Blog Plus Ultra

Women We Love (Part 1) Cynthia McKinney

2008-02-06T23:17:00.000-06:00

Congratulations to Cynthia McKinney for being the first woman chosen by Plus Ultra as a "Woman We Love"! This is a big day. But why McKinney? Just who is this McKinney? Esquire magazine has Jessica Biel, Angelina Jolie, Gisele Bundchen, Britney Spears, Jennifer Love Hewitt, etc, etc. What has Cynthia McKinney ever accomplished compared with the likes of a Jennifer Love Hewitt or Jessica Biel? Well, we are glad you asked! Please check out the videos below or vist the unpartisan news website; "www.runcynthiarun.org" to find out more about this modern American Hero!

Whatever Happened to...Shaun Ryder?

2008-02-03T23:19:00.000-06:00

Hip-Hop Freestyles

2008-02-01T01:28:00.000-06:00

"Teddy" a story by J. D. Salinger

2008-01-23T19:20:00.000-06:00

Teddy
By J. D. Salinger Originally Published in The New Yorker, January 31, 1953
From J. D. Salinger Uncollected Writings / Freeweb

I'LL EXQUISITE DAY you, buddy, if you don't get down off that bag this minute. And I mean it," Mr. McArdle said. He was speaking from the inside twin bed--the bed farther away from the porthole. Viciously, with more of a whimper than a sigh, he foot-pushed his top sheet clear of his ankles, as though any kind of coverlet was suddenly too much for his sunburned, debilitated-looking body to bear. He was lying supine, in just the trousers of his pajamas, a lighted cigarette in his right hand. His head was propped up just enough to rest uncomfortably, almost masochistically, against the very base of the headboard. His pillow and ashtray were both on the floor, between his and Mrs. McArdle's bed. Without raising his body, he reached out a nude, inflamed-pink, right arm and flicked his ashes in the general direction of the night table. "October, for God's sake," he said. "If this is October weather, gimme August." He turned his head to the right again, toward Teddy, looking for trouble. "C'mon," he said. "What the hell do you think I'm talking for? My health? Get down off there, please." Teddy was standing on the broadside of a new looking cowhide Gladstone, the better to see out of his parents' open porthole. He was wearing extremely dirty, white ankle-sneakers, no socks, seersucker shorts that were both too long for him and at least a size too large in the seat, an overly laundered T shirt that had a hole the size of a dime in the right shoulder, and an incongruously handsome, black alligator belt. He needed a haircut--especially at the nape of the neck--the worst way, as only a small boy with an almost full-grown head and a reedlike neck can need one.

"Teddy, did you hear me?"

Teddy was not leaning out of the porthole quite so far or so precariously as small boys are apt to lean out of open portholes--both his feet, in fact, were flat on the surface of the Gladstone--but neither was he just conservatively well-tipped; his face was considerably more outside than inside the cabin. Nonetheless, he was well within hearing of his father's voice--his father's voice, that is, most singularly. Mr. McArdle played leading roles on no fewer than three daytime radio serials when he was in New York, and he had what might be called a third-class leading man's speaking voice: narcissistically deep and resonant, functionally prepared at a moment's notice to outmale anyone in the same room with it, if necessary even a small boy. When it was on vacation from its professional chores, it fell, as a rule, alternately in love with sheer volume and a theatrical brand of quietness-steadiness. Right now, volume was in order. "Teddy. God damn it--did you hear me?"

Teddy turned around at the waist, without changing the vigilant position of his feet on the Gladstone, and gave his father a look of inquiry, whole and pure. His eyes, which were pale brown in color, and not at all large, were slightly crossed--the left eye more than the right. They were not crossed enough to be disfiguring, or even to be necessarily noticeable at first glance. They were crossed just enough to be mentioned, and only in context with the fact that one might have thought long and seriously before wishing them straighter, or deeper, or browner, or wider set. His face, just as it was, carried the impact, however oblique and slow-travelling, of real beauty.

"I want you to get down off that bag, now. How many times do you want me to tell you?" Mr. McArdle said.

"Stay exactly where you are, darling," said Mrs. McArdle, who evidently had a little trouble with her sinuses early in the morning. Her eyes were open, but only just. "Don't move the tiniest part of an inch." She was lying on her right side, her face, on the pillow, turned left, toward Teddy and the porthole, her back to her husband. Her second sheet was drawn tight over her very probably nude body, enclosing her, arms and all, up to the chin. "Jump up and down," she said, and closed her eyes. "Crush Daddy's bag."

"That's a Jesus-brilliant thing to say," Mr. McArdle said quietly-steadily, addressing the back of his wife's head. "I pay twenty-two pounds for a bag, and I ask the boy civilly not to stand on it, and you tell him to jump up and down on it. What's that supposed to be? Funny?"

"If that bag can't support a ten-year-old boy, who's thirteen pounds underweight for his age, I don't want it in my cabin," Mrs. McArdle said, without opening her eyes.

"You know what I'd like to do?" Mr. McArdle said. "I'd like to kick your goddam head open."

"Why don't you?"

Mr. McArdle abruptly propped himself up on one elbow and squashed out his cigarette stub on the glass top of the night table. "One of these days--" he began grimly.

"One of these days, you're going to have a tragic, tragic heart attack," Mrs. McArdle said, with a minimum of energy. Without bringing her arms into the open, she drew her top sheet more tightly around and under her body. "There'll be a small, tasteful funeral, and everybody's going to ask who that attractive woman in the red dress is, sitting there in the first row, flirting with the organist and making a holy--"

"You're so goddam funny it isn't even funny," Mr. McArdle said, lying inertly on his back again.

During this little exchange, Teddy had faced around and resumed looking out of the porthole. "We passed the Queen Mary at three-thirty-two this morning, going the other way, if anybody's interested," he said slowly. "Which I doubt." His voice was oddly and beautifully rough cut, as some small boys' voices are. Each of his phrasings was rather like a little ancient island, inundated by a miniature sea of whiskey. "That deck steward Booper despises had it on his blackboard."

"I'll Queen Mary you, buddy, if you don't get off that bag this minute," his father said. He turned his head toward Teddy. "Get down from there, now. Go get yourself a haircut or something." He looked at the back of his wife's head again. "He looks precocious, for God's sake."

"I haven't any money," Teddy said. He placed his hands more securely on the sill of the porthole, and lowered his chin onto the backs of his fingers. "Mother. You know that man who sits right next to us in the dining room? Not the very thin one. The other one, at the same table. Right next to where our waiter puts his tray down."

"Mm-hmm," Mrs. McArdle said. "Teddy. Darling. Let Mother sleep just five minutes more, like a sweet boy."

"Wait just a second. This is quite interesting," Teddy said, without raising his chin from its resting place and without taking his eyes off the ocean. "He was in the gym a little while ago, while Sven was weighing me. He came up and started talking to me. He heard that last tape I made. Not the one in April. The one in May. He was at a party in Boston just before he went to Europe, and somebody at the party knew somebody in the Leidekker examining group--he didn't say who--and they borrowed that last tape I made and played it at the party. He seems very interested in it. He's a friend of Professor Babcock's. Apparently he's a teacher himself. He said he was at Trinity College in Dublin, all summer."

"Oh?" said Mrs. McArdle. "At a party they played it?" She lay gazing sleepily at the backs of Teddy's legs.

"I guess so," Teddy said. "He told Sven quite a bit about me, right while I was standing there. It was rather embarrassing."

"Why should it be embarrassing?"

Teddy hesitated. "I said `rather' embarrassing. I qualified it."

"I'll qualify you, buddy, if you don't get the hell off that bag," Mr. McArdle said. He had just lit a fresh cigarette. "I'm going to count three. One, God damn it ... Two.. ."

"What time is it?" Mrs. McArdle suddenly asked the backs of Teddy's legs. "Don't you and Booper have a swimming lesson at ten-thirty?"

"We have time," Teddy said. "--Vloom!" He suddenly thrust his whole head out of the porthole, kept it there a few seconds, then brought it in just long enough to report, "Someone just dumped a whole garbage can of orange peels out the window."

"Out the window. Out the window," Mr. McArdle said sarcastically, flicking his ashes. "Out the porthole, buddy, out the porthole." He glanced over at his wife. "Call Boston. Quick, get the Leidekker examining group on the phone."

"Oh, you're such a brilliant wit," Mrs. McArdle said. "Why do you try?"

Teddy took in most of his head. "They float very nicely," he said without turning around. "That's interesting."

"Teddy. For the last time. I'm going to count three, and then I'm-"

"I don't mean it's interesting that they float," Teddy said. "It's interesting that I know about them being there. If I hadn't seen them, then I wouldn't know they were there, and if I didn't know they were there, I wouldn't be able to say that they even exist. That's a very nice, perfect example of the way--"

"Teddy," Mrs. McArdle interrupted, without visibly stirring under her top sheet. "Go find Booper for me. Where is she? I don't want her lolling around in that sun again today, with that bum."

"She's adequately covered. I made her wear her dungarees," Teddy said. "Some of them are starting to sink now. In a few minutes, the only place they'll still be floating will be inside my mind. That's quite interesting, because if you look at it a certain way, that's where they started floating in the first place. If I'd never been standing here at all, or if somebody'd come along and sort of chopped my head off right while I was--"

"Where is she now?" Mrs. McArdle asked. "Look at Mother a minute, Teddy."

Teddy turned and looked at his mother. "What?" he said.

"Where's Booper now? I don't want her meandering all around the deck chairs again, bothering people. If that awful man--"

"She's all right. I gave her the camera."

Mr. McArdle lurched up on one arm. "You gave her the cameral" he said. "What the hell's the idea? My goddam Leica! I'm not going to have a six-year-old child gallivanting all over--"

"I showed her how to hold it so she won't drop it," Teddy said. "And I took the film out, naturally."

"I want that camera, Teddy. You hear me? I want you to get down off that bag this minute, and I want that camera back in this room in five minutes--or there's going to be one little genius among the missing. Is that clear?"

Teddy turned his feet around on the Gladstone, and stepped down. He bent over and tied the lace of his left sneaker while his father, still raised up on one elbow, watched him like a monitor.

"Tell Booper I want her," Mrs. McArdle said. "And give Mother a kiss."

Finished tying his sneaker lace, Teddy perfunctorily gave his mother a kiss on the cheek. She in turn brought her left arm out from under the sheet, as if bent on encircling Teddy's waist with it, but by the time she had got it out from under, Teddy had moved on. He had come around the other side and entered the space between the two beds. He stooped, and stood up with his father's pillow under his left arm and the glass ashtray that belonged on the night table in his right hand. Switching the ashtray over to his left hand, he went up to the night table and, with the edge of his right hand, swept his father's cigarette stubs and ashes into the ashtray. Then, before putting the ashtray back where it belonged, he used the under side of his forearm to wipe off the filmy wake of ashes from the glass top of the table. He wiped off his forearm on his seersucker shorts. Then he placed the ashtray on the glass top, with a world of care, as if he believed an ashtray should be dead-centered on the surface of a night table or not placed at all. At that point, his father, who had been watching him, abruptly gave up watching him. "Don't you want your pillow?" Teddy asked him.

"I want that camera, young man."

"You can't be very comfortable in that position. It isn't possible," Teddy said. "I'll leave it right here." He placed the pillow on the foot of the bed, clear of his father's feet. He started out of the cabin.

"Teddy," his mother said, without turning over. "Tell Booper I want to see her before her swimming lesson."

"Why don't you leave the kid alone?" Mr. McArdle asked. "You seem to resent her having a few lousy minutes' freedom. You know how you treat her? I'll tell you exactly how you treat her. You treat her like a bloomin' criminal."

"Bloomin'! Oh, that's cute! You're getting so English, lover."

Teddy lingered for a moment at the door, reflectively experimenting with the door handle, turning it slowly left and right. "After I go out this door, I may only exist in the minds of all my acquaintances," he said. "I may be an orange peel."

"What, darling?" Mrs. McArdle asked from across the cabin, still lying on her right side.

"Let's get on the ball, buddy. Let's get that Leica down here."

"Come give Mother a kiss. A nice, big one."

"Not right now," Teddy said absently. "I'm tired." He closed the door behind him.

The ship's daily newspaper lay just outside the doorsill. It was a single sheet of glossy paper, with printing on just one side. Teddy picked it up and began to read it as he started slowly aft down the long passageway. From the opposite end, a huge, blond woman in a starched white uniform was coming toward him, carrying a vase of long-stemmed, red roses. As she passed Teddy, she put out her left hand and grazed the top of his head with it, saying, "Somebody needs a haircut!" Teddy passively looked up from his newspaper, but the woman had passed, and he didn't look back. He went on reading. At the end of the passageway, before an enormous mural of Saint George and the Dragon over the staircase landing, he folded the ship's newspaper into quarters and put it into his left hip pocket. He then climbed the broad, shallow, carpeted steps up to Main Deck, one flight up. He took two steps at a time, but slowly, holding on to the banister, putting his whole body into it, as if the act of climbing a flight of stairs was for him, as it is for many children, a moderately pleasurable end in itself. At the Main Deck landing, he went directly over to the Purser's desk, where a good-looking girl in naval uniform was presiding at the moment. She was stapling some mimeographed sheets of paper together.

"Can you tell me what time that game starts today, please?" Teddy asked her.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Can you tell me what time that game starts today?" The girl gave him a lipsticky smile. "What game, honey?" she asked.

"You know. That word game they had yesterday and the day before, where you're supposed to supply the missing words. It's mostly that you have to put everything in context."

The girl held off fitting three sheets of paper between the planes of her stapler. "Oh," she said. "Not till late afternoon, I believe. I believe it's around four o'clock. Isn't that a little over your head, dear?"

"No, it isn't ... Thank you," Teddy said, and started to leave.

"Wait a minute, honey! What's your name?"

"Theodore McArdle," Teddy said. "What's yours?"

"My name?" said the girl, smiling. "My name's Ensign Mathewson."

Teddy watched her press down on her stapler. "I knew you were an ensign," he said. "I'm not sure, but I believe when somebody asks your name you're supposed to say your whole name. Jane Mathewson, or Phyllis Mathewson, or whatever the case may be."

"Oh, really?"

"As I say, I think so," Teddy said. "I'm not sure, though. It may be different if you're in uniform. Anyway, thank you for the information. Goodbye!" He turned and took the stairs up to the Promenade Deck, again two at a time, but this time as if in rather a hurry.

He found Booper, after some extensive looking, high up on the Sports Deck. She was in a sunny clearing--a glade, almost--between two deck-tennis courts that were not in use. In a squatting position, with the sun at her back and a light breeze riffling her silky, blond hair, she was busily piling twelve or fourteen shuffleboard discs into two tangent stacks, one for the black discs, one for the red. A very small boy, in a cotton sun suit, was standing close by, on her right, purely in an observer's capacity. "Look!" Booper said commandingly to her brother as he approached. She sprawled forward and surrounded the two stacks of shuffleboard discs with her arms to show off her accomplishment, to isolate it from whatever else was aboard ship. "Myron," she said hostilely, addressing her companion, "you're making it all shadowy, so my brother can't see. Move your carcass." She shut her eyes and waited, with a cross-bearing grimace, till Myron moved.

Teddy stood over the two stacks of discs and looked down appraisingly at them. "That's very nice," he said. "Very symmetrical."

"This guy," Booper said, indicating Myron, "never even heard of backgammon. They don't even have one."

Teddy glanced briefly, objectively, at Myron. "Listen," he said to Booper. "Where's the camera? Daddy wants it right away."

