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Too bad about the “your property is greater than .5 acre and is unobstructed” requirement. Because otherwise I would totally buy a windmill.

100 Best Non-English Films Ever Made (Edward Copeland, via FirstShowing.net)

Because everyone, apparently, has exactly the same feeling when they’re in one place.

Fold a towel monkey, towel dog, even a towel lobster. (via Lifehacker)

Portal to museum podcasts (via Research Buzz)

“Is your child a tagger?” Coming up next in the series: “Does your child eat ‘candy’?”, and “Is your neighbor building a space ship?” (The first one’s earnest; the latter two, not so much.) (via Ectoplasmosis)

It doesn’t quite have the same menacing connotation as “The Blob”… yet.

LEWISTON - A 50- to 60-foot doughy mass is clogging a sewer line under the city’s main drag, and crews have been unable to budge it.

“We’re not sure exactly what it is,” Public Services Director David Jones said Wednesday. “We’re just trying to get rid of it. We want it to stop clogging up our pipe.“

The Blob’s… er, the Dough’s PR flak on full force days after its discovery, blame for “blockage” is directed elsewhere.

The plot thickens.

(First article via BoingBoing; second article via Sun Journal)

…whatever “back” is.

It doesn’t look like much, but what you’re looking at is the number of cell phones “retired” in the U.S. every day — 426,000. View a close up, and other similar photo montages of consumption at Chris Jordan’s Running the Numbers.

(via GOOD Magazine)

Technical difficulties are cropping up now and again. You may notice the past rearing its ugly head. Hopefully it will all be over shortly.

Caption reads: “Louis cuddles his Mr Potato Head”.

(via BoingBoing)

You know you want one. Now learn how to make your own, in 15 easy steps!

(The last step — “Display proudly — Enjoy your elephant!” — being, of course, the best.)

(WikiHow: “How to Fold a Towel Elephant”)

Would you rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or would you rather earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000? Assume for the moment that prices of goods and services will stay the same.

Surprisingly — stunningly, in fact — research shows that the majority of people select the first option; they would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have. How irrational is that?

Surprising, and not. But are people really that status-conscious? I mean, I know they are. But, really?

(LA Times: “Why people believe weird things about money,” by Michael Shermer [13 Jan 2008]; via Lifehacker)

…or when they were whatever age it is you put into the form. Some of it depressing, as you’d expect, in that it lists the enormous accomplishments by Historical Figures and Celebrities in their youth(s). Other bits are comical, such as the following two pieces, from which I can hardly pick a favorite:

Jan Birkeland from Norway managed to get to work without hitting a single red light.

Derrick Pallas was horrified to realize he was losing his hair, just like Dad.¹

All of this found at the eponymously-titled web site.

(via MeFi)

¹ Both of these things accomplished by the age of 26, in case you were wondering.

Interesting enough for the subject matter — the mysterious skyjacker who disappeared from a plane¹ with some gracious amount of money, never to be found again (the skyjacker that is; some of the money was found, maybe) — this article from the AP is probably best for the very last sentence:

“Maybe a hydrologist can use the latest technology to trace the $5,800 in ransom money found in 1980 to where Cooper landed upstream,” Carr said. “Or maybe someone just remembers that odd uncle.”

The FBI’s presenting, as they say, “for the first time” to the public, new & exciting information.

In case you do remember that odd uncle.

¹ Which is to say, jumped.

Disclaimer: not actually instructions on constructing warthog.

Of the boatload of movies I watched in 2007 (see the complete list here), the following are my favorites. You get the 30-second version of why each movie makes the list, and nothing more.

Movies Released In (Or Near) 2007:

Stardust - [****] - 2007 / Matthew Vaughn: A fairy tale, but jazzy, expansive, and cock-eyed. Warm and cheery, dark and sinister, truthful. Like all good stories.

Mr. Brooks - [****] - 2007 / Bruce Evans: Maybe the appeal of this lies in how convincingly Kevin Costner plays a serial killer. Maybe not. A part or two silly, but otherwise solidly presented, and with an interesting score.

No Country for Old Men - [****1/2] - 2007 / Coen Brothers: Bleak, dusty, and bloody. (Though not as bleak and dusty as “There Will Be Blood”.) Tommy Lee Jones pitch-perfect, though performances really outstanding across the board. Everything unexpected, even when it isn’t.

Eastern Promises - [****] - 2007 / David Cronenberg: Another solid foray into organized crime by Cronenberg. More straightforward, maybe, than “A History of Violence”, but no less bloody. A conscience you don’t expect. A grimness you do.

