El Ensueño [The Daydream], 1931 – Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Mexico’s first significant fine art photographer.
This gelatin silver print was estimated to fetch between £40,000 – £60,000 at auction by Christies’s in 2007. The hammer price was £126,500, or $261,223. Not bad for a black-and-white photo smaller than your average letter-sized sheet of paper.
Found at Frog Blog
Corner of Oplatelova and Wenzelsplatz. Found at Glaserei.
Only in Japan, right?
Wine-spa at the Yunessun Spa Resort
Even tailpipes are kawaii.
And these are only two examples of the myriad head-scratchers to come out of Japan. The only fair thing to say about Japanese culture is that it’s really, really different from ours, and given the nature of cultural differences, it’s not our place to judge.
This little gem makes me laugh hard; I wish I had one on my shelf, just because it’s so wonderfully offbeat. Say hello to God Jesus, the fortunetelling robot created by Bandai in the 1980’s.
God Jesus is a plastic robot brandishing a crucifix, a bizarre cross (no pun intended) between The Clapper and a Magic 8 Ball. Think of a question and clap your hands, and God Jesus will either shake his head from side-to-side to indicate “No,” or nod his head to indicate “Yes.”
Want to find out if you’ll be lucky in love? Let God Jesus tell you the answer!
The boy is asking, 彼女はぼくのことを好きなのでしょうか。 どうぞお答えください。(Would she like to be my girlfriend? Please answer me.)
Poor kid… So heartbroken his glasses fell off. This model looks eerily like I did when I was that age. People even told me I looked like Ernie from “My Three Sons.”
The girl is saying 彼はわたしのことを好きなのでしょか。 どうぞお答えください。(I think he would like to be my boyfriend. Please answer me.) God Jesus tells her “Yes,” and she’s happy.
God Jesus needs to get his act together.
The instructions tell you how he operates – the video below shows God Jesus in action.
Now, a lot of people I know would be mightily offended by this and consider it blasphemy, but they don’t understand… It’s Japan. The Japanese live in a society where religion – even their own – plays very little part in their daily lives in terms of driving moral choices; an interesting blend of Shinto, which stresses veneration of ancestors, and the “middle way” of Buddhism. Religion for the Japanese has more to do with tradition and a link to the past than it does with spiritual guidance, except at a very meta-level. Add to this the fact that the average Japanese man or woman knows less about Christianity than the average Evangelical Christian knows about Kimbanguism. It’s just not on their radar, other than to know a large percentage of the world worships a big guy in the sky who can do everything. It is entirely possible that the clapping function may tie in to the Shinto tradition of omairi.
So in that framework, this toy makes perfect sense. It becomes a curiosity, much like our own Charley Weaver bartender toy, or the singing bass.
This example is the best one I have found out there – it shows Charley’s face turning red and smoke coming out of his ears.Apparently God Jesus is extremely rare, and few working examples are know to exist. A bit of digging turned up an interesting bit of trivia:
“What few people know, though, is that this was a tie-in to God-Jesus and the Cyberama Seven, in which the second coming was a robot, and the cybertronic savior did battle with various flying killer tortoises and huge insects and resurrected dinosaurs, all of whom were trying to plant fossils in the ground to muck with the heads of scientists and make them think the Earth was older than six thousand years. An animated show, it ran only three episodes and aired only once.” (Found at NeedCoffee)
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Meal in a cake! Recipe at Chow.com
This looks like a lot of work, but would be a real hit at a large gathering.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
I cannot believe I had forgotten about this wonder. I had one of these… wish I still did, just because it’s awesome!
Well, I’ll have to be content with my TOS phaser, which trumps it for geekitude but not for deliciousness.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
A workman rests atop the frame of the Empire State Building. Found at acidcow.com (where many more wonderful pictures can be seen).
The Old Wolf has spoken.
