2theadvocate.com | The Arts | Crazy 'art car' collection goes on parade downtown
Just noticed there will be little pieces of LuRu on this float. Go to the article and click the picture to enlarge. Two heads from "Gossip" have been wonderfully cannibalized and reused.
Monkey Day Recipes
I've got monkey's on my mind this friday afternoon and as it turns out, there are a ton of Monkey Themed cocktail and food recipes to be found. Most of them are pulled together at monkeyday.com
a site dedicated to making December 14 a day to celebrate all things simian.
The most common Monkey Drink is the Brass Monkey:
1/2 oz Dark Rum
1/2 oz Vodka
4 oz Orange juice
Serve over ice in a highball glass.
A couple of Drunk Monkey Robots
One tasty sounding drink, not found at the monkey day site is the Funky Monkey:
1 oz Banana
2 oz Coconut
1 oz Rum
3/5 oz Dark Creme de Cacao
1 oz Creme de Bananes
3 oz Coconut Milk
Blend with ice.
A couple more drunk robomonkeys.
Cheers!
Popular Mechanics - Ocean-Grown Homes: Wolf Hibertz Wants To Build Low-Cost Housing From The Sea
Autopia Ampere will begin as a series of wire-mesh armatures anchored atop a sea mountain. Once in place, they will be connected to a supply of low-voltage direct current produced by solar panels. Over time, electrochemical reactions will draw minerals from the sea to the armatures, creating walls of calcium carbonate, which is what us landlubbers commonly call limestone
MiamiHerald.com | 03/31/2006 | Car thief drove evidence to court
Subtitle - "Crack Played Part"
The thief must have forgotten his appointment, because when he remembered he was "half-way cracked up." So he jacks a nice Mercedes to arrive in style. Unfortunately for him, it's got a gps in it that the Mercedes folks can track and they tracked him right to the courthouse. They still had to tase (taze?) him. And, an onlooker went into labor at the same time.
ABC7Chicago.com: Fake Chicago university scored Final Four tickets
Some guys at a bar fooled the NCAA into thinking they were a legitimate school so they could score tickets to the final 4 men's basketball tournament. It worked for 2 years before they were caught. A few real colleges called to try to set-up games against them.
Neatorama: The Real Life Magneto.
It's real, but it's not exactly magnetism, rather it's suction.
ZoomClouds
Fun way to add tags to your blog. Check out my 2 clouds to in the sidebar. After a quick, free, sign-up you simply tell zoomclouds where your blogs rss feed is and personalize the look. It analyzes your feed and selects the tags and weights for you. I've got two clouds that look exactly the same right now, but I hope that as time goes by, the current cloud will change based on what's currently on the page and the historical cloud will include everything from today forward. We'll see. You can set up clouds for other feeds as well, so if I wanted to show a cloud for boingboing in my sidebar I could. Check it out.
LiveScience.com - Brain Cells Fused with Computer Chip
Although still a long way from treating neurological disorders, this is a big step allowing communication directly between brain cells and the neuro-chip. The near-term use will likely be in drug testing.
YouTube - Heat Vision and Jack
Heat Vision and Jack was created as a 1999 pilot for Fox. Written by Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, directed by Ben Stiller, this series was passed over by Fox despite critical acclaim from those who've been lucky enough to see it.
The 30 minute pilot is about an astronaut (played by Jack Black) with a medical secret who is on the run from the evil Ron Silver and the rest of NASA, with the help of a talking motorcycle called Heat Vision (voiced by Owen Wilson).
2Spare - 10 Science stuff you got wrong at School
Some interesting "facts" you might have learned in school. No citations, and a very poorly worded title, but probably real myths. I don't know much about any of these topics myself.
The Peninsula On-line: Qatar's leading English Daily
The kites were banned due to injuries and deaths caused by coating the kite string with metal and/or glass. It's more of a kite fight than a flying. The majority of those arrested were released after brief apparences before magistrates and discharged.
Priscilla Bernikowicz Design Portfolio
Like myspace in meatspace with an added cocktail database to help you choose your next drink.
