Burst of Weirdness (Page 36)

“Weird” probably isn’t the right word for this; it’s actually really cool in that MC Escher-ish way. Go look. Link via He-Who-Eschews-Permalinks. (Steven also notes, in the post above the one I’d link above if he had permalinks, something about Internet Explorer 7: And now for something good: middle-clicking a link opens it in a new tab. That was something I really came to like in FireFox. (And middle-clicking while not on a link opens up scrolling, which I like, and which FireFox does not do.) Is he referring to clicking the scroll-wheel? In the latest version of FireFox (I’mDown the rabbit hole….

Possibly more snark than weirdness, but hey, I’m feeling snarky today. :: The Right Wing has begun its latest project: taking Gandhi down a peg or two. Gandhi. Oy. Oddly, the people who hold Gandhi as “the most overrated man of the 20th century” (I’d pick Reagan, personally) are probably people who claim that the teachings of Jesus should be universally followed. But not the Jesus stuff about loving your neighbors, forgiveness, charity to the poor, and all that. Rather, the Jesus stuff about shunning gays and Spreading Love Through Widespread Use of Incendiary Devices. You know, “Action Figure” Jesus.Down the rabbit hole….

:: Here’s something I never knew. John Jacob Astor IV was a science fiction writer! You can read his work A Journey in Other Worlds online. A taste: Jupiter–the magnificent planet with a diameter of 86,500 miles, having 119 times the surface and 1,300 times the volume of the earth–lay beneath them. They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky, emitting its strong, steady ray, and had thought of that far-away planet, about which till recently so little had been known, and a burning desire had possessed them to go to it and explore its mysteries. Now, thanks toDown the rabbit hole….

I like to think I’m a geek in good standing, but I must bow to this fellow. That is the greatest room in the history of rooms. UPDATE: I should warn those of you with dial-up connections that this post has a lot of photos. It’s worth it, though. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

Here we go: :: Almost two years ago I finally filled a giant hole in my small geek-toy collection when, through the services of eBay, I bought a die-cast Millennium Falcon. Finally I could play out the asteroid-field chase from The Empire Strikes Back in my head! And the final battle from Return of the Jedi! Hooray! (Actually, I now own two die-cast Millennium Falcons; the months following the release of Revenge of the Sith saw a whole bunch of new Star Wars toys on the market, among them new ships from MicroMachines. My second toy Falcon, viewable in thisDown the rabbit hole….

Hoo-boy…. :: How to draw Dick Cheney. First Step: Draw Dick Cheney. Yah, I know that’s a bit of a leap, I remember my old “how to draw superheroes” books where the first step would be a box, and the second step would be Captain America. Of course, my visual arts mojo is such that drawing the box would trip me up. :: Move over Pauline Kael! An AICN persona reviews the new movie 300: I can’t spoil the plot because THANK GOD THERE ISN’T ONE. Just ass kicking that kicks ass that, while said ass is getting kicked, isDown the rabbit hole….

This isn’t all that weird, but I figure that with the history involved between all parties, it’s bound to get weird at some point or other, so we’ll just call this a Sunday Burst of Proactive Weirdness: David Lee Roth is back with Van Halen. That is, of course, almost certain to end well! (I am, of course, that rarest of animals: one who refuses to fall squarely in the camps of either DLR or Sammy Hagar where Van Halen is concerned.) :: And via Warren Ellis, here’s an idea that’s certain to sweep the nation: a gas station thatDown the rabbit hole….

It’s been a good week for weirdness out there! :: Not actually weird, but really pretty cool: Lynn linked a post on another blog about a minimalist composer named Rhys Chatham who recently contrived a work that is scored for electric guitars. Plural. And not just two or three, but four hundred electric guitars. It’s nothing “heavy metal” like at all; all those guitars combine to form a fascinating soundscape. There’s nothing about unusually-massive musical forces that require a resulting work to be trashy; Hector Berlioz was a master of huge orchestras, and he postulated that the effect should beDown the rabbit hole….