By Cory Doctorow at 5:54 am Monday, Apr 9
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The Flickr stream of Jason Liebig -- previously featured for his sticker and packaging photos -- is a good place to go for some bloated, semi-sickened post-Easter-sweets perusal. His "Easter"-tagged candy wrappers include groovy 1960s Life Savers holiday packaging, 1970s Fuzzy Bunny packaging, and an extraordinary 1978 Rodda Candy Company ad (pictured here). All of them are available at very high rez (the one pictured here can be had at 4962 px wide!). I love Liebig's feed of odd candy packaging and ephemera, and was moved by his "collector heartbreak" story about the troubles of shipping rare old paper through the US mail.
JasonLiebig's photostream / Tags / easter
By Xeni Jardin at 3:18 pm Friday, Apr 6
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At the Criminal Crafts blog, a fun tutorial on "pairing zombies with a fuzzy pastel holiday," through delicious zombie bunny rabbits and haunted eggs. There's a photo gallery here.
(via Boing Boing Flickr Pool)
By Cory Doctorow at 12:03 pm Tuesday, Apr 3
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Nicola sez, "I made this for my husband last weekend and he mentioned in passing that he thought I should send it in to you. I created it using a CraftRobo Pro cutter/ plotter, a stencil I made in illustrator and some sticky backed plastic and then painted over it with matt acrylic paint. Tidying up any areas that went wrong with a scalpel (you can etch slightly into the egg if need be). He loves it. I think I'll have to make him a new one each year until he has an army!"
My husband is a huge Star Wars fan. The last time... | next to nicx (Thanks, Nicola!)
By Cory Doctorow at 7:16 am Wednesday, Mar 14
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Read the rest
By Cory Doctorow at 12:00 pm Tuesday, Feb 14
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Further to Mark's bizarre old Valentines post from yesterday: Flickr user Page of Bats has assembled a marvellous and often inexplicable collection of tasteless, gross and weird vintage V-day cards. I can't figure out of some of these were from the likes of MAD magazine, or if they were all created in earnest by clueless card companies.
pageofbats' photostream / Tags / vintagevalentine
(via How to Be a Retronaut)
Some holiday advice from the journal Veterinary Record. What's the best method to use for sewing up a turkey after you've stuffed it? Turns out, surgical staples might be your best option. (Actually, this is a trick question: The correct choice is to cook the stuffing separately and break the bird down so you can properly heat the dark meat through without turning the breasts into sad, dry lumps. But I digress.)
— Maggie
By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 2:50 pm Friday, Dec 23
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Reader synapselapse had this made for his family's tree. He says:
This came from an episode of Big Bang theory. They observed that Dec 25th isn’t actually Jesus’ birthday, he was most likely born some time in Sept, but it is Sir Isaac Newton’s Birthday. So it makes more sense to put him on the tree!
My wife thought this was awesome since we’re trying to establish Christmas traditions that are dictated by our lives, not our parents lives.
I approached a friend of mine who’s a very talented artist about the project. He liked the idea and agreed to take it on. The tough part was getting it to look nice without being unnecessarily flippant. It’s a wire armature covered in Sculpy, then painted white with a finishing layer of varnish.
By Cory Doctorow at 11:49 am Sunday, Dec 18
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Robbo sez,
Puppets, songs, the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Charles Dickens - all that and more are in our internet video holiday special: "Ruffus The Dog's Christmas Carol".
Not just for kids, it's an unusual half-hour take on Dickens's classic - released under a Creative Commons License.
Funded partly through IndieGoGo and a lot of sweat equity from the performers (total budget just a little over $5,000) we shot this thing in 4 days in my living room. All the puppet characters were shot against green screen and then combined with CG virtual sets and a pantload of special effects.
The music and songs were composed by JP Houston (Big Comfy Couch).
We released this online yesterday, right after we had a screening at the old Revue Cinema in Toronto with box office proceeds going to the Toronto Public Library Foundation.
Free to watch. Free to download. Free to share.
Ruffus The Dog's Christmas Carol
By Xeni Jardin at 5:19 pm Friday, Dec 16
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Video Link. More about the making of at the Official Star Wars Blog.
By Cory Doctorow at 10:50 am Wednesday, Dec 14
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Matters of Grey created some beautiful, downloadable designs for cutting out Star Wars-themed snowflakes, and Anthony Herrera extended the collection, adding several designs, including a smashing Admiral Ackbar.
Star Wars Snowflakes
(via Neatorama)
By Xeni Jardin at 4:44 pm Monday, Dec 12
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[video link]
Funny man and filmmaker Mark Day shares his videos embedded above and below, and explains:
Tex Allen of WhyTheNose.com reminds revellers that it's not illegal to be nude in San Francisco (lewd is, of course, another matter), during an apparently legitimate Guinness World Record attempt to assemble the most naked Santas in one place, at Washington Square Park in San Francisco during SantaCon 29011. No word on when the record is actually ratified.
Of course, several hundred suit-optional Santas opted to keep their clothes on.
[video link]
By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 10:03 am Monday, Dec 5
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Check out this great series of laser-cut wood Christmas tree ornaments, decorated with the pictures of science heroes. That's Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female physician in the United States. You can also get Mary Leakey, Carl Linneaus, Rosalind Franklin, Charles Darwin, and more!
Thanks for Submitterating, pambamboo!
By Maggie Koerth-Baker at 9:17 am Monday, Nov 28
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The Aitkin, Minnesota, Fish House Parade is a post-Thanksgiving tradition. People dress up their snowmobiles, Sno-Cats, and fish houses—portable cabins used for ice fishing—in silly costumes and roll them down Aitkin's Main Street to cheering throngs. It's meant to mark the kick-off of the ice fishing season on Mille Lacs, a particularly large lake in north-central Minnesota. This year, however, the arrival of Thanksgiving has not really coincided with the arrival of thick snow and solid lake ice. It'll be a while yet before any of the fish houses are being used for fishing.
One other oddity brought on by the relatively warm November: If you browse through the photos taken by Minnesota Public Radio's Bob Collins, you'll see that many of fish house floats are towed by snowmobile. But, lacking much snow, the snowmobiles all have little, temporary front wheels attached.
By Xeni Jardin at 11:51 am Friday, Nov 25
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The Gun Snuggler. "Because happiness is a warm gun." Comes in sizes to fit everything from handguns to assault rifles! This began as a funny internet joke, but so many people took it seriously that it is now being offered as an actual thing that you can really buy for real. (Thanks, Marque Cornblatt!)
There's
a great write-up on Good about my city and my mayor, R.T. Rybak. Minneapolis isn't a perfect city, by any means. But it remains the best place I have ever had the privilege of living. And I think a huge part of that is the unofficial city motto that Good highlights here: "Minneapolis: We Build Stuff and Take Care of Things."
— Maggie
, my book about the future of energy in the United States, will be published April 10th.
