The parasitic worm Spinochordodes tellinii develops in grasshoppers and crickets, and like the Ampullex compressa, can control the behavior of its host in order to reproduce.
The organism is ingested while in microscopic larvae form. Once it has grown to adult size inside the insect's body, it chemically alters the host's brain to jump into water and drown. The parasite then exits, and swims away to go seek a mate.
In today's episode of Clutch Cargo, Paddlefoot the dog goes to outer space. It aired in 1959, a couple years after the flight of Sputnik 2 and its canine inhabitant, Laika.
Wikipedia says,
the show was the first to use the "Syncro-Vox" optical printing system, superimposing live-action human lips over limited-motion animation or even motionless animation cels. To further cut costs, Syncro-Vox was supplemented with other time- and money-saving tricks. Movement was simulated not by animation but in the real-time movement of the cel itself. Other live-action shots were superimposed as a means of adding a certain degree of realism and to keep production costs down. For example, footage of real smoke was used for explosions.
Don't touch that dial, kiddies. It's time for another abominable cartoon/live action hybrid, The New Adventures of Huck Finn:
In 1952, Bertrand Russell wrote, If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
In a similar vein, the following open letter was submitted to the Kansas School Board in 2005, around the time of the state's (successful) creationist hearings:
I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.
Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.
It is for this reason that I’m writing you today, to formally request that this alternative theory be taught in your schools, along with the other two theories. In fact, I will go so far as to say, if you do not agree to do this, we will be forced to proceed with legal action. I’m sure you see where we are coming from. If the Intelligent Design theory is not based on faith, but instead another scientific theory, as is claimed, then you must also allow our theory to be taught, as it is also based on science, not on faith.
Some find that hard to believe, so it may be helpful to tell you a little more about our beliefs. We have evidence that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe. None of us, of course, were around to see it, but we have written accounts of it. We have several lengthy volumes explaining all details of His power. Also, you may be surprised to hear that there are over 10 million of us, and growing. We tend to be very secretive, as many people claim our beliefs are not substantiated by observable evidence. What these people don’t understand is that He built the world to make us think the earth is older than it really is. For example, a scientist may perform a carbon-dating process on an artifact. He finds that approximately 75% of the Carbon-14 has decayed by electron emission to Nitrogen-14, and infers that this artifact is approximately 10,000 years old, as the half-life of Carbon-14 appears to be 5,730 years. But what our scientist does not realize is that every time he makes a measurement, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage. We have numerous texts that describe in detail how this can be possible and the reasons why He does this. He is of course invisible and can pass through normal matter with ease.
I’m sure you now realize how important it is that your students are taught this alternate theory. It is absolutely imperative that they realize that observable evidence is at the discretion of a Flying Spaghetti Monster. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to teach our beliefs without wearing His chosen outfit, which of course is full pirate regalia. I cannot stress the importance of this enough, and unfortunately cannot describe in detail why this must be done as I fear this letter is already becoming too long. The concise explanation is that He becomes angry if we don’t.
You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.
In conclusion, thank you for taking the time to hear our views and beliefs. I hope I was able to convey the importance of teaching this theory to your students. We will of course be able to train the teachers in this alternate theory. I am eagerly awaiting your response, and hope dearly that no legal action will need to be taken. I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
Sincerely Yours,
Bobby Henderson, concerned citizen. P.S. I have included an artistic drawing of Him creating a mountain, trees, and a midget. Remember, we are all His creatures.
Sometimes the only appropriate response to absurdity is more absurdity. If you'd like to join the Pastafarian Church, more information can be found HERE.
As I was searching interweb video sites for this film (which I have on dvd, but wanted to share with you primates by finding an uploaded version online), I happened across this weirdness, called They Sold Their Souls for Rock and Roll:
(It's a chore to sit through, but if you want to skip ahead, the best part is at the 22:00 mark where they do the predictable "backwards stairway to heaven" routine.)