Bourne Ultimatum - [****] - 2007 / Paul Greengrass: I’ve enjoyed the Bourne movies, and this installment is a solid addition. For non-fans of the series, this movie will not be a mind-changer, though it is better than The Bourne Supremacy, and arguably better than The Bourne Identity (despite the sad fact of “Ultimatum” not having Franka Potente).

Grindhouse - [****1/2] - 2007 / Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino: A blast of a double-feature, ridiculous, over-the-top, and phenomenal. Gory and dark, some, but largely hilarious.

Hot Fuzz - [****] - 2007 / Edgar Wright: A genius bit of action comedy unlike a most all American action-comedies, which are rarely much of either. A spoof that’s honest to itself, and solid in its own right. And what other movie have Bill Nighy, Timothy Dalton, and a masked Cate Blanchett appeared together?

Leben der Anderen, Das - [****1/2] - 2006 / Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Gwoemul [Host] - [***1/2] - 2006 / Joon-ho Bong: Horror done right, which is to say knuckle-gripping and startling, but with glimpses of real emotion, dashes of uncertain comedy. And evil scientists, sure.

Movies Released Before 2007:

Werckmeister harmóniák [Werckmeister Harmonies] - [****1/2]: It’s only a slight exaggeration to say this film secured a place in my favorites in its first fifteen minutes. There’s a whale, though it doesn’t do much. There’s a main character who, mysteriously, never makes a single appearance. The director isn’t even sure why, so there’s no reason you should have any idea. And that’s fine.

Porco Rosso - [****] - 1992 / Hayao Miyazaki: I’ve been meaning to see this, and wish I had, sooner. It’s strange how non-surreal this movie is, considering it’s a kind of anime noir about a pilot turned into a pig in a world ravaged by sky-pirates.

Primal Fear - [****1/2] - 1996 / Gregory Hoblit: A solid, straightforward criminal procedural that is, but isn’t straightforward. Twisting and smart.

Notorious - [****] - 1946 / Alfred Hitchcock: A wholeheartedly solid Hitchcock movie. Noir, if not at its best, then extremely close. A movie that has aged surprisingly well, considering. Begins and ends with near-perfection.

Fido - [****] - 2006 / Andrew Currie: Everyone else has adorable zombie slaves, why shouldn’t we? That’s the message I got from this movie. Or was it, bullies deserve to be attacked by malfunctioning zombie-slaves? I’m really not sure any more. Anyway, a fine comedy horror period piece, if the parallel-universe 1950s can count as a period. Billy Connolly has never so convincingly played a zombie.

(2001) dirs. Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky - w/ Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla, and so on.

Synopsis: The meaning of life is contemplated, mail is delivered, the circus comes to town. Angry mobs and bonfires, some are driven mad. There Is A Whale.

Review: It’s only a slight exaggeration to say this film secured a place in my favorites in its first fifteen minutes. There’s a certain understated elegance, but I’d be lying if I told you I knew exactly what I like so much about this movie. Watch the opening scene yourself, and see. (Although it is certainly better, and more compelling, to see it on a larger screen, and as part of the larger movie.) Werckmeister Harmonies is a mostly inscrutable movie, filled with ambivalent but excellent imagery, curious characters, and stunning music.

Rating: [••••½] out of [•••••]

When police asked the man what caused the accident, his one-word answer was “pterodactyl,” Smith said.

…

The man was treated and released at Central Washington Hospital, hospital officials said.

No word on the pterodactyl’s injuries.

(HeraldNet: “Man blames car wreck on prehistoric winged reptile,” by Rachel Schleif [29 Dec 07]; via BoingBoing)

How about that.

…sounds crazy, and may well turn out to be. But if it’s validated, then what?

Why does it take so long for soul mates to find each other” How does disease spread through a person’s body? When will the next computer virus attack your hard-drive?

A new theory published last month in Nature on the statistical concept of ‘First Passage Time,’ or FPT, may provide the key to answering at least a few of these questions, says theory co-author Prof. Joseph Klafter from Tel Aviv University’s School of Chemistry. And the answers may lead to breakthroughs in medicine, mathematics, the environment, and elsewhere.

Prof. Klafter and his colleagues from the University of Pierre & Marie Curie in Paris (where he has been visiting professor) are the first to have developed an analytical model that calculates the average arrival time — the mean FPT — of a randomly-moving object in a complex environment.

(via Science Blog)

You were always crazy, Red Dog tells you.
But didn’t it have to originate some time?
Red Dog says maybe not.
Was it maybe like we didn’t always think alike?
Red Dog doesn’t know what that means.
Like, maybe before we thought we were crazy but had a different word for it?
Red Dog thinks possibly.