Via Gearlog
Richard Cheese - iloverichardcheese.com
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Get this video and more at MySpace.com
Listened to the RetroCRUSH podcast on my way to work this morning and was introduced to the talented lounge singer, Richard Cheese. He does fantastic covers of current hits, such as the video for Gin and Juice above. The podcast is filled with short clips and a pretty funny interview. Richard's website is quite funny. Maybe the Jetsetter will book him someday.
Zombie Cocktail Recipe | In The Spirit
My personal favorite traditional tiki cocktail. Mix 1 shot each of dark rum, light rum, and spiced rum with half shots of apricot brandy, pineapple juice and lime juice, and add a splash of simple syrup or grenadine. Include a sprig of mint in the garnish. Several other variations add papaya juice and or 151 proof rum. Another variation, believed to be very close to the original, includes: grapefruit juice, pernod, and other exotic ingredients.
Last week's trip to the Mai Kai was fantastic. We made it just in time for the last round of happy hour. Next time we'll have to catch the show.
Cheers!
The Station Myth
I've been slowly, very slowly, going through the sxsw mp3s looking for something new and interesting. So much indie rock sounds the same to me. So it was a nice surprise to stumble on to this away from the sxsw stuff. You can download their whole album in mp3 or aac format.
TravelFurther - Fun & Games
Shorter and simpler than the one I posted a while back, but it stumped me. I suppose I gave up too soon. Maybe you will have better luck.
Product placement in the DVR era
Thorough review of the rise of product placement over the past several years. The broadcast networks had 100,000 product placements and raked in over $2 billion last year. To some extent it's driven by the coveted demographic consumers being most likely to use dvrs and skip commercials. But, don't think that it's new. It goes all the way back to the Lumiere brothers in the 1890s.
Bartender's St. Patrick Drinks - cocktail.com
Happy St. Patrick's day everyone. I did a mega St. Patrick's day cocktail of the week post last year, with a bunch of recipes and irish toasts. So if you missed it, check it out. So, this year I'm taking the lazy way out and posting the link above that's basically a book review for "The Spirits of Ireland." It does have 8 recipes. I might also be going lazy due to the early St. Patrick's day party last night. I've had enough green cocktails for now. I'll be switching to pinks and reds tonight as we're making our maiden voyage to the Mai Kai. So, a tiki-centrick cocktail will most likely be on the way next week.
As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never point in the wrong direction.
Sláinte!
B a r M o n k e y . n e t -
That's putting geekery to good use. Site devoted to a surprising number of folks who are trying to automate their drinking. Pictures of several projects, and a forum for discussion. This group is probably going to go commercial with their barmonkey eventually. Which brings me to my personal mixed feelings on these projects. First, I love em. I love the obsessive nature of doing it. I love the ingenuity. I love the drinks. But, I've been drawn to cocktails by the allure of the cocktail making experience, the slight variations from bartender to bartender. And of course the retro barware. I guess, I'd like to know some folks who did this. I might even help (though the tech is way above my head), but I'll stick to my giraffe bar (when it can come back out of storage).
Here's another site The Automated Bar, that sent me to barmonkey. I found this site first via Engadget.
videos.antville.org
Music Videos are all over the web, which is just the problem. This blog allows anyone to become a contributor and post links and information about the hottest music videos. A nice range of artists from Boards of Canada, to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, to Daft Punk, and The Streets are currently on the front page.
Cool Hunting Video: Whitney Biennial 2006
Title says it all. I wanted to make sure to check this out when I get home.
Pepper component hot enough to trigger suicide in prostate cancer cells
Lehmann estimated that the dose of pepper extract fed orally to the mice was equivalent to giving 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week to a 200 pound man, roughly equivalent to between three and eight fresh habañera peppers – depending on the pepper's capsaicin content. Habañeras are the highest rated pepper for capsaicin content according to the Scoville heat index. Habañero peppers, which are native to the Yucatan, typically contain up to 300,000 Scoville units. The more popular Jalapeño variety from Oaxaca, Mexico, and the southwest United States, contains 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units.
