subtext

All contents reprinted from elsewhere without permission.

Good Friday to you,

Charles Manson's Epic Answer
The Daily Tube review: "It's amazing how crazy Charles Manson truly is. Before you click play, consider our warning: the video is only 24 seconds long and has managed to creep us out enough that we need to start smoking or something."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2oZWpqtNi4


There's nothing subliminal about this message
Throughout history, many great scientific minds have worked to unravel the male psyche. Freud and his ilk devoted entire lifetimes to understanding what goes on inside the mind of the common man... yet with one fell swoop, this commercial spoof has captured the very essence of the male attention span.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MySQXlpVciQ


Grandpa John's electric pickle
Earnest attempt at a science-type metaphor for allowing the power of Christianity into your life. Can one assume that being touched by Jesus makes your juices boil and your head catch on fire...???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JYIJPjpCFc


QuOteD
"When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth." -- George Bernard Shaw


Bejing Olympic Card Stack
Yup, they're long over -- but don't tell this guy who stacked 140,000 playing cards to look like the Olympic village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf8w3nKzYaI


Quick pic: Periodic Table of Awesome
http://www.dapperstache.com/index.php?contenttype=ptoa&title=ptoa


Worst Captchas of All Time
Entering the oft amusement-free zone of PowerPoint presentations is a collection of all those words websites force you type to prove you're not a spambot. Sounds dull but it makes up for it with flabbergastery. (Thanks Ben)
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1048763/Worst-Captchas-of-All-Time


Friday Game: Last Guy running
Turn any Web page into a game board and rescue The Last Guy
http://lastguy.jp/?lang=en


Greatest Works of Reverse Graffiti
And finally, check out these artworks that the blogger describes thusly: "Welcome to the world of reverse graffiti, where the artist's weapons are cleaning materials and where the enemy is the elements: wind, rain, pollution and decay. It's an art form that removes dust or dirt rather than adding paint. Some find it intriguing, beguiling, beautiful and imaginative, whereas others look upon it in much the same way as traditional graffiti – a complete lack of respect for the law. Reverse graffiti challenges ideals and perceptions while at the same time shapes and changes the environment in which we live, whether people think for the better, or not." Or as I call it, dirt painting.
http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/35-greatest-works-of-reverse-graffiti/1949


Famous last words
"Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -- Terry Pratchett


Enjoy and have a good weekend,
vW

Anything worth using is worth abusing

All contents reprinted from elsewhere without permission.

Buenos dias,

Ready, Aim, Focus
Where would we be now if the caveman that discovered fire had presented it to a "focus group" first?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuCAKuqRVQA


Animals Against Glass
Literally.
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2008/06/30/50-animals-squashed-against-glass/#onepage


Quick pic: Michael Phelps in the beginning
Swimming. It doesn't get any more exciting from this point on. (Thanks Kate)
http://vinweasel.posterous.com/michael-phelps-in-the-beginnin


Crank it
Listen as this dude tortures some poor call center monkey at Britain's version of 411.
http://www.videojug.com/film/prank-call-118-118


QuOteD
"The key to being a good manager is keeping the people who hate me away from those who are still undecided." -- Casey Stengel


The Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks
Maybe on a sign at the "grocery" store, maybe in an ad in your "local" newspaper. Perhaps even in a "memo" that circulated throughout your company. They're quotation marks, and they turn up in the strangest of places. "Excellent" site packed with a number of apostrophic "abuses".
http://www.juvalamu.com/qmarks/#current


PedX-ing abuse
A gaggle of arty types lies in wait and then parades across in an almost unending stream of wackiness. The drivers seem to take it in good spirits though, perhaps because they're French.
http://dailymotion.alice.it/video/x31umd_people-are-strange-remi-gaillard_fun


Game: Throw Me
http://www.thorgaming.com/includes/fullsizegame.php?gameid=386


Awesome rap sequence
And finally, check this vintage teen movie clip where a guy's coolness is judged by his rapping and breakdancing skills, boy-band style. Wait for it..."Look how funky he is!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEa1BYBgeQI


Famous last words
"Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I don't like that attitude. I can assure them it is much more serious than that." -- Bill Shankly


Sayonara,
vW

Bubba and the revival

(Thanks RASRIC)
-----

Bubba goes to the revival and listens to the preacher.

After awhile the preacher asks anyone with needs to be prayed over to come forward to the front at the altar.