If you think half an hour is too lengthy for a commercial, then stay away from the complete series. It's ten hours- ten hours! -long. If you're in for the ride, the whole thing is on Google Video starting here. Prepare yourself for "Scientology-instructional-video" levels of brain-rot. I only got a few minutes into it myself, as there's just so much fanaticism one can endure (almost as bad as going to church). Besides, life is too short.
In lieu of enduring ten hours of malaise and tedium, here's a highlight; We already know about the Beach Boys / Charlie Manson connection. And yet, of all the musicians in the world, the Beach Boys are among the least Satanic. "Wouldn't It Be Nice"? "God Only Knows"? The Wilson brothers even prayed together before every concert. How pious can you get? But here they are, making a case for Brian Wilson writing his songs while under demonic possession:
Of course Wilson heard voices. He was schizophrenic. He also had a very difficult childhood and an abusive father, so it's no surprise the poor guy was psychologically tormented. To demonize him for it is very insensitive. And unchristian. It's this sort of hysteria which led to the Salem Witch Trials.
Another highlight: they present supposed evidence that Madonna is, literally, a Siren:
It's so over-the-top as to almost make you think they don't believe it themselves, and are just trying to make money by selling tapes to superstitious fanatics. But then, a religious organization would never do such a thing.
Bonus Video: while hunting clips, I discovered this catchy little ditty, charmingly titled "Lucifer's Satanic Shredding" on the youtube page:
(-psst- one more related note - Since it was originally posted, all the tracks in "Metal Robots" have undergone re-recording and remixing multiple times over, and were newly uploaded as recently as this week. If you've downloaded or listened to it before, delete it from both your hard drive and your brain, light a black candle, sacrifice a goat, and upgrade your directive HERE)
We've all seen Freaks 100 times, so you already know who Johnny Eck is. But in addition to being an actor and sideshow performer, he was also "an artist, photographer, illusionist, penny arcade owner, Punch and Judy operator, expert model-maker, race car driver, swimmer, runner, tight rope walker, animal trainer, gymnast, orchestra conductor, train conductor and traveler." (wikipedia)
Incredibly, Johnny also had an identical twin brother. Identical, that is, save for the whole "missing legs" thing. This facilitated what may well be the greatest magic trick in history:
In 1937, Eck and Robert (his twin) were recruited by an illusionist and hypnotist, Raja Raboid, for his "Miracles of 1937" show. Robert would heckle the illusionist during a sawing-in-half illusion and be called on stage to be sawed in half himself. During the illusion, Robert would be switched with Eck and a dwarf, playing respectively the upper and lower halves of the body as Eck would chase his "legs" across the stage. Stage hands would pluck Eck up, set him atop the dwarf, and twirl them off-stage, replacing them with Robert, who would then threaten to sue Raboid and storm out of the theater. Though the act met with applause and laughter, Eck would later tell stories of audience members fainting, screaming, or fleeing the theater in terror.
Here's a little video of Johnny doing his thing. The soundtrack is truly heinous, so I recommend you turn the volume down and play the audio track instead. It's - what else - "Halber Mensch" ("half-man") by Einsturzende Neubauten.
(Johnny Eck was a truly amazing person who accomplished more in his lifetime than most "normal" people. He was 100% mensch. But still, I couldn't resist)
And what do you know, Pop-eye makes an appearance in this video as well! Score of scores!
Dear Shareholders, We're a few days late, but can't let that stop us from celebrating the first birthday of Futurechimp.com.
Futurechimp blasted off into the World of Tomorrow on March 20, 2008 with a post about the original Futurechimp, Ham the Chimponaut. After a couple months of meandering around with parodies and grab-bag posts of irrelevant topics, the blog started finding its footing around the time of the Feejee Mermaid post. The "golden age" followed, with well-researched topics in natural history and cryptozoology, atomic-age innovations in circuitry, and the latest chimp news. But eventually, the author seemed to have run out of interesting things to say, and went back to arbitrarily embedding goofy videos and links to other peoples articles, which brings us to the present. Here's what the attendance record has looked like for the past year:
As you can see, patronage climbed until November 2008 and has tapered ever since. This could be a reflection of quality, or possibly of our economy; less people have been working in the last few months, so they're doing productive things at home, rather than wasting their time on silly blogs at the workplace. But the fundamentals of Futurechimp are sound, and despite the lag in business, we will continue to provide you, the modern chimp, with the tools you need to defeat the humans in the near future.