(Cross-posted from my Livejournal)
Robert Ripley was one of my favorite reads when I was young. It was sort of like StumbleUpon today, if you select “bizarre/oddities” as a subject. I couldn’t get enough of it. In those days, there was no Snopes, no Google, no Wikipedia – nothing really to check the veracity of Ripley’s discoveries – many of which were true, others… well, let’s say he was an entertainer more than a scientist. But I always remember this:
A CONDEMNED man, locked in a death cell in San Quentin prison, fashioned a deadly bomb from a deck of ordinary playing cards and blew himself into eternity. It was the most ingenious gallows-cheating device ever conceived in the brain of a doomed man.
Kogut then took the small bits of colored cardboard to the wash bowl and soaked them in water. Then he took the soggy mass and tamped it into the piece of metal tubing as if he were loading a blunderbuss. A broom handle was next utilized in the construction of this strange bomb. The handle was pounded tightly into the end of the tube making the interior air-tight.
This diabolically cunning man knew that playing cards were made of cellulose – a fiber from which trinitrocellulose, a powerful explosive, is made.
The bomb was now ready. Cautiously he took down a small combination oil heater and lamp and lighted it. Over the tiny flame he held the explosive mess, while steam and gas generated within the tubing. After a time the pipe grew hot. Everything seemed ready so he leaned over with his head close to his deadly toy.
How long he waited, no one knows.
Just as dawn tinted the grey prison walls, a terrific explosion occurred. It rocked the countryside for miles around, roused prison guards from their nearby homes, and tumbled prisoners from their cots.
Prison alarms were sounded, guards ran madly to their posts, thinking perhaps the blast might be a signal for a general prison break. Rushing to the condemned row, the excited guards stopped, utterly horrified, before the shattered cell of Number 1651.
The walls were dripping crimson.
William Kogut had cheated the hangman!
I got to wondering… true or false? Snopes records it as true, but describes the explosion as simple pressure of steam in a closed-up pipe sufficient to drive bits of playing card into Kogut’s skull, not the earth-shaking bang that splashed Kogut all over the walls and destroyed the cell to boot.
Barb Mikkelson wrote, “Kogut removed a hollow steel leg from his cot, tore several packs of playing cards into tiny pieces, and stuffed these bits into the pipe… He plugged one end tightly with a broom handle, and poured water into the other end to soak the torn cards. Then he placed his device on top of the kerosene heater… the heater turned the water to steam, adn when the pressure built up to a high enough level, the resulting explosion shot the bits of playing card out of the pipe with enough force to penetrate Kogut’s skull.”
Sciencepunk.com quoted an article in Gargles.net giving a bit more science behind the nitrocellulose angle. While I respect Snopes and the research that Ms. Mikkelson and her hubby do, usually in-depth and convincing, in this instance I tend to go with the science. If an open pipe is plugged on one end by a broom handle, and on the other end by soggy playing cards, I suspect any steam building up in an open pipe would pop the sodden mass out with some force, but not enough to penetrate a skull. The other scenario implies that the pipe was closed on one end, and tightly sealed with the broom handle on the other. In this case, chemical reaction or no, it’s conceivable that the explosion could have had enough energy to kill Kogut… but from what I can tell, the blast was more powerful even than that, and the nitrocellulose story is highly likely.
Only Kogut knows what went down, and the story has passed into the realm of barely verifiable lore… but it’s interesting to know that whatever the case, Ripley got this one right.
Verdict: Believe it!
I am deeply indebted to the twisted mind of Dru White, a former colleague of mine, for this bit of whimsy. If you enjoy it as much as I did, you have only yourself to blame.
Of course you passed high school chemistry. Maybe you even made a through a college course or two. But a little knowledge is a dangerous thing–especially when it comes to chemical equations. See if you can keep yourself and others alive for the next ten days. All it takes is a little knowledge of chemistry. Mark your choices, then check the answers to see if you know enough to survive.
You are at home cooking and suddenly a fire starts on the top of your stove. You are frightened and look for a quick way to douse the flames. There are three jars containing different chemical compounds on your cupboard. Which do you. toss onto the fire?
