Tuesday, December 29, 2009

And don't call me Shirley

"We no longer enslave animals for food purposes." --Commander William T. Riker (Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Lonely Among Us")

What exactly is Who Hash, anyway?
"Soylent Green is Who!"
"What is Soylent Green?"
"No, Soylent Green is Who!"
"Who is Soylent Green?"
"Yes!"

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Monday, December 21, 2009

It's not what you think

You're thinking, yeah, yeah, seen it before. It isn't that hard to do. You select an area and desaturate the color in that area. It seems to be a lot of folks' favorite image editing trick. But that's not what's going on here.

If you follow the link back to her Flickr photostream, you'll see several other angles on the same people, including one taken for the San Francisco Chronicle. It's a gray Santa suit, a gray wig, gray body paint, and gray contact lenses. you have to get really close in to see the only color she couldn't cover, the pink corners of her eyes.

Awesome.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Thursday, December 17, 2009

A Christmas story...

...about a singer-songwriter having lunch at the L.A. Farmer's Market, and four costumed Christmas carolers who had absolutely no idea who he was.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Sunday, December 13, 2009

What's cooler than seeing the ISS from Earth?

Why, catching an astronaut in mid-spacewalk working on it.

These shots were taken by Ralf Vandebergh in his backyard with a 10-inch telescope.

Remember when those removed introductory scenes from Star Wars got out? The scenes where Luke is casting his gaze skyward and watching the space battle in which Vader captures Leia? I remember criticism that the scene was unrealistic because Luke wouldn't be able to see the battle from the ground.

Really?

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Toll tunnel under east Atlanta?  

A controversial concept to link Ga. 400 to I-675 by digging under east Atlanta has for a couple of years found its way onto some policymakers’ wish lists. But this month it found itself someplace better: Among the state Department of Transportation’s top toll projects pitched to private investors and road-building companies.

...“The tunnel is the one project that absolutely, head and shoulders above every other P3, moves the needle the most on congestion mitigation and mobility,” said David Doss, who chairs the state Transportation Board’s committee on such projects.

However, I know I'm not going to live long enough to see this happen. For the last fifty years, Atlanta residents have been fighting with the GDOT to keep these roads from being built. The odd arrangement of the area interstates makes more sense when you know what the original plans were.

BLUE ROUTE: I-675 Of course Ga 400 and I-675 were meant to be one continuous route through Atlanta. They would both have connected to that stretch of I-20 that runs nearly north-south at Glenwood. But a lot of money lives at Druid Hills. A tunnel? Well, I wouldn't have thought the MARTA north line tunnel was feasible, so sure, I'll buy it.

RED ROUTE: I-420 Both ends of the existing Langford Parkway (nee Lakewood Freeway) make it obvious that the road was intended to go further. For all I care it still can: There's quite a bit along the proposed route that would benefit from being demolished.

GREEN ROUTE: I-475 The area's most notorious aborted road project is the one that was supposed to connect downtown Atlanta to Athens via Stone Mountain. Every time I drive Ponce de Leon, I weep at the traffic load it is forced to bear, and the skinny little parks alongside that represent the land GDOT had acquired for the project. Now, of course, it cannot be built without moving the Carter Center, which sits exactly where the I-475/675 junction was supposed to be. Damn hippies.

Posted via web from Dreaded Purple Master

Thursday, December 03, 2009

I thought they already did

AMC Theater Chain Bans All Outside Snacks:

After reporting a loss in the 2nd quarter of this year, AMC is doing what it can to increase revenue. Since the business model of movie theaters is to give all the ticket sales to the studios and scrape out a living on concessions, that means forcing more patrons to buy snacks--so it's officially banning any outside food and drink.

(SmartSpending notes that Regal Entertainment already has a similar ban in place.)

Well, of course, since security scanners have been perfected at airports (and didn't that go over well?), this opens up a whole new market for them.