"He doesn't even live in New York," Booper informed Teddy. "And his father's dead. He was killed in Korea." She turned to Myron. "Wasn't he?" she demanded, but without waiting for a response. "Now if his mother dies, he'll be an orphan. He didn't even know that." She looked at Myron. "Did you?"

Myron, non-committal, folded his arms.

"You're the stupidest person I ever met," Booper said to him. "You're the stupidest person in this ocean. Did you know that?"

"He is not," Teddy said. "You are not, Myron." He addressed his sister: "Give me your attention a second. Where's the camera? I have to have it immediately. Where is it?"

"Over there," Booper said, indicating no direction at all. She drew her two stacks of shuffleboard discs in closer to her. "All I need now is two giants," she said. "They could play backgammon till they got all tired and then they could climb up on that smokestack and throw these at everybody and kill them." She looked at Myron. "They could kill your parents," she said to him knowledgeably. "And if that didn't kill them, you know what you could do? You could put some poison on some marshmellows and make them eat it."

The Leica was about ten feet away, next to the white railing that surrounded the Sports Deck. It lay in the drain gully, on its side. Teddy went over and picked it up by its strap and hung it around his neck. Then, immediately, he took it off. He took it over to Booper. "Booper, do me a favor. You take it down, please," he said. "It's ten o'clock. I have to write in my diary."

"I'm busy."

"Mother wants to see you right away, anyway," Teddy said.

"You're a liar."

"I'm not a liar. She does," Teddy said. "So please take this down with you when you go . . . C'mon, Booper."

"What's she want to see me for?" Booper demanded. "I don't want to see her." She suddenly struck Myron's hand, which was in the act of picking off the top shuffleboard disc from the red stack. "Hands off," she said.

Teddy hung the strap attached to the Leica around her neck. "I'm serious, now. Take this down to Daddy right away, and then I'll see you at the pool later on," he said. "I'll meet you right at the pool at ten-thirty. Or right outside that place where you change your clothes. Be on time, now. It's way down on E Deck, don't forget, so leave yourself plenty of time." He turned, and left.

"I hate you! I hate everybody in this ocean!" Booper called after him.

Below the Sports Deck, on the broad, after end of the Sun Deck, uncompromisingly alfresco, were some seventy-five or more deck chairs, set up and aligned seven or eight rows deep, with aisles just wide enough for the deck steward to use without unavoidably tripping over the sunning passengers' paraphernalia knitting bags, dust-jacketed novels, bottles of sun-tan lotion, cameras. The area was crowded when Teddy arrived. He started at the rearmost row and moved methodically, from row to row, stopping at each chair, whether or not it was occupied, to read the name placard on its arm. Only one or two of the reclining passengers spoke to him--that is, made any of the commonplace pleasantries adults are sometimes prone to make to a ten-year-old boy who is single-mindedly looking for the chair that belongs to him. His youngness and single-mindedness were obvious enough, but perhaps his general demeanor altogether lacked, or had too little of, that sort of cute solemnity that many adults readily speak up, or down, to. His clothes may have had something to do with it, too. The hole in the shoulder of his T shirt was not a cute hole. The excess material in the seat of his seersucker shorts, the excess length of the shorts themselves, were not cute excesses.

The McArdles' four deck chairs, cushioned and ready for occupancy, were situated in the middle of the second row from the front. Teddy sat down in one of them so that--whether or not it was his intention--no one was sitting directly on either side of him. He stretched out his bare, unsuntanned legs, feet together, on the leg rest, and, almost simultaneously, took a small, ten-cent notebook out of his right hip pocket. Then, with instantly one-pointed concentration, as if only he and the notebook existed--no sunshine, no fellow passengers, no ship--,he began to turn the pages.

With the exception of a very few pencil notations, the entries in the notebook had apparently all been made with a ball-point pen. The handwriting itself was manuscript style, such as is currently being taught in American schools, instead of the old, Palmer method. It was legible without being pretty-pretty. The flow was what was remarkable about the handwriting. In no sense--no mechanical sense, at any rate--did the words and sentences look as though they had been written by a child.

Teddy gave considerable reading time to what looked like his most recent entry. It covered a little more than three pages:

Diary for October 27, 1952
Property of Theodore McArdle
412 A Deck

Appropriate and pleasant reward if finder promptly returns to Theodore McArdle.

See if you can find daddy's army dog tags and wear them whenever possible. It won't kill you and he will like it.

Answer Professor Mandell's letter when you get a chance and the patience. Ask him not to send me any more poetry books. I already have enough for 1 year anyway. I am quite sick of it anyway. A man walks along the beach and unfortunately gets hit in the head by a cocoanut. His head unfortunately cracks open in two halves. Then his wife comes along the beach singing a song and sees the 2 halves and recognizes them and picks them up. She gets very sad of course and cries heart breakingly. That is exactly where I am tired of poetry. Supposing the lady just picks up the 2 halves and shouts into them very angrily "Stop that!" Do not mention this when you answer his letter, however. It is quite controversial and Mrs. Mandell is a poet besides.

Get Sven's address in Elizabeth, New Jersey. It would be interesting to meet his wife, also his dog Lindy. However, I would not like to own a dog myself.

Write condolence letter to Dr. Wokawara about his nephritis. Get his new address from mother.

Try the sports deck for meditation tomorrow morning before breakfast but do not lose consciousness. Also do not lose consciousness in the dining room if that waiter drops that big spoon again. Daddy was quite furious.

Words and expressions to look up in library tomorrow when you return the books--

Nephritis
myriad
gift horse
cunning
triumvirate

Be nicer to librarian. Discuss some general things with him when he gets kittenish.

Teddy abruptly took out a small, bullet-shaped, ballpoint pen from the side pocket of his shorts, uncapped it, and began to write. He used his right thigh as a desk, instead of the chair arm.

Diary for October 28, 1952

Same address and reward as written on October 26 and 27, 1952.

I wrote letters to the following persons after meditation this morning.

Dr. Wokawara
Professor Mandell
Professor Peet
Burgess Hake, Jr.
Roberta Hake
Sanford Hake
Grandma Hake
Mr. Graham
Professor Walton

I could have asked mother where daddy's dog tags are but she would probably say I don't have to wear them. I know he has them with him because I saw him pack them.

Life is a gift horse in my opinion.

I think it is very tasteless of Professor Walton to criticize my parents. He wants people to be a certain way.

It will either happen today or February 14, 1955 when I am sixteen. It is ridiculous to mention even.

After making this last entry, Teddy continued to keep his attention on the page and his ball-point pen poised, as though there were more to come.

He apparently was unaware that he had a lone interested observer. About fifteen feet forwardship from the first row of deck chairs, and eighteen or twenty rather sun-blinding feet overhead, a young man was steadily watching him from the Sports Deck railing. This had been going on for some ten minutes. It was evident that the young man was now reaching some sort of decision, for he abruptly took his foot down from the railing. He stood for a moment, still looking in Teddy's direction, then walked away, out of sight. Not a minute later, though, he turned up, obtrusively vertical, among the deck-chair ranks. He was about thirty, or younger. He directly started to make his way down-aisle toward Teddy's chair, casting distracting little shadows over the pages of people's novels and stepping rather uninhibitedly (considering that his was the only standing, moving figure in sight) over knitting bags and other personal effects.

Teddy seemed oblivious of the fact that someone was standing at the foot of his chair--or, for that matter, casting a shadow over his notebook. A few people in the row or two behind him, however, were more distractible. They looked up at the young man as, perhaps, only people in deck chairs can look up at someone. The young man had a kind of poise about him, though, that looked as though it might hold up indefinitely, with the very small proviso that he keep at least one hand in one pocket. "Hello, there!" he said to Teddy.

Teddy looked up. "Hello," he said. He partly closed his notebook, partly let it close by itself.

"Mind if I sit down a minute?" the young man asked, with what seemed to be unlimited cordiality. "This anybody's chair?"

"Well, these four chairs belong to my family," Teddy said. "But my parents aren't up yet."

"Not up? On a day like this," the young man said. He had already lowered himself into the chair at Teddy's right. The chairs were placed so close together that the arms touched. "That's sacrilege," he said. "Absolute sacrilege." He stretched out his legs, which were unusually heavy at the thighs, almost like human bodies in themselves. He was dressed, for the most part, in Eastern seaboard regimentals: a turf haircut on top, run-down brogues on the bottom, with a somewhat mixed uniform in between--buff-colored woolen socks, charcoal-gray trousers, a button-down-collar shirt, no necktie, and a herringbone jacket that looked as though it had been properly aged in some of the more popular postgraduate seminars at Yale, or Harvard, or Princeton. "Oh, God, what a divine day," he said appreciatively, squinting up at the sun. "I'm an absolute pawn when it comes to the weather." He crossed his heavy legs, at the ankles. "As a matter of fact, I've been known to take a perfectly normal rainy day as a personal insult. So this is absolute manna to me." Though his speaking voice was, in the usual connotation, well bred, it carried considerably more than adequately, as though he had some sort of understanding with himself that anything he had to say would sound pretty much all right--intelligent, literate, even amusing or stimulating--either from Teddy's vantage point or from that of the people in the row behind, if they were listening. He looked obliquely down at Teddy, and smiled. "How are you and the weather?" he asked. His smile was not unpersonable, but it was social, or conversational, and related back, however indirectly, to his own ego. "The weather ever bother you out of all sensible proportion?" he asked, smiling.

"I don't take it too personal, if that's what you mean," Teddy said.

The young man laughed, letting his head go back. "Wonderful," he said. "My name, incidentally, is Bob Nicholson. I don't know if we quite got around to that in the gym. I know your name, of course."

Teddy shifted his weight over to one hip and stashed his notebook in the side pocket of his shorts.

"I was watching you write--from way up there," Nicholson said, narratively, pointing. "Good Lord. You were working away like a little Trojan."

Teddy looked at him. "I was writing something in my notebook."

Nicholson nodded, smiling. "How was Europe?" he asked conversationally. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes, very much, thank you."

"Where all did you go?"

Teddy suddenly reached forward and scratched the calf of his leg. "Well, it would take me too much time to name all the places, because we took our car and drove fairly great distances." He sat back. "My mother and I were mostly in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Oxford, England, though. I think I told you in the gym I had to be interviewed at both those places. Mostly the University of Edinburgh."

"No, I don't believe you did," Nicholson said. "I was wondering if you'd done anything like that. How'd it go? They grill you?"

"I beg your pardon?" Teddy said.

"How'd it go? Was it interesting?"

"At times, yes. At times, no," Teddy said. "We stayed a little bit too long. My father wanted to get back to New York a little sooner than this ship. But some people were coming over from Stockholm, Sweden, and Innsbruck, Austria, to meet me, and we had to wait around."

"It's always that way."

Teddy looked at him directly for the first time. "Are you a poet?" he asked.

"A poet?" Nicholson said. "Lord, no. Alas, no. Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They're always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions."

Nicholson, smiling, reached into his jacket pocket and took out cigarettes and matches. "I rather thought that was their stock in trade," he said. "Aren't emotions what poets are primarily concerned with?"

Teddy apparently didn't hear him, or wasn't listening. He was looking abstractedly toward, or over, the twin smokestacks up on the Sports Deck.

Nicholson got his cigarette lit, with some difficulty, for there was a light breeze blowing from the north. He sat back, and said, "I understand you left a pretty disturbed bunch--"

" `Nothing in the voice of the cicada intimates how soon it will die,' " Teddy said suddenly. "'Along this road goes no one, this autumn eve."'

"What was that?" Nicholson asked, smiling. "Say that again."

"Those are two Japanese poems. They're not full of a lot of emotional stuff," Teddy said. He sat forward abruptly, tilted his head to the right, and gave his right ear a light clap with his hand. "I still have some water in my ear from my swimming lesson yesterday," he said. He gave his ear another couple of claps, then sat back, putting his arms up on both armrests. It was, of course, a normal, adult-size deck chair, and he looked distinctly small in it, but at the same time, he looked perfectly relaxed, even serene.

"I understand you left a pretty disturbed bunch of pedants up at Boston," Nicholson said, watching him. "After that last little set-to. The whole Leidekker examining group, more or less, the way I understand it. I believe I told you I had rather a long chat with Al Babcock last June. Same night, as, a matter of fact, I heard your tape played off."

"Yes, you did. You told me."

"I understand they were a pretty disturbed bunch," Nicholson pressed. "From What Al told me, you all had quite a little lethal bull session late one night--the same night you made that tape, I believe." He took a drag on his cigarette. "From what I gather, you made some little predictions that disturbed the boys no end. Is that right?"

"I wish I knew why people think it's so important to be emotional," Teddy said. "My mother and father don't think a person's human unless he thinks a lot of things are very sad or very annoying or very-very unjust, sort of. My father gets very emotional even when he reads the newspaper. He thinks I'm inhuman."

Nicholson flicked his cigarette ash off to one side. "I take it you have no emotions?" he said.

Teddy reflected before answering. "If I do, I don't remember when I ever used them," he said. "I don't see what they're good for."

"You love God, don't you?" Nicholson asked, with a little excess of quietness. "Isn't that your forte, so to speak? From what I heard on that tape and from what Al Babcock--"

"Yes, sure, I love Him. But I don't love Him sentimentally. He never said anybody had to love Him sentimentally," Teddy said. "If I were God, I certainly wouldn't want people to love me sentimentally. It's too unreliable."

"You love your parents, don't you?"

"Yes, I do--very much," Teddy said, "but you want to make me use that word to mean what you want it to mean--I can tell."

"All right. In what sense do you want to use it?"

Teddy thought it over. "You know what the word `affinity' means?" he asked, turning to Nicholson.

"I have a rough idea," Nicholson said dryly.

"I have a very strong affinity for them. They're my parents, I mean, and we're all part of each other's harmony and everything," Teddy said. "I want them to have a nice time while they're alive, because they like having a nice time . . . But they don't love me and Booper--that's my sister--that way. I mean they don't seem able to love us just the way we are. They don't seem able to love us unless they can keep changing us a little bit. They love their reasons for loving us almost as much as they love us, and most of the time more. It's not so good, that way." He turned toward Nicholson again, sitting slightly forward. "Do you have the time, please?" he asked. "I have a swimming lesson at ten-thirty."

"You have time," Nicholson said without first looking at his wrist watch. He pushed back his cuff. "It's just ten after ten," he said.

"Thank you," Teddy said, and sat back. "We can enjoy our conversation for about ten more minutes." Nicholson let one leg drop over the side of the deck chair, leaned forward, and stepped on his cigarette end. "As I understand it," he said, sitting back, "you hold pretty firmly to the Vedantic theory of reincarnation."

"It isn't a theory, it's as much a part--"

"All right," Nicholson said quickly. He smiled, and gently raised the flats of his hands, in a sort of ironic benediction. "We won't argue that point, for the moment. Let me finish." He crossed his heavy, outstretched legs again. "From what I gather, you've acquired certain information, through meditation, that's given you some conviction that in your last incarnation you were a holy man in India, but more or less fell from Grace-"

"I wasn't a holy man," Teddy said. "I was just a person making very nice spiritual advancement."

"All right--whatever it was," Nicholson said. "But the point is you feel that in your last incarnation you more or less fell from Grace before final Illumination. Is that right, or am I--"

"That's right," Teddy said. "I met a lady, and I sort of stopped meditating." He took his arms down from the armrests, and tucked his hands, as if to keep them warm, under his thighs. "I would have had to take another body and come back to earth again anyway-I mean I wasn't so spiritually advanced that I could have died, if I hadn't met that lady, and then gone straight to Brahma and never again have to come back to earth. But I wouldn't have had to get incarnated in an American body if I hadn't met that lady. I mean it's very hard to meditate and live a spiritual life in America. People think you're a freak if you try to. My father thinks I'm a freak, in a way. And my mother--well, she doesn't think it's good for me to think about God all the time. She thinks it's bad for my health."

