IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBT THAT FOX NEWS WOULD PICK A FIGHT WITH ANYONE OR ANYTHING THEY CONSIDER LIBERAL, YOU GOT YOUR ANSWER when Fox Business News blasted the Muppets for being part of the left-wing conspiracy to destroy America.
The evidence: a puppet named "Tex Richman" depicting a greedy oilman in the the latest Muppets movie.
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USED TO BE THE PO PO WERE THE TARGET OF GRAFFITI ARTISTS. But a new painting on a New York bridge reveals fears about a more sophisticated power: Google.
The above painting was snapped by Jeff Rogers of PaidContent.org on the Pulaski bridge connecting Brooklyn and Queens. Note the O's are surveillance cameras. Adjacent is the message, "Stop SOPA."
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MUSIC PRODUCER AND WEB DESIGNER KELSEY WYNN ''GOT AN ITCH" TO TRY OUT A GOPRO CAMERA, so he snared a few off Craigslist then attached them to the harness on a Great Dane named Barney. The result is a pleasing visual romp from a dog's eye perspective. Woof.
Via Gizmodo.
YESTERDAY WE LEARNED ABOUT DICK JOKES on Family Feud. Today it's time to hear about the boozy lunches that led to Pat Sajak and everybody's favorite letter-turner Vanna White hosting Wheel of Fortune while sauced.
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HERE'S A PILOT DICK JOKE FOR ALL YOUR AIRLINE FRIENDS, compliments of Family Feud.
Contestants on an episode that aired Monday were aghast at the sixth most popular response to the question: "What might an airplane pilot be holding on a long flight?"
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Now Charles Dingle, 53, is seeking parole after serving nearly 30 years in prison for a coke-fueled crime spree during which he killed a bar owner, raped a woman and forced another to behead his dead victim.
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THE PERCEPTIVE HAVE ALWAYS KNOWN THAT TREES HAVE THEIR OWN STORIES TO TELL. But now artist Bartholomäus Traubeck has figured out how to listen.
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A STREET PERSON NAPS BEHIND THE BUS STOP AT ADAMS AND WABASH IN CHICAGO SUNDAY. The siesta was captured by photographer and attorney Nima Taradji, who has a gift for seeing what others miss by choice or design.
Taradji, 45, is a founding member of Margin Gallery and The Chicago Photo Union, both cooperative art associations of Chicago's established and/or emerging artists.
To see more of his black-and-white photos shot after the city's first significant snowstorm and during an excursion with ChicagoPhotographer, click inside.
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WE INTERRUPT THE USUAL BLATHER TO DELIVER A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: It might be time to go smelly. A new study raises questions about whether deodorants contribute to breast cancer.
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PUT THE JUDGMENT DOWN WHILE YOU'RE EATING WITH YOUR FAT FRIENDS: The Wall Street Journal has an articleabout personality traits and habits that contribute to obesity.
Journal columnist Melinda Beck highlight several studies that found a host of personality traits that contribute to to why people pack on pounds. Poor maternal relations, deadlines, perfectionism, neuroticism, sleep deprivation -- even selflessness all contribute to individuals collecting body fat and keeping it, according to the artice.
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AMAZON WILL PUBLISH James Franco's first novel, Actors Anonymous, a semi-fictionalized story about his life as an actor. The book will be the third by the inveterate student who received his MFA from Columbia University in 2010 and is enrolled in Yale University's English Ph.D. program.
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ATTENTION MAC FREAKS: still missing your leader, the inimitable Mr. Steve Jobs? Well, if you line up now, you can immortalize him with a Steve Jobs action figure replete with black turtleneck, Levi jeans, New Balance sneaks, glasses and three sets of hands.
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TIME TO RESET THE CALENDAR, LOOK BACK for an accounting and look forward with new plans. Happy New Year, folks. Enjoy banging your pots and pans or watching the ball drop or tearing one on, or however you choose to spend the eve of 2012.
Before turning the page, journalists typically spend the last few days of each year compiling lists of their favorite movies, moments, memes, heroes, headlines of the year. Thanks to them, and to the wonder of the Internet, here are the best ''best of'' lists compiled in one concise list. And don't take 'best' too seriously: these lists typically reflect one person's opinion or, for me, what's most appealing after Google spits up its offerings. Still, these lists are always a great starting point if you're looking for media to consume: let someone else do the culling. Happy reviewing.
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CHEF GRANT ACHATZ HAS TAKEN TO COMPLETELY CHANGING HIS MENU every three months at his restaurant, Next. The first three months took diners to Paris, 1906; the second to the streets of Thailand; and now, simply, into 'childhood.'
Editor's note: Bob Bounce spent the holidays at what "those-in-the-know are calling one of the country's best new restaurants. With just a few weeks left before its current flight of fancy will be gone forever, we take you there, course by course, of course. Don't bother calling; the restaurant is unable to take any more reservations for its current menu.
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MORE THAN THREE DECADES AFTER SHE ENDED HER EPONYMOUS TELEVISION SHOW, MARY TYLER MOORE still is remembered most fondly as "Mary Richards," news producer of WJM-News in Minneapolis.
Moore celebrated her 75th birthday December 29th, and that was enough reason for fans (including me) to hark back to her critically-acclaimed comedy about a single career woman making a life for herself in the city.
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CHEETAH, THE IRONICALLY NAMED CHIMP WHO CO-STARRED WITH Johnny Weissmuller in Tarzan movies, has passed on to that great jungle in the sky.
The 80-year-old chimpanzee suffered kidney failure and died last Saturday at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla. He had lived there since 1960 -- 20 years past life expectancy for chimps in captivity. He had been conveniently "discovered" as a newborn by an animal trainer on a trip to Africa in April 1932, according to the Daily Mail.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL WHO STOP BY TODAY. On the jump is a virtual present from Hulu: the video of A Charlie Brown Christmas.
After the hustle and bustle and feigned magic we create leading up to the holiday, it's easy to forget "the meaning of Christmas."
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LAST MINUTE GIFTS DON'T HAVE TO EQUATE TO LEAST APPEALING under the tree. The 24-hour drug store holds the answers for slackers, procrastinators and workaholics -- as well as the absent-minded who forgot that Aunt Hazel would be coming to Christmas dinner.
Chains like Walgreens and CVS aren't your daddy's drug stores any more: they snared 14 percent of Black Friday and Cyber Monday spenders -- or 18 million shoppers in total, according to the National Retail Federation.
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TECHNOLOGY WILL TRANSFORM HOW WE COMMUNICATE, FUEL OUR HOMES and access our bank and computer accounts within the next 5 years, according to IBM's annual "watch list" for tech transformations.
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WHY WE DON'T HALT THE CHARADE AND SHUT DOWN OFFICES THESE last few days before Christmas. Are you any of you actually working out there? Or are you trying to look busy as you coyly surf the net searching for last-minute gift ideas and taking advantage of free shipping?
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WHAT BECOMES A LEGEND MOST? A dead Hollywood superstar whose jewels rival those of royals.
Even in death, Elizabeth Taylor dazzles: an auction last night in Manhattan of 80 of her most spectacular pieces of jewelry brought in a record-breaking $116 million -- more than double the amount reached previously for a single collection. "It's one of the most extraordinary auctions that Christie's has ever had and a testament to the affection for Elizabeth Taylor worldwide," Christie's Chairman Marc Porter told the New York Post.
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THE HOITY TOITY AND HIGH ALMIGHTLY WILL DESCEND ON CHRISTIE'S IN MANHATTAN TONIGHT AS 80 OF THE FINEST PIECES IN ELIZABETH TAYLOR'S JEWELRY COLLECTION will be auctioned off.
Dubbed "The Legendary Jewels," the collection encompasses the best of the best of some 1,200 pieces of jewelry the Hollywood star amassed over her lifetime. It includes a 33.19 carat rectangular-cut diamond gifted to her Richard Burton that is expected to sell for as much as $3.5 million; a 19th century diamond Tiara gifted to her by her third husband, Mike Todd; and an enamel and gold flag necklace by Bulgari that is expected to sell for as little as $8,000.
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NOW HERE'S A STORY THAT WILL, AHEM, MAKE YOU "PAWS."
Daniel, a polydactyl cat -- that's one with a congenital anomaly causing it to have extra toes -- has become the inspiration for the Milwaukee Animal Rescue Center which is raising money for a new building to house its furry charges.
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MICHEL ROSENTHAL IS ONE OF THE WORLD'S FOREMOST EXPERTS ON GLITTER ROCK. AND she knows firsthand that all that glitters is not gold: there's also blue glitter and purple glitter and pinks and reds.
Rosenthal, 48, is a psychotherapist/life coach who accesses her creative side by embellishing vintage album covers with the bling we know as glitter. The results are literally and figuratively dazzling fun -- at least to someone (me) who's personal slogan is "everything goes better with glitter." The covers offer shiny trips down "memory lane" where fans enjoy reminiscing about the records they've loved and played.
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WE COULD CALL IT CHRISTMAS DECORATING AT HANUKKAH PRICES, but that'd just create more hard feelings over the great divide between two world religions. Let's just say we're sharing ideas for decking Christmas halls on a dime.
Great style doesn't have to be determined by budget as the following projects prove. From tchotke and paper plate Christmas trees that hang on walls, to ornaments made from old books and sheet music, to Martha Stewart's always classic Christmas crafts, the projects here belie the belief that high style can only be had with hordes of cash.
Also check out: Ring In The Holiday With Festive Christmas Wreaths
Have Yourself A Very Merry Kitschmas
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SUPERMAN CONTINUES TO HAVE SUPER-HUMAN STRENGTH on the auction block. A rare first copy of the first issue of 1938 Action Comics introducing Superman sold Wednesday for a record-breaking $2.16 million for a comic, the Associated Press reports.
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HERE'S OCCUPY WALL STREET'S GREATEST SUPPORTER GLENN GREENWALD dropping a dime on America's top journalists for being elitists. He takes particular aim at the New York Times former executive editor Bill Keller, the son of a former Chevron CEO, and CNN talker Erin Burnett, fiance to a Citigroup executive, for being "scornful of Wall Street protesters."
