New Lingo

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Besserwisser - (beh•sur•vi•sur) From German, meaning “knowing better,” a person who thinks he or she has greater general knowledge than others; often correcting grammatical mistakes or errors in trivial facts.

Indigo Children - The New Age belief that certain children (usually born after the late 1970’s) represent a more advanced state of evolution. These children are reported to have greater psychic and mental abilities and are reported to have indigo colored auras.

Nutraceuticals - (nu•tra•su•ti•culs) Foods and beverages that claim to enhance appearance, revive mental acuity, and increase resistance to disease.

• Nomophobia - (no•mo•fo•bi•uh) The fear of being out of mobile phone contact or mobile phone signal range.

To Everyone Offended by the Obama New Yorker Cover

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

If you were one of the many who was outraged at the New Yorker for their recent cover with Barack and Michelle Obama, check out David Horsey’s spoof McCain National Review cover.  The sad thing, though, is that the stuff about McCain is actually true and not just satire like with the Obamas!

John McCain National Review Cover - David Horsey

(Thanks for the heads up, Eliot!)

First in Line… So what?

Friday, July 11th, 2008

This morning as I rode the bus to work, I passed by 2 separate AT&T stores where hundreds of people were lined up, presumably waiting for hours for the brand new 3G iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I definitely want an iPhone, but what’s so special about getting it first and waiting in line for hours today, when you can just walk into a store tomorrow and get the exact same iPhone with no wait?

Maybe I’m on my own here for thinking this is ridiculous, but taking this concept to the extreme was Jonny Gladwell, a New Zealander who camped out for 3 days (keep in mind it’s winter now in NZ) to get the first 3G iPhone in the world. Check out iPhone Jonny’s blog for some notes on the wait and for some humorous video clips of how he passed the time, including the following ridiculousness:

Rejected Olympic Mascots

Sunday, June 29th, 2008

Though China has five Olympic mascots (”The Fuwa”), several others never made it past the drawing board.

A Blogadilla exclusive: rejected Chinese Olympic mascots.

Maomao - Lil’ Mao Zedong.

Melmel - The Melamine Cat.

I take pleasure in knowing that I’d be shot for doing this if I lived in China.

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Appliance Golfing - Reuters Link

Indiana Jones Icons

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

Cool free Indiana Jones Icons, from IconFactory.

The Four Horsemen Five Olympic Mascots

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

The pattern of recent disasters in China has had many superstitious people concerned about the Olympic Mascots (the Fuwa) - claiming that each of the five reflects/predicts a particular disaster. According to Reuters, Chinese censors have made efforts to remove posts about the Fuwa superstitions, struggling to keep the air of the upcoming Olympics at a rosy-fresh note.

Recently, the fifth and final Fuwa prophecy has been supposedly fulfilled.

Huanhuan - The Olympic Flame - (“The Bearer of Incendiary Strife”) Starting in March 2008, this Olympic Torch Relay may go down in history as one of the most protested and problematic.

Jingjing - The Giant Panda - (“The Lord of Angry Earth”) The panda patron of Sichuan Province has been associated with the disastrous 7.9 May 12th earthquake that occurred there, which left 69,000 dead and over a million stranded or homeless. The epicenter of the earthquake was near the Wulong Panda Research Center.

Yíngying - The Tibetan Antelope - (“The Creature of Righteous Unrest”) On March 10, 2008 - the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day - demonstrations began in China. By March 14th, destructive riots ensued in several regions of China.

Nini - The Swallow/Shayan Kite - (“The Bearer of Unfortunate Wind”) April 28, China Railway Train T195 crashed near the city of Zibo in Shandong Province, killing 72 people and injuring more than 420. The nearby city of Weifang has had a long association with Shayan kites.

Bèibei - The Chinese Sturgeon - (“The Bringer of Torrent and Flood”) Over the last month, flooding in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan Provinces has displaced thousands of people and over 1,000 people are missing or dead.

“The Burger”

Friday, June 20th, 2008

A West London Burger King franchise is now offering the world’s most expensive burger - known as “The Burger” - for a whopping $200.00 (proceeds go to charity).

Check out the recipe:
Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun.

FOX News link

(via Notcot, via FOXNews)

War, Inc.

Thursday, June 19th, 2008

The movie War, Inc. finally came to a theater in my neighborhood.

Two words: “kick” and “ass.”

I loved it.

Brand Hauser (John Cusak) is an assassin on a mission in the war-torn mythle-eastern nation of Turaqistan. Hauser is posing as the producer of an arms convention, promoting Tamerlane military industries - the very corporation currently occupying the nation of Turaqistan. At the convention, Hauser meets journalist Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei) and obnoxious middle eastern pop star Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) . . . and all hell breaks loose in this Douglas Coupland-esque world.

War, Inc. has several of the best qualities of Cusak’s previous assassin dark comedy Grosse Pointe Blank - clever dialogue, a great soundtrack (that does not yet exist on iTunes, dammit), and several stellar fight/action scenes worthy of Martin Blank. This film also smelled heavily of Douglas Coupland and Naomi Klein’s “Baghdad Year Zero” (both of which are good smells).

