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Showing posts from 2006

bug bus hot rod

1962 VW bus gutted, filled with giant hot rod engine = w00t ! (via engadget )

CROSS BRONX #1 Now Free Online

The intriguing first issue of crime urban crime comic Cross Bronx is available for free online reading . The art style is somewhere between Batman The Animated Series and the Pander Brothers’ take on Grendel . The story hints at deep characterizations and a larger picture yet to be revealed. ( warren ellis )

AVAST, mateys!

A new MMOArrrrPG : Wiz Kids’ Pirates Constructible game has been recreated as an online game , by Sony Online Entertainment. There's a free demo available, as well. (via Penny Arcade )

Warning Signs - a photoset on Flickr

A set of viable warnings from our future. (via warren ellis )

attention holiday travelers

The Transportation Security Administration wants you to know the “ 3-1-1 on Air Travel ” - the weakest, least inspired mnemonic to come from government since “Stop, Drop, and Roll.” From the site: Make Your Trip Better Using 3-1-1 3 –1–1 for carry-ons = 3 ounce bottle or less; 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; 1 bag per passenger placed in screening bin. One-quart bag per person limits the total liquid volume each traveler can bring. 3 oz. container size is a security measure. Consolidate bottles into one bag and X-ray separately to speed screening. Be prepared. Each time TSA searches a carry-on it slows down the line. Practicing 3-1-1 will ensure a faster and easier checkpoint experience. 3-1-1 is for short trips. If in doubt, put your liquids in checked luggage. Declare larger liquids. Prescription medications, baby formula and milk are allowed in quantities exceeding three ounces and are not required to be in the zip-top bag. Declare these items for inspection at the check

cue strummed guitar; reveal hero, standing atop lamppost

The best action figure in the world , according to Bubblegum Fink and YT, is this 12" Kikaider figure from Medicom Toys. Add to my wishlist, mas pronto. (thanks, el Otro Miguel )

cosplay of popular fast foods

ワンダーフェスティバル2006夏のコスプレ : I like seeing the detail and passion that goes into cosplay, but I like it more when people break away from the mainstream game and anime stuff, and start cosplaying their favorite snackfoods. Here is the head-only hanbañero pepper snack, with the rest of the performer’s body ignored by consensual agreement through the black costume of kabuki and bunraku scene handlers. Tonight he will visit you in your dreams. The Tarako kewpie baby also makes an appearance . ( Warning , page contains cosplayers, and some links to not-work-safe toys and models)

an in-depth interview with the South Park creators about “That World of Warcraft Episode”

Q: How would you compare making South Park’s traditional animation with making machinima ‘animation’? Was one method easier than the other, or more interesting, or...? JJ: Well, as Trey said when we wrapped up the last ‘shoot,’ this is definitely where animation is headed. I know that there were frustrations, but most of them were mere technical limitations that can and hopefully will be addressed in the future. Things like the ability to record an individual character’s performance, and then have that character give the exact same performance each take would have been very useful because that way the performances could be treated almost like sound channels in an audio mixing program or video clips in an editing system. The ability to have full control over every single aspect of what is being seen in frame has got to be any director's ultimate dream. Combine that with the extreme flexibility of a virtual environment, and there quite literally is no limit to what could be done... E

easterneuropop

Severina’s got a video out where she is a 50-foot Woman, and she has presumably traditionally garbed dancers assisting her domination of the whimsically animated cityscape. It reminds me of Zlad’s Supersonik Elektronick ( video ), I’m hoping it’s intentional. I think I liked her “other video” better. ( Beyond the Beyond , Bruce Sterling’s blog)
(thanks for the inspiration, Sarah !)

webcomic

It is always neat to see something that feels like an analog creation in a world where most webcomics feel like they’ve been slapped together in Photoshop or Painter. The brushed inks of Agnes Quill are fresh, it looks groovy and a little filthy, which somehow lends it some innocence.. The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. ( xradiograph )

i don't always agree with tom tomorrow, but...

Good Riddance

“the right was right”

Now that the election is behind us, and the Democrats control one or possibly both houses of Congress, there's no reason not to admit it: the Right was right about us all along. Here is our 25-point manifesto for the new Congress: 1. Mandatory homosexuality 2. Drug-filled condoms in schools 3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act 4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses 5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State 6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein ( view the full list )

exquisite dead building

The Ministry of Transportation

“let’s put the future behind us”

Good grief, the man is a keen observer. From Stross’ observations on the causes of the decline in readership of speculative fiction: Firstly, let me tackle the reason for the decline in the SF/F readership over time as a proportion of written fiction. I don't have quantitative data to hand, but I believe we can attribute it to the fact that the civilization we live in is changing so rapidly that we’re all exposed to rapid technological change all the time. SF as a genre evolved during a period of industrialization and standardization and rapid linear progress. It was both an escapist literature and a didactic form that lent its readers some exposure to new ideas about how they might live in future. But things have gone non-linear, and a lot of the future has arrived today, albeit in bastardized form. Want to go live on Mars? Tough, you can’t — but you can download travel albums from the red planet til you're blue in the face. Want to go live on an alien world? Go visit Japan —

