading with 19 pictures

FOLLOWUP I:

Burmese military threatens monks

Burma's ruling military junta has warned it is ready to "take action" against Buddhist monks leading mounting protests, state media have reported.  

Read more at the BBC

FOLLOWUP II:

Burmese protesters defy warning
   
Buddhist monks march down a street in protest in Rangoon, 25 September 2007
Monks have called for political prisoners to be freed

Some chanted "we want dialogue". Others simply shouted "democracy, democracy".

Earlier, lorries with loudspeakers warned residents that the protests could be "dispersed by military force". 

Read more at the BBC

 FOLLOWUP III:

Riot police 'beat' Burmese monks

Link to YouTube 

The company I work for did this but in February 2007, TBWA\Chiat\Day San Francisco became Cutwater. 

Clip: 

When Daisy the dachshund bounds along the shoreline, she often picks up a stick or a dead fish to gnaw on.

 

But going walkies the other day, she briefly found herself in doggie heaven ... when she was confronted by a bone as big as herself.

However, this was no meaty treat - just a prehistoric prize. For Daisy had discovered a fossilised mammoth bone up to two million years old.

Unable to dig it up, she waited for owner Dennis Smith to arrive - and he was stunned to see the 13in, 8lb thigh section sticking out of the sand.

Link

``It's very sad that the president has chosen to veto a bill that would provide health care for 10 million American children for the next five years. ... I don't think the president wants to say to the American people that he as the decider, the self-proclaimed decider, wants to decide what children get health care and which children do not.'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

---

``The Republican Congress created SCHIP a decade ago to give millions of low-income, American children access to high-quality health care - not as a trial balloon for government-run health care or as a way to provide government benefits to adults and upper-income families who can afford private health insurance.'' - House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

``Never has it been clearer how detached President Bush is from the priorities of the American people. By vetoing a bipartisan bill to renew the successful Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), President Bush is denying health care to millions of low-income kids in America.'' - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Link to Slate.com Video 

Clip:

DULUTH, Minnesota -- Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, was found liable Thursday for copyright infringement  in the nation's first file-sharing case to go before a jury.

Twelve jurors here said the Minnesota woman must pay $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs that were the subject of the lawsuit, amounting to $222,000 in penalties.

They could have dinged her for up to $3.6 million in damages, or awarded as little as $18,000. She was found liable for infringing songs from bands such as Journey, Green Day, AFI, Aerosmith and others.

After the verdict was read, Thomas and her attorney left the courthouse without comment. The jurors also declined to talk to reporters.

Continue reading

NASA Airbrushed UFOs - Lunar Base Towers

Link to YouTube 

Link to FLickrSet 

Wiki entry on Gaetano

From the Wired article: 

Wired: You started working on this movie more than 25 years ago. How does it feel to be talking about it again?

Scott: It never went away, so I'm used to it. It kept reemerging, and that's when I realized that it had really unusual staying power. It's all very well to say, "Well, I knew it had." But I didn't, really, at the time. I knew I'd done a pretty interesting movie, but it was so unusual that the majority of people were taken aback. They simply didn't get it. Or, I think, better to say that they were enormously distracted by the environment.

Wired: What do you mean by that?

Scott:I was touching on possibilities like replication. It's now quite commonplace, but 25 years ago they were barely discussing it in the corridors of power. Now, the film is not really about that at all, it's simply leveraging that possibility into one of those detective film-noir kinds of stories. People were familiar with that kind of character, but not with the world I was cooking up. I wanted to call it San Angeles, and somebody said, "I don't get it." I said, "You know, San Francisco and Los Angeles." It's bizarre: People only think about what's under their noses until it comes and kicks them in the ass.

Wired: How did you decide to tell a 21st-century story in a 1940s style?

Scott:Well, people want a comfortable preconception about what they're seeing. It's a bit like 20 years of Westerns and, now, 45 years of cop movies. People are comfortable with the roles. Even though every nook and cranny has been explored, they'll still sit through endless variations on cops and bad guys, right? In this instance, I was doing a cop and a different bad guy. And to justify the creation of the bad guy, i.e., replication, it had to be in the future.

Link to Wired article

Think I neeed to create an 'ironic' category... 

The coach carrying the Diana inquest jury has reportedly crashed as it traced the Princess's last movements around Paris.

 

In an eerie parallel with the catastrophic accident which killed the Princess, the bus driver was apparently trying to out-manoeuvre paparazzi outside the Ritz

 

The jury, coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, and teams of lawyers made British legal history by making a site inspection of the places where the Princess and her lover Dodi Fayed spent their final hours. 

Article 

A Cambridge team says the creature owes its existence to a genetic quirk that offers some recompense for its prolonged celibacy.

Many asexual organisms have died out because they cannot adapt to changes in the natural world.

But an evolutionary trick allows this pond-dweller to survive when conditions change, researchers report in Science.

   
The animal is a tiny invertebrate known as a bdelloid rotifer. It lives in freshwater pools. If deprived of water, it survives in a desiccated state until water becomes available again.  continue reading

Clip from c|net:

A new Senate bill would protect not only telephone companies from lawsuits claiming illegal cooperation with the National Security Agency. It would retroactively immunize e-mail providers, search engines, Internet service providers and instant-messaging services too.

