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Teeth

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Last Friday I had a couple wisdom teeth removed. It was really not bad at all. I barely had any swelling, and the pain was bearable when I ran out of vicadin.

I did a google search for wisdom teeth because I wanted to compare mine with other people's. There are a lot of different root shapes and styles in the world of wisdom teeth. Looking at too many pictures of teeth can quease you out a little.

Here is some of the tooth art I found:
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This one is my favorite.
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This was done by an 11th grader.
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The artist comments that his wisdom tooth sockets got infected. No kidding.
teethskull.jpg
This one was done by someone who lives in Jamaica Plain.
teethcup.jpg
This one is kind of ugly.

Blog Map

Boston-area blogs, sorted by T-stop.

Yesvember

It's Nanowrimo sign-up time again.

Simage

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I can't read a word on this site, but the images are cool.

Bottle Caps

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39,265 bottle caps from 194 different countries.

Name Voyager

This is the neetest baby name popularity site I've ever seen, with a cool animated graph.

The blog explains a little how it works and has interesting articles analysing baby names over time and geography.

Out and About

I just subscribed to the Radicalendar. I found it trying to find directions to the Lucy Parson's Center where I'm going tonight to see the movie Made in Secret: the Story of the East Van Porn Collective.

Loan Shark

I was checking the weather on Yahoo today when I noticed the ad on the top of the page. It was an animated shark eating small fishes with the postal abbreviations of the 50 US states printed on them. The shark had the words "bad credit OK" written on it.

Who would want to get a loan from a company using a shark as its mascot? Bizarre.

Bike Punk

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Kai ran into a SCUL armada last time he was visiting. They made a documentary about their organization, which showed in August.

I finally sat down and fixed all those broken links on the sidebar! Check out Cecil Kleakins. Matt's been moonlighting.

I just finished reading Oreille Rouge by Eric Chévillard. It was great, as usual. I've liked everything I've read by this author.

Here is a list of words I don't know found in this book:



un aerolithe
un pleutre
un lopin
chiquenaude
s'enticher
un tuffeau
un griot
idoine
chitineux
torve
pétochard
chapardeur
postillon
raffut
caravelle
rônier
le balanzan
haltérophile
une calebasse
ahan
le pilon
une gravide
razzié

White Elephant

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Yesterday near Davis Square, we stumbled upon a yard sale of half-broken violins, Chinese instruments, wooden flutes, rejected jewelry, hundreds of cds, old cameras, and miscellaneous curiosities.

I think this one qualifies as a real White Elephant Sale.

It was the joint effort of Micheal Knoblach, a local dealer in antiques and musical instruments and his friend, a retired dealer, who has a home at the prime Davis location.

Erik got a snare drum.

I got a shoe horn and a Brownie Hawkeye Flash box camera. The camera has a little nick on the body, where the two halves join, which I'll have to cover with tape. I think the flash was there in the pile of junk, but I didn't look for it because I know I'll never use it.

My Brownie cost $3.00, which is $2.50 less than it originally cost when it was America's favorite camera between 1949 and 1961. I'm particularly excited because I love square photographs.

It takes 620 film, which is identical to 120 film except that its spool ends have a smaller diameter. I'm hoping I'll be able to just trim the 120 spool ends rather than having to find an extra 620 spool somewhere so I can respool the film onto it.

I even found the owner's manual (pdf) online.



I went online today to buy stamps and was struck by the quantity of people I had never heard of, for whom commemorative stamps had been issued.

I've heard of Theodore Seuss Geisel, James Baldwin, Moss Hart, Robert Penn Warren, Lewis and Clark, Ronald Reagan, Henry Fonda, and the Pacific Coral Reef.

But who are these other characters, surely people any American should know. I'll see what I can glean from the stamp design before googling.

R. Buckminster Fuller. Looking at the stamp, I would guess that he built something. There's a fifties feel to the design. The wacky bus in the foreground. The guys in wide-legged pants looking up at him with wonder. Bucky Fuller is the idealist inventor of the geodesic dome. "On the verge of suicide, it suddenly struck him that his life belonged, not to himself, but to the universe. He chose at that moment to embark on what he called, 'an experiment to discover what the little, penniless, unknown individual might be able to do effectively on behalf of all humanity.'"