Scarlett Johansson Wanted to Expose Her Boobs

I just can’t get past the eye-catching title, “ Scarlett Johansson Wanted to Expose Her Boobs ,” even though it’s just an article detailing a moment of actress-versus-director. In this case, one more reason to dislike Michael Bay . The Island was utter tripe, Bad Boys II was utterly formulaic explosion-pr0n, and we should get some pre-emptive tut-tutting in on the upcoming live-action and CG fest, Transformers movie, because it won’t be on the screen long enough to take its fair share.

good music

So happy to have an iPod that tells me what the fook I’m listening to; my iPod shuffle had no screen, so trying to figure out the currently-playing near-random internet-download was an exercise in creative frustration. Just now though a fantastic track called Sex and Mayhem by Australian band “Devastations” played. They’re carried by indie music label Brassland ; the song’s a 6MB free download at the link. It’s somewhere between David Bowie, David Silvian, and Love and Rockets. I’ll be buying the whole album once my Mac gets back from the shop...

Desired:

Knights Who Say “Ni” hat at Wonderland

victorians were really, really f’ed up people

Haunted When It Rains : Naturally posed pictures of deceased people, lying supine, seated, or held as though they are at rest. Frequently posed with people who are significantly less dead, presumably surviving family members. Morbid, grotesque, and heartbreakingly sad, particularly where the babies are concerned. ( boingboing )

warren ellis’ “ignition city” script excerpt

PAGE FOURTEEN Pic 1 CUT TO: in a small room with one small porthole in its curving steel wall, we discover LIGHTNING BOWMAN sitting on a chamberpot, wearing only a long-sleeved velour t-shirt type thing with a lightning bolt embroidered on the front, totally naked from the waist down. Straining. Lightning Bowman used to be an athlete, tall, bronzed, blond. His hair is still blond, but, when we see him move, he’s stooped, and he’s not lean any more, just thin. He doesn’t fit his own skin. He’s coming up hard on fifty, and not looking good on it. LIGHTNING is a major character. I think we can introduce him with a page-wide shot, squatting on his chamberpot. The floor, by the way, will either be steel or wood, and have a DIY, home-made kind of finish. We’ll see why later. BOWMAN Hnng. (full excerpt here ) The Lone Ranger is to Deadwood as Flash Gordon is to Ignition City .

mashed beatles != bug paté

And not just Beatles; don’t worry, this isn’t some Grey Album strokefest, despite the props due to Ob-La-Teeth (Beatles vs. Obie Trice). And it’s not all rap-mash, either. Check out Comfortable Holiday (Scissor Sisters vs. Madonna) for a complete pop music mental breakdown; at BASS 211 DOT COM & DJ Tripp: 99 Boots But A Bitch Ain’t One! (thanks, sean , who recommends She Wants Animals : Ace of Base vs. NIN)

tokyo zombie!

I must see this movie: Mitsuo and Fujio - Japanese cult icons Tadanobu Asano and Sho Aikawa - are a pair of zero ambition slackers employed in a fire extinguisher factory whose only goal in life is the perfection of their jiujitsu wrestling skills. When a confrontation with their boss leaves the nagging executive dead they opt, of course, to take the easy way out and dispose of the body on the slopes of Black Fuji, a monstrous heap of garbage rising in the midst of Tokyo. But whether by the influence of toxic chemicals, black magic, karma or a mixture of all three, the muck of Black Fuji brings their boss back to roam the earth as a voracious zombie, unleashing an undead apocalypse upon the world. Before long the surviving humans are forced to live in a walled city where Fujio makes a living entertaining the upper classes using his jiujitsu skills in human versus zombie cage fights. Toronto After Dark Film Festival

indie games are fun

Check out Line Rider “beta” and try your hand at it. Then check out these crazy ass skills at YouTube. If these cats could introduce a sharing feature in the next version, either viewing or collaborative, this could be really sweet. ( tokyopia )

mid-term elections are coming up

Before deciding whether or not to vote in the upcoming mid-term elections, just ask yourself these related questions: With the five years that have passed since 9/11, what progress has been made against Al Qaeda, where has the bulk of our military effort been focused, and has it made the US any safer from terrorist attack? Do you feel we are on the right path? Are you happy with the way your tax dollars are being spent? Are you satisfied knowing that Americans are still being injured and killed in a war that has been proven to have been initiated by the US under false or mistaken pretenses? Vote, and then we can ITMFA .

so you think you live in a hole?