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WHAT DO SCROOGE McDUCK, RICHIE RICH, MR. BURNS AND RAP MOGUL JAY-Z HAVE IN COMMON? An aversion to sharing -- if the the totem pole sculpture created by media whore and American sculptor extraordinaire Daniel Edwards is any indication.
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IF COURTNEY LOVE FLIPS THE BIRD AND STORMS OFFSTAGE WHEN A concertgoer waves a photo of her dead husband at her, what must she do when she looks into her estranged daughter's face?
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LEAVE JOHN ALONE!
I am not a fan of Speaker of the House John Boehner. In fact, if I were ever to meet him he would probably not like me either. But…I just can't take it anymore and I must defend him.
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HIS NAME IS DANIEL, BUT anyone in the right mind would call him lucky. That's because this adorable beagle mix literally cheated death after surviving a gas chamber in an Alabama dog pound.
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WHEN YOU'VE PROVEN YOURSELF A CULTURAL ICON, there's no danger in making fun of your flaws.
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EXPECTATION IS THE ORDER OF THE DAY, Nov. 11, 2011, with the trine of 11s loaded with symbolism for mystics and numerologists, the spiritual and superstitious.
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I KNOW, I KNOW: I should be writing today about Mariah's weight loss (was it 30 lbs or 70 lbs.?), or Brett Ratner's fishy tales about Olivia Munn or Rachel's "first time" with Finn. But none of those topics satisfy as much as the story about John Wood's 12,000 libraries.
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YOU DON'T MALIGN THE DEAD AT THEIR FUNERAL. So it's tempting to discount Mona Simpson's touching eulogy of her brother Steve Jobs as romance.
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CREEPTASTIC FUN'S IN STORE FOR THE Halloween weekend both literally and figuratively.
Procrastinating partiers descended on Party City on Western Avenue in Chicago to execute their Halloween costume fantasies. Here are some gruesome options for the more macabre among us.
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AND SO WE ARRIVE AT THE ONE WEEKEND OF THE YEAR when murderers and witches, freaks and creeps, are welcome to roam indiscriminately. Thank god there's a surge in patrolling superheroes too.
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IN THE NEWS, TWO STUDIES ABOUT THE IGNOBLE TRAITS OF PSYCHOPATHS AND NARCISSISTS.
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HE ARRIVES BY SEA SANS BOAT OR FLOAT. He's awash in primary colors of red and yellow and green. And he bears a strange message on his chest: 'NO REAL THAN YOU ARE.'
He's the seafaring giant Lego Man who's traveled two continents, most recently arriving on the sands of the U.S. by way of Siesta Key Village, Fla.
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EVEN FOR CHRONIC CONSUMERS OF NEWS, this week's headlines were particularly gruesome.
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U.S. JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALIA is constitutionally opposed to calling deep-dished Chicago-style pizza anything but "tomato pie."
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PROVING THERE IS SUCH A THING AS HAVING TOO MUCH MONEY, THIS YEAR'S Neiman Marcus Christmas Book offers up a $75,000 pink yurt -- which is just a fancy way of saying tent -- bedecked in lush I Dream Of Jeannie style.
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THE NEW YORKER'S OCT. 17 COVER DEPICTS STEVE JOBS being checked into heaven by an iPad-wielding angel, provoking one wit at Boing Boing to ask, "Wasn't it Moses who had the tablets?"
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WE'VE BEEN REMISS IN NOT NOTING THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF Breakfast At Tiffany's, whose legacy by no coincidence has left its mark here at 'Crabby Golightly.'
The 1961 movie based on Truman Capote's novella was celebrated this week for its lingering touch on pop culture. As played by the elegant Audrey Hepburn, Holly Golightly personified pizazz in her little black dress, her fake pearls, her gobs of mascara.
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A CANADIAN "MOROCCAN" ROCK BAND may be the biggest winner of the Tea Party movement.
That's because the rockers own the domain for the band's name -- TeaParty.com -- one of the buzziest terms in America's political lexicon today.
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I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THIS -- AND FRANKLY IT COMES AS A SURPRISE TO ME -- but Larry Page is a fan of mine.
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A NEW YORK MAN IS SUING WHITE CASTLE CLAIMING THAT THE FAST FOOD RESTAURANT DISCRIMINATES AGAINST HEFTIES.
Kessman says he loves him some sliders, but his craving comes at a price: he claims the table and chairs inside White Castle are too small for his 290 pound frame.
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CAN YOU IMAGINE LARRY PAGE WEARING Forever 21's "Allergic To Alegebra" T-SHIRT?
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IF IMITATION IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY, MAKERS OF the ANGRY BIRDS are touched -- as in feeling their pockets lighter -- by the actions of a Chinese theme park.
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LET'S SING PRAISE TWICE IN THIS STORY: First to Harbor, an 8-year-old coonhound that has the world's longest dog ears. Then secondly to Guinness World Records for keeping track of such oddities.
Poor Harbor. Look at him up there, his sad eyes recognizing that he's a freak show.
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WITH APOLOGIES TO LEO TOLSTOY, ALL BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE ARE ALIKE, BUT THE ugly are hideous in their own way.
Seriously, how many of us have actually encountered a truly ugly person? Looking back, I can't think of too many that stand out, except there was this one woman with a ginormous, bulbous, lumpy nose I worked with in Atlanta.
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A reveler soaks up the fun at the 66th annual "Tomatina" tomato fight in Bunol, Spain, Wednesday.
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TWENTY-TWO YEAR OLD BROOKE COLLINS IS ONE FIERCE MOMMA, even if she's only mom to a dachshund, Fudge.
Collins of Anchorage, Alaska, punched a black bear in the face Sunday night when she found it with its jaw clamped down on the neck of her pooch.
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HERE'S YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE TYPE OF GOVERNMENTAL ABUSE THAT HAPPENS ALL TOO OFTEN IN OUR WORLD.
A presidential panel revealed on Monday that U.S. government agencies performed medical experiments in Guatemala in the 1940s in which test subjects were unwittingly infected with sexually transmitted diseases. And the physician who led the experiment -- Dr. John C. Cutler -- was also involved in the reviled Tuskegee, Ala. experiments in which black men were secretly infected with syphilis and left untreated as they suffered and died. The revelation has led BlackAgendaReport to condemn Cutler as America's "Joseph Mengele,'' the notorious Nazi "doctor of death" who performed experiments on Jewish prisoners of war.
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CHICAGO-BASED AIR GUITARIST Justin "Nordic Thunder" Howard did his part to spread world peace at the 16th annual Air Guitar World Championships held in Oulu, Finland on Friday, winning second place in the competition.
"My heart is filled with so many emotions,'' sniffed Howard on his Twitter account. "This has been the best time of my life, & i've made some new amazing friends.Tonight we ALL rock!"
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WE DECLARE THIS OH HAPPY FRIDAY BECAUSE OF THIS STORY ABOUT A lobster deemed too big and old to eat.
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THE IMPENDING NUPTIALS OF Juliana S. Park to Benjamin J. Lee will no doubt be the hottest ticket of Pasadena, Calif.'s fall social calendar for both the living and undead. That's because these two crazy kids are slaying them on the web with their mock engagement photo album depicting a surprise Zombie attack.
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FEW OF US LEAD LIVES AS INSPIRED AS NANCY WAKE, WHO DIED AT THE AGE OF 98 after having worked as an anti-Nazi spy during World War II.
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HERE'S ANOTHER REASON TO HATE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE:
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I JUST MADE UP THIS NEW FEATURE IN WHICH we suggest laws through which our emotionally and spiritually bereft lawmakers can redeem themselves in sad eyes. And our first suggestion: anytime a cow consciously and wilfully escapes a slaughterhouse said cow should be immediately and forever granted reprieve from the death chamber.
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HALF THE FUN OF WATCHING TV IS SEARCHING FOR THE UNSPOKEN METAPHOR OR MEANING.
For instance, who among us hasn't heard the theory that Scooby and Shaggy are potheads who keep their toking on the lowdown but can't disguise the inevitable hungering results?
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SCOTT FROM SCOTT'S PIZZA TOURS GETS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT PIZZA BOXES.
So much, in fact, that he has friends send him boxes from pizzerias around the world. Consequently, Scott's become a de facto expert in the arcane subject of pizza box design.
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IN CASE you're confused about the real purpose of the U.S.'s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, here's a story to distill the answer: A wildlife biologist who co-wrote a report on dead polar bears that became ammunition for climate activists has been suspended while his "integrity" is investigated.
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NEW SHIT HAS COME TO LIGHT: The bungalow used to shoot the cult hit The Big Lebowski has hit the market.
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A DAY AFTER Britain's Academy of Medical Sciences called for tighter regulation of "transgenetic" animal-human experiments, a British politician claims that scientists have already created 155 animal-human embryos in labs.
The embryos were grown at King's College London, Newcastle University and Warwick University in experiments that have been halted due to lack of funding, according to the U.K's Daily Mail.
"It is dabbling in the grotesque," Baron David Alton of Liverpool said in Parliament Friday night.
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I'VE NEVER BEEN AHEAD OF THE CURVE ON ANY FAD.
From Pet Rocks to Bum Fights, I was always the last to know. Perhaps planking's my redemption. My chance to ride the wave as opposed to watching it crash ashore from a bobbing and semi-submerged long board.
I first heard of planking while watching an interview with New Zealand footballer David Williams late one night. He was asked exactly what was planking and he quickly obliged by laying across the anchor's desk in a prone position. The next day I asked some younger staff at the office if they had heard about planking. All responded with the same look of, ''What the hell are you talking about?''
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A HEAT WAVE SEEMS AS GOOD AS ANY TO TALK ABOUT THE DISGUSTING BUGS THAT MAKE OUR SUMMERS' ITCH. And Amy Stewart's new book, Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army and Other Diabolical Insects, provides an even better reason.
