Nice to know my instincts were right.



I was watching some of the CNN Katrina coverage this past weekend and turned it off because these two drove me nuts.



(note: the video takes a minute to load)



Video :: CNN weatherman loses his cool

I'm almost tempted to face the scary masses...

IKEA Labor Day Sale

Saving trees in a Bladerunner sorta way.



Addirect :: Addmirror - mirror advertising - ambient advertising

Toys for/of office drones.



These have been around for quite awhile now, but, every time I run across them, they make me smile.



The Cubes

Eeek.



For those with gobs of money and no taste.



Ondine Living :: Krystal ELS showerhead



(via mocoloco.com)

Ladles and jellyspoons, I give you Niki Yan.



Fruitcake extraordinaire with perfect timing to release her book.



Niki Yan :: China Girl Strikes Back

brunching shuttlecocks :: The Geek Hierarchy



(via see.blogspot.com)

Honestly, my heart goes out to the people who have had to evacuate or have lost their homes or businesses. But this wasn't the Indian Ocean tsunami, and this coverage seriously irritates me.



Shouldn't journalists try to display some perspective, rather than wind people up into hysteria and panic?



LOUISIANA EVACUEES URGED TO STAY AWAY

'Total structural failure' reported in New Orleans



NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Louisiana evacuees should stay away for at least a week to avoid 'a wilderness' without power or drinking water that will be infested with poisonous snakes and fire ants, state officials warned Monday.



CNN.com :: Louisiana evacuees urged to stay away - Aug 29, 2005

The loveliest McDonald's bag you'll ever see.



Yuken Teruya :: Notice Forest

Buy Beer Now

Buy Beer Now

This so perfectly tells you about what it's like to work in our office. Someone taped up the paper on the fridge at work last week, and the handwritten addition was there on Friday.

(photo courtesy of the fab Czeltic Girl.)

I am ready for some football.



I'm Audi 5000, kids.* Off to see the Packers/Patriots game. Letsee if this is a repeat of last year's torrential pre-season game downpours. I'm bringing my poncho.



*That's for you, Bradley.

This is so, so very wrong.



A Comfort Pet is a pet urn or a stuffed animal pet urn in the likeness of your beloved deceased pet. It has a zippered pocket pet urn in it for you to place your pet's cremains (cremated remains)to use as a pet memorial urn. Rather than a hard wooden, plastic or ceramic box for a pet urn , dog urn or cat urn, a Comfort Pet is 'an urn alternative' that is soft and lovable.



Comfort Pets

Hey, monk...



New York Magazine - Intelligencer:: Hard-to-pronounce New York names



(Your mispronunciation of my correction was it.)

"It was shortly after the British Red Cross arrived, though it may have no connection, that a very large quantity of lipstick arrived."



Banksy : Manifesto



An extract from the diary of Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin DSO who was among the first British soldiers to liberate Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

A wooden mirror?



This is amazing. Check out the QT movie.



BITFORMS :: Wooden mirror, 1999

Fun! Bid to have your name included in a novel.

Unfortunately, I'm sure I don't have enough cheddar to have a BB character or reference in a Michael Chabon, Amy Tan or Neil Gaiman novel...

eBay AuctionCause :: First Amendment Project Auction

What a lovely poem and animation...



bornmagazine.org :: About the Other Animals



(via my fab long-distance roommate, swissmiss.)

If you get this, I like you. Lots.

toothpastefordinner.com :: poetry

Ouch...

Working in the web business, these types of stories give me stomach knots and anxiety attacks. *shudder*

After a weekend upgrade, Yahoo's search engine ad system first slowed to a crawl, and then went belly up on Monday, preventing marketers from making changes to their campaigns, accessing their accounts and, in many cases, even having their ads run at all. Yahoo support representatives are telling clients that they themselves can't access their accounts and have no idea when the problem - now in its third day - will be fixed.

MarketingVOX :: Yahoo Ad System Crashes, Still Down

Modern art in Lego.



Art Craziest Nation Inventory

Fashion Monitor Toronto :: Tom Cruise reveals that he was much happier in previous existences and his current life is probably one of the least satisfying he has led



'I was much happier in previous existences when I wrote plays, composed music, conquered nations, discovered continents, and developed cures for diseases,' said Tom Cruise.



Cruise said he became aware that he 'had been here before,' when he read the complete works of Shakespeare in a month, despite being dyslexic, not long after dropping out of high school.

