Smashing Kung Fu Photos

Here's a collection of photos from a photographic artist named Martin Klimas that I'm quite impressed with. My initial impression was that the photographed image was Photoshopped to improve the original result, however, it turns out there's no computer enhancement at all.

Interview Quote:

"I drop the figurine from the same height in complete darkness while the lens of the camera is open. When the figurine hits the ground, the sound triggers the lights to go off for a fraction of a second. I do this procedure many times or until I find the one frame that is just right. I keep just one such picture for every figurine. Every attempt yields a unique outcome, so I need to look for the one that best expresses a transformation of the figurine into a new form."

He has various other smashing subject matter, along with some other works, but I like the Chinese kung fu statues the best. His web page is here: http://www.martin-klimas.de/

Midnight Snack

My wife made a batch of sago in coconut milk earlier today, or rather yesterday, so now its midnight snack time for the sleepless.

Mmmm… Sweet milky balls….

She got the recipe from here:

Whisky Green Tea

There’s all sorts of recipes to be had there. I thoroughly endorse the coconut sago. Tastes as good as a bought one.

Music with a banana

A friend once pointed out to me: You can add the phrase "with a banana" into the lyrics of almost any song and it will make complete sense.  To illustrate here's a selection of lyrics by well known artists.

Bob Dylan: The answer my friend is blowing in the wind with a banana

The Beatles: It's been a hard days night with a banana

Elvis Presley: Love me tender with a banana

Michael Jackson: Billy Jean is not my lover with a banana

The Rolling Stones: I can't get no satisfaction with a banana

Madonna: Music makes the people come together with a banana

AC/DC: Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap with a banana 

Nirvana: I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks with a banana

Led Zeppelin: And she's buying a stairway to heaven with a banana

Britney Spears: Oops, I did it again with a banana

U2: I still haven't found what I'm looking for with a banana

Oddly the one song that it appears not to work with is the theme song to The Banana Splits TV show.  One banana, two banana, three banana, four, with a banana...  It doesn't quite work.

How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read

If you don't read many books and if you only read one book this year this is the book it should be. I know people always say that about books but seriously this is the book to read if you don't read much it's How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard.

The author contends that the truly cultivated person is not the one who has read a book, but the one who understands the book's place in our culture. Bayard examines the many kinds of 'non-reading' (forgotten books, unknown books, books discussed by others, books we've skimmed briefly) and the situations in which we are called upon to discuss our reading with others (in class, with our loved ones, with the book's author etc). He challenges everyone to consider what reading means, and how and why we spend so much time talking about what we have or haven't, read.

I contend that the author has in fact written one of the most useful books of the oncoming century. Never again will you need to actually read any books to convey how well read you obviously are. Merely skimming the back cover, or perhaps watching a DVD featuring the latest Hollywood sensation, will be all you need for others to see how expansive your literary knowledge is.

For the record, I myself have not read this book. But, considering the title, I felt it wasn't really necessary to do so.

Friday the 13th

In this Friday the 13th comic the writers have decided to include the well known soundtrack of the horror film series. But without the actual music playing the rhythm and instrument selection is left up to the readers imagination.

Add some 70’s funk guitar and the picture is set for one extremely disturbing porn scene.

Mimas

Mimas is one of Saturns moons and named after one of the titans in Greek mythology. As can be seen by comparative photos, it may also be a Death Star. Having the correct size, shape, mass and features to exactly fit the profile of such a technological terror.

The low gravitational density of Mimas, indicates that it is composed mostly of water ice with only a small amount of rock. Or this may possibly be due to it being a Death Star constructed of light metals and having many rooms inside. Mimas' most distinctive feature is a colossal impact crater 130 km across, named Herschel after the moon's discoverer. Textbooks list Herschel's diameter as almost a third of the moon's own diameter, making him the largest astronomer in history. Most of the other craters on Mimas have been named after characters in Camelot, this is no doubt a hint towards Monty Pythons Quest for the Holy Grail and their popular Spanish Inquisition sketches. Clever satirists they were, the Python writers alluded to the connection between Mimas and who was to become the present day Pope.

Pope, Benedict XVI was previously Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the modern terminology for a position called Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition. It is plainly obvious, to even the casual viewer, of both hierarchical and physical resemblance between Pope Benedict XVI and Emperor Palpatine of the Sith.

In 2010, NASA revealed a temperature map of Mimas revealing that in addition to being a Death Star it is also a cosmological tribute to Pac-Man. The warmest areas on one side of the moon create the shape of Pac-Man and the crater takes on the form of an edible dot. Interestingly Pac-Man is still the largest financially grossing computer game in history.

So there you have it, all evidence points towards Mimas being an interplanetary space station and superweapon, the Pope is in fact the dark lord of the Sith behind it's construction and who drew his funding for the project through the profits of the Pac-Man computer game craze he puppeteered.

Now you can play the game knowing what your money has been funding.

Waka waka waka waka.

Latin

Most people are familiar with some of the more famous Latin phrases such as Carpe diem (Seize the day), Veni vidi vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Here's a handful of more useful phrases you can throw into your day to day conversations.

Carpe canis!

Sieze the dog!

Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.

Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.

Apudne te vel me?

Your place or mine?

Age. Fac ut gaudeam!

Go ahead. Make my day!

What's up, Doc?

Quid agis, Medice?

Fac ut vivas.

Get a life.

Sit vis nobiscum.
May the force be with you.

Caterva carissima mea est Cimictus.

My favourite group is the Beatles.

Veni, veni, veni Locamowae cum me.
Come on, come on, do the Locomotion with me.

Ad eundum quo nemo ante iit.
To boldly go where no man has gone before.

Isso fede.
This stinks.

Illius me paenitet, dux.
Sorry about that, chief.

Machina improba! Vel mihi ede potum vel mihi redde nummos meos!
You infernal machine! Give me a beverage or give me my money back!

Obesa cantavit.
The fat lady has sung.

Mok Jong

Yesterday I got wood!

It's the kind of wood I've wanted for around ten years.

It didn't take long to erect at all and stands quite firm.

Having wood is good, especially when well polished.

This morning it was still there and I pounded it for quite a while until I was worn out.  If I'm in the mood, I may even let visitors have a turn beating my wood.  But not just anyone that comes to the door looking for it.  Only if they enjoy working their hands on wood and have strong wrists.

Here’s a video of Yip Man, the footage was taken about a week before he died of cancer.