The author talks of the "pure evil" of insects on The Current -- in particular the mosquito -- "the most wicked bug of all."
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HE'S THE CRAGGY-FACED NEWSMAKING REPTILIAN WHO BUYS AND BULLIES HIS WAY TO WINNING AT CAPITALISM. She's the steely Chinese-born Tiger Wife raised as a Communist who's clawed her way to wealth and power.
Who else could we be talking about other than K. Rupert Murdoch, titan of the News Corp. and his third wife, the ferocious 42-year-old Wendi Deng, who's married up three times.
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MY WORK HUSBAND DREW IS GAY. And no, I'm not a faghag, I prefer to call myself a "gaymay."
Anyway, we're having a blood drive on our job and I signed right up. I immediately CQD Drew to see if he would give as well. "They don't want my blood," he said.
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THERE'S NO BETTER DAY TO SEEK OUT YOUR SUGARY FIX FOR THE SLURPEE! Today, in honor of it's 84th birthday, the convenience chain 7-Eleven is giving out free Slurpees to celebrate.
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THIS SHIT CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH: A British Scientist is predicting aging will be cured through the use of "preventative geriatrics" such as gene and stem cell therapies.
"I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so," de Grey, chief scientific officer of the California-based ISENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation, told Reuters in an interview. "And what I mean by decisive is the same sort of medical control that we have over most infectious diseases today."
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AND THAT'S A WRAP.
Or more likely a beef sandwich. But it could have been a hot dog with all the fixins. Or corn cob on a stick. Or deepdish pizza. Whatever the woman above's eating, it was sure to be tasty.
THE CITY THAT WORKS WAS THE BACKDROP FOR THE 31st annual TASTE OF CHICAGO, touted as the "nation's premier outdoor food festival showcasing the diversity of Chicago's dining community."
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KAATYYY PEERRRRYY!!!!"
That's some guy Alex calling to me during last weekend's CampusMovieFest in Hollywood.
I was there -- not posing as Katy -- but as a contestant in the fest's International Grand Finale for Deeper, Harder Love, a short film I wrote, codirected and starred in about the first porno to win an Oscar.
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SOME FILTHY RICH WANKER -- YES THAT'S CLASS ENVY TALKING -- stopped by a Capital One ATM on June 18 for a little pocket money.
Update: Dealbreaker has outed the account owner: David Tepper, founder of the Appaloosa Hedge Fund, who keeps brass balls on his desk and rubs them during the day for luck. So I wasn't off when I called him a wanker.
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MORE THAN A 100 YEARS AFTER HE COMMITTED THEM, THE LEGENDARY CRIMES OF BILLY THE KID ARE PAYING OFF: A billionaire collector of Wild West memorabilia dropped $2.3 million Saturday to own the last-surviving photograph of the American frontier outlaw.
William Koch, a 71-year-old industrialist and founder of Oxbow Carbon, drove the price up for the coveted photo at a Denver auction Saturday.
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THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF COPPER HEIRESS HUGUETTE CLARK IS A DOOZY, leaving $34 million to her long-time nurse, $14 million to a god-daughter, and designating the bulk of her $400 fortune to establish an arts foundation at her 24-acre Santa Barbara, Calif. estate.
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A MISSING $30 MILLION PORTRAIT OF FARRAH FAWCETT PAINTED BY ANDY WARHOL has been eye spied in the bedroom of her longtime lover, Ryan O'Neal.
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IF NOTORIOUS GANGSTER AL CAPONE WERE ALIVE, NO DOUBT HE'D BE SHAKING HIS FIST AND ASKING THREATENINGLY, "YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME?"
The answer is yes.
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A duck fascinator sits atop the head of a visitor to Ladies Day at the Royal Ascot, Britain's premier horseracing event. Those crazy hats are one reason to be glad America declared its independence from England.
Adorning birds was a popular theme among ladies this year, the 300th year of the races. Queen Elizabeth II, along with Princesses Anne and Beatrice, showed up for the festivities sans fowl-themed hats. But check out a few featherbrained fascinators below.
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THE AURORA BOREALIS CASTS A SPECTRAL SHOW above Jökulsárlón, the largest glacial lake in southeastern Iceland.
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I ABSOLUTELY HATE THE FACT THAT IN 2011 WE'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT "DARK'' VERSUS ''LIGHT" IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY.
Now Bill Duke tackles our painful color divide.
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A FRENCH SOCIOLOGIST HAS PENNED A BOOK THAT "RUTHLESSLY DECONSTRUCTS" THE SMURFS AS RACISTS TOTALITARIANS.
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DEAD NOW MORE YEARS THAT SHE WAS ALIVE, MARILYN MONROE CONTINUES TO FASCINATE.
The screen siren would be celebrating her 85th birthday today if she were alive. Instead, she died on Aug. 2, 1962 of a drug overdose that some speculate was suicide; others, think was murder.
Monroe's tragic life -- born to a crazy mother, bounced around between foster homes and relatives -- both propelled and imprisoned her.
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I'M BAAACK! Sorry for my absence but there seemed little point in yapping about the news when it was all supposed to go to hell within hours.
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YOU KNOW THIS: YOU'RE DYING.
Not because you've got cancer, or because you've been stricken by a terrible disease. No, it's more insidious than that: even the healthiest among us are moving inexorably toward death. The only mystery is when you'll exit.
Now a Spanish doctor has invented a $700 test that purports to accurately predict how much time you have left on earth.
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A DAY THAT OTHERS FEAR -- I EMBRACE.
In fact, 13's my lucky number. Because I don't have a choice: I was born on Friday the 13th.
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SOMETIMES THE FARTHER YOU GO THE CLEARER THE VIEW BECOMES.
That's how it is for me watching Dominic Boudrealt's timelapsed motion photography shot over a year in five North American cities.
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FEDERAL OFFICIALS HAVE SUED TO SHUT DOWN AN AMISH FARMER WHO SOLD RAW MILK ACROSS STATE LINES, but customers accuse the Food and Drug Administration of colluding with corporate dairy farms.
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EYE CANDY DAVID BECKHAM eschews hopping for a skateboard as he prepares to lead an Easter egg hunt for his three boys.
Mrs. Bunny, a.k.a, the pregnant Victoria Beckham, tweeted the picture over the weekend teasing, ''Guess Who?''
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CHICAGO'S VERY OWN MOVIE CRITIC ROGER EBERT HAS MADE A CAREER out of writing short and snappy.
It's an art form, one he has indulged in for 40 years as journalist and movie reviewer. But apparently Ebert has lusted after brighter literary lights -- to see his name in the New Yorker.
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A 23-YEAR-OLD HUMAN CANNONBALL WAS PROPELLED TO HIS DEATH IN ENGLAND MONDAY WHEN A SAFETY NET FAILED TO ENGAGE. Hundreds of fans were watching as the man fell and was knocked unconscious and began oozing from his mouth.
The unidentified stuntman was an employee of the Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show which was performing at a campground in Kent.
"On the face of it, it appears that the nets that the human cannonball was landing at actually gave way,'' an official told BBC.
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AOL CONTRIBUTOR DAVID MOYE GETS THE WIN FOR THE MOST ENTERPRISING TREND STORY: HORNY HUMAN BEINGS.
Inspired by Lady Gaga's alien facial protuberances, Moye points out that the pop star isn't the first or the most outrageous example of "body modification."
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THEY'RE THE PERFECT WEDDING GIFT FOR THE COUPLE WHO HAS EVERYTHING: Prince William and his future wife Catherine immortalized as Pez candy dispensers.
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WE'VE ALL HEARD the annoying aphorism about how when life delivers lemons we should just crush the pulp out of them, add water, sugar, stir then -- viola! -- enjoy a tart cold glass of lemonade.
Fifteen-year-old Regina Meyer of Germany did that, only she transformed her cow into a horse.
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IS THE U.S. MILITARY TARGETING TV ANNOUNCERS in secret microwave mind-control experiments?
That's the latest theory alleged by Internet "conspiracy theorists" after Judge Judy halted taping of her show and was rushed to the hospital March 30.
News reports claimed previously that Sheindlin had suffered "intestinal discomfort." But U.K's Daily Mail is among media claiming she was hospitalized after sputtering gibberish during taping of her courtroom TV show.
Read the full post here.
THE DISASTER AT THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR PLANT HAS POISONED MY APPETITE FOR POINTLESS BLATHER ABOUT CELEBRITIES. Who can care about Mariah's contractions or BritBrit's "hella hot" performance in San Francisco when you have to fret about radiation in U.S. rainwater?
Read the full post here.
LOGIC GOES OUT THE WINDOW WHEN YOU'RE DEALING WITH BONAFIDE TREKKIES, SO IT'S NO SURPRISE THAT A POINTY EAR worn by Leonard Nimoy in the first Star Trek film is expected to fetch as much as $1,400 when it goes up for auction April 2.
Read the full post here.
AMID WORLD PANIC OVER JAPAN'S WORSENING NUCLEAR RADIATION CRISIS NOW COMES ASSURANCE THAT "fear of Japan's nuclear crisis far exceeds actual risks,"' according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Here's quoting directly from an article published by the newspaper today: "After more than 20 years of extensive study, there is no consistent evidence of increased birth defects, leukemia, or most other radiation-related diseases," journalist Peter Hessler wrote in a 2010 article for The New Yorker. He said the only public epidemic consists of high rates of cancer in children, who tend to be more sensitive to radiation."
The article goes on to say that "even those incidences of cancer could have been prevented, scientists say, if the Soviet government had warned locals against feeding contaminated milk to their children."
Well, that's reassuring. All we have to worry about is the curse of cancer on the next generation to be born.
Read the full post here.
MSNBC'SLEAD FEATURE TODAY IS A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR OF VENDING MACHINES THAT DISPENSE EVERTHING FROM live crabs to veggies to gold bars and rice. Sorry to break it to you guys but you missed the best one!