Let's pass out some awards. We'll start with "Viewers' Choice". I've determined these based on stats from my sitemeter. Most of the posts were arrived at by Google searches, others were emailed between friends. I'm going by entry pages only, not by comments or personal feedback. These are the topics you chimps would evidently like to see more of in the future.
Unavailable on DVD, The Hellstrom Chronicle can be found in its entirety on youtube. This is the first segment. Click the window to be directed to the host site and follow the links to see the rest.
The microphotography is incredible (done by the same guy who shot Phase IV, a brilliant film which is readily available on dvd and netflix), but the narration is alarmist, to say the least. It was the early 70's; fears of dystopia were everywhere.
The thesis Dr. Hellstrom (a fictional character) presents, that insects will "win" the struggle for control of the earth over the humans, is fundamentally flawed and based upon the Biblical concept of dominion; nature is about balance, not conquest, and species come and go all the time to maintain this balance. But if you're the type of person who appreciates both science and irony, the paranoia element just adds to the fun.
Yes, The Scorpions. Sure, it's easy to dismiss them as a band for thickheaded adolescents, due to their florescent spandex and formulaic music in the mid-80's. Even more problematic are the sexist album covers, such as Animal Magnetism (bad) Lovedrive (worse) or Virgin Killer (crime against humanity).
But no one can deny: The Scorpions rock, their songs often have sophisticated arrangements, and they've been around since the mid-60's. Here's a video from back when they were "prog":
That's 16-year old guitar god Michael Schenker, who would leave the band after this album to join UFO. His brother Rudy (rhythm guitar) has stuck with the Scorps since day one, likewise for singer Klaus Meine (who is the subject of a heated debate).
My girlfriend found this dead giganto-moth in the sunroom this morning and presented it to me at my desk, like a proud housecat. I put it on a sheet of typing paper, quickly shot some pictures, and converted them into the best 3D photos yet. Inspired, I then photographed this dragonfly (which my girlfriend also found and gave to me a couple years ago, because she's cool like that).
Click on the pictures for larger size, then sit back a few feet for best results.
Try it for yourselves, chimps. Again, I used an old digital camera and 3Dmaker shareware. The left-to-right difference was 1/4", due to the close proximity. You'd shoot up to 3" difference for subjects at a far distance. Experiment.
Also, I just upgraded to anaglyphic glasses with polycarbonate lenses, which are a massive improvement in color saturation and skull-smashing stereoscopic intensity. They cost between $5 and $10 on amazon.com.
"Humans And Chimpanzees Genetically More Similar Than One Yeast Variety Is To Another" (from Sciencedaily.com)
There may be greater genetic variation between different yeasts of the same species than between humans and chimpanzees. This is one of the findings of a study from the University of Gothenburg that is being published in the scientific journal Nature. This study heralds a new era in evolutionary genetics research -- the mapping of an individual's DNA.
The mapping of the entire yeast genome in 1996 marked the beginning of a revolution in biological and medical research. The human genome was mapped in 2001, and by now the number of characterised species is approaching 1000, most of which are bacteria. The next advance is only a few years away – mapping the genetic evolution of individual multicellular animals, including humans.
"We shall then be able to identify the genetic causes of human disease and to understand how the process of evolution works when species are being formed," says Anders Blomberg, professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Gothenburg.
Anders Blomberg and his colleague Jonas Warringer are publishing a paper in the journal Nature, that to some extent leads to a new era in evolutionary and functional genetics research. The lowly yeast is, once again, leading the way.
In collaboration with the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, and the University of Nottingham, the Gothenburg researchers have succeeded in sequencing the DNA and characterising the genome properties (i.e. phenotypes) of 70 different individual organisms from two different species of yeast – the common brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its evolutionary cousin Saccharomyces paradoxus. The paper presents several interesting conclusions, e.g. that human alcohol consumption has altered yeast DNA.