Nicholson was looking at him, studying him. "I believe you said on that last tape that you were six when you first had a mystical experience. Is that right?"

"I was six when I saw that everything was God, and my hair stood up, and all that," Teddy said. "It was on a Sunday, I remember. My sister was only a very tiny child then, and she was drinking her milk, and all of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was doing was pouring God into God, if you know what I mean."

Nicholson didn't say anything.

"But I could get out of the finite dimensions fairly often when I was four," Teddy said, as an afterthought. "Not continuously or anything, but fairly often."

Nicholson nodded. "You did?" he said. "You could?"

"Yes," Teddy said. "That was on the tape . . . Or maybe it was on the one I made last April. I'm not sure."

Nicholson took out his cigarettes again, but without taking his eyes off Teddy. "How does one get out of the finite dimensions?" he asked, and gave a short laugh. "I mean, to begin very basically, a block of wood is a block of wood, for example. It has length, width--"

"It hasn't. That's where you're wrong," Teddy said. "Everybody just thinks things keep stopping off somewhere. They don't. That's what I was trying to tell Professor Peet." He shifted in his seat and took out an eyesore of a handkerchief--a gray, wadded entity--and blew his nose. "The reason things seem to stop off somewhere is because that's the only way most people know how to look at things," he said. "But that doesn't mean they do." He put away his handkerchief, and looked at Nicholson. "Would you hold up your arm a second, please?" he asked.

"My arm? Why?"

"Just do it. Just do it a second."

Nicholson raised his forearm an inch or two above the level of the armrest. "This one?" he asked.

Teddy nodded. "What do you call that?" he asked.

"What do you mean? It's my arm. It's an arm."

"How do you know it is?" Teddy asked. "You know it's called an arm, but how do you know it is one? Do you have any proof that it's an arm?"

Nicholson took a cigarette out of his pack, and lit it. "I think that smacks of the worst kind of sophistry, frankly," he said, exhaling smoke. "It's an arm, for heaven's sake, because it's an arm. In the first place, it has to have a name to distinguish it from other objects. I mean you can't simply--"

"You're just being logical," Teddy said to him impassively.

"I'm just being what?" Nicholson asked, with a little excess of politeness.

"Logical. You're just giving me a regular, intelligent answer," Teddy said. "I was trying to help you. You asked me how I get out of the finite dimensions when I feel like it. I certainly don't use logic when I do it. Logic's the first thing you have to get rid of."

Nicholson removed a flake of tobacco from his tongue with his fingers.

"You know Adam?" Teddy asked him.

"Do I know who?"

"Adam. In the Bible."

Nicholson smiled. "Not personally," he said dryly.

Teddy hesitated. "Don't be angry with me," he said. "You asked me a question, and I'm--"

"I'm not angry with you, for heaven's sake."

"Okay," Teddy said. He was sitting back in his chair, but his head was turned toward Nicholson. "You know that apple Adam ate in the Garden of Eden, referred to in the Bible?" he asked. "You know what was in that apple? Logic. Logic and intellectual stuff. That was all that was in it. So--this is my point--what you have to do is vomit it up if you want to see things as they really are. I mean if you vomit it up, then you won't have any more trouble with blocks of wood and stuff. You won't see everything stopping off all the time. And you'll know what your arm really is, if you're interested. Do you know what I mean? Do you follow me?"

"I follow you," Nicholson said, rather shortly.

"The trouble is," Teddy said, "most people don't want to see things the way they are. They don't even want to stop getting born and dying all the time. They just want new bodies all the time, instead of stopping and staying with God, where it's really nice." He reflected. "I never saw such a bunch of apple-eaters," he said. He shook his head.

At that moment, a white-coated deck steward, who was making his rounds within the area, stopped in front of Teddy and Nicholson and asked them if they would care to have morning broth. Nicholson didn't respond to the question at all. Teddy said, "No, thank you," and the deck steward passed them by.

"If you'd rather not discuss this, you don't have to," Nicholson said abruptly, and rather brusquely. He flicked his cigarette ash. "But is it true, or isn't it, that you informed the whole Leidekker examining bunch--Walton, Peet, Larsen, Samuels, and that bunch--when and where and how they would eventually die? Is that true, or isn't it? You don't have to discuss it if you don't want to, but the way the rumor around Boston--"

"No, it is not true," Teddy said with emphasis. "I told them places, and times, when they should be very, very careful. And I told them certain things it might be a good idea for them to do . . . But I didn't say anything like that. I didn't say anything was inevitable, that way." He took out his handkerchief again and used it. Nicholson waited, watching him. "And I didn't tell Professor Peet anything like that at all. Firstly, he wasn't one of the ones who were kidding around and asking me a bunch of questions. I mean all I told Professor Peet was that he shouldn't be a teacher any more after January--that's all I told him." Teddy, sitting back, was silent a moment. "All those other professors, they practically forced me to tell them all that stuff. It was after we were all finished with the interview and making that tape, and it was quite late, and they all kept sitting around smoking cigarettes and getting very kittenish."

"But you didn't tell Walton, or Larsen, for example, when or where or how death would eventually come?" Nicholson pressed.

"No. I did not," Teddy said firmly. "I wouldn't have told them any of that stuff, but they kept talking about it. Professor Walton sort of started it. He said he really wished he knew when he was going to die, because then he'd know what work he should do and what work he shouldn't do, and how to use his time to his best advantage, and all like that. And then they all said that . . . So I told them a little bit."

Nicholson didn't say anything.

"I didn't tell them when they were actually going to die, though. That's a very false rumor," Teddy said. "I could have, but I knew that in their hearts they really didn't want to know. I mean I knew that even though they teach Religion and Philosophy and all, they're still pretty afraid to die." Teddy sat, or reclined, in silence for a minute. "It's so silly," he said. "All you do is get the heck out of your body when you die. My gosh, everybody's done it thousands and thousands of times. Just because they don't remember it doesn't mean they haven't done it. It's so silly."

"That may be. That may be," Nicholson said. "But the logical fact remains that no matter how intelligently--"

"It's so silly," Teddy said again. "For example, I have a swimming lesson in about five minutes. I could go downstairs to the pool, and there might not be any water in it. This might be the day they change the water or something. What might happen, though, I might walk up to the edge of it, just to have a look at the bottom, for instance, and my sister might come up and sort of push me in. I could fracture my skull and die instantaneously." Teddy looked at Nicholson. "That could happen," he said. "My sister's only six, and she hasn't been a human being for very many lives, and she doesn't like me very much. That could happen, all right. What would be so tragic about it, though? What's there to be afraid of, I mean? I'd just be doing what I was supposed to do, that's all, wouldn't I?"

Nicholson snorted mildly. "It might not be a tragedy from your point of view, but it would certainly be a sad event for your mother and dad," he said "Ever consider that?"

"Yes, of course, I have," Teddy said. "But that's only because they have names and emotions for everything that happens." He had been keeping his hands tucked under his legs again. He took them out now, put his arms up on the armrests, and looked at Nicholson. "You know Sven? The man that takes care of the gym?" he asked. He waited till he got a nod from Nicholson. "Well, if Sven dreamed tonight that his dog died, he'd have a very, very bad night's sleep, because he's very fond of that dog. But when he woke up in the morning, everything would be all right. He'd know it was only a dream."

Nicholson nodded. "What's the point, exactly?"

"The point is if his dog really died, it would be exactly the same thing. Only, he wouldn't know it. I mean he wouldn't wake up till he died himself." Nicholson, looking detached, was using his right hand to give himself a slow, sensuous massage at the back of the neck. His left hand, motionless on the armrest, with a fresh, unlighted cigarette between the fingers, looked oddly white and inorganic in the brilliant sunlight.

Teddy suddenly got up. "I really have to go now, I'm afraid," he said. He sat down, tentatively, on the extended leg attachment of his chair, facing Nicholson, and tucked in his T shirt. "I have about one and a half minutes, I guess, to get to my swimming lesson," he said. "It's all the way down on E Deck."

"May I ask why you told Professor Peet he should stop teaching after the first of the year?" Nicholson asked, rather bluntly. "I know Bob Peet. That's why I ask."

Teddy tightened his alligator belt. "Only because he's quite spiritual, and he's teaching a lot of stuff right now that isn't very good for him if he wants to make any real spiritual advancement. It stimulates him too much. It's time for him to take everything out of his head, instead of putting more stuff in. He could get rid of a lot of the apple in just this one life if he wanted to. He's very good at meditating." Teddy got up. "I better go now. I don't want to be too late."

Nicholson looked up at him, and sustained the look--detaining him. "What would you do if you could change the educational system?" he asked ambiguously. "Ever think about that at all?"

"I really have to go," Teddy said.

"Just answer that one question," Nicholson said. "Education's my baby, actually--that's what I teach. That's why I ask."

"Well . . . I'm not too sure what I'd do," Teddy said. "I know I'm pretty sure I wouldn't start with the things schools usually start with." He folded his arms, and reflected briefly. "I think I'd first just assemble all the children together and show them how to meditate. I'd try to show them how to find out who they are, not just what their names are and things like that . . . I guess, even before that, I'd get them to empty out everything their parents and everybody ever told them. I mean even if their parents just told them an elephant's big, I'd make them empty that out. An elephant's only big when it's next to something else--a dog or a lady, for example." Teddy thought another moment. "I wouldn't even tell them an elephant has a trunk. I might show them an elephant, if I had one handy, but I'd let them just walk up to the elephant not knowing anything more about it than the elephant knew about them. The same thing with grass, and other things. I wouldn't even tell them grass is green. Colors are only names. I mean if you tell them the grass is green, it makes them start expecting the grass to look a certain way--your way--instead of some other way that may be just as good, and may be much better . . . I don't know. I'd just make them vomit up every bit of the apple their parents and everybody made them take a bite out of."

"There's no risk you'd be raising a little generation of ignoramuses?"

"Why? They wouldn't any more be ignoramuses than an elephant is. Or a bird is. Or a tree is," Teddy said. "Just because something is a certain way, instead of just behaves a certain way, doesn't mean it's an ignoramus."

"No?"

"No!" Teddy said. "Besides, if they wanted to learn all that other stuff--names and colors and things--they could do it, if they felt like it, later on when they were older. But I'd want them to begin with all the real ways of looking at things, not just the way all the other apple-eaters look at things--that's what I mean." He came closer to Nicholson, and extended his hand down to him. "I have to go now. Honestly. I've enjoyed--"

"Just one second-sit down a minute," Nicholson said. "Ever think you might like to do something in research when you grow up? Medical research, or something of that kind? It seems to me, with your mind, you might eventually--"

Teddy answered, but without sitting down. "I thought about that once, a couple of years ago," he said. "I've talked to quite a few doctors." He shook his head. "That wouldn't interest me very much. Doctors stay too right on the surface. They're always talking about cells and things."

"Oh? You don't attach any importance to cell structure?"

"Yes, sure, I do. But doctors talk about cells as if they had such unlimited importance all by themselves. As if they didn't really belong to the person that has them." Teddy brushed back his hair from his forehead with one hand. "I grew my own body," he said. "Nobody else did it for me. So if I grew it, I must have known how to grow it. Unconsciously, at least. I may have lost the conscious knowledge of how to grow it sometime in the last few hundred thousand years, but the knowledge is still there, because--obviously--I've used it. . . . It would take quite a lot of meditation and emptying out to get the whole thing back--I mean the conscious knowledge--but you could do it if you wanted to. If you opened up wide enough." He suddenly reached down and picked up Nicholson's right hand from the armrest. He shook it just once, cordially, and said, "Goodbye. I have to go." And this time, Nicholson wasn't able to detain him, he started so quickly to make his way through the aisle.

Nicholson sat motionless for some few minutes after he left, his hands on the armrests of the chair, his unlighted cigarette still between the fingers of his left hand. Finally, he raised his right hand and used it as if to check whether his collar was still open. Then he lit his cigarette, and sat quite still again.

He smoked the cigarette down to its end, then abruptly let one foot over the side of the chair, stepped on the cigarette, got to his feet, and made his way, rather quickly, out of the aisle.

Using the forwardship stairway, he descended fairly briskly to the Promenade Deck. Without stopping there, he continued on down, still quite rapidly, to Main Deck. Then to A Deck. Then to B Deck. Then to C Deck. Then to D Deck.

At D Deck the forwardship stairway ended, and Nicholson stood for a moment, apparently at some loss for direction. However, he spotted someone who looked able to guide him. Halfway down the passageway, a stewardess was sitting on a chair outside a galleyway, reading a magazine and smoking a cigarette. Nicholson went down to her, consulted her briefly, thanked her, then took a few additional steps forwardship and opened a heavy metal door that read: TO THE POOL. It opened onto a narrow, uncarpeted staircase.

He was little more than halfway down the staircase when he heard an all-piercing, sustained scream--clearly coming from a small, female child. It was highly acoustical, as though it were reverberating within four tiled walls.

Graffiti from Brazil

2008-01-22T00:37:00.000-06:00

"14 Images from Brazil's Favelas" @ The Wooster Collective

Demonstration to Defend Surrealism

2008-01-20T18:15:00.000-06:00

DEFEND SURREALISM!
Mark Thomas and Tracey Moberly are organising a demonstration on Saturday June 3rd 12-1.30pm Parliament Square. Police approval has been applied for, problems are not envisaged.

Please try to come to Parliament Square and dress up appropriately, bringing a surrealist art object with you. If for very good reasons you are unable to attend, please drop your art object off at the Foundry no later than this Thursday evening with a note. Banners and Placards are highly encouraged. All notes will be read out at Parliament Square and all objects displayed. Please let me know if you can make it and please make a list of those you ask/email who will be in attendance on the demonstration ... Below is the manifesto

An exhibition of demonstration and its banners etc open the following Wednesday 7th June at the Foundry, 86, Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3JL at 7pm, NB****set up is Tuesday 6th June 8pm-10.30pm****The exhibition is co-curated by Mark Thomas and Tracey Moberly

DEMONSTRATION TO DEFEND SURREALISM!

PARLIAMENT SQUARE SATURDAY 3RD JUNE 12 UNTIL 1.30PM (STATE APPROVAL APPLIED FOR)

Surrealism is under attack! Defend Surrealism!

The New Labour government is attacking Surrealism! Should we allow them to trample like trottered thugs and vile clerks over the prone genitals of the subconscious juxtaposition of seemingly random entities? Should we allow them to lay claim to the beating sod of art? No! By Prescott's Cock we must fight back!

New Labour are neither, they are old and privileged and masters of an Empire of Absurdism: To protect our liberties we must have pass cards. To create peace we must create a bloody chaos. Businessmen are more important than teachers for a child's education. Hospitals have never had so much and yet own so little. Workers must be flexible, government intransigent. These are the paradoxes of the repressor and the repressed, we will be neither. We will be determinedly compliant!

Let our own paradox be, 'defiance through compliance.'

The law says our protest against the authorities, must be licensed by the authorities. To criticise the state, the state must give us its approval. Protest should be orderly. Protest should pre booked with Charing Cross police station.

The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 section 132- 138 demand we must licence our protest in designated areas. Let us comply, let us fully comply amidst the sound of ominous organ music and Vincent Price glances. Let us fight fire with fire but Absurdism with Surrealism! We shall fight them until the ants pour out of their eyeballs.

