NASA Pic of the day & Eyehategod - Anxiety Hangover

For a few years now I have been frequenting the NASA pic of the day website and today's pic is certainly one of the best yet. I particularly fancy the "pillar of smoky dust about 20 light years long" visible towards the right side of the photo.

Oh, and to contrast the new light-hearted layout I am posting a fan made Eyehategod video a friend showed me. It's a rather unpleasant compilation of footage that makes you want to get a houseboat and stay away from shore.

Conversations at work...

Guy1 at work asks Guy2 if he's seen Beerfest. Guy2 hasn't. Guy1 gasps in such a manner that you would think he had just witnessed some cosmic event or been punched in the stomach. Guy2 asks 'What's it rated?'. Guy1 responds 'It's Unrated'.

This is part one of an ongoing series.

Jenny McCarthy and a customized VHS Tape.

Listened to the newest episode of SGU today. It was a good one. They frequently bash celebrities who use their fame to push bullshit on the gullible masses, and recently they have focused their efforts towards Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccination campaigning. There is a whole lot to be said about that group and their claim that the Thimerosal (mercury-containing compound) found in vaccinations is giving children autism despite there being no scientific evidence to support that theory. Sadly her child was diagnosed with autism and naturally she wants somebody to blame, so she hopped on that bandwagon and became a prominent figure of the movement... So on the podcast they pointed out a recent quote of hers regarding botox injections:

"I love Botox, I absolutely love it. I get it minimally, so I can still move my face. But I really do think it's a savior."

So the biotch who has been making a stink over vaccination shots, and consistently reminding the public that mercury is the second most powerful neurotoxin known to man, is praising the number 1 most powerful neurotoxin known to man; Botulinum toxin. (Botox is simply a brand name applied to Botulinum toxin, known also as Botulism.) So they sez, they sez "It's okay to utilize the most powerful neuro-toxin known to man to make you pretty, but it's condemnable to use the second most powerful neuro-toxin to save lives and protect our children from disease."

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Anyway, here's a project I did at work using some white-out, a pen and an old VHS tape found near my desk.

A strange yearning.

There is a theorized video tape of Roy Horn (of Sigfried and Roy fame) getting his face violently chewed on by a colossal Bengal Tiger. I cry myself to sleep every night thinking about the video sitting alone in some dark vault, unwatched. Unloved. If only I could be with it... I hope that someday mankind can bathe in the light of this video and be filled with the wisdom and peace of mind that comes with watching a man lose his face in the mouth of a Tiger several times his size. I truly believe that the video could usher our species into the next golden age.

Mature photo manipulation.

At work I found myself thrown into a spontaneous fit of mature artistry. I understood the objectives of all the great painters and it empowered me to contribute to their collection of timeless art. Behold my creation:

Tim and Eric

I've never been that big of an Adult Swim peenfan, but Tim and Eric is a great show. Here's some proof for you wildmen of the nectar province.

Dante's Inferno Video Game

I have been kind of ignoring this project for a while cause I figured it would be a generic hack'n'slash that held true to the book only in terms of the setting and a few characters... Still not sure if it's going to be any good, but if this trailer is any indication of the game's art direction and scale, then it is going to be a must play for the visuals alone.

Posting for the sake of posting.

So I picked up the Torche - In Return vinyl at Amoeba over the weekend. I have never been a huge vinyl collector. I pretty much only buy tour records and any hot deals I come across in record stores, but this album has such a stellar layout and I truly do miss the days of having a tangible version of my favorite albums. As seen in the photos it has the album on disc AND record, it's just great.


Also, for fun I included this photo of me rocking out in my 'work' space with all my childish possessions. I wasn't listening to any music when the picture was taken. I wasn't even thinking about music, I was rocking out to the memory of some cool movies I had recently watched.

Turkey drawing progress.

So about a week ago or maybe more, a friend who I will just refer to as Courtney, female companion of my dear gentlefriend Derek, told me to draw somethin' and when I asked just what I should draw she presented me with this photo:


Most people have seen that my drawing techniques are pretty much incapable of capturing any kind of charm or cuteness, so I did some research (previous post) and took my own swing at the modern turkey as we know it. Here is the current state of the drawing, I wanted to get it scanned in because I will likely ruin it when I add watercolor and/or add a body. Kind of a bad scan, but bear with me. Or shall I say TURKEY with me. No, that's stupid.

(click for big)

Turkeys

I've been pretty pumped on turkey's for about a week now. Eating them on sandwiches and calling people turkeys and stuff makes you forget that they are pretty fantastic looking animals. Their feathers form quite an elegant and beautiful pattern to contrast the disgusting texture of their heads... But even their heads showcase some nice colors and look rather pretty when you blur your eyes a little. Here's some proof that these underrated birds rival the peacocks with their magnifacence.




Think about how much more respect we'd give turkeys if they didn't have those revolting wattles hanging from their faces. This one looks like an elderly man's scrotum.

Music Video

If you watch one music video in 2009 make it this one:

Milk containing pus: Fact or Fiction?

So I've been listening to a podcast for the past year or so called The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe. It's basically a science podcast that specializes in debunking pseudo scientific claims and practices such as Homeopathy, Creationism, Psychics, Anti-Vaccination bullshits, and the list goes on. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned from this show is to consider sources and do your own research when you are presented with information that seems counter intuitive or just bizarre in any way. They also do a good job of pointing out how bad the media often is at responsibly presenting science-based news.

So recently I've been enjoying the occasional glass of milk. And, like many people I have been told time and time again that milk contains a significant amount of pus. So I decided to do some of my own research on the topic and came to find that this is pretty much total bullshit.

At first glance of all the information that was coming up via Google searches, I was disheartened to see all kinds of articles and reports supporting the notion that milk was full of pus. Then I began to notice that the great majority of these sources were using terms such as "pus cells" and "somatic cells aka 'pus'". So after a little research in the science-minded side of the net I came to find that there is in fact no such thing as "pus cells" and that somatic cells are literally "any cells that make up the body of an organism".

So that's what pus isn't. Turns out that what pus is, is the bacteria gathered by white blood cells to be excreted out of the body in one way or another. The presence of white blood cells in milk is natural and healthy. On a side note, most arguments claiming that milk contains blood are technically true because of this, but any milk that gets contaminated with whole blood (usually in the cases of infection) is marked as a health hazard and disposed of.

I could go on for a little while longer but nobody is going to read this anyway. But just to wrap up my stupid rant, lets consider that blood or pus or some form of bacteria makes it into the pumped milk due to an infection or whatever. In the more severe and obvious cases of contamination it would be thrown out for violation of the FDA's strict dairy guidelines. In other cases of mild contamination, this bacteria would be destroyed during the pasteurization process.


In closing, fuck you guys I'm going to start drinking milk a lot more frequently.

The drug "pot".

One night when I was heavily influenced by the drug "pot", I opened up Photoshop and went to work on what I thought would be the funniest picture of all time. It ended up falling very, very short, and my execution was sloppy at best... Here's R&B phenom Seal and remnants of his wife Heidi Klum that I failed to erase completely.

hahah

It says "TATTOO" on his neck.

Shearwater - Rook [2008]

Download

I've been diggin' the shit out of this album. Here I have provided it for download courtesy of LucidMedia. For anybody who is into mellow(er) rock in general, I suggest the download. The vocalist is quite superb in his ability to go from soothing and steady to loud and powerful.