One of my all-time favorite tee-shirts is available again: the HTTPSTER by Christopher DeCaro ($25).

The hypertext-transfer-protocol antithetic hipster shirt for nerds, geeks and unicorns.

If you're a Disney-Pixar superfan, this $2500 pickup truck is a solid investment. A fan from Colorado recreated the Pizza Planet pickup from Toy Story (which has also made several cameos in other Disney-Pixar films) and now has to sell his sweet, sweet banana yellow ride. His loss, your gain.

The truck runs and handles a bit rough. Its very hard to part with, but it needs to go. Looking for $2500. Make me an offer, but please don't insult me. Lots of my own work went into the exterior.

You know you want it: 1983 Toyota Pickup (Pizza Planet) - $2500 (Highlands Ranch)

(Geekologie)

images via screenshot and Craigslist Read the rest

The Slow Mo Guys whacked some rainbow Jell-O (aka "jelly") through a tennis racket for their latest video. As they're known to do, they captured it all in its slo-mo glory using a Phantom v2640 high-speed camera.

(Tastefully Offensive) Read the rest

The good folks at Improv Everywhere made a couple of old phone booths in New York City a "little more useful" by converting them into co-working spaces. Read the rest

There's a Seinfeld-themed hardcore metal band from New York City (of course) called Grindfeld.

Born out of a mutual love of Death Metal, comical observations, coffee and Hardcore, Grindfeld is a project built on the existential dread hidden just under the surface of daily life.

Yes, they're real and they've got "5 Songs About Nothing." The first is a loud little ditty called "The Contest":

The other four songs -- The Soup Nazi, The Limousine, The Bizarro Jerry, and The Letter -- are available from their $5 digital album. They also have merch.

(Stereogum) Read the rest

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna started a program in 2012 that opened its doors for "remarkable creative individuals" to select pieces from their massive historical collection to present in an exhibition. Filmmaker Wes Anderson and his partner Juman Malouf are the most recent curators in this program. So, for the last two years, they have been putting together their offbeat Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and other Treasures.

Artnet describes the exhibit as "a totally quirky presentation of affectionate misfits":

Perhaps the duo’s penchant for the collection’s oddball items also stems from their own awareness of being outsiders in a prestigious establishment replete with trained art historians, curators, and conservators.

One senior curator said that some of museum staff were skeptical of the project at first. “We would get an email from Wes asking, ‘Do you have a list of green objects? Could you send us a list of everything you have that is yellow?’ Our data system does not have these categories.”

Because of this, the curators and conservators had to manually search their storage, an often painstaking process due climate controls and the condition checks needed, neither of which Anderson or Malouf were aware of.

The extra labor required was taxing, but the duo’s alternative criteria had a welcome side effect: It leveled the usual hierarchies. Several staff members said it resulted in new revelations. They just had to “learn to unlearn” their ways of working.

The exhibit opened November 6 and will be on view through April 28, 2019. Read the rest

Oh boy, I think I have a new hobby. I've just learned that you can combine puzzles, that have the same die cut, to make really awesome pieces of art. It had never occurred to me that manufacturers of mass-produced puzzles cut different puzzles of theirs in the same way, making the pieces interchangeable. It makes complete sense, of course, but my mind is still blown!

I learned about the art of "puzzle montage" from one of the readers of my inbox zine, Marcia Wiley (she's the gal in Seattle who's fixing up that cool old Checker Cab). She was visiting the Bay Area and we met up for the first time this past Friday. That's when she told me about her friend Tim Klein, who makes incredible puzzle montages. I'm excited to share his work with you.

In an email exchange, Tim told me that he learned about puzzle montages from the man who first made them, art professor Mel Andringa of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, "As far as I know, he and I are the only artists ever to pursue it seriously. And I think he's moved on to other things nowadays, so I may be the sole surviving practitioner."

And this is what Tim shared with me about his process:

...By selecting pieces from two or more compatible puzzles, I assemble a single "puzzle mashup" with surreal imagery that the publisher never imagined.