❑ A) NaHCO3 ❑ B) CS2 ❑ C) C7H3.
Some of your food keeps getting a bit of mold on it. You search for a compound that will help prevent the mold, but won’t hurt you when you eat the food. What is best to put on the food?
❑ A) As2O3 ❑ B) C17H23NO3 ❑ C) C3HsO2Na.
You have developed a bit of an infection. You really should take something for it before it gets any worse. What would you like to have?
❑ A) C9H11N2O4SR ❑ B) C6H6Cl6 ❑ C) C17H21NO4
Your allergies have been acting up again, and you have a bad insect bite on your arm. You need some medication with a good compound to help that allergy, and an ointment with something to make that insect bite feel better. You want plenty of which compound in your medication?
❑ A) H2SO4 ❑ B) C18H21ClN2 ❑ C) C20H12
When you ride the ferry across the bay you sometimes experience a little nausea. A drug with something to help you feel better would be nice. After all, nobody likes to feed the fish. Which will you take?
❑ A) CH2FCOONa ❑ B) C17H19N2SCl ❑ C) C19H26ON2
After examining one of your more careless patients, you conclude that this person has a case of gonorrhea. You go to your locked cupboard and find three possible forms of medication. Which do you choose to administer to the anxious sufferer?
❑ A) C6H8N2O2S ❑ B) C21H22N2O2 ❑ C) C10H14N2
You stop by the local fast food restaurant and pick up some french fries. They seem somewhat bland today, so you grab something from your laboratory shelf to sprinkle on them. Which did you grab?
❑ A) NaCN ❑ B) KCN ❑ C) NaCl
So you’re going to the beach for a little sun. To which kind of compound do you choose to expose your sensitive body so that you won’t get sunburned?
❑ A) HCl ❑ B) CH3COSH ❑ C) C6H4NH2COOC2H5
You are very concerned. The vet told you over the phone that it sounds as if Fido has parasites. There must be something fast and effective to make him more comfortable. What will it be?
❑ A) HCN ❑ B) C10H8O ❑ C) CCl3NO2
Well, doctor. Here it is your last day. A patient has a bleeding problem during an operation. What kind of compound do you wish to administer to make the blood coagulate better?
❑ A) Cl5H16N3SClAnCl2 ❑ B) C15H15N2CON(C2H5)2 ❑ C) C6H5COONa
Give yourself a point for each correct answer.
(A) Good choice. You got the fire out by smothering the flames with ordinary baking soda. It looks like you will make it to day two.
(B) Sorry, but carbon disulfide is a highly flammable, poisonous solvent. I’m afraid you haven’t made it through the first day.
(C) Whoops. Toluene is a flammable, poisonous hydrocarbon, originally from the balsam of Tolu. It is used as a solvent, and to make dyes and–ah, yes–even explosives.
(A) Arsenic trioxide will simply not fill the bill. However, this arsenic compound is great for exterminating insects and rodents.
(B) Oh, my. If you picked this one you are in big trouble at mealtime. Hyoscyamine is a very poisonous alkaloid. No time to call the doctor.
(C) Correct. Sodium propionate is one of your standard mold preventives.
(A) Congratulations. Penicillin has been the choice of many doctors for years now.
(B) I don’t think you will see much improvement. This powerful and poisonous insecticide, benzene hexachloride, just doesn’t seem to do the trick.
(C) Why not? Who knows, maybe a little cocaine will help your infection. (But I have my doubts.)
(A) Ouch! And double ouch! I don’t think sulfuric acid will have the desired effect. Though it is good for making dyes, paint, and explosives, I’m afraid its corrorsive nature may not promote healing.
(B) Good choice. Chlorcyclizine is an antihistamine for allergies and is also used in medication to sooth insect bites.
(C) Benzopyrene, which comes from coal tar and cigarette smoke, has been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals. You struck out on this one.
(A) Sorry, you’ll never squeak again. Sodium fluoroacetate is a powder used as a highly effective rodent poison.
