Treebeard

Treebeard

[Found here.]

Update: I suspected that it might be a very good photoshop, but I was wrong. It’s a 65 year-old beech tree in Bulgaria. Via UK Daily Mail 1 June 2016:

Deyan Kossev, 49,  spotted the unusual tree when he was hiking through the forest, saying “nobody knows” why the trunk and branches have formed this way.

“I was walking through the mountains when suddenly I spotted him. I was speechless and stopped in my tracks. It was surreal, it looks exactly like a man does. It has the legs, arms, body and head of a man and they are all in proportion too.”

[Somewhat related posts here and here.]

Independence Day 1906

Independence Day 1906

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Read it in its entirety, and then read it to your children.

 
 
 

Manikins, Watermelons & Fireworks: A Deadly Mix

Proof that manikins have no business setting off fireworks. Jump to 01:00 for the splodeys.

Don’t shoot bottle rockets at each other’s eyes or hold exploding M-80s, kids, and definitely don’t lean over a firework that’s going to shoot into the air and explode [via].

They could at least have made it more realistic and scattered some empty beer cans around. Here’s one with an appropriate soundtrack from 2010:

The manikins recovered from their injuries (several times) but they never learn from their mistakes. This one’s from 2009:

[Above videos courtesy of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission.]

Meanwhile, this guy’s got some manikin blood in him.

Yeah, the explosion turned the lights on and changed his shirt, but so what. It’s still a classic.

Be sane tomorrow, and if you can’t manage that, at least be safe.

Saturday Matinee – Big Daddy, Big Daddy and Big Daddy

Big Daddy‘s take on Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” is pure awesome. Check out their mashup of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – you’ll love it. You might even be able to find a clean download somewhere before it’s gone (hint hint nudge nudge).

Then there’s this Big Daddy I never heard of. Pure brilliance happens within the first 60 seconds. See how long you can stand it before you click on

this. The Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Mugs mug too much, but their music is retrohot.

Nice drivin’ acoustic blues by Big Daddy Wilson, live at the Bluesmoose Café 14 March 2012, featuring
Big Daddy Wilson – vocal & percussion
Roberto Morbioli – Guitar
Detlef Blanke – Bass.

Whoa Mama! There’s a long weekend coming up. Have a great one, and be back here tomorrow if only because we told you to.

The .Gif Friday Post No. 441 – Sweded Pixar, Umbrella Strike & Capybara Rolling

PIXAR Sweded

Lightning Strike

Capybara Rolling

[Found here, here and here. Related sweded .gif in here.]

“It’s Art.” “It’s a model airplane and a rock.” “NO. IT’S ART.”

JimmieDurham-mandalsanat

Jimmie Durham did this.

“‘Some collide, some escape’: This was the title of a 2005 exhibition of works by Jimmie Durham that was held in a former cow barn belonging to Berlin’s Humboldt-Universität. The barn had been a site of agricultural research in the days of socialism.
…
Durham opened … with a vegetarian performance – he ate a flower – and, in the university cow barn, revealed his artistic cosmos. On display were an old toothbrush among rotten apples, medical instruments adorned with feathers, egg shells, bones, pelts and a good deal more.”

Durham’s also got a lot in common with Elizabeth Warren, Ward Churchill, Jamake Highwater, Diane Fisher & Andrea Smith (whoever they are) and Cher, who all claim Cherokee ancestry with no proof whatsoever, possibly because that’s the only Native American tribe they’ve heard of. In truth, they’re all members of of the two largest modern Indian nations, the Newager and the Wanabi.

To pursue, obtain and accept special perks and creds based upon something that might or might not have happened to your personal ancestors is specious at best, but to invent your genealogy in order to take advantage of those arguably racist programs and boons is not only unethical but fraudulent.

I despise liars more than thieves.

BTW, I am an Afro-Elbonian-Azteca-Swede-Erie-Scots-Mongolian-Slav-Inuit-Baboso-Haole-American. Bring it, chuchas.

[Image from here, top caption from here. Related posts here and here.]

“It’s Art.” “It’s a pile of bricks.” “NO. IT’S ART.”

Art Installation Carl Andre

In 1976 London there was some tabloid excitement about the Tate Museum’s tax-payer funded purchase and display of Carl Andre’s Equivalent VIII-a group of 120 bricks arranged in a rectangle.
 
The piece was originally part of an installation in New York in 1966. When no one bought the work at the time, the artist returned the bricks to the supplier. He had to obtain new bricks for the Tate. It reportedly cost the tax payers about $12,000.00, the equivalent of about $50,000.00 today.

[Image and caption from here, and yes, it’s a true story.]

 

Congratulations to the Class of 2016

Planet Of The Apes Forum

[Found at the University of California website.]

Father Michael, Row The Boat Ashore

Michael Row The Boat Ashore Live

[Found here, and yes, we discussed it at length yesterday when you weren’t paying attention.]

Positive Negative Hot Links

Kilroy as a parallel LC circuit or band-stop filter

Ultra-High Speed photography .gifs are ultra-slow to load, but they’re worth the wait.

Johnny Ramone’s tee shirt.

Interesting essay on the existence and non-existence of the FBI Files on cartoonist Walk Kelly. [Related post here.]

“Michael row de boat ashore, Hallelujah!” Earliest known published lyrics of that song date to 1867 and were written in dialect. It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned St. Helena Island prior to the arrival of the Union navy. [Wiki]

Gullah is still spoken on St. Helena Island. It’s a creole language.

B̕͝ro̸̡ḱe̴͞n̢ ̶͟c̡u͢͞b̨e̵̸̢.

Squirrel painlessly removes girl’s tooth. TRUE.

The Queen’s Green Screen.

[Top image: A parallel LC circuit or band-stop filter. Image found here, via here.]