Sometimes the results are merely chuckle-making, such as my combination of King Tut's burial mask with the front of a truck, which I call "King of the Road".

This vintage-style map of the USA puts the titles of songs that mention place names onto their corresponding geographical spot. So, for example, the Beasties Boys' "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" is placed right on top of Brooklyn.

Some of our favourite song choices are the ones which require you to think a little harder about connections, such as Space Oddity (David Bowie) which signposts Cape Canaveral, After the Gold Rush (Neil Young) which references Sutter’s Mill, and Homecoming (Kanye West) which is placed near the rapper’s home town of Chicago.

You can get the map for £30 (~$39) at UK-based studio Dorothy. They also have a world song map (also £30/~$39) and a special edition world song map (£35/~$45). Head to Spotify to see the accompanying playlist.

(The Awesomer) Read the rest

Habitot Children's Museum in Berkeley, California is making an unusually generous offer to the families of homeless kids. They are providing them with the opportunity to celebrate their child's birthday at their facility for free. Their free birthday party offer includes all the standards: decor, pizza, juice, cake, and even goodie bags for the guests. Plus, they gift the birthday child something special.

Now, I'm not sure the age limit for the eligible children but, according to their site, the museum serves infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

Want to learn more? Email the museum's Family Programs Manager at familyprograms@habitot.org. Also, if you have the means, please consider donating to Habitot so they can keep the magic going.

photo by Yoshika Mcalister Read the rest

Leave it to Texas to have high school varsity teams dedicated to barbecuing.

Here's a story about how some students at a high school in northern Texas are learning to compete with meat. WFAA reports:

Horticulture teacher Tommy Copeland helped start his team at [Ennis High School] after discovering an annual state tournament in Burnet where over 100 schools compete...

At Ennis High, the barbecue team is like a Texas hybrid of metal shop and home economics. The students fabricate and weld their own cooker together then use it to compete.

Copeland and other vocational teachers assist the students in learning how to be pitmasters. Teachers or instructors aren’t allowed to help students during cook-offs, and they’re judged on best beef brisket, pork ribs, ½ chicken, best beans, dessert, best pit, most school spirit, and best t-shirt.

...he only requirements to be on the barbecue team? Maintain a passing average and be a senior.

However—that doesn’t stop Copeland from mentoring aspiring juniors who have interest in the team like Marshall Sladecek.

Before Ennis’ home football game against Corsicana, he and some other juniors got some ‘ribs practice’ outside the stadium. “We all barbecue, why not take it to the competition level?” Sladecek said. “Every guy needs to know how to do it.”

...“When these boys leave here, they are kings of their grills,” Copeland said.

Vancouver indie rock band Said The Whale spent over 80 hours putting together the music video for their song "UnAmerican." Impressively, zero digital effects were used to stop-motion animate the 2,250 different photos. The band painstakingly did that all by hand. Wow!

(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

Emile Ratelband, a Netherlands media personality and motivational speaker, is 69 years old but believes he has the body of someone 20 years younger. To fix the perceived discrepancy, he has now brought forth a lawsuit to legally change his age. The Dutchman wants to be seen as younger to get better jobs and to have better luck connecting with ladies on Tinder.

He compares his plight with being transgender. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf quotes him as saying, "You can change your name. You can change your gender. Why not your age? Nowhere are you so discriminated against as with your age."

And also, "When I'm 69, I'm limited. When I'm on tinder and it says 69, I don't get an answer. When I'm 49 with the face I have, I'll be in a luxurious position."

The Dutchman describes himself as a "young god."

In four weeks, a local court in Arnhem will make its decision on his case. If the court rules in his favor, the "young god" has said he'll give up his pension.

