Don't you wonder what really happened that night? I'd say keep a sharp eye out for any strange Hand-of-Glory (or Head-of-Elvis) candles on eBay.

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Franklin D. Roosevelt are missing their clothes and Fred Flintstone and the Teletubbies are just plain missing after a raid on wax figures owned by Ireland's National Wax Museum. Police say they suspect a door was left unlocked and the warehouse was used for an all-night rave party but museum officials discount that theory. Also stripped of their clothes were Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle and rebel icons from Ireland's war of independence with Britain, including Michael Collins and Padraig Pearse.
...
Most figures stolen came from the Children's World of Fairy Tale and Fantasy section; others were taken from the Chamber of Horrors. Gone are Bob the Builder, Frankenstein's monster, Fred Flintstone, Gollum from "Lord of the Rings," a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, "Silence of the Lambs" killer Hannibal Lecter, and all four Teletubbies. Guitars adorning the figures of U2's The Edge and Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott also disappeared. Others, including Elvis and Madonna, suffered lost hair, limbs or jewelry.

[AP, via CBC.com] Charles deGaulle naked? Now that's a frightening image.
Links: Dublin Wax Museum, and a very odd Lenin's-head candle (from Czechoslovakia, natch) seen on the Project Good Luck blog.

Labels: canada, crime, news

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Nice bike, but check out the lady in the bouffant 'do communing with the mounted doe's head: "now, that would look groovy in the foyer!" Ah, Summer, 1980. The last few months before we raised the curtains on the Reagan Era. I remember seeing TV ads for the Chevy Citation, the "first Chevy of the 80's!" Anyone else remember those? Anyone still driving those? Bueller? Bueller?

Damn, I'm getting old.

Labels: photo

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• Whether you love or hate the Great White Mouthless One, the Hello Kitty Hell website will provide ample fodder for the obsessed. Enjoy everything from shots of a Hello Kittified Armored personnel Carrier, a goopily tarred (but not feathered) Miss Kitty, to the Hello Kitty bong.
• Clean as the Spotless Sun? According to NASA, the Sun is currently spotless. Astronomers will be watching its surface for signs of the next 11-year sunspot cycle's start. [via Neatorama]
• Not just for the 80's retro set any more: Pac-Mania lives on, Two-to-da-James-Bond-(that's 2-007 to you)-style: instructions for making a crocheted PacMan and Ghosts, or, for a mere $29.95, you can own your own full-coverage plush PacMan hat.
• Not sure if this will make China's "one family, one child" policy any sexier, but TokyoMango reports on snazzy condom dresses on display at a fashion show at a recent reproductive health and technology fair. Supermodels of the world, wear your raincoats! Looking at that dress, you can almost hear the squish and smell the latex.
• If using your fingerprints as biometric identification for financial transactions has you worried about knife-wielding digit burglars a la Se7en's John Doe, Hitachi Corporation was devised a clever, creepily-named, but possibly more secure finger-based ID method - finger vein money. Presumably a dead/detached finger would not offer a readable circulatory imprint, so consider your little piggies a bit safer. [via Pink Tentacle, a very cool technology blog I just got wind of]
• When you're at a problem-solving impasse at work or in creative endeavors, give Brian Eno's famed "Oblique Strategies" cards a whirl; there are a number of good online versions, of which this one is my current favorite. My Oblique Strategy for today? Card number 23, "Lost in useless territory."
• Harry Potter maniacs (and fearless spoiler fiends), check out MSNBC's post-Deathly Hallows interview with J.K. Rowling, who lets a few cats (and bats, and owls) out of the bag regarding the series' future.
• Blade Runner: The Final Cut will hit theaters in limited release (NYC and LA only, darn) in early October before its holiday DVD run; in preparartion check out BladeZone, an extensive "Online Blade Runner Fan Club and Museum."
• To use up the remaining half of my old bulk-size raspberry jam jar mouldering in the fridge, I think I'll try making one of these this steamy hot late-July weekend: a Mississippi Delta Jelly Cake.
• Speaking of hot, Chicago's got nothing on the former Yugoslavia, where Jasmina Tesanovic reports on this month's record-breaking heat, drought, and raging fires in Serbia. [via BoingBoing]

Labels: links du jour

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This weekend, I spent a lot of time during the wee hours at the kitchen sink. Not cooking or washing dishes, but taking pictures. No special equipment was used; just a Sony DSC-T7 camera on the 1/250 sec. "action" setting, with flash. The water surface is a wineglass in the sink, filled with tap water, with the faucet slowly dripping on the surface. I used the over-the-sink fluorescent fixture to provide enough light for the camera's auto-focus sensor, and snapped a few dozen shots at various water-drop points.

