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| Chowing down with The Sopranos |
JaytheChou digitally adds Paddington Bear into pop culture films, games and TV shows.
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| A visit with Paddington (are they cousins?) |
Thursday, November 30, 2023
Paddington Bear Goes Pop Culture
RIP Shane MacGowan
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| Shane MacGowan Dec 25, 1957 - Nov 30, 2023 |
Shane MacGowan, Pogues songwriter and Irish music legend, has died aged 65. He wrote about Irish culture and the experiences of the Irish diaspora and brought Irish folk music to the rock scene. I’ll be thinking of him when I listen to Fairytale Of New York, as I always do, over the holidays.
Read more: The Guardian
Oscar Peterson's musical tribute to Canada
In the early 1960s, Oscar Peterson was renowned as the best pianist in all of jazz music. His Canadiana Suite made its debut on CBC's The Wayne & Shuster Hour in 1964. It is a tribute to the diverse landscapes of Canada, drawing inspiration from his travels by rail across southern Canada. One of the songs in the suite, "Place St. Henri," pays homage to the Montreal neighbourhood where Peterson grew up.
Video: CBC From The Vaults
Thank You for Waiting
via The Chawed Rosin
Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Bison In The Snow
American bison take a stroll along a snow-packed roadway in Yellowstone National Park. They also use their massive heads to plow away the snow that covers the grasses they need to survive the winter.
World's Skinniest Hotel?
PituRooms is a seven-bedroom property in Java that stands on a long abandoned plot of land. Measuring just 2.8-metre wide this hotel might be the world's skinniest. The rooms are tiny, of course, but they look comfortable.
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Did any of you run into this guy over the long weekend?
Orlando International Airport has owned Duane Hanson’s “The Traveler” since 1986. The hyperrealistic sculpture is located in the Terminal A concourse between the East and West security checkpoints, near the food court.
Trailer for Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros
Read More: Eater
Glowing Terrarium Dresses
Undercover’s Jun Takahashi showed glowing terrarium dresses at Paris Fashion Week
— Spoon & Tamago (@Johnny_suputama) September 28, 2023
pic.twitter.com/uspE5Yyduj
Monday, November 27, 2023
LEGO Reenactments of Famous Psychology Experiments
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| Stanley Milgram’s 1961 obedience studies. |
Tomer Ullman is head of Harvard’s Computation, Cognition, and Development lab. His interest in AI led him to stage Lego recreations of famous psych experiments.
Many years ago, as a Psychology major, I studied the Milgrim experiment (image above) which explored the willingness of participants to follow the orders of authorities when those orders conflict with the individual's moral judgment. I never expected to see it rendered in Lego. But here we are.
Sea lion trapped by plastic debris
A Steller sea lion was trapped on a seawall with a collar of old fishing nets wrapped around its neck and could not escape. Two volunteers for the Ocean Friends Team used a rope to fix the stressed animal closer to the breakwater, and it took the two men about an hour to cut the plastic rubbish off. They named him Lucky.
Making a Pitchfork
It took 6 years to make a pitchfork by hand from hackberry shoots. They were works of art. In 1997, Casimir Brescó, at 76, was the last active forcaire left in Alentorn, Catalonia.
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Sunday Links
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| A Geisha House. OSU Special Collections & Archives : Commons @ Flickr Commons |
The dark reality hidden behind the kimono Geisha underwent brutal training and torture in the name of beauty. Abuse, baldness and lead poisoning were hazards of the profession.
Dorothy Loves New York and I love Dorothy. At 98 she continues to explore her New York City neighbourhood and still enjoys a good cocktail. Her tipple of choice is a shot of whisky in an ice-filled highball glass which happens to be my favourite as well. (I’m hoping it is the key to her long and well-lived life.) Read the NYT article about her.
She did what? She sold her body for gingerbread
The Greatest Dictionary Collection in the World From “unabridged” to “slanguage,” Madeline Kripke’s library is a logophile’s heaven (or hell).