Check out Art+O+Mat, where miniature pieces of original art are dispensed in rehabbed cigarette vending machines.
Read the full post here.
THE 83RD ACADEMY AWARDS? All just a bit ho hum. John Galliano's "I love Hitler" slur? Not how I want to start off Monday morning.
Rather, give me cats! --the fuzzy, friendly, manipulative furry children of women.
A study from the University of Vienna and the Konrad Lorenz Research Station has confirmed numerically what we already knew anecdotally: women love cats, and cats love women.
"Female owners have more intense relationships with their cats than do male owners," University of Vienna's Manuela Wedl tells Discovery News.
Read the full post here.
DESIGNER THOMAS HEATHERWICK'S MAGIS SPUN CHAIR is among the inventions that went on exhibit yesterday in the Brit Insurance Design Of The Year competition.
The contest, now in its fourth year, is the London Design Museum's "annual exploration of the most innovative, interesting and forward-looking new work in design."
Read the full post here.
PHOTOGRAPHER SPENCER PLATT SNAPPED Standard poodle "Gem" standing with his owner at a news conference at the 135th Westminster Kennel Dog Club Show in New York last weekend.
About 2,500 purebred dogs are competing for the title of "best in show" at the world's most prestigious dog competition which culminates tonight at Madison Square Garden.
The competition, first held in 1877, predates the invention of the light bulb and the automobile.
Tonight's final night of competition will broadcast from 8 to 11 p.m. (Eastern) on USA.
For more fantastic shots of dogs and their owners visit here.
THIS PARTY PLATTER REPRODUCTION OF PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON'S ENGAGEMENT SNAP IS NOT INTENDED TO BE SOME SLY WAY OF SAYING "EAT ME!" TO THE QUAINT IDEA OF ROYALTY. Honest.
Rather, the U.K. restaurant chain Crown Carveries that commissioned the edible and nutritionally-balanced copy of official engagement portrait, says it "wanted to give the happy couple a tasteful memento of their special day," says retail operations director Martin Gosling. And we'll believe you if you say so, Martin.
Chopped carrots, cauliflower, turkey and peas should keep well over the years.
Via AOL.
THE FIRE ENGINE-RED HOT BATHING SUIT THAT FARRAH FAWCETT WORE TO INFAMY WILL become part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Items that belonged to the 70s sex symbol have been donated by her longtime lover Ryan O'Neal, and the one-piece suit worn in her iconic swimsuit poster is part of the package.
Read the full post here.
THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS TO BE SAD ABOUT IN THIS WORLD. ADD THIS TRAVESTY TO THE PILE.
Detroit has become an urban wasteland for unwanted, abandoned and neglected dogs. More than 50,000 of them roam the city scavenging for food and shelter, according to this video posted by Hush313 on YouTube.
Read the full post here.
THE SATELLITE PICTURE ABOVE FROM THE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration illustrates the 'monster' storm pummeling much of the nation. Call it whatever you want -- the Snowpocalypse, an old-fashioned blizzard, or my favorite Snotorious B.I.G, the storm extending from New Mexico to Maine is complicating life for up to 100 million Americans.
Read the full post here.
IT'S A SNAP TO IMAGINE LADY GAH DONNING THIS MEDIEVAL HELMUT WHILE HUNTING DOWN the beast that provides her next flesh dress. (Boar, anyone?)
This antiqued-style steel helmet fashioned with studs, onyx stones and Swarovski crystals is part of the "Helmet" collection by the jewelry maker Rock and Bone. No doubt made with the dominatrix in mind. The piece includes chain with black pearl details on the back and mesh on the eye. Helmet measures 12.5 inches and weighs 5 pounds. Yours for $2,890.
More warrior chic inside.
Read the full post here.
A STAG MEMORIAL STANDS INSIDE THE VICTORIAN-ERA ROSEHILL CEMETERY ON CHICAGO'S NORTHSIDE.
Read the full post here.
SCORE ANOTHER POINT FOR NAPPERS, at least the human kind. (Yes the picture above is totally gratuitous.) In yet another study -- this one in Germany -- researchers have proven the power of short sessions of sleep.
Read the full post here.
WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN IT ALL ALONG: BARBIE IS A PSYCHO BITCH.
But, nooo, we couldn't see past her blindingly perfect smile and her too-small waist and her hypnotic blue eyes. No, we had to be dazzled by the playa who gets played all the time.
Guess she got sick of pretending and took it out on the jailers who imprison her inside her perfect plastic smile. Her perfect image.
Be careful what you wish for, boys.
That's our snap analysis of the doll photography of Mariel Clayton, who creates shockingly macabre crimes committed by a smiling Barbie. Creeeepy!
No doubt, acclaim is in her future. Inside, more mock death scenes.
Read the full post here.
WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS A SILLY-LOOKING ANIMAL, GOOGLY EYES AND OBESITY? EYESCANHASCHEEZBURGER.
Meet Heidi, an American expatriate living the celebrity life at the Leipzig Zoo in Germany. The two-and-a-half year old crosseyed opossum was discovered during a behind-the-scene glimpse of the zoo's newcomers last year. Heidi's "zoinks zowie!" eyes has made her a instant celebrity on Facebook where she has 187,376 fans as of 3:30pm January 13, US Central Time.
Read the full post here.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! With last night's revelries just a dream away, and hangovers tamed by time and rehydration, let's consider what's in store for 2011. It's a tradition here at CrabbyGolightly to predict celebrity happenings for the upcoming year -- so what if we're batting zero? It's all in the fun. So without further ado:
Needing to top her last, best, publicity stunt, -- the meat dress -- LADY GAGA sacrifices a live cow on stage, then throw cuts of raw flesh to her ravenous fans. The public bloodletting is the only way the predatory pop star can garner even bigger headlines than she did last year -- and it works: 3,000 concertgoers are hospitalized in the worst case of food poisoning ever.
Read the full post here.
A BRITISH DIET SUPPLEMENT MANUFACTURER CLAIMS THAT women are more uncomfortable eating than getting naked in front of their partners.
Sixty percent of women aren't happy about eating in front of their mates, while 50 percent profess feeling uncomfortable undressing in front of them.
Read the full post here.
MARK COTHREN IS OBVIOUSLY A MAN WHO LIKES TO SHOOT FIRST AND ASK QUESTIONS LATER.
We jump to that conclusion after reading that Cothren shot a freaky hairless creature that wandered onto his lawn because, well, he didn't recognize it.
Read the full post here.
WARD JENKINS HAS A SIMPLE EXPLANATION FOR WHY HE COLLECTS VINTAGE MIDCENTURY PAPER EPHEMERA: It makes him happy.
"The characters, the lettering, the optimism conveyed, the innocence -- all of it encompasses happiness and of a 'better time,' so to speak,"' Jenkins explains by email. "It makes me happy and I love looking at them."
Lucky for us, Jenkins shares his infatuation with illustration on Flickr, where he posts vintage Christmas graphics, illustrations from children's story books and his own mod-flavored creations.
Jenkins, 42, is an animator and illustrator who lives in Portland, Ore. with his wife and two kids. He blames his wife for exposing him to the vast world of vintage paper ephemera.
Read the full post here.
CAN WE IMPORT THIS IDEA TO AMERICA?
Restroom Association (Singapore) is launching a campaign to encourage cleanup of that country's public toilets. The LOO campaign -- or "Let's Observer Ourselves"'-- is urging the cleanup of the city-state's 30,000 public restrooms, only 500 of which meets RAS' standards for cleanliness.
Read the full post here.
IT'S CHRISTMAS TIME, AND I WANT TO SEE SANTA CLAUS.
Nothing in the news grabs my attention this morning. It's hard for anything to compete with the sparkling tree throwing light a few yards away. I've taken the easy way out; I've headed to Flickr.
Above, a vintage T. Hee illustration from the collection of Texan Calsidyrose on Flickr.
Ride 'em, Santa.
THE SPECTACLE IN THE SKY IS SET TO TAKE PLACE IN THE WEE HOURS TUESDAY MORNING. THAT'S WHEN the earth's shadow will cast a rosy pall over a full moon during the first lunar eclipse since 2008.
The show falls on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. And depending on who you read, the last time that happened was either 300 or 500 years ago, but who's counting?
Those keen on the details can review the 12 stages of an eclipse here at Space.com.
Me? I just want to look at the pretty pictures like the one above by Lloyd K. Barnes on Flickr. "This is an image of the moon during the total lunar eclipse, superimposed over the Vancouver night skyline,'' says Barnes on Flickr. "Both shots were taken in the early morning of August 28, 2007 during the eclipse. Some photoshop colour work was done on the city shot, but the moon was actually this colour."
More lunar eclipse photos from Flickr below.
Read the full post here.
AN ADORABLE PAMPERED POOCH GETS TAKEN FOR A RIDE THROUGH THE SLUSH-FILLED STREETS OF Bucharest, Romania, where circumstances have obviously brightened since the country's notorious orphan crisis.
Via Gawker. Image via AP.
IN YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW -- QUOTE "SCIENCE" -- confirms the obvious, a study published in Psychological Science claims that rich folks are worse at reading people's emotions than poor people.
Read the full post here.
BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T SEE THEM ANYWHERE ELSE (WINK), HERE ARE PRINCE WILLIAM AND KATE MIDDLETON'S official engagement snaps.
Photoshop never looked more glamorous as on the handsome William and the elegant Kate, who by radiating joy and love are single handedly bringing back the fairytale. And woe unto them if they ever have a bad hair day or utter a cross word because we expect more from our illusions.
Read the full post here.
WITH NEWSPAPERS INCREASINGLY LOOKING LIKE ANACHRONISTIC LADIES WHO LUNCH, IT SEEMS FITTING THAT THE ONCE DAZZLING GIRL REPORTER BRENDA STARR would exit the newsroom now.
The sexy, siren-haired chronicler, is being forced into retirement next month because Chicago Tribune columnist Mary Schmich, who pens the strip in its current incarnate, is not reupping her contract.
Read the full post here.
