I thought I was the only one who liked to take pictures of manholes and drain covers, until I found Drainspotting.

[Memepool]

Kathy Crockett Richards has spent thirty years perfecting her Floral Radiographs. See through a flower to a new kind of beauty.

[Speckled Paint]

Crispin Glover is loved by weirdos because he is one. Hey, check out that IMDB mugshot.

Thanks Craig.

Famed for all their great parties throughout Bklyn Blackkat is at it again.

In this three part interview series, Sake Drenched Postcards brings you interviews of some great Manga artists.

First is an interview with the creator of Hentai,
Toshio Maeda. Starting in the early 80’s, Mr. Maeda introduced a racy and “perverted” sexual side to Manga, heretofore unknown.

[Tokyo Ouija

God, could they *EVER* air an ad like this in the states? What would all the Christians think?

[Tokyo Ouji

Need some solice on Friday or anyday for that matter, check out some of the writings of Chuang Tzu. Ancient Chinese secrets from the fourth century state of Sung…

Thought I’d air some right leaning war opposition. Scott McConnell says “The War Party

Eddie Breen’s M.O. - take existing art, and add a little something extra to make the bad good or the boring interesting. The something extra ranges from “nuns, flying jesuses, flame people, or demons”. Any Catholics out there?

[Speckled Paint]

I thought I’d seen it all from Japan as far as strange products go. You’ve probably heard of the hello kitty vibrator, and other strange items.
But then I found these new ones…

[Geisha Asobi]

Definitely in the funny category, and you can bet Starbuck’s ain’t happy about it. Playboy magazine is planning a new issue “Women of Starbucks”… calling all coffee making cuties! It’s an interesting illustration of Fair Use.

[boingboing]

Looking for a new postmodern art + theory site, check out
Mediamatic. I ran into this site because they Kroker’s work.

And not just with soap and water. According to this Wired article, workplace surveillance is on the rise, from keyboard tracking, badge tracking, surveillance cameras, and of course email and web browsing habits. It’s looking more and more like a scene from Brazil.

Check out this site called HeadScan. Turn on your scanner, insert head + other objects, upload pic, email to
quietjames@hotmail.com, along with name, occupation, location, and url, and you can join the party!

[MetaFilter]

Here’s a scary story about a former public defender who said some disparaging things about the government in a chatroom while at a library, and was arrest, and dragged out in handcuffs!

This doesn’t bode well for freedom of speech or freedom of expression. Let’s all pray this didn’t really happen.

[MetaFilter]

Now nds is linked on Tales From the City.How does this work anyway? It’s kinda cool to see the weblog url traveling through other sites…

Perhaps the ends justify the means. In this case PETA seems to have a strange argument for removing meat from inmates diets. I wouldn’t think they’d argue that meat was a privilege, and I don’t immediately see how a vegetarian diet reduces violence, though it probably would save them some money.

We’ve mentioned PETA before.

Tuesday afternoon was no walk in the park for students of Peking and Tsinghua Universities in Beijing yesturday when a homemade bombs exploded on both campuses.

No one has yet claimed responsiblity.

Check out this page full of Yakuza Movie Posters. Just click the links, don’t worry about the translation…

[Speckled Paint]

It’s interesting to see that emotions + feelings are becoming more important in other disciplines besides psychology. Martha Nussbaum has some interesting things to say, but I would even more thoroughly recommend getting a copy of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.

[Metafilter]

There’s an elaborate online gallery of La Catedral de Girona, north of Barcelona, Spain. Though I usually don’t like flash much because it never works well for me, I *DID* especially like the interactive location map.

[Metafilter]

Someone once told me they knew it was time to get out of dot-com stocks when they got stock tips from the corner deli. Certainly signifies a phenomenon of popular culture…

Take these terror warnings…

Drug manufacturers will use all kinds of tricks to get doctors to prescribe their drugs, from gifts, to exotic vacations. All under the table of course. Apparently they even make payments to insurance plans. Now the feds want to ruin all the fun.

[The Rant]

Prenuptial agreements have always been tough point, but when it comes to rich superstars, they can be downright bizarre. Take the one between Catherine Zeta Jones + Michael Douglass which states that she is awarded 5 million for each time he strays.

And then they live happily ever after, yeah right.

The fascinating Voynich Manuscript has never been translated. Some theorize that Roger Bacon wrote it in the 13th century. The book is written in a strange script without reference to any known language.

Wow, just found this interesting site for handcuff collectors. They have your basic, and then leg irons, and the more exotic thumbcuffs. There’s even info on escape artists, and a good bibliography. But even with an unusual nipper gallery, there’s no mention of strange fetishists.

Yeah sure, these guys are *ONLY* collectors.

I did a piece on Star Wars Origami a while back, but this one is… let’s just say a little more racy. Click at your *OWN* risk.

[Tokyo Ouja]

When I was in Tokyo, Japan last year, one thing amazed me very much. Between the major city centers, many people have homes, and they all seemed to have incredibly manicured gardens. Check out this garden where the bushes are manicured to look like giant heads.

Paul, brief translation?

[Tokyo Ouja]

Yaakov Benenson and a team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science unveiled a microscopic DNA powered biochemical computer. Incredible as it seems, they say it’s conceivable to build one as small as a droplet of water, which would perform 66 billion operations per second.

[Google News]

This new blog by my good friend Gunnar H. offers up a lot of contemporary political commentary for your digestion. Mix in a few tech pieces and the occaisional NY piece.

I like it!