cuthbert killed osmium

In Defense of Ohio

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:11:00 -0500

From a brooklynvegan comment thread:

initial:

Anyone who pays $250 to see U2 is a moron, that band is god awful. I mean if you live in Ohio and havent been exposed to anything else thats one thing, but if you are surrounded by other music there is just no excuse.

smackdown:

“I mean if you live in Ohio and havent been exposed to anything else”
you mean like Rocket from the Tombs, Pere Ubu, Devo, Guided by Voices, Jim Shepard/V3, Breeders, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Styrenes, Death of Samantha, Electric Eels, Bill Fox, The Mice, Great Plains, New Bomb Turks, Afghan Whigs? Yeah, a shame people in Ohio haven’t been exposed to that…

Reason you stole my heart: Putting Rocket from the Tombs first.

Take your daughter to work day. I had never seen Robot Chicken...

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:48:56 -0500

Take your daughter to work day.

I had never seen Robot Chicken before, but I came upon these on youtube. The awesomeness, it is hard to top.

Mia is doing a bang-up job curating the Astoria page on Neighborhoodr

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:25:44 -0500

Mia is doing a bang-up job curating the Astoria page on Neighborhoodr

comicallyvintage: mysticalhawthorn: Barbarella is a fictional...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:43:00 -0500

comicallyvintage:

mysticalhawthorn:

Barbarella is a fictional heroine in the French science fiction comic book created by Jean-Claude Forest. He created the character for serialisation in the French magazine V-Magazine in spring 1962, and in 1964 Eric Losfeld later published these strips as a stand-alone book, under the title Barbarella. The stand-alone version caused a scandal and became known as the first “adult” comic-book, despite its eroticism being slight and the existence of the Tijuana bibles well before this date. Its traditional editor, however, contrasted with its subject matter, anticipating as it did the sexual revolution.

Barbarella is a young woman who travels from planet to planet and has numerous adventures, often involving sex (the aliens she meets often seduce her, and she also experiments with a “machine excessive” or “orgasmotron”). The original comic book version of Barbarella was probably modeled on Brigitte Bardot, who was once married to the director of the 1968 film, Roger Vadim; Jane Fonda appeared in the film’s title role. For her creator, the character embodied the modern woman in the era of sexual liberation.

Too much science, here’s Barbarella. Ever seen Jane Fonda naked?

Damh, it is true microbes can make hydrogen, but they are just...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:40:00 -0500

Damh, it is true microbes can make hydrogen, but they are just an energy converter. i.e. you put energy and water into the microbes, and get hydrogen (H2) out.

This is just like a fuel cell running in reverse (like the Danes use with their windmills in the video) or a zinc (Zn) battery running in recharge mode. They are all three ways to put energy in and get a material storing energy out.

Unless you are at the sun, hydrogen is never a primary source of energy—on Earth it is always the result of storage, because we don’t have hydrogen wells. You have to make hydrogen.

Natural gas, however, you can just pull out of the ground. it’s primary.

A cartoon showing where energy comes from and what energy...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:16:00 -0500

A cartoon showing where energy comes from and what energy storage means. Energy:

Comes from a primary source (sun, earth’s core, fossil fuel)
Gets converted to electricity (solar cell for light, power plant for fossil)
Gets either used, wasted, or stored

I show two ways to store:

turn water (H2O) to hydrogen (H2)
turn zinc oxide (ZnO) to zinc (Zn)

Then reverse the storage process and get the energy back out when you need it. (Getting H2O or ZnO back as well.)

soupsoup: Danes use hydrogen cells to maximize wind...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:44:00 -0500

soupsoup:

Danes use hydrogen cells to maximize wind power.

Hydrogen is so 2003 guys—use zinc

I used to study hydrogen fuel cells. Now I focus on stationary scale zinc batteries, and am trying to convince the world to follow suit. The principle is the same as in the hydrogen fuel cell case: use wind, solar, or geothermal power to form zinc (instead of hydrogen). The zinc stores the energy. Get the energy back from the zinc whenever you need it.

Hydrogen and zinc are energy storage materials—ways to stash energy away that would otherwise go to waste.

The Danes, they should give osmium a grant.

Hydrogen is flammable; zinc is not (advantage: zinc)
Zinc is condensed matter; hydrogen is a gas; zinc is tiny compared to the equal amount of hydrogen (advantage: zinc)
Hydrogen is simple; zinc is not as (advantage: hydrogen)
A hydrogen fuel cell needs platinum ($$) to run; a zinc battery does not (advantage: zinc)

"Also: If you get along well with kids, does that mean you aren’t completely dead inside yet?"

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:19:22 -0500

“Also: If you get along well with kids, does that mean you aren’t completely dead inside yet?”

- cosmopsis

Until the End of the World (1991)

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:23:13 -0500

Until the End of the World (1991)

lowindustrial: The first Apple Tablet … from 1979. At the time,...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:30:36 -0500

lowindustrial:

The first Apple Tablet … from 1979.

