I know, I know, two BB things in a row, but this is just too cool to not share!

Dragon Optical Illusion. Mark Frauenfelder:

This little paper dragon is folded in such a way that when you turn it, it appears as though it is turning its head to face you. I guess it's like those negative busts at the Haunted Mansion. The video for this is neat. Link (via Sensible Erection)

[Boing Boing]

The video is really trippy, especially when the dragon's head follows you up and down. And when you finally move far enough around to disclose the illusion, there's a moment that feels like some sort of time/space warp, like an Escher painting come to life.

6:12:48 PM     leave/read comments []

A prank of beauty.

Robodump 1.0 - an excellent prank. Mark Frauenfelder:

Kevin Kelm made a robot that looks like someone taking a dump. You can listen to the soundtrack at his site.

RoboDump is a robot. Sort of. And it poops. Sort of. Forever. A horrible, never-ending bowel movement complete with straining grunts, horrific gas, splashes, and pee sounds. I snuck RoboDump into the men's room at the office. Unfortunately, today turned out to be the day of a board meeting. Whoops! It still went over well; the office was abuzz all morning with gossip about the guy in the bathroom. Several people theorized it was the CFO. The janitor commented to someone in the hallway that he wanted to clean the restroom but "this guy's been in there all morning."

Link [Boing Boing]

I feel the robot's pain. You really don't want to know more than that, trust me.

6:03:27 PM     leave/read comments []

And to think that people have the nerve to say that Bu$Co isn't a fascist regime.

The word "rights"-- too controversial for the FCC?. We live in a time when a public radio station thinks the phrase "reproductive rights" will provoke the ire of the FCC: "WUNC-FM recently informed Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based international women's rights and health organization, that the phrase 'reproductive rights' in the group's on-air announcement could be interpreted as advocating a particular political position. The station required Ipas to use 'reproductive health' instead." [Salon.com]

I'm getting a headache.

5:57:09 PM     leave/read comments []

Why does the Bush FCC hate America and it's veterans?

Killing "Private Ryan". TV stations boycott a Veterans Day broadcast of Spielberg's film amid new FCC threats. [Salon.com]

More than 20 American TV stations Thursday night boycotted a Veterans Day screening of war movie "Saving Private Ryan" because of fears that they would be censured by a newly aggressive television regulator over the movie's violence and graphic language. Network executives said the rebellion by affiliates of the ABC television network in Dallas, Atlanta, Phoenix and other leading markets was sparked by fears of reprisals from the Federal Communications Commission.

"It would clearly have been our preference to run the movie. We think it's a patriotic, artistic tribute to our fighting forces," Ray Cole, president of Citadel Communications, which owns three Midwestern stations, told the Associated Press. But Cole said fear of punishment from the FCC -- and a belief among broadcasters that last week's elections revealed growing conservatism in the U.S. -- had forced the stations into caution. "We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new Congress," he said.

Though, as it turns out, this whole "Moral Issues" thing is BS.

Survey: Format Influenced Voter Priorities

Whether voters named "moral values" their key issue partly depended on whether that subject was included in a list of choices provided by pollsters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis released Thursday.

When "moral values" was included in poll questions, it was named more often than any other issue. But when voters were just asked to name the issue most important in their vote for president - without being given a list of answers - moral values trailed the war in Iraq and the economy, according to the Pew survey. (emph. mine)

"Hi! We're from the government and we're doing a survey! Have you ever done any illegal drugs?"

1:14:57 PM     leave/read comments []