Sunbeams illuminating a coastal forest in Port Orford, Oregon

Chuggnutt!

Tag: Weird

  • Going mainstream

    National Security AgencyShould it bother me that the National Security Agency has a website? Or even stranger, that it has a special website just for kids?

    I mean, we’re talking about a government agency that was once so secretive that “NSA” was supposed to stand for “No Such Agency.” Weird.

    Hmmmm… even weirder, I just noticed that the NSA website is running—of all things—Cold Fusion, and according to Netcraft, it’s actually sitting on Windows Server 2003 and IIS 6.0. What the hell? One of the premier spook agencies of the United States and they’re running Cold Fusion on Windows???

    To further enhance the cognitive dissonance experience, check out question number 16 from the FAQ:

    I’ve seen NSA/CSS in movies and on TV. Do you assassinate people? Do you secretly perform experiments on us?

    Because we work with highly sensitive information, we are frequently the subject of speculation – and highly imaginative and creative fictitious pieces in the media. However, it is important to distinguish fact from fiction. The fact is that the Executive Order 12333 (EO 12333) strictly prohibits any intelligence agency from conducting these unethical activities, and we strictly abide by that Order.

  • 15-pound burger

    This is crazy; a 15 pound hamburger is being offered free to any two people who can eat the entire thing in one three-hour sitting.

    the “Beer Barrel Belly Buster” weighs in with 10 pounds of meat molded into a 20-inch patty on a specially baked, 17-inch bun.

    The balance of the weight comes from 25 slices of cheese, a head of lettuce, three tomatoes, two onions, plus copious quantities of mayo, ketchup, relish, mustard, and peppers….

    The 15-pound burger can feed a family of 10, according to Liegey. He has sold two so far to teams of two people, and neither team did much more than put a dent in it.

    Wow. Just wow.

  • Cartoon skeletons

    This is cool yet random and kind of freaky at the same time: Skeletal Systems of Cartoon Characters.

    Animation was the format of choice for children’s television in the 1960s, a decade in which children’s programming became almost entirely animated. Growing up in that period, I tended to take for granted the distortions and strange bodies of these entities.

     

    I decided to take a select few of these popular characters and render their skeletal systems as I imagine they might resemble if one truly had eye sockets half the size of its head, or fingerless-hands, or feet comprising 60% of its body mass.

    I like Charlie Brown’s skeleton a lot, but nothing there is quite as alien and disturbing as Buttercup’s (the Powerpuff Girl) skeleton. And this is cool: “Twenty-two of these are currently on show at Stumptown Coffee/Belmont in Portland, Oregon the month of December 2004.” I wish I had time to see them since we’re in Portland right now, but oh well.

    Via Boing Boing.

  • The messed up world of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

    So, re-watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the kids this last week, made me realize just how long it had been since I’d last seen this special: not long enough.

    It’s been 40 years since it came out, and this might be blasphemy to say, but it really hasn’t aged well. The animation is terrible! And what a weird-ass story.

    And disturbing. The Island of Misfit Toys was weird enough, but get a load of the talking gun. Or the way Yukon Cornelius licks his pick-axe to check for gold. Or Santa—I get the feeling this version of Santa Claus would have no problem dining on venison.

    But the worst of all is how they deal with the Abominable Snow Monster. What I thought I remembered was that he was only mean because he had a bad tooth, and Hermie the Dental Elf fixed it for him. No! No, what really happens is Hermie pulls every one of his teeth out with pliers and then they all try to kill the newly-defanged Snow Monster. Holy shit!

    I think I preferred my nostalgic version. At least it was messed up in a good way.

  • Clusterballoon

    This is too insane not to link to: Ballooning into the Sky. This guy actually ties himself to a bunch of balloons and flies around. I smell a Darwin award!

    Via Slashdot.

  • Flesh Jacket

    Okay, this article on a living tissue jacket is just disturbing and yet darkly funny. Basically, some guys are literally growing a jacket from living tissue…

    Grown using a combination of mouse and human cells, the jacket is currently quite tiny (about 2 inches high and 1.4 inches wide) and would just fit a mouse….

     

    “One of the most common and somewhat surprising comments we heard was that people were disturbed by our ethics of using living cells to grow living fabric,” said Zurr, “while the use of leather obtained from animals seems to be accepted without any concern for the well-being of the animals from which the skin has been removed.”

    Hey, I’ll concede they have somewhat noble reasons for doing this, but hello? We’re talking about wearing jackets made from living human flesh. Um… Hannibal Lecter? Skinsuits? This guy? Ringing any bells?