GOOD NEWS FOR CHUBBIES AND DIETERS EVERYWHERE! SCIENCE now suggests we may be able to think ourselves thinner. 
Save 57 percent off Bonobos.
Read the full post here.
SYLVESTER STALLONE WAS A STARVING ARTIST WHEN HE ACCEPTED $200 BUCKS TO MAKE THE SEXXXY MOVIE, The Party at Kitty and Stud's. Now the worldwide rights to what was Stallone's first movie have sold on Ebay for $412,100.
"I'd been bounced out of my apartment and had spent four nights in a row at the Port Authority bus terminal, trying to avoid the cops, trying to get some sleep and keeping my pens and books in a 25-cent locker," Stallone told Playboy in 1978.
Read the full post here.
A FLORIDA SCIENTIST SAYS THAT MERCURY-FED IBISES FAVORED THE COMPANY of male birds over females and his finding has implications for the bird population in the wild.
Wanting to test the consequences of mercury in groundwater, Florida University researcher Peter Frederick captured 160 young white ibises and divided them into four groups.
While the control group received no mercury-laced food, three other groups were served varying quantities of methylmercury in their diets. The result: 55 percent of birds who received the highest doses of mercury snubbed females and nested with another male.
Read the full post here.
IF YOU'VE SPENT A LIFETIME LOOKING FOR EXCUSES FOR STAYING UP LATE AND DOING DRUGS, meet your validation: Satoshi Kanazawa.
Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist who contends that smart people are more nocturnal and also experiment with psychoactive drugs than average or dull individuals.
Kanazawa attributes both behaviors to intelligent people's "evolutionarily novel preference" -- or put in its simplest terms, the tendency for intelligent people to experiment outside the bounds of normal ancestral behavior.
Read the full post here.
IF YOU WANT TO READ ABOUT THE PEDOPHILIA PUBLISHING BROUHAHA, YOU'RE fresh out of luck here. Nancy Pelosi's downfall? Take it elsewhere.
This morning here at CrabbyGolightly, it's all about the hero hippo.
Read the full post here.
GOOD NEWS FOR AMERICANS! We slide slowly toward our inexorable deaths, while the curtain falls faster on Brits.
Read the full post here.
ALLEN AND VIOLET LARGE ARE LIVING UP TO THEIR LAST NAME.
When the Canadian couple won $11.2 million in a lottery last July, they decided that the money "was a big headache" and gave it all away.
"That money that we won was nothing," Allen, 75, told a reporter while choking back tears. "We have each other."
Read the full post here.
ALLEN AND VIOLET LARGE ARE LIVING UP TO THEIR LAST NAME.
When the Canadian couple won $11.2 million in a lottery last July, they decided that the money "was a big headache" and gave it all away.
"That money that we won was nothing," Allen, 75, told a reporter while choking back tears. "We have each other."
Read the full post here.
CALL ME A COMMUNIST BUT COUNT ME AMONG THOSE THRILLED THAT THE GLISTENING CITY BY THE BAY HAS BANISHED TOYS FROM HAPPY MEALS.
San Francisco's Board of Supervisors has banished toys from meals deemed too high in sugar and fat content in a move they are labeling "food justice" for the poor.
Read the full post here.
POACHERS SLAUGHTERED A 41-YEAR-OLD RHINOCEROS NAMED STUMPY LAST WEEKEND INSIDE A KENYAN ANIMAL SANCTUARY LAST WEEKEND BY POACHERS.
"Our worst fears were realized when a freshly shot rhino carcass was found -- the horns hacked off," Richard Moller, chief conservation officer at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, said in a statement.
Read the full post here.
THERE'S A SAYING ABOUT A POT AND GETTING OFF IT IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DO YOUR BUSINESS. And after nine years of dating England's Prince William, Royal girlfriend Kate Middleton surely must be thinking about that colloqualism for marriage.
And so the drumbeat is growing louder that an engagement is imminent between England's heir to the throne and the commoner he met at college.
Read the full post here.
THEY WERE SLIM AND CAPTIVATING AND CHEAP, JUST LIKE OUR VERY OWN DON DRAPER.
'They' are the pocket-sized Mr. Men and Little Miss series published by Roger Hargreaves beginning in 1971.
Populated by titles such as Mr. Clumsy and Mr. Greedy, Little Miss Sunshine and Little Miss Fickle, the series' characters personified their names. And in each tiny volume, there was a lesson imparted to wee readers.
Now the estate of Hargreaves has collaborated with AMC Television to bring out six new volumes for adult readers based on characters from Mad Men. And like the original books, each new book contains a cautionary tale hinted at in the title.
Read the full post here.
PAUL THE PRESCIENT OCTOPUS HAS DIED. Believed born in Weymouth, England in January 2008, he would have almost been three years old.
The German cephalopod became an international sensation after correctly predicting the winner in eight World Cup matches.
Read the full post here.
A BABOON STUDIES A DEAD BIRD AT Zimbabwe's Mana Pools National Park. The photo was taken by Adrian Bailey, among the winners of this year's Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
"He was almost circumspect, gazing at the body as though in deep thought,' said Adrian.
Bailey's snap was honored in the adult photography category.
More winners on the jump.
Read the full post here.
THE HEADLINE STEALS MY ATTENTION: "Man arrested for trying to enter Mullet Festival without paying."
Anticipating many LOL pictures, maybe reports from a Nickleback concert, and a wave of 70s nostalgia, I click.
Read the full post here.
IT'S ALL ONE BIG BLUR AT CHICAGO'S NAVY PIER: RIDES, RESTAURANTS, RETAIL AND RECREATION. And especially if you're riding the Wave Swinger at night.
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE COINCIDENCE OF TIMING, the German Historical Museum opened an exhibit titled "Hitler and the Germans" just as the country's Chancellor Angela Merkel has created a firestorm by saying immigrants who aren't Christian "have no place" in the country.
Read the full post here.
IN A STUDY THAT PROMISES TO IGNITE DEBATE, a Kansas State University professor who performed a meta-analysis of 26 studies says that the children of gay parents are "far more likely" to be gay themselves.
Read the full post here.
IT'S A TRICK DRESSING UP YOUR PET IN COSTUME, BUT WHAT A TASTY TASTY TREAT FOR THE EYES!
It's October so you know what that means: time for one of the Internet's favorite memes, Halloween Pets.
After spending waaay too many hours scouring the web for the latest and greatest, here's some pet treats taken by -- what else -- tricksters. Enjoy, on the jump.
Read the full post here.
A FTER STUDYING HUNDREDS OF TISSUE SAMPLES FROM ANCIENT MUMMIES, RESEARCHERS HAVE CONCLUDED THAT CANCER IS A "MAN-MADE" DISEASE.
"The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies [indicates]...that cancer-causing factors are limited to societies affected by modern industrialisation," says Michael Zimmerman , a visiting professor at England's Manchester University.
While cancer is the leading cause of death after cardiovascular disease, Zimmerman and his colleague Rosalie David's research confirms that it was extremely rare in ancient times.
'There is nothing in the natural environment that can cause cancer,'' David says. "So it has to be a man-made disease, down to pollution and changes to our diet and lifestyle."
Read the full post here.
FEELING SMITTEN CAN DULL THE pain of a hot probe to the hand, according to a Stanford University research study.
Researchers showed 15 students in the throes of early romance photos of their amours while having pain inflicted on them with hot probes.
Read the full post here.
THE LITHUANIAN COMPANY Olialia -- pronounced "ooh-la-la" -- plans to build a resort staffed only by blond women, and vacationers will arrive there via an airline with only blonde flight attendants, according to news reports.
The resort, on the island country of Maldives in the Indian Ocean, will also reportedly house an education center called "Pretty Women" -- where female guests will learn "to always be perfect and look great," the company's president, Giedre Pukiene, allegedly said.
Olialia reportedly frequently uses beautiful blondes in its advertising. Though accused of sexism, the company expects to double its profits this year to $A9.7 million, according to the BBC.
PRAISE BE TO GOD! THE LORD DOES ANSWER PRAYERS.
Count me among the Glee followers who beseeched the heavens that the FOX TV dramedy would eschew celebrity and return to its purer form.
Jane Lynch et. al is all the show ever needs to keep me tuned in. And after last week's brilliant exploration of faith and its occasional wayward machinations, I forgive Ryan Murphy for his earlier tryst with Britney Spears.
Read the full post here.
AFTER WE WENT OUT DRINKING, WE USED TO LOVE TO DRIVE UP AND DOWN Van Buren Street in downtown Phoenix to gawk at all of the hookers.
It was a blast. We would see a group standing on the corner smiling at us, waving us over, asking us if we had any dope or asking us if we wanted to party. We would shout back at them, 'Hey, you wanna fuck?' Or we would yell, 'Hey, how much?'
Read the full post here.
I USED TO SHOOT STEROIDS, AFFECTIONATELY KNOWN AS ''THE JUICE,'' INTO MY ASS.
I would shoot it in my stomach, my back and my shoulders. The worst was when I shot it in my legs.
I sat on the toilet seat with my pants and underwear around my ankles, and stabbed myself with a half-inch diabetic needle. I raised my arm high into the air and brought it down hard on my leg. I had to do it repeatedly because the needle would just pop back out as quickly as it went in. I had very little fat for the needle to absorb.
Read the full post here.
THE HEADLINES BLARE NEWS ABOUT A "MISSING MASTERPIECE," but it's a rare example of when the media misses the better story.
A painting by Italian Giovanni Boldini was found inside a dusty Parisian apartment that had gone unused for seven decades. The flat's owner, who died in June at the age of 91, had relocated to southern France before World War II and had never returned despite paying upkeep for the next 70 years.
When she died, auctioneers entered her flat which had become a time capsule of the past. The apartment had been the residence of actress Marthe de Florian, who is the beauty pictured in Boldini's painting. Seems Florian kept the company of many suiters in the apartment, and auctioneers also found "letters from her lovers in little packages wrapped up with ribbons of different colours."
