Saturday, February 25, 2012

Vintage Illusions: Oldies but Goodies still Baffle Brains

The concept of optical illusion is as old as man himself. Notwithstanding the lack of any written trace the first human beings certainly would have noticed optical phenomena such as mirages, the size of the Moon at its zenith, sticks or poles which appear to be broken in two when half immersed in water, or a negative image after having looked at the sun.
Vintage Illusions are still mind bogglers despite the years. Here’s three examples:

Published as a postcard, this work (left) by James Montgomery Flagg from 1913 is called “Map of the World”. As you can see (in the planisphere) a girl’s face is hidden. The artist is better known as the poster artist who created the image of a finger pointing Uncle Sam with the slogan “I want you!”.



The Painter Salvador Dalí is the author of a great many surreal canvasses, also of this photomontage (right), created from two photos which show some skiers coming down a slope and a box or bed of puppies.
The bodies of the skiers becoming the eyes and noses of the puppies…
 
Yes, our grandfathers too were great teases and appreciated 'subtle' naughty allusions and jokes!
Like this drawing which plays on the ambiguity of bald headed gentlemen that appear also as the large chest of the lady.
Postcards with optical allusions such as this were in the early past of the last century printed in their millions.
text & graphics source

Tear Off Those Ties! There’s No Good Reason To Wear Them…

The word from the WiseFather today:

"The Dilbert"

In today’s edition of Crap You Don’t Need, I bring you the necktie.
For some reason, men (and occasionally some women) are forced to wear a strip of overpriced fabric around their necks.  Before I investigate the true origins of this custom, here is some wild speculation.
Ties demonstrate the wearer’s willingness to submit to asinine traditions.  It sends a good message when you show up to your interview wearing your own leash.  If this guy conforms to this, he’ll have no problem with wage slavery.
Perhaps ties are a phallic symbol.   It could explain why it’s a guy thing.  It could also explain why some people find women wearing neckties kind of creepy.  Either she’s growing one (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or she’s appropriated one in a Lorena Bobbit way and has decided to make it an accessory.   For the younglings out there, go ahead and Google Lorena Bobbit.  You’ll have a good laugh or a nightmare; maybe both.
If the necktie idea is phallic,  I fear the trend setters will one day evolve their custom and force us to wear erect ties.  The style will be called “The Dilbert.”

It will make eating difficult, and we will eventually be banned from wearing ties while driving. However, the engineering involved in creating such a marvel would be interesting to see. I’ve heard they are doing wonderful things with carbon nanotubes.
Now, scanning the interwebs about the true origin of the necktie reveals that the custom has no practical purpose.  That’s right:  you’re not wearing that fancy silk tie to keep food off your less expensive shirt.  It’s all fashion.


Finally, here’s a more sensible reason

for wearing a tie…

News with No Views: Scattered Snippets from the Hinterlands

Happy birthday to actor Abe Vigoda, who turns 91 today! Yes, Abe Vigoda is still alive. No, I’m not kidding.

Vigoda's longevity has turned him into a punchline, a standing joke representing all those actors and actresses who are still with us, but seem perhaps like they might have passed on years before.

No insult to the man intended, but when there's a website (abevigoda.com) solely devoted to which side of the dirt you're waking up on, you've got to acknowledge and have fun with it.

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The term "red tape" has many mythical origins, but the National Archives believes it has the right answer: red ribbons were used to bind piles of government documents dating back to the Civil War. Opening the files required someone to "cut through" the red tape.

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Just how long a relationship will last can be predicted by the amount of "love hormone" in the bloodstream of a newly smitten person, a new study says. Researchers measured levels of oxytocin in people who had recently begun relationships. Six months later, the couples with the higher levels of oxytocin tended to still be together, while the others had split.

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Your cell phone and your shoes have whole communities of microbes living on them, as distinctive as the germs on your fingers and in your mouth. Among the bacteria that typically live in your pocket are the relatives of nasty bugs that can cause pneumonia, meningitis and gonorrhea. In contrast, the soles of your shoes could harbor bacteria related to E. coli, salmonella and the microscopic critters that cause pink eye.

 

 

The ‘Vomit Comet’ is coming soon – Will you be ready?

  Good Day Humboldt County!

The future has always fascinated people and guessing what it’ll be like has been a favorite subject of science fiction writers since Jules Verne.