Bubba gets in line, and when it's his turn the preacher asks, "Bubba, what do you want me to pray about for you?"

Bubba replies, "Preacher, I need you to pray for my hearing."

The preacher puts one finger in Bubba's ear, and he places the other hand on top of Bubba's head and prays and prays.

After a few minutes, the preacher removes his hands, stands back and asks, "Bubba, how is your hearing now?"

Bubba says, "I don't know, Reverend, it ain't until next Wednesday."

Dare defy?

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Marks, set,...

The Worst Olympic Falls
The Daily Tube review sums it up: "On one hand it seems cruel to laugh at gymnasts who trained for years only to fall on their faces at the most crucial moment. On the other hand, when a dude rams his groin into the pommel horse, it's comedy gold for those of us with the minds of two-year-olds."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSa-832LaUw


Pole Dancing Swan Lake
Classical ballet meets interpretive adult entertainment. (Thank Joe)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM5zBOVwYlI


Tropical Storm Fay Slams Kite Surfer
Quick clip documenting recreational disaster. Well...it seemed like a good idea at the time. (Thanks Raygun)
http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=4117332


Quick pic: Steep stairs
http://i36.tinypic.com/adzqy1.jpg


QuOteD
"If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances." -- Julia Sorel


Holy chute
Gravity-defying art. "When the social elevator is broken you have to know how to bounce."
http://denis.darzacq.revue.com/la_chute/


Public John Q.

A little Google Maps wizardry gives you a guide to the best public crappers on your mobile phone. (So we're just now catching up to the Aussies -- they have a national public toilet map down under.)
http://diaroogle.com/


Game time: Splashback
Just a wafer-thin droplet.
http://www.funny-games.biz/splash-back.html


Suffragette City
Most people dream of owning their own island, a piece of tranquil heaven to truly call their own. For the majority of people however, this will always remain just that: a dream. On the flipside, there is a definite island-buying trend growing amongst those lucky enough to be able to afford such a residence, from movie stars through to politicians, which will one day result in all such people living offshore...or maybe not. Check out these five tiny inhabited private islands...
http://www.premier-holidays.com/info/5_Insanely_Small_Inhabited_Private_Islands.aspx


Famous last words
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened." -- Sir Winston Churchill


Ciao for now,
vW

reconfiggerated

All contents reprinted from elsewhere without permission.

Happy Friday to you,

Pilobolus
Humans are flexible animals in so many ways. Check out this clip from the CO'B show that's well worth watching. It gave me a whole new perspective on performance art. (Thanks Kory)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n8gxEwLx0w


Stereo garage
Check out this parking structure in Melbourne Australia well-adorned with some crazy/clever optical illusionary signage. Possibly a little disconcerting as you try to roll out of there after a night of partying.
http://www.ridelust.com/stereoscopic-parking-garage-im-freaking-out-dude/


Human Skateboard
Guaranteed road rash in stop-motion.
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=MtbQ4J3RfQ8


Quick pics: Years later
http://8in.org/years-later/


QuOteD
"Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television." -- David Letterman


CH Live in LA: Bret Ernst
The comedian talks about the things that make him mad.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1825472


Quizzical: Guess the movie
Can you figure it out by looking at one letter?
http://www.empireonline.com/features/posterletters/


Inanimate faces
You know your car? That mailbox? Your stereo? The electrical outlet? The zipper on your trousers? Well they're ALL LAUGHING AT YOU. Quick -- put on your tinfoil hat.
http://flabbergastedly.com/?p=96


Friday game: in the Olympic spirit...Orange Runner
You're in a dead sprint, jump the saw blades...they hurt
http://www.bored.com/games/arcade/1/orange_runner/


Interwebified anagramalgamator
And finally, you've probably seen evidence of the "pweor of the hmuan mnid", and now you can try reading your favorite websites in the same style. Fairly cool, although likely to cause eyestrain and headache after a bit.
http://readingtest.sytes.org/


Famous last words
"It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Jackson


Bonus feature: Added Thrill
Bored with the Summer Games, your friends at Worth1000 asked photoshoppers to take any Olympic event, summer or winter, and crank it up a notch...add some real danger. Here's what we got...
http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=20627#entries


