Monday, March 31, 2008

Photo


Heavyweight fighter Carl Morris in New York City, November 13, 1911.

Computer Generated

CG getting a little more "real". Link.

Friday, March 28, 2008

No Eiffel Do-over?

Shucks.

Eiffel Tower Project


The Eiffel Tower sprouts a flower.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Vintage Japanese Pillboxes


Via PingMag.

Submarines Under Ice


There's a cool piece over at the New York Times today about the 1970 voyages of the submarine, Queenfish. A new book called "Unknown Waters" recounts the sub's cold war adventures that were quite treacherous.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Secrets To The Art Of Acting

Monday, March 24, 2008

Clown News


Not exactly news but sufficiently clowny. Courtesy of Pathetic Geek Stories.com

Photos



New York photographer Yiftach Belsky. Self portraits in video surveillance monitors. More photos.

Graphic


Stetson Ad 1950. Via Plan 59.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Quote

"When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months...."He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place - George Carlin

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Iraq War: Five Years

An interesting link over at Reuters today about photographers working in Iraq. Bearing Witness: Five Years Of The Iraq War.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Wim Hof

The Dutch Iceman:

Monday, March 17, 2008

Photo


"Bobby 1963- Dody's backyard Tucson Ariz." via Square America.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Caucasian Preferences

There's a list over at Stuff White People Like that's pretty darn accurate. Here's number seventy four.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Puddle Blog

I'm glad to share the blogosphere with this puddle.

Maybe It's True

My gut feeling about Saturday Night Live in an earlier post seems to be playing out as true.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Sweet

Swiss sugar ads here.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Photo


April 22, 1912. Lolo (Michel) and Edmond Navratil, survivors of the Titanic disaster whose father went down with the ship. Lolo, the last remaining male survivor of the Titanic sinking, died in 2001.
Courtesy of Shorpy.

Friday, March 7, 2008

SNL - So Not Cool?

I've gone on record here several times in my support of Barack Obama. I think he's smart, positive, inspiring, and more than capable of handling the job. He has been a real force with young voters especially. For fans like myself, the Clinton night in Texas and Ohio was depressing to say the least.

I'm starting to hear a little chatter that the whole thing turned after the airing of Saturday Night Live's Obama Hillary sketch that mocked the media's adoration of Obama. I finally saw the bit, and it wasn't even that funny. He had been receiving good press, no doubt. The Clinton camp jumped on the idea, went on the attack, played the fear card, and gained from it.

These things take on a life of their own and are often hard to control. But if history records that SNL's sketch triggered some kind of turn in opposition to so many young Obama supporters, we may see in our lifetimes, the evolution of SNL from must-see coolest thing on late-night, to sort of not funny any more, to, for lack of a better term, totally squaresville, man!

21 Accents

Jetpack

1966 footage of a man flying with a jetpack at Disneyland.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Photo


By Geneva based artist Adrien Missika. More photos here.

Wal-Mart Growth

Watch it spread!

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Primary, Another Take

This from a reader post at The Daily Dish:

"You continue to repeat the idea that somehow this prolonged race for the nomination is a disaster for the Democrats. It is not the case. As an Obama supporter I am embarrassed by how we have all gone running and screaming about how "sleazy" Hillary's campaign is. This is nothing. We are not teaching McCain anything that Karl Rove has not figured out already. Moreover, last night was McCain's moment of triumph and he got all of five minutes of coverage. This battle for the Democratic nomination is wiping McCain off the news cycle. Sure, he can take the time to shore up his standing with conservatives but he can not introduce himself to voters if no one is covering him.
Karl Rove thinks it is bad for McCain, I can't believe it but I agree with Karl."

Primary Thoughts

After last night, I'm starting to get the feeling that the unusually positive race between Hillary and Obama will take a turn to the dark side, and they may ultimately cancel each other out. It seems Hillary won last night by going to the poop slinging, and sadly, that stuff works. Because this race will remain so close, the Clintons will probably go to court to get those Florida Michigan delegates, and then the whole thing is gonna get slimy.

After a protracted legal fight (read back room dealings) plays out, whoever gets the nomination is going to appear tainted by it. It's gonna be good feelings gone, and enough moderates and independents (along with angry Dems who didn't get their candidate) will drift toward McCain who's kind of a lib anyway.