The broad language appears in new legislation that a Senate committee approved by a 13-to-2 vote on Thursday during a meeting closed to the press and public. It enjoys the support of the panel's Democrats and Republicans.

It goes further in crafting an impenetrable legal shield than similar proposals in the House of Representatives, such as the so-called Restore Act (PDF), which immunizes only "communications service providers." Bowing to pressure from President Bush, House Democrats postponed a vote on the Restore Act last week.

The broader Senate bill (PDF) would sweep in Web sites, e-mail providers and more. "My suspicion is the scope of the immunity provision is the most revealing way to assess the scope of the underlying authority," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

Link to c|net article 

The Raw Story is reporting that Comcast has a pricing structure for installing FISA wiretaps:

Comcast, which is among the nation's largest telecommunication companies, charges $1,000 to install a FISA wiretap and $750 for each additional month authorities want to keep an eye on suspects, according to the company's Handbook for Law Enforcement. Secrecy News obtained the document and published it Monday.

Link to the raw story report

Link to lots more samples 

Below: the new NYC Taxi logo that caused an uproar, click here to see reader submitted designs, some of which are excellent.

Designed by Wolff Olins — who also created the 'fabulous' London 2012 Olympic logo:

Link to BBC readers alternatives

Link to more samples 

Link to 8 more images 

Previously about Banksy on P&F 

Found image
Disclaimer: image represents a Raelian craft and not one of the Xists. see below

CLEVELAND, Ohio, January 4, 2008: The Church of the SubGenius has announced that the end of the world will take place on Saturday, July 5, 2008. In preparation for the fulfillment of this doomsday prophecy, the Church is requesting that all of its members participate in a bizarre religious ceremony taking place in upstate New York, during the final weekend before the arrival of the apocalypse.

Since its inception in 1953, Church founder J.R. "Bob" Dobbs has predicted that a fleet of flying saucers will arrive at the beginning of July to destroy the worldwide Conspiracy against the Church of the SubGenius, while all ordained SubGenius ministers will be rescued by escape vessels piloted by the Alien Sex Goddesses, also known as the Xists.

The Church is inviting all of its members worldwide to gather together for the final hours in Sherman, New York from Wednesday, July 2 to Sunday, July 6, at a clothing-optional outdoor campground called Brushwood Folklore Center. The first gathering at this compound took place in 1996, and the event has increased in size and participants each following year. 1998 was designated the first true "X-Day," and each successive year has added one to the total. This year's celebration in 2008 is X-Day 11, or X-Day XI. 

Continue reading… 

found image of Taleban (similar) ignorance

A SENIOR Tibetan lama and Chinese government advisers have defended contentious rules banning reincarnations of "living Buddhas" without approval.

The rules are apparently aimed at empowering China to name the next Dalai Lama when the 14th and current Dalai Lama dies.

Last July, China's State Administration of Religious Affairs issued regulations banning reincarnations of living Buddhas, or holy monks, who failed to seek government approval, ostensibly to manipulate the centuries-old practice and legitimise future appointments by the atheist Communist Party.

Link to article

Previous Tibet related on P&F:

China frees 3 Canadian activists after Tibet protest

I can remember all the crappy graphics of previous political campaigns but Obama's gives us the sense of how 'current' he is.

Link to more samples. Thanks Devin. 

Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chairman Mao Zedong made what Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.

"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office. "We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it."

From RTE:

Doubts over authenticity of Blarney Stone

Millions of tourists may have kissed the wrong Blarney Stone in an effort to get the gift of the gab, according to a new study.

The authenticity of the Blarney Stone, kissed by about 400,000 tourists each year, has been questioned by Mark Samuel, an archaeologist and architectural historian, and Kate Hamlyn in a new book.

According to legend, kissing the stone at Blarney Castle, Co Cork, endows the person with the gift of gab, but the authors say the present stone only came into use in 1888 for health and safety reasons.

Up until then, visitors wishing to kiss the stone had to be dangled from the castle by two people holding their ankles.

Today visitors lie on their back, holding on to an iron railing and lean backwards to kiss the stone.

Blarney Castle has dismissed the theory that the current stone is not the one with the claimed magical powers.

Marketing manager John Fogarty said the Blarney Stone is a piece of the Stone of Scone or 'Stone of Destiny', on which the kings of Scotland were crowned.

One legend says the Scone Stone is supposed to be the pillow stone said to have been used by the biblical Jacob.

Mr Fogarty said that the part of the stone that came to Blarney was given to an Irish king, Cormac MacCarthy, by Scotland's Robert the Bruce.

It was a gift in gratitude for 4,000 Irish soldiers said to have been sent to aid Scotland when Robert defeated the English at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.

The Scone Stone was subsequently captured by the English and taken to Westminster Abbey in London where it was fitted into a chair on which English sovereigns were crowned. It was returned to Edinburgh Castle in 1996.