The painting is lovely, but check out the photos inside this flat. Wow!
Oh, the Boldini was sold at auction for $2.9 million dollars.
Read the full post here.
WHEN IT COMES TO CHOOSING A PARTNER, THERE IS THE EXCEPTION AND THEN THE RULE.
The rule: most of us fantasize about being with a partner unlike our own.
A study published in late September found that the majority of men and women say they prefer different body types than that of their actual mates. Turns out few of us end up with our "ideal" types because "our ideals are usually rare or unavailable," according to University of Sheffield's Dr. Alexandre Courtiol, one of the authors of the study.
In real life, most men would prefer thinner mates. And while most women also want something different -- there's wider variation in their dream boats.
The exception to this rule: Victoria Beckham, who recently cooed an appreciation of "perfect" husband, British footballer David Beckham.
Read the full post here.
JUST LIKE THE UNIVERSE, THE DIGITAL WORLD IS ALWAYS EXPANDING. Who knows where you'll end up next.
Today, I visited Web420, where I stared in awe at the psychedelic animation.
Check out some of the crazy psychedelic animations on the jump. But don't stare too long lest your eyes bleed.
Read the full post here.
SHE WAS AN ICONIC SEX SYMBOL, BUT A NEW BOOK of personal writings and photos gives glimpse into Marilyn Monroe's curiosity and melancholy.
Fragments contains 250 pages of letters, poems and even recipes found in Monroe's personal collection. The book is being jointly published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in the U.S. and Editions du Seuil in Europe and is edited by Bernard Comment.
"She was very generous, endlessly giving of herself," Comment told Swissinfo. "It often leaves you reeling, and it is always touching.
Read the full post here.
THIS DOLL HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER BEST FRIEND:
The Iconic Barbie, adorned in classic black dress and a dazzling emerald-cut pink diamond collar necklace, will be sold at Christie's to benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Designed by Austranian jeweler Stefano Canturi, the Oct. 20 sale is anticipated to fetch up to $500,000, a very pretty penny.
SO, YOU THINK YOU'RE A COMEDIAN, EH?
For a mere $12.99, you can pretend to be your favorite late-night buffoon this Halloween. Choose from Jay Leno, Dave Letterman or Conan O'Brien.
Adorn and just add snark. Available at Party City.
WHISTLEBLOWERS AND INSUBORDINATES might soon have their own patron saint to beseech in times of trouble.
The Catholic Church's Pope Benedict XVI is expected to beautify Australian native Mother Mary MacKillop at an October 17th service in Rome.
Read the full post here.
EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT MARRIAGE, I LEARNED FROM WATCHING THE FLINTSTONES.
It's true. My parents separated when I was three and the only couple I got to watch up close were the bickering blue-collared Fred and Wilma Flintstone. And despite predictions to the contrary, I'm not divorced yet.
Read the full post here.
BOULDER, COLO. POLICE ARE HOPING TO RE-INTERVIEW THE BROTHER OF MURDERED BEAUTY PAGEANT CONTESTANT JONBENET RAMSEY.
Lawrence Schiller, author of Perfect Murder, Perfect Town, which details the 6-year-old's murder and the subsequent botched police investigation, told CBS that authorities want to reinterview JonBenet's brother.
Read the full post here.
THE STORY CALLED THE EVENTS "ALARMING" AND described as "chilling" the eyewitness accounts of UFOS by former U.S. Air Force officers. But if I ever encounter these so-called aliens, I'll throw my doors wide open, offer them tea and crumpets, invite them to stick around for a while.
That's because the mysterious visitors that seven former U.S. military men spoke of Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. allegedly were delivering a message against the world's nuclear arms, claims UFO researcher Robert Hastings.
Read the full post here.
STOP ME IF YOU'VE ALREADY HEARD THIS ONE:
Comic Greg Giraldo is in critical condition in a New Jersey hospital after accidentally overdosing on prescription meds.
Never heard of him? If you watch the above clip, you'll never forget him.
Read the full post here.
ANOTHER ANIMAL DISCARDED LIKE TRASH, ANOTHER DARK HEART REVEALED.
Just one month after video captured 45-year-old British Mary Bale tossing a friendly feline into a trash can, another video has captured a man abandoning a limping dog on an "industrial estate" in Weymouth, England.
The abandoned pooch, dubbed "Ginger" since its rescue, was left after it allegedly bit an 8-year-old boy. The dog's owner, Andrew Shepherd, says friends were pressuring him to euthanize the dog but he couldn't bring himself to do it. So asked two friends to drop her off at a shelter.
Instead the two, Jenny Hadfield and Michael Hartley, abandoned the dog 300 miles from home and drove off. The two now face criminal investigation.
Read the full post here.
NO, THE WOMAN ABOVE IS NOT PREPARING TO ROB A BANK with the command to "stick 'em up!"
In actuality, she's wearing the "stick 'em up" over her face: the "Emergency Bra," which doubles as gas mask for both wearer and a friend.
For just $29.95, the prudent and paranoid can now buy the undergarment that lets them be both safe and sexy.
Read the full post here.
THE EEWWW FACTOR HERE RANKS RIGHT UP THERE WITH EATING BOOGERS AND LIGHTING FARTS.
Just what you need to make the kiddies love science!
Ever wonder what happens to food when you leave it out to rot for two weeks? Well, here's your answer courtesy of the BBC's show Bang Goes The Theory.
Read the full post here.
A 33-YEAR-OLD ADOPTED KANSAS MAN SET OUT TO FIND HIS BIOLOGICAL MOTHER. She turned out to be a bearded "werewolf" lady featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not.
Richard Lorenc's father took him from his mother shortly after his birth. He was reunited with his mother this past spring. Through his research he discovered that both his mother and maternal grandmother had "werewolf syndrome," and that is mother was born a hermaphrodite, with both male and female reproductive organs.
Read the full post here.
A GORILLA AT THE SAN FRANCISCO ZOO investigates a DSI XL accidentally dropped by a small boy. The pic was snapped by photographer Chris Spicuzza who was, as they say, in the right place at the right time.
No word on what the ape's final score was.
Via GamesRadar.com.
BEING A GIGANTIC GEEK, OF COURSE I HAVE AN ODD RELATIONSHIP WITH JAPAN. Quite of a few of my favorite things come from there: video games, anime, pocky, giant robot fights. But every now and then a story pops up that just makes me shake my head and sigh:
A new vacation resort in Atami, Japan allows gamers to date virtual girlfriends from the video game Love Plus. The game lets boys kiss and hold hands with virtual girls Manaka, Rinko or Nene.
Read the full post here.
SHE WAS AN ANACRONISM in an age when little girls wean while watching the Powerpuff Girls and and big girls model Sex & The City's Samantha. The comic strip's Cathy was a dweeb. And in today's media, there is no forgiving weak or powerless women.
So come October, after 34 years, Cathy creator Cathy Guisewite will put down her pencils and retire her alter ego. It was a remarkable run, considering that Cathy was the less glamorous, cartoon version of Bridget Jones.
Read the full post here.
IT'S PROBABLY JUST THE INTERNET BEHEMOTH'S WAY OF REMINDING US where we'd be without its Maps, but Google celebrates the 71st anniversary of The Wizard Of Oz today with a doodle depicting Dorothy, Lion, Tin Man and Scarecrow marching toward Emerald City.
The cherished film classic about a little girl finding home inside her premiered in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin on August 12, 1939 at the Strand Theatre.
The musical takes us on a technicolored trip over the rainbow to a land populated by midgets and magic; where flying monkeys and evil witches impede our deepest wishes -- until we find what we've been searching for deep inside ourselves.
Read the full post here.
GARY L. KORKUC, 51, told police that the cat stewing in oil and peppers in his trunk was "mean," so he cooked up his revenge: He was going to eat it.
Read the full post here.
A BRAZILIAN AD AGENCY HAS CREATED A sepia-colored past for our ultra modern communication methods, Facebook, Skye and YouTube.
The 60s-style illustrations cast these social media in the warm glow of nostalgia. And, at least to me, the illustrations by the MOMA ad agency make them prettier in pictures than they are in real time.
The campaign reportedly is pitching Maximidia Seminars titled "Everything Ages Fast."
And it only begs the question: What comes next?
Read the full post here.
IT'S LIKE A SIXTIES FLASHBACK: five decades after Timothy Leary founded the Harvard Psilocybin Project and began proselytizing about the mind-blowing benefits of LSD, researchers are finding the same results in psychological studies carried out in laboratories around the country.
The most recent confirmation comes this month in a study that found a "single intravenous dose" of a chemical compound informally called "Special K" created an antidepressant effect within 40 minutes of patients receiving it, according to Medscape.com.
Read the full post here.
LET'S HOPE WINSTON CHURCHILL USED A LOT OF POLIDENT.
A partial denture belonging to Britain's stalwart leader during World War II --the one who promised to "never surrender" to the despicable Nazis -- sold at auction Thursday for $23,723.
"The atmosphere was electric," said a spokesman for the Keys Auctioneers in Aylesdham, England and we'll have to take his word.
Read the full post here.
IN AN ELEGANT POLEMIC she wrote for the Washington Post for Easter 2008, Anne Rice's insoluble belief in God bolstered my own tempestuous faith.
"Look: I believe in Him. It's that simple and that complex," Rice wrote in opening her 1,100 word essay in which she recounts her baptism into belief.
Read the full post here.
THE CLIQUE THAT DEVISES THE DIAGNOSES IN THE The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual gets taken down in a pointed piece appearing in today's Guardian.
Dorothy Rowe is both therapist and writer, and in her column today also proves to be a fierce advocate for her patients as she dismisses the DSM as "mythology, not a scientific text."
That's because the diagnoses are created by American psychiatrists without relying on scientific studies to validate their conclusions, Rowe asserts. A DSM diagnosis is required to submit payment forms to insurance companies.
Read the full post here.
Chicago's Leslie Hindman Auctioneers is auctioning off two lots of items collected by a Memphis embalmer who prepared the legendary's King of Rock's body for burial.