(B) Chlorpromazine is the correct choice. In addition to its use to control nausea, this compound is also used in medication to help treat certain mental disorders.
(C) Wrong. Curarine is a toxic alkaloid made from a South American plant. Natives use the poison on the tips of their arrows.
(A) Good choice, doctor. Sulfanilamide is used to treat streptococcal infections.
(B) Sorry, it looks like malpractice time. The strychnine you administered. seems to have cured your patient’s problem permanently.
(C) Nice try, but nicotine is not commonly used to treat this type of disorder. In fact in this pure form it’s rather fatal.
(A) Negative. Though sodium cyanide is also a salt, it is highly poisonous one. I hope you have a valid will.
(B) You couldn’t have done much worse. Potassium cyanide is an extremely poisonous compound. It is used for extracting gold, electroplating, and as an insecticide. But it just doesn’t go well with fries.
(C) That’s correct. Common table salt is the best and safest choice.
(A) This will be the worst sunburn you’ve ever had. Hydrochloric acid can even be worse than the sun’s harmful rays.
(B) Sorry. If you try putting this allover you, you won’t feel so comfortable, but you will probably have plenty of elbowroom on the sand. After all, tear gas (thioacetic acid) usually keeps crowds back quite well.
(C) That’s right. Benzocaine is also used as a local anesthetic.
(A) Well, Fido is gone to that big pound in the sky. Hydrocyanide acid is used as a fumigant. This poisonous gas just doesn’t go well with pets.
(B) Good choice. Betanaphthol is used in medicines as a parasiticide. Fido will thank you.
(C) Goofed again. Call the pet cemetery. Chloropicrin is a poisonous gas used in chemical warfare. (And we though Fido was your best friend!)
(A) That’s right. Toluidine blue is used as a coagulant in medicine. Maybe you’ll even be able to collect your bill this time.
(B) I don’t think lysergic acid diethylamide will stop the bleeding. All LSD does is cause psychedelic hallucinations.
(C) Nope. Sodium benzoate is great for preserving food, but not so good for preserving patients.
8-10 Correct: Excellent. You are a true expert in this field.
6-7 Correct: Very good. You either know a lot or are very lucky.
4-5 Correct: Good. You must be a high school chemistry teacher.
2-3 Correct: Fair. The law of averages was on your side.
0-1 Correct: Need help. Eat only all-natural foods.
The Old Wolf has spoken (and needs help).
The last two years have been brutal on all of us. Now that it’s all over but the shouting, I can get these thoughts down “on paper” (how long will that expression endure, now that we write with electrons?) so that they are no longer rattling around in my head.
It’s all rather counter-intuitive, you know. I’m a Mormon; Mr. Romney is a Mormon; Mormons are supposed to vote for Romney. Q.E.D.
But it wasn’t as simple as that. In fact, I was agonizing about my choice even as we drove to our polling station, as I had since both nominees were declared official, and didn’t make my decision until my finger was hovering over the choices.
I voted for Mr. Obama in 2008 for one reason: the thought of Sarah Palin any closer to the White House than 3718 miles was absolutely petrifying. I still ask myself what the hqiz John McCain was thinking when he signed off on such an abysmal running mate. My two penn’orth is that he singlehandedly threw away the election with that one move.
But that was then, and this is now.
I volunteered during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and watched Mr. Romney turn the event from a scandal-plagued bid process into a public relations success, a brilliant sporting event (despite the Russian judge-buying debacle), and a money-maker, the latter quite a rarity as far as Olympic games go. There’s no question that he has business acumen, and from where I sit, someone with his kind of experience was just what our country needed to pull itself out of a frightening economy burdened by a massive debt load. Despite my own pain, I was all ready for some sorely-needed austerity measures to stop the tsunami of red ink gushing from the national ledgers. So I supported Mr. Romney’s campaign, contributed what few shekels I could, and hoped for the best… and then the campaign started in earnest.
