This is a sign of a very, very sick society.

Took about three seconds to recognize it as Polyushke Polye. Very cool version though.

My favorite is this version:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v_102h9-GW8

Heard it years ago in Russia and finally tracked it down.

Interesting how the guy in the doorway doesn't want his face in the photo. I wonder if there's a family resemblance...

Done by the brilliant film maker, Harry Egipt.

Search YouTube for his name and you'll find lots of gems. The Pinguin Ice Cream commercial is sublime in a way that will leave you feeling dirty:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uobrdxYFsNY

I don't like Violet Blue.

I lost respect for her a while back, when she participated in the argumentum ad hominem against the censorware guy who was found to have posted in the adult diaper newsgroups, but I don't agree with BoingBoing's decision to remove her from the site.

This is the sort of thing that you would be outraged over if a similar group did it.

It's bad form.

Please consider re-instating her content and instituting a policy to not behave similarly in the future. While BB is a private blog, it has a greater responsibility to the community than you may realize.

Perhaps you could update the links that pointed to her site and point them towards her Wikipedia entry instead.

OK - everyone who says this is bad for the environment, STFU and don't come back until you've sold your car and all of your electrical appliances.

Really, get a life, will you?

I saw people painting calligraphy with water in Pekin a few years ago:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimoconnell/54428975/

Very cool stuff.

My favorite was a vending machine outside an old coin shop that sold... Old coins. (Collectible old coins, like 5-sen coins and such.)

Beer and whiskey machines are great, but from next month, you need a chipped card to buy smokes. Not getting one of those—too creepy.

Some camera makers, (Canon for one,) have the technology to sign the image in the camera, preventing even the photographer from digitally-altering the image.
They do this so that the images can be introduced in court as evidence.

Perfect for helicopters...

I would be *really* surprised if the above photo was untouched, even after a quick glance at the size on this page.
It wouldn't surprise me if the guy in the middle-back wasn't even in the same city when this was comped together.

Yet it fails to bother me at all. This isn't journalism we're talking about here, it's not even art. It's commercial advertising. There's no integrity expected or required.

The other day I was shooting four people in my studio, one-by-one side-lit in front of a black backdrop to make an image that will be comped together in photoshop. Of course I make sure the catchlights are all the same, for a closeup like I'm doing. If they're not, I'll clone in the correct ones.

Ethically, the way to determine if using photoshop to change or create some aspect of an image is to ask yourself if a drawing or painting would be appropriate in the same spot. If so, (advertising, illustration,) then go ahead. If not, (news, journalism,) then no.

What were they smoking...

Logically, I know, of course, that this is just a robot, but something about it strikes me emotionally as being *very wrong*.

That said, if it was mine, I'd probably put some sort of head on it, maybe like a fly, along with a lot of shaggy, matted fur, a long slimy pink probiscus, some folded wings and ride it through a small village, just to freak out the locals. Or maybe get that Argentinian Gnome to ride it.
Yeah. That would be cool...

Again, not trying to defend their actions, but I have to say I am a bit disturbed that people really think the worst thing to happen at Abu Gharib was the American occupation of it.

Nothing like this should have ever been done by Americans. When the German concentration camps were liberated in 1945, they didn't fill them up again and beat the hell out of people, did they?

No matter how people try to justify this, it's wrong and should be accounted for completely.

I'm assuming that this is the method George Costanza's electrician used to transport the Frogger machine.

Not exactly unique. In Japan, most convenience stores have orange paint-filled baseballs that can be thrown at shoplifters or robbers, so that they can be easily identified later.

The technique was developed in 1968, after the Tokyo University student uprisings, where police, wanting to later identify students, many of whom were wearing allergy/cold/surgical masks, would throw eggs at rioters.

...and draw your own. But then you would need two sharpies...

Yeah, SO simple, isn't it?
You just need a second sharpie. And then a third to draw upon the second. A fourth to draw upon the third and so on.

An endless, sickening, never-ending cycle...

Just buy the damn things pre-printed and avoid the suffering.

The singer is Joe Raposo.

Ever see Morgan Freeman on "The Electric Company" as a streetwise hepcat, addicted to reading?
"Easy Reader, that's my name... unh, unh, unh..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u8MY7PjSXU

I fully expect to have friends back in the states ask me if this sort of thing is really common over here.

It's just art. Silly, inventive, conceptual art. Nobody will *ever* wear one of these with the idea of protecting themselves from non-existant crime.

I cringe whenever I read the words "All the rage in Japan...," knowing that people are going to latch on to those silly, oddball concepts and use them as a basis for their image of Japan.

It's a bit as though Japanese were reporting that westerners commonly keep crucifixes in jars of urine.