The government's absurd actions have been wrongly labelled as "surreal" incidents, thus appropriating us with their lazy rhetoric. Life is not Surreal, it is Absurd but only through Surrealism can we truly be free. It is time to reclaim the floppy watch of outdated marketing gimmicks and hurl it back into the wombs of insolence! Let them feel our wrath, but let us charge them for each touch. No longer will we stand idly by while Surrealism lies weeping like broken-hearted lover.

(Please note that there have been threats from authoritarian Social Realists to run a counter demonstration, please be reminded that their provocation will not divert us from our cause!)

From Mark Thomas.com

If this is anyone but Ray Manzarek, you're stealing my beat!

2008-01-18T17:22:00.000-06:00

2008-01-17T22:54:00.000-06:00

"david bray. born dartford 1970

freelance illustrator since 1996

clients have included:
harvey nichols, h&m, nokia, pizza express,
charles worthington, carlos mag, elle,
flaunt mag, puma, virgin, sony playstation,
sony records, kickers, sunday times, time out,
body shop, vodafone, bbc television, canon,
bloww, paddle monthly and mtv

exhibits himself in amsterdam frequently.

worked in close collaboration with point blank to
produce identity, dvd packaging and promotional
material for dirty sanchez.

in house illustrator/designer for various production -
the album "the world is gone" released on xl
recordings

a bit fat but love his cheeky little face"

From Private View

Pretty Fly...

2008-01-12T01:00:00.000-06:00

In the News Today...

2008-01-11T17:46:00.000-06:00

Death Letter

2008-01-10T17:26:00.000-06:00

"Death Letter"

By Eddie James "Son" House, Jr.

I got a letter this mornin, how do you reckon it read?
It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead"
I got a letter this mornin, I say how do you reckon it read?
You know, it said, "Hurry, hurry, how come the gal you love is dead?"
So, I grabbed up my suitcase, and took off down the road
When I got there she was layin on a coolin' board
I grabbed up my suitcase, and I said and I took off down the road
I said, but when I got there she was already layin on a coolin' board
Well, I walked up right close, looked down in her face
Said, the good ol' gal got to lay here 'til the Judgment Day
I walked up right close, and I said I looked down in her face
I said the good ol' gal, she got to lay here 'til the Judgment Day
Looked like there was 10,000 people standin' round the buryin' ground
I didn't know I loved her 'til they laid her down
Looked like 10,000 were standin' round the buryin' ground
You know I didn't know I loved her 'til they damn laid her down
Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
I wouldn't mistreat you baby, for my weight in gold
I said, Lord, have mercy on my wicked soul
You know I wouldn't mistreat nobody, baby, not for my weight in gold
Well, I folded up my arms and I slowly walked away
I said, "Farewell honey, I'll see you on Judgment Day"
Ah, yeah, oh, yes, I slowly walked away
I said, "Farewell, farewell, I'll see you on the Judgment Day"
You know I went in my room, I bowed down to pray
The blues came along and drove my spirit away
I went in my room, I said I bowed down to pray
I said the blues came along and drove my spirit away
You know I didn't feel so bad, 'til the good ol' sun went down
I didn't have a soul to throw my arms around
I didn't feel so bad, 'til the good ol' sun went down
You know, I didn't have nobody to throw my arms around
I loved you baby, like I love myself
You don't have me, you won't have nobody else
I loved you baby, better than I did myself
I said now if you don't have me, I didn't want you to have nobody else
You know, it's hard to love someone that don't love you
Ain't no satisfaction, don't care what in the world you do
Yeah, it's hard to love someone that don't love you
You know it don't look like satisfaction, don't care what in the world you do
Got up this mornin', just about the break of day
A-huggin' the pillow where she used to lay
Got up this mornin', just about the break of day
A-huggin' the pillow where my good gal used to lay
Got up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes
You know, I must-a had them old walkin' blues
Got up this mornin', feelin' round for my shoes
Yeah, you know bout that, I must-a had them old walkin' blues
You know, I cried last night and all the night before
Gotta change my way a livin', so I don't have to cry no more
You know, I cried last night and all the night before
Gotta change my way a livin', you see, so I don't have to cry no more
Ah, hush, thought I heard her call my name
If it wasn't so loud and so nice and plain
Ah, yeah
Mmmmmm
Well, listen, whatever you do
This is one thing, honey, I tried to get along with you
Yes, no tellin' what you do
I done everything I could, just to try and get along with you
Well, the minutes seemed like hours, hours they seemed like days
It seemed like my good, old gal outta done stopped her low-down ways
Minutes seemed like hours, hours they seemed like days
Seems like my good, old gal outta done stopped her low-down ways
You know, love's a hard ol' fall, make you do things you don't wanna do
Love sometimes leaves you feeling sad and blue
You know, love's a hard ol' fall, make you do things you don't wanna do
Love sometimes make you feel sad and blue

Artsy Fartsy

2008-01-09T00:22:00.000-06:00

Young people meander

in dark streets, in

night hours and brighten

the walls of buildings

with rich colours

from spray cans.

Since the beginning

of time, dark caves

have given us drawings

of animals, and today

the hunting spirits

confined to concrete jungles,

are releasing energy

through design and

vibrant images

brightening our inner cities.

Energetic decoration

on plain doors, on

gable walls, on warehouses

on the city docks, give

structure to the night life

of Tomo and Gismo.

-Mary Guckian

Obey

Have a Funky New Year

2008-01-01T14:57:00.000-06:00

Here are a few funk videos to get 2008 started off on the good foot. Have a great year and remember what Plus Ultra always says “It's better to regret something you did than to regret something you didn't do.”

Search and Destroy: Plus Ultra Presents: The Iggy Pop Story Part 1

2007-12-28T17:21:00.000-06:00

Iggy Pop the true motor city madman was born James Jewell Osterberg on April 21, in Muskegon, Michigan, his father Newell Sr. was an English teacher and his mother was Louella Christensen. Young Jim grew up in a trailer park in Yipsilanti, near Ann Arbor. In 1962 Jim formed a high school band called the Iguanas, where he played the drums and acquired the name Iggy. Between 1966-67 Iggy spent 8 months in Chicago, playing drums in various blues bands, soon returning to Ann Arbor. In 1966, rock legend has Iggy meeting Andy Warhol, John Cale, and Nico, at a party thrown by mutual friend Anne Wehrer. In 1967 Iggy formed "The Psychedelic Stooges" and called himself Iggy Stooge, the Stooges included Iggy's old friends Ron and Scott Asheton, bassist Dave Alexander, who had played bass for the Dirty Shames and Iggy Stooge on vocals.

The bands first gig was held on Halloween, 1967 at the University of Michigan. The three other Psychedelic Stooges nicknamed Iggy "Pop" after a local character who he resembled. In October 1968, the Stooges signed with Elektra Records, The Doors label, which must have been cool for Iggy who was influenced by seeing The Doors perform in 1967 at the University of Michigan. Shortly after the Stooges got signed, Iggy got married to Wendy Weisberg, the marriage lasted one month.

In 1969 the band wisely chose John Cale (from the Velvet Underground) as their producer on their first album. In June, they recorded their debut album at the "Hit Factory", in New York City. Since they only had five songs to record when they went to NY, they wrote much of it on the fly, Ron Asheton is said to have composed "Not Right" & "Little Doll" in just one hour. The band released their self-titled debut "The Stooges" at the end of August 1969, removing "Psychedelic" from their name at the same time, and the rest as they say is rock n' roll history!

For more information on this important issue please visit:

The Stooges

Iggy Pop

Iggy Pop Interview by Bret Gladstone

Elijah Wood To Play Iggy Pop In Movie

Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase

2007-12-27T16:24:00.000-06:00

Top 10 9/11 Videos

2007-12-23T10:05:00.000-06:00

9/11 Revisited

Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut

Reichstag 9/11

The Great Conspiracy

David Ray Griffin - 9/11 Commission Report: Ommissions and Distortions

9/11: Press for Truth

9/11 Mysteries

Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11

Perspective on 9/11 Video Collection

9/11 and the British Broadcasting Conspiracy

Peak Oil Shmeak Oil!

2007-12-18T16:47:00.000-06:00

This pie chart (from The National Ocean Service) represents the worldwide uses of oil resources, as you can see, about half of the world's oil supply is used for transportation.

If only there was some way to power vehicles without burning fossil fuels. Here are a couple of videos that have an idea for just that. Electric cars! They work, and they are faster than you think. According to About.com, in '99 a Belgian built electric racing car designed by Camille Jénatzy called "La Jamais Contente" was clocked at 68 mph, not bad, even better when you consider it was 1899.

As for heating and creating electricity the next most prevalent uses of oil, alternatives include; solar, wind, hydro, and tidal to name a few.

Electric car vs Ferrari

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Fallen Art

2007-12-15T17:00:00.000-06:00

CGNetworks Feature::Tomek Baginski Interview (Excerpt)

By Paul Hellard
From CGSociety

Credited as the name behind ‘The Cathedral', Tomek Baginski is now on the verge of releasing the new Platige short film ‘Fallen Art', a very different, very black comedy.

Tomek Baginski has been working at Platige for seven years now, but he was only ten when he realized that making computer animation was the cheapest way of making films. “I wanted to make films for as long as I can remember so the choice was natural”, says Baginski. “I started with an Amiga computer. I've gone through many different programs and platforms and then finally landed with 3D.” Baginski's first 3D student film ‘Rain' was good enough to land him a job in Platige Image and straight after the appointment, he quit college where he was studying architecture. “I didn't really like architecture,” Baginski muses, “but in Poland studying something was the only way to avoid the army.”

While working on ‘The Cathedral', Baginski was thinking about film ideas he'd like to produce afterwards. A folder slowly filled with photos, stories and sketches so he wouldn't forget them. He couldn't work on them but he could save them for later. “I chose ‘Fallen Art' because it was very different to Cathedral and I was sure that I had to make a different film to avoid comparisons. ‘The Cathedral' was quite successful and making a short with a similar kind of mood could have been a dangerous trap. I decided to go the other way.”

Concept design
The message behind ‘Fallen Art' changed during production. At the beginning Baginski wanted to make just a funny film about the army, but many things happened in the world while the crew was fine-tuning the storyboards. The army topic has became much more stark, and much more serious.

“Consequently, we decided to make the story darker than in the beginning”, says Baginski. “It wasn't only my idea. The music my brother found was much more insane than I've expected. The character design done by the very talented young painter, Rafal Wojtunik was also much more wicked that I though it would be. Of course it is still a comedy, but it is very dark comedy.”

Very rough sketches and some written characteristics were handed to Wojtunik and that was all. Baginski admits he wasn't really paying any attention to the design process and the characters and set design have become crazier than he expected. Wojtunik based his drawings on the paintings of the Polish painter Jerzy Duda-Gracz, but most of the ideas were born inside his head. “When I saw the first designs I was quite surprised”, says Baginski, “but at the same time I was really impressed. Giving the designing part to Wojtunik was one of the best decisions I've made during the project.”

Fallen Art

The Cathedral

3 lonelyTylenol 3

2007-12-14T15:21:00.000-06:00

Like all great spy novels, this one begins at the end.
The End. I would like to thank Gustave Verbeek and James Joyce, "riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs."

By now you may have realized I am in a lot of pain. The pain is in my lower back. I have been medicating myself for the last week with heavy doses of painkillers, 3 more tylenol 3's please.3 more tylenol 3's please.3 more tylenol 3's please is my Mantra.

I have barked all of my family and friends away for the holidays. I am an angry man. Christmas don't mean shit to me. My name is Stu and I'm an asshat.
I am not normally like this.
I remember a time when I enjoyed Christmas as much as you.
But,
now...
all i know is hate.

I wish I could tell you more about what happened in the beginning. I would tell you how it was, "a cold winter day like today is." But I can not tell you anymore about the beginning until the end is nearer.

What you need to know right now is that it could happen to you!
That's right. You heard me, and worse.
How can you prevent yourself from these types of tragedies?
Read more. I will explain in an easy to understand way backwards.
I've even heard some people have turned gay by not reading this story I am writing.
So, it is very important you follow me by staying ahead of me.(At least one step)
It is time I introduce you to my butler. His name is Gary Curlybun. He has commited several unsolved murders in future novels of mine. He paces when he is nervous and he is pacing right now. I pull my hair when I am nervous, but I am innocent and even if I weren't I would never tell you if I were playing with my hair right now or not because it may incriminate me later. Did I mention there was a murder. I don't think so. But there was. Can you guess who did it?
Let me tell you it was not you, me or my butler. I am also prepared to let you know it was a cold winter day like today is.
That is all for now, I will tell you more later.

Here's to (Ever) Higher Education!

2007-12-06T21:59:00.000-06:00

Here at Plus Ultra, we are aware that many young people out there look to us not just for laughs but also for insightful commentary on national and international affairs. That's why we are proud to bring you videos from both Comedy Central and Fox News, the only trouble is that it is tough to tell which are the joke videos and which is the insightful commentary! I guess you'll have to judge for your selves...good luck!

SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, Fox News Viewers Rank Lowest

From Think Progress

A new study by the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last.

Despite significant technology shifts, however, Pew found that “today’s citizens are about as able to name their leaders, and are about as aware of major news events, as was the public nearly 20 years ago.”

The results about Fox News echo findings of previous surveys. In 2003, University of Maryland researchers studied the public’s belief in three false claims — that Iraq possessed WMD, that Iraq was involved in 9/11, and that there was international support for the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The researchers stated, “The extent of Americans’ misperceptions vary significantly depending on their source of news. Those who receive most of their news from Fox News are more likely than average to have misperceptions.” Fox News viewers were “three times more likely than the next nearest network to hold all three misperceptions.”

Strange Visitations

2007-12-02T17:20:00.000-06:00

I think these videos pretty much speak for themselves...enjoy!

Plus Ultra Meets Rube Goldberg!!

2007-11-26T18:10:00.000-06:00

Some of our readers out there have been wondering what happened to Plus Ultra? Has he given up the struggle to get higher, farther and better?

Of course not! Plus Ultra is merely streamlining his operation with the help of a Rube Goldberg machine! Soon the posts you read on Blog Plus Ultra will be automated thanks to this incredible time saving invention! Unfortunately we are experiencing a few snags along the way, so here are a few videos to demonstrate the type of simple straightforward improvements Plus Ultra is making.

Rube Goldberg Machine

From Wikipedia

A Rube Goldberg machine is an exceedingly complex apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted way. It first appeared in Webster's Third New International Dictionary with the definition, "accomplishing by extremely complex roundabout means what actually or seemingly could be done simply." The expression has been dated as originating in the US around 1930 to describe Rube Goldberg's illustrations of "absurdly-connected machines".

Since then, the expression's meaning has expanded to denote any form of overly confusing or complicated system. For example, recent news headlines include "Is Rep. Bill Thomas the Rube Goldberg of Legislative Reform?", and "Retirement 'insurance' as a Rube Goldberg machine". It has been argued that fissioning uranium to boil water under tremendous temperature and pressure renders nuclear power a Rube Goldberg machine.

Similar expressions internationally
The expression "Heath Robinson contraption", named after the fantastical comic machinery illustrated by British cartoonist W. Heath Robinson, shares a similar meaning but predates the Rube Goldberg machine, originating in the UK in 1912.

In Denmark, they are called Storm P maskiner (Storm P machines), after the Danish cartoonist Robert Storm Petersen.

In Bengal, the humorist and children's author Sukumar Ray in his nonsense poem Abol tabol had a character ('Uncle') with a Rube Goldberg like machine called 'Uncle's contraption'. This word is used colloquially in Bengali to mean a complex and useless machine.