Each election cycle, I think to myself that the politicking couldn’t possibly get any uglier. Each election cycle, I am wrong. The parties and the pundits and the talking heads savaged and gutted and demonized each other to an extent I would never have thought possible. The rumors, innuendo, outright lies and saber-rattling pronouncements about the character, parentage, habits, beliefs and intentions of both candidates made me wonder if old Solferino had come again.
Through it all, I tried to keep remembering that neither man is a saint nor a demon. Obama is a Chicago politician (a breed not known for high ethical standards), but seems to be a decent person as an individual; Romney is a member of my own faith and I trust that he is a good man at heart, but there are some things about his business dealings which give me pause. That said, I have no doubt in my mind that both men sincerely believe that they have the best interests of our nation at heart. Trim off the lunatic fringes of the bell curve, and I think most Americans want basically the same things, although there is no solid consensus about how to get there.
So once the irrational calumny is subtracted from the equation, I was left looking at overall philosophies and party platforms, and even that was not an easy call to make.
Our nation is struggling economically; our outgo far exceeds our income, and businesses and people are failing right and left. Republicans in general and Mr. Romney in particular are bullish on business, and one of the Republican candidate’s skills is knowing how to turn a failing corporation around. Unfortunately, if a corporation is to survive and become competitive and profitable, that usually involves layoffs; taken to a national scale, the idea is sound for the corporation but lousy for the employees. The other downside is that you favor business, you favor the wealthy, and engender abominations like Citizens United. As I mentioned here,
“This level of disparity [between the wealthy and the rest of us] is mind-boggling, and even moreso that it continues to be permitted. Demanding that corporations and the wealthy pay a fair share of taxes is not “forced redistribution” of wealth – it’s just plain old human decency and common sense. As I’ve said elsewhere, “trickle down” economics is insulting even at the semantic level. If our nation is going to regain any sense of the greatness it once had, and the equality of opportunity implied in “lifting a lamp beside the golden door,” the trickle must of necessity become a torrent.”
Then there’s the “morality” question. First, let’s put to rest the idea that we can’t legislate morality, because we regularly do. Rape is against the law, child abuse is against the law, stealing is against the law, murder is against the law, and people are afforded all sorts of legal protections that fall under the rubric of the protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That said, the Republican party and the Tea Party (it’s extreme subset) have been co-opted by the religious right to an untenable extent. They seem bound by their covenants not only to live whatever religious laws they have accepted as right and good, but to impose those conditions on society in general. Some of the pronouncements about rape and abortion from right-wing candidates this cycle have been absolutely chilling, and that doesn’t sit well with me.
I have my own thoughts about these matters. I think the ideas outlined in the LDS Church’s Proclamation on the Family are sound. I wish every child could be born into a stable, loving, supportive family; I wish people would opt for adoption instead of abortion, which I consider the shedding of innocent blood. But those are my ideas, which cease to have any validity beyond the tip of my own nose. I can exhort, invite, and entice, but curtailing the agency of others is not a box I feel comfortable living in. The Church’s 12th Article of Faith states “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.” Last time I looked, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, which as far as I’m concerned is the end of that debate.
On the other side, the Democratic platform has some planks in it that disturb me. I’m all for providing equal opportunity for all, and a safety net so that no citizen of our country is deprived of basic necessities, but I’m not sure where the money is going to come from, and I’m diametrically opposed to adding to the national debt. I think we need a more rigorous approach to the issue of immigration, and I’m opposed to blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants, which is unfair to all those who came to our country through the front doors, in the duly appointed way. There are other party positions that I don’t agree with as well, so my vote for Mr. Obama should not be construed as a blanket approval of all the party stands for.
But in the end, as my finger hovered over that screen, I asked myself one question: “Which candidate will work to build a world that works for everyone, with no one left out?” That is my goal, my reason for living, my passion. Today’s Republican party strikes me as essentially elitist and exclusionary, and the Democratic party continues to be more egalitarian and inclusive.
If I was to vote my conscience, I had no other choice.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Playing in the World Game 