I‘m in favour of anything that helps get me going in the morning. (via blort)Are you looking for something to read? The Long List For The 2024 Tournament of Books is out - 58 works of fiction of which I have read only one (The Guest) although I have The Bee Sting waiting patiently for me to get to it. Most of these books appeal to me but it would probably take me two or three years to read them all.
Time’s Top 100 Photographs of 2023.
Adrift : Fighting a storm in the Kuril Archipelago in January 1960, Soviet barge T-36 ran out of fuel and was carried out of its lagoon and into the open ocean.
The Story of Valerie When Carola Baer was a lonely expat songwriter living in San Francisco in 1990 she recorded an album that was never released. The single existing copy of that album went missing and she was sure she would never see it again. Flash forward 26 years…
Swastikas on Canadian postage stamps
Did a magician help vanquish the Nazis in World War Two? He allegedly used canvas and plywood to disguise 1,000 tanks as trucks in the north, and created 2,000 fake tanks, plus a fake railway line, fake water pipeline, fake radio conversations and fake sounds of construction in the south. The tanks even had their own pyrotechnics.
How to fold fitted sheets It looks easy but I’d probably screw it up.
Soothing scenes of snow falling on glass houses at night (AI generated). via Kraftfuttermischwerk
Popeet allowed you to perform magic in your own kitchen!
The First Human Satellite I can’t believe he actually wanted to do this.
Saturday, November 25, 2023
Bison in Canada Discover Ancient Petroglyphs
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| Bison herd with one of the newly discovered petroglyphs overlaid on the sky. Wanuskewin Heritage Park |
Read more: Smithsonian Magazine
Nick Drake Died On This Day in 1974
During the early hours of 25 November 1974, Drake died in his bedroom at his boyhood home in Far Leys.
Friday, November 24, 2023
Times Square Greeters Guild
Dapper Brit in a smoking jacket pays stroll-by compliments to random people on the street around Times Square. (He’s actually comedian Troy Hawke)
Via Laughing Squid
One Pan Thanksgiving
One pan Thanksgiving is interesting... pic.twitter.com/2QC2goDiP4
— SPOOKY QENNY (Thanksgiving Edition) (@AKBrews) November 23, 2023
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Happy Thursday, Canada
Hi Canada. It’s that time of year again.
HAPPY THURSDAY, CANADA pic.twitter.com/eYl547k4sL
— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) November 22, 2023
Il Timpano (The Drum)
The scene from the superb 1996 film, The Big Night, in which the pasta dish timpano is made and served. I must watch this movie again.
Wednesday, November 22, 2023
A Thanksgiving Quiz
Are you the worst person at Thanksgiving? I hope you aren’t.
1. Are your pants unbuttoned before the appetizer is even put on the table?
2. Are you wearing a pilgrim hat and drinking your fourth High Noon?
3. Did you loudly ask what the turkey’s pronouns were, then smirk into your Modelo?
4. Did you explain the origins of the holiday to the children’s table using one to three racist terms?
5. When called out for using one to three racist terms, did you then proceed to use four more?
More Thanksgiving Quiz questions: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
The Auroratone, A Trippy Treatment For PTSD
Auroratones were films invented by psychologist Cecil A. Stokes in the 1940s that helped WWII Vets overcome mental health problems. Patterns were produced by using crystallizing chemicals and polarized light, which were then synchronized to a variety of recorded musical tracks. This one features Bing Crosby’s voice over psychedelic images:
Read More: Open Culture
Thanksgiving Menus From the Late 19th Century
Cranberries are still a staple at the Thanksgiving table but when was the last time you were offered terrapin? These vintage hotel menus show how Thanksgiving dinners have changed over the years.
A Thermite Thanksgiving (a repost)
This post has been an American Thanksgiving classic on Nag On The Lake since 2007:
Oh no, the family is arriving in five minutes and I forgot to put the turkey in the oven! Whatever shall I do? Cooking a twenty-five pound turkey in under thirty seconds with ten pounds of thermite. (Best done outdoors).