Link 

This is pretty ridiculous, but below is the transcript:

“Eleven Tips on Getting More Efficiency Out of Women Employees: There’s no longer any question whether transit companies should hire women for jobs formerly held by men. The draft and manpower shortage has settled that point. The important things now are to select the most efficient women available and how to use them to the best advantage.

Here are eleven helpful tips on the subject from Western Properties:

1. Pick young married women. They usually have more of a sense of responsibility than their unmarried sisters, they’re less likely to be flirtatious, they need the work or they wouldn’t be doing it, they still have the pep and interest to work hard and to deal with the public efficiently.

2. When you have to use older women, try to get ones who have worked outside the home at some time in their lives. Older women who have never contacted the public have a hard time adapting themselves and are inclined to be cantankerous and fussy. It’s always well to impress upon older women the importance of friendliness and courtesy.

3. General experience indicates that “husky” girls - those who are just a little on the heavy side - are more even tempered and efficient than their underweight sisters.

4. Retain a physician to give each woman you hire a special physical examination - one covering female conditions. This step not only protects the property against the possibilities of lawsuit, but reveals whether the employee-to-be has any female weaknesses which would make her mentally or physically unfit for the job.

5. Stress at the outset the importance of time the fact that a minute or two lost here and there makes serious inroads on schedules. Until this point is gotten across, service is likely to be slowed up.

6. Give the female employee a definite day-long schedule of duties so that they’ll keep busy without bothering the management for instructions every few minutes. Numerous properties say that women make excellent workers when they have their jobs cut out for them, but that they lack initiative in finding work themselves.

7. Whenever possible, let the inside employee change from one job to another at some time during the day. Women are inclined to be less nervous and happier with change.

8. Give every girl an adequate number of rest periods during the day. You have to make some allowances for feminine psychology. A girl has more confidence and is more efficient if she can keep her hair tidied, apply fresh lipstick and wash her hands several times a day.

9. Be tactful when issuing instructions or in making criticisms. Women are often sensitive; they can’t shrug off harsh words the way men do. Never ridicule a woman - it breaks her spirit and cuts off her efficiency.

10. Be reasonably considerate about using strong language around women. Even though a girl’s husband or father may swear vociferously, she’ll grow to dislike a place of business where she hears too much of this.

11. Get enough size variety in operator’s uniforms so that each girl can have a proper fit. This point can’t be stressed too much in keeping women happy.”

Found here

Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

He came to fame when his story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was made into a film by director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, become a full-time writer in the 1940s.

Source

Hal Riney, the San Francisco advertising man whose iconic and memorable work helped establish the city as an important creative center for the industry and a magnet for major accounts, died of cancer in his San Francisco home Monday. He was 75.

Whether his client was an automobile manufacturer, a company selling wine coolers or the committee to re-elect President Ronald Reagan, no one could put as graceful a spin on Americana as could Hal Riney. He made likable, engaging advertising in a career of nearly 50 years.

He is best remembered for creating the brand - and the outside-Detroit image - of General Motors' Saturn automobiles, but he may be equally famous for creating the codgers Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, who sing the praises of the Gallo wine cooler that bore their names. In 1984, he created "Morning in America," the soft-textured, 60-second memorable montages of Americana, telling stories of swelling national pride, making people comfortable about re-electing Reagan.

These advertising campaigns and many more had a unique and relaxed western feeling to them, and stood in relief to so much in a New York-dominated industry. In the process, Riney ads prompted marketers to pay attention to the San Francisco ad scene.

Before Riney, the legendary Howard Gossage had established San Francisco's ad industry roots. Riney proteges Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein, who started with Riney doing "Billy Ball" ads for the Oakland A's, left in the spring of 1983 to establish one of the country's top tier agencies and encourage the next generation of San Francisco creative advertising people.

"He created an atmosphere and body of work that attracted the highest level of creative people outside New York," said Goodby, co-founder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. "Some would say higher."

Source

Shown here is J C Penney's, I like that he was 'self-employed'. 

From the Gov Archives:

The 24 million World War I Draft Registration Cards in the custody of the National Archives Southeast Region provide an invaluable resource for academic researchers and genealogists. All males in the United States, born between the years 1872 and 1900, were required by law to register for the draft throughout 1917 and 1918. This series of records includes cards from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The answers provided to the questions on the cards typically reveal details about where a man lived, his occupation, race, immigration status, and in many cases his place of origin and nearest relative. The following selection presents a unique snapshot of what is available in this extensive collection.

Link

Old roller coaster at Chippewa lake Ohio. Built in 1920's ended service1978. 

Link to more photographs

Not George Bush, San Francisco is proposing naming a sewage plant after him!

"Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the 'George W Bush Sewage Plant,' SFist reports.

Crowds have gathered in the US city of Memphis, Tennessee, to mark 40 years since the assassination of legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

The commemorations focus on the former Lorraine Motel, now a civil rights museum, where he was shot dead aged 39.

Link

Link to NYT interactive 

*Real* guerilla advertising: Large banner unfurled on Coke billboard

China's torch has arrived in Australia amid protests in Sydney and Canberra. Four tibet activists were arrested after unfurling a large banner on a prominent Coke billboard in Kings Cross protesting Coke's sponsorship of China's tainted torch relay.

