Coming to Kindle and Smashwords

Coming to Kindle and Smashwords
November 2013

Sep 28, 2012

Steampunk Nintendo casemod


Redditor Andrew5785 refurbed an elderly Nintendo system for a covetous steampunk nephew, turning it into a sweet little contrafactual brass retrofuture contraption.

Flat Time, A Poster of a Clock that is Actually a Clock

Flat Time by Finn Magee
Flat Time by designer Finn Magee is a poster of a digital alarm clock that is actually a functioning clock. Scroll down to see his other functional posters: Flat Sound (a speaker) and Flat Light (an LED light). Flat Time is available for pre-order

Sep 26, 2012

MMMMMMMMMM..DOUGHNUTS

Bagelheads’ are Injecting Saline Into Their Foreheads to Create Trendy Bagel-Like Shapes
Bagelheads
In National Geographic’s new series Taboo, we learn that the latest Japanese trend in body modification is “injecting saline solution into the forehead to create a temporary bagel-like shape.” Recipients are called “Bagelheads” and in this clip from the episode titled Extreme Bodies, you can see how it’s done.
For some people, improving one’s appearance can lead to extreme body modification…artist Keroppy is leading the way in the trendy body modification industry. His newest exhibition features “bagelheads,” people with what looks like a small bagel protruding from their foreheads.

Bagelheads
Bagel Head
A ‘Bagelhead’ getting a medical saline

Fett Noir, Classic Noir Movie Posters Given a Star Wars Remix

Fett Noir #4: Nightmare Alley by Dean Reeves
Calgary, Canada freelance art director Dean Reeves has created a series of painted movie posters titled Fett Noir that give a collection of classic noir movie posters (Nightmare Alley, This Gun for Hire, Night and the City and The Big Sleep) a great Star Wars remix. A limited edition of 250 numbered 12″ x 18″ prints of each of the four poster designs are available to purchase on Etsy.
Fett Noir #1: This Gun For Hire by Dean Reeves
Fett Noir #2: Night and the City by Dean Reeves
Fett Noir #3: The Big Sleep by Dean Reeves
via

The Armory Club, Kink.com Opens a Swank Upscale Cocktail Lounge

Bottle Service
Maitresse Madeline
image via The Armory Club
The Armory Club is Kink.com’s recently opened upscale cocktail lounge located in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood. It is described as “the best a bar should offer: thoughtful drinks, attentive service and comfortable design with the right amount of kink to make a night of it!” The Armory Club is open Monday through Sunday (doors open at 5 PM each day) at 1799 Mission Street in San Francisco, California, which is across the street from the Kink.com SF Armory headquarters (we recently posted about the adult film set tour I took there). Photographer Michael Mason of Grub Street San Francisco paid a visit the night before its opening and shot the club’s swank interior (gallery).
Delicious Drinks, Attentive Service, Beautiful Barroom, and just enough kink to make it a night!
The Armory Club
photo by Michael Mason via Grub Street San Francisco
The Armory Club
photo by Michael Mason via Grub Street San Francisco
The Armory Club
photo by Michael Mason via Grub Street San Francisco
Made With Love
image via The Armory Club
The Armory Club

Humorous Dog Costumes That Look Like Things are Riding on Its Back

Dog Riders Headless Horseman Costume
The innovative group of creators at Paper Magic have put together a great series of Dog Riders Pet Costumes that will surely make any canine stand out during their trick-or-treat walk on Halloween night. Each adjustable harness costume is made to fit most dogs (each humorously designed to look like things are riding on its back), and is available to purchase on Amazon.
Dog Riders Monkey Costume
Dog Riders Cowboy Costume
Dog Riders Mailman Costume
Dog Riders Goblin Orc Costume
Dog Riders Bike Rider Costume
Dog Riders Jockey Costume
Dog Riders Cat Costume
images via Paper Magic on Amazon.com