“ The biggest hole in the world ” (some in the linke site’s Comments claim it is not the biggest hole, though it may be the most dramatic) (thanks, timK!)

digitally simulatious

These artists need a new hobby: Representational vector art from Adobe Illustrator . Make sure to contrast the actual vectors (linework) against the color composites. This stuff is insanely detailed, and at least as representative of the source material as, say, a Playboy centerfold, post-airbrushing... ( gizmodo )

on quality

Whenever I use wikipedia, I try to hit the Random Article link once after finding the information I was actually there to get. Usually it links to some stub article that has no bearing at all on anything of interest. And sometimes I strike gold : “Dr. W. Edwards Deming taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations can increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs (by reducing waste, rework, staff attrition and litigation while increasing customer loyalty). The key is to practice continual improvement and think of manufacturing as a system, not as bits and pieces.”

one million ways to die

A revised look at the Threat Level alert system, and what things are actually likely to affect us, via Wired News: One Million Ways to Die : S E V E R E Driving off the road: 254,419 Falling: 146,542 Accidental poisoning: 140,327 H I G H Dying from work: 59,730 Walking down the street: 52,000. Accidentally drowning: 38,302 E L E V A T E D Killed by the flu: 19,415 Dying from a hernia: 16,742 G U A R D E D Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536 Electrocution: 5,171 L O W Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949 Terrorism: 3147 Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554

utility tarot

The Modern Arcana ( jwz )

computing relevance, real time

“The first new idea was called ‘Area of Relevance.’ Somewhat like ‘Level of Detail’ for graphics (or Stephen Hawking’s Time Cones—depending on your preference), it’s a set of circles that emanate out from you, and the amount of data that we send back depends on what can actually affect you at a distance. A good example of this is the sniper scope. When you’re not using the scope, we send less information about players that are a long way away from you—for example, the exact direction their head is facing—but when you zoom in with the scope, we tighten that cone (and area of relevance) and again send this data with more regularity.” GameSpy: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars

sign of the crapocalypse

( wigu LJ )

cowfrog

The name of this short film, “ ウシガエル ” translates to “cow-frog” The technology, such as the rotary-dial cellphone, is charmingly rendered. ( 4rthur )

free gold

“This month, the lovely people at Microsoft have decided to let gamers experience Xbox Live Gold for over a week from 20th to 29th September so everyone can play together. This free week will be brought to you by Windows Live Spaces. This means if you have a silver account, it will magically turn into a gold one with their magic fairy dust, meaning you can play multiplayer between those dates for absolutely nothing, so we’ll see you on Live. Stay with Club Skill for more gaming news when we get it through our internet tubes.” (via Google Alerts )

blade-o-rama

According to the only fan-site I can find for the show, there will be a Blade: The Series marathon this weekend on Spike TV: (...) Spike TV this upcoming weekend (Sep. 9th and 10th). It looks like they’ll be playing all 12 previously aired episodes (counting the pilot as two episodes). The marathon will include this Wednesday’s episode as well. The marathon goes from 2 PM - 7 PM Saturday and Sunday. This is a great chance to catch up and if you’ve got some friends or family that you’re trying to get hooked on the show, this marathon provides the perfect opportunity to show them why it’s such a great show. I’ve only seen four unconnected episodes so far, but it shows a lot of promise. I’m just about to purchase the “season pass” through iTunes Music Store. iTMS was what introduced me to the show; the pilot episode and one other were given away for free through it, and after finding a few more on P2P, I am hooked. The show is structured along the lines of Babylon 5 or 24 , where thing

webisodes?

Battlestar Galactica Season 3 will be preceded by a series of 10 webisodes called The Resistance , starting Sept. 5 and broadcast every few days until the (presumably) standard broadcast season premiere.

8, 9, 3

Grotesque, and grotesquely prolific director, Takashi Miike’s live action movie to promote the newly localized videogame, Yakuza , is up for viewing at the Official Yakuza Website . ( kotaku )

kirk leads by (bad) example

Star Trek inspirational posters. I encourage you to make your own ...

“that’s hot”

Banksy targets Paris Hilton (...) the “guerrilla graffiti” artist Banksy has taken aim at the cult of empty celebrity and its current poster child, Paris Hilton. The secretive artist has smuggled 500 doctored copies of Paris Hilton’s debut album into music stores throughout the UK, where they have sold without the shops’ knowledge. Independent Online ( stereogum )

for. the. win.

Over at Crooks and Liars, check out Keith Olbermann tearing into Rumsfield for his inappropriate, ironic, and indignancy-inducing comments that we, as Americans, should temper our right to criticize government. Go. See. Now. Both in Quicktime and WMV. (thanks, Sean )

scrap art

Animal sculptures made from scrap metal. ( Make Blog )

civil war 2.0

Vertigo is offering Brian Wood’s DMZ issue #1 for free download as a PDF. ( warren ellis ) In the near future, America’s worst nightmare has come true. With military adventurism overseas bogging down the Army and National Guard, the U.S. government mistakenly neglects the very real threat of anti-establishment militias scattered across the 50 states. Like a sleeping giant, Middle America rises up and violently pushes its way to the shining seas, coming to a standstill at the line in the sand—Manhattan or, as the world now knows it, the DMZ.

not just whistling dixie

From dj BC, the creator of the famously cease-and-desisted Glassbreaks ( bittorrent ), comes Wu Orleans —mashups of Wu Tang Clan and dixieland jazz. Three songs are available for direct download, and the full album is being distributed through the all-but-unstoppable BitTorrent from the outset this time. It’s as cool as you’d think. (thanks, Sean )

this is where the party ends

A clever, funny, but not entirely friendly review of the TMBG oeuvre at Complete Idiot’s Guide to They Might Be Giants : Don’t let’s start with praise; let’s start with insults: Nerds. Geeks. Art majors. Jingle writers. For a lot of folks (your author included, at first), that pretty much sums up They Might Be Giants — the prolific darlings of college radio who launched themselves two decades back by recording a silly song a day on their answering machine.