In Spain, devices akin to Goldberg's machines are known as Inventos del TBO (tebeo) named after those which cartoonist Ramón Sabatés made up and drew for a section in the TBO magazine, allegedly designed by some Professor Franz from Copenhagen.

The Norwegian cartoonist and storyteller Kjell Aukrust created a cartoon character named Reodor Felgen who constantly invented complex machinery. Though it was often built out of unlikely parts, it always performed very well. Felgen stars as the inventor of an extremely powerful but overly complex car Il Tempo Gigante in the Ivo Caprino animated puppet-film Flåklypa Grand Prix (1975).

In Turkey, such devices are known as Zihni Sinir Proceleri, allegedly invented by a certain Prof. Zihni Sinir (Crabby Mind), a curious "scientist" character created by İrfan Sayar in 1977 for the cartoon magazine Gırgır. The cartoonist later went on to open a studio selling actual working implementations of his designs.

Another related phenomenon is the Japanese art of useful but unusable contraptions called chindōgu.

In the famous Tamil movie Aboorva Sagotharargal Kamal Hasan (Being a Circus clown) uses a 'Rube Goldberg Machine' made out of circus components to kill a villan.

In Austria, Franz Gsellmann had built for decades on a machine that he named the "Weltmaschine" (world-machine) it has many similarities to a Rube Goldberg machine.Some have compared machines of this nature in a very general way to the old adage of reinventing the wheel.

Machine contest
Many Designers of Rube Goldberg machines participate in competitions, such as this one in New Mexico.In early 1987, Purdue University in Indiana started the annual National Rube Goldberg Machine Contest, organized by the Phi Chapter of Theta Tau, the National Professional Engineering Fraternity. The contest is sponsored by the Theta Tau Educational Foundation. It features US college and university teams building machines inspired by Rube Goldberg's cartoon. Judging is based on the ability of the machine to complete the tasks specified by the challenge using as many steps as possible without a single failure, while making the machines themselves fitting into certain themes.

Propaganda by Brent Erickson

2007-11-12T21:29:00.000-06:00

An open source video compilation, Propaganda offers a critical look at the "mainstream" media, featuring interviews and lectures by Noam Chomsky, Bell Hooks, John Pilger, Amy Goodman, music by Dead Prez and much more!

Today's Hottest searches on Blog Plus Ultra Ever Higher Ever Farther Ever Better

2007-10-28T23:19:00.001-05:00

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Marlon Asher Love of Jah

2007-10-28T18:59:00.000-05:00

Marlon Asher is a Trinidadian reggae singer from Enterprise, Chaguanas. His first hit was "Ganja Farmer"

Marlon Asher grew up in Enterprise Street, Chaguanas. He was a member of the Mount Ararat Spiritual Baptist Church Choir and later converted to Rastafari.

Asher was a pioneer of the Trinidadian reggae movement and his first song Ganja Farmer sparked controversy in his country despite being a run away hit. In an exclusive interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Express, he answered his critics by explaining what the song meant to him.

"I was never a farmer, but I have friends who are and seeing what they have to go through when police burn their fields inspired me to create the song. People must understand that planters have mouths to feed and this is how they earn a living to do so. Putting aside the fact that herb is life and everything else about that, when you think about the work and money a man puts into his field and then see it being burnt, it's not easy,"

"Herb is not for everyone. It have people who will smoke and trip. My music is not about promoting hate and violence, it's about uplifting people. I may not be able to change the world, but I can lead people into thinking differently about life and living with each other. Also, the lyrics in the song that tell about the rocket launcher, does not mean that people should kill police. I am showing the anger that a farmer has inside when he sees his field being burnt. That anger and frustration is real,"

Asher was once a joiner and a mason but left the trade due to allergies. His left index finger was lost in a sawing accident. He is currently a member of a pan side led by his father Glenford Sobers.

Asher has toured together with the stars such as Beenie Man, Sizzla, Maxi Priest and even the American R&B Group Boyz II Men. He has toured Boston, Virginia, Miami, Baltimore and Toronto, and later plans to tour Germany, the United Kingdom as well as other parts of Europe.

He has since paved the way for other local reggae stars such as Prophet Benjamin, Isasha, Jah Bami, Xebulon, King David and so many more.

Spiders on drugs

2007-10-26T22:25:00.000-05:00

In a previous post titled Ziggy Stardust and the spiders on drugs
I reported that, "NASA experiments have shown that common house spiders spin their webs in different ways according to the psychotropic drug they have been given." This is a true story. I am not sure of the truth in this next video however, I am certain you will find it ultra intersesting.

Marie Osmond sees stars on dancing with the stars

2007-10-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

This is just some of the Buzz I am hearing, "Marie Osmond passed out, Marie Osmond pass out, Marie Osmond dancing, Marie Osmond faint, Marie osmond fainted"

After performing a Samba on the popular T.V. show "Dancing with the stars" former childhood star, Marie Osmond was waiting anxiously for her score and in front of millions of viewers she fainted. She recovered quickly(During a commercial break) and is reportedly doing fine. Osmond explained on-air that "once in a while that happens to me when I get winded. I stop breathing." She was expected to undergo a medical examination as a precaution, ABC's Astley said.

Check the Video out here

Marie Osmond Faints on "Dancing with the Stars"
Uploaded by Stroheim

What is the Most Od Nut Ever?

2007-10-18T19:44:00.000-05:00

Is it this one?
The Industrial-Strength Play
SCREW AND NUT CHEW TOY SET

These super tough chew toys will drive your furry friend "nuts", in a good way. The nut and bolt are super-tough, completely non-toxic, and clean easily. The fully functional nuts and bolts will develop your canine's cognition while cleaning his chompers. They're more fun than you'd imagine, made with a pleasing texture and bouncy material, and minty flavor to aid in the age old problem of dog breath.

Is Mr. Peanut the most od nut ever?

'Mr. Peanut is the advertising logo and mascot of Planters, an American snack-food company and division of Kraft Foods. He consists of a drawing of an anthropomorphic peanut in its shell dressed in the formal clothing of an old-fashioned gentleman: a top hat, monocle, white gloves, spats, and a cane.

Mr. Peanut is based on a drawing by a Virginia schoolboy, Antonio Gentile, a Italian-American who won a $5 prize in a 1916 contest for his "little peanut person." The mascot made its debut in 1918 in The Saturday Evening Post.

According to the company, Mr. Peanut's hat, shoes, cane, and monocle symbolize fresh taste. The gloves do not symbolize anything; Mr. Peanut simply likes them.

Since his conception, Mr. Peanut has appeared in many TV commercials as an animated cartoon character. More recent commercials have shown him computer animated in a real-world setting. His appearances are often accompanied by an elegant accented narrator, and throughout his extensive television life, Mr. Peanut has rarely, if ever, spoken.

In 2006, Planters conducted an online poll to determine whether to add a bow tie, cufflinks, or a pocketwatch to Mr. Peanut. The public voted for no change.

Or Would You Believe Today's winner of the prestigious

Blog Plus Ultra's Most Od Nut Ever Award should be this Squirrel? Vote Below!

Dali Lama pics of Dali, Dalai Lama and Lama's and Dali and and

2007-10-17T17:50:00.001-05:00

This Is Salvador Dali

This is The Dalai Lama

This is a surreal picture of a Dali Lama

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama not Dali Lama stupid!

2007-10-16T18:46:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I saw Buddha Smoking a cigarette. Today I learned about the Dalai Lama's meeting with everybody's favorite good ole'boy, George Bush. The meeting is significant in that no other sitting president has met with his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama before. The move has the Chinese government angry who still consider him a separatist threat. The Chinese recently canceled three meetings with Germany after Chancellor Angela Merkel's meeting with the exiled Tibetan last month, and they have also already expressed displeasure with both President Bush's private meeting with the Dalai Lama on Tuesday and his receiving a Congressional Gold Medal - the nation's highest civilian honor - on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. For more information on the Dalai Lama click here

Holy Futalognkosaurus Batman!

2007-10-15T19:03:00.000-05:00

Do the words titanosaur, futalognkosaurus dukei, puertasaurus reuili, megaraptor, mean anything to you? How about largest dinosaur?
Why do I ask you ask?

According to Reuters Canada,
"RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian and Argentine paleontologists have discovered the largely complete fossil of a new species of giant dinosaur which roamed what is now northern Patagonia about 80 million years ago.

The herbivorous Futalognkosaurus dukei measured between 105 and 112 feet from head to tail.

"It's a new species, it's a new group," Argentine paleontologist Juan Porfiri told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro.

The fossil was 70 percent preserved, which compares to about 10 percent for other giant dinosaur finds in the world.

Its name is derived from the indigenous Mapuche language meaning "giant chief of the lizards," and the name of U.S. power company Duke Energy Corp, which financed a large part of the excavation in Argentina.

The first fossils were found in 2000."

What is the True Edict of Worms?

2007-10-14T21:06:00.000-05:00

The Edict of Worms was the decree issued on May 25, 1521 at the Diet of Worms by the Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Charles V, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw and a heretic and banning his literature. It also made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter.

The Papal nuncio at the Diet, Girolamo Aleandro, drew up and proposed the fierce denunciations of Luther that were embodied in the Edict of Worms, promulgated on May 25. These declared Luther to be an outlaw and banned the reading or possession of his writings. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. The Edict was a divisive move that distressed more moderate men, in particular Desiderius Erasmus.

Despite the agreement that he could return home safely, it was privately understood that Luther would soon be arrested and punished. To protect him from this fate, Prince Frederick seized him on his way home and hid him in Wartburg Castle. It was during his time in Wartburg that Luther began his German translation of the Bible. The edict was temporarily suspended at the Diet of Speyer in 1526 but then reinstated in 1529.

When Luther eventually came out of hiding, the Emperor was preoccupied with military concerns, and because of rising public support for Luther among the German people, the Edict of Worms was never enforced. Luther continued to call for reform until his death in 1546.

Blog Plus Ultra Has Learned, President Bush 'planted fake news stories on American TV'

2007-10-14T20:29:00.001-05:00

Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments...

read more | digg story

Top 10 Ditech Keywords

2007-10-14T19:58:00.000-05:00

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6.ditech funding $32.22
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Avrupa Yakasi 134 Bolum Fragman

2007-10-10T21:27:00.000-05:00

yaprak dokumu 44, yaprak dokumu 44 bolum, sinema izleme, canlidizi.com, cinetr

The Fabulous Floating cigarette trick video

2007-10-08T19:33:00.000-05:00

The Fabulous Furry Fantastically Famous Floating cigarette trick finally revealed.

Ever wonder how to make a cigarette float?
Here is how to do the floating cigarette trick!
wow! the floating cigarette is one of the best bar tricks ever!

But How does this guy do the Floating Cigarette trick?

Sunday Morning on Blog Plus Ultra Underground

2007-10-07T11:43:00.000-05:00

Sing along with:
The Velvet Underground-Sunday Morning
Sunday morning
Brings the dawn in
It's just a restless feeling by my side
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's just the wasted years so close behind
Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all

Sunday morning
And I'm falling
I've got a feeling I don't want to know
Early dawning
Sunday morning
It's all the streets you crossed, not so long ago
Watch out the world's behind you
There's always someone around you who will call
It's nothing at all

Sunday morning
Sunday morning
Sunday morning

Ne Plus Ultra

2007-10-05T20:36:00.000-05:00

Ne PlusUltra
Ne Plus Ultra
Ne Plus Ultra
Ne Plus Ultra
BLOG PLUS ULTRA IS NOW THE NE PLUS ULTRA OF BLOGS@!

Plus Ultra Shape Shifters

2007-10-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

Is this a CIA effort to mind control us by the insertion of subliminal and hidden images in campaign ads or is this footage of Barbara shapeshifting?

Meet Ron Mueck the hyperrealist sculptor

2007-10-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

Ron Mueck (born 1958) is an Australian hyperrealist sculptor working in Great B ritain.

Mueck's early career was as a model maker and children's television and films, puppeteer for notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo.

Mueck moved on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry. Although highly detailed, these props were usually designed to be photographed from one specific angle hiding the mess of construction seen from the other side. Mueck increasingly wanted to produce realistic sculptures which looked perfect from all angles.

In 1996 Mueck transitioned to fine art, collaborating with his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, to produce small figures as part of a tableau she was showing at the Hayward Gallery. Rego introduced him to Charles Saatchi who was immediately impressed and started to collect and commission work. This led to the piece which made Mueck's name, Dead Dad, being included in the Sensation show at the Royal Academy the following year. Dead Dad is a rather haunting silicone and mixed media sculpture of the corpse of Mueck's father reduced to about two thirds of its natural scale. It is the only work of Mueck's that uses his own hair for the finished product.

Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. His five metre high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale.

In 2002 his sculpture Pregnant Woman[1] was purchased by the National Gallery of Australia for AU$800,000.

A major exhibition of his work was shown in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh Festival at the Royal Scottish Academy Building until October 1, 2006.^[2] A solo exhibition of nine works by Ron Mueck was presented at the Brooklyn Museum from November 3, 2006 through February 4, 2007.^[3]

An exhibit of his work was also on view at the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa from 2 March to 6 May 2007 organized by the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain (Paris), in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, the Brooklyn Museum and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas is showing an exhibition of thirteen of Mueck's pieces from June 24, 2007 through October 21, 2007. The works in the show include Untitled (Seated Woman) (1999), Dead Dad (1996-97), In Bed (2005), Untitled (Big Man) (2000), Two Women (2005), Crouching Boy in Mirror (1999-2000), Spooning Couple (2005), Mask II (2001-02), Mask III (2005), Wild Man (2005), and A Girl (2006).^[4]

Spudware, spudware everywhere spudware

2007-09-28T16:54:00.000-05:00

Source Telegraph.co.Uk
Christopher Middleton is stirred by a spoon made of potato

No one particularly likes plastic cutlery, but for years we've all put up with it. Now its days could be numbered, thanks to the introduction of knives, forks and spoons made not out of polymers but potatoes.

One potato, two potato, three potato, fork: a spud is knifed by his starchy kin

Yes, say hello to SpudWare, the planet-saving alternative to traditional disposable cutlery. Made from hardened, moulded potato starch, it's as heat-resistant as plastic and every bit as strong: the fork can prong a hard carrot without snapping and the spoon can cope with the hardest block of ice cream.

"Synthetic materials tend to break more easily," says Joe Frankel of Edinburgh-based suppliers Vegware, the firm championing root-veg utensils in Britain. "Because our product is a natural one, it's got a bit more flexibility."

We subjected our samples to a series of experiments, during which we performed the equivalent of culinary cannibalism by plunging a SpudWare fork into the heart of a King Edward's without a hint of snappage.

SpudWare's crowning eco-glory is its biodegradability. While plastic sits unaltered in the earth for centuries, SpudWare decomposes within 180 days. Guaranteed.

So whereas future generations of archaeologists will be forever digging up plastic knives and forks from late 20th century birthday parties, they will be baffled at the abrupt absence of such artefacts in the early 21st century. It could become a mystery to rank with the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

Already corporate America is questioning the amount of disposable plastic cutlery it gets through (39 billion items per year at the last count), and among the institutions that have swapped from plastics to "bioplastics" is the staff canteen at Marin County Civic Centre in California. "If you want to walk the talk, you can't have a café filled with plastic," says canteen supervisor Charles McGlashan. "We took the view that using all that plastic was a violation of our values as a county."

So well has the SpudWare gone down that Marin County has now progressed to Tupperware-like containers made from fermented corn, and plates made of bagasse (a fibrous by-product of sugar cane). Now the idea is catching on in Britain (where two billion plastic items are used each year), with catering firms such as Rail Gourmet seriously considering taking the potato-instead-of-plastic route.