"As humans transported wine and beer yeasts around the world, different yeasts have mated and recombined, so that the strains of today carry gene variants from various parts of the world. This mosaic pattern is not at all visible in our studies of another yeast that has not been exploited by humans," says Anders Blomberg.
The study also shows that there can be greater genetic differences between individuals within a particular species of yeast than there are between humans and chimpanzees. The DNA of individual yeast organisms can vary by up to 4 per cent, compared to the 1 per cent difference between the DNA of humans and chimpanzees. Another interesting observation is that individual organisms from the same species can have extra genetic material. Most of these "extra genes" occur at the periphery of the chromosome (the telomer region), which lends support to the theory that these areas are very important in evolution.
Have you recently lost a loved one? I know just what you need, provided the dear departed is an insect: The Dead Bug Funeral Kit.
Just look what you get, all for twenty dollars: a casket, a gravestone, a little fake flower, a burial scroll (which contains ceremonial instructions and is to be placed in the casket just before internment) and an envelope of grass seed to help tend your plot.
Best of all, you get a handmade book of eulogies, with illustrations and poems for 15 different insects. Let's read the one for the most deadly, most ruthless insect of them all, the praying mantis. Get those hankies ready, kids:
Due to demand, the people making these are in backorder mode. So if you have a pet bug, and want to do right by him after he departs this mortal coil, best to order one of these in advance. Death waits for no one. Paypal is accepted, so buy yours here.
Look, google video has the complete cut of Kenneth Anger's Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. Expand it to fullscreen and bask in its pagan decadence.
There's a synopsis of the film here, but it might be best not to overanalyze it; Mr. Anger isn't so much concerned with narrative, or even symbolism, as he is with invoking an altered state of consciousness in the viewer. Inauguration can be appreciated simply as a lush, evocative work, with characters and archetypes inspired by the writings of Aleister Crowley.
In fact, this Thursday night, Kenneth Anger will be giving a lecture at LA's Hammer Museum about the life and times of Crowley. Like all of Hammer's events, it's free. Details here.
Star spotting: The lady with the birdcage over her head is Anais Nin, and the stunning woman who appears at 5:50 is the widow of notorious rocket engineer / occult wizard Jack Parsons, who had recently blown himself up in his home laboratory. But that's another post.
A firsthand account follows from a guy who ordered one of those monkeys from an ad in the back of a comic book. To keep his parents from finding out, he had it shipped to a friend's house...
It came in this little cardboard box. I mean, I’m saying small. It was probably the size of a shoebox, except it was higher. It had a little chicken wire screen window in it. There was a cut out. All you could see if you looked in there was his face. I brought it home, and I actually snuck it into the basement of the house.
No instructions [were included]. He had this waist belt on, a collar, if you will, on his waist, with an unattached leash inside the box. So I opened the box up inside the cage, the monkey jumped out, I withdrew the box and found the leash. I have no idea where it came from; I assumed it came from Florida. I figured, well, it’s probably near dehydration, so I opened up the cage to put some water in it. It leapt out of the cage when I opened it up the second time! I mean, it was eyeing the pipes that I was unaware of. As soon as I opened the cage, it leapt up and grabbed onto the plumbing up on the ceiling and started using them like monkey bars, and he was just shooting along in the basement, chirping pretty loud. It was heading towards the finished side of the basement, where there was a drop ceiling, and if it got into those channels, I never would have got it. It would have been days to get this thing out of there.
I grabbed it by its tail, and it came down on, starting literally up by my shoulder, like a drill press it landed on my arm, and every bite was breaking flesh. It was literally like an unsewing machine. It was literally unsewing my arm coming down, and I was pouring blood. I grabbed it by its neck with both my wrists, threw it back in the cage. It’s screaming like a scalded cat. I’m pouring blood. My friend’s laughing uncontrollably, and my father finally comes in the basement door and goes, ‘Jeffery! What are you doing to that rabbit?’ And I go, ‘It’s not a rabbit, it’s a monkey, and it just bit the hell out of me.’ ‘A monkey? Bring it up here!’ I’m pouring, I wrapped a t-shirt around my arm to stave off the bleeding, carried the cage upstairs, and I don’t know why I bothered sneaking it in, because they fell in love with it, and it was like, there was no problem at all. They took me to the emergency room and I got 28 stitches on my arm.