At the time, the Apple II Plus was the latest and greatest desktop computer offered by Apple. Interestingly enough, one of the first computer paint programs ever created ran on the Apple II in conjunction with Apple’s Graphics Tablet. The software was titled Utopia Graphics System and, believe it or not, was developed by musician Tod Rundgren.

More.

Rebloggy for Zan.

King Crimson - Thela Hun Ginjeet King Crimson’s song about...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:58:00 -0500

King Crimson - Thela Hun Ginjeet

King Crimson’s song about violence in the city, an anagram of Heat in the Jungle. This morning I couldn’t get my mind working, so I resorted to reading the internet. Came across an explanation of this song’s enigmatic vocal track, written by guitarist Adrian Belew, who was trying to evoke a violent atmosphere using a walkman … and got more than he bargained for.

Together again.

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:49:53 -0500

Together again.

"The pronunciation of the name Uranus preferred among astronomers is /ˈjʊərənəs/, with stress on the..."

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:37:00 -0500

“The pronunciation of the name Uranus preferred among astronomers is /ˈjʊərənəs/, with stress on the first syllable as in Latin Ūranus; in contrast to the colloquial /jʊˈreɪnəs/, with stress on the second syllable and a long a, though both are considered acceptable. Because, in the English-speaking world, ū·rā′·nəs sounds like “your anus”, the former pronunciation also saves embarrassment.”

- Wikipedia, always practical, always willing to go the extra step where the encyclopedia britanica would have spat on you. From the entry on YUR-enis.

The Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield What have I What have...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:45:00 -0500

The Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield

What have I
What have I
What have I done to deserve this?

There is an overloaded, filthy used music store near the corner of 8th Street and 1st Ave. Inside, there is a single aisle, and not enough room for two customers to pass. There is a section for scratched CDs, usually priced from 2-5 dollars. In contrast to most stores in the city with used CDs, most of these are good stuff, names you recognize.

The drill is that I go in there and find a few records I might want in the scratched section, open them up, and review the CD, deciding if it’s worth the gamble. The guy who works there leans over and says, “That’s the scratched ones. Some people like to buy them. They have nice computers and they get the songs to play.”

“Yes, I know, cool.” I say.

A few months ago, there was a copy of Discography by the Pet Shop Boys. I thought, That would be cool to have. In 1987 I remember listening to my new Pet Shop Boys tape riding around in the car with my dad; he turned to me and said, incredulous, “Are they saying I love you, you pay my rent?”

The underside of the CD looked all right. It was $4. For some reason I didn’t buy it. I went insane for five minutes and decided $4 was just too much money to blow.

Proof of my latent autism: every couple days since then, I have thought Man, I wish I had that Pet Shop Boys CD. I’ll be sitting in a meeting, being set to a task I despise, and in the back of my mind, it’ll suddenly occur to me That CD would have been awesome, why didn’t I get it?

Mia is majorly re-organizing the kitchen, and has presented me...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:03:37 -0500

Mia is majorly re-organizing the kitchen, and has presented me with these mostly-defeated bottles from the bar wing (top of the fridge). My goal for the next couple days (tonight) is to have two rum and cokes, a Campari and soda, and … something with vodka. (The Kahlua fell earlier in the week.)

sweet mother of fuck.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:01:25 -0500

(via biteofpythias)

I look forward to biteofpythias watching football on saturdays. it’s like a passion transplant. i wanna be like YEAH where’s the parking lot and the beer wait i’m in new york shit.

Imma doc

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:54:00 -0500

damhnait:

Phew!

Doctah! I got a pain in my arm, it’s right here! (Congrats!)

The Smiths - Still Ill, live 16 March 1984 I dunno

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:28:00 -0500

The Smiths - Still Ill, live 16 March 1984

I dunno

Close your face. It’s 9:30, Thursday night, and I’m...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:50:25 -0500

Close your face. It’s 9:30, Thursday night, and I’m drinking a caucasian.

Jewish Girls Give Great Head, Right?

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:01:12 -0500

Jewish Girls Give Great Head, Right?:

biteofpythias:

youngmanhattanite:

The breakup seemed amicable and Reyzl asked if Feivel would walk her to her apartment building, which also housed a low-end brothel run by Rivka “the Cow” Linderbaum and her son, Khatzkel, a notorious pimp. Feivel agreed to escort her to the front steps. When they got there, the two began to kiss. In the shadows at the side of the stairs, Reyzl began slithering downward, descending to her knees. Though they were broken up, Feivel didn’t stop her. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain like none he’d ever felt before. He collapsed on the macadam and looked up at Reyzl, cackling as she made her way up the stairs, her face and blouse spattered with blood. Feivel looked down. She had bit his penis in half.

this reads like one of those cautionary tales meant to scare boys away from fun time girls…

I have a policy that when I hit the word “macadam” I stop reading immediately.