Arthur Ashe appears to be a tennis player. Not so surprising that I've never heard of him. "For Arthur Ashe, tennis was a means to an end."

Yip harburg. Looking at the stamp, I guess he's the guy who wrote the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," from the movie The Wizard of Oz. His real name was Edgar.

Martin Johnson Heade. Painter of flower arrangements?

Marian Anderson. Black Heritage. Nice jewelry. I have no clue. She is a singer.

You know what? I don't really know who Robert Penn Warren is. People are standing behind him with signs. Political activist? Politician? Poet, novelist, political activist. Read a couple of his poems.

"So hangs the hour like fruit fullblown and sweet,
Our strict and desperate avatar,
Despite that antique westward gulls lament
Over enormous waters which retreat
Weary unto the white and sensual star."

Kinder America

Once and for all, why are there no Kinder Surprise eggs in the US?




According to an unofficial Kinder site, "In an informal conversation in August 1996 between one Kinder collector and a Marketing Manager at Ferrero Canada Limited, the collector was told that the US had two laws that prevented the sale of Kinder Surprise in the States.
The first was to do with the 'small parts regulations' that require the phrase "Not suited for children under three years of age" to appear on the product. The second states that an edible item cannot completely enclose a non-edible object.The Marketing Manager stated that, while the first law could be easily complied with, the fact that the chocolate egg completely surrounds the capsule inside prevented Kinder Surprise from being sold in the States.
He went on to say that Ferrero Canada Limited had been trying to persuade Ferrero to produce an "American" version with two half shells and the capsule.
It is hard to verify this, but Brazilian collectors will tell you that the Kinder Eggs marketed there are sold in two halves, with one half of the egg being a creamy chocolate confection, while the other half contains the toy, so it is possible that there may be other reasons for the non-apearance of Kinder on the American market."
In 1997, there was a recall.
As a side note, one site I read claimed that German Kinder Surprise toys are better than Italian ones. Toys for German Kinder eggs are made in Germany, and Italy makes the toys for the whole rest of the world.
Kinder Surprise eggs are of Italian, not German, origin.

An erudite critique of the film Fight Club.

(This comes from my Tribe friend Blade.)

I don't really want to get hurt competing in a roller derby, but I wouldn't mind having a speudonym like "Pippi Asswhuppin" or "Sake Tuya," and I think I'd like to hang out with these women.

Boston has a team, but it seems the sport is more of a Red-state thing.

The weather underground website has a lot of cool features. Not the least of which being weblogs.

China

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Instead of posting I've been reading Things Magazine.

I've seen a great collection of pictures of China, more pictures of China, Chinese copycat cars, the Dynamic City Foundation (Chinese urbanism), other blog posts about China, and a blog about Americans in China



Check it Out

Check out the dolls my students made in the after-school program. It's interesting how some of the dolls look like the girls who made them.

Zupah Cool

Coelacanths are cool.

Robots are cool.

The coelacanth robot is a metal monster, weighing in at 40kg (88 pounds) and measuring 120cm (47 inches) long.

Very Hairy

"The painstaking process begins with sorting the hair, counting out the hairs, tying them in strands, setting up the hair table, weaving the pattern, processing/setting the form, and lastly, applying the findings."

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There is a secret for cutting an "invisible" swatch of hair close to the scalp.
Email Emily Mead for details.

Find your DIY hairwork kits here.

Reprinted how-to manual from 1876.

Buy human hair.

What kind of person gets into hair work?

Is it weirder to use your pet's hair.

Bug Blogs, etc.

While working on a post about aphids on Cognoshanty, I came across an insect weblog. It hasn't been very active lately, but there is a lot of neet stuff in it.

There's a link to a bat weblog, a link to a bee blog, the Invasive Species Weblog, Cicada Mania and a scary story of how a dog was killed by bees!

Also interesting:
Strangematter
Beyond Brilliance Beyond Stupidity
Lewis and Clark: What Else happened?

Hollywood Forever

Last night I watched a fairly mediocre documentary called The Young and the Dead. It's about how Tyler Cassity, a hot young cemeterian from Missouri bought the decrepit Hollywood Cemetery at auction and transformed it.