Enjoy and have a good weekend,
vW

(Failure to) communicate

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Konichiwa,

Idol fail
Reality -- it does bite sometimes. And it made me wonder whether I'd enjoy the genre if I watched foreign shows. (Thanks Young)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNQLmHKlmiE


eBay dirty laundry in public...
...literally and figuratively. Scorned wife puts up an auction purely for the purpose of telling the world of her husband's cheating ways. A+musing read, though probably would not buy again.
http://cgi.ebay.com/EMPTY-CONDOM-PACKET-A-PHOTO-OF-THE-TARTS-KNICKERS

Barack Roll
A surprising amount of work has gone into chopping Obama footage to make a newfangled Rickroll, which only emphasizes the remarkable pool of misapplied talent out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65I0HNvTDH4


Call me a Lyre
Softly-spoken wildlife MC David Attenborough introduces us to the vocal stylings of Australia's lyrebird. Simultaneously relaxing and amusing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOFy8QkNWWs


QuOteD
"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come." -- Matt Groening, "Life in Hell"


2008 Fjord Echo
Project your voice across a fjord, a valley and the village of Dale, Norway.
http://www.unsworn.org/telemegaphone/


So you wanna job?
A top-five sampling of the best job interview questions from Microsoft, Google...and IKEA.
http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=338


Quick pic: The Geek Stereotype
http://theinternetisterrible.com/wp-content/things/engineer.jpg


Game break: Guess the accent
http://www.languagetrainersgroup.com/accent_game.html


Get Me Out of Here
And finally, a nifty service that lets you schedule a call to your own phone for times when you need to manufacture an excuse to bail out.
http://www.getmooh.com/


Famous last words
"Be wiser than other people, if you can, but do not tell them so." -- Lord Chesterfield
"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish." -- Euripides


Mahalo,
vW

Letter go

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Happy Friday with a capital F,

One Letter Off
Amazing fact for today: one letter can make a huge difference. To illustrate, Something Awful made a metric ton of images showing just how much fun you can have by adding, subtracting, or substituting one lousy letter. http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/one-letter-off.php

Flushback
The interweb is a slot machine -- if you know how to game it, you can make it pay out. Alex Tew did well with his megabuck home page, and the $999 "I Am Rich" iPhone application recently made its mark. And the latest desperate scam of the week...? (What's the over/under on net profit?)
http://www.flushabuck.com/

Quick list: Vicarious
Problems when you use a Xerox machine to manage your monetary system.
http://shop.ebay.com/items/_W0QQ_nkwZzimbabweQ20banknotesQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZQQ_sopZ12

Mutant mice
Does propagating ghastly rodent/scrotum hybrids count as science?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/2roxfox/sets/72157603025056164/


QuOteD
"Computer dating is fine, if you're a computer." -- Rita Mae Brown


Zombie Harmony
...because the apocalypse doesn't have to be solonely.
http://www.zombieharmony.com/

And on that topic...

Quick pic: Vegan Zombie
http://www.threadless.com/submission/170537/Vegan_Zombie


Gender guestimator
Can this figure it based on your web browser history?
http://www.mikeonads.com/2008/07/13/using-your-browser-url-history-estimate-gender/

Game break: Pandemic 2
Create a disease, wipe out a population.
http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Pandemic-2.html

Life and Death
It's all going to end someday and future space tourist Richard Garriott's has a plan for a remotely stored backup copy of human civilization with Operation Immortality. Leave your mark? Save humanity? Dork with a capital D.
And just to be sure, I had to check Who's Alive and Who's Dead. I'm not on it. Either way.

Famous last words
"Things are more like they are now than they ever were before." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower


War in,
vW

Goings on around town

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Good Monday

Hope you had a good weekend. David Lynch has a way of highlighting the weirdness present below the surface of otherwise apparently normal-ish life. Ever wonder what's going on in your neighborhood?