YesButNoButYes: The Gospel According to Pat (Robertson)

There's a whole legal field devoted to this?



I had no idea.



Lipcon, Margulies & Alsina, P.A. :: Sexual Assault & Rape on Cruise Ships - by both passengers and crew

Ooooh, bastages...



BAD DESIGN KILLS :: Logoworks.com Rip-offs

Public service announcement.



Only a week away ... new Crate&Barrel Milwaukee store opens 8/31



Yay. :)

The Smoking Gun: The Unabomber Quiz



...The Smoking Gun offers this interactive quiz,developed from documents contained in Kaczynski's federal court file in Sacramento, California. Last year, during a court-ordered competency review, Kaczynski was subjected to a battery of psychological tests, including the venerable Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). The 567-question true-or-false test has been used for years to assess everyone from job applicants to criminal defendants.



...The set-up is simple: after answering all the questions, your grade will be computed on the basis of how many of your answers matched Kaczynski's answers.



p.s. According to the results, I'm no Unabomber. Woot.

Whoa. Is it possible Hallmark might actually be (gulp) creative?

hallmark :: hoops & yoyo

I really like this one.

Many, many more cool postcards.

California Pacific Expo 1935-36

FOUND Magazine :: Crack House Rules

Photo in the News: Gas Thief Escapes on Tricycle

A surprisingly intuitive 3-D font.



Take the quiz. Very interesting.



universerevolved.com :: 3D alphabet



(via ektopia.com)

I love warning label graphics.



Humans are reduced to stick figures, their actions portrayed through ellipses and arrows, as they navigate this danger-filled world. As they fall from ladders, get scorched by fire, tumble out of cranes and get fatally wrapped in crankshafts, the stick figures throw their hands in the air: a dramatically silent 'Oh no!'



Mark Batty Publisher :: Warning!

Interesting concept.

Let's see if it works.

Amazon Shorts :: Short literary works delivered digitally for 49 cents each

Serious sticks and stones...

LaChania Govan said she got bounced around by her cable company when she called to complain [...] But when she got her August bill from Comcast she had no trouble understanding she'd made somebody mad. It was addressed to "Bitch Dog."

[...] In another case, Peoples Energy customer Jefferoy Barnes started getting letters addressed to 'Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes.'

'... I guess the earliest letter is dated in May and from then on up until now my name has been listed as Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes and I have no idea why.'

Yahoo! News :: Woman Gets Cable Bill With Derogatory Name

It IS very pretty

...but if anyone I know spent $240 on a tiny radio controlled airplane toy, I think I'd beat them senseless with my shoe.

Plantraco's RTF Butterfly :: Fly in your Livingroom!

(via uncrate.com)

Women's career choices were so much easier in 1966.



bradley's almanac :: the exciting game of career girls

For every important web site, there are 1000s like this.

God bless the interweb. A tip from drew at toothpastefordinner.com:

... i will end this mail with a genius website link. this site is called bee dogs. it is a page with pictures of dogs dressed up like bees. it will take exactly fifteen seconds of your day to look at, and when you are done, you will know the power of the beedog.

.:: beedogs ::.

CNN.com - Wisconsin tornado kills one - Aug 19, 2005



Lenny Peaslee, executive chef at the Stoughton Country Club, said the twister tore the roof off as about 40 people took refuge in the basement.



"We were ... hiding behind the bar," he said. "We had beer, anyway."



(via VonHerwig and his better half, Rebecca - thanks!)

Possibly one of the best things ever.



Prob'ly OFN, but I don't care.



OhGizmo! :: ASCII Star Wars Via Telnet

Literal Answers to Rhetorical Questions

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?
No one well informed, of course, since the writer in question died in 1941; but during her lifetime she was known to have a sharp tongue, and many persons had reason to fear her wit.

I particularly like "What shall we do with a drunken sailor?" (one of my fave 45s when I was a wee one) to which the answer, apparently, is rehabilitate him.

Jet set.



It's a terrible interface, but the postcards are really, really fab. (An excellent find from grow-a-brain.)



Airport Postcards

Optical illusion in walnut, cherry or maple.



Turn Your Head

Alas, I'm not sporty.

But Tony Larson's girl skateboard decks make me wish I were. (Especially the Modern Series and the One-Off Designs 2.)