web 2.0 summarized by implied contrast

Flickr gallery of known logos that have been given the web-two-point-oh-ver.

ipod video tagging made easy-ish

Apple does not make every tag that iTunes uses available to the user. And sometimes there are bugs (shock, gasp) even in Apple software. This is why videos tagged with TV Show do not show up in the predictable manner in the iPod's menu, but there is no way to correct it from within the application. Fortunately, an application called Atomic Parsley allows users to get access to those tags and write those tags, themselves. Unfortunately, AP is a shell-based, command-line-interface program, which makes my 25-years-removed-from-DOS head a litte bit frightened. So it is extra nice that the oddly named but nicely Aqua-GUI’d Parsley is Atomically Delicious handles AP-style tagging in a user-interface that is simple and direct. Now most of my TV programs are in the right place! Blissful viewing during train commutes, let me tell you.

GO TEAM VENTURE!

Adult Swim’s excellent series, The Venture Brothers has unexpectedly snared me like the invisible arms of The Phantom Limb! It has been all I can do to keep myself from watching the episodes in a single sitting. Apparently I am not alone in my enthusiasm; Wikipedia has entries on each and every character, episode, and even hypotheses on characters who only make brief appearances—the high geekery speculation the likes of which I’ve not seen since the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back . There are plenty of fansites in addition to the purely collaborative wikipedia. The creators are down with the love they’re getting from the fans. On the internets, in addition to the Adult Swim site’s Flash games and wallpapers, you can find the Official website with sounds, interviews, and other links, and there’s character and storyboard art at Chrisis Church of Art / Lovelace Pop Art , and series news and insight from Jackson Publick at his LiveJournal, Publick Nuisance . Anyway, Seaso

もえもえ

A review of Rumble Roses XX: I Feel All Tingly Mama! , a game which caused the Japanese rate-of-purchase of Xbox 360s to triple: Extras include unlockable costumes and humiliations for Queen’s matches, concept art and the like, create a character mode, and photo mode. Create a character is like Weird Science only you don’t have to wear underwear on your head unless you want to and every woman you create looks pretty much the same except for hair and skin color. Photo mode is just what it sounds like. All the joy of taking pictures of half naked women cavorting together without those nasty restraining orders and sex offender lawn signs. You can even share the pics online with other men who are still recovering from fervent masturbation. You can play the game online, but the one time I tried no one was using voice chat out of what I can only imagine was a strong sense of shame. Having played the original Rumble Roses , playing the sequel is much like leaving your girlfriend for a superm

dirty deeds, which should have been DIY, done not-so-cheap

Consumerist is reporting " Circuit City Flouts The DMCA For A Tenner " - Is this widespread? I am stunned that anyone would pay for this service, but even more stunned that a major retailer would offer a service that so clearly involves software that is in violation of US federal law. Incidently, I am using Instant Handbrake to get DVDs onto my iPod, and find it to be the the cat’s pyjamas. ( Make blog )

jerks gone wild

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to find out that the guy behind Girls Gone Wild is a jerk. It is surprising to find out just how much of a jerk he is: Joe Francis, the founder of the Girls Gone Wild empire, is humiliating me. He has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back. He’s pushing himself against me, shouting: “This is what they did to me in Panama City!” It’s after 3 a.m. and we’re in a parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago. Electronic music is buzzing from the nightclub across the street, mixing easily with the laughter of the guys who are watching this, this me-pinned-and-helpless thing. Francis isn’t laughing. He has turned on me, and I don’t know why. He’s going on and on about Panama City Beach, the spring break spot in northern Florida where Bay County sheriff’s deputies arrested him three years ago on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and promoting the sexual performance of a child. As he yells, I wonder if this is

free multiplayer shooter coming

Much like Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory , starting August 17th Sierra will be giving away F.E.A.R. Combat (Windows), the multiplayer component of their popular horror-themed shooter. You can sign up for notification at the link. ( GameSpy )

“poor, unfortunate sooouuuul...”

( randompictures )

dirty DIY deeds, done dirt cheap

MAKE Blog, when not obsessively fascinated with LED “graffiti scrunchies” is one of the most consistently intriguing sites around. It is amazing to see what happens when smart (and presumably childless) people have enough free time to turn common household cruft into purest lo-technofetish gold . I might be able to put one of these tensegrity tower things together someday. Not sure why, other than they look really cool. Not this goofy cell phone holder ; maybe a lamp-stand. These DIY Shuffle headphones are the cat’s pyjamas. ( MAKE: Blog )

music - free danger doom

At the official adult swim website, they are hosting free downloads of Danger Doom - Occult Hymn , music tracks featuring adult swim characters. ( hip2besquare )

wakka wakka, gene, get your tongue out of that girl

My cousin, Marcus, reads this blog so I naturally thought of him when I ran into this massive collection of KISS covers from KISS Army Sweden. When Marcus was into KISS, it was about the point where I was enjoying The Muppet Movie and other Henson-created projects; so I was happy, and baffled to simultaneously find this collection of Muppet Albums at Copy, Right .