Lot 408 includes the eye liner, needle, comb, rubber gloves, aneurysm hooks and other tools used during the embalming of Elvis' bloated body. "All instruments and gloves were used in the preparation of the body of Elvis Presley and are accompanied by an affidavit,'' the online catalog asserts. "The tools were never used again on any other case." And aren't we all glad of that?
Read the full post here.
I KNOW A CAT WHO PLAYS GUITAR, ANSWERS THE PHONE AND TURNS OFF THE TV. Smartest cat I ever met.
And just recently, my normally placid domestic short-hair let out uncharacteristically loud and long shrieks as I napped on the couch while the carbon dioxide alarm went off. I could have died!
So it's no leap to swallow the story about Max the dog who beeped a car horn to save his life.
Read the full post here.
IT'S TOUGH BEING A PROPHET IN YOUR OWN COUNTRY. Just ask Oprah or Paul the psychic octopus.
Goddamn German ingrates, threatening to eat the only octopus known to mankind to be able to predict outcomes, or specifically, the winner of six-out-of-six German World Cup games.
Here's a creature that humans didn't even know perceived football hegemony and he's accurately predicting wins!
And now that the Germans have been ousted by Spain, what do his bitter countrymammals want to do?
Cut off his head, chop off his tentacles, mix in a little soy and serve a miracle on a plate!
Read the full post here.
A GREAT THING HAPPENED IN CALIFORNIA YESTERDAY: A suspected serial murderer accused of killing 10 people was arrested. Hurray!
The bad news: he was fingered using DNA collected from his son when he was arrested in California, where the law allows police to collect DNA from suspects before they're convicted of a crime. And that's a whole nother kind of scary.
Lonnie Franklin Jr., a 57-year-old retired Los Angeles mechanic, was arrested on suspicion that he killed 10 women and one man in a series of murders dating back to 1988. The crime spree had been dubbed the work of the "Grim Sleeper" because the murderer took a 14-year hiatus between his earlier and later attacks. Franklin was a frequent customer of sex workers in the South Los Angeles neighborhood where he lived.
Read the full post here.
Because "death was very hard" for her to take, Jean Stevens simply ignored its grim realities when her husband, and then later, her twin sister died. After their burials, she had their embalmed bodies dug up and resumed life with them inside her house.
"Now, some people have a terrible feeling," Stevens told a reporter who paid her a visit at her "tumbledown" house. "They say, 'Why do you want to look at a dead person? Oh my gracious.' Well, I felt differently about death."
Read the full post here.
THE SPACE AGE WILL SOON BE PULLING IN YOUR DRIVEWAY.
The Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has approved the saLe of the first flying car.
The Terrafugia, designed by MIT engineers, got the thumbs up despite weighing 110 pounds more than typical "light sport aircraft.'' But the federal agency ruled that as long as buyers were informed of the extra weight, the hybrid could be sold.
Read the full post here.
THAT OSCAR IS ALIVE AT ALL BELIES THE OLD WIVES' TALE THAT BLACK CATS ARE UNLUCKY.
In fact, few felines of any color have ever been so blessed as the suburban London feline whose back paws were amputated in a farming accident.
The two-year-old "moggie" is lucky in several ways: he has owners who loved him so much they were willing to pay in excess of $3,000 for him to receive prosthetic paws and surgery.
And he benefited by proximity to the Eashing veterinarian who implanted the metal "pegs'' into his ankle bone.
"The real revolution," says veterinary "neuro-orthopaedic" surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick, is that Oscar's skin grew over the metal creating in essence "an extremely tight bone."
"We had to do a lot of soul-searching," Kate Nolan, the cat's owner, said on Fitzpatrick's website, "and our main concern has always been whether this operation would be in Oscar's best interests and would give him a better quality of life."
Read the full post here.
E XCERPTS OF CHAT LOGS BETWEEN U.S. ARMY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST BRADLEY MANNING and convicted hacker Adrian Lamo reveal more about Manning than that he leaked the now-notorious video showing U.S. helicopter gunners slaying Iraqi men and Reuters journalists.
Manning's comments also reveal a naive, isolated and disillusioned idealist who may have had altruistic motives -- traits that are common among whistleblowers, according to research on the subject. Currently in custody in Kuwait, Manning also confided to Lamo that he had forwarded as many as 260,000 diplomatic cables to Wikileaks. Government authorities are now trying to hunt down Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblowing organization, even though he has denied receiving such cables on Twitter.
In the excerpts published by Wired.com, Manning comes off as a serious-minded military analyst who becomes disheartened after a commanding officer ignored his analysis that a group of Iraqi detainees posed no threat to the Iraqi Federal Police.
"He didn't want to hear any of it," Manning wrote to Lamo on approximately on May 25. (Wired did not know the exact dates of the chats and estimated.) "He told me to shut up and explain how we could assist the FPs in finding MORE detainees."
Read the full post here.
BOSTON VS. LAKERS. Grit vs. Glamour.
Here we go again.
It's playoff season and the Boston Celtics are at the Los Angeles Lakers, hoping to bring home a championship like they did in 2008.
Obviously, these two teams play with different "swag. Boston is gritty just like an East Coast team ought to be, while the Lakers are more La La Hollywood.
Grit versus Glitz. A battle that has bounced through NBA history 12 times.
My heart says Celtics in 6 but my God-given sense begs to differ: Lakers in 7.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of Kobe Bryant. At all.
Read the full post here.
THE EARTH OPENED AND SWALLOWED A THREE-STORY BUILDING AND HOUSE AFTER TROPICAL STORM AGATHA CAUSED a mudslide in Guatemala City.
The BP SPILL'S GETTING ME ALL PARANOID AND APOCALYPTIC, AND I CAN'T HELP WONDERING: Is Mother Earth seeking her revenge?
Reuters reported the storm swept away a highway bridge and forced more than 94,000 people to be evacuated from their homes. About 150 people are reported dead or missing across Central America.
A similar sinkhole opened nearby last year and residents blamed it on a poor sewage infrastructure.
EVEN WHILE SHE'S THROWING A TEMPEST, MUMMY EARTH ENTHRALLS, AND I will always take her side in a battle.
Why am I not afraid? Probably because YouTube's beatlesfanxxl is safe inside while watching the dramatic show, and probably because the blue water matches my site! For me, the show's all virtual.
The skies just snapped and unleashed a violent storm of baseball-sized hail on Oklahoma City last Sunday.
It's amazing how much patience this Earth typically shows mankind. This reminds that we're here as long as we stay in her good graces.
Via Gawker.
HERE'S A TRICK QUESTION:
You know that easygoing, fun, secure guy who's wife is guarded and distrustful? Which one do you think you'd want around when the going gets tough?
A new psychological study suggests you might live longer with that insecure woman.
That's because researchers found that groups that include an individual with an "insecure attachment" personality react more quickly to perceived threats, or in the study's example, smoke created by a concealed smoke machine.
"Secure people have disadvantages," the study's author, Tsachi Ein-Dor of the New School of Psychology in Herzliya, Israel, told LiveScience. They react slowly and then act slowly because they need to first get organized."
Ein-Dor says that humans may have evolved to live in mixed groups of "secure" and "insecure" individuals -- a hypothesis supported by evidence that almost half of all people in the world have insecure attachment styles, he maintains.
The takeaway message: parental neglect has its rewards! Those hard-learned lessons growing up learned while fending for yourself might help save the "group."
MOTHER EARTH, WE PRESUME?
Painting by Julie Hefferman. Click her name for more fantastical imagings.
Via Stumbleupon.
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES RECENTLY HAILED THE REVIVAL OF THE apron.
"Forget those unisex, butcher-style, fuddy-duddy aprons," the writer pshawed. "Today's models …are fun."
Of course, they always could be.
A dowdy apron was de rigueur when kitchen work was hard and long. But even back when women were tied to the kitchen, aprons could be feminine and flirty, feisty and frilly.
They were the dessert before dinner, the eye candy in the kitchen.
And for today's hostess with the mostest, aprons still deliver a dash of delight. Here's a sampling from around the web with links for shoppers. Above is a pretty pink and green apron displayed in Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections.
For more fun, read Hootin' Tootin' Fun Finds On Etsy.
Etsy Trinkets For The Tweet Obsessed.
Have Yourself A Very Merry Kitschmas.
Blythe: She's A Real Doll -- And Obsession.
Read the full post here.
ISN'T THIS WHY WEAPONS WERE INVENTED IN THE FIRST PLACE?
A TSA employee is facing criminal prosecution after he walloped with a police baton a coworker who had mocked the size of his manhood. His shortcoming was allegedly revealed after he walked in front of a full-body imaging screen during training several months ago, according to reports.
Rolando Negrin, 44, "could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind," according to a Miami-Dade Police Department report.
Read the full post here.
A LITTLE BIT OF CAVEMAN LURKS IN MOST OF US, SAY SCIENTISTS who've mapped out the genomes of Neanderthals who lived more than 38,000 years ago in Croatia.
The finding counters previous studies and lends evidence that modern homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals as recently as 50,000 years ago, before modern humans spread into East Asia.
Paleogeneticists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany sequenced the Neanderthal genome using more than 4 billion nucleotides recovered from the bones of three females.
Read the full post here.
HE'S BEEN CALLED THE "hookup man," teaching men how to flirt and women how to be "irresistible." But celebrated love Dr. Paul Dobransky isn't all about the catch.
In a recent piece he wrote on his Psychology Today blog, the Chicago psychiatrist makes a compelling case for why a potential mate's curiosity is predictive of the chance of successful long-term love.
Dobransky contents that people who lack curiosity become "dispassionate, stilted lovers" who haven't the interest to inquire about your dreams and desires.
Read the full post here.
JUST A FEW STEPS WEST OF WRIGLEY FIELD, TOM BOYLE TRADES in the flotsam and jetsam of the past.