Check out the results on my Flickr "Experimental" series. [2007 CC LReznicek]

Labels: photo

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1. Jiggy Joint Feat. Dan Hogan - Careless Whisper (Remix)
2. Baby Roulette and The Rave-Ons - Black Orchids
3. Chumbawamba - Outsider
4. Flat7 - Smile (Robin Guthrie Remix)
5. Cut Chemist w. The Meters - Hey Last Minute/Motherlode feat. Biz Markie
6. Rubettes - Sugar Baby Love
7. Brainstorm - Digitally Bright
8. Wolfsheim - Underneath the Veil
9. Duran Duran - Girls on Film
10. Dionne Warwick - Always Something There To Remain Me

Labels: friday random ten, photo

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Labels: chicago, photo

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It seems to be a tradition at the University of Chicago to place stones on the innermost curls of these ironwork bars; this time someone must have commented on the regularity of their appearance.

Labels: chicago, photo

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American Cities That Best Fit You:

80% Chicago 65% Philadelphia 60% Boston 55% Los Angeles 55% New York City

Labels: quiz

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  Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.

If you're one of those people that displays a column of ancient Chicago City Stickers on their windshield - because it's easier to replace the windshield than remove the darned things - here's a relatively easy way to remove them without smashing the glass. Note to July City Sticker thieves: sorry, this method will not yield you an intact city sticker to sell on the black market. You will need:

• a single-edged razor blade
• Goo Gone™ (not to be a shameless shill, but this product works very well for the purpose), or similar adhesive solvent. Use with care, and don't spill any on the dashboard
• some sturdy paper towels

1) Very carefully, starting at the old sticker's upper corner and holding the single-edged blade at a narrow angle to the windshield glass, peel away the sticker in small sections. Place the sticker bits on a paper towel and discard. They're very sticky, but somehow the majority of the sun-hardened gluey backing will remain on your windshield. This is where the solvent comes in.

Note: the City Sticker has an "X" cut into its center, designed to make it virtually impossible to peel off a previously-applied sticker in one piece. Bad for thieves, but also inconvenient for car owners.

2) Generously dampen a section of paper towel with the Goo Gone™, and swab (don't rub - yet) at the adhesive remaining on the glass for about one minute. What you're doing right now is softening the hardened adhesive into a jellylike substance. Wait a few seconds, then use a dry section of the paper towel (or a fresh one) to rub away the old adhesive. When properly softened, the adhesive should stick to the paper towel and come off the glass in little stringy rolls. Repeat process if needed.

3) Rub the now-clean glass with a fresh paper towel, and you're ready to apply your new City Sticker. Sure, the designs through the years are interesting, but did you really want your car be a Chicago City Sticker Museum?

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Chicagoans cooling off in Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain sculpture in Millennium Park, on the hottest summer day of the year - so far. I love this shot because everyone, especially the children, appear immersed (pardon the pun) in their own joyful experience of the water.

[CC 2007 LReznicek on Flickr]

Labels: chicago, photo

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Things at the Thorndale CTA "L" station in Chicago; looking up. Hey: if you were a hundred years old, you'd have some cracks, too.

Labels: chicago, photo

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We had flown to Italy that fall for our friends' wedding, and while the region was in the midst of a heat wave and drought, the villages of Talamone and Orbetello were still a delightful adventure. This was the first time I'd set foot in Europe since my family left in the late 1960's. I found something about the view through this gate mesmerizing: it almost appears to be a recursive image. [On Flickr, CC LReznicek]

Labels: Europe, Italy, photo

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Given sufficient time, even the inorganic and organic meld.

[Georgetown, DC. CC 2007 LReznicek, on Flickr]

Labels: DC, photo

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When you've got to go, you've got to go. Some like to go faster than others, and the going doesn't get much faster than this.

[via Neatorama >> Gadget Road]

Labels: humor, video

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  I blame The King for this senseless New York City peacock murder:

NEW YORK (AP) -- A peacock that roamed into the parking lot of a Burger King in New York City was beaten by a man who insisted it was a vampire. Animal control officials in Staten Island say the bird was beaten so fiercely that most of its tail feathers fell out and it had to be euthanized.

The seven-year-old male peacock wandered into the restaurant parking lot and perched on a car hood last week. Charmed employees had been feeding it bread when the man appeared. A restaurant worker says the man grabbed the bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started stomping it. She says when he was asked what he was doing, he responded, "'I'm killing a vampire!"'

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them.

Poor peacock...of course, the crazy bastard man was lying. Who the hell kills a vampire by grabbing its neck and stomping on it? If he stabbed its heart with a wooden Chicken Fry, his story might have some credence.

UPDATE: Maybe it was this guy.

Labels: crime, NY

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