the men who run the world

( coop’s blog )

you people never tell me anything

Directed by Christopher Nolan of Batman Begins and Memento fame, The Prestige is about a rivalry by two 19th century magicians played by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale. It also has Michael “my name is Michael Caine” Caine in it, so what’s not to love?

the most stupid gamers, perhaps ever

Some light reading for you tabletop RPG fans out there. Both are oldies but goodies, and worthy of review from time to time: The Gazebo Story The Head of Vecna What is strange is way I have read these stories has changed over time. The Gazebo Story was originally a tale of how lame and stupid the player was, though it has transformed into a cautionary tale about communication for me. It isn’t simply the player’s fault that the acts occurred. The DM definitely should have trotted out a more helpful description when it became clear that the player was not aware of the situation. But then it wouldn’t be so funny. There might be a corollary for The Head of Vecna , but it can be hard to avoid stupidity in groups. (thanks, Monty )

better than the prequels

Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (episode 1) ( YouTube link ): This is the kind of future that weepy, soppy, spoiled Hayden Christianson’s prequel-Vader would probably have faced. ... Man, what happened to that badass from A New Hope ?

comment on comments

My first post in a long while was greeted exuberantly by a flood of fifteen, simultaneously posted, vaguely worded Comments, sprayed all throughout various entries, in a sad attempt at using me for SEO tricksiness. So it looks like some newfangled abuse is allowing spammers to see when I update and to barrage me with crap, like some kind of high-powered sniper-spam-rifle waiting for me to pop up my head. The short version: I have turned on Comment Moderation, so your comments will not go up until I have approved them. This may cause a brief delay, but it seems better than the password option that other Blogger journals seem fond of requiring lately—those damned things never work for me.

wasteland comic

Get a sample of Oni Press’ Wasteland - One Hundred Years After The Big Wet . Unlike most free, downloadable previews, instead of making it a bloated, nasty PDF, they are offering individual JPEG files, or even CBR and Bit-Torrent distributing, to boot. Just like bootleg comics, but “for reals.” (warren ellis’ BAD SIGNAL)

don’t kawaii for me, argentina

Kawaii Not : “the webcomic for cute gone bad!”

specially modified automated massage chairs

This hidden camera prank features the ubiquitous, coin-operated massage chairs at Japanese hot-spring resorts. These particular seats are at a ski lodge’s mini-spa, which features a new variation on the indoor-outdoor hotspring theme. Censored, but still potentially NSFW. ( YouTube link ) ( tokyopia )

Poor Marketing Research Leads to Bad Names

Poor Marketing Research Leads to Bad Names Originally uploaded by chronovore .

KORGOTH!

While it lasts at YouTube, Adult Swim’s new Korgoth of Barbaria : a loving send-up of Conan, Thundarr, and Heavy Metal . (thanks, weezie )

to live and die in LA

Well, the circle of the LA containment area extends up into Orange County, thereby enveloping Fullerton in the space that LA’s old spooks re allowed to move in. Jones doesn’t live there: he lives in the Chemosphere, up in the Hollywood hills (in real life, of course, the publisher Benedikt Taschen lives in the Chemosphere). I’ve been deliberately vague in the book about where the Chemosphere is, just as I've been deliberately vague about other locations -- which has gotten me weird hate mail from a writer at CBR. The introduction of the notion of supermodernism in #1 says it all—I don’t think of LA as an honest geographical space, a place where people stay, a place where traditional cities happen. As a native said to me on the first day I ever spent there, LA isn’t a city—it’s a handful of towns strung together by a thousand miles of freeway. The biggest constructions in the area are not designed to be lived in, but to be traversed. It’s a place that became designed for machines, n

“we love copy”

《SOFTHARD ALLIANCE》v.s.《weapons of mass creation two》v.s.《Arctic Rangers》 - 香港好相似設計_WE ARE FROM HONG KONG, WE LOVE COPY : I don’t know what it is, but that Tamiya plastic models tribute picture is way rad.

tiki bar; go for the free drink recipes, but stay for “lala”

(blame timmeh)

Bateman365 An animated film a day for a year!

People who follow the excellent cover song blog, copy, right , are already familiar with Sawa Kobayashi’s jazzy rendition of Guns and Roses’ Patience . Now you can see a video for it, as Scott Bateman has animated it as part of his project: Bateman365 An animated film a day for a year! (thanks, amy !)

i want a new toy (oh-ay-oh)

Google has released a new Browser Sync tool for Mozilla Firefox. If you run multiple instances of Firefox across home and work machines, this extension will keep your bookmarks, passwords, cookies, and browser history synchronized. Some customization is available. Extension synchronization is not yet supported, but this is otherwise a godsend. ( ars technica )

ohayou gozaimasu!

