Candidate Calculator

WQAD News in Illinois has this handy little list of questions that show which presidential candidates you're most aligned with. A simple little tool for the coming election season.

Burma Raw Video

Here is some raw video taken from the streets showing the uprising and subsequent violence:

Photos

Our Lady Of Angels Cathedral photographed during recent - and rare - Los Angeles storm. More shots here courtesy of Cathedrals of California.

Tokyo Blog

The Tokyo based PingMag design magazine has a good blog about Japanese stuff. Here is a graphic outside a train station: something about a remedy for constipation!

Bukowski Home For Sale

There is a movement to save the bungalow apartment of Los Angeles' favorite drunken poet and novelist, Charles Bukowski. The unit at 5124 DeLongpre is set for demolition. Places like these are L.A.'s version of the Chelsea Hotel in New York. You can see a photo and join the fight here.

Test Your Friends

Amir Vehabovic, a man in Bosnia, staged his own funeral as a hoax. When only his mother attended, this is the letter he sent to his friends. Courtesy of Harper's.

To all my dear "friends,"
Some of you I have known since early school
days, others I have only forged a relationship with
in the last few years. Until my "funeral," I considered
all of you close friends. So it was with
shock and, I admit, sadness and anger that I realized
not one of you managed to find the time to
come and say goodbye to me when you heard I was
to be buried. I would have understood if just some
of you came, bearing flowers or words of apology
from others who could not make it. But no. Not
a single one of you turned up to pay your last respects.
I lived for our friendships. They meant as
much to me as life itself. But how easy it was for
you all to forget the pledges of undying friendship
I heard on so many occasions. How different our
ideas of friendship seem to be. I paid a lot of money
to get a fake death certificate and to bribe undertakers
to deliver an empty coffin. I thought
my funeral would be a good joke-the kind of
prank we have all played on one another over
the years. Now I have just one last message for you:
My "funeral" might have been staged, but you
might as well consider me dead, because I will
not be seeing any of you again.

Hair Makes The Man

Trim Project by Big Rocket shows before and after shots of blokes' haircuts in London. More hair changing here at Creative Review.

Stripper Polaroids

Polaroid portraits taken of strippers who interviewed at a Southern California club in the late 60's. Via Flickr.

Twister Photos

Susan Silton manipulates photos of tornadoes to create these ominous images.

Bears Attack Submarine

These great images over at Fogonazos remind me of the excellent Cold War film "Ice Station Zebra" (reportedly Howard Hughes' favorite film). There's something about subs surfacing through ice that has always fascinated me - a surreal image I'd love to witness for real.

American Immigration To Canada

From the Harper's Index:
Percentage change since 2004 in U.S. immigration to Canada: + 46

Duck Versus Cougar

Mascots duke it out here.

Chemical Brothers

For cellophane66's 200th post, here are some cool fish from a video by Chemical Brothers.



How they made the video here.

More George

If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy, old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens. Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie. - George Carlin

The Human Quality Of 9/11

As it seems that everyone in the world summons up the memory of 9/11 to promote their own causes, often the human experience is lost. This cartoon at Cox and Forkum captures the simple reality of the day.

Left Right Brain Function

New York University political scientists have done a study to see if liberals and conservatives are "wired" differently. Interesting findings here via Physorg.

World's Fair 1965

Check these photos at Flickr from the New York World's Fair 1965

Photos

42 photos of vagabonds via Ziza.

Network Self Promotion During Sporting Events

Once every few days I see something on network television that makes me understand why cable TV is kicking network TV's ass. Here's one. Last night I watched a bit of the opening NFL game on NBC. I watched about one quarter of the game. During that time I was subjected to about seven of the same spots promoting a new show on NBC called "CHUCK"
I was in a bar and the sound was off, so all I know is that the show is about some guy who works in a Staples kind of store, and there's a girl who is a secret agent or something. But all I really need to know is that I'm glad I didn't watch the whole game because I would have been forced to watch twenty or thirty promos for this friggin' show.
That's too many.

I know they do research on this kind of stuff, and it probably works - but they also do research on how to best pull somebody's tooth.
I can tell you with certainty - when I watch a promo for the tenth time, this is what I am NOT thinking," Wow, that show didn't look so good at commercial three, but now I am compelled to mark it on my calendar!"
What I AM thinking is, "F**K! It's another commercial for CH**K!"

This "promotion fatigue" is most apparent if you are a poor soul who watches a six or seven game baseball playoff. By game seven, you've seen the same spot for the same dopey show fifty times. I don't want to see ANYTHING fifty times.
So please back off a bit, I mean ... oh, sorry, it's almost 8 o'clock, and my favorite show is about to start. It's on HBO.

Arrivederci Luciano

An unlikely duet - but a great tribute nonetheless:

Very Short Film

passenger ship to mexico (there and back)
running time: 55 seconds

Graphic

1954 Franco American advertising graphic courtesy of Plan 59

Leona Helmsley's Hostility

It's one thing to solidify your reputation as a bitch in life, but Leona Helmsley's will ensures a legacy of hostility. 12 million dollars to the "drop-kick" dog while discarding two of your grandchildren seems pretty angry to me. I don't know the details, but the perception will be forever.
The two grandchildren who did receive money are required to visit the grave of their father, or they get zilch. How awkward will that once-a-year event be? A witness/executor standing in a cemetery with two people, and then they get a check.
I only wish I could be one of the receiving grandchildren. I would go to the cemetery, take the money, and give half to the others who were left out.
Epitaph? Leona Helmsley - Angry.
Read the story. Then take a shower.