The road to roller coaster fame is dotted with such legends as “The Cyclone” at the Pike in Long Beach (below) during its glory days, and Coney Island’s “Hurricane” that left more than one rider puking their guts up. It seems people never get tired of screaming and hurling in the name of entertainment. Make ‘em sick, and they’ll come back. Here’s the latest way to lose your lunch:   

“Think about the tallest, wildest roller coaster you've ever been on. If a Southern California design firm has its way, you haven't felt anything yet. BRC Imagination Arts is proposing a "zero gravity" roller coaster that would give thrill seekers a stomach-churning ride including at least eight seconds of microgravity.

The proposed ride takes cues from NASA's KC-135A aircraft, which was used to train astronauts and test equipment for spaceflight. The aircraft, nicknamed "the Vomit Comet," flew specific flight paths to mimic various states of microgravity.”

The Vomit Comet would be more than a theme park attraction according to it’s creators:

“While the Vomit Comet would be primarily for entertainment, Bob Rogers, BRC's founder and chief creative officer can foresee scientific and research applications. Experiment time on NASA's KC-135A, or other planned suborbital vehicles, is expensive and can sometimes involve a lengthy testing and approval process, he noted.”

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Friday, February 24, 2012

Another new sneaker release riot: What the hell is the matter with these people?

The launch of an expensive new basketball shoe — timed to Orlando's hosting of the NBA All-Star Game — triggered a melee Thursday night at Florida Mall that was quelled by deputies in riot gear.

The wild scene erupted about 9:45 p.m. as hundreds of people packed the mall's parking lot, hoping to buy the new shoe at midnight.

As the crowd grew, a large contingent of Orange County deputy sheriffs arrived, braced for problems.
Similar shoe releases have caused violence at shoe stores across the country.
Two people were arrested on trespassing charges Thursday at Florida Mall. A third person — a woman — was arrested this morning for fighting outside Foot Locker.

Here’s the difference between citizens serving their communities & politicians supposedly serving the public…

One day a florist went to  a barber for a haircut.

After the cut, he asked about his bill, and the barber replied, “I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this  week.” The florist was pleased and left the  shop.

When the  barber went to open his shop the next morning, there was a “thank you’ card and  a dozen roses waiting for him at his  door.

Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replied, “I cannot accept money from you, I'm doing community service this week.” The cop was happy and left the shop.

The next morning when the barber went to open up, there was a “thank you” card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.

Then a  Congressman came in for a haircut, and when he went to pay his bill, the barber again replied, “I cannot accept money from you. I'm doing community service this  week.” The Congressman was very happy and left the shop.

The next  morning, when the barber went to open up, there were a dozen Congressmen lined up waiting for a free  haircut!

And that, my friends, illustrates  the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the  politicians who run it.

BOTH  POLITICIANS AND DIAPERS NEED TO BE CHANGED OFTEN AND FOR THE SAME REASON!

The Blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek: family mystery solved

Illustration of Martin Fugate & his family (© Walt Spitzmiller)

  Good Day Humboldt County!

Today, we’re taking a stroll down memory lane. Are you feeling blue?

Remember when a despondent Kermit the Frog sang "It's not easy being green"?

Well it isn’t easy being blue either. I mean literally blue-skinned. People with the condition have no connection to so-called Blue Bloods.” No, the blue-skinned people we’re talking about today all belong to one family!

News Snippet: 

“Benjamin "Benjy" Stacy so frightened maternity doctors with the color of his skin -- "as Blue as Lake Louise" -- that he was rushed just hours after his birth in 1975 to University of Kentucky Medical Center.

As a transfusion was being readied, the baby's grandmother suggested to doctors that he looked like the "blue Fugates of Troublesome Creek." Relatives described the boy's great-grandmother Luna Fugate as "blue all over," and "the bluest woman I ever saw."

In an unusual story that involves both genetics and geography, an entire family from isolated Appalachia was tinged blue. Their ancestral line began six generations earlier with a French orphan, Martin Fugate, who settled in Eastern Kentucky.”  (Read the rest of the story here.)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Flat Green Surface Becomes 3D!

 

 

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The artist behind this monumental achievement is François Abelanet.

See more of his work here.

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Turkeys Took over TV: Why did we let it happen folks?

                         You may have noticed.

Turkey’s are running and programing TV programs throughout the country.

All TV programs. From the news full of views, to rednecks catching big ugly fish with their fists, there’s been a movement afoot. Turkey scratchings showing senseless images of people doing stupid things.

