Devil's Tower, More than a Laccolith?

While there is only one result on Flickr for Devils Twoer there are 8,511 for Devil's Tower. Elsewhere you can find a nice close up of the igneous intrusion and some eerie photos from a rainy day visit to the tower. There's also a nice view looking almost straight up the tower and there is also some discussion about Devil's tower as possibly being a laccolith. The tower also shows up on lots of climbing blogs, such as this cool climb to the top.

Weird Fruit: Mostly Spiky, Sometimes Sweet

Weird fruit, like inflatable animals, takes you places. There are strangely shaped lemons and strawberries. Then there are Buddha's hand citrons from Bakersfield and tamarillos.



There's weird fruit photographed in Bangkok supermarkets, ‘Ang Moh’ lychee, dragon fruit, Bruneian pears, lucuma, "Kiwano" or African horned melon, and phat thu. There's also monstera deliciosa, which apparently contains oxalic acid.

As for the durian, wouldn't it be something if the plural was durian durian.

Inflatable Menagerie

Inflatable lions and inflatable tigers and inflatable bears - inflatable oh my!

Every time I do a thumbtacks post it ends up in strange places.

Like the adult toy inflatable cow - of which we shall not link to here.

But holy zealous sports fans, blogs hiding advertising for pool toys, kid blogs and the stray wisenheimer - inflatable animals are quite the unifying thread for searching the web.

There are inflatable cows with 'more cowbell' on their ends, videos of giant home-made inflatable cats, bizarre photos of people named James kissing inflatable sheep, 6 foot tall green inflatable dolphins, and candy eating inflatable sharks.

Shrigley's Cat

David Shrigley has some pieces in the 2008 Carnegie International in Pittsburgh.

One of the works is a stuffed kitten holding a sign "I'm Dead".

The gallery guide describes this work as "an ironic yet tender work bordering on the grotesque".

As a good a description as any I suppose.

More on David Shrigley elsewhere.



Nothing complicated but sometimes clever.

Louise Bourgeois & Longevity

Giant spiders loom overhead.

Bulbous smooth forms descend.

Metal, stone, fabric and drawings.

All spanning decades.

At 96 years, Louise Bourgeois is proof that art is different. There may be other writers, athletes, actresses, and software programmers that are approaching 100 years old and still busy with their life's work - but I'm not aware of them.


From a childhood in France, to decades in New York, to international exhibits in the past few years. Louise Bourgeois has created and continues to create some unique works. Gender, memory, nature, deformation and connection. Headless, armless and legless figures lurk and writhe. Creepy and, in context, impressive.

Art may be a garrunty of sanity but one can't help but wonder of in the case of Louise Bourgeois art might also be a garrunty of longevity.

Ninja Kick

Ninjas kicking pirates? One baseball player ninja kicking another baseball player? Ninjas in Texas? Original art, warning icons for vending machines and videos? The ninja kick unites them all. The initial survey reveals 11 of 15 ninjas prefer to use their right leg to do their damage.

Lots and Lots of Tessera

Roman mosaics, with their geometric patterns, their scenes from life and their fantastic creatures, were made of lots of tessera. Lots and lots of tessera. These mosaics make one see the value of patience and appreciate the unanticipated legacy of just wanting to have a durable and decorative floor covering. What's the story with the man with the chicken head? What is it about the look on the donkey's face? Large eyes abound, as do straight noses, radial patterns and the colors white, black and red. Orpheus, Medusa, Bacchus, female centaurs (not included) and more are all there. Fragmented pieces of fragmented stories.

Mullet, Mullet, Mullet

A lawyer with a mullet walks into a bar. He sits down and orders a beer. A blonde walks in... you know the rest of the joke.

Anyways, mullets have been a recent subject of discussion.

They are iconic. Despite the flack they are also proud. And searching for mullets one finds a few recurrent instances. The Platonic ideal mullet casting its shadow on the wall of the cave that is the internets. One example may be too greasy while another is too frizzy. One example may be too stringy while another is too tight. Blonde, brunette, balding and more there is an ideal. But it's tiring to search for. And vaguely disturbing.

What does it mean that there are mullet wigs? Mullet chia? Mullet videos watched by tens of thousands of people? Mullet web sites and mullet spam? Mullet strategy and mulletbaiting?

Voronoi Graphs, Patches, Cells and a Shelf

Voronoi diagrams are useful. They also look cool. Voronoi digrams are also useful for computing the area of big things, like Antartica. They also are related to metric trees, have been used in groovy interactive projects about personal space, have been used to create some cool portraits and can be computed on grids or spheres.

Smith is Part Bull, Part Lobster

The new Bloc Party video for Mercury is a bit of a departure from previous videos like the Donnie Darkoish The Prayer and the train filled I Still Remember. In Mercury, bottom right below, a scheming group of monkeys use remote control to create a bull with a lobster arm, called Smith. As the video progresses Smith leads a programmed life and becomes president where he goes on to invade a country to get it's bananas. Scheming monkeys rejoice. Nothing subtle and also kind of disjoint from the lyrics. Certainly not monsters fighting each other while smashing a barely fake model city.

Ammonites, the Fossils not the Tribe

Ammonites are an extinct group of mollusks. They range in size, location and color. They take their name from their spiral shape which resembles a ram's horn, a distinct feature of the Egyptian god Ammon. These days they show up in jewelry, sidewalks and even sinks. They have been mentioned in connection with Kudos and Kang and have even provided musical inspiration.

Sarah Palin Pictures

Sarah Palin has shown international experience when she worked to renew the Alaska-Yukon accord, although one wonders if in Canada they call it the Yukon-Alaska accord. She has also traveled internationally to visit Alaskans in Kuwait, although it's unclear if she saw any Alaskans in Ireland. Going back to the days when marijuana was legal in Alaska, Sarah knows from first hand experience that she does not like it. These days it seems likely that not only is Sarah not flat busted, she is also probably not broke. Sarah also has proven ability to restore "trust' in Alaska's oil and gas industries and is keen to complete the pipeline to bring more Alaskan oil to the other 298,728,431 Americans. She has strong support from Alaskans of Viking descent and is an expert on ice sculptures. She is also an ice cream eating, former basketball player that relishes a chance to pose with a family member over a recently slaughtered moose.

Cellular Automata: Calculation and Decoration

Cellular automata show up lots of places - in technical publications and on tea cozy's. Unfortunately there weren't any groovy visualizations for quantum dot cellular automata out there on the web but the range of 2D, spherical and MSG examples are pretty nifty complements to the bromeliads, snowflakes and zebra markings.

McCain and Bush Have a Plans

From cake to hugs to sharing a joke or a microphone it's something to see how close McCain and Bush have come over the years...