It wouldn't be very interesting except for the scope of Cassity's vision. In the documentary he says, when a celebrity dies, there is immediately a biography ready to be shown. What if when JFK Jr. died the anchorman said, "John F. Kennedy Jr. died in a plane crash. Wake will be held on Tuesday, funeral on Friday?" People would be shocked. Yet that is exactly how we do it for our closest friends and relatives.

Part of the cememtery office is a biography studio where, before you die, they will help you produce your own documentary film of your life which will be shown at your funeral, and which will be available at kiosks around the cemetery and online.

Since the making of the documentary, they have gone on to non-death related recordings and opened new cemeteries. You can hire them to capture your child's youth, send messages for free to soldiers overseas, or boost your corporate image.



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This ebay item has no bids. (Will expire soon).

This came to me via the Photography Tribe.


Often when I come across something interesting, I bookmark it with the intention of making a post about it at some later date. Then I forget all about it.

Lorbus and Growabrain have been mouldering in my bookmarks for some time now. They are the sort of weblogs I imagine the Sputterly Utter could aspire to be if only I was more dedicated.

Here are a couple example links from those sites:

Fot those of us vaguely thinking about buying some real estate, The Bubble Meter and a Boston-based real estate weblog could make for good reading.

The best paper airplane in the World.

I've also been finding a lot of links on the ever-splendid Art for Housewives. Lastly, it's always interesting to check in on Things Magazine every once in a while.

Pachinko

When are we going to get serious about fixing that Pachinko machine?

"Prior to the introduction of the electrical solid state pachinko machines there were mechanical pachinko machines. I am not aware of anyone collecting these older games. They have almost no value and generally are bought and sold at garage sales.

I am also not aware of any reference books or sources of repair information for these older games. I do not know anyone who repairs the older games. "

Rats.

Lily

It looks like Lily is having a gallery show.

"Outside Japan's cities and towns, it is no exaggeration to say that a century ago every household had at least one operative loom."

Japan is a textile country.

"I am told it takes considerable experience to achieve the rhythmical clackity clack of working on a hand loom because weaving requires coordination of the whole body. Since it engages every part of the body right to the fingertips, people are said to never suffer from dementia in old age as long as they continue to weave."

Shinshu pongee (by the way "pongee" apparently comes from the Chinese 本織, "own weaving").

From the impressive Traditional Crafts of Japan site (via Mefi). Here's a montage of the site.

Clearly

Transparent monitor screens are all the rage.

Added Link

I finally got around to adding a link here to Pins and Needles, the knitting and bowling wonderwomen.

Mommy

Spending time on the computer today, I found a weblog called A Little Pregnant, which I've been enjoying. It's a funny, smart woman's diary of her infertility treatment, pregnancy, and motherhood.

Perhaps not for all audiences.

Bullfinch

Matthew just pointed me to the online Bullfinch's Mythology. Oh, how wonderful.

This chapter makes me think of the approaching springtime.

The fashion tips

Miuccia Prada is cool. Manolo's shoe blog is entertaining.

Hom, hom

It's one of the joys of living in Paris to see saucy lingerie ads in the streets. Who can forget Aubade's "lessons"? Seeing a giant "Lighten his gloomy mood" poster on a wintry day never fails to give me a little boost.

Currently there's a new campaign using the tried-and-true combo of sexy pic and alluring slogan: "Te faire rougir de plaisir" (to make you blush with pleasure), "Juste pour toi et moi" (just for you and me), ...

Wait, what's going on here? "Pour te faire craquer" (to make you lose it)... Nooooooo!

Here's the ad campaign (Flash, click on "News" at bottom right). And here's some big images.

Meanwhile, I'm moving to Saudi Arabia.

Why?

Why do men in Saudi Arabia wear Thobes? Trivia at bottom also good. ref

Latte Art

From the people working at a place called Victrola, a glimpse at what is probably a whole subculture of millions: coffee pourers. Latte art on the web includes hideous websites, many examples from amateurs, and scans of 1994 issues of CoffeeTalk.

Last night I watched a documentary called Shaolin Ulysses, Kung Fu Monks in America. It profiled five monks from the Shaolin Temple in China, who had decided to bring their Kung Fu to the US.