Ed tu, Patches?
A horse is a horse, of course of course. 'Cept this one rides in a car, eats cheeseburgers, answers the phone and sleeps in bed. Not to mention water-skis, plays the drums, counts, and a whole lot more. Look for him during your next trip to In-n-Out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teHfyby_veU


Messiah Remix goes off
Some evangelicals praise Jesus through the medium of dance, a little Christian drums'n'bass. Hallelujah.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3CzptgIvcU


Next-Door Neighbor
A place where noted writers and artists from the world of graphic novels present stories of, well, next-door neighbors.
http://www.smithmag.net/nextdoorneighbor/


QuOteD
"Careful. We don't want to learn from this." --Bill Watterson


Roy G. Biv caught in web of conspiracy
Between duh interwebs and cable TV, conspiracy loons and general nutcases are a dime a dozen. But this lady appears to be smoking Lucky Charms.
http://www.break.com/index/insane-rainbow-conspiracy-lady.html


Penthouse sweet
Vertical living at its finest -- rich peoples' rooftops in NYC.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwillys/sets/72157606566769262/detail/


Quick pic: Seen On The Streets Of Ann Arbor
http://www.woostercollective.com/2008/07/seen_on_the_streets_of_ann_arbor_mi.html


Off-fence
A bunch of arty types stick Styrofoam cups into a chain link fence to spell out a positive message, then sit back to watch. It's not long before the cynical passers-by muscle in on the action, modifying the message to their own tastes...
http://www.you-are-beautiful.com/INSTALLATIONS/cupfence1.html


Award-Winning Construction
For all you engineers out there...here are some....um...."interesting" building designs. (Thanks Gordon)
http://vinweasel.posterous.com/award-winning-construction-1


Famous last words
"In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress." -- John Adams


Luego,
vW

Take a little trip

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Happy Friday,

Going somewhere? Well whether or not you're taking a (real) vacation this summer, here's an inspiration. An excellent variation on a theme: take a photo holding up a cheesy souvenir or postcard to mask the real famous landmark. Well done and comprehensive.

Overshadow reality
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes/sets/346406/show


Head for (and over) the mountains
You can't see the vehicle, but presumably it's an electric oyster. Vaguely cool for a few seconds if you need a quick escape.
http://www.electricoyster.com/electric3d/index.html


How background people ruin your photos
This could be an ad for photo-editing software. (Thanks Joe)
http://vinweasel.posterous.com/how-background-people-ruin-you


Slug space program
Short, Creature Comfort-inspired film from the clearly very talented David Ellinor. His other stuff's worth checking out too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOHE2KsmdGg


QuOteD
"The only really good place to buy lumber is at a store where the lumber has already been cut and attached together in the form of furniture, finished, and put inside boxes." -- Dave Barry


Hand Drawn Map Association
You can't get there from here. Kind of a cool collection.
http://www.handmaps.org/


Friday gag: Yellow Pages racists
http://goldenpages.ie/search/Ireland/sober_ people.html


Quick pic: Summertime
And the living is sandy.
http://www.harrisand.org/toc.html


Friday game: NAMETHTPL8
We've all played a version of the license plate game. Today we bring the fun indoors. Using your memory and subtle clues (slogans, scenery and state flags), determine which state each plate came from.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/quiz/quiz.php?q=209


Dead office photography
Slightly annoying interface but worth checking this photo gallery of abandoned office space. Little signs of life, interrupted, turn out to be oddly affecting.
http://mrtoledano.com/frame_bankrupt.php


Famous last words
"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly." -- Richard Bach


Bonus quiz: How Prepared Are You if Disaster Strikes?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/health/20080805_WELLQUIZ.html#


Enjoy and have a good weekend,
vW

coordinated effort

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Que pasa,

For an amazing feat of organization and intestinal fortitude, check out this 1950s film of police motorbike riders showing off their coordination skills in Rome, Italy. And did I forget to mention they're blindfolded and drunk?

I don't want a pickle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYGmjgSMv8


Bicycle Ballerina
The uploader characterized this video as, "So f-ing rad, like a sick-gnarly graceful swan flying over an epic sunset." I have my own opinion, as well as the fear that this is already an Olympic sport?
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1771701


Human Mirrors Mirror New York
The Daily Tube review sez: "Improv Everywhere returns to make yet another public spectacle (spectacle.) This time they use identical twins, twins, on a subway to give the illusion (illusion) of a human mirror (mirror.) If they had done this at 3 a.m., the reactions would've been a LOT more interesting (interesting.)" Special effects courtesy of God.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1822283


QuOteD
"The reason there is so little crime in Germany is because it's against the law." -- Alex Levin


Wooden VW Beetle
A couple, a 30-year old car, 20,000 oak slabs and a dream...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1Et_DvEYc


Huge Blob Jump Launch
Need I say it: don't try this at home. Fifteen seconds of UGC fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyG3-rcwJkE


Game: Goggles
GoogleMaps-based filght sim.
http://www.isoma.net/games/GogglesBeta09.swf


Utility meats frivolity
Sausage Suitcase -- how meaty and delicious, yet how practical. I wonder what they'd make of this as you went through airport security...???
A man could get kilt -- if you work construction and don't like wearing trousers then this could be right up your, uh, alley. Nobody will make fun of you. Although maybe you should be careful going up ladders.