More here. Big gallery of comic book ads here. Referred by boingboing.net.
The following text is excerpted from Analog Days and takes place in the early 70's. For additional context, you might want to first scan the wikipedia pages for the Buchla synthesizer and Suzanne Ciani.
Suzanne's ultimate goal in working for Don Buchla was to acquire her own synthesizer. She slowly built up her $8,500 synth, module by module, acquiring some of the basic ones while at Buchla's workshop. To have the system she wanted, she realized she'd need to earn more than the $3 per hour she was paid for stuffing Don's circuit boards. She got a break from a friend of a friend who filmed commercials, and was hired to make sound signatures. The skill she was developing was in "sound design": "It wasn't so much the note as it was a poetry of sound - you know, what is the sound of a fur coat? What is the sound of perfume? And developing metaphors in sound... the feeling you got listening to it. This poetry of sound is what I brought to the industry."
With the money from these first commercials, Suzanne put together her Buchla 200. As she added modules, she found herself becoming closer and closer to the machine: "Some people have a fear of technology, they look at this thing with all the knobs and holes and dials and go, "Oh my God". Whereas for me, it was like, "I'm going to get to know this. This is a living, breathing, entity. It has desires and abilities, limitations and possibilities... and it was alive, you know, and you build up a relationship."
As a struggling artist trying to make it in New York, Suzanne increasingly turned to sound signature work. She became known for many industry trademarks: The GE dishwasher beep, the Columbia pictures logo, the ABC logo, the Merrill Lynch sound, the Energizer battery sound, the Coca-Cola logo and the Pepsi logo.
Suzanne by now was so enamored with her Buchla that in New York it was about all she had for companionship. Her apartment contained no furniture, just her Buchla with its flashing lights in the middle of the room. It was her partner, co-worker, and courtesan: "It wasn't a static thing. Everything was shifting, everything was breathing. It was on, literally on, for ten years. I had a problem, in a way. I was scared, because I was in love with a machine."
In addition to commercial work, Ciani did the voices and soundtrack for Xenon, the sexiest pinball machine in history (coincidentally, the author of the post you're reading has had a crush on Xenon since he was 11).
Yet another one of those "I can't believe I've been given the opportunity to see this" moments which happens so often while searching youtube; an Omni documentary all about the Xenon project:
Ancient peoples all over the world have told of unusual, reptile-like creatures that once roamed the earth. The ancient people of Europe called them “dragons.” Many ancient descriptions of dragons sound similar to dinosaurs. Most of the dragon legends are full of exaggeration, magic and marvelous deeds. But this is not true of all of them. Many stories seem rather believable.
"There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah." --Genesis 7:9. Noah's Ark had plenty of room for the animals. God brought each representative to Noah. This also included the dinosaur, probably a young pair of each main type of dinosaur.
Originally, dinosaurs must have been harmless--designed to delight man and benefit the world, just like all the other animals. When first created, all dinosaurs ate only plants and fruits. After the Flood, dinosaurs and all other animals were made to be afraid of people (Genesis 9:2). Looking at the fossils, it appears that most dinosaurs were still harmless plant-eaters at that time--many hundreds of years after the Fall.
Some dinosaurs, like the Triceratops, had bony spikes on their heads. Others had spikes on their backs and elsewhere. If basic types of horns and spikes like these were originally created by God, then we know something about their purpose. They were not meant for fighting other dinosaurs. The head horns may have been used for getting food by lifting thick foliage, or for poking, rooting or turning plants.
(I was going to add some commentary, but I'm way too busy shooting these fish in a barrel and falling off this log.)
See the rest here. You can print them out for coloring, or use a very entertaining online coloring interface. Not suitable for impressionable children or dimwits.