Boyle, 79, is the owner of the aptly named "Yesterday,'' a tiny yellow shack on Addison Street filled to the brim with collectibles from yesteryear. There's women's magazines dating to the 20s, old issues of Look and Collier's, original movie posters, newspapers documenting momentous events, baseball cards, political buttons and more.
And then sitting casually on the counter is a cardboard box filled hundreds of black and white snapshots of celebrities who, while in their heyday of the 70s, traveled through Chicago. Above is a snap of the incomparable comedic actress Betty White photographed 1977.
The photos are the legacy of photographer Don Fisher, who described himself as part of the "friendly paparazzi.'' When it was offered, Tom snapped up Fisher's entire collection, from which these snaps were culled. One lady came in one day and bought about $500 worth.
Alas, I missed the biggest names and rock stars, but Boyle says he has the negatives somewhere.
Check 'em out. They're great fun.
Read the full post here.
ALL ACROSS AMERICA, CHUBBY MEN WEARING FLANNEL AND JEANS gather today in local comic book stores for handouts in honor of Free Comic Book Day.
Kidding! At least, about the flannel part. The free part is true!
Started in 2002, Free Comic Day is sponsored by the comic industry to promote the uniquely "American art form'' that began in earnest in the 1930s. A format that began primarily telling cartooned superhero stories has spread to include genres such manga, fantasy, humor, and horror. For a quick overview of the industry, stop by here.
But even better, visit your local comic dealer to join the party. You'll be supporting local businesses. And it might be the only chance for these hi-low readers to meet girls this year.
Kidding!
May 01, 2010
AS THE STORY GOES, DIVINE INSPIRATION PLAYED A ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF 3M's Post-It Notes.
The three-by-three inch squares of affixable paper made their national debut in 1980. But the little sticky-that-could took a long time coming.
It was a full 12 years earlier, in 1968, when Dr. Spencer Silver discovered a "unique, repositionable" while working in 3M's labs. Patent No. 3691140 for acrylate copolymer microspheres was issued in September 1972.
But it was only in 1974, when 3M scientist Art Fry "tires of losing his place" in his church hymnal, that use for the new adhesive is devised.
It took another six years before "sticky notes" were introduced to a nation of gratified office workers.
Thirty years later, it's inconceivable that an office exists anywhere without them, and the stickies have been among the five top-selling office supplies every year since, according to the Associated Press.
Read the full post here.
ASTROPHYSICIST STEPHEN HAWKING JOINS THE CHORUS of credible voices who believe that alien life forms exist, in his case based only on the sheer number of galaxies that exist in the universe.
But in a new Discovery series in which he makes the assertion, Hawking advises humans to avoid summonsing alien life forms because, if they arrive, they'll likely be seeking to steal Earth's resources.
Hawking speculated that alien visits would be as devastating to the planet as Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World was for Native Americans.
"I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet," he said. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach."
Who knew that Hawking was such a close-minded pessimist, capable of stereotyping hypothetical aliens with one broad brush!
Who suspected that his world view would be so male-directed?
Read the full post here.
WITH ONE OR TWO EXCEPTIONS, THE LIGHT EMANATING from the subjects' eyes reflects unguarded ease with being in a serial killer's company.
The individuals depicted in the 215 images released by the New York Police Department probably had no idea that the charming cameraman was a sociopathic killer. Their photos are among 1,000 pictures uncovered when authorities arrested Rodney Alcala for a series of California murders between 1971 and 1979.
Alcala, 66, was convicted last month of committing five murders in the 1970s. Most were tied to him from DNA evidence. The jury recommended that he be put to death. Detectives suspect that many more women may have fallen prey to Alcala, a U.C.L.A. graduate who allegedly briefly studied under Roman Polanski.
Read the full post here.
THIS IS MAKING ME HUNGRY!
Nothing sells like success -- or a whopping dose of humor.
To wit, this web ad by the Butterfinger Defense Team on behalf of the allegedly chocolate-coated peanut brittle candy bar.
I can do without the candy, but this campaign demands rewarding.
IRANIAN CLERIC HOJATOLESLAM KAZEM SEDIGHI MUST NOT BE GETTING ENOUGH somethin' somethin' or else he experiences some of the earth's most powerful orgasms.
That hypothesis comes from hearing that Sedighi blames "immodestly" dressed women with increasing the likelihood of earthquakes in Iran.
"Many women who do not dress modestly …
lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Sedighi reportedly said.
The cleric's words come two weeks after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted a quake will soon strike Tehran and suggested that 5 million of its 12 million residents should move. And, preferably, those reformists who think he stole last summer's election. (Kidding, he didn't actually say that, he just wished it.)
Iranian women are required to wear black robes but many of the country's young women skirt the law by wearing colorful scarves and showing their hair.
Maybe we should have a little sympathy for Sedighi: a man who thinks women are responsible for earthquakes must lead a life of fear.
IT WAS THE JUXAPOSITION OF A RANTING HILTER SEETHING OVER Michael Jackson's death or the 4G iPad leak or a foregone Burning Man festival that was supposed to be funny. Emphasis on the supposed.
Now, after more than 140 parodies of the movie Downfall have been mashed and fed to the masses, the studio responsible for the German film is claiming copyright infringement and forcing the removal from YouTube the videos that collectively make up the "Hitler finds out" meme. Thank God.
If you're in mourning over the passing of Hitler and all his incarnations, take solace in what Encyclopedia Dramatica says about them:
"In short, memes are just inside jokes for people who have no friends with whom to have real inside jokes."
And that includes dancing diapered babies, LOLcats, dancing hamsters and Rickrolling.
(Excepted: Keyboard cat and Charlie The Unicorn. Because there are alway exceptions to the rules.)
IF SPRING IS A TWO-FACED FRIEND, then flowers are how she woos your unguarded heart. Just because, we picked some flowers from Flickr's gardens. Above is an exquisite Gerber daisy captured by the lens of Carolyn Gallo from Metro Detroit, MI. Click through to see more of the bouquet.
Read the full post here.
CALL IT SEXT, INTERRUPTED.
Eighteen years after Will Manley published a sexxy questionnaire that got him fired from the Wilson Library Bulletin, the retired librarian has published his anti-climatic findings in an online column.
In 1992, Manley then a columnist for the Bulletin, drafted a questionnaire that asked librarians all sorts of personal questions such as how old they were when they first got laid, how many sex partners they had, and whether or not they though their libraries should carry Playboy.
But before he could compile the results, Manley was canned and the unsold copies of the magazine destroyed.
Read the full post here.
SOMEONE NEEDS TO TELL THIS CAT TO QUIT PUSSYFOOTING AROUND!
A feline who hails by the name of Charles risked how many lives he has left after traveling to Chicago from Albuquerque, NM.
No one knows how the long-haired tabby made the 1,300-mile trek. But this much is known:
Read the full post here.
AS LUCK WOULD HAVE IT, I stumbled upon the artwork of Chistopher Niemann, whose personal weather forecast predicts how he'll be feeling come April 23rd.
Niemann is illustrator extraordinaire and a visual blogger for the New York Times. Isn't that just about the best job you ever heard of in your life? It's like being a kid in a candy store, and Niemann's work is just as delectable.
Read the full post here.
DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THIS THE "JESSE JAMES" OF THE DEEP SEA?
This giant isopod or Bathynomus giganteus surfaces from the bottom of the ocean courtesy of Gwynzer on Reddit, by way of Gawker et al. Something left over from Xenu's visit 75 million years ago, no doubt.
The hipsters or fauxhemians" over at Gawker were tripping over their tongues about this one. Best lines?
"Like a window right into the Cretaceous."
Well, you have officially ruined the ocean for me."
"As we speak, Lady Gaga is already figuring out how to turn it into a hat."
Read the full post here.
"I TEXTED HIM TWICE IN A ROW,'' MY FRIEND LAMENTS, hunched over the pages of biology homework scattered across her bed.
"And what's worse, this fucking Blackberry made me separate the first text into two separate ones, so it looks like I texted him three times."
Neurotically, I do everything short of engaging in douchey text-vernacular to cram as much content as possible into one message. I hate looking down at my phone as it taunts me: "You texted twice with no response! Loo-zer!" But I don't tell my friend that.
I advise that she not over-analyze. I need to appear strong, to be a beacon of hope for her as we trek together through the dim, sordid sludge that is dating. And really, that trek boils down to one question: do you skip the bullshit and insist on candor, or do you play it cool and keep 'em guessing?
Regardless of your choice, you're left hoping for the best as the fate of the situation seems to rest placidly in your opponent's palm.
Read the full post here.
WE KNOW KATE MOSS AS THE SIREN IN DESIGNER CLOTHES, spread all over the fashions mags for the past 20 years.
But her new spread in Vogue Hommes International is not about clothes and fashion: it's about skinny dipping.
Kate's shown us before she's not shy about showing her body.But this time she goes all the way and shows off all she's got.
The provocative photo session takes place on an exotic beach, where she lets herself go au naturale in front of the camera of former beau and photographer Mario Sorrenti, "best-known for his spreads of nude models,'' so says Wikipedia.
Maybe Kate wants to prove that she still got it. Maybe she wants a big comeback after the loss of numerous contracts because of her wild night life and drug problem.
Like it or not, this is an improvement from recent headlines about her drunken ways. Let's hope she's on the right track!
Madi S. is mom to two kids and three cats. She loves pop culture news, movies, fashion, travel, reading and observing the world.
YOU'LL BE SKIPPING THROUGH FOR SPRING SHOWERS IF YOU OWN A PAIR OF THESE WATERPROOF BOOTS.
Clockwise from top left:
Kamik Women's Janis Rain Boot. Available at Amazon for $59.95.
Hunter Original Gloss. At Zappos for $115.
Kamik Women's Wales Rain Boot. At Nordstrom for $64.95.
Aquatalia by Marvin K Giggle Boot. On sale at Zappos for $187.13.
Even better: Aquatalia by Marvin K's Vault Patent Leather boots for an off-putting $398. The rich are indeed different.
Happy skipping!