RedOrbit - Oddities - Woman Gets Beer From Her Kitchen Faucet
It almost seemed like a miracle to Haldis Gundersen when she turned on her kitchen faucet this weekend and found the water had turned into beer.
Two flights down, employees and customers at the Big Tower Bar were horrified when water poured out of the beer taps.
Cool Google Maps - Who knew maps could be fun?
Lots of fun Google Maps to check out. Where I found the real estate mapper, below, and the blogflux mapstats new tool I posted at the bottom of the sidebar. It shows you where the last 25 visitors to this blog are located (city/state/country).
Via Neatorama
Real Estate Search at Propsmart.com | Homes for Sale | MLS Search
Very Cool Google Maps of real estat. Search by City, State, Zip, or MLS number. Really nice pop-up info with pics of the property (if available).
Pleix films
Fantastic art videos and music videos. Check out Beauty Kit, Plaid, Simone, really they're all great.
Thanks Rod
WireImage: Listings
LuRu, got sucked into Project Runway this week and I know she'd want to see this. If you don't know, Project Runway is a fashion design "reality" show contest thing. The final 3 contestants were in the finale this week and they got to show during New York’s Olympus Fashion Week. Except, the 4th contestant also showed in a smokescreen due to taping the show before it aired. And, according to many, the 4th contestant's work was the best. Here you can see for yourself.
Via Popwatch
The Drying of the American Martini
In looking for this week's cocktail, I stumbled upon not 1 but 2 podcasts dedicated to cocktails. These will be poping my podcasting cherry and I'm quite excited. The first podcast is from Soused, the Society for the Orderly Uptake of Spiritously Enhanced Drinks. I look forward to hearing the discussion of the Molecular Mixology Movement. Unfortunately, the blog part of their site didn't move me toward a cocktail for this week. They did point me toward Martiniplace, where I learned 2 new things about martinis. First, I learned how to flame a twist:
Before you drop a lemon or orange twist in a cocktail as a garnish, take an extremely fresh twist and hold it about 2 to 3 inches above the glass. Light a match. Then crisply and quickly twist the twist across the flame toward the drink. If done correctly, there will be a brief but spectacular "poof" of flame and a little smoke. Immediately drop the twist into the cocktail. This adds a very subtle yet distinctive smoky aroma to the drink.
Notice anything different around here? If not, hit refresh. Thought it was time for a redesign, but since I don't really know what I'm doing, I'll roll it out in stages. Here's the beta version. In the near future I'll: remake the banner to span the whole page content, work on the margins/padding, find new list icons, and change the footer image. I might change the link lists around more, adding more categories, or something. Any of you have a site you'd like me to add to the list? Any feedback is welcome. I'd hoped to redesign for the anniversary/my birthday, but instead I've managed to launch it with my 500th post.
Find Similar Sites
Neat way to find similar sites to any site you want, as long as it's been posted to del.icio.us.
It answers the question "people who tagged this site also tagged what other sites".
Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car - CBS News
The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.
Courtesy of WastedBlog:
Fla. Man Showing Off OnStar Arrested - He contacts the service but can't hear that they are asking if he's alright. The service contacts the police. When the cops arrive, he's fine, but the visible coke was a little bit of a problem.
Ozzy Osbourne tells you where to go - If you purchase his add on to a particular satellite navigation system. Maybe they can understand him in the UK. The service comes in censored and uncensored versions.
Strange New Products
Highlighting products such as:
Anti-snoring pinky ring.
Chocolate filled diaper gag gift (and I do mean gag).
and, my favorite:
Diamond filtered vodka.
I'll be keeping my eye on this site.
south by southwest just around the corner
Songs from many of the acts available for download again, as a torrent, or as individual mp3s. You can also use the sxsw player to sample songs. When it plays a song you like, click to go to the band page. Sixeyes has a sampler list of 25 mp3s that I'm streaming right now via webjay. So far, Persephone's Bees - Nice Day, and The Capes - Tightly Wound have stood out.