But when this Coca Cola poster in Bremen, Germany, caught the attention of a Chinese Ex Pat blogger, Chinese nationalists called for a boycott too. Coca Cola, in a formal statment, claim the ad was from a 2003 campaign.

Sources: Asian Offbeat, The Guardian and SFT

From AP: 

Roger Waters brought Coachella to a close with an epic two-set performance that included playing all of "Dark Side of the Moon" and unleashing a giant inflated pig into the night sky.

But Waters' biggest prop was an inflatable pig the size of a school bus that emerged while he played a version of "Pigs" from 1977's capitalism critique, "Animals."

The pig, which was led above the crowd from lines held on the ground, displayed the words "Don't be led to the slaughter" and a cartoon of Uncle Sam wielding two bloody cleavers. The other side read "Fear builds walls."

The underside of the pig simply read "Obama" with a checked ballot box alongside.

Link to more photos 

Previously on P&F about Coachella:
Fabio's awesome Coachella '07 Flickr set(s)

Oh the humanity! From the BBC: 

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

Currently being auctioned on eBay, this 'special tax stamp' from 1951-52.

Previously on P&F:
US Marijuana Tax Stamps 

When layed out like below, the design reveals the Shield of the Royal Arms. 

Designed by Matthew Dent. 

Link to the Royal Mint. 

Scientific American has an interesting slide show of historic photographs that have been doctored.

Shown here:

1937:
In this doctored Nazi photograph, Adolf Hitler had Joseph Goebbels [second from right] removed from the original photograph. It remains unclear why Goebbels had fallen out of favor with Hitler.

Those were the days, before Photoshop.

Link to gallery 

1: Horace De Vere Cole

Horace De Vere Cole was a man devoted to, one might almost say obsessed by, practical jokes. His most memorable prank was probably giving carefully selected free theatre tickets to bald men so that when their gleaming pates were seen from the Upper Circle a rather rude word could clearly be seen. Whether impersonating foreign dignitaries to the consternation of senior naval officals or shocking Edwardian society by performing astoundingly vulgar tricks with a cow's udder in public thoroughfares his was a life devoted to, and ultimately squandered on, the pursuit of japery. Click here for more

2: Henry de la Poer Beresford

The wildly unpredictable third marquess of Waterford was never conclusively linked with the mystery of Spring-Heeled Jack, the demonic apparition who terrorised the women of South London in the 1830s, but 'the Mad Marquis' certainly had the athleticism and the temperament to be at the root of Battersea's own Urban Legend. Click here for more

3: Charles Dawson

Although he could conceivably been the hapless victim of the Piltdown man hoax, it's perhaps kinder to think of Charles Dawson as the perpetrator of that celebrated piece of archaeological fakery. Hailed at the time as ‘by far the most important ever made in England, and of equal, if not of greater consequence than any other discovery yet made, either at home or abroad’, the Piltdown Man skull later proved to be the combination of two quite disparate hominids. From its 'discovery' in 1912 to the exposure of the fraud in the 1950s, Eoanthropus dawsoni was considered as the 'missing link' between ape and man. Click here for more

4: Elizabeth Parsons

Perhaps the most successful fake haunting in history is the Cock Lane Ghost.. The site of the haunting, in Cock Lane in the City of London, attracted many curious observers. The Duke of York and Samuel Johnson were just two dignitaries who were drawn to witness the celebrated phenomena. They were, of course, entirely fraudulent – the work of an eleven-year-old girl called Elizabeth Parsons who convinced witnesses by means of assorted scratchings, feats of ventriloquism and bumps in the night that the house was inhabited by the shade of girl murdered by a former lodger. Her father ended up standing trial for the imposture, and was sentenced to the pillory, but remained comparatively untouched by a sympathetic London mob. Click here for more

5: Mary Willcocks

On Good Friday 1817, a young woman wearing a black turban and speaking an unknown language was found wandering in Almondsbury, north-east of Bristol. Convincing the locals that she was the exotic Princess Caraboo, she was the centre of much excitement, involving dancing, swimming, and the cooking of chicken curries. It was only in the June of that year that the princess was exposed as Mary Willcocks, a former nursemaid from Witheridge. She continued to trade on the Princess Caraboo name even after exposure, finally dying in a houseful of cats at the turn of the last Century. Click here for more

6: Frances Griffiths

Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright were the teenage cousins behind the still-famous Cottingley Fairies photographs. Although the pictures did not initially fool the family members to which the girls showed them, in 1920 they came to the attention of celebrated author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had become obsessed with the supernatural after the loss of his son in the Great War. He made a cause célèbre of the photos, which made it almost impossible for the girls to admit their deception. They maintained the veracity of the images for over sixty-five years, only confessing that the 'fairies' were in fact paper cut-outs in 1983. Click here for more

7: Theodore Hook

Theodore Hook anticipated and eclipsed the modern 'unrequited takeaway pizza prank' by orchestrating in 1809 a day-long series of deliveries and official visits to the home of one Mrs.Tottenham, who had previously slighted the mercurial writer. Click here for more

