Hey! Super cool! They used my Iranzilla pic as the lead photo. Morris wrote in the NY Times article:

"The Iranian-Godzilla image might be my favorite, if only because it raises the specter of atomic disaster. Wasn’t Godzilla...accidentally awakened and mutated by the atomic bomb? The image ridicules the Iranians but at the same time reminds us of the possibility of an apocalypse in the Middle East?"

Exactly what I was thinking when I was making it! :)

Iran has an entirely new biological weapon system as well:

http://theminiblog.com/files/iranzilla.png

While I will now be adding "grubstake by minstrelsy" to my lexicon, I would like to point out that playing any Rolling Stones song or any other song in our contemporary catalouge that includes a flatted fifth in melody or harmony will get you accused of devil worship pretty quick. Furthermore, since most modern pop songs derive equally from West African ideas of harmony (uses of sharped and flatted 6ths, 7ths, 9th scale tones) that didn't exist in European modal music, you're really going to have to think about that minstrely career path. However, lyrically you could probably be popular with some Kansas songs.

My wife is Japanese and the first time I visited the in-laws I was happily surprised by the techno wonder that was the toilet seat and completely flummoxed by how to operate the shower. Definitely not as "steampunk" as the one in this article, my in-laws shower resembles more of an mid-80's hand held electronic football game with weird pressure sensitive buttons and little red and blue LED indicator lights that moved up and down and are absolutely meaningless. You spend your time expressing either "Ow..Ow..too hot! Too Hot!" to "Whoa! Whoa! Too cold! Too freaking cold!". Crazy, eh?