Uncategorized

Mar 02, 2011 Dandelion will make you

by Chibi

Just a few things: 1. The band's name is Bump of Chicken, and the song is called "Dandelion." 2. The lion is Pon de Lion, a mascot for Mr. Donut. 3. Pon de Lion is part-doughnut and kind of a freak. Someone recently posted an English translation of the 2007 fan-made Flash- animated video for "Dandelion" about a sad, ostracized...

Uncategorized

Mar 02, 2011 Pepsi, Greenopolis, D.C. Launch Recycling Kiosks With Rewards

by kevin

PepsiCo and our nation's capitol are teaming up in a public-private partnership that will bring 363 of Pepsi's "Dream Machine" recycling bins to downtown Washington, D.C. The kiosks aren't like the regular recycling receptacles you usually see on the street--they offer discounts and coupons at places like Dominos, Johnny Rockets, and Marriott hotels. Here's how the kiosks...

Uncategorized

Mar 02, 2011 Advice from the U.S. Government On How To Furnish Your Nuclear Apocalypse Shelter

by kevin

Nuclear War Survival Skills, by Cresson H. Kearny, is a book that was once only available to people in the U.S. military, but now it's available to everybody for free online. Packed with all the information you need to survive a nuclear attack, it's the perfect guide for survivalists or science fiction writers trying to...

Uncategorized

Mar 01, 2011 H Is for… Hell Yeah?

by Chibi

The "Geometry of Circles" (1979) with music by Philip Glass made me wonder about the children had Peter Greenaway's "H Is for House" (1973) been shown on Sesame Street, too. H is for half-past six, half-past seven, half-past eight, half-past nine, half-past ten, half-past eleven, half-past twelve...

Uncategorized

Feb 28, 2011 Being bilingual gives brains a boost

by kevin

Speaking more than one language works like a mental gymnasium by strengthening the ability to distinguish between irrelevant and important information. According to a new study, people who speak more than one language are better at prioritizing tasks and working on multiple projects at one time. “We would probably refer to most of these cognitive advantages as...

Uncategorized

Feb 27, 2011 The superheroes of the Tokyo Marathon

by Chibi

The Japan Times has posted on Facebook photos of some of the most colorful characters to run in this weekend's Tokyo Marathon, including: shinkansenman onigiriman and, my favorite, salaryman....

Uncategorized

Feb 25, 2011 The New Yorker’s fact checkers vs. religion and poetry

by Chibi

Vs. Religion Lawrence Wright, who wrote the epic New Yorker story about Paul Haggis's defection from the Church of Scientology (bullet points here), talks to Fresh Air about the fact-checking process for his article, which required five fact checkers and 971 queries to the organization. Listen here. Vs. Poetry Michael H. Miller at the New York Observer offers...

Uncategorized

Feb 24, 2011 Who is Harry Hosono?

by Chibi

It's easy to breeze past a column of YouTube videos, but together these clips make a point about Haruomi Hosono. Difficult to pin down, his style ranges from folk rock and proto electronica (recently shown some love by Deerhunter and The Fader) to tropical exotica and weird, watery dreamscapes inspired by a trip to India,...

Uncategorized

Feb 23, 2011 The Life of Objects

by Chibi

[caption id="attachment_1542" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Introvert / Extrovert"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1543" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Comedy / Horror"][/caption] [caption id="attachment_1544" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption=""We need to talk" / "Let's try to make it work""][/caption] via cinismoilustrado.com...

Uncategorized

Feb 22, 2011 Tuesday Dilemma: What’s more amazing?

by Chibi

1966 -- Stella, still just a teenager, parodies Sheila 1981 -- Christian Vander, then Stella's husband, and his band Magma pay tribute to Otis (that's Stella at left in the opening shot) (Warning: I find this song and its performance fascinating, but Magma fans, more used to this kind of crazy, seem to agree it's the worst...