8: Elizabeth Crofts

In 1554, during the reign of Queen Mary I, a crowd of as many as 17,000 was attracted to Aldersgate steet in London to hear the anti-Catholic pronouncements uttered apparently by an invisible spirit who became known as 'The Bird in the Wall'. After several days, the wall from which the voice appeared to emanate was torn down to reveal a serving maid, Elizabeth Crofts, who had apparently been persuaded by one or more Protestant nobles to perpetrate the fraud. Despite the harsh penalties for treason and religious non-conformism prevalent at that time, Crofts seemed to suffer little punishment for her actions and was never heard of again after the incident. Click here for more

9: Archibald Belaney

Hastings-born Archibald Belaney had a lifelong interest in American tribes of the Old West and it was no surprise when he emigrated to Canada in 1906 to live as a trapper. It was rather surprising though that, after achieving success as an author under the name Grey Owl he gave his biography to Canadian Who's Who as: ‘Born encampment, State of Sonora, Mexico, son of George, a native of Scotland, and Kathrine (Cochise) Belaney; a half-breed Apache Indian … adopted as blood-brother by Ojibway tribe, 1920 … speaks Ojibway but has forgotten Apache.’ On 10 December 1937, on his second British lecture tour, Grey Owl, the modern Hiawatha, gave a command performance at Buckingham Palace attended by Queen Mary, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the two princesses. It wasn't until after his death that his true identity was exposed, with Archie having deceived readers across the English-speaking world. Click here for more

10: Mary Toft

Mary Toft, born in 1703, and described as illiterate, was of small stature, with a healthy, strong constitution, and a sullen temper. Despite her humble origins she was able to fool several eminent London physicians including King George I's doctor, Sir Richard Manningham, into believing that she had given birth to a large litter of rabbits. Only when threatened with dissection by a group of Royal physicians was she persuaded to recant her story. Toft's case echoed that of Agnes Bowker from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, who was said to have given birth to a cat. Unlike Toft, Bowker never confessed to a hoax, and although deceit was suspected by the then bishop of London, she may, indeed, have been the cat's mother. Click here for more

Taken from The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Sorry I can't remember where I originally came across these but have held on to them for years.

From The Independant:

They are said to produce unparalleled sound quality. Until now, however, no one has been able to explain why 300-year-old Stradivarius violins have never been matched in terms of musical expressiveness and projection.

A study has found that the secret may be explained by the consistent density of the two wooden panels used to make its body, rather than anything to do with the instrument's overall contours, varnish, angle of the neck, fingerboard or strings.

Scientists compared five antique violins made by the Cremonese masters Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri Del Gesu with seven modern-day instruments by placing them in a medical scanner that could accurately gauge the density of the two wooden plates that make up the top and the back of the body.

They found that, overall, the density of the two groups of violins was the same, but what differed significantly was that the two plates of the older instruments had a more uniform density compared to the more inconsistent densities of the modern plates.

Continue reading

Is it true? From The Daily Mail:

He is perhaps the most famous, or infamous, artist alive. To some a genius, to others a vandal. Always controversial, he inspires admiration and provokes outrage in equal measure.

Since Banksy made his name with his trademark stencil-style 'guerrilla' art in public spaces - on walls in London, Brighton, Bristol and even on the West Bank barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians - his works have sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds.

He has dozens of celebrity collectors including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera.

…

He is also known for his headline-making stunts, such as leaving an inflatable doll dressed as a Guantanamo prisoner in Disneyland, California, and hanging a version of the Mona Lisa - but with a smiley face - in the Louvre, Paris.

But perhaps his most provocative statement, and the one that generates the most publicity, is the fact that Banksy's true identity has always been a jealously guarded secret, known to only a handful of trusted friends.

Continue reading article

Previously related:

Time lapse video of Banky's 'Cans Festival'

Photos from Banksy’s Cans Festival — 05.07.08

Graffiti artist Banksy pulls off most audacious stunt to date - despite being watched by CCTV

Banksy returns to Bethlehem

Banksy's debt to Warhol revealed in London show

Chilean designers of the 60's and 70's.

If anyone has any more info please email me at:

peter(AT)puppiesandflowers.com

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27 kilometer (17 mile) long particle accelerator straddling the border of Switzerland and France, is nearly set to begin its first particle beam tests. The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is preparing for its first small tests in early August, leading to a planned full-track test in September - and the first planned particle collisions before the end of the year. The final step before starting is the chilling of the entire collider to -271.25 C (-456.25 F). Here is a collection of photographs from CERN, showing various stages of completion of the LHC and several of its larger experiments (some over seven stories tall), over the past several years. (27 photos total)

Link to article and more photos.

Link to Homage. Link to entire collection.

Arrests as Burma marks uprising

At least 20 people have been arrested in the Burmese town of Taunggok after staging a silent protest on the 20th anniversary of a major uprising.

They were detained after marching while wearing T-shirts which referred to the date of the uprising - "8/8/88".

Activists outside Burma are marking the anniversary with demonstrations.

The 1988 protests drew hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets, but ended with a violent clampdown and the deaths of at least 3,000 civilians.