BevBuckle, A Retractable Belt Buckle That Holds a Beer

BevBuckle
BevBuckle holding a bottle. Also hold cans, snack packs, chips, hot dogs, etc

Arrowhead: Signal, A Low Budget Independent Sci-Fi Film Short


Arrowhead: Signal is a low budget 10 minute sci-fi film short inspired by the upcoming Australian independent feature film, Arrowhead, which is about an escaped convict / mercenary named Kye who is alone and stranded on a desert planet, waiting to be rescued. Signal really has me wanting more. To help this feature film come to fruition, the crew of Arrowhead has set up a crowdfunding platform on Pozible, which has a similar fundraising model to Kickstarter. They have a great selection of backer rewards, such as being an extra in the film or even having your last name be the actual last name of Nye, the main character. You can learn more about the film and fundraising in their promo video.

Arrowhead synopsis:
Arrowhead is a movie about redemption and loneliness, set against the backdrop of a sun-baked desert planet. After an intense prison break, Kye’s heroism gains him the attention of a ragtag group of rebels, led by an ex-military general. With the promise of guaranteed freedom, the general lures Kye into a dangerous hostage mission which leads him stranded alone on a planet for several years.
While alone, our hero has to decide whether he wants to continue on his violent path, or undo the damage he has done. But inner peace is hindered when Kye becomes infected with a symbiotic alien creature, which periodically causes hideous transformations.
It’s Jekyll and Hyde meets Robinson Crusoe. The Incredible Hulk in the distant stars. A bullets-and-sand adventure that will introduce pulp science fiction to the cerebral, character-based intimacy of independent cinema.
Arrowhead: An Independent Science Fiction Film
Arrowhead credits:

Fantastically detailed miniature replica of Katz's deli


Miniatures sculptor Alan Wolfson was commissioned to make a teeny weeny, fiendishly detailed diorama of the legendary Katz's Deli. Wolfson doesn't do miniature people, so he needed a plausible reason to make an empty Katz's (it's normally mobbed). He opted for a "closing time" Katz's, complete with tiny dirty dishes. There's tiny neon outside, too!

Katz’s Delicatessen is one of those legendary New York locations. It’s been in business on the lower east side of Manhattan since 1888, and is New York’s oldest deli. Telling someone to “meet me at Katz’s..,” is almost the same as telling them to meet you under the clock in Grand Central - everyone knows where it is. The collector who commissioned the piece no longer lives in the city and wanted something that reminded him of the many times, when he was a boy, that he and his family had eaten at Katz’s.

Fruit salad trees with six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them


The Fruit Salad Tree Company of Emmaville, NSW, Australia sells trees that have up to six different fruit-bearing branches grafted on them.

Interview with Ray Harryhausen

NewImage Here's a 1974 interview with SFX pioneer and "Dynamation" inventor Ray Harryhausen, whose stop motion magic brought to life such classic films as The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and One Million Years BC

David Byrne and St Vincent performing each others' songs together

Pitchfork's got a couple YouTube clips from the ongoing David Byrne/St Vincent tour, which is in support of their new album and Byrne's new book, both of which are amazing. I saw the tour stop in Toronto and actually wept at one point. I've been listening to the new album, Love This Giant nonstop since, and it's become the soundtrack of my days. I can't remember the last time a new album took over my life so completely.

Sep 21, 2012

I Miss Drugs, A Web Series That Paints a Sadly Accurate Portrait of Aging Hipsters


I Miss Drugs is a humorous web series “that paints a sadly hilarious portrait” of “aging hipsters” created by Nathaniel Boggess and Jason Eksuzian. There are currently four ‘very short’ episodes available to view online. Each one covers topics like incorporating a new crocheted designer pillow into the home, drinking Trader Joe’s boxed wine with your girlfriend while watching Portlandia and other benign day-to-day signs of getting older and ‘losing one’s edge’. The ‘I Miss Drugs’ Twitter account has some humorous gems as well.