In 1991 two German tourists discovered a human figure as you see it pictured above, half-buried in glacial ice, in the alps between Italy and Austria. He was dug out and examined in Innsbruck, Austria, where he was determined to be 33,0000 years old. Italy took claim after discovering the spot where he was disinterred was a stone's throw inside the Italian border.
Ötzi's last meal was deer meat, along with some wheat bran and blackthorn fruits. Copper particles in his hair led to the speculation that he was a smelter. 57 tattoos on his legs and back were located in spots where he may have had arthritis, meaning they might have been acupuncture-related.
He wore a cloak, belt, leggings, loincloth and shoes, all leather. The shoes were waterproofed and made for walking through snow. He also had a copper axe, flint knife, bow, and quiver full of arrows.
It was initially thought that he died of winter exposure, but an arrow wound on his shoulder and evidence of a blow to the head makes it more likely that he was murdered, possibly by a tribe of the region (as it was determined that he'd traveled a great distance).
Ötzi is the oldest naturally preserved mummy in Europe. He's on display at the Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.
Time for a closer look. Get those 3D glasses on... and.... GO.
Built in France from spare aircraft parts after world war II, The Scopitone was a coin-operated jukebox that projected 16mm films. After catching on throughout Europe, they were distributed in the USA, and the first music videos were soon being shot exclusively for the format. The machines were most often found in bars, so the content was more risque than what could be found on television, and today serves as an archive of the fading burlesque era. But it never quite found success in the states. This was due to distribution problems with the mafia, and the campy films quickly became dated as psychedelic culture took hold. The machines disappeared by the end of the 60's.
Listen here to a short NPR story about one of the last working Scopitone machines. An enormous archive of films can be seen at this site, which also sells scopitone movies on DVD. It's more rewarding for you to discover some of these gems on your own, but I can't stop myself from posting this superlative film starring the Queen of the Scopitones, Joi Lansing:
(I wrote this for another blog 1.5 years ago, but I'm posting again because it's worth revisiting. This is an exception, not a precedent.)
A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.
Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles. Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further projectiles. The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.
There has been scant evidence in previous research that animals can plan for future events. Crucial to the current study is the fact that Santino, a chimpanzee at the zoo in the city north of Stockholm, collected the stones in a calm state, prior to the zoo opening in the morning. The launching of the stones occurred hours later - during dominance displays to zoo visitors - with Santino in an "agitated" state.
This suggests that Santino was anticipating a future mental state - an ability that has been difficult to definitively prove in animals, according to Mathias Osvath, a cognitive scientist from Lund University in Sweden and author of the new research."We've done experimental studies, and the chimps in my mind show very clearly that they do plan for future needs, but it has been argued that perhaps this was an experimental artefact," Dr Osvath told BBC News."Now we have this spontaneous behaviour, which is always in some sense better evidence."
Dr Osvath embarked on the study after zoo staff discovered caches of stones in the section of the enclosure facing the public viewing area. Since the initial discovery in 1997, hundreds of the caches have been removed to protect visitors, to whom the caching and the aggressive displays seem strictly related; in the off season, Santino neither hoards the projectiles nor hurls them.
Most interestingly, Santino seems to have learned how to spot weak parts of the concrete "boulders" in the centre of the enclosure. When water seeps into cracks in the concrete and freezes, portions become detached that make a hollow sound when tapped. Santino was observed gently knocking on the "boulders", hitting harder to detach bits that were loosened and adding those to his stashes of ammunition.
There are a number of examples of complex behaviour in apes that suggest forms of consciousness. Planning behaviour like that of the current work is connected to so-called autonoetic consciousness, where information due to memory can be distinguished from that from the senses. "I'm personally convinced that at least chimps do plan for future needs, that they do have this autonoetic consciousness," Dr Osvath said. "I hope that other zoos or those in the wild will look more closely at what is happening," he added. "I bet there must be a lot of these kinds of behaviours out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find them in dolphins or other species."