Monk Guolin is out to spread Buddhism and Kung Fu to the United States. Zhang Li Peng is a former monk, who married a nice Catholic American girl and named his son Matthew. He says if you want to learn about Buddhism, go find yourself a teacher. There are hundreds of them all over the world. If you want to learn Kung Fu, come to his school. Li Peng seems to have what Americans call "issues" about having been brought to Shaolin Temple when he was five years old. His family lived in a cave for a while, outside the temple. Then he was taken on as a disciple and his entire education was Kung Fu and Zen Buddhism. He was the only monk who spoke English in the movie.

All of these guys seem pretty young. One of the two monks who started the Texas academy said that one of the differences in working with children in the US and in China is that at Shaolin, they would train ten hours a day, while in Texas they can only train one hour a day. The guys in Texas are training Americans in the hope that Kung Fu will become an Olympic sport. They figure if Americans become interested in Kung Fu, they stand a better chance of getting it into the games.

They showed some kids at Shaolin, who looked to be about 7 years old, who had weird bald bumps on their heads. That's from all the headstands and head flips. After seeing that, I noticed that all the Shaolin monks have a weird crest of bone along the tops of their heads. Some monks can break metal plates on those freaky bone growths.

Shaolin Temple is, according to legend, the birthplace of martial arts. It's current fame began after Jet Li made a few very succesful movies about the place. Wushu is the type of Kung Fu done at Shaolin. The documentary included some footage from a previous documentary called, This is Kung Fu which looked pretty interesting.

Dance-like performance seems to be a major part of this martial arts practice. One of disciples, Jamel Brown, is a former professional hip hop dancer. The Shaolin Wushu Festival is a huge, televised spectacular event. One of the guys in the movie I saw said of the festival, "As cultural propaganda, it is pretty good." In 1996, the Shaolin Monks toured with the Lollapalooza.

P.S.
Shoalin Soccer?

TU N'Y PENSES PAS

A slightly disquieting message seen on a cookie on a typographer's blog. Sweet!

Seen following links on a site defending the Imprimerie Nationale's oldest printing presses, which will be shut down in June, following the purchase of their building by the Carlyle Group. Pictures of the presses here, here, and here. You can sign a petition.

I found out about this from an email by Chantal with a link to a Le Monde article: L'atelier des trésors vivants.

Dirty Movie

I found this dirty movie pretty cute.

New Job

I'm starting my new job this afternoon at Lincoln Park Community School, teaching in an after-school program in Somerville. I'll be going to three different schools. I'm teaching a history and craft class, making dolls and learning about the history of immigration in Somerville.

I went to the orientation meeting last week and met a lot of the other teachers. A couple people from Groundworks Somerville will be planting student gardens. Young people have been trained to teach the Machine Science course. Open Air Circus will be doing a circus class. People from Lexia will be teaching an intriguing course called Brain Respiration.

One of the guys doing competetive improv suggested that we should all look into learning the Life Space Interview.



Bowling got me into some kind of hyperbolic soccer. More hyperbole. My head hurts.

To Die For

Very nice Corpses. You can choose to have lights installed in the eyes.

This is another one from Short Attention Span Theater, which I think of as my crasser, raunchier Metafilter.

Singing Science

Move over Free To Be ... You And Me, it's time for Ballads For The Age Of Science. Hymns for atheists!




This is on Jef Poskanzer's endlessly interesting web site. He's the guy who made the Heart Maker.
Frankly, your latest post on Galileo's Gravitron (or whatchamacallit) has me concerned Vigo may not be getting a proper exposure to science from his spacy mom. (Erik, where are you? Do you even read this blog? Do you know what happens here?) I'm joking, of course. Still, please download all these mp3s and have Vigo listen to them until you can't stand to hear them anymore. You might start with It's a Magnet (some skipping due to old vinyl recording), What is Gravity (sounds like he's saying gravity is a farce?), Ballad Of Sir Isaac Newton, and It's A Scientific Fact.
One more thing: the same page links to this wonderful, wonderful video of "The Elements" song (full-screen version) by Tom Lehrer. Learn it by heart and sing it with this midi accompaniment (and here for good measure is my favorite, Poisoning Pigeons In The Park). There's also a recent interview with Tom Lehrer: apparently he's very much alive and kicking, just not singing a lot.
Hmm, I wonder if Leonore would be into these? It's amazing the music parents will put up with to placate their kid. This could be a nice change.