The only blemish on the SpudWare front is the way the cutlery gets a bit sticky and tacky if left in water overnight. There again, all it's doing is fulfilling its promise to biodegrade, water being a prime mover in getting the process started.

And do bioplastics really decompose when buried? You bet they do. Every SpudWare item comes complete with an ASTM D6400-99 (a Certification of Compostability from the American Society for Testing and Materials). And, when it comes to rot, those people know what they're talking about.
# Potato starch cutlery can be ordered from Vegware (0131 777 2562; www.vegware.co.uk). Knives, forks and spoons cost £3.19 per bag of 50 (reduced to £2.35 if you order 10 bags or more).

Today is Thursday the Two Headed Turtle Day on Blog Plus Ultra

2007-09-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

Coincidentally, it is also take your two headed turtle to work day today!

Two headed turtles are far less rare than Albino Rastafarian ratfish, but rare enough to warrant a special day here on my blog. That is why I would like all of you out there to share with us your favorite two headed turtle stories.

Tonites top ten 2 Headed Turtles are:

These are actual pictures of two headed turtles.

TURTLES TURTLES RA RA RA TURTLES TURTLES HA HA HA MMMMMMMMMMMM I LOVE TURTLES

Lifestraw

2007-09-26T20:25:00.000-05:00

According to Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen,
Chief Executive Officer, "Mobilising LifeStraw® offers relief from waterborne diseases of major public concern such as typhoid, cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea. As a personal and mobile water purification tool, LifeStraw® is designed to turn most of the surface water into drinking water, thus providing access to safe water wherever you are."

It sounds like a great idea, but like all great ideas their are critics. A good example is the following(Source Wikipedia),

"LifeStraw has generally been praised for its effective and instant method of bacteria removal. However, the device is ineffective at killing Giardia lamblia, an organism that is both resistant to iodine and smaller than 5 micrometers.[5] The device also causes higher-than-normal iodine levels in the drinkers' water, although this is countered by the iodine deficiency problem that exists in the third world. Paul Hetherington, of the charity WaterAid, has also criticised the LifeStraw for being too expensive and not solving the problem. He says that the price is expensive to those who would need it, and that it does not alleviate other problems in third world countries."

What do you think of Life Straw?

g4tv.com/halo press release

2007-09-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

G4 DEPLOYS FOR “HALO 3 COUNTDOWN,” A GLOBAL MISSION TO CELEBRATE BIGGEST VIDEO GAME LAUNCH IN HISTORY, WITH LIVE, ON-LOCATION REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Wed. Sep. 12, 2007

G4 DEPLOYS FOR “HALO 3 COUNTDOWN,” A GLOBAL MISSION TO CELEBRATE BIGGEST VIDEO GAME LAUNCH IN HISTORY, WITH LIVE, ON-LOCATION REPORTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

More Than Five Hours of Coverage on Sept. 24 Includes Extensive Interactivity, Interviews, Reviews and History of Halo Franchise

G4 Cameras in Los Angeles, Seattle, Miami, New York, Australia and Japan
to Track Halo 3’s International Release with Live News Updates

LOS ANGELES, September 12, 2007 – Vicious aliens will invade the evening of September 24 and throngs of video game fans couldn’t be happier – “Halo 3” is finally making its long-awaited debut. G4 is preparing the millions of excited virtual combatants for the most eagerly anticipated video game launch in history with “Halo 3 Countdown,” an entire night of exclusive Halo 3 news, reviews, interviews, history and humor that will give experienced fans and new enthusiasts alike a comprehensive look at the new game, along with interactive opportunities to actually become a part of the coverage.

More than five hours of live, international coverage will include live reports from locations around the world as the global Halo Nation prepares for the first midnight sales. An evening jam-packed with single-player campaigns and multi-player melees begins September 24th with a special Halo 3 episode of “Attack of the Show!” at 7 p.m. ET/PT, followed immediately by the “Halo 3 Countdown” from 8 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. ET/PT, only on G4.

G4’s “Halo 3 Countdown” will include:

• Halo 3 Review: The third installment in the Halo franchise has considerable buzz, but is it worth considerable cash? G4’s games experts will take a critical look at Halo 3’s single-player and multiplayer modes and let viewers know whether the latest adventures of Master Chief live up to the great expectations.

• Halo 3 Xbox Giveaway: Attentive viewers will be rewarded with an opportunity to win the brand-new Xbox 360™ Halo® 3 Special Edition Console, which boasts an exclusive "Spartan green and gold" finish and includes a full assortment of Xbox 360 accessories.

• International Fan Perspective: The release of Halo 3 is a global event. G4 will cross datelines for the player’s point-of-view across the United States (Seattle, Los Angeles, Miami, New York) and around the world (Australia, Japan).

• Get Inside the Countdown: The Halo 3 action continues online at http://www.g4tv.com/halo, where viewers will have a chance to stream an extensive assortment of Halo videos or even become a part of the live coverage. From personal Halo stories to footage of eager gamers waiting impatiently in line, viewers will be able to submit videos that provide additional perspective on what the game’s launch means to the biggest Halo fans. In addition, a unique virtual audience feature will offer Web cam owners direct interaction with the on-air hosts. Other interactive elements available online and through mobile devices include polling and live chat included within the on-air coverage.

• In-depth Interviews: In addition to behind-the-scenes interviews with the extraordinary humans responsible for creating the remarkable Halo franchise, G4 hosts will speak to a variety of Halo fans for their perspective on both the new game and the earlier installments. From conversations with the game’s developers to the Halo opinions from some of today’s hottest celebs, and even a trip to meet the world’s youngest Halo champion, the “Halo 3 Countdown” interviews will help explain on what makes the new game’s release a major event.

• History of Halo: Few games reach Halo’s level of ubiquity and far fewer achieve that status so quickly. A whirlwind trip through the game’s history will help explain how and why the Halo 3 release is anticipated to be one of the biggest media product launches in history.

• Real World Halo: The Halo universe has surged beyond its pixilated borders. The game’s fictional weaponry has inspired a handful of talented craftspeople to create their own Halo armaments. A trip to their workshop lets viewers see what it would really take to equip a Halo warrior.

• Red vs. Blue vs. G4: G4 tracked down the creators of the infamous online video series “Red vs. Blue” and coaxed them from their recent retirement to create a special Halo 3 installment especially for G4.

• Halo Lexicon: Throughout the night, G4 will give viewers a primer on the Halo-specific language used in the video game and among the millions of online players. Whether an experienced player wants a refresher in fragging or a new player wants to learn the lingo, G4’s will deliver an education in the intricacies of speaking like a Halo pro.

More information regarding “Halo 3 Countdown” is available at http://www.g4tv.com/halo.

About Comcast Entertainment Group
Based in Los Angeles, recently formed Comcast Entertainment Group operates E! Entertainment Television, the 24-hour network with programming dedicated to the world of entertainment, and E! Online; The Style Network, the destination for women 18-49 with a passion for the best in relatable and inspiring lifestyle programming; and G4 offering the last word on gaming, technology, animation, interactivity, and "Internet culture" for the male 18-34 demo. E! is currently available to nearly 92 million cable and direct broadcast satellite subscribers in the United States. In 2006, E! launched the E! Everywhere initiative underscoring the company's dedication to making E! content available on all new media platforms any time and anywhere -- from online to broadband at The Vine @E!Online to wireless to satellite radio to VOD. The Style Network currently counts 59 million cable and satellite subscribers and G4, the #1 podcasted cable network in America, is available in more than 65 million cable and satellite homes nationwide.

Albino Rastafarian Ratfish

2007-09-24T19:13:00.001-05:00

Today here at Blog Plus Ultra we have discovered a very unusual creature indeed!

The world's only known Albino Rastafarian Ratfish.

You would expect most Ratfish to be heavy ganga smokers, But students at Plusultra University say this particular Albino Ratfish known simply as "Whitey" is more chronic than Snoop DoGG and this years award winning toker at the Cannabis Cup held in Amsterdam.

Scientists have yet to make a link between the extremely rare pigmentation of "Whitey" (1 in 7 Million) and the Ratfishes incredible tolerance to T.H.C.(1 in 7 Billion)

Camels and butterflies

2007-09-23T18:53:00.001-05:00

I enjoy smoking cigarettes in the morning with a cup of coffee. Especially Camels. The next thing I like to do is smoke some peanut butter and Honey oil toast in my vaporizer. That gets me really high until I think I am Bruce Lee. I spend the next 1 and a half hours admiring my six pack stomach in the mirror as I break large and heavy objects with my hands and mind.

Sometimes I get slivers in my forehead from smashing 4X4 Oak beams with my skull.

So, I guess smoking can be considered dangerous.

It seems that my hands need something to do and smoking definitely fulfills that need. Sometimes I pull out my hair if I am having a nicotine fit.

What do you think I should do to kick the habit?

I imagine if I quit smoking the world would all of a sudden be such a much more beautiful place where stained glass flowers grew where butterflies flew and camels were let out of the zoo coo coo ca choo.

Dan Rather sues cbs for 70$ Million dollars

2007-09-19T17:58:00.000-05:00

It's true. Dan Rather is suing cbs for a reported sum of $70,000,000. According to tha AP, "Rather filed a $70 million law suit Wednesday against CBS, Viacom and three of his former bosses. Rather was forced to step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" in March 2005 in the aftermath of a discredited story about President George W. Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard.

Isn't it strange that an honest journalist such as Dan Rather who made his very successful career by reporting the truth was fired for reporting one tiny lie that the world's biggest liar has ever known(George Bush)?

I hope Dan Rather wins the law suit and I really hope the lies stop flooding the news channels, media, and everywhere else. The United States Government must stop feeding the world it's Bull shit now please. You should celebrate Dan Rather and Impeach the president and all the evil corporations that run the government and media from behind the violent curtain where they lie lie lie.

On that note, Check out this video on the very trustworthy (Huge Sarcasm alert) FOX NEWS where Dan Rather hints he does not like CBS. Dan is a man with integrity and clearly belongs to be heard more than Neil Cavuto(What Fox call a newsman) Ha!

BlogRush

2007-09-18T22:51:00.000-05:00

Blog Rush

BlogRush

Why is this guy whacking his head?

This guy is suffering from a classic case of Blogrush (huge traffic increase to his blog).

Do you have a blog? Want more traffic?

Join BlogRush

Police arrest and taser student

2007-09-18T16:57:00.000-05:00

University of Florida Student Andrew Meyer was Beaten, Tazered and Arrested in Gainesville yesterday for asking John Kerry , "Were you a member of the Skull and Bones with George Bush in college. Were you both a members of the same secret society?"

Watch what happens. POLICE STATE HERE WE ARE!

Last evening Meyer was charged with a third-degree felony for resisting arrest with violence, according to reports.

How is that for free speech and the new world order?

Graphic Images

2007-09-12T19:12:00.000-05:00

Amazing artworks by Lesia Chernish

Bob Dylan ascii trip

2007-09-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

Plusultra is most like Doctor Strange

2007-09-10T21:38:00.000-05:00

Who are you most like?

Google Alert - free chicken and coke

2007-09-08T19:37:00.001-05:00

Google News Alert for: free chicken and coke

Lunch with ...Louis Heuser, MD
Louisville Courier-Journal - Louisville,KY,USA
Chicken is an excellent protein choice, and chicken is pretty cheap. But fresh vegetables require a certain amount of preparation. And it requires a certain ...
See all stories on this topic

Wanna be a big fat loser?
Times of India - India
The fact of the matter is, just drinking a diet coke, having sugar free sweeteners in your coffee and working out occasionally isn'ta training programme. ...
See all stories on this topic

Watch pigskin and shed pork
Deseret News - Salt Lake City,UT,USA
I save liquid calories by gulping Diet Coke by the gallons. Experts say water is best, so I make sure the bartender throws in some ice cubes. ...
See all stories on this topic

A Mother's Musing : All of the many reasons I love Frisco Festival
Rogers Hometown News - Rogers,AR,USA
I like seeing people I know and catching up on their lives between handfuls of kettle korn and sips of Diet Coke. I like the fact that the rides are free ...
See all stories on this topic

Free For All: September 6, 2007
University Daily Kansan - Lawrence,KS,USA
And that's right, pop, not soda or Coke. These girls wearing shorts and back-less tops are driving me crazy. Legs are my weakness. ...
See all stories on this topic

Only Two Games Left This Season
OurSports Central (press release) - Marshfield,WI,USA
All fans in attendance will receive a free 2007 Suns team photo, courtesy of Coke Zero. Also Sunday, the first 500 fans to pledge to wear their safety belt ...
See all stories on this topic

A Mother's Musing : Summer good time to break from diet
Rogers Hometown News - Rogers,AR,USA
I remember the days when I had preschoolers who knew they would only get a Coke on the rare occasions we ate at McDonald's. Those were the days when I made ...
See all stories on this topic

RAW FISH IS NICE ..WHEN BATTERED AND DEEP-FRIED
Glasgow Daily Record - Glasgow,Scotland,UK
Feel free to tell the waiter: "Sorry mate, I asked for a drink of Coke not a mixer." 18 Small tables in Indian restaurants. The same Indian eateries that ...
See all stories on this topic

Top 20 things that are more dangerous to children than lead paint
American Chronicle - Beverly Hills,CA,USA
Conventionally-raised beef, pork and chicken products are, in my opinion, extremely toxic to the human body and contribute to colon cancer, breast cancer, ...
See all stories on this topic

Nothing's sacred
The Phoenix - Boston,MA,USA
"Based on their clothing," says Kunz, "none of those women are physically free." Kunz says she got about 40 letters in response to that painting. ...
See all stories on this topic

Plusultra finds Grime in the Gararage

2007-09-08T15:57:00.000-05:00

Fix up, Look sharp-by dizzee rascal

Google Alert - osama bin laden

2007-09-07T06:02:00.001-05:00

Google News Alert for: osama bin laden

Neither bin Laden nor Canadian
National Post - Canada
A fake motorcade flying the Canadian flag and chauffeuring a television prankster dressed as Osama bin Laden managed to penetrate security checkpoints at ...
See all stories on this topic

Site to show first bin Laden video
TVNZ - New Zealand
An Islamist Web site said it would soon show a new video of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - the first for nearly three years - to mark the sixth ...
See all stories on this topic

Osama video supposedly coming...Panel: Iraqis view US as permanent ...
KXMC - Minot,ND,USA
AP CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Qaida's media arm says stay tuned for a new video of Osama bin Laden. The al-Qaida leader has not appeared in new video footage ...
See all stories on this topic

OSAMA BIN LADEN
WLOS - Asheville,NC,USA
FIRST RUN: 6:15 pm edt Osama Bin Laden headshot over crosshair and US flag texture, partial graphic. AP IMAGES: Picture combo showing Osama bin Laden ...
See all stories on this topic

Testy exchange, protests at APEC...New bin Laden video tape may ...
Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck - Bismarck,ND,USA
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) If the photo is accurate, Osama bin Laden is looking younger these days with his beard dyed black. The photo is purportedly from a new ...
See all stories on this topic

Osama bin Laden joker breaches £65million security around Bush at ...
Daily Mail - UK
... War On Everything - three cars flying the Canadian flag, with one carrying a man dressed as Osama bin Laden, were waved through two police checkpoints. ...
See all stories on this topic

Osama Bin Laden Releases Business Video
The Spoof (satire) - UK
Bin Laden's public relations staff has come up with a great gimmick. They've offered Donald Trump the opportunity to drop in for a free hairstyling makeover ...
See all stories on this topic