BBC: Dutchman, 69, brings lawsuit to lower his age 20 years

image via 360Nobs.com Read the rest

Glasgow-based Collins Dictionary has chosen their 2018 Word of the Year: single-use. The adjective meaning "made to be used once only" beat out the abbreviation VAR ("video assistant referee"), floss (the dance, not the dental product), gammon (a white, angry male who supports Brexit), and plogging (a Swedish activity that involves jogging and picking up litter).

Selected as the #CollinsWOTY 2018, single-use encompasses a global movement to kick our addiction to disposable products. From plastic bags, bottles and straws to washable nappies, we have become more conscious of how our habits and behaviours can impact the environment...

Our records show a four-fold increase in usage of this word since 2013, with news stories and the likes of the BBC’s Blue Planet II raising public awareness of this environmental issue.

"Single-use" also beat out other words on this year's shortlist: whitewash, vegan, MeToo, and backstop.

image via Collins Dictionary Read the rest

Who's the VC you most admire? Is it "super angel" investor Marc Andreessen, the 47-year-old billionaire behind over 40 successful startups? Or maybe it's Mary Meeker, the legendary VC who Forbes listed as the 77th most powerful woman in the world in 2014.

Whoever it is, TouchBase has got your investor worship covered with their new line of VC trading cards. They look like baseball cards -- stats and all -- but are much, much better.

VCtradingcards.com is the leading online seller of TouchBase investor trading cards.

We carry vintage and rare cards from the 1994 Sand Hill Road Series, the 2010 Gig Economy Series, the 1992 Private Equity Series, the 2015 Unicorn Series, and more.

Some of our rarest VC cards include Don Valentine (Sequoia, investor in Atari), Mike Markkula (Angel, investor in Apple), and Jenny Lee (GGV, investor in AliBaba). You never know which cards you'll get in your packs.

Many of the VCs featured have had multiple exits, but are on their way to more. This makes their cards highly collectible.

And, if your favorite investor, or founder, isn't yet on a card, you can ask the company to print them on a future one.

These are real. A VC Trading Cards five-pack is available for $59.99. Steep for ordinary folks, yes, but not Silicon Valley wheelers and dealers. Get'em while you can!

Thanks, You! Read the rest

I might be 12, but my brain went straight to the gutter when I saw this weird banana-filling gadget. This thing is marketed to kids, even though it seems rather inappropriate!

So, this is how the $27 "Banana Surprise" works. You cut off the tip, just the tip. Then, you rest the fruit in the "Yumstation." Now, this is where the fun begins. You get out the tool and jam it into the end and then quickly pull out. And now, according to the directions, it's time to fill that hole with some sweet syrup, fruit puree, or cream.

Surprise, you have an oozing, dripping piece of phallic fruit!

It's just a banana. It's just a banana. It's just a banana.

Related: The phallic pop-up egg-on-a-stick cooker gadget

(Geekologie) Read the rest

Airline in-flight safety videos are now more creative than ever.

First case in point: Taiwanese airline EVA Air is using interpretive dance in their safety video, over five long minutes of it. According to the airline's press release, it was choreographed by Bulareyaung Pagarlava, a member of Taiwan's indigenous Paiwan community. They describe the video as "a work of art that’s as captivating as it is informative." Sure.

And, second, here's a brand new one from Air New Zealand. It's got a tune ("It's Kiwi (Safety)") that sounds an awful lot like RUN-DMC's "It's Tricky." Their version was filmed in several New Zealand locales with a cast of 600! It "stars well-known Kiwi actor Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool2), local musicians Kings, Theia and Randa as well as talent from 30 community groups across the country."

(Nag on the Lake) Read the rest

Put some floating disembodied heads on your gift wrap this year with Gift Wrap My Face. They will make you wrapping paper custom made with your face on it... or someone else's.

Here's what Abraham Lincoln looks like on some Christmas paper:

And here's what I look like on one of their Thanksgiving designs:

Maybe I should have centered my photo better in their template but you get the idea.

There are a lot of background designs to choose from and prices start at $9.95.

(The Awesomer) Read the rest