I found sixeyes via the top 10 sources blogged previously.
Top 10 Sources
Top 10 lists of websources on a wide range of topics. Currently exploring the top 10 mp3 blogs. Soon to be explored: Cocktails, Indian Food, Controversial Science, and Fine Art.
Via Geek News Central
Getting Started With RFID
Introductory excerpt from a new book about how to use RFID inexpensively for home-based projects. The excerpt is all background on the technology and leads you up to the first project, entering your home through RFID instead of old fashioned keys. This might be a good way to get into this for art project purposes.
YouTube - Vintage Girl Fight
Just saw "The Notorious Bettie Page" at the Miami International Film Festival last night and it reminded me to search YouTube for vintage. Here is a result:
Speaking of the film fest, also saw Kinky Boots Sunday night. Kinky Boots is very Full Montyesque in story and feel. This time the set-up is about a men's shoe factory that saves itself from going out of business by finding their niche market in making kinky boots for drag queens. Very enjoyable with many laugh out loud moments. Some of the heavy parts of the story are a little overdone, and apparently people from the area didn't think it adequately addressed the problems of the area, but I don't think it's about the area overall. The Bettie Page flick was very authentic from what I know of the story. It looked great. There was a nice gimmick with black and white vs color photography based on where the film was shot. Also enjoyable, but not special.
YouTube - Excerpt from "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park"
Tons of other Kiss clips catalogued at PCL Linkdump
YouTube - Kimi wa Petto 8 (4/4)
It's Friday night, we're waiting for dinner to be done, so we're cruising Youtube highest rated videos and we find this. It seems to be a segment of a Japanese drama, but it's on the humor channel (and others). The start seems like a funny set-up about a guy and his dog (think Best in Show), but then switches to Avant Guarde dancing. Get past that. Then, there's a dramatic? scene with a jpop song overlayed and all this crazy text all over the screen. Is it advertising? Is it "Everything Bad is Good For You" hyper-rewatchability factor? Did someone add it to "f" with me?
Last week, I had a couple wonderful Coconut Mojito's at Spice while celebrating LuRu's birthday. She was enjoying pineapple cosmopolitans, which seemed like regular cosmos with pineapple in place of cranberry juice, possibly pineapple vodka. She didn't like this version as much as the pineapple cosmo she had at the mARTini bar on Young Circle (I hope that's the name). That one used pineapple vodka, but kept the cranberry juice and was much better and more interesting. On the other hand the Manhattan I had was attrocious, owing to the use of Seagram's 7 instead of bourbon or even rye. Apparently, the incredible amount of Candian tourists have retrained the bartender that candian whiskey is the normal base of a Manhattan.
Of course, that's all tangential to the star for the day, the Coconut Mojito. I searched for a recipe and found 3 different varieties:
Version 1 from NYMosaico Loca Bartender of the Moment:
Crush mint leaves, 3 lime wedges, and a sprinkle of sugar then shake with ice, Coconut Rum, Lime Juice, and a splash of club soda. Garnish with a lime wedge
This seems most similar to what I had, though maybe a little better. Mine was great, but on the verge of too sweet, so maybe they used more sugar, or syrup, or sprite. I'll start here when I try to recreate the cocktail.
Version 2 From StarCheffs.com:
Method:
Muddle mint in lime juice and sugar in a mixing glass. Add ice and pour Bacardi Coco over ice. Dip the rim of an iced martini glass in shredded coconut. Shake and strain cocktail into glass.
A more martiniesque version, and probably very tasty.Dorsch Gallery
Tonight's entertainment: Closing reception for the 18th Experimental Music & Sound Arts Festival
[weAREtheIMAGEmakers]
Hot Art Magazine
I tried posting a few pictures, but they have them set-up so that they are huge and have text from the article with them, so just trust me and check it out.
Rolling R’s: Free Spanish Lessons in Video Podcast Form
If I can combine learning with my new iPod, it just might have a chance to stick.
YouTube - Jason McElwain Autistic Basketball Player
I know many of you are not sports fans, but this really isn't a sports story. Trust me.