This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

Google Alert - osama bin laden

2007-09-07T01:55:00.001-05:00

Google News Alert for: osama bin laden

Bin Laden to taunt US again in video marking 9/11
AFP -
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Osama Bin Laden plans to emerge from the shadows to taunt the United States again in a video message marking the sixth anniversary of the ...
See all stories on this topic

'Bin Laden' beats tight security to get near Bush hotel
Scotsman - United Kingdom
MEMBERS of an Australian television comedy show, one dressed as Osama bin Laden, drove through two security checkpoints yesterday before being stopped near ...
See all stories on this topic

New Bin Laden video heralded
Euronews.net - Lyon,France
An Islamist website says it will broadcast a new video from Osama Bin Laden to co-incide with the sixth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. ...
See all stories on this topic

Report: Islamic website to issue Bin Laden's new video
Xinhua - China
6 (Xinhua) -- An Islamic web site will issue a new video message of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden to mark the sixth anniversary of Sept. ...
See all stories on this topic

Group: Bin Laden Plans New Video On 9/11
Guardian Unlimited - UK
From AP CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Terror mastermind Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the Sept. ...
See all stories on this topic

Promised bin Laden video...Glitch affects terror watch lists...Hsu ...
KXMC - Minot,ND,USA
AP WHITE HOUSE (AP) The White House says any new Osama bin Laden video would serve to highlight threats against the US and other countries. ...
See all stories on this topic

Bin Laden's Return Is A Chilling Reminder To NYC
WCBS-TV New York - NY,USA
(CBS) NEW YORK He was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks and on Thursday night one group said Osama bin Laden will mark the anniversary by releasing his ...
See all stories on this topic

Bin Laden prank raises questions about APEC security
TV3 News - Auckland,New Zealand
Comedians from Australia's ABC television organised a mock motorcade carrying a fake Osama Bin Laden that came within metres of President George Bush's ...
See all stories on this topic

A chronology of Bin Laden tapes
Turkish Press - Plymouth,MI,USA
WASHINGTON - The leader of the Al-Qaeda terror network, Osama bin Laden, who had apparantly made a new recording to mark the anniversary of the September 11 ...
See all stories on this topic

New bin Laden video expected...Iraq security report...Religious ...
Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck - Bismarck,ND,USA
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Qaida's media arm says Osama bin Laden plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the September 11th ...
See all stories on this topic

This as-it-happens Google Alert is brought to you by Google.

100 HOT image links on Blog Plus Ultra

2007-09-05T23:39:00.000-05:00

Below are the top 100 Hot searches today from Google Lab's Hottrends site. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see what image each of the terms would turn up first on the Google image search engine. Some of them are what you would expect but others are pretty strange. Click a search term below to see the image. Have fun.

1.	josh blue
2.	jankovic
3.	allison jaskowiak
4.	fred thompson
5.	republican debate
6.	jankovic tennis
7.	mr hollands opus
8.	here on earth
9.	ipod touch
10.	jelena jankovic
11.	fox news debate
12.	venus williams
13.	mia henderson
14.	moonlight fire
15.	cheetah gym
16.	sacral agenesis
17.	cricket highlights
18.	sean gunn
19.	esteban cortazar
20.	andy roddick
21.	paul gillmor
22.	bleach episode 139
23.	shaq divorce
24.	india vs england 6th odi highlights
25.	gop debate

26.	lick fire
27.	fastest tennis serve
28.	iphone price drop
29.	nfl picks
30.	charles manson
31.	hp blackbird
32.	complementarity
33.	presidential debate
34.	roddick federer
35.	popcorn lung
36.	charo
37.	plumas county fire
38.	breitling emergency wristwatch
39.	minge
40.	d james kennedy
41.	what the hell is going on lyrics
42.	ipod touch release date
43.	galareka harrison
44.	melissa margera
45.	new ipods
46.	go airlines
47.	roberto clemente
48.	diacetyl
49.	microwave popcorn
50.	andre agassi

51.	community action marin
52.	nfl spreads
53.	football picks
54.	itunes 7.4
55.	california fires
56.	serena williams us open
57.	earl campbell
58.	crickethighlights.info
59.	turnitin.com
60.	jimmy connors
61.	a million little pieces
62.	plumas national forest
63.	aloha airlines
64.	molly culver
65.	lauren jackson
66.	megan dible
67.	crop circles in the carpet
68.	shaquille oneal
69.	serena williams press conference
70.	three kings
71.	fred thompson for president
72.	ipod classic
73.	reef central
74.	hotel liquidators
75.	derrick ross

76.	chicxulub crater
77.	republican candidates
78.	nfl lines
79.	morgan hill fire
80.	jennifer dunn
81.	usa network
82.	boston tea party
83.	apple itouch
84.	new iphone
85.	luciano pavarotti
86.	john mccain
87.	mustang ranch
88.	commack high school
89.	cal fire
90.	peggy lee
91.	boomer grigsby
92.	schoolnotes
93.	bike path rapist
94.	saw stop
95.	apple.com
96.	bronchiolitis obliterans
97.	phil spector
98.	tim gunn
99.	tucson news
100.	dale earnhardt

Recapitulation by Alex Cherry

2007-09-04T19:00:00.001-05:00

PIRATE NATION

OPEN YOUR EYES

Can you believe these awesome designs were made by a twenty year old! His name is Alex Cherry, he lives in Hollywood California and you can see more of his work by clicking here.

Hulu, a new and legal way to watch tv sitcoms online

2007-08-29T19:46:00.000-05:00

By David Levasseur

Today NBC and News Corp. launched Hulu.com. Hulu is a streaming video website the two media giants hope will combat the illegal file sharing epidemic of video content through p2p sites like youtube.
Hulu's agenda is huge and they are hoping to take over Youtube's place on the Internet by investing big money(including $100 million in private equity) and a total valuation reportedly worth $1 billion. Hulu is currently in invitation-only Beta testing mode(email required) and you will not even be able to watch your favorite tv sitcoms and other programming until October.
NBC and News Corp. are far from being the only media companies with illegal content file sharing issues on their plates. It seems like everybody in the broadcasting and entertainment industry are competing to be the front runners in the ever changing information world. Traditional advertising is clearly a thing of the past. I expect Hulu to come up with some very creative new methods of earning advertisers' dollars.
Why the name Hulu? Jason Kilar, CEO of Hulu, says, "Why Hulu? Objectively, Hulu is short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself. Subjectively, Hulu strikes us as an inherently fun name, one that captures the spirit of the service we're building. Our hope is that Hulu will embody our (admittedly ambitious) never-ending mission, which is to help you find and enjoy the world's premier content when, where and how you want it."

I think we will be hearing a lot more about Hulu in the next little while, but will it achieve its' goals? Time will tell.

When I grow up, I want to be a...

2007-08-28T23:03:00.000-05:00

Painter! More specifically a Japanese body painting artist

Thanks to Random Citations for the pictures.

What is better than a velvet hattrick?

2007-08-27T23:36:00.000-05:00

In case you don't already know what the velvet hat trick is, Let me tell you.
The Velvet hattrick is a sly way of saying I had santa fe funnel cake or a peppermint bobsled, or my personal favorite (because I am from Winnipeg) the Manitoba snow cone!

In simpler terms a velvet hat trick is a clever? way of saying you had sex in all 3 available places a women has to offer. Check it out for yourself.

Any way I believe I asked what is better than a velvet hattrick? The answer:
The Velvet Underground's Venus in furs

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Clubs and bells, your servant, dont forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Downy sins of streetlight fancies
Chase the costumes she shall wear
Ermine furs adorn the imperious
Severin, severin awaits you there

I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears

Kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather
Shiny leather in the dark
Tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Severin, severin, speak so slightly
Severin, down on your bended knee
Taste the whip, in love not given lightly
Taste the whip, now plead for me

I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears

Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather
Whiplash girlchild in the dark
Severin, your servant comes in bells, please dont forsake him
Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

Testicle slapping

2007-08-26T22:50:00.000-05:00

Only in Japan could they get away with this!

Who would marry Mary Ann Bevan?

2007-08-26T17:05:00.000-05:00

Thomas Bevan with whom she would have four children.

I used to think I had a good sense of what ugly was, but

Mary Ann Bevan was the world's self proclaimed ugliest woman and I will not disagree.

Mary Ann Bevan (born Mary Ann Webster, 20 December 1874 – 26 December 1933) was named as "the ugliest woman in the world" in the early 20th century after developing acromegaly(a form of progressive giantism that causes abnormal growth and distortion of the facial features, as well as headaches, failing eyesight and joint and muscle pain). Bevan was Born in Plaistow, London as one of eight children, and worked as a nurse for much of her younger life.

Around the year 2000 Mary Ann Bevans's image was used by Hallmark Cards on a birthday card in the United Kingdom making reference to the dating show Blind Date. This was poorly received and a complaint was made by a Dutch doctor that it made fun of a woman who had become physically deformed as the result of a disease. Hallmark decided that the card was indeed inappropriate and removed it from shop shelves. Blog Plus Ultra decided that it was o.k. to show these pictures because plusultra is indeed inappropriate and feels better about himself when making fun of others.

RapidSearch

2007-08-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

RapidSearch is a cool new site I just discovered where you can buy DVDs, Music and Games. All of their entertainment products are well organized into easy to search categories and sub-categories. For example in the DVD Animation area I found the ultra cool Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition)dvd and in the Music Outlaw and Progressive Country category I found a Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison c.d. You should check it out.

Is Blog Plus Ultra the Ne Plus Ultra of Blogs?

2007-08-24T19:07:00.000-05:00

Ne!
Blog Plus Ultra is the plusultra of everything.
My motto is Ever Higher Ever Farther Ever Better
Plus ultra is the Right View
Plus ultra is the Right Intention
Plus ultra is the Right Speech
Plus ultra is the Right Action
Plus ultra is the Right Livelihood
Plus ultra is the Right Effort
Plus ultra is the Right Mindfulness
Plus ultra is the Right Concentration

The death of Fidel Castro?

2007-08-24T15:11:00.000-05:00

The rumor That Fidel Castro is dead has been circulating the internet a whole lot lately. The latest Fidel Castro news is coming from perezhilton.com. This is not the first time people have been claiming Cuban leader Fidel Castro dead. In fact Fidel Castro dies every few days lately it seems. According to perezhilton.com the announcement that Fidel Castro died will be made at approximately 4:00 P.M. Eastern today. So, Is Fidel Castro dead? Leave a comment below.

Playboy U high schoolers, old dudes and your Mom can't join.

2007-08-23T22:58:00.000-05:00

If you want to enroll at Playboy U, the new exclusive college-only non-nude social network launched today. Here is where you can show your school pride, connect with other students and celebrate the social side of college. Playbou U is incorporating, in true Hugh Heffner style an exclusive "members only" kind of status by only allowing people with .edu emails required.

Press Release

"Playboy U's mix of journalism, entertainment and cross-campus dialogue is distinct within social networking," said Scott Stephen, EVP of Operations, Playboy Entertainment Group. "We like to think of Playboy U as a 'campus social advisor' helping students make the most of their college experience. It's a completely different experience from what other social networks in the market have to offer."

Playboy U is open to college students 18 years of age and older with a valid .edu address. The community encourages user-generated content and dialogue about relationships, student life, social responsibility, and pop culture, and the site will showcase members' writing, photography, and videos. Playboy U also features school pages moderated by an official Playboy U student rep where members can show off their school pride and exchange news, event information, and messages. Additionally, the site offers uniquely Playboy content such as party photos, videos, contributions from Playboy personalities, and online and real world events.

Playboy U will have a unique multimedia format in conjunction with Playboy Radio. "The Playboy U Radio Show" will air its first show Wednesday, September 5 at 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time on Playboy Radio, exclusively on Sirius Satellite Radio. The weekly program will bring the site to life by profiling members and campus content. It will also feature advice segments, campus news, and student callers discussing college life.

Would You Like Lies With That?

2007-08-22T18:09:00.000-05:00

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal (2001) is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry. First serialized by Rolling Stone in 1999...Schlosser examines the history and growth of fast food restaurants in American culture. Schlosser argues that the fast food industry wields powerful economic — and therefore political — influence on American culture and exploits that influence to increase profits at the expense of public health and of the social conditions of its workers. In making that argument, however, he insightfully portrays the fast food culture as a unique product of American history and the culture's relation to the emergence of the automobile, the homogenization of corporate culture, changes in labor conditions, and economic globalization. He also provides respectful biographies of some of the industry's "founding fathers", including Carl Karcher, Ray Kroc, and others. The fast food industry, writes Schlosser, "has helped to transform not only the American diet, but also our landscape, economy, workforce, and popular culture." From Wikipedia

Fast Food Nation speech in Lancaster 2007- Part 3

Fast Food Nation speech in Lancaster 2007- Part 4

Fast Food Nation speech in Lancaster 2007- Part 5

Fast Food Nation speech in Lancaster 2007- Part 6

You Do What You Eat

Br Marco Visscher
From Ode Magazine

Forget tougher punishments and hiring more police. The solution to crime and violence is on your plate. Here’s how healthy food can reduce aggressive behaviour.

At first glance there seems nothing special about the students at this high school in Appleton, Wisconsin. They appear calm, interact comfortably with one another, and are focused on their schoolwork. No apparent problems.

And yet a couple of years ago, there was a police officer patrolling the halls at this school for developmentally challenged students. Many of the students were troublemakers, there was a lot of fighting with teachers and some of the kids carried weapons. School counsellor Greg Bretthauer remembers that when he first came to Appleton Central Alternative High School back in 1997 for a job interview: “I found the students to be rude, obnoxious and ill-mannered.” He had no desire to work with them, and turned down the job.

Several years later, Bretthauer took the job after seeing that the atmosphere at the school had changed profoundly. Today he describes the students as “calm and well-behaved” in a new video documentary, Impact of Fresh, Healthy Foods on Learning and Behavior. Fights and offensive behaviour are extremely rare and the police officer is no longer needed. What happened?

A glance through the halls at Appleton Central Alternative provides the answer. The vending machines have been replaced by water coolers. The lunchroom took hamburgers and French fries off the menu, making room for fresh vegetables and fruits, whole-grain bread and a salad bar.

Is that all? Yes, that’s all. Principal LuAnn Coenen is still surprised when she speaks of the “astonishing” changes at the school since she decided to drastically alter the offering of food and drinks eight years ago. “I don’t have the vandalism. I don’t have the litter. I don’t have the need for high security.”

It is tempting to dismiss what happened at Appleton Central Alternative as the wild fantasies of health-food and vitamin-supplement fanatics. After all, scientists have never empirically investigated the changes at the school. Healthy nutrition—especially the effects of vitamin and mineral supplements—appears to divide people into opposing camps of fervent believers, who trust the anecdotes about diets changing people’s lives, and equally fervent sceptics, who dismiss these stories as hogwash.

And yet it is not such a radical idea, that food can affect the way our brains work—and thus our behaviour. The brain is an active machine: It only accounts for two percent of our body weight, but uses a whopping 20 percent of our energy. In order to generate that energy, we need a broad range of nutrients—vitamins, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids—that we get from nutritious meals. The question is: What are the consequences when we increasingly shovel junk food into our bodies?

It is irrefutably true that our eating habits have dramatically changed over the past 30-odd years. “Convenience foods” has become a catch-all term that covers all sorts of frozen, microwaved and out-and-out junk foods. The ingredients of the average meal have been transported thousands of kilometres before landing on our plates; it’s not hard to believe that some of the vitamins were lost in the process.