Famous last words
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." -- Samuel Johnson

Ciao for now,
vW

mad scientists

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Buenos lunes,

Hope you had a good weekend. I don't know whether you found yourself at an amusement park as is prone to happening this time of year, but hopefully it wasn't anything like this experience, described as "Not unlike if you were playing with your dog and threw the stick over a cliff."

Rollercoaster Tycoon Abuse
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Abuse-Rollercoaster-Tycoon-3-Massacre-7017249


The laughing banana
Not much to this, but it has a certain something. Maybe it's the eponymous hysterical fruit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HPcIiLjL70


The 10 Most Undeserving Celebrities Who Got Action Figures
Being immortalized in plastic is one of the true benchmarks of being a celebrity; you might be a singer or actor or whatever, but being able to see your likeness in Toys "R" Us means you've reached an elite level of fame that sets you apart from your peers. Still, like any exclusive club, occasionally a bit of riffraff gets in—and toymakers find odd or low-tier celebrities who no sane, loved child would want an action figure or doll of, and then make action figures and dolls of them anyways. Here are then ten most inexplicable celebrity toys of all time.
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/07/the_10_most_underserving_celebrities_who_got_actio.php


QuOteD
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." -- Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled


Tilted Twister
Nerd's dream: a robot made out of legos that solves Rubik's cube fully automatically. And don't forget the Cube Lube.
http://tiltedtwister.com/index.html


Putting the A in DNA
Creepy service to help you find that genetically-compatible person who just might be able to put up with you.
http://www.genepartner.com/


What's your sign?
The Periodic Table of Videos features enthusiastic science profs from the University of Nottingham showing off the periodic table of elements with a video of experiments for each. If the awesome hair doesn't do it for you, maybe the Periodic Coffee Table will.


Game: Fantastic contraption
Fun with physics.
http://fantasticcontraption.com/


The truth is up there
And finally, it's hard enough to believe this frightening futuristic structure that looms over the Prague skyline. But wait... what are those figures crawling all over it? They seem to be... giant nekkid babies? And a closer look? More than a little chilling.
http://deputy-dog.com/2008/07/17/ever-seen-a-creepier-tower/


Famous last words
"The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found." -- Calvin Trillin


Mahalo,

vW

Stick with it

All contents reprinted from elsewhere without permission.

Hallelujah it's Friday,

And we start out with this excellent piece of tongue depressor animation by The Brothers McLeod. Genuinely creative and gag-filled, perfect fodder for a two-minute video.

Sticks "High Noon"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U28OMnbu3W0


Google Images vision
If you're finding the real world a little overwhelming, why not print out this simple template. Hold it in front of your face and your view will be filtered through the safe familiarity of Google's Image Search results page.
http://wrongdistance.com/?p=1937


ONN: Domino's Scientists Test Limits of What Humans Will Eat
The Daily Tube review: "The study found that visual appeal has little to do with how popular products were. In fact, making a pizza that looks like a gory combination of dog food and human intestines actually increased consumption considerably. Coupled with the recent invention of the human feed-bag, this should bring general overconsumption to an exciting new level."
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/dominos_scientists_test_limits_of


QuOteD
"It is always the best policy to speak the truth - unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar." -- Jerome K. Jerome


Defiant dog
http://www.defiantdog.com/


World's longest eyebrow
Repulsive coverage of a man's bid for the world record longest eyebrows, including more camera close-ups than you want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrFRo3Hmdq8


Friday Game: Picross
Like low-res pictures? Like crossword puzzles? I could see how this would be "addictive".
http://www.wiipicross.com/


Funny Name Corner
Rim.jobs - Perverse URL from the human resources folks at Research In Motion.
Burntherapist.com - Rough justice?


There's Always A Way Out
And finally, have you ever gotten yourself stuck in a tight spot? Well fear not; if you look hard enough, you're bound to find a backdoor. There's always the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TlqbkZKRE


Famous last words
"Laws are like sausages. It's better not to see them being made." -- Otto Van Bismarck


Enjoy and have a good weekend...vW