Japanese TV personalities really have it bad when they stay over in hotels. The staff are apparently all-too-willing to hand over a guest’s room keys in the name of entertainment. This results in early morning wake-up calls featuring mafia tommy-gun attacks, bazookas, and other really unpleasant ways to wake up. Actually, if you want to see the TV programming I regularly contend with, you should keep up with TV in Japan , a blog devoted to such sanity-damaging broadcasts.

on motivation

Gamasutra: Where do you feel the fans factor into the decision-making process of a game based off a comic or other intellectual property? Do you think a more independent comic would have a better chance of making good game, since they don’t have this large and potentially rabid fan base? Doug Tennapel: No, because…I’m going to piss some people off here, but I don’t care what the fans think. I love my fans, but never ever design a game for your fans. When you originally made the thing, the thing that all the fans liked, you made it because it was good, and they came to you, because of what you did. Your instincts lead you correctly in that instance. So to suddenly change that formula, and follow what fans want and redesign something in the image that you think, second-guessing, that they will like, would create a different thing, that isn’t you and probably isn’t good. And you will always lose fans by doing that. — Digging For Worms: Why Doug Tennapel Doesn’t Care What His Fans Think

domo arigatou, mr. found objecto

The kinetic, robotic sculptures of California artist Nemo Gould: N E M O M A T I C

van hee-haw

“Dave performing Jump with a southern flair on Jay Leno. Promoting the new Strummin’ With The Devil Van Halen tribute CD.” YouTube - David Lee Roth on Jay Leno (thanks, lee)

why i have been so damned busy

Gamasutra Yuke’s Opens North American Publishing Office : Osaka Japan-based game development company Yuke’s Company, Ltd. has announced that it has opened its first office in North America, Yuke’s Company of America.

junchth mail’yeh

DEAR GREEGOR COSTUKUN: I am Raptar Leansiku of the Leng Plateau National Bank, and and am acting in this matter for Narlit Drovasi, the widow of Khorim Drovasi, whom you may know as the deceased leader of the Leng Initiates Cult, assassinated by the previous regime prior to the Puce Revolution. Ms. Drovasi informs me that as treasurer of the United States chapter of the Sons of Nyarlathotep (Reformed), you are a trustworthy person. I trust your discretion in this matter. The Rev. Drovasi left an estate valued at more than 37 million lekhmas ($8.6 million USD), along with a series of artifacts that cannnot adequately be valued, including a folio of the original edition of a work known as the Necronomicon, as well as what I am assured is an original member detached from the body of Nyarlathotep, the Goat of Million Years. For reasons I do not care to discuss at present but an happy to address on further correspondence, Ms. Drovasi wishes to move these asset from the Republic of Leng to t

遊びセックス

I am enjoying playful sex, and so should you. Well, Asobi Seksu, at least. Mystery and Misery’s review of their new album , has some downloadable tracks, Citrus and a few more songs here and at False 45th . Update: As Chris points out in Comments, the band is also available through the US iTunes Music Store ( iTMS ).

le parkour, mon freres

Our favorite SF le parkourriffic movie Banlieue 13 will see an English language release soon as District B13 (thanks, weezie and timk)

his own creations (not m.o.c.)

Plasmic Bricks : Insanely ornate sculptures crafted from Lego bricks. ( laughing squid )

tiny armies

Lego Star Wars minifigs have “loudhailers” (bullhorns) instead of proper weapons. Sure, those quasi-guns can be more easily adapted to any other purpose than a gun would, but Lego has plenty of other single-purpose pieces in their offerings. Lego has long tried to avoid making toys that are tightly focused on fighting and warfare, including vehicles and weaponry. So it only makes sense that there is a cottage industry that has sprung up around filling this need. BrickArms.com produces modern weaponry, in case you want to run Counterstrike style battles with your minifigs. Little Armory does medieval weapons as well as nicely accurate replicas of popular science fiction weapons; but unfortunately appear to be sold out of... every little thing. Which is a shame, really; wouldn’t it be nice to have your minifigs properly kitted out when you re-enact the Donnie and Marie Osmond Star Wars Musical ?

i’m not dead

My company’s first North American game is in the final production phase; every day the whole world feels like it’s moving a million miles an hour. Regular posts to resume shortly (I hope).

i want this skateboard

Hand painted plank by Ashley Wood .

in summation

This last week, I was unable to attend E3 for the first time in seven years. For the same reason I was unable to attend, I have been too busy to keep up with the media covering the conference. Thankfully, someone has edited Sony’s E3 2006 Press Conference down to the most critical one minute of content.

