Category: Web

Russell Davies’ eggbaconchipsandbeans may on the surface be about the search for the perfect plate of egg, bacon, chips, and beans, but it’s more a celebration of the fast-disappearing mom’n’pop cafes of Britain in all their proletarian idiosyncracy. He has a similar page about cafes (or “caffs,” as the British call it, as a way of snubbing the French) over at
a good place for a cup of tea and a think. Although my memory of English caffs is nowhere near Davies’ (mmm, greasy, ohhh, weak tea), he presents it all with love and affection.

The tsunami that hit Southeast Asia is just amazing in its destruction. This gallery is one of the best so far on showing just how quickly the ocean rushed in.

A selection of Chinese Public Health Posters. Oh, if only they were all as good as this one.

So the wacky-doo Christian Right wants to stop the secularization of Christmas? They stole it from the pagans! And today is the real deal–the shortest day of the year, the official beginning of winter, which is all based on actual events (the earth turning on an angle away from the sun) not some arbitrary date made up centuries ago and which isn’t even in the Bible. Fortunately, you can keep most of your Christmas goodies and still celebrate the Solstice/Yule–these include wreaths on the door, a decorated tree, candles, even dressing up like Santa Claus (or Old Man Winter).
If you really want to get serious, here are instructions for a Roman Saturnalia, though getting a CEO to sit down with the peasant underclass may be difficult.
You may also want to make some cider for Wassailing about, perform a mummer play, or kiss under the mistletoe.
Meanwhile, the Christians did invent the folk art of Nativity Scenes (Alaskan, Lego, action figure, and dioramic) so we’ll give ’em that.

Being scared and embarrassed of a strange man wearing a fake beard is part of what makes Christmas great. For those who thought Bad Santa was fiction, check out the dude above.
By way of J-Walk blog

Endlessly changeable, endlessly fun, endlessly…well, just endless.
The Cubes.
I notice there’s one called Ted, who wears glasses. Eek.

Cut-up artist Chuck Jones (not the animator) makes “Isolation Studies”out of pieces of edited speech, cut up and usually ordered like a list. His sources? NPR, Buffy, and, in his funnier works, Loveline. If you’d don’t know the radio show, then the effect will be diminished. But if you’re a fan of Adam and Dr. Drew, these recontextualizations are strangely satisfying. I recommend “Loveline Questions” and “Alright, Okay, Goodtimes, etc.”

No wonder they hurt. Look at this one!
Kidney Stone Photos
By way of J-Walk.

I’ve often thought bowls are inhumane ways of keeping fish. After all, where is there to swim? So Isabelle Leijn from the Netherlands designed a figure-eight bowl that keeps the fish a’swimming, probably eternally wondering what’s around the curve. It also doubles as a planter.

Bloody hell. Who would have thought oil and water could be used to make a lens? Roland Piquepaille’s site has the scoop.

Liquid Lenses For Camera Phones
In this article, the Register writes that ‘camera phones will soon have lenses made from nothing more substantial that a couple of drops of oil and water, but will still be capable of auto focusing, and even zooming in on subjects.’ The lenses, developed by the French company Varioptic, contain drops of oil and water, acting respectively as conductor and insulator, and sandwiched between two windows. These liquid lenses could replace glass or plastic ones because of several advantages: no moving parts, leading to better reliability; a very small power consumption; very small dimensions (diameter: 8mm; thickness: 2mm); and a very fast response time of 2/100th of a second. You can expect the first camera phones using these liquid lenses as early as Christmas 2005. These lenses might also appear in medical equipment, such as endoscopes, optical networking equipment or surveillance devices. Read more…