We already know obesity can result if we eat too much junk food, but there may be greater consequences of unhealthy diets than extra weight around our middles. Do examples like the high school in Wisconsin point to a direct connection between nutrition and behaviour? Is it simply coincidence that the increase in aggression, crime and social incivility in Western society has paralleled a spectacular change in our diet? Could there be a link between the two?

Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminal-justice professor at California State University in Stanislaus, has been researching the relationship between food and behaviour for more than 20 years He has proven that reducing the sugar and fat intake in our daily diets leads to higher IQs and better grades in school. When Schoenthaler supervised a change in meals served at 803 schools in low-income neighbourhoods in New York City, the number of students passing final exams rose from 11 percent below the national average to five percent above. He is best known for his work in youth detention centers. One of his studies showed that the number of violations of house rules fell by 37 percent when vending machines were removed and canned food in the cafeteria was replaced by fresh alternatives. He summarizes his findings this way: “Having a bad diet right now is a better predictor of future violence than past violent behaviour.”

But Schoenthaler’s work is under fire. A committee from his own university has recommended suspending him for his allegedly improper research methods: Schoenthaler didn’t always use a placebo as a control measure and his group of test subjects wasn’t always chosen at random. This criticism doesn’t refute Schoenthaler’s research that nutrition has an effect on behaviour. It means most of his studies simply lack the scientific soundness needed to earn the respect of his colleagues.

Recent research that—even Schoenthaler’s critics admit—was conducted flawlessly, showed similar conclusions. Bernard Gesch, physiologist at the University of Oxford, decided to test the anecdotal clues in the most thorough study so far in this field. In a prison for men between the ages of 18 and 21 in England’s Buckinghamshire, 231 volunteers were divided into two groups: One was given nutrition supplements along with their meals that contained our approximate daily needs for vitamins, minerals and fatty acids; the other group got placebos. Neither the prisoners, nor the guards, nor the researchers at the prison knew who took fake supplements and who got the real thing.

The researchers then tallied the number of times the participants violated prison rules, and compared it to the same data that had been collected in the months leading up to the nutrition study. The prisoners given supplements for four consecutive months committed an average of 26 percent fewer violations compared to the preceding period. Those given placebos showed no marked change in behaviour. For serious breaches of conduct, particularly the use of violence, the number of violations decreased 37 percent for the men given nutrition supplements, while the placebo group showed no change.

The experiment was carefully constructed, ruling out the possibility that ethnic, social, psychological or other variables could affect the outcome. Prisons are popular places to conduct studies for good reason: There is a strict routine; participants sleep and exercise the same number of hours every day and eat the same things at the same time. Says John Copas, professor in statistical methodology at the University of Warwick: “This is the only trial I have ever been involved with from the social sciences which is designed properly and with a good analysis.” As a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Gesch emerges with convincing scientific proof that poor nutrition plays a role in triggering aggressive behaviour.

Indeed, the study proves what every parent already knows. Serve soda and candy at a children’s birthday party and you’ll get loud, hyperactive behaviour followed by tears and tantrums.

It works like this: Blood-sugar levels jump suddenly after you eat sugar, which initially gives you a burst of fresh energy. But then your blood sugar falls, and you become lethargic and sleepy. In an attempt to prevent blood-sugar levels from falling too low, your body produces adrenalin, which makes you irritable and explosive.

But sugar can’t be the only problem. After all, high blood-sugar levels mainly have a short-term effect on behaviour, while the research of Schoenthaler and Gesch indicates changes over a longer period. They suggest it is much more important that you get the right amount of vitamins, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids because these substances directly influence the brain, and therefore behaviour.

If these findings prove true, and they do look convincing, then we should be sounding an alarm about good nutrition. What are the long-term implications of the fact that the quality of our farmland has sharply declined in recent decades? The use of artificial fertilizer for years on end has diminished the levels of important minerals like magnesium, chromium and selenium, therefore present in much lower concentrations in our food.

The eating habits of children and young people also should be a cause for serious concern. Their diets now are rich in sugar, fats and carbohydrates, and poor in vegetables and fruit. Add to this an increasing lack of exercise among kids, and the problem becomes even worse. The World Health Organization (WHO) talks of an epidemic of overweight among children. Obesity, the official name for serious weight problems, is said to absorb up to six percent of the total health budget—a cautious estimate as all kinds of related diseases cannot be included in the exact calculation. Think of what this situation will look like when the current generation of overweight kids hits middle age.

The link between food and health is better understood by most people than the relationship between food and behaviour, so health has become the driving force behind many public campaigns to combat overweight. A discussion has arisen in a number of countries about introducing a tax on junk food, the proceeds of which would be spent on promoting healthy eating. In Britain, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in May he planned to spend an extra 280 million pounds (the equivalent of 420 million euros or $500 million U.S.) on improving school lunches after the famous television chef Jamie Oliver began speaking out on the issue.

Yet with crime a major political issue almost everywhere, it’s surprising more leaders have not embraced the idea of healthy eating as a recipe for safe streets and schools. After Gesch published his findings in 2002 in The British Journal of Psychiatry, the study was picked up by European and American media. The newspaper headlines were clear: “Healthy eating can cut crime”; “Eat right or become a criminal”; “Youth crime linked to consumption of junk food”; “Fighting crime one bite at a time.” Then the media went deafeningly silent.

Perhaps that’s because the relationship between nutrition and violence continues to be controversial in established professional circles. During their educations, doctors and psychologists are given scant training in nutrition, criminologists provided little awareness of biochemistry, and nutritionists offered no hands-on experience with lawbreakers or the mentally ill. As a result, the link between food and behaviour winds up in no-man’s-land. Even researchers interested in the subject are discouraged—not least of all because you can’t get a patent on natural nutrients like vitamins and minerals. Far more effort goes into pharmaceutical, rather than dietary, solutions.

The Netherlands currently is the only country where Gesch’s research is being explored. Plans to test the findings about nutrition supplements and behaviour further are being set up in 14 prisons, with nearly 500 subjects. Ap Zaalberg, leading the project for the Dutch Ministry of Justice, remembers how he and his colleagues reacted when they first heard of Gesch’s study. “Disbelief,” he states resolutely. “This was surely not true. But when I looked into the issue more closely, I landed in a world of hard science.”

Zaalberg knows diet is not the only factor that determines whether someone exhibits aggressive behaviour. “Aggression is not only determined by nutrition,” he states. “Background and drug use, for example, also play a role. Yet I increasingly see the introduction of vitamins and minerals as a very rational approach.” “Most criminal-justice systems assume that criminal behaviour is entirely a matter of free will,” Gesch says. “But how exactly can you exercise free will without involving your brain? How exactly can the brain function without an adequate nutrient supply? Nutrition in fact could be a major player and, for sure, we have seriously underestimated its importance. I think nutrition may actually be one of the most straightforward factors to change antisocial behaviour. And we know that it’s not only highly effective, it’s also cheap and humane.”

Cheap it is. Natural Justice, the British charity institution chaired by Gesch, which is researching “the origins of anti-social and criminal behaviour,” estimates it would cost 3.5 million pounds (5.3 million euros or 6.4 million U.S. dollar) to provide supplements to all the prisoners in Great Britain. That is only a fraction of the current prison budget of 2 billion pounds (3 billion euros or 3.6 billion U.S. dollar).

It seems the link between nutrition and antisocial behaviour shows great promise as both political issue and human-interest story. How much longer will politicians concentrate on police and stricter surveillance as the answer to crime? When will they realize healthy food can help create a healthier society? After all, people would not only be more productive, but the cost of health care and of the criminal-justice system would decline. As is the case for a man’s love, the way to safety may be through the stomach.

As Bernard Gesch notes, “Few scientists are not convinced that diet is fundamental for the development of the human brain. Is it plausible that in the last 50 years we could have made spectacular changes to the human diet without any implications for the brain? I don’t think so. Now, evidence is mounting that putting poor fuel into the brain significantly affects social behaviour. We need to know more about the composition of the right nutrients. It could be the recipe for peace.”

Food Facts
From Media Awareness

Call it fast food, snack food or even junk food - North Americans love it! Here are some interesting facts about junk food.

In the United States, the food industry spends more than $33 billion a year to advertise products that are mostly loaded with fat, salt and sugar.

Every month, more than 90 per cent of the children in the United States eat at McDonald's

The American National Cancer Institute spends $1 million per year to encourage people to eat fruits and vegetables.

Over the past twenty-five years, American researchers have found an increase in fast-food commercials during children's television programming - with many of these commercials emphasizing larger portions.

According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, most food advertising on children's TV shows is for fast foods, soft drinks, candy and pre-sweetened cereals - while commercials for healthy food make up only 4 per cent of those shown.

During the 1950s, the typical soft drink order at a fast food restaurant contained about eight ounces of soda. Today, a "child" order of Coke at McDonalds is twelve ounces, and a large Coke is thirty-two ounces (and about 310 calories!).

Fast food companies make higher profits on soft drinks than on their food products.

McDonalds is the largest owner of private playgrounds in North America.

In 1997, Americans spent over $54 billion on soft drinks.

Twelve- to nineteen-year-old boys drink an average of 868 cans of pop per year. Girls drink about one-fourth less - about 651 cans per year.

A super-sized order of McDonald's fries contains 610 calories and 29 grams of fat. Other brands aren't much better: a king-sized order of Burger King's fries packs 590 calories and 30 grams of fat.

Per ounce, Chicken McNuggets contain twice as much fat as hamburger.

In the United States, obesity is second only to smoking as a cause of death.

In Canada, 46 per cent of adults are overweight or obese. Over the past twenty years, obesity rates for Canadian kids have tripled.

The American artificial flavour industry - the industry that's behind the great taste of much of the snack food we consume - has annual revenues of approximately $1.4 billion.

And speaking of artificial flavouring - a typical strawberry milkshake contains approximately fifty artificial ingredients to create that great "strawberry" taste!

Yuwie Yuwie Yuwie

2007-08-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

I just joined Yuwie. It seems to be another good way for bloggers like youie and meiee to make good money. How? Just click below.

Psychedelic Sunday

2007-08-19T21:31:00.000-05:00

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Potfest, Beerfest,Hempfest, which is the best fest?

2007-08-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

Potfest (Organised by Chris and Geoff Cox), is held in the grounds of Hutton-in-the-Forest stately home, and attracts ceramic artists from around the world

The work on display at Potfest in the Park is of the highest quality and is now recognised as one of the premier ceramics shows in Europe.

Beerfest is a beer-themed comedy film by the comedy group Broken Lizard released 2006.

Broken Lizard is a comedy group best known for its films Super Troopers, Club Dread, and Beerfest. The five members of the group are Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, and Erik Stolhanske. They all jointly write and act in their films, with Chandrasekhar as director.

The final scene with the message "Coming Soon - Potfest" was confirmed by Broken Lizard as a joke to make this film have an open-ended feel. The troupe said there has been fan support to create the sequel, which might be made as an animated film.

Seattle Hempfest is an annual event in Seattle, Washington, the world's largest annual gathering demanding legalization of marijuana for uses including but not limited to medicinal, industrial, and recreational. Founded in 1991 as the Washington Hemp Expo, a self-described "humble gathering of stoners" attended by only 500 people, it has grown into a 2-day annual event with attendance typically over 100,000.

Seattle Hempfest is held the third weekend in August. This year's event is August 18-19, 2007 at Myrtle Edwards Park on the beautiful Seattle waterfront, just north of Pier 70 at the corner of Alaskan Way and Broad Street.

Admission to Seattle Hempfest is free.

So, which fest is the best fest?

Spider-Man before and after

2007-08-18T15:24:00.000-05:00

The original Spiderman theme song

Is he strong? Listen bud, he's got radio-active blood.
Can he swing from a thread? Take a look, overhead!
Hey there! There goes the Spider-man.
In the chill of night, at the scene of a crime.
Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time.
Spider-Man! Spider-man!
Friendly neighborhood Spider-man!
Wealth and fame he's ignored, action is his reward.
To him, life is a great big bang up, wherever there's a hang up, you'll find the Spider-man!

Ramones-Spider-Man

Made with The Sims2 & Windows Movie Maker. by Zsuigres

CRM lead management software by AIMpromote

2007-08-17T20:11:00.000-05:00

What is crm software? The AIMpromote system is a very easy to use Customer relationship management (CRM) tool that also allows the account holder to sell leads before, after, or instead of making a sale themselves. They are the technology leaders in sales lead management. Making sales in today's competitive market requires that prospective clients be shown more attention than ever before. AIMpromote subscribers are able to send out several promotional pieces spread out over a pre-configured period of time to a specific subset of their leads. This kind of technology empowers companies in any industry to more effectively generate, delegate, and report on leads and the teams that manage them. CLOSE MORE SALES than ever before by signing up today for the 14-day free trial. The site offers many features that will help make your website more profitable. Get alerts and reminders about neglected leads, upcoming tasks, and overdue tasks. Another point worth mentioning is that AIMpromote.com is an on-demand software, sometimes referred to as software-as-a-service. This means that there is no software to download or install. Don't just listen to me, check out the site's testimonials from extremely satisfied customers like, "We have been extremely pleased with the support which AIMpromote has provided to us. Their support staff is very friendly, very professional and extremely knowledgeable about their product."

Gross Ornate Golden Baboon spider

2007-08-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

The aptly named Suffolk SPCA chief Roy Gross was called in to a Rocky Point man's home today for something Gross indeed, a Hairy fat spider that is capable of jumping three feet and delivering a bite of toxic venom equal to a scorpion's. The man said he had been keeping it as a pet, but was now suffering from a classic case of Ornate golden baboon spider arachnophobia.

Is it just me, or does that guy sounds really dumb?

Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio (by Federico Fellini) with Peppino de Filippo and Anita Ekberg.

2007-08-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

This clip is from the movie Boccaccio '70 a 1962 Italian portmanteau film directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, from an idea by Cesare Zavattini. The movie is an anthology of four episodes, each by one of the directors, all about a different aspect of morality and love in modern times, in the style of Boccaccio.

Dali Cannon escapes

2007-08-14T22:58:00.000-05:00

Snorting the last line of cocaine off the Brazilian whore's ass, Dali Cannon whistles and slaps, whistles and slaps. Before he cums, he knows he wants what he needs. She knows he has no money...

Barefoot, he wakes up in prison with a terrible hangover and it smells like urine. Dali remembers everything before the orgasm and does not remember anything after. This was the third day in three days that Dali Cannon had blacked-out. He asks himself, "Am I trying to escape reality?"

The answer is yes. Yes, he was trying to escape the reality he had created for himself. In Dali's world alcohol was water and women were wine. He was always drunk on one and than the other. It was easy to pass off as an innocent and youthful lust for life up until now. Now his good natured ass was in jail. How this happened, Dali had no idea. Images of beer and cigarette smoking on verandas over looking beautiful gardens of weed flashed through his mind in black and white. Fast the vivid scenes of the past few hours played out in Dali's mind. A true ball of confusion greater than Buddha spoke about under the Bodhi tree. Zig Zag papers gathering crumbs of white powder together in a line and clearing the sinuses of an old retired skeptic matched with some Hawaiian pot that was like Maui Wowie mixes with plusultra's free beer and Bacchus' anti - depressant medication...

"That was a very strange dream!"

Do you want more Dali Cannon?

Fluorescent lighting by carguygarage.com

2007-08-13T21:21:00.000-05:00

Do you need fluorescent lighting in your garage and bathroom. I do. I need to be able to see when I am working on a detailed project like my car or on my face. The fluorescent bulbs create the perfect lighting for many of my needs like shaving in front of the mirror to polishing my car on a Sunday afternoon.