Welcome to the Roundtable, Now Spill Your Guts

Yesterday Suzanne revealed her secret love of Gyros.

What foods do you secretly crave, even though you know you shouldn't?

I have a hankering for Ramen noodles, which I suppose is good in case I ever find myself broke.

Nutritionists are rolling in their graves. (uh... except the living ones)

These Guys are My Gyros Heroes

Tons of gyros signs. Nice.

The Gyros Project.

"In contrast to conventional religious experience, gyros requires not so much faith as a suspension of disbelief -- in the desirability of public intercourse as well as in the virtues of clear arteries. Gyros is supremely sloppy, and dangerously volatile in the sense that flammable liquids are. The afterglow of gyros suffuses your being, and then it oozes through every pore to fill out your aura as well. To eat a gyros and mingle with others is inconsiderate. To eat a gyros with others who are doing the same courts disastrous interactions. Wise gyros consumption is a solitary indulgence, ideally followed by a shower and a night to sleep it off."

Blue iPod vs. Blue Isopod

Which one do I want for Christmas? Decisions, decisions…

Mystery Item The Twelfth

Pucker up.

Can you guess what this image is? Click for a closer look.
Leave your guess in the comments...
I'll post the answer in there tomorrow!

Clue: It's something alive. You don't have to be specific. Just try to guess the family of ... thing that it is. And, it's NOT related to this famous singer. Well, actually, maybe it is…

Previous Mysterious Guessing Items: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11.

Roundtable: What If?

Once again it's Roundtable Thursday.

Suzanne at Perfecting the Fine Art of Procrastination wants to know... what are your secret 'what ifs'... what lingering regrets or dreams deferred haunt you? Post your thoughts here, or just peek in.

Pseudophotographica

See the nice photo of a Chicago El Blue Line train on the right?

It's not a photo.

Bert Monroy made it with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.

Find the International Space Station

Click the image on the right and try to find the International Space Station, with the Space Shuttle Atlantis floating next to it.

The photo was taken in france by amateur astronomer Thierry Legault. Thanks Thierry!

via wohba.

Animal-People, Ghosts and Strange Places

Youfail.com is Kiersten Essenpreis' web-based playground.

Dot-alt has an interview.

"Kiersten Essenpreis paints what you have forgotten about. She was there when you thought you were alone; those twilight/early morning hours when you think you see things, or the when the strange seems perfectly acceptable. Remember bedtime stories? She does, but not like that … every scenario feels familiar and poignant."

Dali + Disney = Destino (Almost)

Lukira posted these two short clips from a 1946 Walt Disney cartoon "Destino" that features the work of Salvador Dali. Unfortunately, the film was never completed.

"Twenty two paintings and 135 story sketches into the project, Dali was asked to abandon Destino as the package pictures of the 40’s proved financially unsuccessful."

More images from the movie are here.

Modern Tech and Cigarettes

These collectible cards used to be given away with packs of cigarettes. Cooler than Camel Cash! Here is a list of the hundreds of different types of cigarette cards that were printed.

I can't figure out what exactly is going on in this image... a giant fish tank theatre?

An Illusory Camel-based Experience

There's something fishy about this photo. Click the image and try to figure out what it is.

Give up? Click here for the answer.

It sort of reminds me of Dali's elephants, one of which is now a sculpture in England.

Roundtable: Wine

It's time for this week's Roundtable discussionary eventness.

S. K. Waller has wine on the mind at Incurable Insomniac. Post your thoughts!

Guess-the-thing, Number 11

Here we go, it's the next mystery item.

See if you can guess what's in this picture. Click the image for a closer view. Make your guess in the comments, and I'll post the answer in there tomorrow.

Here's a hint: You've seen this before, but in a much smaller amount.

Previous Mysterious Guessing Items: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Creepy Cool Drawings

Here is a gallery of intricate, eerie drawings by Thinkmule.

He's the artist who did the cover for Ween's wonderful Shinola album (available on iTunes here).

The dude's got a great art blog too!

Red

Ketchup. Swiss Army knives. Checkers. Lips. Blood.

A funny little movie about the color red.

Squishy Moon

If you're ever out in space, try to watch the setting moon. Earth's atmosphere acts as a lens, squishing the moon as it disappears behind the horizon.

At first the lower limb is distorted most as the atmospheric lens pushes the lower limb upwards to create an egg shape (close-up). Finally the whole moon becomes an impossibly flattened oval. In the final frame the moon's lower edge is slightly clipped by the earth's surface.

The lower part of the disk and then the entire moon is appreciably reddened by preferential atmospheric scattering of blue light out of the ray path.

September 11, 2006

Mystery Item Number X

Welcome to Guess The Thing of Mystery Number Ten.

Can you guess what this image is? Click the image to get a closer view. Post your guess in the comments, and I'll post the correct answer in there tomorow.

Previous Mysterious Guessing Items: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.

One Hell of a Fungus

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...
Aseroe rubra! Hawaii's most common member of the stinkhorn family of fungi. It's name translates as "disgusting red."

I'm pretty sure this is where Quorn comes from?

Lots, lots more disturbing fungus images HERE.

via neatorama

Roundtable: The Homeless

Roundtable time!

This week it's over at Rustbelt Ramblings, and the topic is the homeless. Love 'em or hate 'em? Maybe you are one. Post your thoughts!

A Senseless Senses Challenge

From the BBC, here's a series of 20 questions to challenge your senses.

It's very hard to get 100%. Each question has a short explanation of why you may not have gotten the answer correct, and how you can't always trust your perception.

Great Apes

Retrocrush has a list of the 50 Coolest Apes of All Time but they are missing a couple of undeniably cool apes.

The drawing on the right is Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate to ever roam the earth, growing up to ten feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds. They died out only 100,000 years ago.

Also forgotten is a little monkey who had the best cereal ever made named after him. Little crunchy bananas and cherries, yum.

Big, Haunting Photo

San Francisco photograph from 1905, after the earthquake.

via splasho

New Painting, "Melonomaniac"

This is a sketchy little painting that uses some colors found in common melons, including honeydew, cantalope, and watermelon.

Some day I will get a better camera!

Early 1940's Photos

The Library of Congress has an online exhibition of color photos from the early 1940's.

Makes you want to go back in time for a day...