Locate a showing at a theater near you.

Lebowskifest - San Francisco

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

Finally! Lebowskifest is coming to San Francisco Sept 5-6th, 2008!

Tickets go on sale June 27th, 10AM PST.

Wallpaper of the Week

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

An image from Rika Eguchi’s “How to Cook Docomodake exhibit. Docomodake is a cartoony mushroom corporate icon for Japanese cellular phone company NTT DoCoMo - sort of like the Japanese equivalent of the Pillsbury Doughboy. And like the Pillsbury Doughboy, people want to do mean things to it.

(via Pink Tentacle, via watz’s Flickr photostream)

The Great Mall of China

Monday, June 16th, 2008


(photographed by Philip Gostelow for The National)

The South China Mall:

1,500 spaces, only ~10 functioning stores.

“. . . the mall entered the world pre-ruined . . . “

BLDG Blog article

(via The National, via BLDG Blog)

Ouija Boards

Monday, June 16th, 2008

A gallery of Ouija boards
Handmade Ouija boards
Antique Ouija boards
Turning your iPod into a Ouija board
• And this awesome graphic by Jeffrey Rowland
(at Overcompensating.com)

Commencement Speeches

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

It’s time for graduation ceremonies once again. Here’s a working list of some of the more interesting graduation commencement speakers:

Drury University, 2007 - gameshow host Bob Barker [video]

University of Pennsylvania, 2004 - Bono

Harvard, 2006 - Seth MacFarlane (the voice of “Stewie” on “Family Guy”) [video]

Stanford, 2008 - Oprah Winfrey

Columbia, 2007 - “Lost” actor Matthew Fox

Harvard, 2008 - author J.K. Rowling

Ashley Hall Girls Preparatory School, 2007 - Mike Reiss (writer/producer of “The Simpsons”) - I included this because he is one of the funniest commencement speakers I have ever seen: video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4, video 5.

Friday the 13th - No Biggie

Friday, June 13th, 2008

According to a recent study by the Dutch Center for Insurance Statistics, traffic accidents and incidents such as fire and theft actually occur slightly less on Friday the 13th (in the Netherlands).

Reuters Link

Ironically, there are also less incidents of killing sprees involving the undead in hockey masks.

Lesbians vs. lesbians

Monday, June 9th, 2008

In the 7th century BC, Sappho - poet and resident of the Greek island of Lesbos - wrote of her great love of women, and thus the term “lesbian” was born.

As well as the ancient Greek sport of hot girl-on-girl pillowfighting.

The 100,000 current residents of the island of Lesbos are now taking it back - citing that the use of “lesbian” to denote female homosexuality violates their human rights, as the “original Lesbians.”

There’s a bad “Who’s on First” comedy dialogue waiting to be written about this - it starts with “Where are you from?”

BBC News article

Why I Hate Mark Twain

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

Throughout gradeschool and highschool, English teachers repeatedly stated that it was our civic duty as Americans to adore and admire the works of Mark Twain. Years later and I still hate him.

Here is a revised list of the many reasons why I think Mark Twain is a douche:

• Tom Sawyer Island and the Mark Twain Riverboat are the lamest rides at Disneyland.

• He gave his characters dippy names like Huckleberry and Pudd’nhead. No kid would have gone by the name Huckleberry - classmates would have called him Hucklefairy or Fuckleberry. And Pudd’nhead already sounds dirty.


• Mark Twain impersonators (”Twainies”) are the lowest strata of the nerd pecking order - even Star Trek geeks and Renaissance Faire nerds make fun of them and beat them up.

• He was overly fond of the word “Yankee,” and often used it as an obscene verb.


• Mark Twain and Colonel Sanders used to go to parties together dressed the same. They thought it would get them chicks.

• Both Ernest Hemingway and Jack London could have taken Twain in a fistfight.

• At a time when people were dying of cholera, the standards for humor were pretty low. Frog jumping contests and suckering someone into painting a fence = SO NOT FUNNY.

• There are dozens of public schools and parks named after Mark Twain, but there isn’t even a single parking lot named after Elmore Leonard.

Golden Doodie

Friday, June 6th, 2008

At least according to Think Geek, the Japanese kanji character for “lucky” is similar in appearance to the character for “doodie/poo.”
(If anyone can verify this, please do so in the comment section below).

Thus, a golden doodie good luck charm.

For sale at Think Geek.
Only $3.99.

Success in High School ==> Losertown

Friday, June 6th, 2008

As many of us had wished-upon those (bastard) classmates who were “successful” in high school: a recent study showed that 29% of high school seniors who were “doing well” failed to become financially independent by age 26, and 20% failed to meet their expected life goals at age 26.

Dr. John Schulenberg, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor:

“We used to think that if things were going well in high school, they’d continue to go well.”

Ha. Ha.

(via Susan, via Psychology Today)

Travel: Molvania and Phaic Tan

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

The two coolest new travel spots for the traveler-in-the-know:

Visit the jewel of Eastern Europe - Molvanîa (“A land untouched by modern dentistry”).

. . . or head to the glamorous beaches of Phaic Tãn in exotic Southeast Asia.