Flipper was often as strongly in league with conceptual art and atonal music as with rock or punk... (their) music was very shambolic and noisy, and often considered "slow" for a punk band of the time. In many early shows, the band had half the audience on stage with them singing backup vocals, and encouraged horn players to join them for their anthem, "Sex Bomb"; the crowding on stage usually knocked the stringed instruments out of tune. Guitarist Ted Falconi installed spikes in the head of his guitar to help prevent this, but blaring, out-of-tune dissonance became part of the band's signature sound.
This, in brief, was the band's concept: to be bad in ways that no band had ever been bad before. However, in true Flipper fashion, they even failed to fail, and their audience continued to grow as their outlandish approach appealed to those seeking something different.
The original lineup began splintering after a long debauched period of touring. Singer and core member Will Shatter died on December 9th, 1987 of a drug overdose.
Do women find you repugnant? Do you soak yourself in Axxe Body Spray everytime you go to Whole Foods, because you have a crush on the checkout girl whom you've never spoken to? That "Spanish Fly" you bought from the back pages of Oui magazine isn't working, and Rohypnol is so hard to find these days. And the last time you used a pickup technique from that record you bought, you ended up in jail. Only one thing is going to help you score with the ladies, and all it takes is one look to put them in a submissive trance: Dracula's Ring.
Worn by Bela Lugosi in the original 1930 Dracula, this is part of a huge auction from the estate of Forrest J Ackerman, beloved and recently departed super-geek. Sadly, Forry had no surviving wife or children to inherit his collection, and the proceeds of this auction will help to pay the massive medical bills he incurred during his final years.
It's not on ebay, actually. It's being handled by "Profiles in History", the defacto Hollywood memorabilia auctioneer. Other items include Bela's robe from The Raven, his cape from Plan 9, a first edition of Dracula signed by Bram Stoker, Bela Lugosi, and Boris Karloff, and the monocle Fritz Lang wore whilst shooting Metropolis.
Auction ends in late April, more details in the coming weeks. Bid Here.
Also, if you live in the LA area, a memorial to Forry will be held at gorgeous Egyptian Theater this Sunday, March 8th. Auction items will be displayed, along with documentaries, slideshows, and testimony from fellow nerds Ray Bradbury, John Landis, and other guests. Admission is free. More here.
This beautifully shot (and scored) video depicts Trap-Jaw Ants (the genus Odontomachus, of which there are 60 known species), carnivores with the fastest-moving predatory appendages in the animal kingdom; the jaws close over their prey at an average of 130 microseconds (2300 times faster than the blink of an eye), with the force of 300 times the ant's body weight.
These ants also catapult themselves by striking their jaws against the ground, in order to escape threatening situations. Proportionally, if a human were capable of this, he/she could fly 43 feet upwards and 130 feet horizontally.
Fellow chimps, welcome to your 300th learning module. Only 2,700 more lessons before you'll be ready to overthrow the humans.
Pay special attention during today's egg-spedition, apes of the future, for we'll be covering a matter of grave importance: the most egg-cellent villain of them all, the egg-straordinary Egghead.
Played with egg-splosive intensity by the egg-centric Vincent Price, this evil genius was not just highly intelligent, he also had a superpower worth reckoning: the ability to make egg-themed puns with egg-zackting precision at every egg-sploitive opportunity, causing nausea and egg-scruciating mental anguish for Batman and all television viewers.
For egg-sample, when Egghead's "memory egg-straction" plan to discover Batman's secret identity was foiled, you'd have egg-spected his spirits to be broken, broken like an... uhm... some fragile analogous object.
Yet, during his egg-sit to jail, he quipped, "My criminal career is egg-stinct!" Bam! Pow! You've won this round, Batman, but I shall return to offend you in the future!
If you're an egg-ceptionally egg-ressive Egghead fan, buy an eggstra-special autographed photo here.
blow-by-blow commentary: 4:17 - mr. fonzerelli barbarino bowser:"Yoo nevah bawt a condom befooah?" 4:25 - Terror at the Pharmacy, scored by John Williams. 5:04 - You know what your sex life needs more of? Animal intestines. 6:45 - you look confused. Should we use fewer big words? 7:30 - Can I at least stretch it over my head, like Howie Mandell? 8:12 - a Look Around You visual gag, during the "put it on correctly" narration. 8:52 - When you're done with that broomstick, dispose of the condom properly. 9:40 - after all that prep, you're backing out? You pansy.