ps3 = US$500 or more

IGN: E3 2006: SCE Conference Reports 6:42 —Kaz takes the stage again. He wraps up everything we’ve seen—the best technology, the best graphics, a new controller, and much more. And one more surprise... the PS3 launch details. Two configs—one with 20 gigs—$499; One with 60 gigs—$599. Two million planned for launch worldwide at launch, another two million in time for the end of 2006 and another 2 million by March 2007. Holy mackerel, that is a lot of semolians for a game machine. And the new Minna-no-Golf makes the cute-anime-models look so cute and realistically plastic , it is like watching a midget in doll fetish zentai kigurumi playing the back nine. Related PSP news: Creepy underage fetish video to bring new popularity to UMD in Japan

dork epilepsy fit predicted

In a desperate bid to appeal to an alternate-universe version of myself in which the arrested development has taken on a kind of chronic, consumeristic fever pitch, someone has dreamed up and brought to reality G.I. JOE vs. TRANSFORMERS , featuring GI Joes and even some robot Janes. I was enthralled with the revamped GI Joe line when they went from the 12" figures to the small, micronaut scale figures. I never got into Transformers; I thought they were a rip-off of the Japanese mecha that I was watching from age 6. (linked via Seiburtron , though I have no idea how I ended up there)

phantom menace takes the dubious #3 spot

3. Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace For almost 20 years we waited, pined, and yearned. And then it happened: George Lucas announced that Star Wars — the greatest phenomenon in all of pop culture history — was coming back. Untold throngs went giddy — an honest-to-God cultural fervor erupted, and not just among geeks and thirtysomething fanboys. And then it sucked. It sucked a gigantic, meaty mountain of ass. I’m through with living in denial: George Lucas’ prequel trilogy more or less sucked from beginning to end, and nowhere was this risible fiasco more apparent than in Episode I — The Phantom Menace — a title that alone warrants damnation. I don’t use the word “sellout” often because the term itself has become so cliché, but George Lucas is the absolute definition of the word. He took one of the world’s most beloved science fiction universes and turned it into a goddamn farce: laughable racial caricatures; vile, unsympathetic protagonists who deliver ridiculous dialogue in a

“to fear death, gentlemen,

is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know. No one knows whether death may not be the greatest of all blessings for a man, yet men fear it as if they knew that is is the greatest of evils. And surely it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know. — Plato, “The Apology,” Socrates

my nipples just got super-hard

Superman Returns ; Brian Singer’s sequel to the Richard Donner films looks... just amazing. I was worried Singer would blanket Superman in the dark, edgy, brooding vibe that describes the X-Men so well, but he has nailed the feeling of the first movies and successfully brought it into the present. I suddenly find myself looking forward to this movie.

rolling a critical success against their LUCK stat

Passing defibrillator salesman, RNs save heart attack victim in Missouri crash “It looked like he was a goner,” said Santa Barbara City Councilman Brian Barnwell, who was among the 300 people attending the $250-a-plate event. Several doctors in attendance immediately began working on the man ane revived him by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Paramedics then took him to a hospital where he recovered. Man Suffers Heart Attack In Room Full Of Cardiologists A driver who suffered a heart attack and crashed into a guardrail was saved by a defibrillator salesman and two nurses who happened to be passing by. The salesman, Steve Earle, was transporting an automated external defibrillator, a device used to shock the heart into a normal rhythm. “When I saw what was happening, I jumped out and instinctively grabbed the AED, just in case,” Earle told KSDK-TV of St. Louis. (thanks, kevin!)

get a mac, get a life

The new Get a Mac TV spots are all up at Apple.com; I like the Network one, where the cute Japanese camera asks the Mac, “Doesn’t he seem like an otaku (dork)?” Other than that, they still seem a bit elitist, a problem in perception mac-heads have always had.

a tale of two worms

The Worm Within —a tale of an American in Belgium who found a trespasser in his person. (...) but the beef worm could grow more than just a few meters; it would keep adding to its body, lengthening and snaking through the miles of intestine. I have it on good authority that, with the small and large intestines combined, it could reach the moon, loop it twice, then come all the way back down to earth and you’d still have enough left over to play skip rope with. New Tapeworm Fad Diet Sweeps Hollywood — The Weekly World News . “You can eat whatever you want and never worry,” confides one dieter who claims to have lost 73 pounds in eight days.

free 3D tools

Google bought SketchUp a little ways back. As predicted, there is now a free (personal use) version of it available. There are video tutorials . How cool is that? Windows version available now. Mac version coming soon.

a focus group. with cats.

Wondermark by David Malki; 165: In which Opinions matter (This observation could not be any more brilliant if it had a searchlight attached to it.)

The Ultimate War Sim

I want a War Sim... ...where I spend two hours pushing across a map to destroy a ‘nuclear missile silo,’ only to find out after the fact that it was just a missile-themed orphanage. I want little celebrities to show up on the scene and do interviews over video of charred teddy bears, decrying my unilateral attack. I want congressional hearings demanding answers to these atrocities. On the very next level I want to lose half of my units because another ‘orphanage’ turned out to be a NOD ambush site. I want another round of hearings asking why I didn’t level that orphanage as soon as I saw it, including tearful testimony from a slain soldier’s daughter who is now, ironically, an orphan. Every War Sim has a ‘Fog of War’ that obscures the map in darkness until units scout the landscape. Well, I want a hazy, brown ‘Fog of Bullshit’ layer below that. I want it to make a village of farmers look like a secret armed militia, I want it to show me a massive enemy fortress where there is actually

“war is a racket”