Sep 20, 2012

Fiona Apple busted in Texas for possession of hashish


[Video Link] Police officers in Sierra Blanca, Texas made the world safer by arresting Fiona Apple for possession of hashish. She was scheduled to play in Austin.

Urban Camouflage Artist Body Paints Women & Stages Them Around London For a TV Show Promo

Veggie
At London’s Portobello Market
To promote the new season of television drama series, Covert Affairs, the UK channel Really commissioned make-up artist Carolyn Roper to camouflage woman in body paint so that they would blend into London’s scenery. One of them has been painted as vegetables and staged on the veggies stand at London’s Portobello Market. The new season of Covert Affairs premieres September 19, 2012 on Really and the full image gallery can be found at Huffington Post UK.
Here’s a fun ‘making-of’ video that describes Roper’s process on this project:

Bus
Car
images via

The Viral ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ Video Gets A Horror Film Remix


The insanely viral YouTube video Charlie Bit My Finger, that was uploaded 5 years ago and now has over 480 million views, is back and was given a haunting remix as a horror film trailer thanks to What’s Trending. Little Charlie is not so innocent anymore.

my little pony.........yikes


Wrenniepooh isn't your typical bronie. In 2008/9, Wrenniepooh created a series of custom My Little Ponies, including this rather magnificent specimen, dubbed Eyeball Creep.

Sep 19, 2012

finally..............

And the Next President of the U.S.A. Is … Captain America?



America stands divided, with a polarizing presidential election pushing things to extremes. When the populace gets tired of politics as usual, a write-in campaign lands a bona fide war hero in the Oval Office.

Hobbitt 2nd trailer


Mentos + Coke + Condoms


Mixing Mentos and Coke is a thing -- well-parameterized and understood. But what if you tape a condom over the bottle-mouth before you make the fateful introduction? Sheer hilarity!

Sep 18, 2012

Crocodiles Eat, An Anamorphic 3D Painting Installed Inside of a Home

Crocodiles Eat
German artist Nikolaj Arndt created Crocodiles Eat, an amazing anamorphic 3D painting that was installed on a floor inside of a home. You can see more of Arndt’s work at his DeviantArt gallery.
This is what the painting looks like from the reverse side:
Crocodiles Eat
iamges via

The Popinator, A Voice-Activated Popcorn Shooter That Launches Popcorn Into Your Mouth

Popinator
Popcorn brand Popcorn, Indiana has been working on their Popinator Project, a voice-activated machine that listens for the command ‘pop’ to aim and launch popcorn directly into your mouth. While it’s not currently not for sale, you can see the prototype in action in this video.

The Popinator, A Voice-Activated Popcorn Shooter That Launches Popcorn Into Your Mouth

Popinator
Popcorn brand Popcorn, Indiana has been working on their Popinator Project, a voice-activated machine that listens for the command ‘pop’ to aim and launch popcorn directly into your mouth. While it’s not currently not for sale, you can see the prototype in action in this video.

Guns that are also other weapons


On the Propadeucist, "objects that are guns - and are also other weapons," including a gun that is also several other guns.

Sep 13, 2012

William Gibson on Why Sci-Fi Writers Are (Thankfully) Almost Always Wrong

 


Author William Gibson poses for a portrait at the Last Bookstore in Los Angeles.
Photo: Jason Redmond/Wired