Indifferent casting, a near-absence of medical information or statistics, greasebally names in the credits (which even give "thanx" to "the gang")... was this produced by the mob, which then sold it to schools and clinics under penalty of death? Or did someone get legitimately paid to make it?
Doesn't the theme of bewildered actors staring back at the camera remind you of that post-punk-nuclear-apocalypse-themed-porno Cafe Flesh?(n.s.f.w)
If you're having trouble getting songs to play, click the post's title to open it in a new window. Also, downloading has been disabled; the music on this site is for preview listening only.
We've all seen Freaks 100 times, so you already know who Johnny Eck is. But in addition to being an actor and sideshow performer, he was also "an artist, photographer, illusionist, penny arcade owner, Punch and Judy operator, expert model-maker, race car driver, swimmer, runner, tight rope walker, animal trainer, gymnast, orchestra conductor, train conductor and traveler." (wikipedia)
Dear Shareholders,
My girlfriend found this dead giganto-moth in the sunroom this morning and presented it to me at my desk, like a proud housecat. I put it on a sheet of typing paper, quickly shot some pictures, and converted them into the best 3D photos yet. Inspired, I then photographed this dragonfly (which my girlfriend also found and gave to me a couple years ago, because she's cool like that). 
Click on the pictures for larger size, then sit back a few feet for best results. 
"Humans And Chimpanzees Genetically More Similar Than One Yeast Variety Is To Another"
A firsthand account follows from a guy who ordered one of those monkeys from an ad in the back of a comic book. To keep his parents from finding out, he had it shipped to a friend's house...
Ancient peoples all over the world have told of unusual, reptile-like creatures that once roamed the earth. The ancient people of Europe called them “dragons.” Many ancient descriptions of dragons sound similar to dinosaurs. Most of the dragon legends are full of exaggeration, magic and marvelous deeds. But this is not true of all of them. Many stories seem rather believable.
"There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah." --Genesis 7:9. Noah's Ark had plenty of room for the animals. God brought each representative to Noah. This also included the dinosaur, probably a young pair of each main type of dinosaur.
Originally, dinosaurs must have been harmless--designed to delight man and benefit the world, just like all the other animals. When first created, all dinosaurs ate only plants and fruits. After the Flood, dinosaurs and all other animals were made to be afraid of people (Genesis 9:2). Looking at the fossils, it appears that most dinosaurs were still harmless plant-eaters at that time--many hundreds of years after the Fall.
Some dinosaurs, like the Triceratops, had bony spikes on their heads. Others had spikes on their backs and elsewhere. If basic types of horns and spikes like these were originally created by God, then we know something about their purpose. They were not meant for fighting other dinosaurs. The head horns may have been used for getting food by lifting thick foliage, or for poking, rooting or turning plants.
Built in France from spare aircraft parts after world war II, The Scopitone was a coin-operated jukebox that projected 16mm films. After catching on throughout Europe, they were distributed in the USA, and the first music videos were soon being shot exclusively for the format. The machines were most often found in bars, so the content was more risque than what could be found on television, and today serves as an archive of the fading burlesque era. But it never quite found success in the states. This was due to distribution problems with the mafia, and the campy films quickly became dated as psychedelic culture took hold. The machines disappeared by the end of the 60's.
Do women find you repugnant? Do you soak yourself in Axxe Body Spray everytime you go to Whole Foods, because you have a crush on the checkout girl whom you've never spoken to? That "Spanish Fly" you bought from the back pages of Oui magazine isn't working, and Rohypnol is so hard to find these days. And the last time you used a pickup technique from that record you bought, you ended up in jail. Only one thing is going to help you score with the ladies, and all it takes is one look to put them in a submissive trance: Dracula's Ring. 
Fellow chimps, welcome to your 300th learning module. Only 2,700 more lessons before you'll be ready to overthrow the humans. 
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