The date 8 August 1988 was significant for the numerologically minded Burmese, and marked the start of six weeks of rallies against military rule.

The anniversary prompted tightened security in the main city, Rangoon, with police and pro-government militias stationed at strategic points, including Buddhist monasteries.

Continue reading at the BBC

From National Geographic:

Despite Mutations, Chernobyl Wildlife Is Thriving
Twenty years ago today, reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. The blast covered vast areas of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia (see map) with dangerous radioactive material. The effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe are still being felt today—whole towns lie abandoned, and cancer rates in people living close to the affected areas are abnormally high.

Below are some amazing Flickr sets 20 years on. 

Chernobyl Flickr set by mattbr

Chernobyl Flickr set by Dazzababes

Chernobyl Flickr set by kasteran427

Chernobyl Flickr set by isuksig98

Link to Michael Gilette's website. Read about Ian Fleming. 

1976 - Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin

Rome 1972 - Nadia Cassini 

UK 1971 - Ragazza in Chelsea

Link to photos by Guido_1953

"Washington Bullets" —Video montage

"The Call Up" —Live footage.

Judge Garzon is famous for crimes-against-humanity ca

A Spanish judge has launched a criminal investigation into the fate of tens of thousands of people who vanished during the civil war and Franco dictatorship.

Judge Baltasar Garzon - Spain's top investigating judge - has also ordered several mass graves to be opened.

One is believed to contain the remains of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was murdered by fascist forces at the start of the war in the 1930s.

Correspondents say the historic ruling will be controversial in Spain.

They say there has been a tacit agreement among political parties not to delve too deeply into the civil war and Franco era.

In his 68-page ruling, Judge Garzon says that Francoists carried out "illegal permanent detentions" which he says falls within the definition of crimes against humanity.

Controversial step

He refers to 114,000 people who disappeared during a 15-year period after the outbreak of war in 1936.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone, in Madrid, says that never before has Spain's civil war been investigated by a judge.

And in using the phrase "crime against humanity" Judge Garzon is taking a highly controversial step.

The conflict was triggered by the military uprising of General Francisco Franco, whose supporters are said to have systematically eliminated left-wing opponents, even after the war was won in 1939.

Survivors of the civil war Falange movement may face prosecution

Judge Garzon's document names Gen Franco and 34 of his senior aides as the instigators of the alleged crimes.

He even asks that their death certificates be produced, to prove that they can no longer face prosecution.

The judge has also asked Spain's Interior Ministry to provide names of senior members of the fascist Falange Party, which supported Franco, with a view to possible prosecutions.

He has ordered the opening of 19 mass graves, believed to contain victims of the Franco regime. The remains of the poet Lorca, who was murdered at the start of the war, are thought to be buried in the southern province of Granada.

Judge Garzon is famous for bringing crimes-against-humanity cases against figures such as former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Last year he was asked by the families of people who vanished during the Spanish civil war or during Franco's dictatorship, that the remains of their loved ones be found and the circumstances of their deaths clarified.

An estimated 500,000 people died in the civil war.

Source BBC 

From the Washington Post:

In recent years, as it has tried to improve its performance in Iraq, the U.S. military has done a lot of remedial studies of earlier counterinsurgency campaigns. This note, passed along by a Special Operations officer, describes a couple of tricks the British learned battling the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland:

I attended a briefing at the CI [Counterintelligence] Center a year ago and one of the speakers was a former British SAS officer who worked Belfast for 10 years. He provided some fascinating insights into their operations and, specifically, some of the "out-of-the-box" methods they utilized to collect and target the IRA, PIRA [Provisional Irish Republican Army], Gerry Adams and their sympathizers.

One of the most interesting operations was the laundry mat [sic]. Having lost many troops and civilians to bombings, the Brits decided they needed to determine who was making the bombs and where they were being manufactured. One bright fellow recommended they operate a laundry and when asked "what the hell he was talking about," he explained the plan and it was incorporated -- to much success.

The plan was simple: Build a laundry and staff it with locals and a few of their own. The laundry would then send out "color coded" special discount tickets, to the effect of "get two loads for the price of one," etc. The color coding was matched to specific streets and thus when someone brought in their laundry, it was easy to determine the general location from which a city map was coded.

While the laundry was indeed being washed, pressed and dry cleaned, it had one additional cycle -- every garment, sheet, glove, pair of pants, was first sent through an analyzer, located in the basement, that checked for bomb-making residue. The analyzer was disguised as just another piece of the laundry equipment; good OPSEC [operational security]. Within a few weeks, multiple positives had shown up, indicating the ingredients of bomb residue, and intelligence had determined which areas of the city were involved. To narrow their target list, [the laundry] simply sent out more specific coupons [numbered] to all houses in the area, and before long they had good addresses. After confirming addresses, authorities with the SAS teams swooped down on the multiple homes and arrested multiple personnel and confiscated numerous assembled bombs, weapons and ingredients. During the entire operation, no one was injured or killed.

By the way, the gentleman also told the story of how [the British] also bugged every new car going into Northern Ireland, and thus knew everything [Sinn Fein leader] Gerry Adams was discussing. They did this because Adams always conducted mobile meetings and always used new cars.