One of science fiction’s most visionary and distinctive voices, William Gibson maintains that he and his fellow writers don’t possess some mystical ability to peer into the future.
“We’re almost always wrong,” said Gibson in a phone interview with Wired. Gibson coined the term cyberspace in his 1982 short story “Burning Chrome” and expanded on the concept in his 1984 debut novel, Neuromancer.
In that book, which quickly became a classic, inspiring pop culture and science fiction for decades to come, Gibson predicted that the “consensual hallucination” of cyberspace would be “experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation” in a global network of “unthinkable complexity.”
Yet Gibson says he simply got lucky with his prescient depiction of a digital world. “The thing that Neuromancer predicts as being actually like the internet isn’t actually like the internet at all!” said the writer, who has since penned numerous critically acclaimed novels, including Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), The Difference Engine (co-authored with Bruce Sterling, 1990), Pattern Recognition (2003) and Zero History (2010).
Gibson’s most recent book, a collection of nonfiction called Distrust That Particular Flavor, was published this year; he is currently working on a new novel, tentatively titled The Peripheral.
In this Wired interview, which will be published over the next three days, Gibson discusses a dizzying range of subjects, including antique watches, comic books, punk rock, fortune tellers, internet memes and the long-running plans for a Neuromancer movie.
Wired: Do you think the category “science fiction” is useful anymore? Your last few books, like the Blue Ant trilogy, qualify as science fiction, but they’re set in a feasible approximation of present-day reality.

Facebook to New Yorker: no nipples in your cartoons

 


Facebook forced The New Yorker to remove a cartoon depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden because the cartoonist drew in two dots representing Eve's nipples, which is a Facebook no-no.

Sep 12, 2012

The best quotes from Heathers


News broke today that Bravo was headed into scripted television territory, and that's the positive news. (Holding out on calling it "good news" until I see the actual shows.) But then there was this: a reboot of the movie Heathers. As you can imagine, the blogosphere (at least the writers who are Heathers fans) was not thrilled about this news. But fortunately, the movie itself has provided a whole slew of reactions for us! Let's take a look at a bunch of quotes from the movie that can now be reissued as pre-reviews of this very dumb reboot idea. The best part is that we don't even need context from the plot!

Tim Minchin explains evolution and genomics in an animated short

Tracy King sends us an "animated history of genetics from Nature to celebrate the release of ENCODE. Narrated by Tim Minchin and animated by the team who made Storm. Written by Adam Rutherford (Nature), Andrew Ellard (Red Dwarf, IT Crowd) and Tracy King (TAM London).

Sam Bacile, Anti-Islam Filmmaker, In Hiding After Protests

Mmm, Braaaains! Undead Actors Chomp on Sorbitol


Photo: AMC/Neal Peters Collection

In a zombie apocalypse — as everyone knows — the undead eat brains (or other body parts, depending on which mythology you subscribe to). On a film set, however, zombies basically eat Jell-O. Recipes vary, of course, but in Resident Evil: Retribution, out Friday, the walking dead chew on a version fortified with glycerin and sorbitol, compounds often used to make soft-gel pills. Added to gelatin, the combo turns the faux flesh into something solid enough for actors to really sink their rotting bicuspids into. “The stuff is great, because if it accidentally gets ingested, it’s essentially food,” says Paul Jones, a prosthetic makeup designer who created more than 800 zombies for the new movie. “You can actually bite into it and see it tear.” More occipital lobe, anyone?

Recipe: DIY Faux Flesh*

Ingredients:
  • 200 grams glycerin
  • 200 grams sorbitol
  • 100 grams gelatin powder (recommended: 300 bloom)
  • 2.5 grams zinc oxide
  • Colored face powder
  • Red and green colored frocking
  • Water as needed






1. Mix the glycerin and sorbitol together in a large bowl, then add the gelatin powder and zinc oxide. Microwave in 2-minute intervals, stirring until the powder melts into the liquid. (To make skin that can tear more easily, as in a bite wound, replace the sorbitol with water.)
2. Once melted, add desired colored frocking or small amounts of face powder or food coloring, until desired hue is achieved.
3. Pour into food grade silicone mold. (These can be made at home using a kit or purchased from a specialty catalog.)
4. Cool in refrigerator until the mixture sets. Small body parts, such as hands or arms, will cool within a couple of hours. Larger body parts will take longer.
Yield: 1 serving of brains, flesh, or viscera

Humans Are What’s for Dinner When Hollywood Needs a Shock