AGENTS OF THE AREA

Ten Precepts From The Art of War That Never Made It Past Sun Tzu's Editor

8. Demoralize your enemy by whispering and giggling and then suddenly going silent as he draws near. When he asks what you were talking about, say, 'Oh, nothing.'

McSweeney's Internet Tendency :: Ten Precepts
(via linkbunnies.org)

Something that makes me love the design industry even more.



I don't care for the unnecessary colon after INDEX, but, I love the INDEX: philosophy -- awarding designers who improve life for large numbers of people through their designs. The nominations are fascinating.



INDEX:2005 Awards :: Top Nominations



(I heard about the awards via one of the nominated designs, LifeStraw, a $2 personal water filter that will work for an entire year. TWO DOLLARS. The designers wanted to develop something practical and affordable for 3rd world use.)

Beware those wearing sunglasses.



A new lie detection technology promises remarkable benefits in determining whether people are telling you the truth IN REAL TIME. The technology is already being tested in a wide variety of applications such as anti-terrorism, law enforcement, and insurance claim assessment and has even been built into a pair of glasses with internal LED lights which will run a real-time analysis of conversations of the wearer, reporting on the veracity of the person the wearer is speaking to with a claimed accuracy of better than 95%.



gizmag :: Lie detector glasses tell you if someone is telling the truth

Very fun.



OMGIWANTIT! Modern and unique gifts and home accessories

Speak Up :: Critique - The Alphabet

(via electrolicious.com)

Cuddly Rigor Mortis Plush dolls

Shocker.



Independent Online Edition :: I've never read a book in my life, admits Victoria Beckham

They're no Oolong.

But.. coo.

Baby Bunnies

Dating truisms.



Fab link from Czeltic Girl's blog. (Thanks, CG!)



defective yeti: Three Many Dating Truisms

The happiest sausage times

The rest of the blog is a fun little surf as well:
YouYesYou

Umm... our Calatrava "flaps"?

The [WTC Transit] hub's ceiling has been designed to open to the sky using hydraulic motors on Sept. 11 and on other days the Port Authority designates. That feature is similar to Calatrava's design for the Milwaukee Art Museum, which 'flaps' its wings every day at noon.

Newsday.com :: WTC transit hub design steeled, yet still light

Wince at the brilliance.

Depressing Classic Rock MIDI Songs

(via growabrain)

Archie McPhee :: FACTORY MISTAKE ZOMBIE JESUS

Nice headline from The Times Online.



Britain faces winter without trousers

The idea is admirable



...but I think this ad is just nasty. Yikes.



Nike ad :: My butt

Even in 1979



...was anyone truly bonkers enough to wear (much less MAKE) this?



Cult 45 bookshop :: Knit Your Own Fry Up!

Learn something new every day.



I had no idea that Brian Eno wrote the little Windows start-up ditty.



...The idea came up at the time when I was completely bereft of ideas. I'd been working on my own music for a while and was quite lost, actually. And I really appreciated someone coming along and saying, "Here's a specific problem -- solve it.''



The thing from the agency said, "We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da, optimistic, futuristic, sentimental, emotional,'' this whole list of adjectives, and then at the bottom it said, "and it must be 3-1/4 seconds long.''



I thought this was so funny and an amazing thought to actually try to make a little piece of music. It's like making a tiny little jewel.



In fact, I made 84 pieces. I got completely into this world of tiny, tiny little pieces of music. I was so sensitive to microseconds at the end of this that it really broke a logjam in my own work. Then when I'd finished that and I went back to working with pieces that were like three minutes long, it seemed like oceans of time.



sfgate.com :: Q and A With Brian Eno

I'm just gonna come right out and say it.



Masonic ritual is weird and creepy.



However, if my day goes as expected, I may borrow their "Grand Hailing Sign of Distress" later today.



Secret Masonic Handshakes, Passwords, Signs and Grips for the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason Degrees of Blue Lodge Freemasonry

Ugh! I could have been stranded in London!



Leave it to me to fly in and out of London on TUESDAY, when a British Airways strike brought flights to a halt on THURSDAY. Now, that's just poor timing...



Yahoo! News :: British Airways says chaos nearly over

Some of you new homeowners might find this interesting/helpful.

A cheap, cool alternative to big, expensive awnings and overhangs for shading your backyard.

Apartment Therapy :: Shade Sails

Posters for your cubicle.



Corporate Fun!

Personally poignant.