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.” (Smedley) Butler came forward to the U.S. Congress in 1934 to report that a proposed coup had been plotted by wealthy industrialists to overthr

hack license

As cultural critic and New School University professor McKenzie Wark sees things, today’s battles over copyrights, trademarks, and patents are simply the next phase in the age-old battle between the productive classes and the ruling classes that strive to turn those producers into subjects. (...) Wark’s opus A Hacker Manifesto brings together England’s Enclosure Movement, Das Kapital, and the corporate ownership of information—a process that Duke University law professor James Boyle called “the Second Enclosure Movement”—to create a unified theory of domination, struggle, and freedom. Hacking is not a product of the computer age, writes Wark, but an ancient rite in which abstractions are created and information is transformed. The very creation of private property was a hack, he argues—a legal hack—and like many other hacks, once this abstraction was created, it was taken over by the ruling class and used as a tool of subjugation. — A Hacker Manifesto review at MIT’s TechReview

mercenaries 2?

Pandemic Studios, makers of Destroy All Humans and, more dear to my heart, Mercenaries , has launched a mysteriously named “ everybody pays ” site for their to-be-discussed Project Q. It looks to me like it must be a sequel to Mercenaries ...

a round up of the crooks we should be rounding up

Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger. — Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials Over at Empires Fall , you can read topical events involving the affluent effluent that are currently enjoying power in America. It’s hard to believe that what should be a marginalized cadre of small-minded, grotesquely conservative frat boys, has taken their agenda and procured a lock on all three branches of government. Where we are supposed to have checks-and-balances against each branch we have instead have glad-handing, political ass-cov

zombie prose for your braaaainszz

If you love zombie movies, you should read Monster Island , by David Wellington. It follows the tropes of cinematic zombie lore, and pays its respects to the genre, all the way to the ending! It goes beyond homage to incorporate some insightful ideas that are new, and makes interesting use of the media (prose instead of film) to good effect. While Monster Island is entirely self-contained (unlike the pandemic it describes), there are two more novels following it, which I am about to greedily download: Monster Nation , and Monster Planet . The first book is soon to see print; there are plenty of links at the site to online retailers. All three books are available in their entirety to be read online, or even on your iPod. If anyone is using Plucker , it’s a cinch to download and read on your Palm device.

i suggest the highlights reel

Quake Deathmatch finals: Thresh vs. Billox : It looks like Billox was probably bad in previous life, and the shut-out, complete humiliation heaped on him by the shiva-like, contextual god of death that Thresh personifies in this match, can only be some kind of karmic retribution.

beware of new tricks on old debtors

Apparently datamining techniques used on large piles of cheaply purchased old debts is turning into a major business opportunity for unsavory characters. It’s one thing to go after people who still owe money, but these companies are commonly going after people whose debts have passed the statute of limitations, and are even able to illegally influence our mysterious yet all important credit rating while they’re at it. Crap, this doesn’t even have to be an official business; just take this home-brew if you need a new kind of Start Up business. There are already phreaks out there cold-calling to get AmEx numbers . Why not skip ahead a step, purchase a list of old debtors, and actually have a foot to stand on?

free comics online

Read free Image Comics online. I recommend The Walking Dead , and Invincible , both by Robert Kirkman. Or you can check out a nostalgic one-page of Frank Miller’s Batman taking on Osama Bin Laden in Holy Terror !

yakuzploitation?

NERSFW horrifyingly non-PC female yakuza exploitation flick trailer that features more questionable content than you can shake a broken bottle at. However, if this is your thing, there is a guide to this whole “pinky violence” subgenre available to you. On a side note, if you ever get tired of watching Shintaro Katsu being such a cool good guy in Zatoichi films, check out a couple of Kamisori Hanzo (The Razor) movies to increase your sense of moral dischord. (inspired originally by this boingboing article)

the clichés are accepted as fiat

Arriving in a new town for the very first time, dressed in a confused mishmash of brown leggings, a priestly robe, chain mail jerkin, leather gloves, three magic rings, a large amulet necklace and a pointed wizard's hat, any number of distraught mothers will approach me and beg that I find their missing children/husbands/swords. The Escapist - Quest for Glory

the war on tanuki

Some people link Pom Poko with eco terrorism. What do you think about that? Takahata-san laughs. “I did not know about this point of view. They consider the tanuki to be terrorists? But they are the victims. The film depicts a drama; it is the end of a world, the end of the tanuki world. I wanted the viewer to look from the point of view of the animals and try to make us perceive how our world appears to us seen from the outside. However, the terrorist label does not disturb me. Today, terrorists are public enemy number 1. But historically, terrorism was sometimes a mean of asking attention of the established society. This state of mind existed until in the seventies. Terrorism sometimes had the capacity to make the world or people reflect on their condition.” —from an interview at Ghibli World

negadon arrives

Earlier I posted about Negadon: the Monster from Mars , a CG homage to the Toho/Toei rubber monster schockfests of yesteryear. It’s now on sale for ¥3360. If, on the other hand, you prefer your rubbery monsters to solve their differences singing and dancing instead of fighting, you can wait for the Bollywood version , Negatandoori . It features a 20 minute musical number of unprecedented scale featuring a dance-off between the Japan Monster Self Defense force and the titular monster.