The Israelis have a term for this type of thinking, "Embracing the Meshugganah," which literally translated means, embrace the craziness, because the crazier the plan, the less likely the adversary will have thought about it, and thus, not have implemented a counter-measure.

Via the New Shelton wet/dry

Links lead to article with much larger images.

Detail 

Celebrating 60 years of existence this year, North Korea holds out as the last Stalinist state in the world. In such a restrictive society, it is difficult - if not impossible - for residents to get news of the outside world, and for the outside world to see in. What photography comes out of North Korea is either state-produced, state-approved, or at the very least state-managed (visitors are restricted in their movement). Still, if you look over the following images with those restrictions in mind, one can still get some idea of life in North Korea in 2008. These photos were all taken within the past six months - some taken from the borders, peering in, others provided by North Korea itself, and several generously shared by freelance photographer Eric Lafforgue, who recently spent some time inside the country. (32 photos total)

Found at Boston.com 

"crumb crisp coated" and "what is it you want in the depths of your ignorance"!

Link to collection

I like that Ted Kennedy is 'Sunburn'!

Secret Service codenames are a throwback to the period before electronic transmissions were encrypted. Although they serve no practical security function today, the US Army Signal Corps still assigns codenames (mostly out of tradition).

Source

From Mother Jones:

The Treasury Department is all about efficiency these days. The original bailout plan that Secretary Paulson proposed, which has been quietly dumped, was just three pages. I guess it's no surprise, then, that the application to get some sweet, sweet bailout bucks from the TARP Capital Purchase Program is just two pages. No joke, Taxpayers for Common Sense actually got a hold of the thing. If you're interested in landing a spare billion, give it a shot. It won't take you more than five minutes.

Wasn't one factor in the housing crisis the fact that lenders gave home loans to people without checking credit and obtaining documentation of assets, salary, and other signs of financial health? And yet you get piles of cash from the Treasury with less paperwork than what goes into car loans, student loans, and most credit cards?

Source

Thanks Brady!

Show me more covers…

From Glenfiddich's site:

Following the success of the inaugural Glenfiddich Barrel Art exhibition in 2007, we have developed a new exhibition for 2008. This year’s programme involves a single artist who will produce a collection of works that encapsulate the theme of time. We’ve chosen esteemed designer Michael Johnson. Michael has been at the forefront of British design throughout a career spanning decades and work the theme of time has been prevalent in his work to date.

Link to Exhibition site with more photos.  [via]

Link to collection

Thanks Noah.

More photos

Here are 30 illustrations from the book Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern. These diagrams outline causes of electrical accident. Thanks bre pettis.

It is 60 years ago tomorrow that Scrabble was registered as a trade mark by Alfred Mosher Butts, an architect from New York state, and his businessman friend James Brunot.

Scrabble AD by PES:

Link to The Independent's article on the inventor and origins of Scrabble

On the night of Saturday, December 6th, two Special Guards of the Greek police clashed with a small group of young men. The exact details of what took place are still unclear, but it is known that one of the Guards fired three shots, and one of those bullets caused the death of 15-year-old Alexander Grigoropoulos - whether the injury was made by an accidental ricochet or deliberate shot remains to be determined. The two Guards are now in jail awaiting trial, the shooter charged with homicide.

This undated photo made at a unknown location shows 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Some of the worst riots Greece has seen in years began within hours of the fatal shooting of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on Saturday night in the central Athens district of Exarchia. (AP Photo/Eurokinissi)

Link to Boston.com's photos.

I saw this abandoned mansion last week from the street and went in with my friend Michel as translator in case we ran into anyone. It took a bit of jimmying to force the door, and inside we found piles and piles of of binders and dozens of black and white photos, all showing one man at various political events.

It turns out the mansion used to be the home of Takieddin el-Solh ( 1908 - 1988) Lebanese Sunni politician who served as Prime Minister from 1973-74, and 1980. The binders were full of voter lists and various political documents. I'm assuming he abandoned the place during the civil war and moved to a more secure location. The house is in the Sunni section, but was within easy artillery distance of the Green Line.

Link to CraigFinlay's Flickr Set

Things Magazine have a great collection of Pelican Books' covers spanning the last century. Amazing stuff. These samples are from the 1960's.

PHILADELPHIA - Renowned American artist Andrew Wyeth, famous for landscapes of his native Pennsylvania and Maine, died on Friday, according to a spokeswoman for the Brandywine River Museum near his home.

Wyeth, who was 91, died in his sleep early in the morning, surrounded by his family and friends, after a brief illness, the museum said in a statement.

He is best known for "Christina's World" (1948), in which a disabled woman appears to be striving to cross a largely empty landscape. It was painted, like many of his other works, in egg tempera, a technique that he said forced him to slow down the execution of a painting.

This shot was taken yesterday by a co-worker/friend of mine, Heath T, the line is for a job at Specialtys, a cafe and bakery chain.

Excellent collection of numbers photographed on the streets of Budapest.
From Zsolt Molnár's blog:

This is my typo-photographic project that I started in Summer 2008, focusing on the typographical diversity of Budapest’s street numbers. On this blog I will post a number each day in 2009. 365 different types of street numbers hopefully.