Tuesday, November 21, 2023
New Song By Björk and RosalÃa Raises Funds To Combat Open Pen Fish Farming
Hey Babe, Take a Scooter Ride on the Wild Side
Just when I thought I’d seen everything: This 1984 Honda Scooter ad featuring Lou Reed.
(via FB friend Chung)
I’ll have the turfing and some fufer please
Janelle Shane at AI Weirdness asked DALL-E3 for images of a Thanksgiving Day table labeled with text. This is what she got:
All Aboard!
Travel through picturesque landscapes as you make your way to the summit of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland.
via Memo Of The Air
Monday, November 20, 2023
Retro Foldable Stroller
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A baby stroller from 100 years ago
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) November 11, 2023
pic.twitter.com/cZB3yHiG6o
Handmade Titan Balaclava
Brrr, it’s getting chilly out there. I bet this Colossal Titan balaclava by artist Jaffa Saba would protect you from the elements but unfortunately it’s sold out.
Glued to a crocodile, swallowing fossils, or shoes melted by lava...
Jim Jourdane is a freelance illustrator living in France. His illustrations for the book Fieldwork Fail show the everyday mistakes made by biologists, archeologists, entomologists, and volcanologists.
Via: My OBT
Jeff Bezos Rowboat
Bobby Fingers makes weird stuff, like this rowboat shaped like the head of Jeff Bezos. It’s a disturbingly realistic likeness. Watch it and marvel.
via Memo Of The Air
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Sunday Links
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| Photograph: Espaces Atypiques |
There is something very Wes Anderson-y about this 100-year-old French railway station (image above). Sure, it needs a lot of work but it has many original features, including the tiled signage that speaks to its former life as a railway station.
Bring back Death In The Afternoon (Via PfRC)
A group of storybook cottages in Los Angeles are a “a unique time capsule of the 1920s” and are still desirable today. Few people know that the entire village was a scam, and the man who built the houses was a con artist. Read the story
The 12 Best Whiskey Advent Calendars of 2023 (I would like to receive one of these.)
Population.io : The journey of your life in numbers and dates. Looking at this site makes me glad that I live in Canada and not a few minutes away across the border.
Eternal Sunset allows viewers to tune in and watch the sun setting in different parts of the world at any time of the day. (via)
NASA will send your name into space
Here are 25 vegan recipes that people can enjoy on their own or as an accompaniment to the festive bird.
I can’t believe this is real (but it is): EggoVac (via Rusty’s Electric Dreams)
Are there only six stories in history? Apparently yes. (via)
VFTTD, where the bad guy usually falls to his death in a mesmerizing and stress relieving way. (via everlasting blort)
Edward Lear’s recipe for amblongus pie, 1872 (you won’t want a second slice)A couple of years ago we stayed at a boutique hotel just two blocks away from this Minimalist Amsterdam School home. The neighbourhood is lovely and Amsterdam is so walkable. I can’t buy the property but I’m tempted to make a return visit just to wander around the city.
See rare images of Salvador Dali’s home and studio in Portlligat on the Spanish coast.
‘It never ends’: The book club that spent 28 years reading Finnegans Wake
It’s getting chilly outside. Time to pull out the cozy sweaters, light a fire and make soup! I made a broccoli-cheddar soup a few days ago and this cabbage and farro is next up.
How is he supposed to remember to put out the bins and bring in the tortoise? I’m including this week’s column by Tim Dowling because he always brightens my day.
The gap in life expectancy between men and women in the United States has grown to its widest in nearly 30 years. Men are dying much earlier than women. (New York Times)
The Duchess - Bo Diddley's first lady of rock 'n' roll
"Chumbox" advertising shows how desperate Elon is to attract advertisers: X rolls out new ad format that can't be reported, blockedAnd I’ll leave you with…Elaine!
Saturday, November 18, 2023
When Niagara Falls Was Turned Off for the First Time in 12,000 Years
Best First Date of All Time
My last first date was 45 years ago but it appears that they are as awkward and unpleasant now as they were back then.
When you want choice…
(Thanks Bruce)
Friday, November 17, 2023
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