Somehow, rafters of turkeys have consolidated their clueless agendas into our lives while we sat drooling in front of the vast panorama of boob tubes stretched across the country.

It was bound to happen. Minds were turned to mush the moment the American family gathered around little oval screens in huge cabinets and watched blurry black-and-white images of commercials selling Alka Seltzer and Ipana tooth paste.

I didn’t just notice. I just decided to vent about it. To lament the dumbing down of America. To sigh with sadness as little girls dressed up like slutty women parade on shows that must be considered “candy” to pedophiles. Where have we gone so wrong?

The turkeys don’t have limits. Nothing is too half-baked, or raw, to make a hit series. No amount of shows humiliating fat people, little people, or just plain stupid people (I’m thinking “Jackass”) seems to be enough. There’s constantly new shows coming out trying to butter up an increasingly jaded public.

As It Stands, the final irony is we have met the turkeys…and they are us! Gobble, gobble, gobble…

art source

A California Culinary Cult: ‘In-N-Out’ burgers expanding to Texas

During my high school days in Azusa, California, my favorite hamburger came from “In-N-Out,” not from the nearby McDonalds. It was the FIRST In-N-Out location. Someday, the building should be enshrined as a place to visit the birth of the best hamburger in the state.

Back in those days, a cheeseburger and fries from In-N-Out cost a tiny bit more than McDonalds, so most of the kids I knew went to Mickie’s D’s for financial reasons. I went to Mickie D’s most of the time for the same reason. But, when I wanted a treat, it was off to the In-N-Out on Azusa Ave. My future brother-in-law lived in a little green house right next to it. Whenever my friends and I visited him he’d buy us those wonderful burgers and fries.

In-N-Out has always had a mystique based on quality, scarcity (fewer than 250 locations), and apocryphal tales of secret menus and lavish, six-figure pay for employees. It's a quintessential southern California attraction— the first stop for savvy out-of-towners on the way out of LAX. The rare restaurant opening has been known to alter a city's traffic patterns and bring hours-long lines and news helicopters buzzing overhead.

In-N-Out is welcomed where other fast food outlets are not. Love for the double-double burger is publicly professed by chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Thomas Keller and influential food writers like Gourmet's Ruth Reichl and Jonathan Gold. Even Fast Food Nation's muckraking Eric Schlosser gives it a thumbs-up.

 There are no freezers, microwaves, or heat lamps at an In-N-Out. Nothing is ever frozen—even the hamburger beef is butchered at their own SoCal site, which has kept outlets within a day's drive of that location. No meal is prepared until the customer orders it, the fries are cut by hand in the store, the shakes are real ice cream, and burger prices hover around $3. Except for the addition of 7-Up and Dr. Pepper, the menu has barely changed in its 60 year history.

Now the big news is that In-N-Out is planning for expansion. The company is opening a regional office and second distribution center in Dallas, making it possible to open new outlets within driving range of the fresh hamburger patties it produces in Texas. Three new locations will be up and running this spring. Maybe by April 1st. And that's no joke.

Family stumbles across the rarest collection of football cards in America

                         Good Day Humboldt County!

  As we walk down the road of life, we sometimes stumble upon good fortune. A side road to riches  not traveled by others. A turn of events that can change our lives. As surprising as a Jack-in-the-Box, these moments pop up when we least expect them.

       Today’s story is a good illustration of what I’m talking about:

 A Michigan family was cleaning out an old farmhouse and accidentally stumbled across a long-sought after collection of football cards worth thousands of dollars and considered perhaps the rarest such collection in history. The set is highlighted by an "anonymous" card of former Harvard football player John Dunlop, which was first issued in 1894.

The Dunlop card alone is reportedly worth $10,000, according to Lou Brown, president of Legends Sports and Games. "If it was in the right condition, it could be worth up to $60,000," Brown told Yahoo! News in a phone interview.

There are only 10 Dunlop cards known to still exist, with some valued as high as $18,000. The entire collection is the first ever to dedicated to football players. And since there was no NFL at the time, the set focused entirely on the nation's 35 best Ivy League college players, according to the site FootballCardShop.com. You can view some of the other rare cards from the collection here.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Trump's Lowest Grift Ever Saved for Holy Week

This is a story about how the devil's puppet, aka Donald Trump, mocked Christianity by selling a book combining the Bible, the Constitu...