Not to get too personal here, but -- having just gotten back from a week of fun and friendship with my German friend, Martina, and my English friend, Sam, this struck me deeply when I read it this morning. How things might have been. How things have changed. Thank god we do evolve, despite all odds against it sometimes. I can't imagine my life without my international girlfriends. Cheers and prost, ladies.

from the Writer's Almanac today:

It's the anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Britain, 1940, when Germany began to bomb England during World War II. France had been overrun. Germany's plan was to destroy the Royal Airforce before invading Great Britain.

The British had an advanced radar system, which helped them, but by the middle of August, they lost a quarter of their aircraft. Shortly thereafter, everything changed. On August 24, 1940, a German bomber accidentally bombed London. Britain responded by bombing Berlin. Hitler was so angry, he ordered his airforce to bomb London exclusively, turning his attention away from the Royal Airforce.

On the first night, 600 German bombers came in waves, dropping explosive and incendiary devices over East London where the factories and the docks were. The bombing of London continued over the next eight months. It was so incessant that it became almost a part of ordinary life.

An American journalist named Mary Welsh was living in London, and she wrote in her diary, "Today has brought the usual post-bomb misery, the taste of powder in the mouth, burglar alarms ringing incessantly, glass crunching under our shoes in the flat and also outside, clothes in closets and drawers heavy with dust, my eyes red and face old looking and feeling as though it was burning, and a terrible job to concentrate my thinking."

But the British people were remarkably resilient and went about life as normally as they could. By the end, more than 30,000 Londoners had been killed, more than 100,000 houses destroyed and a third of the city burned to the ground. But historians now feel that if Hitler had focused on destroying the Royal Airforce instead of bombing London, he probably would have won the battle.

The Writer's Almanac :: August 13, 2005

More about Flickr's upcoming print services.



Powazek :: I suspect that I am part of a teaser campaign

Truly disturbing.



What a mailing list this woman must have. [*shudder*]



Camille Allen :: Egg Babies

(via b3ta.com)

This is for you, Martina.

This is for you, Martina..

Courtesy of The Onion.

British reality TV at its finest, no doubt.



Shine :: ITV1 announce 'Teenage Tourettes Camp'

A very convincing hoax.

Almost. Premenstrual Tampons.

(also via Stay Free! Daily.)

LIKE :: The first soft drink just for girls



(via Stay Free Daily)

Gross. Yet so true.



Toothpastefordinner.com :: Warning

Just for you, Sam...



Be sure to look up on your birthday, girl. The heavens have got an exhibition just for you. x!



NASA :: The 2005 Perseid Meteor Shower

This sucks.



AP Wire :: Art director fired after TV discussion of graphic work on Bush

Tina's girl posse.

/bTina's girl posse.

All dressed up and nowhere... oh, wait. Nevermind.

The wedding.

The wedding.

Tina & Gary's wedding was gorgeous. The bride and groom were beaming. The mountaintop location was stunning. The food was fantastic. (Loads of sausages & cheese! The Swiss are definitely kindred spirits.)

BTW - today Martina, Sam and I were in three countries in one day - Switzerland, Austria AND Germany. Definitely not a typical Saturday. I'm feeling a bit Alice in Wonderland -ish. But in a good way.

Bavarian pretzels for breakfast.

Bavarian pretzels for breakfast.

Munich!

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo.



As of now, I'm on an official blogging hiatus until next week. I'm off to the Alps for swiss miss's wedding. I'll try to post pix while I'm there, but, if I fail, I'll talk to all y'all next week when I get back... take care, kittens.



Lots of love,

bb

Yoohoo!



My buddy, Malcolm, turned me onto my new filing technique is unstoppable - an absolutely insane comic strip. Clip art captioned. I just ran across this mnftiu pane on another blog and laughed out loud.



mnftiu :: yoohoo!

We're screwed, Doreen.



Why didn't we include costumes on our Amazing Race application???



We are HUGE fans of The Amazing Race and this Web site is part of our bid to be selected for The Amazing Race 9. We have different yet complimentary strengths and weaknesses that can only improve our chances of winning the race. We have traveled together domestically and internationally over the last 15 years, therefore we know what to expect from each other, and how best to build upon one another's strengths to succeed in The Amazing Race.



The Carolina Blondes

This is mindboggling.

Just browse through a few. Apparently Costco rivals the Uffizi or the Louvre. Who knew?

Costco.com :: Fine Art @ Costco

(via the always educational & delightful growabrain)