Link to Budapest36.

My friend Brady found this beauty while cleaning out his studio. It's simply amazing! The different typefaces are cool, it must have looked very mod in its day.

The 'Engineering Appliance Company' is alas, no longer in business. The San Francisco street address in now condos and a google search returned no results.

Got it?

Thanks Brady

Thanks to Helen P

Link to katwood on Flickr

I love Flickr. While looking for some reference material I came across this excellent collection. The prints look like lino-cuts or wood blocks.

From Oldtasty's Flickrset

This is an outstanding collection of Cultural-Revolution era imagery and propaganda, made available with thanks to Webster University (for use of their scanning station) and Flickr. Translations will be added over time.

Link to Flickrset

Huge collection and variety here, amazing. I only grabbed a few as examples.
Click on images for larger versions.

Author : Ewa Frysztak
Poster : "BALLADA O DZIEWCZYNIE", 1965

 

Author : Maciej Hibner

Poster : "IDIOTA", 1959

Author : Anna Huskowska

Poster : "MARIA CANDELARIA", 1959

Author : Wladyslaw Janiszewski

Poster : "LOTNA", 1959

Author : Waldemar Swierzy

Poster : "DREWNIANY ROZANIEC", 1964

Xeni Jardin over at BoingBoing has an interesting piece on the Tibetan New Year's protest over Chinese human rights abuse:

Today, February 25, 2009, is the date on which Tibetan New Year -- Losar -- begins. Many Tibetan exiles around the world are observing Losar in a different manner this year. Some are forgoing traditional observances to instead protest human rights abuses by the Chinese government inside Tibet. There are reports that Chinese authorites are effectively making Losar celebrations inside Tibet compulsory, and reactions have led to violent clashes.

For 30 Euros, a group of enterprising Palestinian graffiti artists are offering to tag the West Bank wall with your message.

Clip:

It could turn out to be the world's longest graffiti space - the massive concrete barrier separating Israel from the Palestinians.

Over the Internet, a group of Palestinian graffiti artists is offering to spray-paint your personal message on Israel's towering security wall in the occupied West Bank.

It costs 30 euros (NZ$75) per message and they can be as solemn or wacky as you want. Everything goes, except for obscene, offensive or extremist hate speech. Clients get three digital pictures of the finished product.

The 8-metre high barrier of massive concrete slabs is part of a 620-km fence Israel says is intended to keep suicide bombers out, and which can be dismantled at some point in the future when peace reigns. Source

 

dustinkeirstead

kari_cass

filippo minelli

JJ San

amerune

yobosayo

These images were found randomly, if you are looking for more of Banksy's West Bank wall project try this link.

Mike Ruiz's editorial Masterpiece for Zink Magazine makes use of Lichenstein's techniques and staple imagery (tears, telephones, speech bubbles) to create a dotted technicolor vision.

and Gustave Klimt

and Egon Schiele

Seee the rest of the collection.

From MSNBC:

DES MOINES, Iowa - The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling Friday finding that the state's same-sex marriage ban violates the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian couples, making Iowa the third state where gay marriage is legal.

In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge's ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.

"The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion," said a summary of the ruling issued by the court.

Found at Boston Public Library's FlickrStream.
The rest of The Brewery Posters are here.

All images link to higher resolution versions.

I really like the old school registration marks and color bars.

I'm very happy that WeegieBurd posted this documentary on youtube. It's a brilliant slice of the 1970's in Ireland, both North and South. 

Billy Connolly was, in the 1970s, a sort of Scottish Lenny Bruce, who, with devastating humour, sliced through the hypocrisies he perceived.

This 1976 documentary follows the singer-comic during his 1975 Irish tour. Made in a cinema verité fashion, the performer appears to be completely unaware of the presence of the camera in his off-stage and backstage moments.

Links pop a new window:

Big Banana Feet Part 1

Big Banana Feet Part 2 

Big Banana Feet Part 3 

Big Banana Feet Part 4 

Big Banana Feet Part 5 

Big Banana Feet Part 6

Big Banana Feet Part 7 

Big Banana Feet Part 8 

The New York City Subway system officially opened on October 27, 1904 at the City Hall Station. It was the final stop on the downtown Lexington Avenue IRT local #6 train. It is situated under City Hall Park.

It was closed because as the subway became more popular, extra cars had to added but the tight radius of the platform meant there were large gaps between the train and the platform.

Skylight Detail

The skylights are made put of cut amethyst glass. The chandeliers (as seen in top picture) and lights originally featured glass luminaires, but vibrations from the subway and its equipment destroyed them.

Beautiful natural light

The New York City Transit Museum, once or twice a year, runs a special excursion train called "The Jewel In The Crown: Old City Hall Station". These trips are only available to museum members. The special train stops at the Old City Hall Station.

Source and more pictures.

Additional pictures:

City Hall Subway Station - 04 February 2007 — Flickr set

These illustrations come from the book “The Frenchmen and the 7 Deadly Sins”, by Cyril Satorsky.

Related

Thanks Fabio C

via