Gravitate

The Galileo Gravitator. "Getting it to work will be your challenge."

This other site is pretending it's a desk lamp, and leaves out any mention of a challenge.


Jersey Man Eater

I normally would not promote any website using white writing on a black background (my eyes! my eyes!), but this is some story. The site has a lot of interesting (if practically illegible) stuff on it.

The story of the man eater is more easily read, and given more detail on this site. I will probably have nightmares tonight.

Was it a white shark, a bull shark, more than one shark? Frankly, I don't think it matters too much.

Modern Archeology

Archeologists study ancient roadways visible on Satellite photographs.

Fraud

Ancient fake cat mummies uncovered at last.

Hidden Objects

The Deliberately Concealed Garments Project explores the mysteriously charming practice of hiding clothing in the walls and foundations of buildings for other people to find later.

Patches

I don't really understand why, but this video made me feel like the US really is a great country.

Pins and Needles

hey everyone, there's a new weblog in Psychoastronomy town.

This is a shameless self-promotion post. I made a new dirty coloring book for a Superette online Valentine's Day sale.

Paper Airplanes

Ken Blackburn holds the record for the longest-flying paper airplane.

Creepy Crawlers

Reading a children's book about creepy crawlers yesterday evening, I learned that the term bug has a very specific entymological meaning.

Frogs are definitely not bugs.

Apparently, the correct term for what most of us call bugs, is "creepy crawlers." (Also the name of a cool toy from the 1960s.)

Hand Job

You would have to be a very special kind of guy to get this to work for you.

Kawaii!!

Have you seen the kigurumi (toy animal dresser) gals?

(What does that V-sign mean? maybe a gyaru (girl) or ganguro (blackface) thing - in Japan, apparently it's rebellious to look like a California girl - or maybe yamanba (mountain hag) (oh, except they've been obsoleted by the gosurori (Goth Lolita) (OK, I give up, why am I talking about Japanese teenage fashion? (I'm straying from my area of expertise (which is what, again?)) oh yeah, Japanese animal-costume fashion))).
So kigurumi was mainly a kosupure (costume player) thing but there are indications it is going mainstream. These I think are just costumes, not fashion (but who knows).
This appears to be a toy animal dressing up as a toy animal. Stop the cuteness!
(via MeFi)

Epiphanie

I'm going to make a galette des rois to take to Vigo's daycare tomorrow, so I decided to brush up on what this holiday is all about. Other than eating cake and wearing crowns, of course.

Gerda

The other day, while looking for visual proof of Tracy's Nordicness (gosh, you wouldn't believe the amount of porn I had to wade through, searching through images for German girl, Danish girl, Swedish girl... sheesh!), I made a bit of a discovery.

Gerda Wegener is an early 20th century Danish painter who lived in Paris and had an interesting life:
biography, photo album, paintings, erotic art (show samples below).

Her husband, Lili Elbe, has his/her own Wikipedia entry, but Gerda doesn't (hmm...).

More of her artwork: Costumes Parisiens, Art Deco print and short bio, Amour à Venise, La Vie Parisienne, Les délassements d'Eros. At work and La Sophistiquette (from this nice gallery). Google Image Search: Gerda Wegener.

A recent novelization of her and her husband's life, called The Danish Girl (Amazon), had some success, though it changed the facts a lot.

sans rapport: The somewhat quirky author of the web pages on Gerda Wegener is a writer and translator called Kenneth Tindall. He has a fascination with his namesake, "William the Translator": William Tyndale - Wikipedia, William Tyndale (1484-1536) biography, William Tyndale Society.


Last night I watched a documentary called Trekkies 2. Watching this film, I learned about the existence of Star Trek tribute bands. There's No Kill I, NKI:TNG, Warp 11, The Shatners, and others.

mp3s, anyone?
No Kill I
Warp 11


There's also a Klingon metal band in the movie. They're from Portland and call themselves "Stokovor," but I didn't find a website for them. Which makes me wonder if they really exist.

Geeky Crafty

Who couldn't use a crocheted model of the Lorenz manifold? Do it yourself.

(This from the weblog of the excellent Craftster site.)

Critters

I like these little guys (Flash). My life is just footnotes to MetaFilter these days.

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