But if the Democrats show this photo enough.


Maybe they'll win.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

March 4 Primary Day

Getting a sneaking feeling that Texas, Ohio, etc. isn't going to decide anything today. Does that mean we have to sit through more primary debates between now and June? Enough already.
This post at The Daily Dish sums up the nature of the choice:

"David Brooks describes the stakes in this election as between old and new politics. I take his point, but I do want to insist that this new politics of which we Obama-fans are talking is not some kind of millennialist, utopian fantasy. I don't think Obama has - or anyone ever will - abolish the human nature of political life: its combat, its competing interests, its partisanship, its necessary compromises. If I thought one man could do that, I should be given a Valium and told to take some time off.

No: the reason to back Obama is because this country is in a terrible hole. The economy is headed into the shitter, the dollar is plunging, soaring government debt and individual fiscal recklessness (now rewarded by the Fed's rate-cutting) have created the chance of a serious recession, the US is mired in a permanent occupation of a deeply divided failed state in the Muslim Arab world, and key American values - that we do not torture, that we rescue our allies - have been abandoned by a callow, incompetent president.

In the midst of this, we have a domestic politics that has become poisonously polarized by the cumulative impact of two decades of Dick Morris, Karl Rove-style politics and have lurched from one president whose every sentence was a carefully parsed legalism to one often in total denial about the reality he grapples with. We desperately need not some kind of new politics, but a return to reasoned politics, to leaders who, even when they disagree, can rationally explain how and why. Americans know we have deeply serious problems and are tired of deeply unserious posturing. Republicans have grasped this. That's why they actually rejected the most polarizing (Giuliani) and cynical (Romney) and facile (Huckabee) candidates, in favor of a serious man, who is at least open to opposing arguments and engaged in more than partisan hucksterism and nasty minority-baiting.

The Democrats, so far, have as well. Obama is simply more capable, more trustworthy, more reasonable and less partisan than Clinton. That's all. He is not a messiah, for Pete's sake, and I'm tired of being told that those of us who support him are somehow irrational or emotional. Above all, he will not breathe new life into the very pathologies with which we have all been consumed for too long. She will. Some of this is her fault; some of it isn't. I see my own attempt to move forward constructively impeded by the emotions she and her husband have the power to evoke. But her partisanship and divisiveness are not in my mind alone. She knows what she's doing - and, in my view, we cannot afford her any more.

If that is a new politics, fine. But only if "new" means an older, calmer discourse for newer, more perilous times. That's what Obama represents. And we have to keep focused on that, unless the easy and familiar habits of easy, tired politics prevents us from seizing a moment that history doesn't offer very often."

Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats

The folks over at Improbable Research give out prizes every year called the Ig Nobel Prizes.
The Ig Nobel Prizes, according to their website, "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology."

A 2005 winner was Dr. Yoshiro Nakamats. He won for photographing every meal he consumed for 34 years (!)
Nakamats is running for mayor of Tokyo. To drum up votes, he sang "Do Re Mi" on a street in Tokyo. The whole confounded thing is explained here with more links and video of his latest performance.

Monday, March 3, 2008

When Food Goes To War

Food Fight is an abridged history of war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict.
(Note: The croissants don't do so well)

Saturday, March 1, 2008

One Year!



cellophane 66 reaches its one year anniversary today! Thank you to all seven of my loyal readers.
Goal for 2008: increase viewership to double digits!

Breaking News. Just received an e-mail from one of my readers informing me that he will now be reading and commenting on a new website called World Of Jugs.com (he is making it his homepage) Ouch. I take this as a slap in the face on my site's one year anniversary, but I shall forge ahead.
Some of his critiques:

My posting of:
Notable quotes that are supposed to be profound, but in reality, are easily forgotten.
Short films that don't make any sense.
Links to crap for sale on Craig's List that nobody is interested in buying.
Artsy photos taken by weirdos.
News about clowns that scares people.
My pro Obama leanings.
Music videos of bands from countries that aren't on any maps.

And the absence of:
News about Britney.
Anything American Idol.
Photos of kittens.
Cool links about XBox games.
Videos of dumbs**ts lighting themelves on fire.

I will be passing these comments on to my reader feedback department where, after careful analysis (and further focus group input), new and incredible features will be added to cellophane 66. Looking forward to another wonderful year!